Recent reviews by Eldrig

Creative Assembly have come back and updated the offering with new content. While it's still not their strongest showing for a DLC, and many of the factions included in the DLC could have used some campaign mechanics overhauls (which never came), if you're interested in the factions on offer it is now a fairly solid purchase.

When I first bought this game on release, the game was fairly bare-bones. I played for about 6 hours or so and then put it down for almost a whole year. Recently, I came back to see how it played now. While there is still some room for improvement (eg. culture rework [apparently on the way], differentiating different government types) the game is much more enjoyable and is currently in a good state.

The setting is great where you can see the world evolve in a number of dynamic ways. The map is amazing and is, in my mind, unparalleled in other paradox games in beauty, detail and strategic opportunity. Taking a tribe from a rural backwater at the edge of society to a cosmopolitan empire of your own fashioning. Managing pops, politics, and building cities finally allow you to enjoyably play in peacetime for the first time since Victoria II. With the latest update, there are now options for religious syncretism between a ruling elite and ruled populace.

As I mentioned above, the game has come a long way, and still has a ways to go before its on the level, on the whole, as some other paradox grand strategy games, but paradox seems to be committed to continuing to improve the game in free patches. For fans of the ancient world this is a great buy.

(P.S., As I am writing this the game is free to try for another 4 days, if you are at all hesitating, give it a shot.)