See, there’s two theories to teaching someone to swim: you can help them out, start in shallow water, and showing them the basics until they’re ready to try on their own, or you chuck them into the deep end and hope they’ll figure it out long enough to avoid drowning. I’m not saying the fine folks at Paradox ascribe to the “throw someone into the scary end of the pool and watch them flail until they either die or don’t” mindset, but after a few hours in their tutorial, it sure felt that way.

I’m new to grand strategy titles. And, spoiler alert: I eventually do figure it out. I built the basic units because that was what I had the resources to build. The ones I could build in certain areas and not others? Well, those areas had access to resources, either naturally or via trade, that those units require, like horses, elephants, or metals for certain weapons. Learning what it took to build these units also taught me how what each unit did, what they were strong and weak against, and how to tell what my opponent had at any given time. The buildings I built? They gave me greater access to military units, boosted my economy, helped defend my cities from attack, or increased my population, and eventually I learned how to tell which was which. The game, however, didn’t teach me any of this. I had to learn it myself by clicking through menus, reading text, and a couple dozen hours of trial and error. Eventually, I figured out what I was doing, but I had to do a lot of learning on my own.

"Grand strategy games put you in command of a country and ask you to shepherd it throughout the ages, managing the economy, government, families, local factions, and war. You do all of this through a series of very complicated menus, each of which controls a specific area, such as religion, the military, the economy, etc."

If you’re new to the genre, grand strategy games put you in command of a country and ask you to shepherd it throughout the ages, managing the economy, government, families, local factions, and war. You do all of this through a series of very complex but surprisingly easy to navigate and well laid out menus, each of which controls a specific area, such as religion, the military, the economy, etc. And really, that’s about it. Imperator: Rome is enormously complex, but it doesn’t have a lot of traditional gameplay. You can make armies, sure, and send them to conquer neighboring lands (this is, after all, a game about empires), but you don’t get a battle sequence out of it. All conflict is portrayed on the world map, where your army, represented as a dude with a spear, pokes at their dude with a spear for a while, and then the one with the bigger numbers usually wins – though things like unit discipline, morale, what units your armies are made up of, the upgrades you’ve acquired along the way, and several things that are immediately apparent (but easily accessible) matter, as well. It doesn’t look fancy, but there’s a lot of strategy here, and while the game doesn’t directly tell you why you won or lost, it gives you all the information you need to figure it out for yourself.

Like most grand strategy games, you play by navigating menus and making choices, and there is intrigue to be found here, after you spend about a dozen hours (or watch several YouTube videos) learning how to play the game. A lot of what you do comes to you in individual events that pop up on your screen. Maybe a particular noble has ambitions and he feels his current office is beneath him. Do you grant him the office he wants? Perhaps you give his family a stipend. Or you smear his name so you can throw him in prison. Or maybe you exile him. Or you give him another position, just not the one he wants. Or maybe you try to win his favor with gifts, so he forgets about how mad he is. Or… well, you get the idea, yeah?

And that’s just one guy. There’s also diplomacy with nations to consider, and your standing with another power is determined by everything ranging from cultural differences to whether or not you’ve been at war a lot lately. Of course, like people, nations can be manipulated. You could bribe a nation that doesn’t like you with cash, or send diplomats to raise your standing over time. Manage enough of a standing, and you’ll be able to offer alliances, guarantee another nation’s independence, request that your armies be allowed to pass through without declaring war, make a smaller state subordinate to your empire, have them pay tribute to you, and other various nationy things. It takes a really long time, but making friends was never easy.

Because time moves so fast (an in-game day takes about a second at the default speed), it’s not uncommon to see several generations pass in a single game. While this means that stuff is always happening, it also means that it takes a long time to do anything, especially something as complicated as building a relationship with a nation that has spent the last few decades as your sworn enemy. The upside is that you get to see your nation advance. You can pass (or repeal) laws, enact reforms, implement new systems of government, handle (or enable) corrupt politicians, and a lot more. It’s also interesting to see your leaders have children, age, grow old (and have their stats suffer as a result), and die, and then watch their children grow up. One former Consul of Rome, who was my chosen guy for as long as he lived, gave birth to a lazy, crazy son who had no political ambition. I gave him a job anyway, because he inherited his daddy’s stats and I thought maybe I could force him into being ambitious. It didn’t work.

While the long-term view of empire building Imperator: Rome presents is cool, and it allows for interesting things, it means diplomacy takes a very long time. It’s easier to just roll several legions over anyone who tries to fight you, which is probably what you’ll do, at least at first. As mentioned earlier, you don’t get to watch the fights, but it isn’t boring. You’ve got to keep an eye on unit morale, where your other armies, if any, are, what your allies are doing, how troop morale is, the cost of war on your population and economy, and what your enemies are cooking up.

All that said, the actual act of conquering is pretty simple. Mostly you’ll capture territories (which happens when your army occupies one, unless there’s a city to siege, in which case you do that), and once you have enough, you can sue for peace, often annexing the territories you capture in the process. There’s other things that can happen in war – you and your opponent’s allies will aid their respective factions, and there’s nothing more terrifying than losing your entire army and having to tax the crap out of everyone to raise a new one – but it’s still a slow-paced method of conquering the world. But that’s fine. This is a grand strategy game, and the scope and scale of it spans hundreds of years. Its speed reflects that; it’s easy to dump dozens of hours into a single campaign and feel like the last hour or so hasn’t really changed much. But wars can take years. So can overcoming centuries of animosity between countries through diplomacy. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your empire isn’t going to be, either. It might take some time to get used to – I know it did for me – but once you recognize that you’re in this for the long haul, it’s easier to understand the game’s pace.

"Grand strategy games typically don’t have plots, and the amount of time that passes means your characters aren’t going to stick around until the end. This isn’t a bad thing, mind, but it is something to keep in mind if you’re new to the genre."

Which brings me to Imperator: Rome’s main problem: aside from expanding your empire, there really isn’t much of an inherent reason to do things. Putting the evils of colonialism and imperialism aside, this is kind of problem if you’re not good at making your own fun. Grand strategy games typically don’t have plots, and the amount of time that passes means your characters aren’t going to stick around until the end. This isn’t a bad thing, mind, but it is something to keep in mind if you’re new to the genre. Imperator: Rome gives you a huge, glorious map and a lot things to manage, but the stories you experience are the ones you make. You have to have your own reasons for wanting to expand your empire and be capable of building your own narrative. Sometimes it helps to have a silly objective known only to you, or a challenge – maybe you won’t want to conquer anyone, and just build alliances. Conquer the world with a carrot, not a stick – but how you approach this game will largely determine what you get out of it. Sure, you can just make enormous balls of troops and roll them around the map (I call this the Big Stick Strategy), but that can get boring quickly. You have to have an interest in empire building in this era to get the most out of Imperator: Rome, especially if you want to play the game for a long time.

Even the other playable civilizations, like Egypt and Carthage, don’t add much variety to the core gameplay loop of “expand, gather resources, conquer,” and while the game’s multiplayer mode probably does a lot to alleviate the “why” by allowing you to play with other people (I wasn’t able to test it), you’ll still have to have your own reasons – and make your own rules and challenges – to experience Imperator: Rome at its peak. That isn’t good or bad. It just is. There’s variety here, but the game isn’t going to make you use it. You’ll have to do that yourself, and that will turn off people who don’t find that sort of thing fun.

I’ve said in past reviews that the highest compliment I can give a game is that I want to keep playing it after I’m done. I don’t want to play Imperator: Rome again. I don’t think it’s a bad game; in fact, it’s pretty good. But if the idea of colonizing the world over several dozen years by clicking through a bunch of menus doesn’t do much for you, it’s not gonna be something you enjoy, and you should probably stay away from grand strategy games as a whole.  And that’s before factoring in the abysmal tutorial and limited game modes. But if it does? You’ll be here for a long, long time. Whether you enjoy it is all going to depend on whether you want to learn to swim, and if you want to stay in this vast, deep ocean after you do.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

Imperator: Rome is Paradox Development Studio’s latest grand strategy title and has been doing fairly well critically. The real journey starts now though, and in a recent Steam community post, game director Johan Anderson shared some of the team’s plans for what’s next. First up is patch 1.0.1, codenamed “Demetrius”, which will tackle many issues like crashes and performance, while improving the AI. Expect it to go live early this week.

The developer also has a major patch in development called “Pompey”, which will address the balancing of technology progress, mercenaries, truce breaking, and so on. It will also look to introduce new piracy mechanics, provide more character interactions, and add more modding support. The full range of topics can be seen below.

It’ll be a while until patch 1.1 or “Pompey” releases. The development team is currently aiming for a release in June. If any other major issues pop up before then, it will address those as well. Imperator: Rome is currently available for PC and follows the grand strategy formula set by titles like Europa Universalis: Rome, Europa Universalis 4, and Hearts of Iron 4.

• Balancing of Technology Progress, Mercenaries, Shattered Retreat, Truce Breaking, Assassinations, Governors, War Exhaustion, and Legitimacy.
• Improving the mechanics for Population Growth, Stability, and Barbarians.
• Tweaks to Civil War mechanics, with new power-base mechanics.
• Naval rework, with Naval Combat mechanics and multiple ship types, as well as navigable major rivers.
• Deeper Holding mechanics for characters, where you can give characters holdings and they can purchase new ones as they grow in wealth.
• More character interactions.
• New Piracy mechanics.
• Redesigning of functionality where instead of spending power for an instant result, you now spend power to nudge it towards that result over time.
• Better abilities to play tall, including centralising trade, impacting specific cities, etc.
• Tribes being able to decide what units their retinues should have.
• Dual Ruler mechanics for Roman Republic, and Consorts for Monarchies.
• Government Abilities for all government categories.
• ‘Quality of Life’ features like viewing all characters in a foreign country, new alerts, road building being a continuous action, and more.
• Adding of features from previous PDS games like moving capitals and regnal numbers on monarchs
• Much more modding support.

Paradox Development Studio has made its mark on the industry with grand strategy titles like Hearts of Iron 4, and Europa Universalis 4. Surprising absolutely no one, that tradition continues with Imperator: Rome, which is out now on PC. Check out the inner machinations of this sweeping strategy title now.

Imperator: Rome is pretty straight-forward with its approach. Choose a nation, build the population and do more or less everything to expand and survive. Various characters with different skills and traits will emerge and can be instilled as governors and army commanders. You’ll maintain a variety of different population types – from tribesmen to slaves – to keep things running.

Managing relations with other nations is important. But you can also declare war on them, teaching them the true meaning of diplomacy in the process. Just make sure the Senate is fine with it and try to nip any potential betrayals before they happen. Imperator: Rome can be purchased on GOG and Steam for $39.99.

Shovel Knight: Showdown

Fancy a Smash Bros. style showdown? Shovel Knight: Showdown is a competitive multiplayer fighting game which features beloved characters like Shovel Knight, Shield Knight, Specter Knight and even the Enchantress battling it out across different game modes. Up to four players will clash to either collect gems or eliminate each other in melee combat. Story Mode is also included with different rivals, minigames and encounters for each character. Shovel Knight: Showdown will release on April 10th for all supported platforms (except Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita) and will be free for those who own Treasure Trove.

Mortal Kombat 11

Don’t call it a comeback. NetherRealm Studios’ Mortal Kombat 11 boasts a more methodical yet bloodier fighting system where the past and future collide. Take control of series’ favourites like Raiden, Scorpion, Noob Saibot and many more while making use of devastating Fatal Blows and gory Fatalities. With a gear system, a brand-new story and stunning visuals, Mortal Kombat 11 is looking to dominate the competition when it releases on April 23rd for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch.

Days Gone

SIE Bend Studio makes no bones about the gameplay for Days Gone. As an open world action adventure in a land full of zombies, players control Deacon St. John as he fights to survive. Keep that motorcycle fueled, upgrade your favourite weapons and battle hordes of zombies across a perilous map full of open roads and dense forests. Deacon will have clear out infected nests and deal with mutated forms of wildlife when he’s not fending off attacks from human adversaries. Even if it does nothing new, Days Gone still promises a gripping post-apocalyptic adventure with a gorgeous world to explore. It’s out on April 26th for PS4.

Super Meat Boy Forever

Team Meat’s beloved platformer is back and features heaps of changes to the traditional formula. More of an auto-runner, Super Meat Boy Forever features plenty of jumping, punching, sliding and dying like its predecessor. Using random generation for its levels and allowing players to control both Meat Boy and Bandage Girl, Super Meat Boy Forever promises a challenging experience for fans. It releases next month for Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC, iOS and Android.

World War Z

A co-operative zombie shooter with multiple classes, each with their own abilities and play-styles, that takes place in locations across the world. Sounds fairly typical but in keeping with its connection to the film, World War Z will see players swarmed by hundreds of zombies at once. No two scenarios will play out the same and there are PvP modes where the zombies can suddenly invade as well. It all looks mildly intriguing but we’re still curious how World War Z will play when it releases on April 16th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Anno 1800

A return to the olden days of colonization and city-building, Anno 1800 takes place at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Players will construct elaborate cities with beautiful ornaments, introduce electricity to their citizens, maintain happiness (or suffer riots as a result) and manipulate the press when things aren’t going. Along with the sheer range of new and returning features like Blueprint Mode and Trade Routes, Anno 1800 will also feature a brand new session called The New World which players can explore and colonize. With several years worth of sequels to draw on, Anno 1800 should be the series’ best yet when it launches on April 16th for PC.

Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain

If you’ve played any of the Earth Defense Force titles, you know what to expect with Iron Rain. There are aliens. They must be shot over a number of missions. Rinse and repeat. Iron Rain includes four classes – the Trooper, Jet Lifter, Heavy Striker and Prowl Rider – each with their own unique abilities and playstyles. With a more serious tone, 50 campaign missions and co-op support for up to five players, Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain could be a good time-waster with its pick and play mechanics. It releases on April 11th for the PS4.

Imperator: Rome

Paradox Development Studio is at it again with another grand strategy title, this time focused on the Roman Empire’s creation. Much like its Europa Universalis series, Imperator: Rome is about nation-building and expanding one’s empire, incorporating different military tactics and trade practices while dealing with rebels and rival nations in the process. Even if it isn’t easy to get into, the era of treachery and war could be one that grand strategy fans will sink their teeth into for years to come. Imperator: Rome releases on April 25th for PC.

Fade to Silence

Developed by Black Forest Games, Fade to Silence is a survival title in a world overrun by ice. If that weren’t enough, you have various monstrosities roaming about, making life even tougher. Along with surviving and gathering resources, upgrading gear and battling against these monsters, players will have to deal with the frigid temperatures. Bringing on followers and building up one’s base to access better resources and gear is also a must. Though it’s currently in early access, Fade to Silence will release on April 30th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Cuphead (Switch)

It seemed impossible but Studio MDHR’s tough-as-nails side-scrolling platformer Cuphead is coming to the Nintendo Switch. Releasing on April 18th, the lovingly animated title sees Cuphead and Mugman on a journey to reclaim their souls from The Devil. To do this, they’ll have to battle a range of difficult bosses with numerous phases and wacky attacks along with clearing some run and gun stages across Fleischer Studios-inspired worlds. Though it’s tough, Cuphead is still an excellent experience and a great addition to the Switch’s library.