Anno 117 Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Reveals Itself as a Breathtaking First-Person View.
Surprisingly — did you realize it's possible to experience Anno 117 Pax Romana from a first-person viewpoint? If you're thinking that, you feel equally astonished as my own reaction upon finding out this hidden feature. Excuse me while briefly leave overseeing my civilization, entrust it to a capable deputy, take a wagon, and go for a joyride through Ancient Rome.
Unlocking the First-Person Feature
Being a city-building title, the game Anno 117 is typically played from a bird's-eye view. Yet, when you input a hidden code — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard alternatively “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — you can explore the realm as a regular inhabitant. Since a similar easter egg appeared in the earlier game Anno 1800, I was eager to experience it in the new release, but I wasn’t sure it would work before I discovered myself stuck in a Celtic building (which probably wasn’t intended — this option tends to be a little buggy at times).
Exploring the Ancient Streets
Upon freeing myself, I walked the busy roads through my metropolis and explored stalls, alehouses, blossom gardens, and shellfish gatherers — it felt magnificent to observe the fruits of my labor from a brand-new perspective. I detected all kinds of details that would escape notice when viewing from overhead: Front door decorations, an ass transporting a floral pail, fowl roaming freely, people relaxing on their verandas… Merely examining the shape of a window sill and the paint layers on a column is quite interesting to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
Further Than Mere Wandering
However, there's additional content to Anno 117’s first-person mode than strolling along the road. I felt particularly pleased the moment I learned that I could not just look upon farming fields, but also access them. And although I’d assumed the building models would be off-limits, I managed to access earthen quarries, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building while lessons were in session, and invade personal courtyards. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the developers planned for that functionality), but it’s entirely possible meander across a cereal plantation, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and glance into any tiny hut when there's no doorway obstructing.
Graphics and Ambiance
Even though I expected to see my metropolis represented using primitive rendering, besides some crude animations and sometimes citizens positioned in a bench instead of on a bench, first-person mode looks considerably improved over predictions. The intricately designed surfaces (notably masonry elements) shouldn't logically be this impressive within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You won't necessarily notice any individual strands of hair, however, you can observe engravings on walls, fiery particles from lamps, fading on bricks, eye details, and evergreen foliage. Evening, with glowing light sources and stars shining in the distance, is especially atmospheric, and also a lot less scary relative to the previous game, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble nightmarish entities anymore.
Discovery and Modification
Given the covert first-person feature lacks official documentation, I chose to test various actions, and promptly found the options to jump, sprint, and changing perspective — with the latter allowing me to switch between first and third-person views and revert. I then experimented with various digit inputs and learned I could modify my avatar's look. Yellow toga? Crimson attire? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You can wield a blade and protection, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; if you activate the engage command, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. Should you be curious, eliminating citizens cannot be done (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, as they're remarkably entertaining. Only seconds after I landed first-person mode, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “Owning a fox is prohibited and if you offer additional fowl, your grandmother will be furious.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A pleasant regional Celt then began complimenting my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” 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 as I assumed I uncovered all possible content in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I found the joys of joyriding across historical settings. Entirely by accident, I interacted with a cart and quickly occupied the transport. Cattle, asses, even manually drawn vehicles; you can drive them all at your leisure. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, travels rather rapidly, though you shouldn’t imagine open-world vehicular chaos — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (once more, not admitting any attempts).
Combat Limitations
The single feature that frustrated me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was learning about my exclusion from in battle encounters. Sporting my soldier fit, I approached opposing forces during active combat and attempted to attack them, but was entirely disregarded. The close-up view was nonetheless magnificent, and observing foes flee, their limbs waving wildly, proved very satisfying, but it would’ve been cool to actually hit something using my fiery projectiles.
