Review: Imperator: Rome
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This review will be quite straightforward if you fit certain niche criteria. Did you like the previous Paradox grand strategy games? Do you like ancient history? Is the only thing stopping you from becoming a dictator a lack of power?
If you answered yes to at least two of the three questions, then go ahead and buy it because it is a definitive Paradox grand strategy set in ancient times. Those who don’t like the era, however, might be a little overwhelmed by the expanse of the world that awaits them in Emperor: Romebut will always leave happy.
Emperor: Rome (CP)
Developer: Paradox Development Studio
Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Released: April 25, 2019
MSRP: $39.99
If you’ve ever played Paradox Grand Strategy, you have a good idea of how things will work in Emperor: Rome. You assume the role of a nation that existed around 304 BCE and have full control over its economy, military, government, foreign diplomacy, and to some extent, religion. Accumulate power based on the types of actions you take and the type of government you lead, spend it on actions: then the cycle continues until you leave the game or cry like Alexander by the lack of new worlds to conquer.
As with every Paradox grand strategy, there are no static endgame victory conditions in Emperor: Rome. You decide what you want to do, and you are given the means to do it. There are still specific goals you can aim for if you’re playing as one of the larger nations, but they won’t be game-ending. For example: as Macedon you can strive to reunite the fallen empire of Alexander, or as Rome you can activate a dictatorship by manipulating the Senate and population. As for new players, Imperator has what I would say is the best Paradox tutorial yet. Yes, it’s still only superficial and you’ll be far from an expert when you’re done, but it was nice to see a well-thought-out tutorial that went over the basics of playing a grand strategy Paradox at the instead of throwing you into the fray and forcing you to resort to YouTube tutorials.
Although you can play with even the smallest nation that existed at the time, there is a lot more attention to detail in a few select nations from the period and as such you are directed to these nations for a best experience. The nations featured are Rome, Egypt, Carthage, Macedonia, the Seleucid Empire, and Phrygia. Although there are a number of other nations to choose from, I found playing with the smaller ones less encouraging as there were few objectives. Granted, I’m not the biggest fan of ancient history, so those of you with a fondness for that time period might benefit more from playing as a small nation than I do.
That being said, the map is incredibly detailed and the fact that I can choose to play as one of the many nomadic tribes of pre-conquest Europe is really nice to see. I fully suspect that eventually we’ll see smaller nations spruce up at least a bit, given Paradox’s habit of supporting games post-launch with DLC.
I’m a gigantic loser, so the mechanics of government and diplomacy were the ones I had the most fun with Emperor: Rome. As head of government, you can choose the type of international stance you take and this will affect the cost of your actions and how other nations will see you. For a brief example, Rome starts out in a warlike position, which means that it is constantly working to expand its territory and anything it does politically to support this is cheaper. Contrast that with the economic position I rotated Macedon to at the start of my game. I did this so I could gain an extra trade route and accumulate more wealth in preparation for a long war of conquest while having to pay more than I could for aggressive war actions. You can also take a neutral or apologetic stance depending on what you want to accomplish.
Through diplomacy you can forge alliances, defensive pacts, improve relations, insult a nation, arm rebels, the list goes on. Many actions have been found in previous Paradox games and are all different ways to move a multitude of resource cursors through your land and those that inhabit the world around you. Fortunately, everything an action will do is presented in a pop-up that appears when you hover over the action, so you don’t have to remember what exactly is needed for a defensive pact to be formed. The lack of an in-game encyclopedia or note function is noticeable, however, especially with the complexity of certain actions and names.
Surprisingly, the warfare options are some of the best I’ve seen since picking up the grand strategy genre. It’s still menu-based and completely out of your control once the battle begins, but you can increase the effectiveness of your troops by building garrisons of synergistic troop types, then placing them in different roles and tactical positions. . It’s not as complex as Hearts of Iron IV turned out to be, but the ability to choose tactics and positions is a great starting point for future improvements in warfare.
There’s also a great siege mechanic that allows you to occupy regions where forts exist and set up camp. Each month you siege you randomly roll a number from 1 to 14, you also get a bonus depending on how long your siege lasts. The higher the number, the more damage you deal to those in the fort. Eventually, you’ll break them and take control of the castle. I don’t know why I liked this mechanic so much, especially since it’s so rooted in rng, but it felt so good to me for the time that I couldn’t help but stare at the rolling of each months looking forward.
The concept of population of Victoria II comes back in Imperator but in a more digestible way. Each province on the map has a number of people living there, these populations are divided into four classes, and depending on how many of each class you have in the areas you control, your production and unrest go up and down. Each population also has a culture and religion attached to them, which can cause headaches if you are a foreign ruler taking over their lands or if people start immigrating to your area from a neighboring region. You can manipulate the populace using political or religious power depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, which I found fun in a manic way.
Character interaction is back Crusader Kings II but in a discreet role. You will always play as the leader of the nation you control, but characters from your country can disrupt or even dismantle your rule. In order to stay on everyone’s good side you have to use strategic manipulation through bribery and friendship and if that doesn’t work you can imprison them or have them killed. There are always consequences to your actions, and you need to make sure you’re prepared for them all the way.
Religion also plays a role in the game but more like a silent hand that guides you in the shadows. As stated earlier, your population will have a specific religion attached to them, as will all surrounding nations. Depending on the religion you follow, certain actions between nations will be more or less easy. As a ruler, you can summon religious omens to different gods which will bring different stat bonuses over a certain period. I must admit that after Civilization VI introduces Religious War I was hoping for a little more Paradox with this build, but using this mechanic didn’t wow me.
Emperor: Rome it feels like yet another step in Paradox’s attempts to create the perfect grand strategy game. It pulls pieces from Paradox’s historical past in the genre and adopts it for the ancient era. Because of this, it doesn’t feel like previous versions where the game does one thing fantastically and fails in the rest of the mechanics, but instead refines past mechanics into a marble bust of megalomaniac fun. Avenue Emperor: Rome!
[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher]
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