Preview – Nova Roma

I talk about glutted niches a lot when discussing roguelites or survival crafters or gated exploration games (Metroidvanias). And that sucks, mainly because I don’t have the appetite, but also because it’s impossible for new entries in the genre to stand out. So, I get PR emails that say “new hand-drawn Metroidvania,” and, guy, I see that all the time. Those things are not selling points. At least lead with something else.

Anyway, I got off track there. The point I’m getting to is that there’s one glutted genre that I absolutely do have an appetite for, and that’s survival city-builders. There was a delayed explosion after Banished, and there isn’t always a tonne of variety from one to the next, but I can always find time to sit down with one. Y’know, despite the fact that it’s one of the most time-consuming genres out there.

With that in mind, I got an early look at the demo for Nova Roma, which isn’t the first ancient Rome survival city-builder, but it is a pretty slick one.

ROMAN HISTORY

Nova Roma starts with Rome burning, as it does. You and some other disillusioned settlers flee by boat to start a new civilization on an island, where you are intent on not screwing it up as bad as whoever’s in charge of Rome. It was probably Nero, or whoever. My knowledge of Roman history sucks.

Anyway, you start with a few settlers, and you build from scratch. You start with a fort, and then go from there.

The main wrinkle in Nova Roma is that you also need to appease the Gods of… What was the Roman version of Olympus? I need to look this up… Olympos! Very original.

Anyway, you need to appease the Gods, so one of the first buildings you erect is a temple, which you can dedicate to your favourite deity. There are only four in the demo, but it looks like the full version will have more. If the Gods are pleased, you’ll get bonus effects around their temple, and if they’re pissed, there will be a negative effect. Or worse.

But most importantly, appeasement grants you currency that you can spend on cutting-edge technology, like bath houses. Appeasing them mostly just involves passing certain milestones, so it’s an inventive way of providing a path of progression. You might have to reach a certain population, or provide tribute in the form of certain resources.

WHAT’S THE MATTER, BEAVIS?

I attribute most of my enjoyment with the demo to how breezy Nova Roma is to play. I was learning on the fly, but it leaves a comfortable margin of error, so I made mistakes but never struggled. For a survival city-builder, survival doesn’t seem like much of a focus. Without trying very hard, my population had a constant surplus of food. The few that did die were mainly because their houses caught fire so often, I’m led to believe that they really like playing with matches. I fixed that problem with a fire department as soon as I was able to kiss enough God ass.

Keeping the industry running smoothly was largely just a matter of making sure there was a sufficient population to fill all the jobs and gradually add more buildings when production fell behind. Because of this ease, I was able to build Rome in less than a day.

However, that also means Nova Roma is pretty easy, and that might be because the only difficulty you can play on in the demo is Easy. I still think that the resource production will likely need tweaking, since I had a massive stockpile of wheat, but something like five bakeries couldn’t make a dent in it, nor could they produce enough bread to keep everyone happy. Plenty of wine, though.

That said, Nova Roma is launching into Early Access, so there’s still a lot of time to fine tune everything.

SINKING CITY

Speaking of which, there are some clearly unfinished features. It has dynamic water similar to Timberborn, but man, it’s wiggy. It seems like that every generated map is destined to have a waterfall for aqueduct reasons. However, the way it flows down a slope can get weird. I had a river with an unusual appendage that just… stopped in a way that water doesn’t. I also built a bridge that sank into the river halfway across. Y’know, just weird things.

There’s also combat. Rome will invade you to get their share of taxes or whatever. I assume this will get more complex, because right now they just ride up in their ship, disembark on the closest shore, and march to your city centre. You tell your militia to rub up against them for a while, and then there’s something that maybe resembles fighting. Again: early access.

One hilarious moment resulted from the enemy ship parking itself inside a waterfall on the opposite end of a mountain. The soldiers trekked straight up the mountain, directly through the river. Masterful strategy.

It’s an early peek, I just found some of its weirdities to be kind of fun.

I’m not sure that Nova Roma is going to topple Timberborn, but I think the full version will be pretty enjoyable. I’m also not certain if the full experience will be quite so laid-back. In a way, I hope not, but also, I kind of enjoyed it. I didn’t have to wait long for a supply of resources, and engineering projects didn’t get held up as a result. It’s not the most unique take on the genre, but I’m excited to try out the final release.

I don’t know how it compares to something like Anno 117: Pax Romana, either. That’s too rich for my blood. And it’s too Ubisoft.

To add to things that I don’t know, I’m not sure when the demo will release to the public. For all I know, it could be today. I do know when the full game’s Early Access starts: January 22, 2026. So, it’s not far off.