Anno 117's Pax Romana's Top Secret Turns Out to Be a Stunning First-Person Perspective.
Wait — did you know you can play Anno 117 Pax Romana using a first-person camera? If that’s your reaction, you feel equally astonished as my own reaction when I discovered this hidden feature. Excuse me while step away from managing my empire, leave it in a reliable subordinate, take a wagon, and go for a joyride through Ancient Rome.
Activating the First-Person View
Being a city-building title, Anno 117: Pax Romana is normally experienced from a bird's-eye view. However, if you input a hidden code — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — you can explore your domain as a common citizen. Because an analogous secret appeared in the previous Anno title, I looked forward to experience it in the latest installment, though I was uncertain it would function prior to being chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (possibly an unexpected bug — this feature is somewhat unstable occasionally).
Roaming the Roman Cityscape
After extracting myself, I wandered the busy roads across my settlement and toured shops, taverns, blossom gardens, and seafood collectors — it was glorious to observe all my hard work through a fresh lens. I observed a variety of intricacies I might have missed when viewing from overhead: Front door decorations, an ass transporting a floral pail, chickens running loose, citizens lounging on their terraces… Simply noticing the shape of a window sill and the coating on a pillar becomes engaging for those not residing in classical times.
Beyond Simple Strolling
Yet, the experience extends to the first-person feature in Anno 117 aside from meandering through streets. I felt particularly pleased upon discovering that I could not just view agricultural plots, but also step into them. And despite my expectation the building models would be off-limits, I managed to access mud extraction sites, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building during active classes, and intrude into private gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the creators have the budget for that), yet it's completely feasible stroll around a barley farm, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and take a peek inside any small shack provided the entrance is missing.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
Even though I expected to witness my city rendered with outdated visual quality, besides some crude animations and sometimes citizens positioned within a bench rather than on a bench, first-person mode looks far superior to anticipations. The highly detailed textures (especially stone surfaces) are unexpectedly excellent for a title that remains primarily overhead. You may not see specific hair details, yet you will notice wall inscriptions, fiery particles from lamps, brick decoloration, iris elements, and evergreen foliage. The night, featuring dancing flames and distant stellar illumination, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and feels much less frightening relative to the previous game, now that the citizens don’t look like terrifying apparitions these days.
Discovery and Modification
Because the game's hidden immersive perspective has no guided tutorial, I decided to experiment a bit, and quickly discovered the functions for jumping, dashing, and zoom in or out — the zoom function permitting me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and return. I then decided to hit some number buttons and found I could alter my character’s appearance. Amber garment? Crimson attire? Blue and purple toga? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; when you press the action key, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. 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, because they’re way too funny. Moments after I entered the first-person view, I overheard a father telling his child that he “Can’t have a pet fox and if you feed it one more chicken, your gran will have your head.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. One lovely local Celt then proceeded to praise my excellent cross-cultural strategies by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” whereas an irritable elderly woman chose to intimidate me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Joy of Joyriding
Just as I assumed I’d discovered all there is to discover in the title's first-person feature, I experienced the pleasure of driving through classical settlements. Entirely by accident, I interacted with a cart and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Oxen, donkeys, even human-pulled carts; you can control each one as desired. The donkey cart, in particular, is pretty fast, though you shouldn’t imagine Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Battle Constraints
The sole aspect that let me down within the immersive perspective was discovering my inability to participate in any fighting. Equipped in warrior attire, I ran up to the enemy in the midst of battle and tried to harm them, only to be ignored completely. The front-row seat remained quite impressive, and observing foes flee, their arms flailing about, seemed enormously rewarding, yet it would have been exciting to effectively strike targets via my incendiary bolts.