This games is all about city building and watching beautiful sceneries... you like that? Get this one!
The game can be played as a sandbox game or as a campaign. I didn't like the campaign mode, but that's just me... I don't like any campaign mode in any game. I didn't play the campaign mode for more than 3 hours so I can't really say anything about it.
The sandbox mode is really cool and allows you to build the city of your dreams. That is something that must appeal to you otherwise just skip to another game. You are only limited by the games' boundries but you are pretty free to try different setups to see if you can even be more succesful.
There are lots of cool things in the game like trading goods, aquaducts, disasters, slaves, to keep you searching for new ways to solve your problems along the way. The graphics are very nice. You can zoom in to a detailed level and the light effects are great. You really feel like some sort of roman God when you look over your city as the sun sets on the horizon. Day and nigth are balanced out a little, so you have more day time than night time, which is good. If you're a dark mysterious person there is always the option to let your people prey for eternal night, or dawn, or whatever you like best. The camera angles are ok, but I really missed some sort of God overview cam. The only way to solve this, is to park your view on a high mountain so you get a nice areal view. They really missed out on this one. It would have been so much cooler if you were able to fly over your city. However, you can "walk" through it. The people in your city act detailed. There always occupied with some task and you can look into each and every single individuals life. Learn his needs and tell him what to do. Great thing is, if you don't want to, you don't have to. The game is smart enough to handle the needs of the citizens aslong as you build in a smart way. Shifting people for other jobs can all be done by the AI and is a great relief on the micro management. But again, if you want... you can do it yourself.
The sound is nice. Detailed ambient effects of animals, water and other environmental sounds. It places you on the spot and add up to the great graphics to make this a wonderful playable game.
The replay value of the game is ok. Once you know how to build, the only challenge is to build as big as you can. After some time it can get pretty boring and pointless. On the other hand, this is the kind of game you want to pick up a couple of months after you were done playing as if it were only for the beautiful sights the game offers you.
Glory of the Roman empire is a really relaxing game which can relieve you from your daily stress. It won't get you frustrated and it isn't too hard but can be challenging. If you like building games, this is one for you to get!