Anno 117's Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Turns Out to Be a Impressive First-Person Mode.
Wait — did you know you can play Anno 117 Pax Romana in first-person? If that’s your reaction, you’re just as shocked as I was upon finding out this secret option. Excuse me while temporarily abandon overseeing my civilization, entrust it to a reliable subordinate, take a wagon, and take a spin through Ancient Rome.
How to Access the First-Person View
As a city-building game, Anno 117: Pax Romana is normally experienced from an overhead perspective. However, if you enter a secret combination — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — you can explore the realm as a regular inhabitant. Because an analogous secret was included in Anno 1800, I was eager to experience it in the new release, but I wasn’t sure it would operate prior to being stuck in a Celtic building (which probably wasn’t intended — this mode can be a little buggy at times).
Roaming the Streets of Rome
Once I crawled out, I wandered the bustling streets through my metropolis and explored markets, breweries, floral patches, and cockle pickers — it was glorious to observe the fruits of my labor from a brand-new perspective. I detected a variety of intricacies I wouldn’t have spotted from the top-down view: Entryway ornaments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, fowl roaming freely, folks chilling on their balconies… Merely examining the design of a windowsill and the coloration on a post proves fascinating for those not residing in classical times.
Further Than Mere Wandering
But there’s more to the first-person feature in Anno 117 aside from meandering through streets. I was especially delighted the moment I learned that I could not just view crop lands, but also step into them. And although I’d assumed the building models would be off-limits, I could walk onto clay pits, investigate a respected schoolhouse while lessons were in session, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the creators planned for that functionality), but it’s entirely possible wander through a grain field, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and glance into any tiny hut when there's no doorway obstructing.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
Although I was fully prepared to witness my city rendered using primitive rendering, excluding a few unpolished motions and sometimes citizens positioned inside seating instead of on a bench, the immersive perspective seems considerably improved over predictions. The highly detailed textures (particularly rock faces) really have no business being this good within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You may not see separate follicular elements, however, you can observe wall inscriptions, sparks flying from torches, discoloration of masonry, iris elements, and conifer needles. Evening, with glowing light sources and celestial bodies twinkling afar, creates a particularly moody setting, and proves significantly less intimidating relative to the previous game, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble sleep paralysis demons anymore.
Testing and Personalization
Because the game's hidden immersive perspective has no guided tutorial, I chose to test various actions, and quickly discovered the abilities to leap, run, and adjusting the view — the last option enabling me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and back. I then experimented with some number buttons and learned I could modify my avatar's look. Amber garment? Red toga? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? 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. Should you be curious, eliminating citizens cannot be done (not that I’ve tried, of course).
Comedy and Population Encounters
Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, since they're incredibly amusing. Moments after I entered first-person mode, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that he “Can’t have a pet fox and if you offer additional fowl, your grandmother will be furious.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A friendly native Celtic person then began complimenting my outstanding integration methods by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” while some cranky old lady opted to menace me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Joy of Joyriding
Just as I assumed I uncovered all possible content within the game's immersive perspective, I experienced the pleasure of driving through classical settlements. Entirely by accident, I clicked on a wagon and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Cattle, asses, even manually drawn vehicles; you can control each one as desired. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, is pretty fast, though you shouldn’t imagine open-world vehicular chaos — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (once more, not admitting any attempts).
Combat Limitations
The single feature that frustrated me regarding the first-person view was learning about my exclusion from in any fighting. Equipped in warrior attire, I charged toward adversaries in the midst of battle and endeavored to damage them, but was entirely disregarded. The close-up view was still rather spectacular, and observing foes flee, their limbs waving wildly, proved very satisfying, but it would’ve been cool to successfully impact objects using my fiery projectiles.
