Earlier this week, strategy game connoisseurs Paradox Interactive finally gave us a release date for the eagerly awaited 2.0 update to historical grand strategy game Imperator: Rome. Yesterday, the company ran a live-stream event on its Twitch channel showing off the new build in real-time.
Imperator is one of Paradox’s newer titles that had an extremely rocky launch back in April 2019. Our suspicion is that sales were still quite healthy, however, as the studio were able to give away the game’s first DLC pack for free, as well as offer continued support in the form of five major revisions to date (up to Patch 1.5).
The upcoming update – Patch 2.0 ‘Marius’ – will represent a major overhaul in how Imperator: Rome looks and functions. The development team has been sharing details regarding what the new patch will entail for a couple of months now, including a new military system, overhaul UI interface, a new system for inventions (research), and plenty more events and mechanics for a more dynamic journey through the ancient world.
The livestream in question covered three games, including Hearts of Iron IV and Crusader Kings III, with Imperator occupying the middle slot:
You’ll want to fast-forward to 1:41:00 to catch the start of the Imperator section, but the first hour or so is actually dedicated to the current 1.5 build. If you skip ahead further, to 2:36:00, lead developer Peter ‘Arheo’ Nicholson joins to show off the new 2.0 build.
It’s not technically gameplay, as he doesn’t actually run the game, but Nicholson does give a tour of the build, showing off what’s changed and digging deep into some of the new UI interfaces, menus, and different parts of the map.
The Imperator: Rome 2.0 ‘Marius’ update will be released on February 16, 2021, alongside the Heirs of Alexander content pack. The new pack will be available via Steam and the Paradox Store for $9.99 / £7.19.