Anno 117 Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Is a Stunning First-Person View.
Wait — did you know you can play Anno 117 Pax Romana using a first-person camera? If that’s your reaction, your surprise matches compared to my initial response when I discovered this concealed mode. Allow me to temporarily abandon my empire’s management, delegate it to a capable deputy, commandere a carriage, and take a spin around the classical city.
Unlocking the First-Person Mode
In its role as a city-builder, the game Anno 117 usually operates using a top-down camera. But, should you enter a secret combination — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard alternatively “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — you gain the ability to walk the realm as a regular inhabitant. Because an analogous secret was included in the earlier game Anno 1800, I was eager to experience it in the latest installment, though I was uncertain it would work until I found myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (possibly an unexpected bug — this option is somewhat unstable occasionally).
Roaming the Ancient Streets
Once I crawled out, I strolled the bustling streets through my metropolis and toured markets, breweries, blossom gardens, and shellfish gatherers — the experience was splendid to see the fruits of my labor from a brand-new perspective. I observed numerous fine points I wouldn’t have spotted when viewing from overhead: Entryway ornaments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, poultry scattering about, folks chilling on their balconies… Merely examining the design of a windowsill and the paint layers on a column becomes engaging to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
Beyond Simple Strolling
Yet, the experience extends to the first-person feature in Anno 117 aside from meandering through streets. I became extraordinarily excited when I found out that not only could I view agricultural plots, but also enter them. And although I’d assumed the building models would be off-limits, I could walk onto mud extraction sites, investigate a respected schoolhouse 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 stroll around a barley farm, observe people digging and transporting bags, and glance into any tiny hut as long as the door is absent.
Appearance and Mood
Although I was fully prepared to see my metropolis represented in PlayStation 1 graphics, besides some crude animations and periodic inhabitants sitting within 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 within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You won't necessarily notice any individual strands of hair, yet you will notice wall inscriptions, flames emitting from lights, brick decoloration, eye details, and pine tree leaves. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and distant stellar illumination, is especially atmospheric, and proves significantly less intimidating relative to the previous game, now that the citizens don’t look like sleep paralysis demons now.
Testing and Personalization
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I chose to test various actions, and quickly discovered the abilities to leap, run, and changing perspective — the zoom function permitting me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and back. I then decided to hit various digit inputs and found I could alter my avatar's look. Yellow toga? Red toga? Blue and purple toga? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You may carry a sword and shield, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; when you press the action key, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. Should you be curious, it’s not possible to kill civilians (not that I attempted, naturally).
Comedy and Population Encounters
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, since they're incredibly amusing. Moments after I entered the immersive perspective, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “Owning a fox is prohibited and should you provide another poultry, your grandmother will be furious.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A pleasant regional Celt then started applauding my excellent cross-cultural strategies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” while some cranky old lady opted to menace me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Joy of Joyriding
Just as I assumed I uncovered all possible content in the title's first-person feature, I encountered the delight of riding across historical settings. Completely unexpectedly, I selected a carriage and was promptly seated on the box. Cattle, asses, even people-powered transports; you can control each one as desired. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, moves quite quickly, although you shouldn't expect Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (once more, not admitting any attempts).
Combat Limitations
The single feature that frustrated me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was discovering my inability to participate in battle encounters. Wearing my military outfit, I charged toward adversaries amidst fighting and endeavored to damage them, yet was completely overlooked. The close-up view was still rather spectacular, and observing foes flee, their limbs waving wildly, felt highly gratifying, but it would’ve been cool to effectively strike targets via my incendiary bolts.
