Anno 117 Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Turns Out to Be a Breathtaking First-Person Perspective.
Wait — did you know gamers have the option to enjoy the game Anno 117 using a first-person camera? Should that be your response, your surprise matches as I was upon finding out this secret option. Allow me to briefly leave overseeing my civilization, delegate it to a reliable subordinate, take a wagon, and enjoy a ride across the Roman world.
Activating the First-Person View
Being a city-building title, Anno 117 Pax Romana is normally experienced using a top-down camera. Yet, when you enter a secret combination — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard 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. Given a comparable hidden feature was included in the previous Anno title, I looked forward to try it out in Ubisoft's newest game, yet I had doubts it would operate until I found myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (likely not meant to happen — this option can be somewhat unstable occasionally).
Exploring the Streets of Rome
After extracting myself, I walked the busy roads across my settlement and explored markets, breweries, flower fields, and cockle pickers — it felt magnificent to observe the fruits of my labor from a brand-new perspective. I detected a variety of intricacies I wouldn’t have spotted from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, poultry scattering about, folks chilling on their balconies… 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
However, there's additional content to Anno 117’s first-person mode than strolling along the road. I was especially delighted upon discovering that I could not just view farming fields, but also step into them. And even though I thought interiors would be restricted, I was able to enter mud extraction sites, tour an esteemed educational structure while lessons were in session, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the developers allocated resources for that), yet it's completely feasible wander through a grain field, observe people digging and transporting bags, and glance into any tiny hut when there's no doorway obstructing.
Appearance and Mood
While I was completely ready to see my metropolis represented using primitive rendering, excluding a few unpolished motions and periodic inhabitants sitting in a bench instead of on a bench, the immersive perspective seems much better than expected. The intricately designed surfaces (particularly rock faces) really have no business being this good in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You won't necessarily notice any individual strands of hair, yet you will notice engravings on walls, sparks flying from torches, brick decoloration, pupils, and evergreen foliage. The night, featuring dancing flames and celestial bodies twinkling afar, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and also a lot less scary versus the earlier title, now that the citizens don’t look like nightmarish entities these days.
Experimentation and Customization
Given the covert first-person feature has no guided tutorial, I chose to test various actions, and quickly discovered the functions for jumping, dashing, and changing perspective — with the latter allowing me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and return. I then decided to hit some number buttons and learned I could modify my avatar's look. Yellow toga? 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; when you press the action key, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. In case you’re wondering, harming inhabitants is impossible (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Comedy and Population Encounters
However, I had no desire to injure my people, because they’re way too funny. Moments after I entered the immersive perspective, I overheard a father telling his child that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and if you offer additional fowl, your grandmother will be furious.” Understandable stance, father character. A friendly native Celtic person then started applauding my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” while some cranky old lady opted to menace me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Thrill of Transportation
Just when I thought I uncovered all possible content within the game's immersive perspective, I encountered the delight of riding across historical settings. Completely unexpectedly, I interacted with a cart and was promptly seated on the box. Bovines, equines, even manually drawn vehicles; you can drive them all at your leisure. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, moves quite quickly, although you shouldn't expect open-world vehicular chaos — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Battle Constraints
The single feature that frustrated me within the immersive perspective was finding out I couldn’t partake in battle encounters. Equipped in warrior attire, I charged toward adversaries amidst fighting and endeavored to damage them, yet was completely overlooked. The close-up view was nonetheless magnificent, and observing foes flee, their arms flailing about, felt highly gratifying, though it might have been amazing to actually hit something via my incendiary bolts.