Grow Empire: Romefor iOS

In this title you have to strategize to expand your kingdom and conquer others. You play as Caesar, and the safety and prosperity of the people are in your hands.

A fun but grindy experience

Grow Empire: Rome is a challenging and enjoyable game that struggles with some sub-par visuals and slightly repetitive tasks.

This app forces you to find a balance between protecting your people and organizing attacks on other nations. Your aim is to create the largest civilization the world has ever seen. You’ll take a group of once weak civilians, and turn them into mighty warriors.

Your first focus is on fortifying your main base. This is in anticipation of the coming onslaughts from enemies. Once you’ve repelled a few assaults, you can prioritize building up an army to unleash similar acts on others.

The interface you use to make essential decisions is simple, but it makes the screen feel cluttered. The ability to upgrade your soldiers, walls, towers, and catapults is always a tap away. To do this, however, you’ll have to earn the main currency --  gold.

Every purchase scales, so you have to buy improvements carefully. If you sink too much into one or two options, you’ll hinder your ability to attack or defend at full capacity. This sort of mistake usually results in defeat.

You stumble upon various cities to travel to and conquer throughout play. There’s plenty of unique upgrades to buildings as well. This makes every change more impactful, because you can see how it influences combat and has an interesting visual representation too.

The battles are fun given the mix and match of strategies that keep the outcome a constant mystery. The grind can feel a bit repetitive, though, as focus on gold accumulation is rather strong.

Where can you run this program?

The game requires iOS version 8.0 and later. It also runs on Android devices.

Is there a better alternative?

No. Other games like Kingdom Wars and Game of Warriors have battleground-like settings where you can fight enemies and take over kingdoms.

Our take

Simplistic graphics with fun animations create some enjoyable eye candy. This title has an easy-to-understand interface and the mechanics are well-implemented. Don’t expect extended periods of gameplay to stay entertaining for long, though.

Should you download it?

Yes. If you’re looking for action-packed battles against other troops in an ancient setting, this is a good choice.