6waves Publishes a New Facebook Game, Legacy of Rome

Hong Kong publisher 6 Waves has put out yet another Facebook title, called Legacy of Rome, which was developed by a European company called innoWate. First spotted by the folks over at Gamezebo, the ancient Roman city-builder takes a page out of Playfish’s My Empire’s concept, placing it into a much more in-depth, and realistic, premise. As a game still in its early beta stages, Legacy of Rome doesn’t yet appear to have all the bells and whistles its tutorial segments talk about. All the same, it’s still a game with a tremendous amount of depth and breadth to it, that at times almost seems overwhelming. Once one does get the hang of it, though, it’s sure to impress. Legacy of Rome starts out with Caesar charging the player with expanding the, well, legacy of Rome in the ancient territories of Germany. The idea is to build a fully functional and successful empire, worthy of ancient Rome. Right off the bat, there is a tremendous amount going on, and any number of menus within even more menus. Essentially, players must manage the physical space they are granted with means of producing gold, stone, and lumber while managing population, happiness, water supplies, and sanitation. Starting with the most obvious elements -- stone and lumber -- these resources are gathered over a set amount of time by placing buildings such as a quarry or lumber mill atop stones or trees on the map. These, along with gold, are necessary to construct and upgrade new and existing buildings. Gold, on the other hand, is directly linked to population in the form of taxes. In order to increase population, players must construct different sizes of housing, ranging from slaves’ quarters to upper class patrician houses. Obviously, the bigger the house, the more people it can hold. However, it does not automatically fill up. As the town grows, new non-player characters will arrive, and for a small sum of gold, permanently populate a residence, paying periodic taxes. If one has friends that play, they can be added to the population for free. These are the most visible of the resources, but there are others that are important that aren’t clearly shown (though they need to be). Water will be a fairly new one to Facebook city-builders. First off, players must build roads to connect to the nearby pond so that fresh water can be brought into their town. However, it seems that water can only be carried a short distance, so users actually have to create reservoir and aqueduct systems to transport it throughout their empire. Coupled with Roman Baths that use this water supply, this appears to be what determines the sanitation level of a town. Unfortunately, this feature does not do anything as of yet, but the game says that there are bonuses coming soon for ideal cleanliness (which can currently only be seen through the advisor menu, to be touched on later). One thing water may also affect is the somewhat elusive element of happiness. Unlike other city-builders, there is no gauge to watch on the main user interface screen, but players must build certain structures (e.g. a pavilion) to keep their citizens happy. If they get too upset, there seems to be increased chances of “riots” which require authoritarian structures like a prefecture to quell. It’s a lot to manage, but actually pretty fun once you figure it all out. The biggest issue is that the game is very vague as to what exactly things do, at the moment, and there is no clear cache of resources to view save for gold, stone, and lumber. One clarifying mechanic is advisors, which can be appointed to give advice on sanitation, happiness, and population. These advisor positions are best filled by friends that play, and work for a set amount of time. Unfortunately, they don’t really do much beyond state the obvious (like say “you need more houses” when you try to add population that you don’t have houses for). Beyond these advisors, another social element involves visiting friends’ empires. What's interesting here is that one can either help them out or send slaves to steal from them. Sadly, neither element appears to be functional as of yet. The last major element of the game is not exactly a resource. It’s another type of building dubbed “Traders.” There are only three to build, but constructing them is supposed to unlock new types of buildings down the road. That said, the game is a very slow burn title, in that it takes hours, if not days, to build some things. Beyond this, all structures can be upgraded to yield a greater amount of whatever it is that they produce. As far as complaints goes, the biggest is clarity on some of the game elements. There are some very detailed quests (tasks) that explain a number of the nuances, but there really needs to be more user feedback and direct reference areas. Another annoyance is that taxes need be tediously collected building by building rather than all in one lump sum like in My Empire. Finally, and oddest of all, there is no audio at all, although this is hopefully a temporary omission. Overall, Legacy of Rome looks like it could be a very successful game. It’s a little overwhelming and confusing at times, but with a little work, it could easily succeed as one of the most in-depth city-builders on Facebook. One way or another, it will be curious to see just how well this more realistic Roman title does.

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6waves Publishes a New Facebook Game, Legacy of Rome

Christopher Mack

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Christopher Mack