Anno 117: Pax Romana's Top Secret Reveals Itself as a Stunning First-Person Mode.
Wait — did you know gamers have the option to enjoy Anno 117 Pax Romana from a first-person viewpoint? Should that be your response, you’re just as shocked compared to my initial response when I discovered this hidden feature. Allow me to step away from managing my empire, leave it in a reliable subordinate, commandere a carriage, and go for a joyride across the Roman world.
How to Access the First-Person View
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 — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — it becomes possible to roam the realm as a regular inhabitant. Because an analogous secret was part of the previous Anno title, I felt excited to experience it in Ubisoft's newest game, yet I had doubts it would operate until I found myself submerged in a structural glitch (likely not meant to happen — this option tends to be a little buggy at times).
Discovering the Streets of Rome
Upon freeing myself, I strolled the busy roads across my settlement and toured stalls, alehouses, flower fields, and seafood collectors — it felt magnificent to observe the fruits of my labor using an entirely new viewpoint. I detected numerous fine points that would escape notice from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, an ass transporting a floral pail, chickens running loose, people relaxing on their verandas… Simply noticing the form of a ledge and the paint layers on a column is quite interesting for those not residing in classical times.
More Than Just Walking
But there’s more to the first-person feature in Anno 117 aside from meandering through streets. I felt particularly pleased when I found out that besides being able to observe farming fields, but also step into them. And although I’d assumed structures would be inaccessible, I could walk onto mud extraction sites, investigate a respected schoolhouse as teaching was underway, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the studio allocated resources for that), yet it's completely feasible meander across a cereal plantation, observe people digging and transporting bags, and look within any modest shelter when there's no doorway obstructing.
Appearance and Mood
While I was completely ready to witness my city rendered using primitive rendering, excluding a few unpolished motions and sometimes citizens positioned inside seating rather than on a bench, the first-person view appears far superior to anticipations. The highly detailed textures (particularly rock faces) are unexpectedly excellent in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You may not see specific hair details, however, you can observe engravings on walls, fiery particles from lamps, brick decoloration, eye details, and evergreen foliage. 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, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble sleep paralysis demons now.
Discovery and Modification
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode lacks official documentation, I decided to experiment a bit, and immediately located the options to jump, sprint, and adjusting the view — with the latter allowing me to change from first-person to third-person mode and back. I then decided to hit certain numeric keys and discovered that I could change my avatar's look. Yellow toga? Ruby clothing? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You can wield a blade and protection, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you hit the interaction button, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. If you're interested, it’s not possible to kill civilians (not that I attempted, naturally).
Comedy and Population Encounters
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, since they're incredibly amusing. Moments after I entered the immersive perspective, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and should you provide another poultry, your gran will have your head.” Rightly so, Roman dad. One lovely local Celt then started applauding my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” while some cranky old lady decided to threaten me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Fun of Vehicle Use
Just as I assumed I had found everything available within the game's immersive perspective, I found the joys of joyriding in Ancient Rome. Totally unintentionally, I interacted with a cart and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Bovines, equines, even manually drawn vehicles; you can control each one as desired. The donkey-powered transport, notably, is pretty fast, but don't anticipate Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Combat Limitations
The sole aspect that let me down within the immersive perspective was learning about my exclusion from in combat situations. Wearing my military outfit, I approached opposing forces during active combat and tried to harm them, yet was completely overlooked. The close-up view was still rather spectacular, and seeing opponents retreat, their appendages thrashing around, proved very satisfying, yet it would have been exciting to effectively strike targets via my incendiary bolts.
