Anno 117 Pax Romana's Top Secret Is a Impressive First-Person View.
Hold on — were you aware gamers have the option to enjoy the game Anno 117 in first-person? Should that be your response, you’re just as shocked as my own reaction the moment I learned this concealed mode. Allow me to temporarily abandon overseeing my civilization, leave it in a reliable subordinate, borrow a cart, and enjoy a ride around the classical city.
Activating the First-Person Feature
In its role as a city-builder, the game Anno 117 usually operates from an overhead perspective. However, if you press a covert button sequence — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — you can explore the realm as a regular inhabitant. Since a similar easter egg was part of the earlier game Anno 1800, I was eager to experience it in the latest installment, yet I had doubts it would function until I found myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (possibly an unexpected bug — this option tends to be prone to glitches now and then).
Exploring the Roman Cityscape
Upon freeing myself, I strolled the busy roads of my city and toured shops, taverns, flower fields, and shellfish gatherers — it was glorious to observe all my hard work using an entirely new viewpoint. I noticed numerous fine points that would escape notice from the top-down view: Entryway ornaments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, fowl roaming freely, people relaxing on their verandas… Even just observing the form of a ledge and the coating on a pillar proves fascinating to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
More Than Just Walking
However, there's additional content to the first-person feature in Anno 117 aside from meandering through streets. I was especially delighted when I found out that I could not just view farming fields, but also step into 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. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the studio planned for that functionality), but it’s entirely possible meander across a cereal plantation, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and look within any modest shelter as long as the door is absent.
Appearance and Mood
Although I was fully prepared to see my metropolis represented with outdated visual quality, excluding a few unpolished motions and the occasional civilian resting in a bench as opposed to atop a bench, first-person mode looks considerably improved over predictions. The highly detailed textures (especially stone surfaces) are unexpectedly excellent in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You might not observe any individual strands of hair, however, you can observe engravings on walls, fiery particles from lamps, brick decoloration, iris elements, and pine tree leaves. The night, featuring dancing flames and celestial bodies twinkling afar, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and proves significantly less intimidating versus the earlier title, given that the populace appears unlike terrifying apparitions these days.
Discovery and Modification
Because the game's hidden immersive perspective doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I decided to experiment a bit, and quickly discovered the functions for jumping, dashing, and adjusting the view — the last option enabling me to switch between first and third-person views and back. I then decided to hit certain numeric keys and learned I could modify my character’s appearance. Golden robe? Ruby clothing? Blue and purple toga? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You can wield a blade and protection, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you hit the interaction button, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. In case you’re wondering, eliminating citizens cannot be done (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
However, I had no desire to injure my people, because they’re way too funny. Only seconds after I landed the immersive perspective, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “Owning a fox is prohibited and should you provide another poultry, your elder will punish you.” Understandable stance, father character. A pleasant regional Celt then started applauding my excellent cross-cultural strategies by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female decided to threaten 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 the title's first-person feature, I encountered the delight of riding across historical settings. Entirely by accident, I clicked on a wagon and quickly occupied the transport. Oxen, donkeys, even manually drawn vehicles; you may operate any of them freely. The donkey-powered transport, notably, moves quite quickly, although you shouldn't expect any GTA-like shenanigans — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Combat Limitations
The only thing that disappointed me regarding the first-person view was finding out I couldn’t partake in battle encounters. Sporting my soldier fit, I ran up to the enemy in the midst of battle and attempted to attack them, but was entirely disregarded. The proximate observation was nonetheless magnificent, and watching the enemy run, their appendages thrashing around, felt highly gratifying, but it would’ve been cool to effectively strike targets with my burning arrows.
