Twelve years, that's right, twelve years after the release of the, admittedly, quite good EU3 was released, we are asked to pay £7 for some very amateur 'sprites' rustled up in MSpaint by some young myopic gap year apprentice of the day. £7. Proof if any extra were needed that paradox exists only to squeeze every last penny from your bank account at virtual gun-point if required. Morally and creatively bankrupt, paradox are the gift that keep giving. Please do not support such villainry in our gaming industry.
Another year, another map painter that has all the charm of a concrete breeze block. It's all starting to taste very sour - not just the immoral price point, not merely the release of what always amounts to a skeleton from which to hang future overly-expensive dlc -it's today about some self-righteous belief, now entrenched, that Paradox's customers are perenially in the wrong somehow. We mortals should be grateful that their devs know so much more about history than we; let's mortgage our property to pay them a suitable 'paradox tax' for their clear genius. It's just absurd how hubris has demeaned them since greed took over their ethos. Meanwhile, Field of Glory Empires quietly mugged them from behind in their own backyard. Buy that instead.
More cardboard cutout map-painting from a developer and publisher who wants yet more of your money and isn't afraid to use its loathesome DLC to ensure you cough up, no matter the poor quality. Age of Wonders franchise you were a romp backi in the day. Farewell!
Strangely akin to Oxygen Not Included, a release of many years afterward. The A.I. here is spectacular, I wonder how gaming A.I. in general has digressed since this release in 2004, although that could be a matter of percepttion. Barebones, no hand-holding -plenty of oxygen, well worth a buy for its relaxed pace and its Artificial Intelligence.
Slitherine slipped around the back of paradox's increasingly stale releases and delivered a title that is fresh, bursting with ideas and further potential. Play as any society in 500 turns until early A.D. but can play after this limit with no score kept. Try to think of a society that existed in this timeframe... Sparta (Lakadaimon) --- yes Ilyria ... yes Ptolemies ... yes Makedon ... yes Belgae ... yes Byzantion ... by Artemis, yes. Antigonids ... yes Pontos ... yes Britons ... yes. And on and on. There are 70 societies so anything that grabs your attention as a point of historical interest is likely to exist at the start of the game. But its a constant juggling act to keep your decadence and glory equalled -some other society can usurp your own and become successors, such as the Sassanids etc in late game. I think that religion, so important to classic era, is skimped over a bit, but such a minor complaint, really. Recommended.
Better than its abysmal successor but bewildering in its presentation of 'family' you cannot remember or care about in hundreds of useless pop-ups. The Senate options were for Rome and Carthage -if you fancied playing as Armenia or Parthia (if memory serves) you're left twiddling your horse-archer's thumbs. But. You could rotate the map. Read that again. Rotate the map. Hence the 1 star. Surprising Fact: there were no DLC made for this title. Remarkable isn't it?
A fine grand history game perhaps a little too holy roman empire focused for its own good. During the days of the base game's release, Paradox had only just gotten into their DLC stride with some horrible 3D models on offer for various depicted timescales for a reasonable sum. Now I'm sad to note their greed is in full tuneless swing with EU4 and the latest disaster EU:Rome 2 projecting dozens of expensive DLC to make them full games, and as the DLC keeps coming when is complete complete? Don't reward greedy and avaricious game developers. 2 stars because the game is ok. 0 for Paradox's DLC policy.
... culminating in this title, at least in 2-D. I could sit here for ages wishing a new Impressions title -for example Konstantinoupolis in the medieval era -but it's surely a fading dream, never to become a reality. RoMK is just marvellous, however and I still own the original hardcopy which is whipped out now and again. Experience hundreds of hours of quality entertainment for a few coins.
