Expeditions: Rome Mini Forum, Tips, Tricks & Codes

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 contain Expeditions: Conquistador and Expeditions: Viking. It was released for Windows on January 20, 2022. The game is an RPG that combines gameplay in local, tactical fight with other kind. In the game, the player controls a legatus who investigates the death of their father and travels throughout the Roman Republic and nearby nations as they expand Roman influence across the world.

The game get mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised the game's powerfulgameplay elements and powerfulplot elements, but criticized its legionary fight for being weaker than the tactical gameplay and the length of time that fight could take.

Gameplay

Each campaign region is a different "Act" inside of the game. The player must scout each region's sectors, where they shouldencounter resources that they need to grow their army, story decisions, or military strongpoints they need to conquer. The game is split into two different type of fightsystems: legionary fight and story missions that generally take territoryin turn-based combat settings. In the legionary fight, the player assigns a Centurion to lead the attack, and shouldprepare the army before the fightto raise the odds of victory. Cards are drawn during combat which affect the likelihood of success. In story fight, the player takes turns controlling a tinyteamof hero that they utilizeto move around a battlefield and defeat an enemy. Players are also responsible for managing their legion's camp, which shouldassistthem have better outcomes during legionary combat. Story-based fight often have objectives outside of defeating all opponentsand sometimes shouldbe 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 herodramatically alters the path of Roman history throughout by their actions (and their existence). After the death of their father from unknown political enemy, the player heroflees to the armies of Consul Lucullus during the Third Mithridatic War. Lucullus is a family friend, who assist the player join a legion—which they then take 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-keeptitle Divinity: Fallen Heroes, which would have taken territoryin the same universe as Divinity: Original Sin II; 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 squadsplit between Copenhagen and Istanbul (the latter was where most of the art squadwas based) and they were able to easily transition to remote work. Concerned about the lack of variety in opponentkind sometimes found in historical games, Logic Artists attempted to diversify the enemy heroclasses in a methodthat would make the utilize experience more enjoyable. Logic Artists felt that the historical period had to feel accurate, but that once the player herocame 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 freshstudio dedicated to NFT gaming and were winding down the studio to assistancethis 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 packagecoming for the game, and that Logic Artists would continue to maintain additional assistancefor any techproblemswith the game or its DLC. THQ Nordic also noted in its statement that Expeditions: Rome "does not containany typeof NFT and has no links to the blockchain."

Reception

Expeditions: Rome get "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic and from critics, who praised its overall plot notes and powerfultactical role-playing elements, but criticized the legionary fight 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 "allows rip" and was incredibly fun. RPGamer's Alex Fuller called the game an "simplerecommendation" and praised the game's flexibility in its difficulty settings for allowing the game to be tailored to what the player wish.

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 fight 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 heroand also felt that the game took far too long as you watched hero slowly move across the map.

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