Millennium's second isometric adventure game is a humorous romp in the ancient Roman Empire. Rome: Pathway to Power is a vast improvement over Adventures of Robin Hood in every respect. The tiny characters are still there, but they are much easier to see thanks to VGA graphics and smoother animations.
The premise: you are an ambitious Roman slave who is trying to free yourself and get away from the provincial town of Herculaneum to seek fortunes in Rome. Gameplay is a fun mix of action, adventure, and even strategy. Most puzzles require astute observation of people's daily lives and good timing (a sequence in which you must wait to steal a citizen's toga is a case in point). The cities are teeming with priests, citizens, officials, warriors, and other kinds of people, all of whom have things to say when you stop them on the street. The game is divided into self-contained episodes, each of which must be solved in order.
The awkward interface of Adventures of Robin Hood has been vastly improved in this game, and is much more playable. It is still not intuitive, however, as some actions require multiple step (you must click on DO icon first to PAY, for instance), but it's adequate for the game. Each episode introduces not only new locations and characters, but also gameplay twists. In the middle of the game, for example, you'll have a chance to command a Roman army, and the standard action icons are replaced with war orders such as ADVANCE, etc. These war episodes are quite frustrating, as the enemies advance very quickly and you have little time to plan your strategy. Still, surprises such as these keep the game fresh and always interesting.
With charming cartoon-style graphics, fun plot, and great mix of different styles of gameplay, Rome: Pathway to Power is one underdog noone should miss. Recommended!
Review By HOTUD
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Comments and reviews
Too bad this is the censored version, where the names Nintendius Gameboius & Seganus Megadrivus are removed. And also it’s not possible toi f*ck your own female slaves in this version.
Good game however at the beginning it is quite difficult to understand it. Some tips and guidelines in the internet were very helpful for me to get into the game.
Anyone have issues resuming game after saving? I always choose "Quit and Save" but when I return my progress is lost and I am back at the beginning where Hector is in Herculaneum and needs to deliver message to Fellonius. How do I load the game to where I was?
I'm unable to install it in D-Fend/DOSbox. Running INSTALL.EXE after 43% unpacked it can't find "_DEFAULT.GAM" and asks to insert disk.
SCHAICHO24 I miss my Tandy 1000. I wish I had kept it with my 50 mb HD. Deskmate was the best. Good find though. Also a good game.
By the way, I visited Herculaneum (Now called Ercolano) a few years back and it was amazing - drop by if you're traveling in Italy around Naples!!
I actually just found this game BRAND NEW at a thrift store for $0.25! I have an old Tandy computer and I put the floppy in the drive and it works great! Very challenging game. I look forward to playing this more! Seems pretty complex
mariatha = this game absolutely blew my mind at the time and I was young too. The dialogue was hilarious and the tiny roman going GTA-style on roman citizens was brilliant. As for the slaves = those lines are included in the spanish release of the game. Maybe the Us-Uk-Spain-other countries releases were not that akin to that lines of dialogue. As humble review: game that went under the radar maybe cause of commercial reasons but its a real masterpiece. I recall Lure of the temptress was around at the time and many of the great age of point n´clicks, prolly this game went a bit unnoticed at some markets cause its unique interface.
So, after 22 years, I finally beat the Egypt level - and so finished the game. HOORAY and thanks for making it possible by sharing the game.
But only one thing disappointed me: In the olden days, we were able to "use" the slave girls, and they would go behind a building and she would shout, "OH, master, where did you learn to do that!" - I think it was on the first Rome-level. But now I couldn't on any level. It was such a funny RPG-like thing (especially funny since I was very young when I played it before). Does anyone know why it doesn't work now?
Jeez, I feel a little like an internet creep asking help to rape a pixelated slave...
wow , i have played this game 15 year ago !!!! Thanks for uploading this , i lost my floppy disk :P
Hi Everyone, I have a "Let's Play" video of the first portion of the game, owrth checking out if you are stuck or want to check out the game before downloading it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcNRAHOxibw
good game but i am not getting sound (:
New to this shite so let's see what it offers ....
I bought this when it 1st came out... still one of the most fun games ever!
This game is awesome, this site... is awesome, and you are awesome for making it.
this game was groundbreaking at the time and HILARIOUS. A must have for everyone, you won´t regreat it lots of fun
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.