Anno 117 Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Turns Out to Be a Stunning First-Person Perspective.
Surprisingly — did you realize you can play the game Anno 117 from a first-person viewpoint? If you're thinking that, you’re just as shocked compared to my initial response when I discovered this hidden feature. Allow me to step away from overseeing my civilization, leave it in a reliable subordinate, borrow a cart, and go for a joyride through Ancient Rome.
How to Access the First-Person Feature
In its role as a city-builder, the game Anno 117 usually operates from an overhead perspective. But, should you press a covert button sequence — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — you can explore the empire as an ordinary Roman. Since a similar easter egg was included in the previous Anno title, I looked forward to test it in Ubisoft's newest game, yet I had doubts it would function prior to being chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (possibly an unexpected bug — this feature tends to be a little buggy at times).
Roaming the Roman Cityscape
After extracting myself, I walked the lively avenues of my city and toured markets, breweries, blossom gardens, and seafood collectors — the experience was splendid to see my diligent efforts from a brand-new perspective. I detected numerous fine points that would escape notice from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, fowl roaming freely, folks chilling on their balconies… Simply noticing the shape of a window sill and the paint layers on a column becomes engaging to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
Beyond Simple Strolling
However, there's additional content to Anno 117’s first-person mode than strolling along the road. I was especially delighted the moment I learned that I could not just look upon farming fields, but also access them. And despite my expectation the building models would be off-limits, I could walk onto mud extraction sites, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building as teaching was underway, and intrude into private gardens. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the developers have the budget for that), however, you can definitely meander across a cereal plantation, observe people digging and transporting bags, and take a peek inside any small shack provided the entrance is missing.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
While I was completely ready to see my metropolis represented in PlayStation 1 graphics, apart from certain rough movements and periodic inhabitants sitting within a bench as opposed to atop a bench, first-person mode looks far superior to anticipations. The meticulously crafted materials (especially stone surfaces) shouldn't logically be this impressive for a title that remains primarily overhead. You won't necessarily notice separate follicular elements, however, you can observe writings on surfaces, fiery particles from lamps, brick decoloration, eye details, and evergreen foliage. The night, featuring dancing flames and distant stellar illumination, is especially atmospheric, and proves significantly less intimidating compared to Anno 1800, now that the citizens don’t look like terrifying apparitions now.
Experimentation and Customization
Because the game's hidden immersive perspective has no guided tutorial, I chose to test various actions, and immediately located the abilities to leap, run, and adjusting the view — with the latter allowing me to switch between first and third-person views and revert. I subsequently tried pressing various digit inputs and found I could alter my representative's visual design. Amber garment? Crimson attire? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; when you press the action key, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. Should you be curious, eliminating citizens cannot be done (not that I’ve tried, of course).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, since they're incredibly amusing. Moments after I entered first-person mode, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and if you offer additional fowl, your elder will punish you.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A friendly native Celtic person then started applauding my outstanding integration methods by describing it as “Ideal combination,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female decided to threaten me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”
The Thrill of Transportation
Just when I thought I uncovered all possible content in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I encountered the delight of riding through classical settlements. Totally unintentionally, I clicked on a wagon and was promptly seated on the box. Bovines, equines, even manually drawn vehicles; you can drive them all at your leisure. The donkey-powered transport, notably, travels rather rapidly, but don't anticipate open-world vehicular chaos — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Combat Limitations
The single feature that frustrated me within the immersive perspective was finding out I couldn’t partake in any fighting. Wearing my military outfit, I approached opposing forces during active combat and tried to harm them, but was entirely disregarded. The proximate observation was still rather spectacular, and seeing opponents retreat, their arms flailing about, proved very satisfying, but it would’ve been cool to actually hit something via my incendiary bolts.
