Anno 117's Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Is a Impressive First-Person Mode.
Hold on — were you aware gamers have the option to enjoy Anno 117: Pax Romana from a first-person viewpoint? Should that be your response, you feel equally astonished 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, take a wagon, and go for a joyride around the classical city.
How to Access the First-Person View
Being a city-building title, Anno 117 Pax Romana is normally experienced from a bird's-eye view. But, should you enter a secret combination — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard alternatively “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — it becomes possible to roam your domain as a common citizen. Because an analogous secret was part of the previous Anno title, I looked forward to test it in the latest installment, but I wasn’t sure it would operate until I found myself submerged in a structural glitch (likely not meant to happen — this option is a little buggy at times).
Roaming the Roman Cityscape
After extracting myself, I wandered the busy roads of my city and explored markets, breweries, floral patches, and seafood collectors — it was glorious to see my diligent efforts from a brand-new perspective. I detected a variety of intricacies I wouldn’t have spotted when viewing from overhead: Front door decorations, an ass transporting a floral pail, chickens running loose, people relaxing on their verandas… Simply noticing the shape of a window sill and the coating on a pillar is quite interesting to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
Further Than Mere Wandering
But there’s more to the game's immersive perspective aside from meandering through streets. I became extraordinarily excited when I found out that not only could I view agricultural plots, but also access them. And despite my expectation the building models would be off-limits, I managed to access earthen quarries, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building during active classes, and intrude into private gardens. Don't bother with door access (not even the developers allocated resources for that), yet it's completely feasible meander across a cereal plantation, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and take a peek inside any small shack provided the entrance is missing.
Appearance and Mood
Although I was fully prepared to see my metropolis represented using primitive rendering, excluding a few unpolished motions and periodic inhabitants sitting within a bench instead of on a bench, the first-person view appears much better than expected. The meticulously crafted materials (especially stone surfaces) really have no business being this good for a title that remains primarily overhead. You won't necessarily notice separate follicular elements, but you will see writings on surfaces, fiery particles from lamps, brick decoloration, eye details, and conifer needles. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and stars shining in the distance, is especially atmospheric, and also a lot less scary relative to the previous game, now that the citizens don’t look like sleep paralysis demons now.
Discovery and Modification
Given the covert first-person feature lacks official documentation, I decided to experiment a bit, and quickly discovered the abilities to leap, run, and adjusting the view — the zoom function permitting me to switch between first and third-person views and return. I subsequently tried pressing some number buttons and learned I could modify my representative's visual design. Yellow toga? Ruby clothing? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You can wield a blade and protection, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; when you press the action key, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. Should you be curious, it’s not possible to kill civilians (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
However, I had no desire to injure my people, as they're remarkably entertaining. Moments after I entered the immersive perspective, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “Owning a fox is prohibited and if you feed it one more chicken, your gran will have your head.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. One lovely local Celt then started applauding my excellent cross-cultural strategies by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” while some cranky old lady decided to threaten me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Fun of Vehicle Use
At the moment I believed I uncovered all possible content in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I experienced the pleasure of driving across historical settings. Completely unexpectedly, I selected a carriage and was promptly seated on the box. Cattle, asses, even manually drawn vehicles; you can control each one as desired. The donkey-powered transport, notably, moves quite quickly, though you shouldn’t imagine any GTA-like shenanigans — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Battle Constraints
The sole aspect that let me down within the immersive perspective 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 proximate observation was nonetheless magnificent, and observing foes flee, their arms flailing about, proved very satisfying, yet it would have been exciting to effectively strike targets via my incendiary bolts.
