Imperator: Rome Reviews
A good game with a lot of depth – just what one would expect from Paradox. Play it through once or twice just for fun, then grab one of the strategy guides that will be popping up to more fully appreciate the mechanics.
Imperator: Rome combines the quirks and mechanics of multiple Paradox titles, but it lacks the charm and depth to stand out on its own. It wore the trappings and regalia of Marcus Aurelius, yet, once removed, out came Commodus instead.
Plutarch said of Alexander the Great: “when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer.” If anything, my experience of Imperator: Rome has left me feeling the exact opposite: I want to weep, as I know I will never find the time to conquer everything this game has to offer.
Imperator: Rome feels like it's yet another step in Paradox's attempts to make the perfect grand strategy game. It pulls bits from Paradox's storied past in the genre and adopts it for the ancient era. Because of this, it doesn't feel like past releases where the game does one thing fantastically and falters in the rest of the mechanics but instead refines past mechanics into a marble bust of megalomaniacal fun. Ave Imperator: Rome!
It strikes a great balance between retaining much of what makes a Paradox grand strategy game so time-consuming while streamlining its approach and interface.
Imperator: Rome is grand strategy on a modest scale.
The systems run as deep as ever in Paradox's latest effort, though the personality isn't quite there.
Huge, inventive and the reason I'm sleep deprived. It's brilliant.
Imperator: Rome packs more interesting strategic systems and detail into its vast historical sandbox simulation than its interface can fully handle, but they produce some excellent political scheming and warfare.