December 8, 2023 - Day 342 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 361
Game: Expeditions: Rome
Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jan 21, 2022
Installation Date: Dec 8, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 25m
Expeditions: Rome is an isometric turn-based RPG, which I think is a combination I haven't played this year, or possibly at all.
This is the first game in the December Humble Choice bundle.
[next morning, coffee in hand]
So, where were we?
I started up the game, and was faced with a character creation screen. The game is set in Rome, circa 80 BCE (I'm estimating the date based on the age of one of your in-game companions; some guy named Gaius Julius Caesar. Yes, that one.)
The framing is that you're the youngest child of a senator who's just been murdered, and your mother has spirited you out of Rome.
You can choose the gender and name of your character - at which point the game explains the structure of Roman names; First name, Family Name, Nickname.
If you choose to play a female character, the game prevents you from choosing a first name, explaining that women in Rome did not have a given name, just a family name, and nickname.
Playing as a female, the NPCs within the game reflect the patriarchal attitudes of the setting, reminding you of your "place" in society, and the expectations upon you.
You're fairly quickly thrust into battle, at which point I was disoriented. I was faced with hex tiles, and choices on how to move the characters in my party.
"This is a turn-based tactics strategy game?"
Throughout the year I've found myself caught out trying to categorise some games.
I have no experience with table-top RPGs; I grew up in the middle of the "Satanic panic", and was taught that D&D was evil; when my only friend at high school was spending his lunch breaks playing D&D, I was on my own elsewhere, reading.
If I had any experience with TTRPGs, I would have immediately recognised it as a turn-based RPG; instead, with my history with first- & third-person action RPGs, I just didn't recognise it as an RPG, and it felt unique to me.
Even in reading up this morning, and having that "a-ha" moment, I recognised that I *have* played another turn-based RPG this year—Honkai Star Rail—but didn't connect the two, due to Honkai being third-person.
If I'd played the official Game Of The Year, I also might have recognised the gameplay (Santa, please leave Baldur's Gate 3 under the tree).
As such, it's hard to rate Rome: Expeditions comparatively; I can only really judge it on whether I enjoyed it, and... kind of? The graphics are very pretty, the voice acting is OK. I found the combat a little clunky, but maybe that was my lack of experience.
I'll probably give it another shot, (at least until I get BG3), so I'll say Rome: Expeditions is:
3: OK