Anno 117 Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Is a Breathtaking First-Person View.
Surprisingly — did you realize you can play Anno 117 Pax Romana in first-person? Should that be your response, you feel equally astonished as I was the moment I learned this concealed mode. I must briefly leave managing my empire, entrust it to a capable deputy, take a wagon, and enjoy a ride around the classical city.
Activating the First-Person View
In its role as a city-builder, the game Anno 117 usually operates from a bird's-eye view. But, should you enter a secret combination — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — you gain the ability to walk the empire as an ordinary Roman. Given a comparable hidden feature was part of the earlier game Anno 1800, I felt excited to test it in Ubisoft's newest game, but I wasn’t sure it would function before I discovered myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (possibly an unexpected bug — this feature is prone to glitches now and then).
Exploring the Roman Cityscape
Once I crawled out, I strolled the busy roads of my city and visited markets, breweries, flower fields, and cockle pickers — it was glorious to observe all my hard work through a fresh lens. I noticed numerous fine points I wouldn’t have spotted from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, an ass transporting a floral pail, fowl roaming freely, people relaxing on their verandas… Even just observing the shape of a window sill and the coloration on a post proves fascinating to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
More Than Just Walking
Yet, the experience extends to the first-person feature in Anno 117 beyond simply walking the paths. I was especially delighted when I found out that besides being able to look upon crop lands, but also step into them. And despite my expectation structures would be inaccessible, I was able to enter earthen quarries, tour an esteemed educational structure as teaching was underway, and invade personal courtyards. Don't bother with door access (not even the studio planned for that functionality), but it’s entirely possible stroll around a barley farm, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and take a peek inside any small shack when there's no doorway obstructing.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
While I was completely ready to witness my city rendered with outdated visual quality, apart from certain rough movements and periodic inhabitants sitting in a bench instead of on a bench, first-person mode looks considerably improved over predictions. The highly detailed textures (notably masonry elements) really have no business being this good within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You may not see any individual strands of hair, but you will see engravings on walls, flames emitting from lights, fading on bricks, pupils, and pine tree leaves. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and celestial bodies twinkling afar, is especially atmospheric, and proves significantly less intimidating compared to Anno 1800, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble nightmarish entities now.
Discovery and Modification
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode has no guided tutorial, I opted to try different commands, and immediately located the abilities to leap, run, and changing perspective — the last option enabling me to change from first-person to third-person mode and revert. I then decided to hit some number buttons and discovered that I could change my character’s appearance. Amber garment? Red toga? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; when you press the action key, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. In case you’re wondering, eliminating citizens cannot be done (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, as they're remarkably entertaining. Only seconds after I landed the first-person view, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “Owning a fox is prohibited and if you offer additional fowl, your elder will punish you.” Understandable stance, father character. A friendly native Celtic person then started applauding my outstanding integration methods by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” whereas an irritable elderly woman opted to menace me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Joy of Joyriding
At the moment I believed I uncovered all possible content in the title's first-person feature, I encountered the delight of riding through classical settlements. Totally unintentionally, I clicked on a wagon and quickly occupied the transport. Oxen, donkeys, even human-pulled carts; you can drive them all at your leisure. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, moves quite quickly, although you shouldn't expect Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Fighting Restrictions
The only thing that disappointed me regarding the first-person view was finding out I couldn’t partake in any fighting. Sporting my soldier fit, I approached opposing forces amidst fighting and tried to harm them, but was entirely disregarded. The close-up view was nonetheless magnificent, and watching the enemy run, their appendages thrashing around, felt highly gratifying, but it would’ve been cool to effectively strike targets using my fiery projectiles.
