Nova Roma is a new city-builder game focused on building a new Roman Empire away from the original one. Brought to you by Lion Shield, the developer of Kingdoms and Castles, you’ll build and lead this empire into a new golden age of growth and beauty. While the demo leaves you wanting more, there’s plenty to do here already.
Finding a New Rome
Nova Roma’s demo can technically last as long as you’d like, but you’re likely to hit a wall around three hours in.
During that time, though, you’ll experience enough of the game to give you a good understanding of what’s going on, followed by a need for more.
While a little more polygonal than some other city-builders, Nova Roma still manages to look good while not turning your PC into a jet engine. More than that, the simplistic art style lends itself well to some mechanics to keep the game interesting.
You’ll build your empire up from nothing as you gain new citizens and new resources that fuel your empire and its many buildings. From residencies to giant dams, there’s a little something to utilize for every occasion. It isn’t without its issues, but for now, the bones of something really addictive have been laid out and just need to be built upon. With all the typical trappings of a city-builder and some new additions, things come together well in the gameplay of Nova Roma.
Very Humble Beginnings
The game is actually incredibly slow to start, not just compared to similar in nature. The first couple of in-game years are mostly doing things out of necessity, but that isn’t what makes it slow.
The issue lies in the fact that you’ll very quickly run out of usable citizens to run any of the buildings you make, even when the tutorial is telling you to build them. It felt very counter-intuitive to make these buildings only to have them idle for a time.
That leads to the next problem: getting citizens is a slow, difficult process in the beginning. For some, this is a great challenge that tasks you to get incredibly technical with your distribution of citizens, and for others, it will simply be an RNG nuisance.
Citizens are added when they arrive by ship, but in some cases, you might see a ship come to shore with not a soul on board. At first, it doesn’t seem so bad, but you’ll reach a plateau that will not improve until you unlock more buildings, which will only cost you more citizens since they have to run the temples that unlock the buildings.
A Godly Progression System
The gods of ancient Rome were fickle beings, but the gods of Nova Roma are pretty easy to please and happy to give out rewards when satisfied. These rewards can be spent on acquiring new buildings that you’ll need to keep your empire going strong.
Dealing with the gods isn’t all cupcakes and rainbows, though, as each one can be angered and have an adverse effect on the area around the temple, like lightning striking and damaging random buildings and citizens, thanks to an angry Zeus.
This was a neat way to handle progression rather than having it be a resource you gain and spend alone. It can also help shape your empire by giving you different kinds of tasks to complete, such as making a certain number of grape patches. All the gods have different requirements, although those requirements are the same through every new game you make.
It isn’t perfect by any metric, but it did add an extra layer of planning to the city’s design, which was nice. Once you know what all of the gods’ requests will be, it’s pretty easy to knock them out over time. While fun, there could be some extra depth here and there, but as mentioned, this is a work in progress.
A Dam Good Time
It wouldn’t be ancient Rome without aqueducts and dams. Not only can you set these up however you like, but there’s also actual water physics.
This means that while you build a dam, the water will change based on the dam’s setup. It presents an interesting challenge. Build a functional dam, while also working hard not to turn your city into a public swimming pool.
This was very interesting the first time I utilized a dam, as I had to spend several minutes rearranging it to get the water flowing the way I wanted. It was a bit challenging because the physics aren’t all there yet. A bit wonky, by all accounts, but in the end, I got exactly what I needed out of it.
That’s pretty much the main theme across the entire game, though. Everything is just a little bit wonky at the time of writing, but once you get past that, there’s a lot to enjoy. Every step in your path to remaking the Roman Empire is a bit challenging and a bit strange, but in the end, it can all be well worth it.
Closing Comments
“Nova Roma feels like it’s got all the pieces it needs to find success, but right now those pieces seem to be a bit out of place. That said, what is there is a wildly addictive and thoroughly interesting city-builder that puts the power in your hands. Once some of the more annoying bugs and issues are fixed, I think this game will be a force to be reckoned with. As they say, Rome, and indeed, Nova Roma, wasn’t built in a day.”
