Info about Grand Ages: Rome:

Official game description:
**Grand Ages: Rome** is the sequel to the best-selling strategy game Imperium Romanum.  
As Governor of a Roman Province in the time-honoured Roman Empire, its fortune very much lies in your hands. Choose one of five Roman noble families such as Caesar’s Julii with different abilities to accomplish the comprehensive missions. Defend yourself against barbarian tribes, trade with other cultures, build a wealthy economic environment and fullfil the needs of your people in a huge single player campaign!  
*   Non-linear single player campaign with 40 missions.  
*   Enhanced, multilevelled economic system and sea trade.  
*   RTS-like battle system and comprehensive research opportunities.  
*   18 different warfare abilities for your units (like Praetorians, War Elephants, Triarii, etc.).  
*   Lively huge historical locations like Cyrene, Lugdunum or Rome.  
*   Character development system leads through timeline of history.  
*   Naval warfare and colonization of islands.

Release date: Mar 20, 2009

Categories: City Building, Resource Management, Real-time Strategy, Character Progression, Historical Simulation, Economic Simulation, Military Management


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- High-quality city-building mechanics (weight 0.97): The game features a robust and enjoyable city-building system with organic expansion, efficient building mechanics, and a variety of buildings and resources. Players appreciate the aesthetic city designs and the ability to specialize multiple cities.
- Engaging military campaigns (weight 0.85): The military campaigns are well-developed and fun, with historical context and impressive voice acting. Players find the military aspect of the game to be interesting and well-integrated.
- Deep and satisfying gameplay (weight 0.85): The game offers a deep and satisfying gameplay loop with interesting progression systems and a challenging experience. The character and leader systems add depth to the gameplay.
- Extensive technology and skill trees (weight 0.84): The game features extensive and meaningful technology and skill trees that provide players with various objectives and progression paths. This adds a layer of strategy and customization.
- Character progression and customization (weight 0.82): Players can level up their characters and choose from different family trees with unique advantages. The progression tree is well-handled and feels rewarding.
- Enjoyable Roman setting and citizen life (weight 0.79): The game's Roman era setting is enjoyable and immersive, with detailed citizen life and a variety of missions. Players appreciate the historical context and the ability to view citizen life.
- Impressive combat and RTS elements (weight 0.79): The combat system is solid and engaging, blending city-building with real-time strategy elements. Players find the RTS aspects to be fun and well-implemented.
- Satisfying free-build mode (weight 0.76): The free-build mode offers satisfying building placement and freedom, allowing players to create and customize their cities without constant worry.
- Stable performance and graphics (weight 0.74): The game performs well on modern systems with stable graphics and a mostly constant frame rate. The visuals are detailed and hold up well even by today's standards.
- Adequate content and storyline (weight 0.71): The game offers a fair amount of content with an okay storyline and combat. Players find the overall package to be enjoyable and worth playing.
- Positive overall impression (weight 0.68): Players generally have a positive impression of the game, describing it as enjoyable, well-made, and a hidden gem. The game is praised for its relaxing and satisfying experience.

Common complaints:
- Lack of challenge and depth (weight 0.45): The game lacks depth in several areas, including military combat, economic balance, and overall challenge. Once players optimize their city, they become invincible, making the game too easy. The military side is shallow with limited unit control.
- Technical and performance issues (weight 0.42): The game has numerous technical issues, including crashes, system instability, and poor performance on modern systems. These issues significantly impact the player experience and make the game difficult to enjoy.
- Gameplay and mechanics issues (weight 0.35): The game suffers from various gameplay and mechanical issues, including a high learning curve, repetitive missions, and misleading presentations. Players find the gameplay boring and the inhabitants lazy, which affects the overall experience.
- Poor tutorial and user interface (weight 0.22): The tutorial is basic and doesn't explain well, leaving players confused. The user interface is temperamental and the camera controls are wonky, adding to the frustration.
- Dated graphics and visuals (weight 0.2): The graphics are getting dated, and the game's age is starting to show. Some drawings are poor, and the proportions of the perspective are bad, affecting the visual appeal.
- Limited building and construction options (weight 0.2): The game has restrictive building distance limitations and a lack of variety in buildings. Players struggle with building cities as desired due to these limitations and the lack of decoration and building options.
- Repetitive and tedious gameplay (weight 0.18): Gameplay can become repetitive and tedious after some hours. The missions and scenarios play too similarly, and the strategy is too simple, which may not appeal to hardcore city builder fans.
- Frequent fires and lack of fire management (weight 0.18): Fires are too frequent and frustrating, and there are no structures to prevent or put out fires. This leads to automatic loss if the outpost burns down, adding to player frustration.
- Lack of interaction and realism (weight 0.08): There is no interaction with resources and a lack of realism in construction and city management. This makes the game feel less immersive and engaging.
- Multiplayer and server issues (weight 0.07): Multiplayer servers are down, and there are issues with creating accounts to play. This limits the multiplayer experience and frustrates players who want to enjoy the game with friends.
- Save and activation issues (weight 0.05): The game refuses to save more than one save state, and there are problems with key activation and double key verification issues. This can lead to frustration and loss of progress.
- Resource management issues (weight 0.05): The resource system responds poorly to surprises, and there is a lack of realism in resource management. Materials appear by magic, which can be confusing and frustrating for players.
- Military combat and talent tree issues (weight 0.04): The military combat needs rebalancing as some specialties are overpowered. The military talent tree is virtually useless compared to city and family talents, making military aspects less appealing.

Gameplay feedback:
- City building and resource management (weight 0.46): The game focuses heavily on constructing and developing cities, managing resources, and optimizing layouts. Players need to plan city layouts, manage demographics, and ensure the population has access to food, religion, and entertainment.
- Military campaigns and combat (weight 0.26): The game includes military campaigns with various missions, combat mechanics, and unit control. Players can engage in warfare, defend against attacks, and manage military units with different abilities.
- Unique population classes and needs (weight 0.06): The game includes different population classes with unique needs and behaviors. Players must manage scarcity and crime rates, and cater to the specific requirements of each class.
- Historical campaigns and Roman history (weight 0.06): The game includes campaigns that follow Roman history, revealing historical events and providing context. Players can engage in missions that reflect historical scenarios and learn about Roman history.
- Secondary progression systems (weight 0.06): The game features secondary progression systems like estates and meta-progression with character leveling. These systems add layers of complexity and long-term goals for players.
- Building effect radius and fire events (weight 0.06): Buildings in the game have areas of effect, and players must manage building radii. Random fire events can occur, adding a layer of challenge to city management.
- Large maps and cooperative multiplayer (weight 0.04): The game features large maps with various elements and cooperative multiplayer modes. Players can explore vast areas and engage in multiplayer gameplay with others.
- Campaign variety and rewards (weight 0.03): The game offers a campaign system with various missions and rewards. Players can engage in different campaign scenarios and earn rewards for their achievements.
- Detailed graphics and interface (weight 0.03): The game features detailed graphics and interface options, including zoom and camera controls. These options enhance the visual experience and provide better control over city management.
- Popularity and political systems (weight 0.03): The game includes a popularity mechanic that affects gameplay and a complex building and politics system. Players must manage their city's popularity and navigate political challenges.
- Multiple cities and specialization (weight 0.01): Players can manage multiple cities and specialize them in different areas. This adds a layer of complexity and strategic planning to the gameplay.
- Tutorials and learning curve (weight 0.01): The game features tutorials that are important for understanding the game mechanics. Players can learn the game through guided tutorials and improve their skills.

Performance notes:
- Performance issues on various systems (weight 0.17): The game experiences a range of performance problems, including lag, stuttering, freezing, and crashes. Some players report that the game runs poorly on modern systems, while others find it visually stunning and stable. Compatibility mode to Windows XP (Service Pack 3) has been noted to resolve some issues.
- Saving and technical problems (weight 0.15): Players have encountered issues with saving the game and key activation problems. Additionally, there are reports of dual monitor issues and system instability caused by the game.
- Lack of updates and fixes (weight 0.02): There have been no updates or fixes for the game in years, which has left some players frustrated with unresolved issues.
- Low hardware requirements (weight 0.01): The game has low hardware requirements, making it accessible to a wider range of systems.

Recommendations:
- Mixed recommendations based on preferences (weight 0.16): The game receives varied recommendations depending on the player's preferences. Some players highly recommend it for its replayability, graphics, campaign, and music, while others suggest it only for fans of city-building games or Roman history. A few reviews advise against buying it due to performance issues or recommend it only if purchased on sale.
- Recommended for specific audiences (weight 0.08): The game is particularly recommended for fans of Roman city-building games, history enthusiasts, and casual city builder players. It is also suggested for those who enjoy abstracted builders like SimCity.
- Good introductory game (weight 0.03): The game is seen as a nice introductory title to the city-building genre. It is considered a fine way to spend some hours and is probably a very good option for beginners in this type of game.

Other player notes:
No miscpoints

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.27): Players experience frustration primarily due to technical issues such as game crashes, saving bugs, and performance problems. Additionally, the frequent fires, clunky UI, and poor camera controls contribute to a challenging and unsatisfactory gameplay experience.
- Joy (weight 0.23): Players find joy in the enjoyable gameplay aspects, including the story, presentation, and city-building experience. The game's interesting theme, varied campaigns, and detailed animations also contribute to a positive and engaging experience.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.11): Enjoyment stems from building cities, managing resources, and the novel resource system. The game's improved mechanics, good graphics, and well-curated city-building features provide a satisfying experience.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.07): Players feel satisfied with the game's challenging and competitive nature, as well as its deep character system and massive campaign. The focused city-building mechanics and well-managed gameplay also contribute to this satisfaction.
- Nostalgia (weight 0.07): Nostalgia is evoked by memories of playing the game as a kid and comparisons to old games like Caesar and Pharaoh. The game holds a special place for those who enjoyed it many years ago.
- Disappointment (weight 0.05): Disappointment arises from the game's abandonment by developers and misleading descriptions, such as non-functional multiplayer campaigns. The building mechanics and small radius of buildings also contribute to this feeling.
- Anger (weight 0.03): Anger is caused by issues such as key activation problems, game malfunctions, and perceived scumbag practices by Kalypso Media. The inhabitants' behavior, such as laziness and frequent protests, also frustrates players.
- Pleasure (weight 0.01): Le plaisir vient de voir sa ville grandir et de planifier l'urbanisation, ce qui offre une expérience de jeu gratifiante et engageante.
- Regret (weight 0.01): Le regret est lié à la partie production/logistique/commerce qui est très réduite, limitant ainsi certaines aspects du gameplay.
- Enthusiasm (weight 0.01): L'enthousiasme est généré par un gameplay profond et satisfaisant qui captive les joueurs.
- Appreciation (weight 0.01): L'appréciation vient de la grande personnalisation et progression offertes par le jeu, ce qui est très valorisé par les joueurs.
- Surprise (weight 0.01): La surprise est une réaction positive à la découverte d'un jeu de construction et d'optimisation très agréable.
- Pride (weight 0.01): La fierté vient de la création et du développement de sa propre ville, offrant un sentiment d'accomplissement.
- Admiration (weight 0.01): L'admiration est ressentie car le jeu est considéré comme l'un des meilleurs jeux de stratégie.
- Relaxation (weight 0.01): La relaxation provient de la construction de quelque chose qui semble vivant, offrant une expérience de jeu apaisante.}