Citizen of Rome - Dynasty Ascendant

Honestly great concept, but didn't like it after 10 hours trying to. Clicks heavy game to start with and most things being super random (fair enough) it's hard to feel in control. But the straw for me is something I probably don't understand but being a key mechanic of the game, it killed the fun: Inheritance. I just don't get how my heir gets peanuts when it inherits!! Son of a judge with 1 prime vineyard, 1 luxury building and 2 trading ships, I start with some cash (fair enough) but I'm left with 2 ducks, 5 chickens and 1 of the 5 farmlands my dad had!! Come on!!! Somehow none of the best assets are passed on. As the son of a class I citizen I jumped back as a class IV citizen. Really?? Sorry 10 hours trying but don't like it. The fun is gone when negative random outcomes overshadow the positive ones by a mile: win a fish competition, great here is 100 bucks. Fall of a chariot, oups dead... your heir starts over with literally nothing when his siblings sucked the family dry going to the best schools for nothing... for the third generation running. Thank you but no thank you.

kicking out leeches... I mean my children of my house simulator

repetitive. boring, and no room for improvement

Debt-Spiral Simulator. I love the history of this game, it's a great way of ingratiating you into the day-to-day lives of Roman citizens. I've learned loads about Roman festivals that I'd never have heard of before. It also firmly enforces the social structure and hierarchy in Roman lives. Yet I think I've quit every gaming session in frustration. The only way to make profit is to volunteer for RNG events that can maim or bankrupt your character with no way of getting back. Despite plenty of feedback for income and outgoing money you ALWAYS end up in the red for some reason. As you increase in stature the cost of attending festivals and the like to receive buffs rises exponentially as well, so if you're just scraping by you can bankrupt yourself having a small Christmas party! Most of the "endgame" content of running for political office or entering Patrician status is only accessible by extreme luck in the gambling event or RNG market options. Which, hey, might be pretty accurate to real life but I don't play a video game to play Living Paycheck to Paycheck Simulator

great game i might pick back up but i ended up getting to senator and then dying twice in a row and going down to 5k which means i basically started over

This game is a still a waste of time. You can play it for 20 hours without ever making any progress. Even if you have sucess you will lose it immediately and inheritance is just stupid. You will get everything divided in equal parts which makes zero sense because historically girls would never inherit the same as boys and first born would always get more than the other children. I am very dissatisfied with not feeling any progress at all just look at how many hours I already tried.

I'd give this a solid middle thumb, in modern usage, if I could. It's an interesting idea that needs a few tweaks. When I play a similar title, like Reign, I may have only two options per event, but both choices feel like real consequences will go towards my family's successes or failures. A fun idea to differentiate itself from the other decision making games, some that play even more on 'automatic' than this, would be if it included more historical events inside of the real Roman timeline. I'd love to manage a patrician family name from the start of the Republic, to Rome's establishment as it conquered and pacified the local Latin colonies, gained hegemonic control in the Punic Wars, and eventually fought to survive the social upheaval that lead to the Empire. Each play through could feel a little more rogue-like to see how far and how prosperous each family could get through the social order over the centuries!

You can try it for a couple of runs (to build a few family trees), but I don't think you'll be playing it for long.

This game was quite fun when I played it a year ago, however, for 2025 it is actually completely unplayable in my opinion. It is impossible to switch to a new dynasty as the game freezes when you click on settings. If this is not fixed, I will delete the game again.

I recommend the game because it is charmingly simple, but I warn you that you can get bored. A lot of content is repeated and even if not as a single managing character, then certainly repeated events occur in subsequent generations. You won't find a very binding plot or too detailed decisions here, but it's worth giving a chance.