Anno 117: Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Turns Out to Be a Breathtaking First-Person Perspective.
Hold on — were you aware you can play Anno 117 Pax Romana from a first-person viewpoint? Should that be your response, your surprise matches compared to my initial response the moment I learned this hidden feature. I must temporarily abandon managing my empire, delegate it to a reliable subordinate, borrow a cart, and take a spin through Ancient Rome.
How to Access the First-Person View
Being a city-building title, Anno 117: Pax Romana usually operates from a bird's-eye view. But, should you enter a secret combination — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard alternatively “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — you gain the ability to walk the empire as an ordinary Roman. Because an analogous secret appeared in the earlier game Anno 1800, I felt excited to experience it in Ubisoft's newest game, though I was uncertain it would work until I found myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (likely not meant to happen — this mode tends to be somewhat unstable occasionally).
Exploring the Roman Cityscape
Once I crawled out, I wandered the bustling streets across my settlement and visited shops, taverns, flower fields, and seafood collectors — it was glorious to see my diligent efforts using an entirely new viewpoint. I noticed a variety of intricacies I might have missed from the top-down view: Front door decorations, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, poultry scattering about, citizens lounging on their terraces… Simply noticing the shape of a window sill and the paint layers on a column is quite interesting to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
Further Than Mere Wandering
But there’s more to the game's immersive perspective than strolling along the road. I was especially delighted upon discovering that I could not just view crop lands, but also enter them. And despite my expectation interiors would be restricted, I was able to enter clay pits, investigate a respected schoolhouse while lessons were in session, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Don’t try to open any 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 look within any modest shelter as long as the door is absent.
Graphics and Ambiance
While I was completely ready to observe my settlement depicted using primitive rendering, apart from certain rough movements and periodic inhabitants sitting inside seating rather than on a bench, the first-person view appears much better than expected. The meticulously crafted materials (notably masonry elements) really have no business being this good in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You won't necessarily notice specific hair details, but you will see writings on surfaces, fiery particles from lamps, fading on bricks, pupils, and conifer needles. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and distant stellar illumination, is especially atmospheric, and also a lot less scary compared to Anno 1800, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble nightmarish entities now.
Testing and Personalization
Because the game's hidden immersive perspective has no guided tutorial, I opted to try different commands, and promptly found the abilities to leap, run, and zoom in or out — with the latter allowing me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and return. I then experimented with various digit inputs and discovered that I could change my avatar's look. Golden robe? Red toga? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; when you press the action key, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. If you're interested, eliminating citizens cannot be done (not that I’ve tried, of course).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, as they're remarkably entertaining. Shortly after I activated the immersive perspective, I overheard a father telling his child that he “Can’t have a pet fox and if you feed it one more chicken, your gran will have your head.” Understandable stance, father character. A pleasant regional Celt then began complimenting my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female opted to menace me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”
The Joy of Joyriding
Just as I assumed I uncovered all possible content within the game's immersive perspective, I encountered the delight of riding through classical settlements. Totally unintentionally, I selected a carriage and was promptly seated on the box. Oxen, donkeys, even manually drawn vehicles; you can drive them all at your leisure. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, is pretty fast, although you shouldn't expect any GTA-like shenanigans — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (once more, not admitting any attempts).
Battle Constraints
The only thing that disappointed me regarding the first-person view was learning about my exclusion from in battle encounters. Sporting my soldier fit, I charged toward adversaries amidst fighting and tried to harm them, only to be ignored completely. The proximate observation was still rather spectacular, and watching the enemy run, their limbs waving wildly, seemed enormously rewarding, though it might have been amazing to effectively strike targets using my fiery projectiles.
