Grand Ages: Rome

Review - A grand day out

Grand Ages: Rome is the sequel to Imperium Romanum, which in turn was the sequel to Glory of the Roman Empire. Besides being sequels, they all have a common bond. They are essentially the exact same game, only with a few very minor changes. On the plus side, none of these games are particularly bad at all. Imperium Romanum's main curse was its 'bugginess', which Haemimont Games seems to have cured for Grand Ages: Rome. The problem is Grand Ages: Rome introduces nothing new to the city building genre, and everything you will see while playing, you will have seen a thousand times before in other, more accomplished city builders. Despite Grand Ages: Rome's gameplay being very predictable, it does still offer some refreshing touches, even if they are borrowed from other games of the same ilk.

The basic structure behind Grand Ages: Rome is pretty solid, although very typical. You have to create a functioning city which runs effectively and keeps all your workers happy. First of all you have to build houses to home the workers, then move onto farms, mills and bakeries so that they can be fed. To build the structures, you need wood and brick, meaning more buildings are required. Of course, those workers need to be entertained and live in hygienic conditions, so more and more buildings are required. Of course, it's not all plain sailing in ancient Rome and some combat is required, meaning barracks are needed. However I found the combat quite simple and shallow, and not overly interesting; it almost felt like an after thought. I much preferred the city building aspect of things which felt quite engaging. The controls certainly made things more appealing, instead of being overwhelmed by hundreds of menus every time you want to build something, simply right-click on the screen and a circular construction menu appears. It is all very self explanatory and I'd be surprised if anyone needed to use the tutorial as Grand Ages: Rome is very simple to pick up and play.

At the start of the game you must choose which head of a Roman family you wish to be. It's a small but nice personal touch. After completing the introductory mission (the ideal place to jump in for those experienced in city building games), the game opens up to a map of the Roman world where you are free to pick from a variety of missions which highlight various events during the Roman era. I could never suggest the game is educational as it is rather hit and miss from what I can remember of my ancient history lessons; however it does like to focus on events that pretty much everyone would know. These range from building outposts in Gaul (France to you and me) to putting down Spartacus's slave revolt. You can also form alliances with factions which can open up different missions as well as close others. Grand Ages: Rome even has a basic levelling up system whereby characters can level up after each mission adding new talents and resource bonuses the further you progress. It all feels very well balanced with the game starting out quite gently but building up nicely to be quite challenging in places.

The title reminded me a lot of a cross between Age of Empires and Caesar 3. I adored Caesar 3 as I love that era in history and although this isn't quite on a par with my love for Caesar, it was still quite entertaining. The presentation is excellent, a far cry from the aging Caesar series. The graphics look good even when on a relatively low specification machine, while the music is ideal for the era, all adding to the 'Roman' atmosphere. There are multiplayer options but I found it surprisingly difficult to find a match and I certainly wouldn't suggest people buy this game on the basis of its multiplayer. Its roots are most definitely within its single player campaign. Grand Ages: Rome won't enthuse Total War fans and those looking for a more complex RTS/city building sim because it's not really aimed at them, however for those of you who fancy something a bit tamer, Grand Ages: Rome is worth a look. It feels like the sort of game that you can drop into just for a little while yet find that despite low expectations, it really is quite fun. It might not add anything new to the genre but it's still reasonably entertaining, especially if you're keen on the period it's set in.

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