Nothing makes me sad quite like Imperator: Rome does. This is the game that made me refuse to ever pre-order a Paradox game again.
I tried the game on release, didn't like it for a myriad of reasons that the old reviews of this game go into, and then let it sit forgotten in my library for years. I recently decided to pick the game up again after watching some youtube videos on how good the game is now, and to 100% it so I can file it away as completed.
This game has good bones, great bones even, in its current state which makes its shortcomings all the more disappointing.
To start with, this game has been abandoned by Paradox. The game you play now will recieve no big changes, no overhauls, and no new DLC/content packs. This would be fine, but there are numerous bugs, issues and inconsistencies that are now forever part of the game.
My main issues are:
- As of today, there is no legitimate way to get 2 of the achievements on the current version of the game - one for having a dictator stand down, and one for having a dictator refuse to stand down. You have to literally roll back your game version if you want to legitimately 100% this game like I have, or otherwise have achieved them in the past.
- The achievements don't register automatically. When you think you have completed an achievement, you have to open up the options menu, open up the achievements tab, close the whole menu, open up the options menu again, and then open up the achievements tab again, which will then award you the Steam achievement. For some achievements, such as the one where you start as Krios and form Pontus, the achievement won't register unless you completely exit the game and reload it before repeating the above steps. This also means that your achievements (if you earn multiple at a time) get awarded in batches instead of when you actually achieved them unless you are constantly checking on them.
- A general lack of polish. For example, the Tamil culture's levies add up to over 100% of the levy breakdown (5% Chariots, 15% Heavy Infantry, 15% War Elephants, 70% Archers for 105% total). Wars will peace out randomly when there are rebellions in the country you are fighting. The decision to become an Imperial Cult is always shown as available for Republics despite the fact that they can never take the decision due to it being locked behind a Monarchy law. Converting religions is a long and tedious process, requiring the same amount of Political Influence as fabricating claims on 10 countries, or founding 5+ cities, or 2 metropolises, amongst other requirements.
- Some of the special missions, such as Massilia's 'Far From Home', are strict downgrades from the generic 'The Matter of (Region)' missions insofar that they require you to conquer land without giving you any claims on the lands they want you to conquer, or require you to have ridiculous amounts of money that aren't feasible in the early-game when you are expected to complete the missions.
- The strongest strats seem counterintuitive to newcomers, and I would not have found them out if not for watching youtubers play this game. One of the easiest ways to make money early game is to conquer small nations around you and imprison the nobility, then sell them into slavery through interacting with the individual imprisoned characters. The best way to get Military Experience is not to drill a large professional army (in fact, the larger your Legions the harder it is to get your average cohort experience up), but rather to stack cohort starting experience and raise levies then wait 8 months before lowering them again.
I would love to give this game a recommendation, but the fact that the base game is still $56.95 AUD, and the content packs are an additional $31.95 AUD, means that I cannot. At this price, it is cheaper for me to buy the base game EU5 ($84.95 AUD) which is guaranteed to get many more updates over the next few years if not longer.
