Anno 117's Pax Romana's Top Secret Reveals Itself as a Stunning First-Person Mode.
Surprisingly — did you realize it's possible to experience Anno 117: Pax Romana using a first-person camera? If that’s your reaction, you feel equally astonished as my own reaction the moment I learned this concealed mode. Excuse me while step away from managing my empire, delegate it to a reliable subordinate, take a wagon, and take a spin across the Roman world.
Unlocking the First-Person Feature
In its role as a city-builder, Anno 117 Pax Romana is normally experienced from a bird's-eye view. However, if you press a covert button sequence — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — it becomes possible to roam the empire as an ordinary Roman. Since a similar easter egg was included in the previous Anno title, I looked forward to try it out in Ubisoft's newest game, though I was uncertain it would work prior to being stuck in a Celtic building (which probably wasn’t intended — this mode is a little buggy at times).
Exploring the Ancient Streets
Once I crawled out, I strolled the bustling streets of my city and explored shops, taverns, floral patches, and shellfish gatherers — it was glorious to observe the fruits of my labor from a brand-new perspective. I noticed all kinds of details that would escape notice from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, poultry scattering about, people relaxing on their verandas… Simply noticing the form of a ledge and the coating on a pillar becomes engaging for those not residing in classical times.
Beyond Simple Strolling
Yet, the experience extends to the game's immersive perspective beyond simply walking the paths. I was especially delighted when I found out that I could not just look upon farming fields, but also enter them. And although I’d assumed interiors would be restricted, I could walk onto clay pits, investigate a respected schoolhouse while lessons were in session, and invade personal courtyards. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the creators planned for that functionality), yet it's completely feasible wander through a grain field, observe people digging and transporting bags, and glance into any tiny hut 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While I was completely ready to witness my city rendered with outdated visual quality, apart from certain rough movements and periodic inhabitants sitting within a bench instead of on a bench, the first-person view appears far superior to anticipations. The intricately designed surfaces (particularly rock faces) 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, sparks flying from torches, fading on bricks, eye details, and evergreen foliage. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and celestial bodies twinkling afar, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and proves significantly less intimidating compared to Anno 1800, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble nightmarish entities now.
Testing and Personalization
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I opted to try different commands, and quickly discovered the options to jump, sprint, and changing perspective — the last option enabling me to switch between first and third-person views and return. I subsequently tried pressing certain numeric keys and learned I could modify my avatar's look. Yellow toga? Ruby clothing? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You can wield a blade and protection, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; if you hit the interaction button, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. Should you be curious, harming inhabitants is impossible (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Comedy and Population Encounters
However, I had no desire to injure my people, since they're incredibly amusing. Moments after I entered first-person mode, I overheard a father telling his child that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and should you provide another poultry, your grandmother will be furious.” Rightly so, Roman dad. One lovely local Celt then began complimenting my excellent cross-cultural strategies by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” 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 the title's first-person feature, I encountered the delight of riding across historical settings. Totally unintentionally, I clicked on a wagon and quickly occupied the transport. Bovines, equines, even human-pulled carts; you may operate any of them freely. The donkey-powered transport, notably, travels rather rapidly, but don't anticipate Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Fighting Restrictions
The only thing that disappointed me within the immersive perspective was discovering my inability to participate in battle encounters. Wearing my military outfit, I ran up to the enemy in the midst of battle and tried to harm them, but was entirely disregarded. The front-row seat was still rather spectacular, and watching the enemy run, their appendages thrashing around, seemed enormously rewarding, though it might have been amazing to successfully impact objects with my burning arrows.
