The formula in the genre of strategy games is relatively basic. You manage materials, you build an army and you conquer.

Pax Romana, a PC release from Dreamcatcher and Galilea, has added some interesting twists to that formula. While the game does pay attention to the economic base, and certainly employs some of the strategic military, there is also a lot of attention played to the political intrigue.

This all takes place in 272 B.C. Rome is at a crossroads. The empire is assailed from within and without. Your task is to take your faction and work your way up the ladder to become the next Caesar.

While the task may seem a simple one, it is anything but. There are four objectives you must accomplish throughout the game. You must avoid Rome’s external or internal defeat, meet the conditions for a Sudden Death Victory (very inappropriately named), earn victory points from specific missions and prevent other players from earning a Sudden Death Victory.

The game begins with players in the role of a senator. You also lead a faction. You can enter the political arena by placing junior members of your faction into elections. You need to pay attention to the candidates and the job. The idea is to win seats, take on a majority role in the government and then manipulate the economics and military to take over the empire.

The political format – like much of the rest of this game – sounds easy. You register a candidate and campaign for the post in the government. Too young may mean inexperience and thus will not garner any confidence. Too old and your candidate may die while in office. Should your candidate fail to gain the office, you have other tools at your disposal. You can use a seductive woman or bribery to blackmail your target, or you can have them assassinated.

There is little doubt that this game is intellectually deep, but the problem is that while the game pays great attention to the minutia, it skimps on the aspects which make a game strategic game really entertaining – like action and graphics.

The scenarios in this game are grouped into two major categories – the strategic campaign and political campaign. The strategic campaign is almost like the game of Risk and is for single players only. The political campaign can be played in multiplayer with up to six gamers taking part. The multiplayer game is through TCP/IP connections.

The interface for this title tries to incorporate elements from strategic game, but these really are not necessary. The game should have tried to blaze a new interface trail, one that fits better with the style of play.

The sound of this game is solid, but by no means does it stand out. And graphically this game is not good at all. Most of the screens are stagnant, well detailed and lushly colored. But these are akin to postcards. They don’t do anything. This game is not that enticing to the eyes.

Pax Romana tries to do too much and as a result, it does not do anything particularly well. However, this game does represent major steps in a new direction, one in which the genre begins to expand to encompass more than just the same ground. The political format of this game, and the intrigue it injects, is a nice touch. It is unfortunate that the overall game can’t live up to the idea.

This game is rated Teen for mild violence.

Gameplay: 5.5

The game does drag and you really need to work through the tutorial and its rendition of the game’s concepts to get any sort of idea about the title. Gameplay is not overly intuitive.

Graphics: 5.5

Postcards are nice, but this is a multimedia game and a lot rides on graphics. At times it feels like a board game.

Sound: 6.2

Average, though solid.

Difficulty: Medium

This is a game that is overly involved. Expect a learning curve of 40-50 minutes to gain a good understanding of the game’s mechanics.

Concept: 6.7

The introduction of the political elements is nice. However, more detail should have been paid to the interface and graphical elements.

Multiplayer: 6.7

This game supports up to six players in a political/economic model.

Overall: 5.7

While the intent was a good one, the execution leaves something to be desired. Pax Romana has deep content, but the gameplay is a little on the weak side.