Anno 117 Pax Romana's Top Secret Is a Impressive First-Person View.
Wait — did you know gamers have the option to enjoy Anno 117 Pax Romana using a first-person camera? If you're thinking that, you’re just as shocked as my own reaction the moment I learned this hidden feature. Excuse me while temporarily abandon overseeing my civilization, delegate it to a capable deputy, borrow a cart, and take a spin around the classical city.
How to Access the First-Person View
Being a city-building title, Anno 117 Pax Romana is normally experienced using a top-down camera. Yet, when you press a covert button sequence — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls alternatively “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — you gain the ability to walk the realm as a regular inhabitant. Because an analogous secret was part of Anno 1800, I was eager to try it out in the latest installment, but I wasn’t sure it would function until I found myself stuck in a Celtic building (which probably wasn’t intended — this mode can be somewhat unstable occasionally).
Discovering the Roman Cityscape
Once I crawled out, I wandered the lively avenues through my metropolis and visited stalls, alehouses, blossom gardens, and shellfish gatherers — it was glorious to observe my diligent efforts from a brand-new perspective. I noticed a variety of intricacies I might have missed from above: Doorway embellishments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, chickens running loose, folks chilling on their balconies… Even just observing the design of a windowsill and the paint layers on a column becomes engaging to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
Further Than Mere Wandering
However, there's additional content to the first-person feature in Anno 117 aside from meandering through streets. I felt particularly pleased the moment I learned that besides being able to view farming fields, but also step into them. And although I’d assumed interiors would be restricted, I could walk onto clay pits, investigate a respected schoolhouse during active classes, and intrude into private gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the studio have the budget for that), yet it's completely feasible meander across a cereal plantation, observe people digging and transporting bags, and take a peek inside any small shack provided the entrance is missing.
Appearance and Mood
Even though I expected to observe my settlement depicted with outdated visual quality, excluding a few unpolished motions and the occasional civilian resting inside seating as opposed to atop a bench, first-person mode looks much better than expected. The meticulously crafted materials (particularly rock faces) shouldn't logically be this impressive in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You might not observe any individual strands of hair, but you will see writings on surfaces, sparks flying from torches, fading on bricks, pupils, and pine tree leaves. Evening, with glowing light sources and celestial bodies twinkling afar, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and also a lot less scary compared to Anno 1800, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble sleep paralysis demons anymore.
Testing and Personalization
Because the game's hidden immersive perspective lacks official documentation, I chose to test various actions, and quickly discovered the options to jump, sprint, and adjusting the view — the last option enabling me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and return. I then experimented with various digit inputs and discovered that I could change my character’s appearance. Amber garment? Ruby clothing? Azure and violet outfit? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You may carry a sword and shield, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; if you activate the engage command, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. In case you’re wondering, harming inhabitants is impossible (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Comedy and Population Encounters
However, I had no desire to injure my people, as they're remarkably entertaining. Moments after I entered first-person mode, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and if you feed it one more chicken, your gran will have your head.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A friendly native Celtic person then proceeded to praise my outstanding integration methods by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” whereas an irritable elderly woman decided to threaten me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Fun of Vehicle Use
Just when I thought I’d discovered all there is to discover in the title's first-person feature, I found the joys of joyriding through classical settlements. Entirely by accident, I selected a carriage and was promptly seated on the box. Bovines, equines, even human-pulled carts; you can control each one as desired. The donkey-powered transport, notably, moves quite quickly, although you shouldn't expect Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (once more, not admitting any attempts).
Combat Limitations
The single feature that frustrated me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was discovering my inability to participate in any fighting. Equipped in warrior attire, I charged toward adversaries amidst fighting and attempted to attack them, yet was completely overlooked. The front-row seat was nonetheless magnificent, and observing foes flee, their appendages thrashing around, seemed enormously rewarding, but it would’ve been cool to effectively strike targets with my burning arrows.
