Imperator: Rome

I've put a lot of time into this game, and I've gone back and forth on trying to enjoy it. But it suffers the issue of being undersupported by Paradox to such an extent that the community has to keep it alive instead. Invictus is a great mod but it forces you into using a mod to have "new updates" rather than from official Paradox support. In a sentence... there's not a lot of variety outside of playing Rome. There's only so many playthroughs you can do before you get tired of fighting the one giant juggernaut every single game. It gets tiring and even with every advantage in the book you can still lose. Every other Paradox game as the advantage of having "lucky nations" and enough variety that the top dog won't always been known, or settings can be manipulated to encourage some alternative history. Not so much with Imperator -- the entire point is the miraculous rise and domination of Rome and every other nation falls over before it. The player is basically the one consistent force who can stop them (with mods, of course). I would recommend IR because it mixes advanced population, politics, and CK-style families mechanics that create a unique mix for a Paradox game you wouldn't otherwise find. Peacetime building is a real thing in IR, it's not just about constant war like EU4/HOI4. I thought I would stick around long term but the lack of any future support and highly repetitive 1-dimensional gameplay eventually killed it for me. IR definitely has the DNA to make it great and there's a couple modders trying to make it happen but it's an uphill battle and there's less than a handful that are able to keep regular updates. IR is great for a couple hundred hours at most but I think this is the last time I pick up the mental opioid that is a Paradox title. This company makes me sad that a potentially great title died on launch and has been limping ever since. I highly doubt Paradox will ever revive this title and it's going to continue being a community effort to keep it alive. Reminds me a lot of Victoria 2.

Invictus mod makes this come alive. Vanilla game is mid, maybe try that for tutorial or 1 game to learn basic mechanics, then go Invictus. The pops and culture system is amazing and imho the best way to simulate grand strategy games. For that reason I like Imperator Invictus more than CK3 or EU4.

The ambient sound for this game is the washing of the tides on Mediterranean shores, and that's a good description of the vibe of the game. It's Nice. It's a relaxing map painter, one that's not too demanding but still has enough stuff going on that it is quietly enjoyable to play and build in over extended runs. There's not that much challenge from the AI, and wars tend to be straightforward affairs, but the world is very big and there are many things to build and see in it. Despite being a kind of chill game design, Imperator does a number of things really well and which I appreciated. E.g. - the tech tree is great, in that it has many paths, and most of the paths are open to you from the start, and every path has really cool and appealing abilities, but you can really only focus on one thing (at least initially). So you can really customize your society by the techs you take, and then gradually open up new lines of improvement as the game progresses. Example: you can use techs to basically win sieges instantly, or to have much stronger armies, or to greatly increase your gold income, or to make your political figures loyal so you can avoid civil wars, or to make your people happy so that you can avoid the constant brushfires of provincial rebellion, or you can go heavy on religion and omen powers, or diplomatic guile, or shedding aggressive expansion so that you can quickly boom over the map, etc. etc. So you kind of always want all of these things, and the tech tree ends up being this bag of sweets where they are all delicious but you can only pick one or two or three of them to actually eat. One slight downside of this system is that as the game goes on, all societies start to converge, as they get more and more picks from this tech tree. The techs also tend to eliminate problems for you, such that your society becomes more and more stable and less and less interesting over time. - I liked the provincial levy system, where you gain a lot of strength/bonus points from using your levies, but you have to use them like the tides, summoning them up to sweep forward and win a border war, before letting them disband and go home to rest for the next conflict. It imposes a nice rhythm to the conflicts of the game. - The Military Tradition system is a fun extra layer; basically you can unlock new military upgrade trees, but to do so requires having a certain number of pops from certain cultures. So on top of everything else, there's a Gotta-Catch-Them-All system, where you want your Empire to collect so many Greeks, so many Gauls, so many Egyptians, that you can unlock their unique trees and start getting their upgrades. Anyway! Not a great game but certainly a fine one.

Very nice experience nowadays, especially with the Invictus mod!

After years of trying all different kinds of Total war games and mods, I have finally found what I was looking for. This game is way better than it's reputation. Play it with Invictus, Virtual Limes and some other little mods and you're in for a very good time

Best Paradox game out there

Not a good game. So many features missing and/or broken. Unfo couldnt fulfil its potential. You put effort, waste and invest hours but you find yourself in an endless cycle of civil war/rebellion. No bueno...