Anno 117: Pax Romana's Top Secret Is a Impressive First-Person Perspective.
Surprisingly — did you realize you can play Anno 117: Pax Romana in first-person? If that’s your reaction, you’re just as shocked compared to my initial response when I discovered this hidden feature. Excuse me while step away from my empire’s management, leave it in a trusted assistant, commandere a carriage, and take a spin around the classical city.
How to Access the First-Person Feature
Being a city-building title, Anno 117: Pax Romana is typically played from an overhead perspective. Yet, when you enter a secret combination — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — you gain the ability to walk your domain as a common citizen. Because an analogous secret was included in Anno 1800, I was eager to experience it in Ubisoft's newest game, yet I had doubts it would function prior to being stuck in a Celtic building (likely not meant to happen — this mode can be prone to glitches now and then).
Roaming the Streets of Rome
After extracting myself, I walked the bustling streets of my city and explored stalls, alehouses, flower fields, and seafood collectors — the experience was splendid to witness my diligent efforts using an entirely new viewpoint. I detected all kinds of details that would escape notice when viewing from overhead: Front door decorations, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, chickens running loose, people relaxing on their verandas… Simply noticing the shape of a window sill and the paint layers on a column becomes engaging to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
Beyond Simple Strolling
But there’s more to the first-person feature in Anno 117 than strolling along the road. I felt particularly pleased when I found out that I could not just observe crop lands, but also step into them. And despite my expectation interiors would be restricted, I managed to access clay pits, tour an esteemed educational structure during active classes, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the studio planned for that functionality), but it’s entirely possible wander through a grain field, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and glance into any tiny hut provided the entrance is missing.
Graphics and Ambiance
Although I was fully prepared to see my metropolis represented with outdated visual quality, besides some crude animations and sometimes citizens positioned inside seating as opposed to atop a bench, the first-person view appears far superior to anticipations. The highly detailed textures (especially stone surfaces) really have no business being this good within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You may not see separate follicular elements, yet you will notice engravings on walls, flames emitting from lights, fading on bricks, iris elements, and evergreen foliage. The night, featuring dancing flames and distant stellar illumination, is especially atmospheric, and also a lot less scary relative to the previous game, now that the citizens don’t look like terrifying apparitions anymore.
Testing and Personalization
Given the covert first-person feature doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I decided to experiment a bit, and promptly found the abilities to leap, run, 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 certain numeric keys and found I could alter my character’s appearance. Golden robe? Crimson attire? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You can wield a blade and protection, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; when you press the action key, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. Should you be curious, eliminating citizens cannot be done (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, as they're remarkably entertaining. Moments after I entered the first-person view, I overheard a father telling his child that “Owning a fox is prohibited and if you offer additional fowl, your grandmother will be furious.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A friendly native Celtic person then proceeded to praise my outstanding integration methods by describing it as “Ideal combination,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female opted to menace me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Thrill of Transportation
At the moment I believed I had found everything available within the game's immersive perspective, 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 human-pulled carts; you may operate any of them freely. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, travels rather rapidly, although you shouldn't expect any GTA-like shenanigans — 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 finding out I couldn’t partake in battle encounters. Wearing my military outfit, I ran up to the enemy during active combat and endeavored to damage them, only to be ignored completely. The close-up view was nonetheless magnificent, and watching the enemy run, their arms flailing about, proved very satisfying, but it would’ve been cool to successfully impact objects with my burning arrows.
