Imperator: Rome is a grand-strategy wargame that is available to play on PC. It was released on 25th April 2019. The game was both developed and published by Paradox. Imperator: Rome is a sequel to Europa Universalis, which was released in 2008. Paradox Interactive is best known for their historical strategy games, and their goal is to provide deep and challenging games with hours of gameplay.
Become a Conqueror
Imperator: Rome allows players to use their strategic abilities to take control of each city presented in the game. Players will also have the choice of how they would like to rule these cities. The game offers players the opportunity to make choices that will affect the daily lives of their citizens. Imperator: Rome is set during the establishment of the Roman Empire and includes the Wars of the Diadochi. It also includes over 7,000 cities, and each nation in the game is available to play.
Imperator: Rome gives players the chance to complete a tutorial before starting the proper game. During the tutorial, you are shown how to complete some of the more simple objectives. It gives you a brief overview of how to manage your cities and how to conquer new cities. The tutorial is set in Rome and the surrounding areas. It also gives you a lot of advantages that you will have to work towards when playing the full game.
Clear Your Schedule
Imperator: Rome is an absolutely massive game. The game is full to the brim of menus, sub-menus, choices, resources, building, trading and much more. The game is so big that you will need a very large amount time to be able to get anywhere. With there being so much to do and so many options available to you, the game feels quite messy. There are some aspects to the game that you will probably never even use, and things also aren’t very clear. When I first starting playing the game, I was finding my way around and accidentally built things that I didn’t mean to build and did other things that I didn’t mean to do.
As I have mentioned, the tutorial allows you to complete some of the more simple objectives and gives you a brief overview. The issue is that the game is so complex that a brief overview gets you absolutely nowhere. I found the whole thing extremely confusing. Imperator: Rome consists of three main factions, which are the Republic, Tribes and Monarchs. The tutorial allows players a very brief insight of playing as the Republic and leaves you to figure everything out for yourself when it comes to the Tribes and Monarchies.
Rule with an Iron Fist
Once you get your head around how to play Imperator: Rome, it can be a great game. The best features in the game are the warfare and conquering new cities. There is a real sense of accomplishment when taking a city that you don’t get with other strategy games. The amount of time and effort that you will have to put into getting to the point where you can feel like a real conqueror immense, but it is great at making you feel unstoppable when you destroy your enemies. The map is huge, so as you take over new cities, you truly feel like you are just starting out in your quest to eventually take over the world.
Another great thing about Imperator: Rome is the use of Religion and Diplomacy. These features allow you to trade with other cities and pass laws that you decide to set. A lot of the game is down to the choices you make as a ruler. You can either backstab, steal and sacrifice your way into power, or you can make choices that are fair and just for the people. It basically comes down to whether you want to rule with an iron fist or give power to your people.
Make Your Decisions Wisely
Imperator: Rome is definitely a game for more hardcore strategy gamers. If you are just starting out in this particular genre, then Imperator: Rome is probably not a great place to start. The game is extremely complicated, and the tutorial doesn’t represent the game anywhere near to its fullest extent. It does take sandbox games to another level though. The great thing is that when you get a handle on the game, you feel a real sense of accomplishment when conquering a new city. The map is absolutely huge, which is great, but it does take a lot of time and effort to be able to get anywhere or make a dent in the game.
Imperator: Rome is all about the choices you decide to make as you come into power. You can rule with an iron fist or give power to your people. You can make choices that improve things for your people or for your army. I found that it is important to keep a good balance between the army, the church and the people, and that is because you need all three of them to be strong in order for your empire to be successful. You don’t want to have a strong army but have nobody to build ships for them.
Imperator: Rome Overall
Overall, Imperator: Rome can be quite fun to play, but you have to put in a lot of work to get to the fun part. There are so many options, menus and sub-menus that it is way too over-complicated. Some aspects of the game you won’t even use, so it feels a bit unnecessary. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great parts to the game that mainly lie with warfare, conquering cities and the amount of choice available to you. When it comes to passing laws and deciding what is best for the people, the game can be great fun. The main issue is that it doesn’t cater to new players and can be a bit confusing. If you are a grand-strategy game enthusiast, I would definitely recommend Imperator: Rome. If you are just starting out, however, maybe pick something else to start with.
Developer: Paradox Development Studio
Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Platform: PC
Release Date: 25th April 2019
