Pax Augusta has finally released!
By Owain Williams
Last year, for the Ancient History Podcast, I spoke with Roger Gassman about Pax Augusta, a city builder video game set during the Roman Empire. His dedication to developing this game, which he was doing on his own, was inspiring. Finally, after seven years of development, Pax Augusta has released!
Immerse yourself in the fascinating world of the Roman Empire and build your own ancient metropolis! Pax Augusta is probably the most authentic city-building simulation set in the ancient world and puts you in the role of an ambitious governor who builds new cities along the Roman borders.
So far, it has received generally favourable reviews. On Steam, for example, the total user reviews tend towards ‘Mostly Positive’, while the review aggregator Metacritic gives Pax Augusta an average of 66/100 from seven reviews.
Considering the game was made by a single developer, such favourable reviews are quite the achievement. As Harry Alston writes for The Gamer, “The fact the game is half as good as it is an incredible feat of development”. Christian Schwarz, writing for GameStar, even says that Pax Augusta “sets the bar pleasingly high for Anno 117”, another city building video game set during the Roman Empire, developed by the AAA developer Ubisoft.
Most reviews tend to praise the game’s historical authenticity, while criticizing the game’s bugs and general performance. However, it seems that Roger quickly released a patch to remedy the performance issues, with more work promised down the line, based on the game’s road map.
If you’re interested in trying out Pax Augusta, there is a one-hour-long demo available to download on Steam.
Going forward, would you be interested in more video game content on the blog, such as reviews?