Anno 117 Pax Romana's Top Secret Is a Impressive First-Person Perspective.
Hold on — were you aware gamers have the option to enjoy Anno 117 Pax Romana from a first-person viewpoint? If you're thinking that, you’re just as shocked compared to my initial response upon finding out this hidden feature. Allow me to temporarily abandon managing my empire, entrust it to a capable deputy, take a wagon, and go for a joyride around the classical city.
Activating the First-Person Feature
Being a city-building title, Anno 117 Pax Romana usually operates using a top-down camera. However, if you input a hidden code — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — you can explore the realm as a regular inhabitant. Since a similar easter egg appeared in the previous Anno title, I was eager to test it in Ubisoft's newest game, though I was uncertain it would operate prior to being stuck in a Celtic building (possibly an unexpected bug — this mode tends to be a little buggy at times).
Discovering the Ancient Streets
After extracting myself, I strolled the lively avenues across my settlement and visited stalls, alehouses, flower fields, and shellfish gatherers — it felt magnificent to witness all my hard work from a brand-new perspective. I detected a variety of intricacies I wouldn’t have spotted from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, an ass transporting a floral pail, fowl roaming freely, people relaxing on their verandas… Even just observing the shape of a window sill and the coating on a pillar becomes engaging for those not residing in classical times.
Beyond Simple Strolling
However, there's additional content to the game's immersive perspective than strolling along the road. I felt particularly pleased when I found out that besides being able to observe agricultural plots, but also access them. And despite my expectation the building models would be off-limits, I was able to enter mud extraction sites, tour an esteemed educational structure while lessons were in session, and invade personal courtyards. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the studio have the budget for that), 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.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
Although I was fully prepared to observe my settlement depicted in PlayStation 1 graphics, apart from certain rough movements and the occasional civilian resting within a bench rather than on a bench, the first-person view appears far superior to anticipations. The highly detailed textures (especially stone surfaces) shouldn't logically be this impressive in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You might not observe separate follicular elements, however, you can observe writings on surfaces, flames emitting from lights, fading on bricks, pupils, and pine tree leaves. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and celestial bodies twinkling afar, is especially atmospheric, and feels much less frightening versus the earlier title, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble nightmarish entities anymore.
Discovery and Modification
Given the covert first-person feature lacks official documentation, I chose to test various actions, and promptly found the abilities to leap, run, and zoom in or out — the last option enabling 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 avatar's look. Yellow toga? Red toga? Azure and violet outfit? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You may carry a sword and shield, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; if you activate the engage command, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. Should you be curious, it’s not possible to kill civilians (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Comedy and Population Encounters
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, as they're remarkably entertaining. Shortly after I activated first-person mode, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “Owning a fox is prohibited and should you provide another poultry, your grandmother will be furious.” Understandable stance, father character. A friendly native Celtic person then proceeded to praise my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” whereas an irritable elderly woman decided to threaten me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Joy of Joyriding
Just when I thought I’d discovered all there is to discover in the title's first-person feature, I encountered the delight of riding across historical settings. Completely unexpectedly, I interacted with a cart and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Oxen, donkeys, even people-powered transports; you may operate any of them freely. The donkey cart, in particular, travels rather rapidly, although you shouldn't expect any GTA-like shenanigans — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Combat Limitations
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 ran up to the enemy in the midst of battle and tried to harm them, only to be ignored completely. The front-row seat remained quite impressive, and observing foes flee, their arms flailing about, proved very satisfying, but it would’ve been cool to actually hit something via my incendiary bolts.
