Imperium Romanum

[Mouzafphaerre]

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(*Kukri seeks a new genre to explore*)

A genre worth Kukri-sama's efforts I may say.
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[macsen rufus]

The various comments here have prompted me to DL the demo today, and wouldyabelieveit, I got to 99% then the screen flashed "Disc full!" messages.... doh! Cleared out a few files and started again

Looks like a nice change of genre to clear the gaming palate, I think

[Dutch_guy]

I played the demo, but it didn't make as much of an impression as Caesar III did back in the days. Still the best Roman era builder out there.

IR seemed a bit too simplistic and small (quite literally, the tutorial maps were too small) to hold my attention for longer than a week, but that may as well differ from the actual game. Can those who've actually played it comment on that ?

[frogbeastegg]

I played the demo, but it didn't make as much of an impression as Caesar III did back in the days. Still the best Roman era builder out there.

IR seemed a bit too simplistic and small (quite literally, the tutorial maps were too small) to hold my attention for longer than a week, but that may as well differ from the actual game. Can those who've actually played it comment on that ?

Well, I've not played the full version but every city builder I've played has had tiny tutorial maps. They also start off simple. It took a couple of campaigns before Pharaoh (the best of the Impressions games IMO) revealed its full features and started to give sizeable maps. I'm giving Imperium the benefit of the doubt.

Then again maybe I'm spoiled. Caesar IV is worse than this demo, and I've come here after an hour of trying to play that game. The maps in the tutorial campaign there are so puny and crammed with unusable areas that I struggle to put down the buildings needed to pass the mission.

Caesar IV. I have no idea what happened to that game. I liked the demo a lot, and this is the second time I've attempted to play the full game and bounced off it.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The maps are so puny the tutorial is a misery, and the tutorial is many missions long. The cities end up puny because the houses hold loads of people, so you can't build many before you end up with mass unemployment. The buildings are too big, you can't get that much on screen at once. The food production chain is a nightmare; far too unpredictable. The useful stats and feedback implemented from Pharaoh onwards is missing, for example I know I'm producing 12 units of food but have no idea how many my city needs. The populace is unpredictable; I had my equites leave the city because I wasn't paying high enough wages. There's two problems there. First, I was paying the standard rate, not less. Second, I only discovered there was a problem because I dropped into the ratings screen to see if I had nearly met the goals yet. The range on the support buildings is too small, so you have to build more than you'd think reasonable. Above all, and most damningly, it's boring. Downright tedious. Far too much sitting about with the game on maximum speed waiting for the numbers to tick up to the required amount.

[SwordsMaster]

Don't worry, the maps in the full game are BIG. They are also geographically challenging - Verona, for example has a lot of mountains and requires some planning to build the necessary structures.

[The_Doctor]

A bit off topic:
Why are nearly all of this type of city builder set in the Roman Empire?

Whats wrong with medieval Russia, or industrialising a town in the north-west of England, or Incas, or colonial New Zealand etc.