Anno 117 Pax Romana's Top Secret Is a Impressive First-Person Perspective.
Surprisingly — did you realize it's possible to experience the game Anno 117 from a first-person viewpoint? If you're thinking that, you’re just as shocked as I was when I discovered this concealed mode. Excuse me while step away from my empire’s management, leave it in a reliable subordinate, take a wagon, and take a spin across the Roman world.
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 press a covert button sequence — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard or “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. Given a comparable hidden feature appeared in the earlier game Anno 1800, I was eager to try it out in the new release, though I was uncertain it would operate until I found myself submerged in a structural glitch (which probably wasn’t intended — this feature is somewhat unstable occasionally).
Exploring the Streets of Rome
Upon freeing myself, I strolled the bustling streets of my city and toured shops, taverns, blossom gardens, and cockle pickers — it felt magnificent to see my diligent efforts from a brand-new perspective. I noticed numerous fine points I might have missed when viewing from overhead: Front door decorations, an ass transporting a floral pail, fowl roaming freely, people relaxing on their verandas… Simply noticing the form of a ledge and the paint layers on a column becomes engaging for those not residing in classical times.
Further Than Mere Wandering
Yet, the experience extends to the game's immersive perspective beyond simply walking the paths. I became extraordinarily excited upon discovering that besides being able to look upon agricultural plots, but also enter them. And even though I thought the building models would be off-limits, I could walk onto earthen quarries, investigate a respected schoolhouse as teaching was underway, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Don't bother with door access (not even the creators allocated resources for that), yet it's completely feasible meander across a cereal plantation, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and glance into any tiny hut when there's no doorway obstructing.
Appearance and Mood
While I was completely ready to observe my settlement depicted in PlayStation 1 graphics, besides some crude animations and the occasional civilian resting inside seating instead of on a bench, the first-person view appears far superior to anticipations. The intricately designed surfaces (especially stone surfaces) really have no business being this good within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You won't necessarily notice specific hair details, however, you can observe writings on surfaces, fiery particles from lamps, discoloration of masonry, pupils, and conifer needles. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and distant stellar illumination, is especially atmospheric, and also a lot less scary versus the earlier title, given that the populace appears unlike nightmarish entities anymore.
Testing and Personalization
Given the covert first-person feature has no guided tutorial, I opted to try different commands, and quickly discovered the functions for jumping, dashing, and changing perspective — with the latter allowing me to change from first-person to third-person mode and back. I subsequently tried pressing certain numeric keys and learned I could modify my avatar's look. Amber garment? Crimson attire? Azure and violet outfit? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; when you press the action key, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. If you're interested, it’s not possible to kill civilians (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, since they're incredibly amusing. Only seconds after I landed the immersive perspective, I overheard a father telling his child that he “Can’t have a pet fox and should you provide another poultry, your grandmother will be furious.” Understandable stance, father character. A pleasant regional Celt then started applauding my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female chose to intimidate me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”
The Thrill of Transportation
At the moment I believed I had found everything available in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I found the joys of joyriding through classical settlements. Completely unexpectedly, I clicked on a wagon and was promptly seated on the box. Cattle, asses, even manually drawn vehicles; you may operate any of them freely. The donkey-powered transport, notably, is pretty fast, though you shouldn’t imagine any GTA-like shenanigans — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Battle Constraints
The single feature that frustrated me within the immersive perspective was learning about my exclusion from in any fighting. Sporting my soldier fit, I charged toward adversaries amidst fighting and tried to harm them, only to be ignored completely. The proximate observation remained quite impressive, and watching the enemy run, their appendages thrashing around, seemed enormously rewarding, but it would’ve been cool to successfully impact objects with my burning arrows.
