Imperator: Rome

I came, I saw, I made a great big mess

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When I sat down in front of Paradox’s new grand strategy game I had one big question: What is Imperator: Rome exactly? Is it Crusader Kings in togas? Is it a Roman Europa Universalis? Is it, as the fans will no doubt ask, Vicky 3? The answer is none and all of these things.

“You have the population mechanics that are similar to games like Stellaris or Victoria, the warfare and diplomacy which is similar to Europa Universalis and the characters that are closer to Crusader Kings,” explains Johan Andersson, the creative director on Imperator and a Paradox veteran of over 20 years. He knows what he’s talking about, because he’s worked on every single one of those games. In fact when I ask him which Paradox games he’s worked on, the list goes on for several minutes. “I didn’t do super much on Stellaris, but everything else,” Andersson says. Imperator is the culmination of all this experience.

The first thing I notice upon sitting down is that the UI is dominated by a deeply Hellenic white marble and a generally bright and vibrant color palette. “It’s a very hopeful aesthetic” explains lead artist Joacim Carlberg. “Which contrasts to our previous games, at least Crusader Kings, which does take place in the Dark Ages after all.” There’s also a terrific zoom option that automatically fades out from a detailed terrain map to a flat political one as you zoom out.

Things are generally more accessible than previous Paradox games as well, with fewer options buried multiple menus deep. One of the nicest touches is the diplomacy screen where, instead of picking countries from a list, you simply open the diplomacy tab and then click on the country on the main map. It’s still not easy to understand, the sheer amount of information the game is throwing out makes that difficult, but it is better.