Anno 117's Pax Romana's Top Secret Reveals Itself as a Breathtaking First-Person View.
Surprisingly — did you realize you can play the game Anno 117 from a first-person viewpoint? If that’s your reaction, you feel equally astonished as I was the moment I learned this hidden feature. Excuse me while temporarily abandon overseeing my civilization, entrust it to a trusted assistant, borrow a cart, and take a spin through Ancient Rome.
Unlocking the First-Person View
In its role as a city-builder, the game Anno 117 is normally experienced from an overhead perspective. However, if you enter a secret combination — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — you can explore your domain as a common citizen. Since a similar easter egg appeared in Anno 1800, I felt excited to experience it in the latest installment, though I was uncertain it would function prior to being chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (possibly an unexpected bug — this feature is prone to glitches now and then).
Roaming the Roman Cityscape
Once I crawled out, I wandered the busy roads through my metropolis and toured markets, breweries, blossom gardens, and seafood collectors — it was glorious to observe the fruits of my labor using an entirely new viewpoint. I observed numerous fine points that would escape notice from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, an ass transporting a floral pail, poultry scattering about, folks chilling on their balconies… Simply noticing the form of a ledge and the paint layers on a column proves fascinating for those not residing in classical times.
Further Than Mere Wandering
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 I could not just observe agricultural plots, but also enter them. And despite my expectation structures would be inaccessible, I managed to access clay pits, investigate a respected schoolhouse while lessons were in session, and invade personal courtyards. Don't bother with door access (not even the developers planned for that functionality), but it’s entirely possible wander through a grain field, observe people digging and transporting bags, and take a peek inside any small shack as long as the door is absent.
Appearance and Mood
While I was completely ready to observe my settlement depicted in PlayStation 1 graphics, besides some crude animations and periodic inhabitants sitting in a bench as opposed to atop a bench, the immersive perspective seems far superior to anticipations. The intricately designed surfaces (especially stone surfaces) shouldn't logically be this impressive for a title that remains primarily overhead. You may not see separate follicular elements, however, you can observe writings on surfaces, sparks flying from torches, discoloration of masonry, iris elements, and evergreen foliage. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and stars shining in the distance, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and proves significantly less intimidating compared to Anno 1800, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble sleep paralysis demons anymore.
Testing and Personalization
Given the covert first-person feature lacks official documentation, I opted to try different commands, and promptly found the options to jump, sprint, and adjusting the view — the zoom function permitting me to change from first-person to third-person mode and back. I then decided to hit various digit inputs and learned I could modify my character’s appearance. Yellow toga? Red toga? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You can wield a blade and protection, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; when you press the action key, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. Should you be curious, eliminating citizens cannot be done (not that I’ve tried, of course).
Comedy and Population Encounters
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, because they’re way too funny. Moments after I entered the immersive perspective, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “Owning a fox is prohibited and if you feed it one more chicken, your gran will have your head.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. One lovely local Celt then proceeded to praise my excellent cross-cultural strategies by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” while some cranky old lady opted to menace me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”
The Thrill of Transportation
Just when I thought I had found everything available in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I found the joys of joyriding across historical settings. Completely unexpectedly, I clicked on a wagon and was promptly seated on the box. Bovines, equines, even human-pulled carts; you can drive them all at your leisure. The donkey-powered transport, notably, travels rather rapidly, though you shouldn’t imagine any GTA-like shenanigans — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Battle Constraints
The only thing that disappointed me within the immersive perspective was learning about my exclusion from in combat situations. Equipped in warrior attire, I ran up to the enemy amidst fighting and tried to harm them, only to be ignored completely. The proximate observation was nonetheless magnificent, and seeing opponents retreat, their limbs waving wildly, seemed enormously rewarding, but it would’ve been cool to successfully impact objects via my incendiary bolts.
