Recent reviews by Doctor Red

CA is a garbage company.

It's an ocean of a game with the depth of a rainpuddle.
Missing a huge chunk of its promised and advertised for features.
Incredibly poorly optimized.
Bug-ridden.
Lack luster world with ''rpg'' elements that don't mean anything.
Your background choices don't mean anything.
There are no branching storylines dependent on dialogue/action choices.
Everything up until the lazy 6 month time-skip montage is written rather well, everything after is garbage and feels like it's missing half of its story writing content.
No customizable *anything*. - clothing, guns, cars, apartments.
No NPC AI. Everything is on rails.
The ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ map UI on PC has a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ leftover symbol that makes me think this was made for consoles and later adapted for PC, since it shows a control stick to tell you to scroll through the map legend. This is without a controller being plugged in and just playing with mouse + keyboard.
For a setting and city that is so overtly sexualized in it's content, there's only 2 choices in joytoys for the entirety of the city. A non-sexualized game like The Witcher 3 had 50x the content.
The customizable genitals was a gimmick to sell the game since you never see any genitals outside of the character creation screen and your own inventory menu. Outside of it, you're forced into underwear.
Romances have no depth to them. Dragon Age Inquisition and even ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Mass Effect had better romances and depth to their characters.
Hacking is a joke. The same 2 quickhacks for the same 2 machines.
Driving is a joke. Cars don't function and the NPCs are, again, on rails. No actual AI.



The only solid part of the game is the gunplay. Treat this game like you would the game Rage and you won't be disappointed. Treat this like anything even close to what was promised throughout the years and you'll wonder what happened to make a studio ♥♥♥♥ up as much as they did.

This game combines elements from just about all previous Paradox titles. The perfect mix between CKII, EU4, Vic2, HoI4.
Except that it isn't.

The elements it ports over are bare bones.
-There's individual characters and their relations with others in your nation (but never foreign) like in CKII, but there's no control over them other than some instant click-to-win interactions via events.
-There's ruling a nation and steering it towards growth and prosperity, but there's no depth. It's only click-to-win buttons via spending mana. There's only 4 types buildings to build ever and trade goods/income is barely influencable.
-It has pops like in Vic2, but there's next to no growth, no way to influence them, no mobility -unless- you actively press mana buttons to do so. Want to assimilate? There's a mana button for that. Sure you could change the governor's policy for the region so that they'd slowly assimilate over time, but you incur tyranny for that! Imagine that; telling a governor, appointed by you- following you, what to do makes you a tyrant.

And that just brings me to the biggest problem with Imperator: Rome; The ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mana.
Mana isn't a new concept for Paradox games and hasn't been without it's controversy. I myself didn't mind the addition of mana to EU4 when it first came out, it was handled relatively well and didn't feel like a burden or a hamper on many things.
In Imperator: Rome however, things are different. It's a waiting game. 90% of player actions require mana. Some mana points are used literally EVERYWHERE (I'm looking at you, Oratory Power) whilst some are barely used at all (Military? Religious?)

And since the mana buttons are always, all of them, instant click-to-win buttons, the game turns into a waiting game. There's no more strategy or tactics in this `Grand strategy´ game. It´s sitting on your butt waiting for mana to pile up. The sources of these mana points are static too. They´re based on your ruler and there's next to nothing you can do to add on to those points. EU4 had a variety of perks and bonusses to increase or decrease mana income. Imperator: Rome has none of these.

This is not a game that 'combined elements of previous games'. This is EU: Rome (Another, ancient paradox title) remastered. And by remaster I mean literally just reskinned, without MUCH needed gameplay changes.

But of course, by taking a look at their other successful titles in the past, this could just be a ploy to sell actual good parts of the game as 20 dollar DLC down the road (Looking at you EU4, CKII). On top of the 40 for a broken base game.

All in all, I do not recommend. I won't condone these kind of business practices.

Don't recommend. I came for the original Subnautica feel but instead was met with a voiced MC who talks constantly with her sister. Because of this familial relation the conversations are filled to the brim with banter and light-hearted jabs at one another;

Gone is the feeling of isolation.

On top of that you're constantly resupplied at will by said sister. Supply crates, directions on what to do and entire habitats are dropped down for you. All you really have to look out for is food and water.

Gone is the feeling of helplessness.

if the constant back-and-forth between you and your sister wasn't enough you eventually get an A.I. downloaded into your brain that constantly talks to you and gives you tasks as well.

Gone is the feeling of dread.

In short: This isn't the survival, exploration, gathering and building game that was Subnautica. This is a bundle of glorified fetch quests riding on Subnautica's success.

OVERKILL went behind everyone's backs, broke their own promises made both before and after game launch and have yet to deliver the actual product that was promised at launch (Missing features that were promised; Safehouse customization. Lies; No microtransactions at all. Ever. etc)