Expeditions: Rome - Reviews Roundup

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Embargo has been lifted and reviews on Expeditions: Rome are incoming.

RPGamer: 4.0

For those looking for an engaging historical RPG, Expeditions: Rome is an easy recommendation. The options for tailoring the difficulty allows players to focus on their preferred elements and make it challenging, welcoming, and rewarding depending on what players want. While the game's interpretation of Rome may simplify the issues of the time, Expeditions: Rome successfully uses its setting to create a very enjoyable role-playing experience.

Pros: Entertaining gameplay loop with flexible challenge options. Interesting story and choices. Enjoyable historical references.
Cons: Strategic cleanup can get a bit dry. Waiting for enemy turns can get annoying on larger maps.
GameGrin: 10

Expeditions: Rome is astounding in every area I was presented with. Constantly I felt like there were tons of things for me to explore and pay attention to, and truly simulates how I picture leading an entire war campaign.
RockPaperShotgun:

Despite a bit of a subdued opening hour, Expeditions: Rome is a gripping, ambitious historical CRPG that shines in its writing, its art direction, and most of all in the design of its turn-based combat encounters.
TechRaptor: 9.0

It's easy to poke holes in other aspects of Expeditions: Rome, but they make up minor issues in comparison to the overall package. Ultimately, Expeditions: Rome is a great tactical RPG that is well worth your time. It has plenty of intricate mechanics to satisfy the tactical fans out there along with tons of tactical variety in its missions. Throw in a story that really lets you feel like a Roman citizen, despite how predictable it may become, and you have a solid entry into the Expedition series. Expedition: Rome is deserving of a triumph of its own right.

Pros: Strong Tactical Battles and Mission Variety. Great Mix of Historical Accuracy and Alternate History. Tons of Mechanics Without Being Overwhelming. Large Scale Warfare, Sieges, and Roleplay Choices.
Cons: Narrative is Secondary to the Mechanics. Lots of Downtime between Battles.
And for the video format (both have timestamps in the video description):

Fextralife: 8.1

PartyElite:


More information.
 
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Looks like they've got a nice hit on their hands. Happy for them.

Yes, it's well deserved in my opinion, but we'll confirm that when the game is out. :)

The only bad score I've just seen is from Gamerant, but they couldn't even get the release date right, chances are they played something else. I would have added it to the list if it allowed to counter-balance the opinions or to show negative points worth attention, but it was just completely off.
 
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Yes, it's well deserved in my opinion, but we'll confirm that when the game is out. :)

The only bad score I've just seen is from Gamerant, but they couldn't even get the release date right, chances are they played something else. I would have added it to the list if it allowed to counter-balance the opinions or to show negative points worth attention, but it was just completely off.

Indeed. I read their critic here : https://gamerant.com/expeditions-rome-review/

That's the most negative point they mention about the game :

While many of the game's shortcomings are easy to overlook, others are more glaring. For example, there are named characters that don't have portraits, which gives the experience an unfinished feel. Gear in the game gives only incremental upgrades, which strips away a lot of the fun of improving one's characters. Skills are similarly disappointing in that they don't feel like beneficial upgrades.

:uhoh:
 
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Great to see. I've already pre-purchased this game and excited to play it!
 
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Apparently the author mostly writes guides and game lists, it's the only review I saw from him since September (I stopped looking after 10 pages of articles). He was obviously stopped in the middle of a series of guides for Tainted Grail: Conquest and must have mixed things up. ;)

I just disagree on all the "glaring shortcomings". EDIT: It's not perfect and I do have some issues in mind but I'll check them out when the game releases, so hopefully I'm not too biased but maybe a little.
 
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Loking forward to diving into this on Thursday!

Just finished "Subnautica" and while I considered starting with "Cyberpunk 2077" now and waiting a bit with this one, I think I'll put CP2077 on hold for a bit longer instead. Would be great if I could time it so it coincides with the release of a DLC/expansion. ;)
 
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For example, there are named characters that don't have portraits, which gives the experience an unfinished feel.

Its PROOF that the reviewer doesnt know the series. It was the same in Viking. They couldnt create very detailed portrait for every unimportant NPC.


Gear in the game gives only incremental upgrades, which strips away a lot of the fun of improving one's characters.

Like in many games? And its actually NOT TRUTH, there is special gear.
But I assume he didnt play it for very long. The review is pretty short.

I think that something will appear soon on RPGWatch. :)
 
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Seems good. I will keep my eye on this one and I now have it on my Steam wish list.

I'm still playing Pathfinder WotR (in turn-based mode), though, and after that I'll want to stay away from turn-based for a good amount of time so I might play God of War or Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy next.
 
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Already bought it and can't wait to dive in tomorrow!

Btw, if you are on the Humble Choice Premium or Classic plan you get another 20 % discount on the 20 % pre-order discount, bringing the price down to 30 €. Pretty good deal if you liked the older Expeditions games.
 
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Happy to see the positive reviews but at the moment of writing there seem to be only marginal sites that have given their vote: https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/expeditions-rome/critic-reviews

I am not concerned about the quality of the game. I am sure it will eventually be the same or better than the previous games which are among my favorite RPGs. The reviews I checked did not mention bugs which makes me distrust them. There are bound to be bugs. Will this be another UEA (unintended early access) or not is the question.

I promised myself never preorder a game after the disappointment with CP2077. Yet, I am tempted to break that promise due to their preorder deal. I am sure I will be playing this game if it runs on my computer, but don't want to let bugs spoil the experience.

Perhaps I'll preorder and play it later once the bugs have been dealt with. Still have not had time to play WotR and that should be bug-freeish by now.

Happy we have so many eager beta-testers here :) Your contribution is valued (this is not sarcasm).
 
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He claims he did play the game for 65 hours. Oh well. Who knows.
When I see his history of articles, I'm not sure how he could have spent 65 hours on the game. Maybe he did, but he definitely missed what we saw in a few hours of demo. For example that the companions had a distinct ability, and that some weapons did as well. Or that some key skills at level-up unlock the potential of some builds.

He seems to think this is a strategy game, so perhaps that's why he's confused.

Happy to see the positive reviews but at the moment of writing there seem to be only marginal sites that have given their vote: https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/expeditions-rome/critic-reviews
Are they marginal? They're not big sites except IGN and perhaps Eurogamer, but should we trust big sites like Gamespot and others? For games like this, or for that matter, for any game? Gamespot's review on CP was stellar IIRC. I think that as long as we have enough reviews, it gives a good indication of the game's pros and cons.

I've always wondered how they reacted regarding bugs, do they report them when there are too many, or when they don't like the game? They're used to early builds, so they may disregard some of them, I suppose that's what they do.

But anyway you're right, the game has to pass the ultimate test, when all the players will go through all the possible combinations and weird cases.
 
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Are they marginal? They're not big sites except IGN and perhaps Eurogamer, but should we trust big sites like Gamespot and others? For games like this, or for that matter, for any game? Gamespot's review on CP was stellar IIRC. I think that as long as we have enough reviews, it gives a good indication of the game's pros and cons.

I don't mean that one should trust marginal sites less than the large commercial ones or vice versa because every opinion is biased by definition. Only that I have experience with some reviewers/sites and their biases and hence can easier interpret their reviews to my opinion.

As you say, there is no knowing how each reviewer focusses on bugs and how much they consider them in the review. The press versions seem to be even buggier than the release versions these days. Opinions on this site are the most valuable source of information for me. Meta-reviews work quite nicely as long as they cover similar data basis. At the moment of writing, the Metacritic score does not contain those large commercial sites the previous entires have. Metacritic user scores, on the other hand, seem utter rubbish as they are influenced by so many things other than the game quality.
 
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I'm glad to see the strongly positive early response. This developer has been on my radar since the beginning, but if I'm honest they have yet to produce a game that I truly enjoyed. I like Conquistadors quite a bit, but it was rough around the edges. Understandable given their small team and it being their first game. Then came Vikings, and I couldn't really get past a setting I had little interest in. I think Rome might be the first real confluence of potential, polish and my own tastes.
 
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Another good review.

Expeditions: Rome Review – Roma Invicta

It's funny, the reviewer found the story so compelling that it made the combat somewhat less attractive to him.

There was a comment made by Brad or Jonas yesterday in their stream, that people didn't realize the dialogues were customized according to past decisions, unless they made several runs through the game. It reminds me of Wrath of the Righteous which adapts the dialogues to past decisions or even the characteristics of the main character.

Some devs say that this doesn't pay off, that it's too much effort for players who won't even finish the game on average, and that it's time better spent elsewhere. But I like to know L.A. and Owlcat went through the trouble of doing that, it tells a lot on the spirit of those teams.
 
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