A disappointment by Paradox. It does not live up to its potential considering the time period and the pedigree of the developers. Not nearly as good, or polished, as EU3 or most of Paradox's other games. I would not recommend it as even though I love the time period, its numerous flaws kept me from liking this game.

A decent strategy game, now that it has been patched it is also fairly enjoyable and stable. Not quite up to par with the Europa Universalis, yet worthwhile and fun in its own way since it is more focused and for any fan of history and things such as the old roman, greek, persian empires. If you can get it at a good price, it'll deffinitely keep you occupied for a while!

I am not sure why they called this game Europa Universalis as it is very little in relation to the EU3 game, or at least it plays out allot differently. If you are a supporter of the Rome era, this is a great addition to your geoplotical simulator collection!

I personally love taking on one of the barbarians in the north and try to take on the super powers of Rome, Greece, Carthage and Egypt, which is a HUGE task in itself. I like how you need to deal with the characters, which is a drawback to the older Crusaders Kings game, again by Paradox. I would say this game is basically a mesh between Europa Universalis 2 and Crusaders Kings, so if you liked either it is a must buy.

I think this game was a major step in the right direction for the EU3 engine. They did a wonderful job of making not just the strategic part fun but the family management too. Managing your line and ensuring you have plenty of heirs and followers who love you is essential in this game.

Call me crazy, but I think Sengoku took some of the great ideas in this game such as the intricate families and incorporated them into their own. Great job!

The concept behind EU:Rome is extremely compelling. What Rome wants to be is a game that combines the dynamic character driven play of Crusader Kings with a robust civil war system to simulate the chaos of succession, while trying to remain accessible to new players.

There are two main problems here:

1.) Any game in a genre will be compared with blockbusters in the same genre. In this case, the obvious comparison will be with Rome: Total War. EU:Rome succeeds at making a deeper, more strategic game than R:TW, but I just didn't find the same re-playability that I found with R:TW or other Paradox titles.

2.) The game's attempt to keep successful facets of other Paradox games without being too deep and complex leaves the game feeling somewhat soulless from time to time. Vae Victis improves this drastically by deepening inter-character relations, but it still somehow doesn't quite do it for me.

I would recommend this game to someone as a teaser to playing other Paradox titles, but if you've already had a blast with EU III and Crusader Kings, you might find Rome somewhat lacking.

I am a huge fan of Paradox games, but this one just fell kind of flat. Part of the reason is that it lacks the grand scope I have come to expect from my experience play Hearts of Iron, Victoria and the EU series. Even with the Expac I think I played one day and lost interest.

I lot of potential, but very little pay off.

Let me start by saying that Europa Universalis: Rome is a great game. It really feels like you are controlling an ancient civilization to greatness and with several (playable) "superpowers" in the game, Rome doesn't have it too easy gaining world dominance. One of my favorite play options in the game is to play as a small tribe and see if I can turn it into something more advanced that will be able to stand its ground against Roman invaders. The game has some flaws, however, like sudden crashes.

This is a good game. Not quite as interesting as Europa Universalis, but fun nonetheless.

For players who have played EU and ROME: Total War - imagine a combination of the two wher eyou get the interface and gameplay characteristics of EU combined with the political and familial characteristics of ROME: Total War.

I still play it after having had it for almost two years, 4 stars.

This is a truly a great Paradox game. Rome is simpler than many Paradox titles and much more suited for a person that does not enjoy the immense micro management of some of their titles.

Rome is an "ok" release from Paradox. The time frame and family/charter engine is great. If your going to get Rome I would get it with the expansion as it reduces the micro-management and makes the game much more entertaining.

Rome is a kind of hybrid between Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis with elements from both. You get empire-building mixed with family management, all set in the age of the Roman Republic/Roman Empire.

Playing as Rome is not all the exiting (get's more interesting if you get the expansion) since you will be much more powerful than most nations during the time. There is also a scenario where you can play the Civil War as either Mark Anthony or Ceasar Augustus. I do recommend you buy "Vae Victus" since the game can be a bit shallow without it.

This is an excelente paradox title and it has an unique feature: the most detailed character system ever. You actually have several families, parties and factons, wich realistic lifespans, interests, ambitions, and loyalties - and all of those interect in a very realistic way giving you several dilemas, some of them unsolvable.

Say you have an army somewhere, which you desperately wishes to be well commanded since it is a critical section of your frontier. You can nominate a commander for it, so it fights better. So imagine there is this rival of your family. His loyalty towards your government is low, but he has an ambition: becoming a general. Attending to that could increase his loyalty to you - besides, you realise no other option amongst your loyal people have enough military traits to sucessfuly command your army. So you nominate him general for that army. And for a while everything is ok, his loyalti increases due to his satisfaction with your rule... but over the years, he acquires another ambition: becoming king himself. And in the government almost half of the chairs are hold by a relative of him, in some position or other. You try to destitute him from the army... just to find out that you can still command that army, but not take the troops away from him becouse they have become loyal to their general. Great! Yep, that's right: it sounds like a civil war approaching. Then you think, "ok, let's arrest this guy. Better yet: let's assassinate him, he has become a menace." And you click the 'assassinate' button... and it fails, and he discovers you are behind that attempt. He simply declares civil war, his soldiers march alongside him, provinces ruled by governonrs that never really liked you join the rebellion... and soon enough, you see you are loosing the war. If you do... GAME OVER, my friend.

The game actually allows this kind of challenge and many others, making it very enjoyable from a 'internal politics' point of view.

Besides that, it is just as fun as any other paradox game.

it is an simpled down version of EU3. That is really not a bad thing. it makes the game more easy and more fast pased.

The money system is the main reason why. You only have to pay for you army and navy. You don't have think about you're budget plan.

it is more enjoyable than EU 3 in my oppinion.

A great game published by the great company Paradox who created the most magnificent game Europa Universalis.

Although the game engine is close to EU3 it still tries to connect with Crusader Kings but they don't get the whole mile. After a while the game bogs down into a slow tread without anything interesting happening for many year. But this is of course something the player can influence.

The introduction of characters that resembles Crusader Kings is a great addition but it still seem to lack something.

Conclusion: If you like the Rome era and have played EU3 this is a given buy as long as you get the expansion as well.

If you are a newcomer to the genre, go for EU3 first and learn the system. This is a major learning curve which took almost a year and four tries for me to get over. This is DEEP strategy.

A solid effort from my favorite publisher (paradox interactive), but feels like they didn't spend nearly as much time developing this game as they have the EU and HOI series. Solid graphics and is easily picked up by those who have played any of the EU games. There can be times when there is not much to do however, especially if you are trying to colonize new lands. For those that love the style of games, get it, but others may want to pass.

I actually liked this game because of the time period. The overall game play is above average but not great. I wish there was more depth, particularly for the units. Point in case, there are about six "generic" troop/regiment types (infantry, heavy infantry, cavalry...etc) that could have had a lot more flavor to them but is absent. The same could probably be said for the nations as well. I actually liked how the battles were handled, particularly with the fine tuning and reduction of the "ping pong" effect that was prevalent at its initial release. One has to take into consideration the type of terrain one is fighting in a lot more compared to total war or even crusader kings games.

Many of the bad reviews might stem from that the game was probably overpriced upon release for what you are getting. There are a lot more streamlined and less in depth options than what you get from a hearts of iron, or other europa games. But still enjoyable particularly if you like the period, and a near steal at its current price.

A fun Roman twist on traditional paradox titles. The only quibble that I have is that minors are much less playable than in other paradox titles, but if you love playing the majors Rome won't dissapoint. Unsurprisingly, EU:Rome shines while playing as the Roman Empire so be sure to give the Roman Red a spin at least a few times to get the most out of the game. All in all a solid addition to the paradox repertoire.

If you've played the Europa series before and need some variety then this is the game you should get, if you havent played any or at least anything close to it then you should consider getting an older game or at least something close to the game to thoroughly enjoy it, but a great addition to the series nonetheless!

Europa Universalis: Rome is Paradox Interactive's first attempt to apply their Europa Universalis engine to classical world of the ancient Mediterranean, and overall the results are mixed.

The game incorporates alot of ideas and mechanics from both Europa Universalis III and Crusader Kings. There is an interesting government and dynasty mechanic that forces you to carefully follow the randomly generated happenings and traits of characters in your family and court. Which on it's surface sounds very interesting. The problem is that this mechanic is TOO random when compared to Crusader King's similar system, and it also contains several crippling bugs that can undue all your hard work in an instance. Keeping your court's loyalty is also extremely difficult. A skilled player can manage, but the AI can not, and the result is that nearly every AI faction is in a perpetual civil war. Which isn't exactly realistic, and doesn't make for a very fun game.

The diplomatic, military, and economic game is handled fairly well, but the game just feels so very small when compared to the globe spanning EU3. If you really love Europa Universalis, then feel free to give this game a look. Just don't expect it to have the appeal of longevity of Europa Universalis III.

The game is slow and can be very hard if your not playing for Rome! but over all a great game and is one of my favorites because of the time period portrayed!

Paradox is in a long-standing habit of starting with a decent-to-good game and improving on it with each subsequent expansion or new version. Such will likely be the case with EU: Rome.

EU: Rome is an ambitious game, but it falls short on realism. Civil wars can rage on indefinitely, colonization of the Germanic territories can continue apace, etc. The game is a good first version, much as the original EU was, but it needs work (and probably a bit more than other first versions they've issued).

If you have played Rome Total War and wished for a game that was deeper in the strategic layer, and with less (none in this case) 3D battles, then this is the game for you. Like all the games in the EU series, it is a game run in real time, with several speed settings. I prefer turn based games, but this is one of the rare games of this large scope that I don't mind that it isn't TB. You take control of one of the countries available (including of course Rome). All of them are unlocked from the beginning so none of the silliness of other games in that field.

Do whatever you want, try to focus on internal affairs, or attack attack attack. Plenty of options for diplomatic affairs, for internal affairs (especially with the expansion pack) and even for military, considering the lack of 3D battles.

You have characters (like in the old KOEI games) that you set at different posts, governors, generals, admirals, ministers (like), etc. Each of whom has his/her own agenda, likes and dislikes, good points and bad points.

A proper review would take too much space to write, so I will sum it up in the following.

If you like Rome Total War, Spartan, Imperial Conquest, and any other strategy game of grand scale covering the period, and you don't mind you don't get to see pretty graphics with hundrends of soldiers fighting it out, then this is the game for you.

It was almost great. What looked like a spiritual successor to Crusader Kings became bogged down with micro-managing families and generally not feeling like you are truly in control. Feature or failure? Who knows, but it doesn't make for a fun time. Also, there is little point in playing the barbarians, as they feel woefully ignored and tacked on. However, despite this we do have a good strategy game with allot of depth and a suitably epic scope and feel. It just fails on not being as awesome as I suspect it could be. Let's hope for some expansions of the calibre of In Nomine

Rome is a perfectly fine grand strategy game that's perhaps a bit less interesting than the others from Paradox. There are less nations you can realistically play as in Rome, but I had a great time playing as Armenia in one game. The character dynamics are interesting, too, but there's something intangible about Rome that makes me not like it quite as much as Hearts of Iron or Victoria.

From dain120475, "I suppose, then, if you like the classic board games of the ’70s then this is a videogame for you. Combat is reduced to dice-rolling, city growth and expansion is reduced to flashcards and some pictures, and the primary focus seems to be (in my opinion) less involved in having fun then teaching and molding the players to learn the dynamics of office management and in some level history. In that sense, it’s somewhat like Wagon Trail or Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

To close, I’ll say it didn’t just bore me, it angered me that they could butcher such a fine concept. Educating children on politics and history can still be fun, and I didn’t think this game was fun. I also feel that although people who enjoy a good board game might enjoy this game, if they can’t get a group of friends around to just sit back and roll the dice for six or seven hours, that the game would have been far better if it had tossed in a little pizzazz, flair and some “pretty” effects. But if you like learning about the ancient world in way that really focuses on details like minutia, charts, spreadsheets and maps, this game may be just what you’re looking for."

The game is slow and youll find yourself at a disadvantage with the barbarians. The diplomacy is good but can be tedious with the numerous countries. The game has a lot of potential.

This is a solid variation of the Europa Universalis series. I enjoy the characters relationships to one another and the family fueds. Although I seem to be role playing with these more than they have effect on the gameplay. If you have not played Europa Universalis III, then I would get that game. If you have played it and want some variety, then this is a good game to add to your collection.

Very good strategy game wich deserves its 4/5 rating. Really would only suggest it for somewhat HARDCORE strategy gamers as you would have to have interest in this genre to get through the consecutive upon consecutive years of speeding up the game and doing nothing but invoking religioun, and changing your governers and commanders. If you are into playing strategy games for its battles, then i definitly do not suggest buying this game but for fans of the Europa series this is just another great installment.