Anno 117's Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Turns Out to Be a Stunning First-Person Mode.
Wait — did you know it's possible to experience Anno 117 Pax Romana using a first-person camera? If that’s your reaction, you’re just as shocked as my own reaction the moment I learned this secret option. Excuse me while step away from managing my empire, leave it in a capable deputy, commandere a carriage, and take a spin across the Roman world.
How to Access the First-Person Mode
In its role as a city-builder, Anno 117 Pax Romana is normally experienced using a top-down camera. Yet, when you input a hidden code — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls alternatively “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — you can explore your domain as a common citizen. Because an analogous secret was included in the earlier game Anno 1800, I felt excited to experience it in the new release, though I was uncertain it would operate before I discovered myself stuck in a Celtic building (likely not meant to happen — this feature can be prone to glitches now and then).
Roaming the Roman Cityscape
Upon freeing myself, I strolled the bustling streets across my settlement and explored shops, taverns, blossom gardens, and shellfish gatherers — the experience was splendid to observe the fruits of my labor using an entirely new viewpoint. I observed a variety of intricacies I wouldn’t have spotted from the top-down view: Entryway ornaments, an ass transporting a floral pail, chickens running loose, folks chilling on their balconies… Even just observing the shape of a window sill and the coloration on a post proves fascinating to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
More Than Just Walking
But there’s more to the game's immersive perspective aside from meandering through streets. I was especially delighted when I found out that I could not just look upon farming fields, but also enter them. And even though I thought structures would be inaccessible, I could walk onto clay pits, tour an esteemed educational structure as teaching was underway, and intrude into private gardens. Don't bother with door access (not even the creators planned for that functionality), however, you can definitely stroll around a barley farm, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and take a peek inside any small shack when there's no doorway obstructing.
Graphics and Ambiance
Although I was fully prepared to witness my city rendered in PlayStation 1 graphics, besides some crude animations and the occasional civilian resting within a bench as opposed to atop a bench, the immersive perspective seems considerably improved over predictions. The intricately designed surfaces (especially stone surfaces) really have no business being this good within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You might not observe specific hair details, but you will see engravings on walls, fiery particles from lamps, discoloration of masonry, iris elements, and pine tree leaves. Nighttime, with its flickering fires 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 now.
Experimentation and Customization
Because the game's hidden immersive perspective doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I chose to test various actions, and promptly found the functions for jumping, dashing, and changing perspective — with the latter allowing me to switch between first and third-person views and back. I subsequently tried pressing some number buttons and learned I could modify my character’s appearance. Golden robe? Ruby clothing? Azure and violet outfit? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You can wield a blade and protection, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; when you press the action key, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. If you're interested, it’s not possible to kill civilians (not that I attempted, naturally).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
However, I had no desire to injure my people, since they're incredibly amusing. Moments after I entered the first-person view, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “Owning a fox is prohibited and should you provide another poultry, your gran will have your head.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A friendly native Celtic person then proceeded to praise 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 Thrill of Transportation
At the moment I believed I uncovered all possible content within the game's immersive perspective, I encountered the delight of riding through classical settlements. Entirely by accident, I selected a carriage and was promptly seated on the box. Bovines, equines, even people-powered transports; you can control each one as desired. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, moves quite quickly, although you shouldn't expect any GTA-like shenanigans — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Fighting Restrictions
The single feature that frustrated me regarding the first-person view was discovering my inability to participate in combat situations. Sporting my soldier fit, I charged toward adversaries during active combat and tried to harm them, but was entirely disregarded. The proximate observation remained quite impressive, and watching the enemy run, their arms flailing about, seemed enormously rewarding, yet it would have been exciting to successfully impact objects via my incendiary bolts.