Anno 117's Pax Romana's Top Secret Is a Impressive First-Person Mode.
Surprisingly — did you realize gamers have the option to enjoy Anno 117 Pax Romana in first-person? If you're thinking that, your surprise matches as my own reaction the moment I learned this concealed mode. Excuse me while temporarily abandon my empire’s management, delegate it to a reliable subordinate, take a wagon, and enjoy a ride across the Roman world.
Unlocking the First-Person Mode
In its role as a city-builder, the game Anno 117 is typically played from a bird's-eye view. However, if you enter a secret combination — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — it becomes possible to roam your domain as a common citizen. Because an analogous secret was included in the earlier game Anno 1800, I looked forward to test it in Ubisoft's newest game, but I wasn’t sure it would operate until I found myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (which probably wasn’t intended — this option is somewhat unstable occasionally).
Roaming the Streets of Rome
Once I crawled out, I walked the busy roads across my settlement and explored markets, breweries, floral patches, and shellfish gatherers — it was glorious to observe all my hard work using an entirely new viewpoint. I observed a variety of intricacies I wouldn’t have spotted from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, fowl roaming freely, folks chilling on their balconies… Even just observing the design of a windowsill and the paint layers on a column is quite interesting for those not residing in classical times.
Beyond Simple Strolling
Yet, the experience extends to Anno 117’s first-person mode beyond simply walking the paths. I was especially delighted when I found out that I could not just observe agricultural plots, but also enter them. And even though I thought structures would be inaccessible, I was able to enter clay pits, tour an esteemed educational structure as teaching was underway, and intrude into private gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the creators have the budget for that), yet it's completely feasible stroll around a barley farm, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and glance into any tiny hut provided the entrance is missing.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
Although I was fully prepared to observe my settlement depicted using primitive rendering, apart from certain rough movements and periodic inhabitants sitting in a bench as opposed to atop a bench, the immersive perspective seems considerably improved over predictions. The intricately designed surfaces (especially stone surfaces) shouldn't logically be this impressive within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You might not observe any individual strands of hair, yet you will notice writings on surfaces, sparks flying from torches, brick decoloration, pupils, and evergreen foliage. Evening, with glowing light sources and stars shining in the distance, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and proves significantly less intimidating relative to the previous game, now that the citizens don’t look like nightmarish entities these days.
Experimentation and Customization
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I decided to experiment a bit, and promptly found the functions for jumping, dashing, and changing perspective — the zoom function permitting me to switch between first and third-person views and revert. I then decided to hit various digit inputs and discovered that I could change my representative's visual design. Golden robe? Ruby clothing? Azure and violet outfit? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You may carry a sword and shield, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; if you hit the interaction button, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. In case you’re wondering, it’s not possible to kill civilians (not that I’ve tried, of course).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, as they're remarkably entertaining. Moments after I entered first-person mode, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that he “Can’t have a pet fox and if you offer additional fowl, your elder will punish you.” Understandable stance, father character. A friendly native Celtic person then proceeded to praise my excellent cross-cultural strategies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” while some cranky old lady decided to threaten me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Thrill of Transportation
Just as I assumed I’d discovered all there is to discover in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I found the joys of joyriding in Ancient Rome. Totally unintentionally, I selected a carriage and was promptly seated on the box. Oxen, donkeys, even people-powered transports; you can control each one as desired. The donkey-powered transport, notably, travels rather rapidly, though you shouldn’t imagine open-world vehicular chaos — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Combat Limitations
The single feature that frustrated me within the immersive perspective was learning about my exclusion from in combat situations. Equipped in warrior attire, I charged toward adversaries amidst fighting and attempted to attack them, but was entirely disregarded. The close-up view was nonetheless magnificent, and watching the enemy run, their limbs waving wildly, seemed enormously rewarding, yet it would have been exciting to successfully impact objects via my incendiary bolts.
