Cato and Macro Review

Cato and Macro is a free-to-play strategy game based on the Roman heroes Cato and Macro, whose adventures are the creation of bestselling author Simon Scarrow. In game form, Cato and Macro takes some tropes from various strategy and management games and crams them all together into a strangely unique, but not quite fully satisfying Roman-themed romp.

Playing Cato and Macro involves a few different components. The meat of the game is a kind of real-time strategy affair, featuring both Cato and Macro as the leaders of troops in various skirmishes and encounters, but outside of these missions it’s more of a city-building/management sim not dissimilar from games such as Clash of Clans, albeit more simplified.

Although I have no prior experience with the books or any familiarity with the characters’ personalities, the game does feature a lot of flavor text and dialogue that’s revealed both at the start of story missions as well as in a separate menu outside of combat. Both add a lot of dimension to the characters, and should prove satisfying to fans of the series looking to experience more of them through the game.

While the added text is nice, particularly for something based on a series of books, there is very little beyond this reading material that makes Cato and Macro stand out. The city management aspect is almost overly simplistic, the visuals aren’t very detailed and are strangely proportioned, the AI and pathfinding leaves a lot to be desired, and the strategy in combat is peculiar and off-putting.

Battles in Cato and Macro feel more like the combat from a tower defense game than an actual real-time strategy, despite the units being all capable of moving. In a nutshell: Cato and Macro are the two strongest units in the game, but if players lose them in battle they also lose the mission. Players can train units to support the duo, but unless they activate a special ability these units either move on their own or stick to the spot where they’re placed. Finally, if players do want to move Cato and Macro around, they can’t simply select them or otherwise draw a path for them to follow. Instead, they only have the option to select whether they chase enemies in range using the “attack” stance or wait for enemies to come to them using the “defense” stance. It’s incredibly strange, and all of the other issues with lack of depth don’t help.

That being said, players looking for a vehicle for the novels first and a game second might be able to look past a lot of Cato and Macro‘s issues. After all, it’s a completely playable game. However, players used to more polished experiences who may be unfamiliar or uninterested in the ties to these book heroes can probably find more satisfaction elsewhere.