GameShark recently posted a new interview with producer Johan Andersson. The Q&A reveals new information about Paradox's upcoming Europa Universalis: Rome, the next installment of the popular strategy game series. The game will cover the Roman Era up until the year 27 BC, featuring a map area extending from England in the northwest to Persia in the southeast.

Each of Paradox's grand historical games have had something to distinguish them from the Europa Universalis series. Crusader Kings has character development, Victoria has economics, Hearts of Iron has a military focus. What will set the Roman game apart?
Our team has chosen to excel in what we do best, and that is Grand Strategy. All of our games belong to that genre but each one has had a specific focus. For Rome specifically, the most obvious difference is of course the time period and everything time period specific that comes with that, however in addition I would say that players will notice the new concepts in politics and character development and influence the most.

The period in the game is really the history of how Rome came to rule the Mediterranean world; once Carthage was done, that was pretty much it for serious rivals. Will the game be playable from the non-Roman side?
Yes and the focus of the game is to allow other potential empires to form in the hands of the players or the AI. I’d argue that the Parthians for instance were a pretty serious contender and it will be interesting to see how far players can take this in gameplay.

How will you distinguish between the Republican systems of Rome/Carthage, monarchies of the East and tribal federations of the north?
There are plenty of differences between them, a few examples are the different technological discoveries and the different religions who all bring different gameplay features to play, like the Carthaginian who sacrificed their children to their gods (Bhaal) etc.

For the full interview head over to the site listed below.

GameShark: Europa Universalis Rome Interview

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