Imperator: Rome Reviews

I came across this game in my library and was surprised I had not left a review, so here goes. I bought this game at release, as I did most Paradox games at the time. I love Rome games and paradox grand strategy games so I was looking forward to this one. I played 40 hrs after release and I thought it was the most unenjoyable game I had ever played. The mechanics were very bad. The UI was uninspiring. Gameplay was just boring and the game overall was just not fun in the slightest. But what got to me most was Johan Andersson doubling down and pretty much stating that everyone who criticized this game at launch got it wrong. This was the ultimate disrepect a game dev could commit. Now I know OG paradox games release bare bones and fill out with user feedback but this was different. This was EGO, simple as that. I admit I am vindictive, but this absolutely killed Paradox to me forever. I vowed to never buy a Paradox game again. And when they buy an existing game I stop playing that game as well. And Yohan, should you read this review here is a personal message: SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS

Very Fucking Meh, like the Definition of it. Let me start by stating the game ends Well before the formation of the roman Empire. so make sure you know that going in. it ends close to 100 years before Augustus declares him self the first citizen. It's just rinse and repeat with game mechanics. i would save up stability, declare war, save up stability declare war. they give you these "Ideas" to follow, most are "save up close to 1k gold" for minor rewards only for the next task to be "Save up 1200 gold now." as you balance your budget between army and not army. very little are things explained even with the tutorial. Have no idea what the trade slider did, one way gave you no money the other gave you less money, and other than that it is not explained what the slider does. For the most part its just a very very very shallow version of EU. i mean like it Could have depth, but it doesn't. like as Rome i had a bunch of vessels, one of which was Carthage, i wanted to tax the shit out of Carthage but be more lenient with Hispania. NOPE you either fuck em all or not at all. like what? Rome had different relationships with different people they weren't all treated the same. i beat the game, kept playing because i felt i was cheated on time, and i got to a point where all sudden i would have a civil war, and i have no idea why i had it other than, i was to big. i could not tell why a character was up set there was a bunch of modifiers on him but when it was all said and done the game told me he had a positive gain, yet he wanted to rebel and make his own republic with black jack and hookers. Like it comes off like it's coded Rome needs to have a civil war when it gets to this size, because it happen in IRL. An since it happen in IRL it has to happen in this game no matter what. So idk, idk what the point of this game is, because i have no desire to play anyone else but Rome as i don't see how anyone else could have a deeper game play when the games name sake feels like i'm sitting in the 2 feet deep kiddy pool as a 7ft 480lbs man.

I always get the itch to play this game, start a new campaign, do alright for a bit, get stuck in an absolute death war, and quit the game immediately. It's a blast though, just install the Invictus mod.

TLDR: Forget the launch. Get it now. It’s really good! I rarely leave a review here, but this game deserves one. Like everyone else, I heard about the flop that was this game when it came out. So, I skipped it and only remembered it as “the boring Paradoxgame”. However, a couple of years later I stumbled upon a playthrough on YouTube of this game and thought “Yea, I’m bored and have some minutes to waste. Seeing someone try to endure it might be a laugh.” I ended up watching the whole thing. I was hooked on watching video after video, shocked that the darn thing was actually looking really fun! It seemed to have a surprising level of depth. Coincidentally, it was on a steam sale at the same time, practically free. I played the hell out of it… I then found the mod “Invictus” recommended by someone. I played the hell out of it… Suddenly, out of nowhere, came an update to this abandonware-game! I played the hell out of it… Now, approx. 1 year later and 550h played it turns out that this game is at the same time the cheapest paradox game I’ve ever bought and is soon to be my most played one. It’s surprising the stories you can find (and make) in this game!

Even for all its flaws, I can't help but love this game. Once you really get into setting up your capital and colonies, it just feels like you're building history in a way that other PDX games don't capture. The population mechanic, which I believe is unique to this one, is also great (very satisfying to watch population centers grow). And yeah, a lot of mechanics aren't fleshed out, but no PDX game starts like that. TLDR: If they'd just kept with it, I swear that this game could be one of the greats.

I really liked the concept of this game but Im spending half the time dealing with family figures, loyalty, keeping the senate happy, stability and trying to stop civil wars. Its more an exercise in book keeping which takes the fun out of it, back to Mius Front probably the best game I have ever played

An interesting setting, large detailed map and frustrating gameplay. I played mostly as Rome, but also some Germanic powers. My biggest issue is forced events constantly reducing your income. You can build your economy up to 100 gold monthly income, and suddenly after election it is reduced to 2-3. The AI of your own nation's characters is either stupid or acting against you. Stability doesn't really mean anything, as I usually had 50-55 and up to 70, and still I was facing civil war and province rebellions all the time. Tyranny is pretty much the most frustrating mechanic. Once you gain some tyranny it's cooling down painfully slow, and it increase your civil war risk, which you reduce by becoming friends with characters, which in turn can increase tyranny. The cycle repeats. All in all, contrary to EU4, where you watch your country becoming powerfull, here there's no feel of power. Even if you control entire Mediterrean the next election can bring to power some idiot conflicted with everyone, leading to civil war. Even in endgame you don't feel like leading an empire.

Actually. Really good. Solid gameplay. Nice mechanics. Good graphics. Can recommend.

One of the best of paradox, shame they don't continue to update

Had a deservedly bad rap at launch and the first year or 2 of its lifespan but surprisingly the game has had continued work put into it and it's actually gotten fun (at least as playing as Rome and a few others, honestly if you aren't playing as Rome then you're playing the game wrong), still has a bit of a way to go but this is a substantially better game than it used to be overall