Anno 117: Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Is a Impressive First-Person Perspective.
Wait — did you know 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. Excuse me while briefly leave my empire’s management, entrust it to a capable deputy, borrow a cart, and enjoy a ride across the Roman world.
How to Access the First-Person Mode
In its role as a city-builder, Anno 117: Pax Romana is normally experienced from a bird's-eye view. But, should you enter a secret combination — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — you can explore the empire as an ordinary Roman. Because an analogous secret was part of the previous Anno title, I felt excited to test it in Ubisoft's newest game, but I wasn’t sure it would operate before I discovered myself submerged in a structural glitch (likely not meant to happen — this mode can be prone to glitches now and then).
Exploring the Streets of Rome
Once I crawled out, I walked the bustling streets across my settlement and explored stalls, alehouses, blossom gardens, and cockle pickers — it was glorious to see the fruits of my labor from a brand-new perspective. I observed all kinds of details that would escape notice from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, poultry scattering about, citizens lounging on their terraces… Merely examining the shape of a window sill and the coloration on a post is quite interesting to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
Further Than Mere Wandering
But there’s more to Anno 117’s first-person mode beyond simply walking the paths. I was especially delighted when I found out that besides being able to observe crop lands, but also access them. And despite my expectation structures would be inaccessible, I could walk onto earthen quarries, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building while lessons were in session, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Don't bother with door access (not even the developers 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.
Appearance and Mood
Although I was fully prepared to observe my settlement depicted with outdated visual quality, apart from certain rough movements and the occasional civilian resting within a bench rather than on a bench, the first-person view appears considerably improved over predictions. The highly detailed textures (especially stone surfaces) shouldn't logically be this impressive in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You won't necessarily notice separate follicular elements, but you will see wall inscriptions, flames emitting from lights, brick decoloration, pupils, and conifer needles. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and stars shining in the distance, creates a particularly moody setting, and also a lot less scary compared to Anno 1800, now that the citizens don’t look like sleep paralysis demons anymore.
Experimentation and Customization
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode has no guided tutorial, I chose to test various actions, and promptly found the functions for jumping, dashing, and zoom in or out — the zoom function permitting me to change from first-person to third-person mode and back. I then decided to hit various digit inputs and learned I could modify my avatar's look. Golden robe? Crimson attire? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; 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 attempted, naturally).
Comedy and Population Encounters
However, I had no desire to injure my people, as they're remarkably entertaining. Moments after I entered the immersive perspective, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and if you feed it one more chicken, your elder will punish you.” Rightly so, Roman dad. One lovely local Celt then proceeded to praise my outstanding integration methods by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female decided to threaten 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. Completely unexpectedly, I selected a carriage and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Oxen, donkeys, even people-powered transports; you may operate any of them freely. The donkey cart, in particular, 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 sole aspect that let me down in Anno 117’s first-person mode was discovering my inability to participate in combat situations. Equipped in warrior attire, I approached opposing forces amidst fighting and tried to harm them, yet was completely overlooked. The close-up view remained quite impressive, and seeing opponents retreat, their appendages thrashing around, proved very satisfying, yet it would have been exciting to actually hit something via my incendiary bolts.
