Nova Roma enters Early Access as an ancient city builder with familiar foundations. Developed by the creators of Kingdoms and Castles, the game carries forward a similar visual style, refined and expanded for a new historical setting.
At its core, the experience follows a traditional ancient city-building structure and is largely familiar experience. Players place buildings, manage resources, and gradually expand their settlement while unlocking new technologies and capabilities. Defending against the occasional raid fromt eh sea also requires some basic defenses of walls and towers. The Roman theme introduces interactions with gods through temples, adding a thematic layer to it all. For an early access game it was running well and seemed mostly bug free, though some quality of life features would help raise things to a higher level.
However, a more distinctive system emerges through environmental challenges. Heavy storms can lead to flooding, introducing a dynamic element that requires planning and adaptation. This, in turn, leads to dam construction — a feature that adds both your city planning and resource management. Also the flooding and dam constructing was just plain fun.
While these systems show strong potential, the overall experience reamins largely familiar and we will put the game aside and hope more unique features rise from the ashes of the Roman Empire by the end of early access. I do look forward to checking it out more down the road.
For now, Nova Roma has been placed in Cryostasis.
The city endures. The river is held… for now.
Pronouncement: Placed in Cryostasis.