Expeditions: Rome, the preview: we have seen the new chapter of the franchise in action
Expeditions
In the past few hours, we have had the chance to attend an hour of presentation of Expeditions: Rome, the new title of Logic Artists, published by THQ Nordic and the third chapter of a franchise that has already told previously the era of conquests towards the new world and the cold battles of northern Europe during the Viking era. As you can guess from the name, in this case the events that we are going to follow concern our home, that is Italy, precisely Ancient Rome and its expansion campaigns. We are therefore ready to tell you about the new chapter of the Expeditions series, in our preview of Expeditions: Rome.Between cinema and history
Expeditions: Rome: a battle phase From a narrative point of view , the title of Logic Artists wants to put in the hands of the player the possibility of shaping the story. The absence of Julius Caesar from the power of Ancient Rome leads the two most important families of Rome to clash for control of the political and military life of the city, but not only. Your rise as a young scion of power in the capital will not be a walk in the park, the story that awaits you is a multi-faceted sequence of events of war, revenge, cruelty and political subterfuge that have really teased us for what we have seen. The idea clearly takes its cue from the mythicization of the American world of history (that inevitable overseas blockbuster touch), but as far as we have been able to ascertain the historical bases are there and all the narrative infrastructure, for how it was there. presented, is able to satisfy all palates: both those looking for a compelling story of fiction, and those looking for a massive presence of significant historical details.During your rise to power, you will face several military campaigns that have marked the war history of Ancient Rome, you will pass for example from North Africa to the forests of Gaul, but at the same time when you return to Rome you will have to manage the internal political situation. As a Legate, you will have your Legion at your disposal and also in this case, narratively speaking, there will be a whole series of internal interpersonal dynamics with the members of your Legion that will lead to various implications in the story.
Political and military life
Expeditions: Rome: the camp From a gameplay point of view Expeditions: Rome showed us a two-sided soul: on the one hand the conservative part of the series while on the other a push to wanting to understand how to deepen the main mechanics of the series. As for the first part, the conservative one, permeates the entire playful infrastructure of the title. Expeditions: Rome in fact maintains all the characteristics of the previous chapters. The action phases are divided into map exploration and combat. In the first we will be able to dialogue with NPCs, move freely and interact with chests and / or parts of the setting, in the second we will find ourselves in front of a turn-based system with a hexagonal cell battle map.Each component of our party, including our alter ego, he will have a series of actions in addition to movement per turn. We move from attack to defense, passing through the peculiar abilities of the class to which they belong. If for the protagonist, the class and style of play is variable, all the other members of the party have a fixed style linked to their class and well characterized. In fact, each class will have skills consistent with its military figure of the time. For example, if you carry a Legion status with you, he will use abilities based on his hasta (spear) but also on his huge shield. The guys from Logic Artists have focused a lot on this point, explaining how the depth of the choices regarding the party has been greatly expanded and the work has been done thinking of offering numerous synergies between the various classes in order to make the battles varied. . Not only that, however, during the battles it will be possible to interact very effectively with the game environment, with for example the possibility of setting fire to the surrounding terrain (if the materials it is made of allow it) with similar Greek fire bombs. , rather than other specific interactions designed specifically for this chapter.
Expeditions: Rome: the variety of scenarios If therefore on a conservative level the game focuses a lot on the combat system, on an innovative level a whole series of other aspects are touched on. As fans know, the Expeditions series has always opted for a focus on dialogue and multiple choices. In this case more than ever, the possibility of shaping history by following in the footsteps of what Julius Caesar did in reality, or by creating one's own path, is definitely marked. The focus of the developers was to offer the player a myriad of possibilities, multiple choices and difficult moral choices that also involved substantial and drastic changes to the rest of the storyline. Facing a character rather than talking to him, killing or not an NPC rather than undertaking a total conquest of a village in Gaul could completely change the course of the story you have chosen. Furthermore, there is a whole series of choices that have repercussions in political life during the phases in Rome.
In fact, between one military campaign and another, you will return to your Villa in Rome to manage the dynamics of your rise to power as well as to manage the rivalry with the other noble family that will hinder you. In these situations there will also be situations in which characters of a certain importance could be more or less opposed to your choices to the point of becoming hostile towards you. Along with the management of political life, another management element enters Expeditions: Rome and is that of the outposts. During your campaigns you will obviously have a base camp in which to manage the action before the missions and / or plan the next moves. The field, however, will also be completely manageable and improvable and taking care of this aspect will bring benefits even and above all during battles. An example is the possibility of improving the walls of the outpost to guarantee more resistance to our troops. A final distinctive element of this Expeditions: Rome will be that of being able to participate in large-scale battles. Unfortunately Logic Artists hasn't bothered to tell us more about it, but we know that there will be sieges with different phases in which we can take part.
Expeditions: Rome has shown itself to be an extremely interesting, rich and profound title just enough. The classic gameplay of the series remains a satisfying confidence in terms of approach and layering possibilities. The whole series of moral implications in the choices, management of political life and of the camps, on the other hand, offers a series of interesting adaptations to the proposed narrative context that could be a winning card. Furthermore, the different military campaigns guarantee an immense variety of biomes, enemies and situations that could greatly lighten the weight of some moments. Despite the impossibility of trying the title firsthand, the hands-off presentation of the new chapter of the Expeditions franchise has left us hopeful for the future.
