Never Second in Rome  Download GAMESPACK.NET

The first game was amazing, easily one of my favorites. This game is a massive step back in almost every singe facet. First, it is not a rougelike, as such, there is very little replay-ability. Instead of managing one character you now have 8, 7 of which are your subordinate legionaries who are all just awful in every way. While your main centurion is forced into brutally difficult battles against multiple foes, it’s not an insurmountable job, he is often up to the task. Your subordinates are not and are equally placed into positions where they may need to fight several enemies at one, all of whom are phenomenally better than they are. This leads to an ultimate exercise in frustration as you just watch for 16 turns while you are fainted non-stop with no respite or counter and eventually brutally torn apart by angry Gauls. Last Half of Darkness

If you thought X-com had you playing against loaded dice this game takes it to the next level. Secondly, progression is utterly broken. Your century does not ever seem to really improve or do so painfully slow and as such are never prepared for the various skill checks that occur throughout the game. There seems to be no incentive to ever try anything difficult or heroic unlike in the previous game as you are essentially guaranteed to fail. Given that there is no meta progression failure is permanent, meaning you are wholly at the mercy of heavily loaded 50 sided dice that will ♥♥♥♥ you over without remorse. There is no option to fail and still reap some rewards in the form of having a slightly better character next time to help you incrementally improve and to eventually become the incarnation of Mars as was the case in the previous title. Here failure is painful, agonizing, without a purpose, and worse of all completely random. Thirdly, the new mechanics added to the game are overly complex and not explained at all.

Fighting with a century is an interesting choice, though in execution it does not work. Simply being in control of a single soldier was far more straight forward and engaging. Again, here the dice rolls can and will ♥♥♥♥ you. Did you manage to get a few good rolls on an attack phases and managed to kill a few Gauls leading to you completing your objectives? Well, don’t think it was because you played smart and withdrew and advanced carefully, it was because you got lucky. Those same dice can do the same to you on the other side, killing multiple of your soldiers in one go because ♥♥♥♥ you, the AI doesn’t need to even bother with shifting its unit stance the way you do, they will always have a better disposition than you regardless. Another poorly implemented and explained mechanic. I was very excited to see this game on the store page given how much I enjoyed the first one and the setting is the perfect choice to follow up the 2nd Punic War and 2nd Macedonian War.

ADD ONS/PATCHES AND DLC’S: Never Second in Rome