Anno 117 Pax Romana's Top Secret Turns Out to Be a Breathtaking First-Person Mode.
Hold on — were you aware gamers have the option to enjoy the game Anno 117 in first-person? Should that be your response, you’re just as shocked as my own reaction when I discovered this hidden feature. Allow me to briefly leave managing my empire, leave it in a trusted assistant, take a wagon, and go for a joyride around the classical city.
How to Access the First-Person View
In its role as a city-builder, Anno 117 Pax Romana usually operates from a bird's-eye view. But, should you press a covert button sequence — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — you can explore the realm as a regular inhabitant. Given a comparable hidden feature appeared in the earlier game Anno 1800, I was eager to experience it in Ubisoft's newest game, though I was uncertain it would operate prior to being chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (likely not meant to happen — this mode can be somewhat unstable occasionally).
Discovering the Ancient Streets
Once I crawled out, I wandered the lively avenues through my metropolis and toured markets, breweries, blossom gardens, and shellfish gatherers — the experience was splendid to witness all my hard work using an entirely new viewpoint. I noticed a variety of intricacies I wouldn’t have spotted from the top-down view: Front door decorations, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, chickens running loose, folks chilling on their balconies… Merely examining the shape of a window sill and the coating on a pillar becomes engaging to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
More Than Just Walking
Yet, the experience extends to the first-person feature in Anno 117 beyond simply walking the paths. I became extraordinarily excited the moment I learned that not only could I look upon agricultural plots, but also access them. And although I’d assumed the building models would be off-limits, I was able to enter mud extraction sites, investigate a respected schoolhouse while lessons were in session, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the creators planned for that functionality), however, you can definitely meander across a cereal plantation, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and look within any modest shelter when there's no doorway obstructing.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
Although I was fully prepared to observe my settlement depicted in PlayStation 1 graphics, excluding a few unpolished motions and sometimes citizens positioned within a bench instead of on a bench, the immersive perspective seems much better than expected. The intricately designed surfaces (particularly rock faces) really have no business being this good in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You may not see specific hair details, however, you can observe writings on surfaces, flames emitting from lights, discoloration of masonry, pupils, and evergreen foliage. The night, featuring dancing flames and distant stellar illumination, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and proves significantly less intimidating compared to Anno 1800, given that the populace appears unlike sleep paralysis demons now.
Discovery and Modification
Given the covert first-person feature has no guided tutorial, I opted to try different commands, and quickly discovered the functions for jumping, dashing, and zoom in or out — the zoom function permitting me to switch between first and third-person views and back. I then decided to hit various digit inputs and discovered that I could change my character’s appearance. Yellow toga? Red toga? Azure and violet outfit? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You can wield a blade and protection, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; when you press the action key, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. Should you be curious, harming inhabitants is impossible (not that I’ve tried, of course).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, since they're incredibly amusing. Shortly after I activated the immersive perspective, I overheard a father telling his child that he “Can’t have a pet fox and if you offer additional fowl, your elder will punish you.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A pleasant regional Celt then proceeded to praise my outstanding integration methods by describing it as “Ideal combination,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female chose to intimidate me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Thrill of Transportation
At the moment I believed I had found everything available in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I found the joys of joyriding through classical settlements. Entirely by accident, I interacted with a cart and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Bovines, equines, even people-powered transports; you may operate any of them freely. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, travels rather rapidly, but don't anticipate open-world vehicular chaos — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Combat Limitations
The sole aspect that let me down within the immersive perspective was finding out I couldn’t partake in any fighting. Wearing my military outfit, I charged toward adversaries in the midst of battle and attempted to attack them, yet was completely overlooked. The close-up view was nonetheless magnificent, and seeing opponents retreat, their limbs waving wildly, seemed enormously rewarding, but it would’ve been cool to effectively strike targets with my burning arrows.
