Glory of the Roman Empire Review

Costas Stephanides’s Review

Friends, Romans, countrymen... lend me your mobiles so I may partake in the Glory of The Roman Empire

The eagle eyed amongst you may have spotted that this is developed by Handy Games and you would be forgiven for thinking this will be similar to Townsmen but it is not - so don't be disappointed after the first few plays.

The game style is pretty unique. It is all about city planning and creating a merry community but there is no day to day management features as such; it's all about positioning the buildings in the correct places. There is no resources to gather and no trading or upgrade elements. So, what is it all about? Each level starts with a quick briefing from the council and you are told which structures are available for the level and how many points you need to reach to please the council, keep them happy and you will get promoted. All you really have to do is place similar structures next to each other, for example place the clay pits next to the pottery.

It sounds easy but with random landscapes and awkward buildings finding the correct positions can be tough. Once you have figured out the tricks it does become a fairly easy game which is more relaxing than you would expect. The major buildings to worry about are the warehouse, forum and the storage buildings (such as pottery, butchers, etc). If you can manage to place these next to each other you will earn plenty of bonus points and be able to complete the levels with ease.

The landscapes can get tricky and the you usually have more buildings available to you than you actually need. Part of the tactics is realising which buildings will benefit you the most and can give you the big bonuses.

The graphics of the buildings are pretty detailed but the landscape is basic in comparison. In the options you do have a grid option; this makes the placement of buildings very easy as the landscape is stripped and all you see is the footprints of the buildings (colour coded for convenience). Maybe I am a natural town planner but I breezed through the game and that was before I realised you could rotate the placements as appropriate. In fact thinking about all the possible permutations actually made the game harder.

Although it is quite easy there doesn't seem to be any end to the game. We've been playing this for many days and it just seems like an endless puzzle game.

It is a good puzzle game just don't get it confused with Townsmen or Monopoly Tycoon. It's great if you like the idea of city management games but cant actually play them. Now you can show off your thriving city just by using a bit of spatial awareness.