Anno 117: Pax Romana's Top Secret Reveals Itself as a Impressive First-Person View.
Surprisingly — did you realize gamers have the option to enjoy Anno 117 Pax Romana using a first-person camera? If you're thinking that, you feel equally astonished as I was upon finding out this secret option. I must temporarily abandon managing my empire, delegate it to a trusted assistant, commandere a carriage, and go for a joyride around the classical city.
Activating the First-Person Mode
As a city-building game, Anno 117: Pax Romana is normally experienced from a bird's-eye view. But, should you press a covert button sequence — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard alternatively “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — it becomes possible to roam your domain as a common citizen. Since a similar easter egg was part of the earlier game Anno 1800, I felt excited to experience it in the new release, but I wasn’t sure it would function until I found myself submerged in a structural glitch (possibly an unexpected bug — this option can be somewhat unstable occasionally).
Discovering the Ancient Streets
Once I crawled out, I walked the lively avenues across my settlement and explored stalls, alehouses, blossom gardens, and seafood collectors — it was glorious to witness all my hard work through a fresh lens. I observed a variety of intricacies that would escape notice from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, fowl roaming freely, citizens lounging on their terraces… Simply noticing the form of a ledge and the paint layers on a column proves fascinating to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
Further Than Mere Wandering
But there’s more to the game's immersive perspective beyond simply walking the paths. I felt particularly pleased the moment I learned that not only could I view crop lands, but also enter them. And despite my expectation interiors would be restricted, I managed to access clay pits, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building during active classes, and invade personal courtyards. Don't bother with door access (not even the developers planned for that functionality), but it’s entirely possible meander across a cereal plantation, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and glance into any tiny hut as long as the door is absent.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
While I was completely ready to see my metropolis represented with outdated visual quality, excluding a few unpolished motions and the occasional civilian resting in a bench rather than on a bench, the immersive perspective seems far superior to anticipations. The highly detailed textures (notably masonry elements) shouldn't logically be this impressive within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You won't necessarily notice separate follicular elements, but you will see wall inscriptions, flames emitting from lights, fading on bricks, pupils, and pine tree leaves. Evening, with glowing light sources and celestial bodies twinkling afar, is especially atmospheric, and feels much less frightening versus the earlier title, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble terrifying apparitions these days.
Experimentation and Customization
Because the game's hidden immersive perspective lacks official documentation, I decided to experiment a bit, and immediately located the abilities to leap, run, and changing perspective — with the latter allowing me to change from first-person to third-person mode and return. I then decided to hit certain numeric keys and found I could alter my character’s appearance. Golden robe? Red toga? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You can wield a blade and protection, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; if you activate the engage command, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. Should you be curious, eliminating citizens cannot be done (not that I attempted, naturally).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, since they're incredibly amusing. Only seconds after I landed the immersive perspective, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “Owning a fox is prohibited and if you offer additional fowl, your gran will have your head.” Rightly so, Roman dad. A friendly native Celtic person then began complimenting my outstanding integration methods by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female chose to intimidate me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Joy of Joyriding
Just when I thought I uncovered all possible content within the game's immersive perspective, I experienced the pleasure of driving through classical settlements. Entirely by accident, I selected a carriage and quickly occupied the transport. Bovines, equines, even manually drawn vehicles; you can control each one as desired. The donkey cart, in particular, is pretty fast, though you shouldn’t imagine any GTA-like shenanigans — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Fighting Restrictions
The sole aspect that let me down regarding the first-person view was discovering my inability to participate in battle encounters. Equipped in warrior attire, I ran up to the enemy amidst fighting and endeavored to damage them, only to be ignored completely. The close-up view remained quite impressive, and watching the enemy run, their arms flailing about, felt highly gratifying, though it might have been amazing to successfully impact objects via my incendiary bolts.
