Imperium Romanum (video game)


Imperium Romanum is a 2008 video game for Microsoft Windows developed by Haemimont Games and published by Kalypso Media. The game is a city-building game where players are governor of a province and must build and maintain a thriving and prosperous settlement. The game takes place during the time of the Roman Empire. Players build Roman towers, gates, and bridges and use currency to fund projects.

Gameplay

Imperium Romanum is a sequel to a game released in 2006 by the same developer, Glory of the Roman Empire. Imperium Romanum features significantly improved graphics than its predecessor, and also adds several big Roman monuments such as the Circus Maximus and the Colosseum. The game doesn't necessarily have a 'campaign' mode like some other city-building games, but instead has the player play through different scenarios such as life in the chaos of Pompeii under the terror of Mount Vesuvius. Along with maintaining cities, the players must also keep them very well-organized and keep money spread out among the people. If there are cases of extreme poverty, then the people of the city may turn to lives of crime, which has a number of negative effects on the city.
The game features full 3D structures and people and allow the player to zoom in and out of the scene as well as rotate the camera around a full 360 degrees. While much of the game is focused on building and maintaining cities, there are some RTS elements when opposing cities and civilization do battle with the player's. Along with building fortified walls and towers around the cities to prevent enemy attacks, players may also build objects such as trebuchets to go on the offensive against opposing nations.

Expansion pack

An expansion pack entitled Imperium Romanum: Emperor Expansion was released in North America on July 30, 2008, and in Europe on August 29, 2008.

Reception

''Imperium Romanum''

The game received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.

''Emperor Expansion''

The Emperor Expansion pack received a "mixed" review based solely on IGN's review according to Metacritic.