Anno 117's Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Reveals Itself as a Impressive First-Person View.
Wait — did you know it's possible to experience the game Anno 117 from a first-person viewpoint? Should that be your response, you feel equally astonished as my own reaction when I discovered this secret option. Excuse me while temporarily abandon overseeing my civilization, delegate it to a capable deputy, commandere a carriage, and enjoy a ride around the classical city.
Unlocking the First-Person View
As a city-building game, the game Anno 117 is normally experienced from an overhead perspective. But, should you press a covert button sequence — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard or else “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 was included in the earlier game Anno 1800, I looked forward to test it in the latest installment, yet I had doubts it would function until I found myself stuck in a Celtic building (which probably wasn’t intended — this option is prone to glitches now and then).
Exploring the Roman Cityscape
After extracting myself, I walked the busy roads of my city and visited markets, breweries, blossom gardens, and seafood collectors — the experience was splendid to witness my diligent efforts using an entirely new viewpoint. I detected numerous fine points I might have missed when viewing from overhead: Doorway embellishments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, chickens running loose, citizens lounging on their terraces… Even just observing the form of a ledge and the coloration on a post is quite interesting to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
More Than Just Walking
But there’s more to the game's immersive perspective than strolling along the road. I was especially delighted when I found out that besides being able to observe agricultural plots, but also access them. And despite my expectation interiors would be restricted, I was able to enter mud extraction sites, investigate a respected schoolhouse during active classes, and intrude into private gardens. Don't bother with door access (not even the studio have the budget for that), yet it's completely feasible meander across a cereal plantation, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and look within any modest shelter provided the entrance is missing.
Appearance and Mood
Although I was fully prepared to see my metropolis represented in PlayStation 1 graphics, excluding a few unpolished motions and sometimes citizens positioned inside seating instead of on a bench, first-person mode looks far superior to anticipations. The meticulously crafted materials (particularly rock faces) shouldn't logically be this impressive for a title that remains primarily overhead. You might not observe specific hair details, however, you can observe wall inscriptions, sparks flying from torches, fading on bricks, pupils, and pine tree leaves. The night, featuring dancing flames and celestial bodies twinkling afar, creates a particularly moody setting, and also a lot less scary versus the earlier title, given that the populace appears unlike nightmarish entities now.
Experimentation and Customization
Given the covert first-person feature lacks official documentation, I chose to test various actions, and quickly discovered the functions for jumping, dashing, and adjusting the view — the last option enabling me to change from first-person to third-person mode and return. I then experimented with various digit inputs and found I could alter my character’s appearance. Yellow toga? Ruby clothing? Blue and purple toga? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You may carry a sword and shield, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; when you press the action key, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. In case you’re wondering, it’s not possible to kill civilians (not that I attempted, naturally).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, since they're incredibly amusing. Moments after I entered the first-person view, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that he “Can’t have a pet fox and should you provide another poultry, your gran will have your head.” Rightly so, Roman dad. A friendly native Celtic person then started applauding my excellent cross-cultural strategies by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” while some cranky old lady chose to intimidate me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Fun of Vehicle Use
At the moment I believed I uncovered all possible content in the title's first-person feature, I encountered the delight of riding through classical settlements. Totally unintentionally, I clicked on a wagon and quickly occupied the transport. Bovines, equines, even human-pulled carts; you can drive them all at your leisure. The donkey cart, in particular, travels rather rapidly, though you shouldn’t imagine any GTA-like shenanigans — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Fighting Restrictions
The only thing that disappointed me regarding the first-person view was discovering my inability to participate in combat situations. Wearing my military outfit, I charged toward adversaries amidst fighting and tried to harm them, but was entirely disregarded. The proximate observation was still rather spectacular, and watching the enemy run, their limbs waving wildly, proved very satisfying, but it would’ve been cool to successfully impact objects using my fiery projectiles.
