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Imperium Romanum
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 27th February 2008
Fall of an Empire
Unfortunately, Imperium Romanum does have a few critical flaws that will really mar its worth to some, though perhaps not to others.For example, Multiplayer – there isn't any. To me, that's not a huge problem as I've kind of lost my taste for multiplayer strategy games after being roundly trounced by pretty much everyone in the world at Rome: Total War. Many strategy fans though are only in it for the multiplayer and those are the people who stand to be disappointed by the lack of online fun.
As previously mentioned too, the interface is simple and streamlined – but at times that's true to a damaging degree.
The forum may offer you the chance to track the number of citizens that you have, but when many buildings have a set radius of effect—such as Temples that satisfy the needs of citizens in their vicinity—then that information isn't enough. The ability to scan your cities and highlight all buildings of a certain type is one that is sorely needed when many of the buildings look the same.
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We also really can't stress how feeble the combat feels compared to the rest of the game. The way that players push through the city-building stretches is perfectly balanced as a nice mix of linearity and freedom, and suddenly switching from that to "Deploy here. Attack all. Retreat" is a massive letdown.
In terms of replayability, the game is a bit of a mixed bag too. The first time you play many of the levels and scenarios they'll prove to be challenging and fantastically paced – with the tablet system throwing out occasional obstacles and aids.
The second time though the game will be enormously predictable and you'll find that there's very little in terms of challenge. The game will come across as a drawn out re-run.
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Now, for most games, that wouldn’t really be a fair criticism. In an FPS, you expect it to be less difficult the second time. You know where the baddies are. You know what weapons are best. It's easy. In a strategy game though, that isn't the case – you'd hope that the
enemy A.I. would make things a little more interesting and the lack of decent opponents in Imperium Romanum means that that isn't really possible. For all this criticism though, Imperium Romanum remains a decently enjoyable game that is pretty standard and by-the-numbers, but fun in spite of that.
Is Imperium Romanum the type of game which you absolutely must go out and buy? No, far from it. It's not even the type of game that you'll end up replaying or getting massively involved in.
Yet, if you do fancy a go at a fun and solid strategy game with a focus on micromanagement and not exploration then you could certainly do a lot worse. It's a verdict that is strongly grounded in my past experience of Roman-themed strategy games too because, while Imperium Romanum hasn't turned me back onto this most classic of genres, it has certainly entertained me enough while I played it.