I wanted to like Hegemony III but it was just too frustrating. The combat works exactly as I like it to with lots of options, and I love the diplomacy aspects, but there’s just too much here that sapped my enjoyment.
Addictive, unique , engaging and fun to mod too. Love it. Wish Longbow put out more DLC and spent a bit more time polishing this rough diamond. Should be more popular than Total War and Imperitor Rome IMHO.
Very atmospheric and nicely implemented strategy game with period-appropriate art and music. I like how it combines grand strategy and real-time strategy/tactics in one unified approach in it's unique take on the strategy genre.
A very good hard core strategy game.
-0.5 because it doesn't come with the graphics of a Total War Rome 2.
-0.5 because it doesn't come with the multiple mechanical systems of a Imperator Rome or Fields of Glory Empires.
If you can do without that or can wait for Longbow to add stuff via updates and DLC (which they will ultimately, you know "the heart is where the money is"...), then this game may be for you. But be warned, the start is challenging! You'll probably need to watch a few tutorials, before you get it, since this is not an easy recreational map painting game. Going into this game, trying to play it like Total War will ensue in failure.
I was looking for a game that plays in the classical era and did not know anything about Hegemony 3. Neither have I ever played the first or second installment. I went ahead and bought the game anyway. I am not disappointed. While it may lack the polish of a AAA title such as the total war series, this game is just plain addicting. Whenever I'm not playing, I plan my next steps. And whenever I load up steam and tell myself "play something else for a change" instead I always turn back to Hegemony 3.
If you like strategy games, if you like to manage empires and if you agree that you don't need turns to play a grand strategy game, get it, especially if you like classical rome.
Game itself is average, it has some good moments but its utterly imbalanced, while you and other factions are pretty balanced amongst yourselves, bandits are too overpowered, they spawn like every 5 mins, at the beginning of the game they will spawn t2 units which your t1 units can not hope to defeat, and if you destroy camps they will just spawn one again in a few mins, so you must capture all of the camps, and that cost a lot.
Game can be laggy time to time, but all in all its playable graphic vise.
Artwork is the best part of the game by far.
Graphics: 7/10 ~ for a rts
Strategic Combat 7/10 ~ not much in depth tactics, but tactical map is awesome
Music and art 9/10 ~ loving it
Balance 3/10 ~ factions balanced, neutral bandits too op
Is it playable? Yes, but I would stick to Total War games.
Is it time consuming? Hell yes, and thats a good thing.
Would I play it again? No, I usually do not play a lot of games twice, especially not this one.
I suggest that you check it out if you want to play a strategy game and do not have anything else to play.
So this game has had a long list of updates in the past year, I recently retried it and I admit my comment last year was negative without much input into the game; well the game didnt crash on me, and thats a plus.
The 3.2 version does bring improvements but most of the game play issues still exist. Raiders have been toned down, novice level makes for a more relaxed element, didn't crash once and I like the inclusion of a free unit(helps with the resource constraints and need too defend).
This game still cuts hairs in resource acquisition. Want a second mine because money is to low to support another unit, travel 2 regions over to take one and by the way build 2 units to defend it as well even though you are -20/week in gold and 2 units cost /40 week and the mine gives you less then the 60/week that is needed to break even. Add the attrition to your 2 units ability to combat when they are outside a supply zone in the form of food, chances are they were starving within your city supply to begin with; thats what I mean by splitting hairs and to get anywhere in this game you will spend a lot of time in just watching the screen, hoping for the next tech point/city growth option/build progression all the while watching negative resource numbers tick down and wondering what else you could be doing.
I applaud the games lack of turn based elements, I appreciate that there have been continued patches and development to fix issues( mine being constant crashes); the raider spawn mechanic is lessened on novice(now renamed rebels), generally the game is better than it was.
Its worth trying if you like a patient game.
So I did give this a good amount of time, despite the crashing issues. This game is fun to start but immediately suffers from all the shortcuts that other companies take in regard to scripting and general game play; I am disappointed.
Gameplay is a nightmare of autospawning units, ai cheating crap; why take a suply point when that has no impact, reminds me of simcity and that awfull glassbox engin