Anno 117: Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Reveals Itself as a Stunning First-Person Perspective.
Hold on — were you aware it's possible to experience the game Anno 117 using a first-person camera? If that’s your reaction, you feel equally astonished as I was upon finding out this hidden feature. Excuse me while briefly leave managing my empire, leave it in a reliable subordinate, borrow a cart, and take a spin around the classical city.
Unlocking the First-Person View
Being a city-building title, Anno 117: Pax Romana usually operates from an overhead perspective. But, should you press a covert button sequence — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — it becomes possible to roam the realm as a regular inhabitant. Since a similar easter egg appeared in the earlier game Anno 1800, I looked forward to try it out in the new release, yet I had doubts it would function until I found myself stuck in a Celtic building (possibly an unexpected bug — this option tends to be prone to glitches now and then).
Roaming the Ancient Streets
Once I crawled out, I strolled the busy roads of my city and toured stalls, alehouses, flower fields, and shellfish gatherers — the experience was splendid to see my diligent efforts through a fresh lens. I noticed numerous fine points I might have missed when viewing from overhead: Doorway embellishments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, poultry scattering about, folks chilling on their balconies… Merely examining the design of a windowsill and the coloration on a post becomes engaging to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
Beyond Simple Strolling
However, there's additional content to the first-person feature in Anno 117 aside from meandering through streets. I became extraordinarily excited upon discovering that not only could I observe farming fields, but also access them. And despite my expectation the building models would be off-limits, I was able to enter earthen quarries, investigate a respected schoolhouse during active classes, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the developers allocated resources for that), yet it's completely feasible stroll around a barley farm, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and look within any modest shelter as long as the door is absent.
Graphics and Ambiance
While I was completely ready to witness my city rendered with outdated visual quality, excluding a few unpolished motions and sometimes citizens positioned in a bench as opposed to atop a bench, the immersive perspective seems much better than expected. The highly detailed textures (particularly rock faces) really have no business being this good within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You might not observe specific hair details, yet you will notice writings on surfaces, fiery particles from lamps, fading on bricks, pupils, and conifer needles. Evening, with glowing light sources and distant stellar illumination, creates a particularly moody setting, and also a lot less scary versus the earlier title, given that the populace appears unlike nightmarish entities now.
Discovery and Modification
Given the covert first-person feature lacks official documentation, I decided to experiment a bit, and immediately located the options to jump, sprint, and adjusting the view — the zoom function permitting me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and revert. I then decided to hit various digit inputs and learned I could modify my representative's visual design. Amber garment? Red toga? Blue and purple toga? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You may carry a sword and shield, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you hit the interaction button, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. In case you’re wondering, it’s not possible to kill civilians (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
However, I had no desire to injure my people, because they’re way too funny. Moments after I entered the immersive perspective, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that he “Can’t have a pet fox and if you feed it one more chicken, your gran will have your head.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A pleasant regional Celt then proceeded to praise my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” while some cranky old lady chose to intimidate me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Joy of Joyriding
Just when I thought I’d discovered all there is to discover in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I experienced the pleasure of driving through classical settlements. Entirely by accident, 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 cart, in particular, travels rather rapidly, but don't anticipate Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Battle Constraints
The sole aspect that let me down in Anno 117’s first-person mode was learning about my exclusion from in any fighting. Sporting my soldier fit, I approached opposing forces in the midst of battle and attempted to attack them, only to be ignored completely. The close-up view remained quite impressive, and watching the enemy run, their appendages thrashing around, seemed enormously rewarding, yet it would have been exciting to successfully impact objects using my fiery projectiles.
