I purchased this game elsewhere months ago and am still enjoying it. If you are unfamiliar with turn-based strategy, you can spend most of the demo familiarising yourself with the game through the tutorial. There is a lot to do and really a 1 hour demo for this type of game is not long enough and could put people off. However, think Civilization/Risk meets Puzzle Quest, then add cartoon characters and a dash of humour and you have a unique, amusing, involved and long game. In a nutshell, you build up cities and armies, move around the map to conquer territories, battle creatures and other armies and search for artifacts that help you in battle. It is complex. Villages have to be upgraded to acquire buildings for different army units. Units can be merged together to form large armies or split to move independently and boarded onto ships for sea travel. Ships can fight other ships. You can buy and sell items and even buy Generals who have their own unique abilities. There are 20 missions across 5 campaigns. Each mission has a primary goal and secondary goals to achieve. The first 3 missions of the Rome campaign is the tutorial and will probably take up most of the demo. As well as the tutorial, there is a more in-depth help in the Options menu. The Match 3 element is brilliant in this type of game because it removes the complexity of battle tactics usually required in RPG/strategy games. There is an untimed battle mode where you fight barbarians, creatures, armies and ship vs ship. The opposing sides take turns matching tiles to fill up the attack bar. Different units in the army require different tiles. When the attack bar is full the unit is ready to attack. This mode can take a long time as it finishes when all enemies are eliminated. There are options for surrender and automatic resolution. Another M3 mode is for looting areas and random events that occur. This is a timed mode to meet certain requirements. As well as the main campaign, there are additional game modes to increase gamepla

This is a fantastic game. It took me awhile to figure out what I was doing even with the help of the narrator, but once I got it, I was hooked big time. You are in charge of conquering territories and gaining armies and artifacts for Rome. This game seems to be a combo of strategy type games, and match 3 during the actual battles. The narrator and your guide thru the game has a wicked sense of humor. I found it interesting, funny and can't wait to finish this game. I hope they make more like it! Bravo Big Fish! A good game that's not a dark HO! Love it!

I found the game to be fun and enjoyable. The floating cursor was a bit annoying at first but after playing the game for a couple of hours I adapted and no longer noticed. THE ONE HOUR TRIAL DOES NOT DO THE GAME JUSTICE. The first 3 adventures are short and only teach the basics. There is quite a bit of more complex strategy as the game progresses and you have to spread your development around to get the most out of your units, including earning and building more powerful and interesting units than are available in the early game. There is more to learn in the further campaigns and many of the questions that remained for me after the first hour were answered in the 2nd hour of play. I played for what felt like an extra hour and when I glanced up at the clock 4 hours had gone by. The game play was very addictive and it is endlessly replayable as each time you replay a campaign it is different and there are LOTS of campaigns to play. I bought this game and I reccomend it to anyone that enjoys games like Risk or Civilization.

For those who love strategy games this is a must have. It has a very similar gameplay to Civilization which is similar to Risk, but way more intricate. This game also incorporates some of the match 3 puzzle working like Puzzle Quest. The graphics are kind of clunky and crude, but the gameplay is simple and seamless. I was only fifteen minutes into the demo when I decided I must have this game. I like that you can build your armies and change them out as you need to. The "guide" is hysterical, the writing is a bit small, but once you get used to what you are doing the writing isn't all that important. The sounds get a bit tedious, but overall it is a great game, and no better way to kill time, I had hardly noticed two hours had gone by and I was still playing. If you love Risk, Puzzle Quest, or strategy games in general, I think you will love this! I strongly recommend this game~but it's NOT for everyone!

I never played a game like that... In general, I never played a "strategy" game with a map and little soldier. War and battles are not really my cup of tea. But here, the environment is funny, the puzzles are great, the rythm is excellent! I'm a fan! Well, of course, some little details could be improved. But the experience is great already!

I liked the graphics and some of the tiresome tedium of strategy games was relieved by the humorous tone of the game. But overall, I thought that the lengthy tutorial killed it. I didn't even get to finish the tutorial by the time the 1 hr demo was over. I appreciate that the developers didn't make a stripped down kiddie game but it could've been streamlined better. Also, they kept the tutorial text box taking up most of the center screen, which was a problem when the instructions were pointing something out, such as the rings on the army's base showing an indication of it's strength, and the tutorial text box was covering what it wanted you to look at.

A good little battle empire game, which is a nice change to all the HO games at the moment. It has match 3 games within it too. It has a tutorial help, which hilariously tells you off if you want to try something else other than what it has told you to do. I have played the hour demo and found things quite easy to pick up. Don't know if I would buy yet.

This game is a bit complicated to start out; you really need to do the tutorial. Even so, it takes a bit to get the hang of it. But stick with it, it really does get to be fun. This is a combo of Stratego/Risk and Puzzle Quest during ancient Roman times. You try to take over lands, build up villages & recruit troops and generals. When you cross paths with other civilizations, a match 3 battle begins. Pretty humorous story line. Graphics are fine, not great. Played without music, so can't report on that. Definite replayabilty with various difficulties, training, free play, etc.

In this innovative and quite complex marriage of m3 and tactical battle games they just may if you can get into it and raise an unbeatable army or two. The graphics are clear but small and a bit cartoonish. The print could be bigger and the instructions although detailed, aren't always very clear (at least to me!). The sarcastic and mocking tone of the tutorial guide may dismay some, but they somehow fit the avartar you use. As an m3 fan, I enjoyed the battles and found them clearly explained. But overall the instructions need some work on simplicity and clarity. But if you're a fan of either m3 or strategy games, try this one. It just may be your ticket to Imperial rule!

The character visuals and humorous descriptions are clearly based on the Asterix comic, and are exceptionally good. The tutorial is well done, and the campaign is varied. Good map visuals, too, though the music is of the annoying kind that says, "Gee, isn't it all funny, I mean, really, really funny, huh huh huh?" The match 3 AI is competent, if hardly brilliant. It passes up 4- and 5-of-a-kinds, though it does seek out what helps itself, and attempts occasionally to stymie your own needs. Where the game really falls down is on the strategic AI. When you're told to hold cities for X amount of turns and fend off attacks, why bother when you can literally walk onto an opponent's home province, because it's undefended? And of course, when that's gone, their side is gone, too. In short: fantastic game atmosphere (save for the music), a decent if not great challenge on the match 3 level, and no challenge at all on the maps. Which is probably why, on the higher levels of the campaign, they toss a great many provinces and a great deal of gold into your opponents' lap. Because apparently, in this version of the Ancient World, all the other major powers have had frontal lobotomies.