Europa Universalis: Rome Demo

When it comes to strategy, the Europa Universalis series has delivered a constant flux of good titles, all of which brought significant improvements over the previous episodes. This is the case of the title at hand as well, which deals with the great wars between Carthage and Rome, as well as their famous leaders, who were at the helm of the nations.

Europa Universalis: Rome follows the tradition established by its predecessors and provides you with almost endless possibilities when it comes to economy, research and, of course, the military strength of the chosen nation. As you might have guessed, this episode is centered around the golden era of Rome, before it became an empire and took over half of Europe.

Despite that, the game allows you to start playing from as early as 280 B.C. and go through the changes that happened over the few centuries prior to the great Punic wars. Naturally, your decisions can greatly affect what actually happens when war knocks at your door, since you are able to take the nation in whichever direction you desire, by forming alliances or conquering other lands to increase your power.

As always, you can play the role of real leaders from history, such as Hannibal from Carthage. Thus, by appointing them to lead armies or undertake various other functions in the country, they are bound to increase or decrease in popularity amongst the people, depending on how well they fare at the appointed task. In case you are not satisfied with their approach, you can always fire them, or go ahead and order their assassination.

Technical-wise, the game does not give you too much time to admire the landscapes, even if all you see is a 3D map on which the territories are displayed. Thus, with the multitude of decisions you have to make at every step, there is barely any time left to pay attention to the technical aspects, especially when you have to deal with uprisings or sieges.

In the end, Europa Universalis: Rome accomplishes its goal and brings the required improvements, as promised. Taking into consideration the huge amount of diplomatic and economical decisions you can take over the course of the game, there are almost endless possibilities, which translate into hundreds of hours of gameplay.