The devs are back as of january 2025. They are releasing patches again!!!

An ostensibly underrated game whose only observable drawback is being the product of a company that routinely releases map painter RTS games. Or more precisely routinely releases DLC for the same 3 games. (EU4s launch date was 2013 my dudes).

Imperator Rome is great. You really do feel like you're controlling an antiquity era Empire. Republics have civil wars, monarchies have usurpers, migratory Germanic tribes can.... migrate. Egypt, Carthage, India (Muarya), Persia, Thrace, and of course Rome are all presented with a fair degree of uniqueness and character.

While there's map painting there's also character interactions with generals, senators, leaders etc. You can ransom captured generals back to their countries for money or you can make them fight to the death in gladiatorial arenas. You can bribe people to ensure loyalty and you can appoint governors and imprison / kill / assassinate disloyal characters etc. Comparatively it's a good balance between the character focus of the Crusader Kings games and the nation building aspect of EU4. It does feel like a unique experience in that regard.

Wars are straight forward but include AI options for your armies. You can tell your armies what they should be doing in times of war and if it's a major campaign or you're fighting a civil war, it's helpful. You can also micro-manage. Your military is a combination of standing armies (mercenaries and legions) and Levies that you call up in times of serious conflicts. These armies are made up of smaller units that contain unit diversities and different cultures prioritize different army compositions. But you as a player can design whatever army you want. This is important should you wish to challenge Rome. The Rome units and research paths are mostly heavy infantry and heavy cavalry, this is rare for the time period as most other contemporaries are investing in light cavalry and archers…. This means most AI comes up lacking when the Roman juggernaut pulls up.

ROME, the entire reason you’re contemplating this game (unless you’re weird like me and thought ancient india was more interesting). ROME:™ starts off as its historic republic in central Italy and expands outward until holding most of Europe. If you as the player want to play as Rome that's definitely where most of the game's flavor lies. You justify claims and expand outward rapidly until facing your first real threat, Carthage or beta-Gaul (sometimes one of the french or germanic tribes subjugates the rest and that means there’s a large European empire to deal with after you unify Italy). After you take on Carthage or beta Gaul you snowball until you fight whatever empire rose out of Persia / Egypt. After that you just fight civil wars until you decide you want Britannia or India.

The economy is intricate enough, nothing fancy just imports and exports with a fair degree of automation. (But you can import Camels and Elephants to create Elephant and Camel units which is cool). Taxes / expenses come in different selections you can manually increase or decrease etc, basic paradox map painter stuff.

Multiplayer is also functional, I tested it with a friend for around three hours, no issues. Connectivity was fine.

Alright time to address the elephant in the room, is it “Bare Bones?” No, it really isn’t. You have to be spoiled by EU4 and shocked that a decade old game with a DLC released every 4 months has “more content” to feel this way. What this game is, is an honest attempt at an antiquity era map painter RTS that is completed. Look around, look at those DLCs for Imperator Rome, all 5 of them (one being free, one being a soundtrack and three being greek ‘flavor’ packs for skins and greek related missions. This game had its development cut prematurely and is better off for it. For $40 you get a complete and functional base game, no dlc wishlists, no subscription, you just get to own this solid game.

The games has community support and many new / constantly updated community mods and what remains of the original paradox team has said they are happy mods have brought life back to Imperator.

A solid 82/100

It was a struggle to play at first. However, after trying to understand the game better and putting time into it, it definitely becomes more enjoyable and I am having much more fun with it at the moment. Some parts of the game are a bit shallow and certain parts (especially with aspects like loyalty of characters and provinces) can just be downright frustrating. Despite that, the map is stunning, probably my favourite out of all Paradox games and the mechanics of conquest and economy are incredibly satisfying. Would I buy at full price? Probably not. On a sale? Sure, give it a try. Don't bother playing without Invictus mod, it really adds that vital flavour to the game. It's a real shame this game feels basically abandoned considering how much potential it has. After all, "Rome wasn't built in a day".