This is my first foray into the Europa world. It is a series that I have wanted to play, but for many reasons just haven’t had the time. A version that focused on Rome seemed like an excellent introduction, and I gladly downloaded the game and began my first encounter. I am glad I am now familiar with the Europa series, but I have some mixed feelings about the game. In the end, it became a “Chariots of Fire” experience for me, where I could see and appreciate the Oscar quality of many of its features, but finally had to concede that maybe I didn’t have the right soul for it all.

Europa Rome is essentially still Europa, but now has added features. Of course, it is now set in a time frame of the emerging of the nation of Rome, and all the other nations that existed in that part of the world. The time frame encompasses the era of the Roman Republic, before the advent of the later Emperors after Augustus. The new features include a character aspect that offers a choice of people to be placed in government roles. These roles consist of a governor for each province, and five additional magistrates that handle the main aspects of the game, such as technology, omens, construction and civics. Leaders can also be hired for heading up the various military units in the provinces. This is quite an interesting feature, and can greatly influence the direction the player’s empire takes. Different character traits confer benefits on the empires, or may directly affect their own actions during the course of the game. During the course of the game, events will pop-up with messages about various characters and their families, but I’m not sure how much of that affects the game, other than the events that ask for some direct action. So far, my impression is that loyalty is the most important characteristic, to keep revolts and civil unrest down. The last thing players need is a civil war inside the province when most of the military is off fighting another country.

Other new features include the ability to manipulate the messages in the amount and importance of their appearing, and a new addition of an Outliner, where players can choose certain categories for the display of information, such as provinces, armies, battles, etc. The pertinent information will pop up when the mouse is passed over the Outliner, which in turn can be toggled off and on for display.

As this is the first Europa game I’ve played, I’m not sure how the interface compares to earlier versions. In Europa Rome, the interface is adequate, but could be improved. The menu organization is fair, but the information that is displayed for many of the menus when clicked is ambiguous. The military units menu is the worst and doesn’t give much relevant information at all. The character screens are good, and the tech information screens for each magistrate are informative.

The game is laid out like a board game, such as Risk. The provinces are different colors and are outlined at their borders. The look is beautiful and features vivid colors, and it’s a pleasure to play on this type of detailed and colorful landscape. It is very easy to zoom in and out and scroll around. The units, buildings and other icons are nicely drawn and animated, as well.

When first beginning a game, players can choose to play a single-player or multiplayer game. The single-player mode is the player against the computer. To begin, there are optional tutorials, but these are some of the lamest tutorials ever. They only offer short descriptions of the various functions in the menus. There is no interaction, as these are static information displays. Read, then forgotten. With the great amount of content and things to do during the game, it is hard to understand why there isn’t an interactive tutorial. There should have been one on the lines of Civilization, where Sid led players by the hand through all the game mechanics. There is a decent manual (sloppy spelling and grammar, though!) and a better strategy guide, but as this version was a download, the manual and guide are downloadable, as well, and have to be printed. I would strongly suggest buying the game off the shelf and getting a hard copy of the manual. The strategy guide can be downloaded upon game registration at the Paradox site.

This game is a strategy game, but it is in a sense also a historical simulation. There is a lot of information about the various countries and events of the time, enough to please any history buff. I love history, and really enjoyed the historical informational bits to be found in the game, and in the events. Lots and lots of dialogue is to my liking, and the messages, outliner and ledger were just up my alley.

Europa Rome is a real-time strategy game, which means that time marches on whether the player does or not. However, time can be slowed or sped up and even paused while players ponder. Needless to say, as I’m a turtler gamer by nature, I frequently paused and kept my game speed very slow. This kept everything manageable while learning the game mechanics.

Fighting is present, as it is sometimes necessary to take over another province by warlike means, or to defend oneself against hostile governments or barbarian hordes. These battles are mostly automated, though, as there aren’t many options to undertake once the battle commences. Players will usually just sit back and watch to see what the outcome will likely be. Using religion and diplomacy can help avoid having to fight constantly, though.

The construction menu lists various items to construct, which will each have distinct influences on different aspects of the game. However, many of these cannot be built until the requisite technology is researched. This research is mostly automatic, but does take a while, so building is slow at first. Research can be speeded up by having points gained from certain characters, or things that happen during the game’s advancement. Still, research seemed slower than it should be.

Trade is very important for money and population, and has to be monitored frequently, in order to change routes as alliances and province controls change. Make sure to trade for essential items such as wood and horses that are necessary for building military units. Trade goods from far away provinces are generally more profitable than ones that are closer.

For my first several games, I chose Macedonia on an easy level, as this was suggested in the strategy guide as a good way to learn the game. At first, I was utterly confused as to what exactly I should be doing for my first actions, as the tutorials didn’t offer any direction as to what players should be attempting to accomplish. However, after reading the manual and guide several times, and restarting my game a few times, I grasped a general sense of what my goal should be (generally conquer by sitting back and letting other nations fight it out to thin the crowd out a little, and only taking over provinces that may prove very threatening if left alone to become strong).

I tried to just focus on essentials such as gaining population and money, opening trade routes, and choosing characters that had traits that would help in research and other areas of growth. There was so much information that didn’t make a lot of sense to me during the game, and I’m sure I missed important events, but I managed to succeed eventually, after getting my lunch eaten a few times by unexpected moves from the other provinces. I mostly played in a passive mode, and only had to fight a few times to quell a few revolts, defend against some barbarians (gained some territory to the north after defeating some barbarians), and once fight a major war with Ilyria. I went to war with Illyria while Rome and Carthage were fighting each other, in order to take out a lesser power while I had the strength to do so. Carthage and Rome were weakened by their war and didn’t bother with me as a result. When the time ran out, I was still a world power so could consider my game successful in that respect.

This is an open-ended sandbox type of game, with no missions or campaigns. There are no goals, other than the main one of surviving and becoming the dominant power in the region. This may suit some, but I found that it did not suit me. I’m not that free. I felt a little disappointed, as this was a game that at first looked to be exactly what I like: great strategy, lots of information and a neat historical setting. However, the lack of goals or direction eventually left me with a feeling that while I should love this game because of the wonderful design and beautiful looks, plus the plethora of strategic material, I just couldn’t appreciate it like I should. Hence the “Chariots of Fire” comment in the beginning of the review. Evidently I need rules, goals, something! Competition makes everything all better.

I found the character aspect to be the best part of the game, as it really added a storybook-like flavor that constantly changed and was different each time the game was played. Intrigue, assassinations, civil wars, treason – all these made for an interesting time playing. However, in the end it still wasn’t enough to totally sell me on the free style of play. I need something to strive for that is definitive. But for many others, this is the way to play, total freedom to do it their way!

Gameplay: 8.5
The gameplay is very deep and intricate, with a myriad of branches that truly keep the gameplay fresh. Definitely a game that players can play again and again! However, the absolute lack of any direction or goals may detract from the enjoyment of some. The interface is not the best in the world, and there really is a need for interactive tutorials. But, playing a few quickie forays and getting a good feel for the game, then starting a serious game, will suffice for most hard-core strategy gamers. The actual management of tasks isn’t too difficult once understood.

Graphics: 8.5 
This game is very pretty! There isn’t a lot of animation, though, it’s much like a game board.

Sound: 7
The music was alright in spots, but nothing spectacular.

Difficulty: Hard
The game has a wide variety of difficulty settings, but everything is hard in the beginning, due to the lack of information on how to play and the lack of clear goals.

Concept: 8.0
The game isn’t a whole lot different than other strategy games in essential play, but the concept of open-ended play, coupled with the character feature, is a fresh presentation of the genre.

Multiplayer: 7.0
I can’t say much about the multiplayer, as I didn’t play in that mode.

Overall: 8.3
This is a difficult game to rate. Ratings are mostly subjective in nature; while certain criteria can be judged, in the end it boils down to individual taste. I think this is a great game, it has wonderful features and the strategy is solid. Paradox has done an excellent job with the game design, although they didn’t do quite so well with the documentation and the interface design. But, it’s not my type of game because of the lack of a campaign mode. However, for those free at heart, this is quite a game, especially for history lovers. If that describes you, then this is the game to get for the summer and it is one that will definitely occupy your time.