Imperator: Rome

After playing Europa Universalis V today, I admit that Imperator: Rome is a good game.

The best part about this game is that paradox abandoned it, so you don't have to worry about DLCs.

Nothing makes me sad quite like Imperator: Rome does. This is the game that made me refuse to ever pre-order a Paradox game again. I tried the game on release, didn't like it for a myriad of reasons that the old reviews of this game go into, and then let it sit forgotten in my library for years. I recently decided to pick the game up again after watching some youtube videos on how good the game is now, and to 100% it so I can file it away as completed. This game has good bones, great bones even, in its current state which makes its shortcomings all the more disappointing. To start with, this game has been abandoned by Paradox. The game you play now will recieve no big changes, no overhauls, and no new DLC/content packs. This would be fine, but there are numerous bugs, issues and inconsistencies that are now forever part of the game. My main issues are: - As of today, there is no legitimate way to get 2 of the achievements on the current version of the game - one for having a dictator stand down, and one for having a dictator refuse to stand down. You have to literally roll back your game version if you want to legitimately 100% this game like I have, or otherwise have achieved them in the past. - The achievements don't register automatically. When you think you have completed an achievement, you have to open up the options menu, open up the achievements tab, close the whole menu, open up the options menu again, and then open up the achievements tab again, which will then award you the Steam achievement. For some achievements, such as the one where you start as Krios and form Pontus, the achievement won't register unless you completely exit the game and reload it before repeating the above steps. This also means that your achievements (if you earn multiple at a time) get awarded in batches instead of when you actually achieved them unless you are constantly checking on them. - A general lack of polish. For example, the Tamil culture's levies add up to over 100% of the levy breakdown (5% Chariots, 15% Heavy Infantry, 15% War Elephants, 70% Archers for 105% total). Wars will peace out randomly when there are rebellions in the country you are fighting. The decision to become an Imperial Cult is always shown as available for Republics despite the fact that they can never take the decision due to it being locked behind a Monarchy law. Converting religions is a long and tedious process, requiring the same amount of Political Influence as fabricating claims on 10 countries, or founding 5+ cities, or 2 metropolises, amongst other requirements. - Some of the special missions, such as Massilia's 'Far From Home', are strict downgrades from the generic 'The Matter of (Region)' missions insofar that they require you to conquer land without giving you any claims on the lands they want you to conquer, or require you to have ridiculous amounts of money that aren't feasible in the early-game when you are expected to complete the missions. - The strongest strats seem counterintuitive to newcomers, and I would not have found them out if not for watching youtubers play this game. One of the easiest ways to make money early game is to conquer small nations around you and imprison the nobility, then sell them into slavery through interacting with the individual imprisoned characters. The best way to get Military Experience is not to drill a large professional army (in fact, the larger your Legions the harder it is to get your average cohort experience up), but rather to stack cohort starting experience and raise levies then wait 8 months before lowering them again. I would love to give this game a recommendation, but the fact that the base game is still $56.95 AUD, and the content packs are an additional $31.95 AUD, means that I cannot. At this price, it is cheaper for me to buy the base game EU5 ($84.95 AUD) which is guaranteed to get many more updates over the next few years if not longer.

Without mods: A bit sad and barebones although it works OK as an ancient era Paradox empire builder. With the (free ofc) Invictus + the new Reanimata mods: absolutely one of the best Paradox games out there. At least for me, it's lots of fun, and I learned a lot about ancient history. Those two mods add a LOT of depth to everything. The game is basically abandonded by the company but it doesn't matter as mods add as much stuff as you need. With them it's better than EUV. Buy it on sale if you like Roman/ancient things and then get those two mods ASAP and maybe some others too (gfx mods, border gore cleaner, music mods etc).

This was the first poorly received grand strategy game they made and it's miles better than EU5 or CK3. It didn't deserve the community hate nor the discontinuation.

Greedy and very Swedish Pardox has taken money and when sales dropped they abandon whole game before it was even near ready. Very nice isn´t it?

I will not be buying another game or dlc from paradox. I loved this game. Then they abandoned it. I've sat on this review for a while hoping against reason they'd come back, give it the same time effort and love as Stellaris, Europa universalis 4 and Crusader Kings 2. For a short time it looked like they were. However, internally something must have changed priority wise. The game was left on the shelf while they recreate games they've already made, mastered, and more importantly grossly profited from. I no longer trust them to innovate or remaster any ideas or work they have put out. They will rehash the same idea from a decade ago that they already perfected. Cheers to wanting to enjoy the Roman republic with the same love and dedication they gave any of their other games and instead being made a shmuck.

Никогда не покупайте игры у парадоксов, если вы купите непопулярную игру- они х. забьют. Если средне- популярную , то будет маневр Тодда с переизданием. Если популярную - то из тебя высосут бабло как от преданного пользователя, а после этого раздадут то за что ты платил фулл прайс бесплатно и попросят ещё бабок на следующие длц. Ты ж свои 20 баксов 10 лет назад заплатил, пришло время платить 20 баксов за новый глючгый кусок калаб

This game is absolutely incredible. It has a steep (very steep) learning curve in comparsion to games like Civilization or Total War, but it's absolutely worth it. If you are a fan of the time period, this game was basically designed for you and you MUST get it. Worth mentioing that I only played with the Invictus mod (never tried vanilla), so the experience might be different without it.

Been playing this game quite a bit to the point I was mumbling in my sleep one night and my wife asked me what was wrong and I answered "Carthage must be destroyed!" Don't be fooled by the steam review score, unfortunately most of them are before the gameplay overhaul that really made the game more dynamic. Personally I have been enjoying it a lot and love the flavor in the gameplay. Having played most of the paradox interactive's library I think this and stellaris are probably the most straightforward to get into. A lot of the game is about map painting which is easier than other the games since most other nations are smaller tribes. It has the pops mechanics of EU4 and also the character management aspect of CK2 so you need to juggle both your empire and the ruler which gets more difficult as you grow and so do nearby nations. Specific nations have missions that guide you along although some feel needlessly time consuming or way too specific, especially those that require conquering specific provinces when they are split among different nations. Combat is pretty straightforward similar to CK2 where you have armies made up of units and you get different buffs depending on your culture and technology. In the beginning you rely on Levies that are proportional to your population and hiring mercs which are costly, but once you get legions you get a much more powerful force that can gain XP and depending on their performance they get unique buffs. However legions are allied to the general so they can betray and lead to a civil war. Which is a big aspect of the game, just trying to keep all the different cultures and religions in line while constantly expanding and going to war. Also characters tend to belong to different families which force you to rely on nepotism when trying to fill out positions or else they can get angry at you which can lead to revolts. The economy portion is also fairly straight forward with different types of pops providing tax, manpower, or research but for the most part just going to war and taking pops from your enemies is the best way of making money quickly. I do like that Rome is simultaneously the easiest nation and also the hardest enemy in the game. They get crazy buffs and claims so playing them is a lot of conquering while playing against is a challenge where you try to either ally them or hope they ignore you until you see an opening. The Invictus mod is a must have since it adds a lot of content also making the game more dynamic with events. There's a lot to like and it's a shame that it was abandoned after when there is so much more potential that can't be unlocked by mods. If you are a fan of this period of history, I think this and Total War are your best options.