Has never crashed on me yet, patch it up and enjoy this city builder.
The hours just fly by as you create your city. The game is actually quite relaxing. With nice background music, pleasing graphics and focused objectives.
I really like how the game has laid out what needs to be done, you pick a tablet that has an objective like build 10 houses, once that's done you choose another tablet that may have you build a certain temple, an archery range, a trading post or earn 5000 denari ect. you can pick up to 3 tablets at once. Sometimes the tablet will reveal something bad like plague or something good like 10 new settlers and so on. It's really a great idea that keeps you on track for what needs to be done during that scenario.
There are 16 scenarios based on actual historical events in the main game and they can each take several hours to complete. The gold edition offers many other scenarios and probably doubles the gameplay time.
This game has some light military aspects but they are not the main focus like you would see in the total war series. This game is more about the city building and keeping everyone happy with things they need like bread, cloth, sausages, temples, jobs ect.
Its pretty easy to figure out what they want. For example you click on an alter and it will tell you the general happiness of those living around it. You can click on a tavern and click the gossip button and get more info or click on a home or on a citizen to see what they want. You also get numerous updates during the game giving you more information on what needs to be done. It all works really well.
It takes some time to figure out where the best place to put certain buildings should be because they only provide benefits in a certain range of other buildings. That's where some strategy comes in. Most maps are limited to types of resources you can get so you will also need to trade with other cities to get what you need. In addition, you will be limited to the amount of land you actually have to put everything which adds to the challenge.
I have not finished the game yet but so far I am about half way done, I've been playing it a lot since I got it even though I have newer games sitting around because it's just so good. Its not too difficult either and I find that to be enjoyable. I'm not saying the game can't be challenging because several times I had to restart scenarios and come up with a new plan. Its just that all the objectives are doable with some creative thinking and I haven't actually felt frustrated or felt the game was being unfair.
It's a real shame that gamespot didn't update there review once the game was patched because it has worked perfectly for me and has not crashed one time even when playing for many hours at a time. A 3.5 is absolutely not fair for such a solid game. Shame on you GS.
Also for new players the tutorial is well done with spoken dialog clearing telling you how to play, even during the game there is spoken dialog for objectives so you won't be sitting there reading everything. It also tells you some historical facts about the timeline you are currently playing in. Imperium Romanum Gold may not be the most in depth or strategic game out there but its fun to play and that's what matters most to me.
Given the price this game sells for now why not give it a try, if you like city building this game is great and I highly recommend it.