Expeditions: Rome
Expeditions: Rome is a tactical role-playing game developed by Danish developer Logic Artists and published by THQ Nordic. It is the third game in the "Expeditions" series, which also includes "" and "Expeditions: Viking". It was released for Windows on January 20, 2022. The game is an RPG that combines gameplay in local, tactical battles with other types. In the game, the player controls a legatus who investigates the death of his father and travels throughout the Roman Republic and nearby nations as they expand Roman influence across the world. The game received mostly positive reviews from critics , who praised the game's strong gameplay elements and strong plot elements, but criticized its legionary battles for being weaker than the tactical gameplay and the length of time that battles could take. Gameplay. Each campaign region is a different "Act" inside of the game. The player must scout each region's sectors, where they can encounter resources that they need to grow their army, story decisions, or military strongpoints they need to conquer. The game is split into two different kinds of battle systems: legionary battles and story missions that generally take place in turn-based combat settings. In  the legionary battles, the player assigns a Centurion to lead the attack, and can prepare the army before the battle to raise the odds of victory. Cards are drawn during combat which affect the likelihood of success. In story battles, the player takes turns controlling a small squad of characters that they use to move around a battlefield and defeat an enemy. Players are also responsible for managing their legion's camp, which can help them have better outcomes during legionary combat. Story-based battles often have objectives outside of defeating all enemies and sometimes can be won without engaging  in combat; in one instance, a mission requires the player to quickly steal an Olympic trophy. Plot. In "Expeditions: Rome", the player controls a legate in the later years of the Roman Republic. Real historical figures like Cicero, Julius Caesar, and Cato appear in the plot, although the game takes historical licenses with these people; the presence of the player character dramatically alters the path of Roman history throughout by his actions (and his existence). After the death of his father from unknown political opponents, the player character flees to the armies of Consul Lucullus during the Third Mithridatic War . Lucullus is a family friend, who helps the player join a legion—which he then takes command of in campaigns across regions in Asia-Minor, Africa, and Gaul. Development. "Expeditions: Rome" entered pre-production shortly after the release of "Expeditions: Viking" in 2017. Logic Artists, the developers of the game, presented the game idea to THQ Nordic in 2018, which is when full development began in earnest. Logic Artists previously worked on the on-hold title "", which would have taken place in the same universe as ""; because of this experience, they had experience working with Larian Studios in their CRPG -style. Development was generally not affected by the lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, because Logic Artists was already a development team split between Copenhagen and Istanbul (the latter was where most of the art team was based) and they were able to easily transition to remote work. Concerned about the lack of variety in enemy types sometimes found in historical games, Logic Artists attempted to diversify the enemy character classes in a way that would make the user experience more enjoyable. Logic Artists felt that the historical period had to feel accurate, but that once the player character came  into the scene, "all bets were off." NFT concerns. Soon after the release of "Expeditions: Rome", it was announced that the founders of Logic Artists were creating a new studio dedicated to NFT gaming and were winding down the studio to support this endeavor. After concerns cropped up from players about what this meant for the future of "Expeditions: Rome" development, publisher THQ Nordic released a statement that there would be at least one DLC pack coming for the game, and that Logic Artists would continue to maintain additional support for any technical issues with the game or its DLC . THQ Nordic also noted in its statement that "Expeditions: Rome" "does not include any kind of NFT and has no links to the blockchain." Reception. "Expeditions: Rome" received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic and from critics, who praised its overall plot notes and strong tactical role-playing elements, but criticized the legionary battles for being too arbitrary and some other gameplay elements were criticized. "Rock Paper Shotgun's" Nate Crowley praised the game's attention to historical detail (including accurate Latin pronunciations) and noted that after a mediocre first half hour, the game "let's rip" and  was incredibly fun. "RPGamer's" Alex Fuller called the game an "easy recommendation" and praised the game's flexibility in its difficulty settings for allowing the game to be tailored to what the player wants. "IGN"'s Leana Hafer wished that the legionary combat was "more engrossing", an opinion shared by other critics. "PC Gamer"'s Robert Zak wrote in a mixed review that battles took far too long, but appreciated the level of historical detail the game held. "Rock Paper Shotgun"'s Nate Crowley criticized the game's lack of customization options for your player character and also felt  that the game took far too long as you watched characters slowly move across the map.