Anno 117 Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Is a Breathtaking First-Person View.
Wait — did you know you can play the game Anno 117 in first-person? Should that be your response, your surprise matches compared to my initial response the moment I learned this concealed mode. I must temporarily abandon managing my empire, entrust it to a reliable subordinate, take a wagon, and take a spin around the classical city.
Activating the First-Person View
Being a city-building title, Anno 117: Pax Romana usually operates from a bird's-eye view. But, should you enter a secret combination — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — you gain the ability to walk your domain as a common citizen. Given a comparable hidden feature appeared in Anno 1800, I felt excited to experience it in the latest installment, but I wasn’t sure it would work prior to being submerged in a structural glitch (which probably wasn’t intended — this option is somewhat unstable occasionally).
Discovering the Streets of Rome
Upon freeing myself, I wandered the bustling streets of my city and toured stalls, alehouses, floral patches, and seafood collectors — the experience was splendid to observe all my hard work from a brand-new perspective. I observed a variety of intricacies that would escape notice from above: Entryway ornaments, an ass transporting a floral pail, poultry scattering about, folks chilling on their balconies… Simply noticing the form of a ledge and the paint layers on a column proves fascinating to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
More Than Just Walking
But there’s more to the game's immersive perspective aside from meandering through streets. I was especially delighted the moment I learned that besides being able to observe agricultural plots, but also enter them. And despite my expectation structures would be inaccessible, I could walk onto clay pits, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building as teaching was underway, and intrude into private gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the studio have the budget for that), however, you can definitely meander across a cereal plantation, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and glance into any tiny hut as long as the door is absent.
Graphics and Ambiance
While I was completely ready to observe my settlement depicted using primitive rendering, besides some crude animations and periodic inhabitants sitting in a bench instead of on a bench, first-person mode looks much better than expected. The intricately designed surfaces (especially stone surfaces) shouldn't logically be this impressive within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You might not observe specific hair details, yet you will notice writings on surfaces, fiery particles from lamps, discoloration of masonry, eye details, and pine tree leaves. The night, featuring dancing flames and celestial bodies twinkling afar, creates a particularly moody setting, and feels much less frightening versus the earlier title, now that the citizens don’t look like sleep paralysis demons these days.
Discovery and Modification
Given the covert first-person feature doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I opted to try different commands, and promptly found the options to jump, sprint, and zoom in or out — the zoom function permitting me to change from first-person to third-person mode and revert. I subsequently tried pressing various digit inputs and found I could alter my character’s appearance. Yellow toga? Ruby clothing? Blue and purple toga? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You may carry a sword and shield, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; if you activate the engage command, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. In case you’re wondering, eliminating citizens cannot be done (not that I attempted, naturally).
Comedy and Population Encounters
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, as they're remarkably entertaining. Only seconds after I landed the immersive perspective, I overheard a father telling his child that “Owning a fox is prohibited and should you provide another poultry, your elder will punish you.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A pleasant regional Celt then started applauding my outstanding integration methods by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” while some cranky old lady chose to intimidate me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”
The Joy of Joyriding
Just as I assumed I’d discovered all there is to discover within the game's immersive perspective, I encountered the delight of riding in Ancient Rome. Entirely by accident, I interacted with a cart and was promptly seated on the box. Cattle, asses, even human-pulled carts; you can control each one as desired. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, moves quite quickly, though you shouldn’t imagine any GTA-like shenanigans — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Fighting Restrictions
The single feature that frustrated me within the immersive perspective was finding out I couldn’t partake in combat situations. Wearing my military outfit, I ran up to the enemy in the midst of battle and tried to harm them, but was entirely disregarded. The proximate observation was nonetheless magnificent, and observing foes flee, their arms flailing about, seemed enormously rewarding, yet it would have been exciting to successfully impact objects via my incendiary bolts.
