Domina

Domina

This is a ridiculously fun game albeit excruciatingly punishing most times, a single fuck up and you may as well start over. The game has some serious potential with tons of room for improvements and add ons, do bear in mind that the dev team is just one very dedicated guy, so to see all this being produced by one individual is nothing short of amazing.

PROS:

-Soundtracks are incredible, really fitting for the theme and invokes a sense of bloodlust.

-Awesome pixel art style graphics, very pleasing to the eyes to witness pixel art dismemberments.

Real player with 243.3 hrs in game


Read More: Best Rome Management Games.


Wonderful Updates + Save now included!

I bought this game day 1 even without the save feature. I still loved it but hey! You don’t like it because it didn’t have the save feature? Fair enough. This dev though, such a great person from what I’ve seen. Lots of complaints, most of them obnoxious and he still updates almost daily, bug fixes and all that to get the game running just right. I think the dev’s enthusiasm and passion for this game will keep it running for a good while. Now on to the game…

Real player with 29.0 hrs in game

Domina on Steam

A Legionary’s Life

A Legionary’s Life

Now at first glance you might write this game off. You would be wrong to do so. This feels like the first time defending was actually useful in a game. Combat has stance and fatigue to keep track of. Should your enemy lose their stance while attacking you you can then mount a counter-attack and take advantage of the situation. Fighting a tough enemy? Defend until they drain their fatigue. Fighting the rank and file? Go on the offensive and try to kill as many as you can. Missed your neck attack leading to stance loss? You better go defensive while trying to recover your stance or else the enemy might land their own attack on your neck or even land a feint further lowering your stance. Fighting multiple enemies at once? You better maintain a balanced attitude while fighting as if you go full offensive attitude and miss your opponents might capitalize on your loss of stance. Fighting consists of attacks and soft spot attacks targeting specific body parts where the enemy’s armour is weakest. Feints, shield maneuvers, recovery (restores stance) and respite (restores fatigue) also consist of what you use while fighting. There might not be breathtaking 3D graphics that require the best computer to play but when your see that hp bar deplete you will feel terror after sinking so much time into your character.

Real player with 138.9 hrs in game


Read More: Best Rome Historical Games.


I’ve binged this one since I got it on sale, and if you are going to buy it that is the time. The game is fun, simple, and easy to quickly grasp. But, it is pitched to not give the AI cheats and that is a fairly blatant lie that will make you want to pull your hair out and frisbee your laptop across the room.

The Good:

-Very accessible

-Interesting (albeit short) story with some small branches en route to the end

-Simple battle mechanics

-Cool concept, decently executed

-Decent music

You get to play as a manipular Roman legionary, so anyone coming into this and wondering why their “highly trained Roman soldier” can’t beat some dirt farming Carthaginian is just not paying attention to the context of the game. Because guess what? You’re a dirt farming Roman when you start!

Real player with 55.7 hrs in game

A Legionary's Life on Steam

GLADIUM

GLADIUM


Hey! If you enjoy short and sweet reviews, follow my curator page [url]here![/url] I am an independent Curator providing reviews and insights to the games that need the spotlight! Thank you! :) 

Gladium is the project of Eirik Wiklund a one man developer studio and yes, the game reminded me of Domina , a strategy game where you took charge of a Ludus, training and preparing Gladiators in a management approach, where the fights were simulated. Both games enjoy the pixel art style and that’s where the comparison should end.

Real player with 14.3 hrs in game


Read More: Best Rome Fighting Games.


This is quite a difficult game to review tbh. It is a very unforgiving game, some of the bosses you will fight will kill you many times, the part that some people may dislike the most is it’s grind system to be able to defeat the bosses or even try another go at them (you gain blood points to trade for perks and for another chance at a boss if you fail), meaning that if you lose to a boss you will have to play either normal mode or horde mode to try again, making the game VERY repetitive. You will also earn gold to unlock new equipment, which is necessary to try different strategies as you cannot fight all the bosses in the same manner (at least I advise againts it). Ultimately I’m giving it a thumbs up because I had fun the whole 14 hours I played and I even got a little addicted, the theme helped as I really like gladiator style fighting games, but be warned, if you get frustrated easily this may not be for you.

Real player with 13.6 hrs in game

GLADIUM on Steam

Gods of Sand

Gods of Sand

Gods of Sand is a gladiator manager with turn based combat, heavily inspired by the Swords and Sandals series, but in a darker and unforgiving setting. Besides fighting in multiple arenas, micromanaging your ludus and gladiators is an important part of the game, which features:

To run a ludus (a gladiator school) you must always pay attention to the economics of your business. Fight to get money and prizes, train your gladiators enough to maintain a solid income and restore the old and abandoned ludus your family left you.

Multiple items and weapons are allowed inside combat, but knowing the best time to use your gear is key if you want to be the champion of the arenas.

Any skill, armor or weapon is usable by any gladiator, generating lots of possibilities when it comes to creating new builds.

Gods of Sand on Steam

Story of a Gladiator

Story of a Gladiator

Story of a Gladiator is a small arena beat ‘em-up game in which we try to avoid getting a bloody nose.

The story is told quite quickly: Our family and friends are killed by the Romans and we manage to escape so that we do not end up in slavery… or worse. Finally, we spend the day with fighting and drinking alcohol in the company of shady ladies - until one day we meet a famous gladiator who gives us some advice on how to become a great champion ourselves. And so our first fight of many begins in the arena…

Real player with 179.2 hrs in game

The game is very fun and interesting, we definitely need more Gladiator games as there hasn’t been any good one’s in modern times, it’s very sad that such genre is not being looked into by developers and game studios. Ryse of Rome had gladiator mode, but it’s not like Gladiator Begins/Road to Colosseum. I am glad this game came out, and hopefully people show interest in this game, so we can get more of this genre.

As for the game

The game is very fun and actually very hard, my only issue with it is the lack of story and in depth customization, the game feels very limited in that aspect, it’s not even as good in terms of depth as sword and sandals to be honest. The graphics are amazing, the armour looks very nice, I just wish there was more depth to fight styles, weapon, character customization, story arc, training and maybe companions and such in fights. There is a lot the game can do, I played all the levels and have 3 stars in all of them, took me 9hrs total play time

Real player with 9.0 hrs in game

Story of a Gladiator on Steam

Pax Romana: Romulus

Pax Romana: Romulus

Hello All, after playing the game for a few hours (44.5hrs) I feel I can give PAX an honest review. The game is in Early Access so content is limited but the story looks promising with many possible directions. Starting off you will struggle managing Energy & Hunger needed to perform actions. I found farming, cooking items into meals, and then selling end product enabled me to build coin to buy animals and other raw materials. Farming isn’t fast and takes time but I was able to grind through it. Early on you will want to focus on mining for Turquoise to then have turquoise crafted into rune stones. These then are used to activate the rune portals to traverse the map between the different towns. Harvest wood/stone in between your crops growing. There were some bugs with different features (crafting recipes/beehives) and the Devs responded fast to resolved them. Feedback on issues and ideas were warmly received. Many games I have played you read from other players how Devs don’t care about it’s community. Locus Ludus does at least hear you an have responded. Is PAX the greatest game you’ll ever play, maybe not. Could it use more content, yes! PAX is a game that won’t give you everything and will make you work for it. It is a struggle to start until you get a better understanding of how things work (Energy/Hunger management). Berry bushes & mushrooms found while you’re out collecting resources (wood/stone) was something i overlooked early on. Due to hunger consumption you might want to save those consumables for when you decide to go out resource collecting. Going into options and turning on “sprint always” might help speed things up as well. You don’t die if energy\hunger depletes, you just walk very slow. I found using hunger items food/potions at your homestead really isn’t needed. Yes, you will move slower but you’ll find farming & tending animals takes time which wastes\burns your hunger meter. Once your established you can then consume meals\wine you craft as you feel the need but always make sure to buy enough seeds or regents prior to the next harvest. Also, be sure to take into consideration the cost of materials versus the profit of the finished product. It’s not worth buying\growing something that gives 4 gold profit if something else that you can grow/craft gives you 14 gold profit. My basic strategy in playing is like so. Plant crops & manage animals, collect (Wood/stone), harvest crops you grow, craft items (Cook food from grown crops, craft wine & cloth, smelt ingots, collect honey), sell end product. After completing the stories quest chain sadly there is little left to do. I’m grinding out the achievements but past that I’m just waiting for more content, At it’s current state I would give PAX a 7 out of 10. PAX does have potential to grow into a really good game if the Devs stick with it.

Real player with 46.3 hrs in game

I really like the concept of this game and I think it can grow to become great. But the risk/reward aspect is broken. More importantly, the effort/reward aspect is broken. The game has a lot of potential. There are a lot of unnecessary actions/clicks forced on the player due to the limitations of gamemaker. This game does not reward ANY of the standard gamer types - Highly impatient, Impatient, Easy going, Lazy, Lazy as Fk. These types of games will succeed only if the game rewards all the gamer types in some way. It is possible to pull off but requires a lot of thought.

Real player with 33.9 hrs in game

Pax Romana: Romulus on Steam

Centurion Rex

Centurion Rex

Centurion Rex is a strategy game set in an alternate history where the Meditterean region is ruled by a Roman-dinosaur-led republic. Few dare to oppose the hegemony of the reptilian republic. One such force is Shark Shogunate - a militaristic dictatorship from the Far East.

You can take control of either republican or shark forces and lead them to victory through superior leadership and tactics.

Centurion Rex on Steam

For Sparta

For Sparta

PROS:

  • A decent variety of enemies. There are about 3-4 different skins for each monster, but they each have varying attacks and behaviours to keep things interesting.

  • A large selection of craftable perks to potentially obtain.

  • The controls handle well. Dodging and attacking feels responsive and enjoyable.

  • Action-packed generally speaking. Enemies spawn in waves throughout a day, but if you take too long, the next wave will spawn in to keep you on your toes.

  • Satisfying and appropriate sound effects.

Real player with 15.8 hrs in game

Great little arcade game. It’s difficult and has a lot of random elements that can make it anywhere from challenging to near impossible, but with games being so fast/short and the ability to restart in a couple of seconds it’s not normally frustrating.

If you like old school keyboard bashing this is for you.

Real player with 6.5 hrs in game

For Sparta on Steam