Expeditions: Rome

I wasn't expecting this game to be so engaging when I first picked it up. The characters are very memorable and story is engaging.

:)

DRASTICALLY underrated game. This RPG is the most fun I had since BG3. Great story and fully voice acted. Amazing stuff. Finished a campaign and I need to start another right way, so great replay value as well.

I thoroughly enjoyed this game. Good turn-based tactical with a surprisingly good story and writing.
- I liked that the plot was that good, I honestly did not expect it. The writing was good too. I liked that the game went out of its way to acknowledge that I was playing a female character. Even if it was just in dialogues. The devs could have easily made it as if it was perfectly normal, and I wouldn't even have been mad, but they made the effort and I appreciated it.
- Combat is solid, I played in Hard and most of the encounters were fairly easy with the occasional difficult ones.
- Progression is well done, I liked the skill trees, they were good enough that I could see every branch leading to a powerful build.
- The strategic layer on the regional maps is cool, I liked having a legion and a camp to manage. I enjoyed the battle mini-game, it reminded me of board games like the Game of Throne one or Forbidden Stars.
- Graphics are honestly decent, though the 3D models are not great in my opinion.
- I guess the game could have been a tiny bit shorter, I finished it but towards the end I was starting to be mentally done with it.

Fun and interesting turn-based battles if you can overlook the constant, anachronistic woke liberal propaganda the developers shoehorned into a story in an ancient Roman setting. The game punishes you and uses ad-hominem attacks if you simply select dialogue options that would have been appropriate in that culture and time.

I dunno man, after Wartales, this just doesn't feel meaty at all combat wise. The artwork is gorgeous, full points to that, though it feels slow and clunky compared to that experience. I thought I'd like the setting, but the origin characters were really unlikeable to me from the get-go and the gladiator DLC start implied I'd be stuck with them for quite a while. Bought on sale too, so I'm especially disappointed as I'd had my eyes on this for a while.

Got to have relations with the last Ptolemaic ruler. 9.17/10

Fun Tactical RPG like all the other Expedition games set in Roman times. I wish there was a way to respec your characters though.

I haven't finished yet but it seems to have just the right amount of base management mixed in to not be tedious and distract from the tactical turn based combats. The story is well done and with my, albeit, limited knowledge of roman history (I've read Decline and Fall and some philosophers but not much else) nothing has jumped out at me as egregiously wrong. I think they even handled having a female MC pretty well.

All in all, quite an enjoyable game. I loved Conquistador but never made it through Vikings. I might have to go back and give that one another try.

I highly recommend buying the game when its on sale, definitely not worth 45 bucks. That being said, the story alone is pretty good along with the historical accuracy makes you feel like you are the commander of your own Roman legion. Its true the game play later is a bit repetitive BUT playing on hard mode with iron man enabled is challenging enough to offset that repetitive feeling and makes you sweat a little bit. If your a history nerd like me and liked Xcom you would love this game.

Gameplay is very limited with only a set number of characters that you can control. Gets a bit boring very quickly.

Great game for an indie title. It's an update on what they did before. The legion command feature would be better if it was a bit more developed.
The characters are good, the combat is fun and challenging. Worth a purchase

It's really good

It's a good game, but I am not a big fan of the legion battle system. It feels almost random, and frankly I could have done without the large scale battles at all. I was hoping the game would be weighted more towards the historical CRPG experience. The story is good, and you have some choices, but this game is much more about fighting than exploration or story per se. Some of the UX/Ui could be more streamlined or better explained, though there are no showstoppers. By the 3rd act, it starts to be a little bit of a slog. Overall, I'd say this is a C+, or maybe a B-. Decent to good, but some more polish and depth would have made it an A+ to me.

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A very fun historical strategy sim. Your character follows a very similar story to the real life Julius Cesar.

Very fun game, I wish there was a big more diversity with not ALWAYS having to fight new province but I enjoyed the historical aspects and the combat was challenging with diverse skill traits and paths for all my characters. The amount of loot is so much it gets a bit tedious, seems like each culture has different levels of items but Tier 3 Celtic armor will usually be as good as Tier 3 Egyptian etc. I enjoyed and beat this game and I'm not normally someone to complete a game like this, but I am a big fan of Rome! And sleeping with Cleopatra bahaha

This game has so many elements that I should theoretically love. Turn-based tactical combat, squad/base building overlay, historical setting, etc. But it never comes together in an enjoyable way. It's just too dry. The characters and dialogue all blur together. None of the choices feel consequential. Combat is perfectly fine, but dull and repetitive. I've played every single one of these "Expeditions" games, and they all have the same problems, to varying degrees. The first one (Conquistador) was probably the best.

Story and gameplay worth it

Theoretically everything should be there that would make me love the game. Roman theme, X-Com like turn based combat, map where you get to control legions, decent story... But somehow this game is so utterly unappealing. I have tried twice now, to play this game and I just cannot get into it. Combat is fine, if slightly basic for the most part. Enemies are very repetitiv sadly though. Overall that part is fine.

But the map is just SO uninteresting, and takes away so much time it feels like a drag. And the legions/camp aspect imo doesn't mesh well at all with the combat, it doesn't work similarly as X-com did with its base building. Progression also is rather boring in this game.

Overall I would give it a 6/10. Its a decent game, just not exciting imo. It has no big faults but also no big strengths.

Extremely long battles, with infinite reinforcement mechanic. Your choices affects very little the outcome of the game, every character feels the same, as build isnt much a factor. Game makes you use random generic companions in important battles. I tried hard to like the game, but its so boring and bad game design.

It was fun until it’s not. The repetitiveness finally got to me after 19 hrs and I just couldn’t bear to continue any longer. Poor tutorials/guides during missions makes you scratch your head reg certain missions as to how to complete it. Uninstalled and probably won’t play it again.
Played 100% on steam deck with KBM decked mode on TV, runs smooth

I had never heard of this game shortly before I bought it and came into it with very little expectations. The mix of tactical battles, strategy and roman history piqued my interest, but I could not tell from the reviews alone whether it would actually be for me, since I do not usually enjoy narrative games (and I do not play that many tactics games). I can wholeheartedly say this is a refreshingly good game, that caught me pleasantly surprised. High production values, coupled with a well-honed gameplay loop made this a game I will likely revisit again and again. I found myself quite unable to stop after the first two sessions.

I will say at the outset, that part of my appreciation for this game does stem from my fascination in roman history and it was clear to me that the developers had paid a lot of attention to historical details. It's certainly not intended to be historically accurate in the strict sense, rather that the world is fleshed out with details and stories that recreate the period in an engaging way. More importantly, the devs never let the history get in the way of good gameplay. And even if you don't think about the Roman Empire every 5 minutes, this is still an impressive and enjoyable tactical RPG that is well worth checking out.

The core of this game is the series of tactical battles that range from small skirmishes against bandits to huge set piece siege battles where you command teams at multiple different locations of the battlefield. The developer's experience in this genre truly shines throughout. The combat is slick, your actions are meaningful, there's no RNG rolls to hit, and many other aspects too numerous to list help make the combat feel challenging but not punishing. Everything that happens on the battlefield is well explained and easy to understand. The UI (coupled with an in-game mini manual) never left me in any doubt about what was happening or what I could do. It does not try to hand hold you either, or judge your decisions (which I find is a real problem in some games that steer you towards what they (the devs) want you to do instead of what you (the player) want to do).

Combat is based on your marshalling of the various classes of troops that each have their own well-defined tactical roles. You have the Princeps (the vanguard heavy infantry or 'tank' if you prefer), the Triarius (pike/support/healer), the Sagitarius (marksmen/sniper) and the Velite (light infantry assassin). There is a DLC for an additional gladiator class that I have not tried. Utilising the different strengths of each class in concert is quite rewarding. As you progress throughout the game, battle after battle, you start to realise where there are synergies and what skills would prove to be most useful to unlock. The characters develop by unlocking new skills. You do not have attributes in this game, as I understand there are in Expeditions Vikings. As a result of this change, each class retains their distinct uses in battle for the duration of the game (in other words you can't buff up each character's attributes such that they become useful in every scenario). In this game there are clear roles and different battle objectives call for different characters' strengths/skills. I like picking the team before battle, anticipating what kinds of abilities might come in handy. Overall, I would say it is a very clear design and I much prefer it versus a more classic RPG design where you have several layers of stats and abilities for each character.

Tying together the tactical battles is an interesting and immersive storyline set in the era of the late Roman Republic, echoing a number of the major events of the time (particularly the career of Julius Caesar). As I have already said, it is not meant to mirror history directly but is instead loosely inspired by it. You get to make a number of decisions as the story progresses which feel quite impactful, and the game doesn't tell you how you should be playing it; you're free to be cruel or honourable, and everything in between. In general, the story intrigued me much more than I thought it would, and this is helped in no small part due to the outstanding voice acting and soundtrack. In your team, you have a handful or so core companions who have very distinct and interesting personalities and backstories. I found myself genuinely wanting to interact with them and find out more about their stories. There are some really enjoyable story-progression scenes that happen between the chapters. Without giving away too much, they do a great job of rounding off the world-building, letting you delve into anything from ancient politics and philosophy to (my favourite) simple observations about the human condition: from an old man who has many regrets about his life and wants to pass on a shred of wisdom, to a brother in arms now dealing with relationship issues and so many more such situations. All of these little details make this a rich world to explore, and never once did it feel forced, superfluous or overwhelming (that is a rare achievement for a game nowadays imo).

Exploration is handled extremely well in this game - it is a secondary part of the game that is enjoyable (for me) because it has a finite quality to it. There are many RPG/tactics games out there where you have large unbounded areas to explore, that have lots of NPCs, and little places to explore for loot and so on. This is not the case in Expeditions Rome and for that I am truly thankful. Each area you can explore is well designed so that you do not get exploration fatigue (or that boredom from feeling compelled to check every single chest, crate, pot and hole in the ground). Here you can even pick up loot from multiple bodies at once (a great design choice). The more finite nature of the exploration does not detract from the game in any way. It adds immersion by giving you locales to explore but you never feel overwhelmed by it. Instead you can do your exploration, have key interactions with certain NPCs and pick up a bit of loot (Which is easy to see thanks to the toggle-able outlines). It's clean and enjoyable and means you don't have to wait too long between the battles because that's why you're really here - not to clean out the pantry of every house in the town.

There is one significant side of the game I have not yet covered: the army and provincial-conquest system. As you roleplay a military leader in this game, you get to make some basic decisions about the army at your command. You can recruit additional troops, hire centurions to manage the army on your behalf and you get to choose what your legion does on the campaign map (e.g. from sending them out to collect hunting game to sending them to besiege enemy settlements). You even have to consider the legion morale and take steps to keep it from getting too low. Putting it all in this way makes it sound much more deep and interesting than what it actually is. The systems are very crude and simplistic. Morale for example is improved by simply assigning a centurion to a certain post in your camp. Your army numbers are restored by simply incrementing a slider. The troops are just a number. The strategic battle system is just as simplistic. It involves you playing 'cards' in a series of stages to determine what your army would be doing in the battle, but the actual mechanic is to accrue as many of various battle points as you can to score the victory. It is bland and does not feel very strategic at all. You basically end up going through the motions to get through these battle minigames so you can get back to the main action in the tactics battles. Overall, it is a very well made game. The lacklustre strategy side of the game does not in any way detract from my enjoyment of it because it simply is not the focus of the game; it is a brief side diversion that to an extent helps you play out the role of a legatus before you get back to the tactical battles.

A good game, but difficult in the start.

Have played 14 hours. Nothing special but its pretty fun if you are looking for something that will not get lost in for hours.

God tier game with amazing detail!

Egregiously boring and non-consequential dialogue stacks to click through.

This game is a hidden gem, it's like all of my childhood dreams compiled into one hybrid turn-based, 4x-Strategy game. I finally get to play as the Romans up close, and still act as a general of a legion.

So far, I've only played games like The Settlers 3, Ryse: Son of Rome, AoE1, Grand Ages: Rome, Skyrim (It's roman empire-ish), Total War: Rome, and a few others, but this one is unique, and has a great story and story choices.

10/10 I'll create a male legate on my next run.

Played this elsewhere when it was first released and thought it was the best strategy game of the year and one of the top five in its kind. Now bought it on sale on Steam and started my second run. Still excited and having fun. The UI is so clean and gorgeous; Civ 7 designers should definitely learn from this!

game is cool but legion battles are really boring and just auto spam, the story and combat are good but once u know what to do and conquer asia and africa u sit there rushing to conquer areas then running to defending them rinse and repeat and dealing with stupid ass convos every 20 seconds like sandstorms or bandits and now your party is now injured rinse and repeat over and over again im just trying to conquer so i can get a forge and upgrade my weak ass weapons the same weapons drop over and over again and even if the new ones drop i cant even use them on characters i want them to be on

Roman CRPG. Baldur's Gate? This is Hadrian's wall.

This game definitively needs Undo move, loading whole fight just because of misclick is really annoying and not lucky design solution.
Ruining experience for me, can't imagine how frustrating would be playing Ironman.

very good game

Great game. Felt rushed for the ending, but it's pretty good. The scenario battles for each act are pretty nice. Some of the map mechanics can get tedious, but overall I give this a thumbs up

Great gameplay, great story, great characters, great voice acting.

This game reminds me of the golden age of BioWare RPGs, but in a historical setting. If you like tactical turn based combat, companion RPGs, and/or ancient Rome, I highly recommend this game!

Very very good game, I'm on my 3rd play through...

Like Xcom except in ancient Rome...

Thumbs up

A small gem that will please players looking for turn by turn tactical combat, simple army combat, party gear and leveling management, and some other role-playing and economical elements.
This game has many different endings. I chose the imperial one, which is the closest to actual history.

I have played early iterations of this formula in the tactics genre starting at Expeditions Conquistador and to keep it short the developer Logic Artists have improved many of the systems that I find fun to play but they missed the mark on having those parts make a whole that is fun to play.

1. Total play time for me was about 11 hours because I was forcing myself to play this game because of the I paid for it therefore i should play it mentality. I figured that after about maybe a couple of hours the tutorials would end and I would start having fun in some challenging scenarios but sadly that never happened.
2. The scenarios in this game (at least for the portion i played) are not fun and not challenging. They don't require a lot of thought and often I was just kiting the enemy or figured out that I could skip turns until the AI put itself in a disadvantageous position so that I could strike in a predictable way. Basically the AI is bad and can be easily abused which made the games core mechanic, the tactical battle, not fun to participate in.
3. There are so many systems in this game that just don't need to be here or take too long to bear fruit, for example all of the useless loot that i could modify or upgrade. I mean whats the point if there were not that many meaningfully challenging battles that tested you in a way where you had to upgrade.
4. They are trying to do some sort of thing where you manage your crew and their overall mood but that did not seem to have any bearing as far as i can tell
5. Lastly the goons they give me to throw into battles are just forgettable. Seriously just some of the most uninteresting models and names of randomly generated goons I have seen so far in this genre. There was a point where i had about a dozen in my squad and It became difficult to figure out who to upgrade and focus on. They all just kind of melded into each other in an ambiguous ball of roman goons.

Anyways this game is not fun to play and the developer still has yet to hit the mark in this genre since I recall Expeditions: Conquistador having the same issues.

Wonderful game! It reminds me a bit of XCOM, but you can better adjust the difficulty, so it was not frustrating.
Interesting story, and combat option.

Based female dialogue options and play through makes the game worth it alone

Wonderful game, the story is fiction but adheres to just the right amount of historically accurate elements that satisfy any lover of Roman history during the period of Caesar's rise to fame. The near-accurate pronunciation of classical Latin by the voice actors was also chef's kiss, although some of the voice actors still chose to use anglicised pronunciations so it wasn't as consistent in terms of immersion. I loved the game as I have poured close to 100 hours in 1 single play through on insane difficulty, also my first time playing this kind of turn based RPG, the early missions were brutal but once you get some gears mid and late game becomes a cake walk (aside from 1 unexplained Bullshit mechanic in the final boss fight where when you take down the final boss he somehow revives to full hp, recovers all status, summons 3 elite enemies for absolutely no logical reasoning all the while you can't do anything about it, oh and they get to act first while your team is forced out of position and suffering from attrition from the battle just a few seconds before the final boss went down).

However, there are 2 things that bothered me somewhat. One being that apparently the option to romance a companion character cuts out if you haven't made advances in Act II, by the time I was about to finish Act II, I never got the romance quest even though I had completed all the prior requirements, and I continued to spend hours upon hours and going back in saves to try and salvage the situation, the romance quest never appeared, I concluded it probably was because my approval rating with the character I want wasn't high enough but I also didn't want to go back too far in saves so I moved on. And from Act III onwards there was no more mentions of any romance options despite I managed to get the approval rating to max level, that means all the way until the end of the game I never romanced anyone even though they had unwavering loyalty and had completed all heart shaped dialogues, I simply didn't get the chance to despite wanting to. I feel this option was cut out too quickly because without looking up guides people can miss this opportunity too easily, I had no idea something was wrong until I searched it up online, very unfortunate and regretful experience.

Second but minor problem I had was the character's portraits seemed to be randomly generated, and for some reason I had A LOT of dark skinned characters, like A LOT. I understand Rome was vast, had various ethnicity and the a quarter of the game spends its time in Africa, but still feels weird when HALF of my recruit-able characters are somehow black, and it just so happened that most of the characters with good traits were also black in my play through. So my party and Legions were comprised almost entirely of black centurions fighting in Asia and Gallia, definitely kinda dampen the immersion a bit. It might be a one-off in my play-through though as I understand the characters are randomly generated.

What it lacks in graphics and RPG mechanics it makes up for in steady balance in encounters and decent storytelling. about 45 hours to finish and I did like 75% of the side quests. Overall I give it a B-

Game good

If the most important thing youre here for is the turn-based combat, this is not for you

Great game.

Strategy, killer story, and fun combat. What's more to want?

Great, ambitious game that's fun to play - might be the best (and the only?) RPG based in the Ancient times. Time well spent, I definitely recommend if you either like RPGs or the Ancient times - if both, it's a must play for you!

This game is an absolute gem. Highly recommend if you enjoyed Divinity Original Sin

Every Expeditions game is my new favorite game ever made. How could they make a game better than Vikings? I have no idea. Please never stop.