Home / Games / Never Second in Rome
Never Second in Rome
Never Second in Rome is a turn-based historical game with RPG and management elements. You are a Roman centurion in the army of Julius Caesar. You will control both your character and the unit under his command.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-04 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-13.
What reviewers agree on
36 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“Great game. I would not say that it is a masterpiece and that it accomplished everything it set out to do perfectly. But what it does is absolutely unique, and you will never find a game quite like it bar very few…”
“Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War are brought to life in this game, and you're a centurion in the middle of it! You start the game as an experienced, powerful warrior, while the real challenge is to use the…”
“A spiritual successor to A Legionary's Life, it keeps some of the combat mechanics, introduces new ones and, again, tells an immersive story of a life of another legionaire, albeit a (much) higher ranking one. Great…”
24 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“i really like what this game tries to be, and kudos for the dev on doing it all alone and the writing is pretty solid but the execution leaves something to be desired its a total of 5 different screens where 3 are…”
“Great game. I would not say that it is a masterpiece and that it accomplished everything it set out to do perfectly. But what it does is absolutely unique, and you will never find a game quite like it bar very few…”
“I have enjoyed its predecessor a lot and had high hopes for this one. It seems that by trying to improve on the formula, it missed its mark for many reasons: behind all the complex calculations and layers of abstraction…”
7 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“Amazing game, very immersive if you don't mind reading a bit. Satisfying combat simulation system. The dev decided to add in meta progression before release, which wasn't originally planned, but I think it really adds…”
“Informative, fun, and replayable!”
“An amazing game! It really puts you in the shoes of someone from the time, and from a perspective that is unique! I was yelling and shouting during my victories and cursing when the tides were not in my favor. A simple…”
6 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“A spiritual successor to A Legionary's Life, it keeps some of the combat mechanics, introduces new ones and, again, tells an immersive story of a life of another legionaire, albeit a (much) higher ranking one. Great…”
“Early access review which will contain mostly ideas for tweaking, overall if you played a LOT of the first game, as I have, give this a shot. It's cheap and gives a lot of content from a period that is incredibly fun.…”
“A fantastic game! Its similar to legionaries life, but having to go through the trauma of starting from the bottom is... harrowing lol! Absolutely love the story and progression, Very Satisfied with my purchase!”
6 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“Amazing game, very immersive if you don't mind reading a bit. Satisfying combat simulation system. The dev decided to add in meta progression before release, which wasn't originally planned, but I think it really adds…”
“A fantastic game! Its similar to legionaries life, but having to go through the trauma of starting from the bottom is... harrowing lol! Absolutely love the story and progression, Very Satisfied with my purchase!”
“EDIT AFTER FULL RELEASE: The new meta-progression ironman mode works well. I do still wish that it wasn't ironman, I wish it summed up all of your previous runs rather than a weighted system with the top 5, and I wish…”
33 of the 104 reviews raise this · 9 of them still recommend the game.
“If you're like me and enjoy games where you build stats and see those stats consistently and meaningfully reflected in the game's mechanics, or someone who has bad luck/finds RNG to be a pain... This is a pass. I got to…”
“I'm sorry Caesar, but this is one battle I cannot follow you into. I loved Legionary's Life. I played it for countless hours. I beat the game dozens of times, got all of the achievements, and experienced every nook and…”
“i really like what this game tries to be, and kudos for the dev on doing it all alone and the writing is pretty solid but the execution leaves something to be desired its a total of 5 different screens where 3 are…”
19 of the 104 reviews raise this · 9 of them still recommend the game.
“If you're like me and enjoy games where you build stats and see those stats consistently and meaningfully reflected in the game's mechanics, or someone who has bad luck/finds RNG to be a pain... This is a pass. I got to…”
“I'm sorry Caesar, but this is one battle I cannot follow you into. I loved Legionary's Life. I played it for countless hours. I beat the game dozens of times, got all of the achievements, and experienced every nook and…”
“I really REALLY want to like this game, but compared to its predecessor it just feels really meta build. All of the guides you find to help you understand the game better basically break down to "you need endurance as…”
13 of the 104 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“If you're like me and enjoy games where you build stats and see those stats consistently and meaningfully reflected in the game's mechanics, or someone who has bad luck/finds RNG to be a pain... This is a pass. I got to…”
“Unsatisfying game. Army combat is just random rolls within rolls within rolls. Single combat is either very 1 sided or ends before you can even do anything. You don't kill enemies in this game, you stare at them for 5…”
4 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“Really tried hard to like it, at the end its just repetition and frustrating rolling numbers late game. Intolerable UI layout is just bad. Really wanted to like it but I cannot tolerate the pain anymore.”
3 of the 104 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“I loved this game and got addicted. I was sad when I reached the end because I couldn't continue the adventure. I will definitely be watching for the next game. Maybe a sequel where we play as a tribune or a legate…”
“EDIT AFTER FULL RELEASE: The new meta-progression ironman mode works well. I do still wish that it wasn't ironman, I wish it summed up all of your previous runs rather than a weighted system with the top 5, and I wish…”
“Amazing game, didn’t want it to end”
Counted across 104 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 81.2% positive rating · as of 2026-05-13
“I want to recommend the game. I am giving a positive review because I enjoyed the game. But I do feel as if the mythic quality of his first game is somewhat lost in this "not a sequel". In Legionary life you could eventually become a legendary warrior of Rome after a lot of…”
— a player, Steam review · 22 hrs played“Despite the dev's warnings, this is rather similar to A Legionary's Life. The main difference is you're commanding a century rather than merely being an enlisted soldier. You make your centurion at the start of the game and assign their attributes and skills. Throughout the…”
— a player, Steam review · 15 hrs played“Everything about this game is awesome looking but broken. I love this dev, the game is so ambitious and exciting in theory, yet as soon as you start playing, reading, clicking, once you go through the motions of combat a few times, you realize the statistical nature of the…”
— a player, Steam review · 7 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-07 via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-09-26.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-08-12. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-09-25). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Update 1.4.2
Each of the enemy units you face in battle is accompanied by a brief descriptive text now. It will appear in the detail screen, which can be opened by clicking on a unit's panel in the battle UI. Beca
Update 1.3.2
Colors have been added to the battle and combat logs to help identify information more quickly. In the battle log, some elements have been revised and changed. Quick fade-out messages have been added
Update 1.2
The most important changes of this update concern four Attributes: Strength, Constitution, Quickness and Coordination. Experienced players already know the importance and effectiveness of Endurance, t
Update 1.1.3
Today's update introduces a few QoL improvements, the most important of which is an option to increase the speed of the battle rolls. Just like other similar settings, you can find it in the Gameplay
Never Second in Rome is out!
Before getting into the details of this update, I want to thank all the players who have expressed and shown their support during these years. Without you, a solo developer such as myself would never
Games like Never Second in Rome
From our knowledge graph — ranked by shared traits, not a black box. Each card says why it's here.
A Legionary's Life
86.6% · 2,186 reviews
shares Rome, Turn Based, Text Based, Historical
Age of Gladiators
75.7% · 502 reviews
shares Rome, Auto Battler, Turn Based, Text Based
Field of Glory: Empires
83.9% · 578 reviews
shares Rome, Turn Based, Historical, War
Xenonauts 2
83.0% · 3,153 reviews
shares Turn Based, War, Turn Based Tactics, Turn Based Combat
Field of Glory II
83.9% · 763 reviews
shares Rome, Turn Based, Historical, War
Evil Bank Manager
75.6% · 900 reviews
shares Turn Based, Historical, War, Turn Based Tactics
Panzer Corps 2
83.9% · 2,093 reviews
shares Turn Based, Historical, War, Turn Based Tactics
Incremental Adventures
77.1% · 672 reviews
shares Auto Battler, Text Based, Turn Based Combat, Turn Based Strategy
Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-13.
| Genres | Indie, RPG, Simulation |
| Player tags | Rome · Historical · Turn-Based · RPG · Simulation · Turn-Based Combat · Text-Based · Old School · War · Narration · Management · Turn-Based Strategy (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Achievements · Custom Volume Controls · Playable without Timed Input · Steam Cloud · Family Sharing |
| Languages | English |
| Achievements | 45 |
| Official site | https://www.arobertigames.com |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS *: Windows 7 SP1+ Processor: x64 architecture with SSE2 instruction set support Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: DX10, DX11, DX12 capable GPUs Storage: 500 MB available space