Imperator: Rome

If you are into the classic period and strategy games, this game is mandatory. It seems the game was bad at first, but not anymore. It runs smoothly and is almost perfect. What fails is the lack of information about how to do things. There is a tutorial but themany parameters this game uses will cause a confusing first playthough. How do I raise my levies? How do I increase my levies? Should I annex Veneto or turn them into a tributary? Or tribal vassal? Feudatory?Whats that! Whats up with expansive agression? And tyranny!And...stabiliuty? So, yeah, players looking for want inmediate experience will quit. If you stay, you will discover the best game about Rome so far. Let me tell you some awesome things I´ve experienced in my many hours of Imperator. -Etrurians allied with Cartaghe at the first stages of the game. -Cartaghe reduced to almost nothing by Egypt. -Cartaghe taking over Spain making your mid game very complicated -I made Archimedes roman emperor -Civil wars when becoming an empire (as rome) are almost unavoidable. They have gone in all ways: easy win, hard win, close defeat and my favourite: Thrace declaring me war while fighting a hard civil war in ironman mode (no saves, my friend) -Every game evolves in a different way for most nations, sometimes Boi (for example) will be powerhouse, sometimes a small nation, sometimes will be absorbed by one of many belicose neighbours. -That consul with high martial skill gets mentagra (small sickness which drains health slowly)and whe he/you seeks treatnent, it backfires and he gets brain damaged. -When I got to rectuit a foreign character with Argead blood he got castrated after another "sucessful" illness treatment. ...that is just playing as Rome. Playing like a greek nation, egypt or hibernia is completely different thing. There is so many things you can do in this game, so many. If its on a sale, get it. I bought it for 10 euros and ended up purchasing all expansion packs. Best game purchase ever!

It's Paradox's latest fatigued "Grand Strategy" with much more DLC promised to make your final $300 purchase seem like it was. eventually, money well spent. Slitherine's Fields of Glory Empires is expensive as well. But it innovates where this follows a cliched and tiresome path. It offers variety (especially with the randomised building strategy and refreshing trade system) where this thing is exhausted well beyond its own bed-time, now so bog-standard a routine we have come to expect. Every single darned time. To be somewhat fair, at least they got Rhodos' Rose banner correct. *slowclap*

My overall feeling is that the game is unfinished beta version, not official version. This game have multiple issues! Let me tell some of those: a) Ai broken, Ai constantly abandons sieges or runs in circles. b) AI cheats attrition. AI can stack 24 troops on the province, which have 9 supply limit and suffers no attrition. This feature must be taken from Europa Universalis IV. c) Overall Ai is stupid. AI is more stupider than Europa Universalis IV or Crusader kings 2 AI. d) Game stutters! Stuttering becomes more stronger, when here are lot of military units on the map, making gameplay to challenge. e) Republic goverment senate is broken: Making senate support your wars is frustrating. You need to friend and bribe senate faction leaders, in order to get support for warmongering. Bribing and making friends increases country tyranny and player lost lot of gold. f) UI is messy: For example, events refer to persons by their first name but the tooltip to the right portraying them has their surname below it. This is not informative, (hard to figure is he a tribal leader or somebody important?). This forces often to check around other tabs to compare characters. g) Manpower recovery speed is broken. h) Manpower pool is glitchy. Somehow reasons manpower value per mounth changes and it has nothing to do, if you have build barracks already. Example, in january you get 310 manpower , in february you get 297 manpower, in march you get 288 manpower, in april you get 301 manpower and so on. i) Tooltips that are so overstuffed, they take up almost half the screen. Tooltips are unintentional! j) No family events! Ruler have family but it is meaningless and lifeless. Game doesn´t inform l you if ruler children are unmarried. In Crusader kings 2 game informs, if ruler children are unmarried. k) Events too generic and lifeless! l)Tutorial is not informative. Tutorial does not tell basic mechanics of the game. Youtube is only way to learn basic and advanced mechanis of the game.

I was worried about buying this because of this game's bad launch but the devs have been making it better. It was on sale and I'm glad I took the plunge. The new 2.0 patch hits soon and it should make the game even more enjoyable. If you like the time period and are familiar with paradox's other titles then I see no reason why you wouldn't like this game. I'm usually a total war fanboy but play some HOI4 multiplayer on the side. I do enjoy Imperator: Rome's deeper mechanicals.

Coming from CK2 I needed a lot of adjusting. But midway through the tutorial scenario I started getting the hang of it (though you hardly ever get it with these games). I had enjoyable experience with some wonkiness and in need of some QoL features. Too bad they put this game to ice in favour of CK3 (and other series' titles). It kind of falls out like a prototype now, even though it could have been something great on its own (without needing to be "like CK2" or "like EUIV").