Whether it’s Final Fantasy, Elden Ring, or Hades 2, conflicts with the gods themselves have long been a fundamental part of video games. But the more you ignore the anger of the Roman pantheon, the more new rometo the point where I’m starting to worry that it might not be the best idea. This beautiful city-planning newcomer from Kingdoms and Castles developer Lion Shield and indie strategy publisher Hooded Horse is currently available as a demo on Steam. Therefore, you may want to take a more measured approach to how you interact with the gods. Or, like me, you can try and see how long their anger lasts.
Perhaps I should know better. I grew up on the god sim Black and White, one of the best city builders of the early 2000s, so I know how frustrating it is to watch your followers babble over your perfectly reasonable desires. After all, you’re just trying to help them. Still, my attention is focused on the core construction of Nova Roma, and I’m busy learning the basics of laying out production chains and establishing supply lines. As a breakaway trying to found a new Pax Romana far from a crumbling empire, I have too many things on my mind to worry about simple trivial things like the desires of the gods.
My thoughts are instead that the next thing I can unlock from the tech tree will improve my food generation or allow me to start building an aqueduct. These symbolic waterways are fundamental to the settlements of Nova Roma, just like in the real world, and help ensure that the needs of the population are met. But they can also be weaknesses. If something goes wrong, whether it’s a natural disaster or trouble from local savages, you may find that your water-powered transportation network is suddenly dumping copious amounts of wet stuff all over your beautiful crops.
There is also speculation that the old empire may come calling. What should I do if I’m not ready? Perhaps the right course of action is to seek the favor of the gods. After all, meeting their demands and keeping them satisfied will bring profitable profits and will ensure you can count on a rich harvest and healthy and happy workers. Of course, we may not be able to satisfy everyone, but we are beginning to suspect that simply ignoring everything will hasten the violent reaction of fires and floods. But isn’t that kind of experimentation the purpose of a demo?
The Nova Roma demo is available on Steam, and the full game is scheduled to be released on Thursday, January 22nd via Steam, GOG, and Microsoft Store. It will also be available to PC Game Pass subscribers from day one as part of the bundled game library. You can download it here to be the first to know what’s coming, but you may not follow my example.
