Everyone has those games where they completely lose track of time, and anyone who says “no” is lying. For MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus, it was recently Romestead, a survival game on Steam, where ancient Rome has been overrun by zombies. After the first playthrough, he is now playing in co-op and has to force himself to stop.
Romestead has a pretty cool premise: Ancient Rome has fallen, a zombie apocalypse has broken out, and the gods have been forgotten. The few people who survived are scattered far and wide.
Now you must rebuild Rome under constant attacks from the undead, help the gods find themselves, and on the side, defeat legendary monsters from Roman mythology. Sounds tricky, and it is.
When Romestead was released in Early Access on Steam in May 2026, I praised the game back then for its approaches and criticized primarily the lazy citizens. Many patches and updates later, the developers asked me if I wanted to check out the improvements.
I postponed it for a long time. Unfortunately. Because so much has changed that despite over a complete playthrough (roughly 30 hours), I discovered so many new things in the first hours that I constantly raved to my co-op partner.
More quality, cooler dungeons, and even better in co-op than solo
On Sunday evening, my colleague Benedikt Schlotmann and I thought about what we could still play in the end. We agreed on Romestead, believing we could game a bit and then go to sleep comfortably. Well. But more on that later.
As I noted in the play report, Romestead can impress despite its pixelated graphics with deep systems: Boss fights, exploration, logistics, city building, resource and citizen management, skill builds… Even though I thought I knew the game well, I noticed many new features after two hours that had come in the past months:
- Dungeons are no longer monotonous and repetitive but often unique, especially the quest dungeons. Exploring them now feels like a real adventure.
- Citizens are no longer lazy decadents; they help with the construction (and especially no longer just get in the way!).
- Logistics helps set up production chains, where before you had to carry resources and products around manually.
- Smaller details make the world livelier – like clay golems that steal my carts or (for whatever reason) throw squirrels around.
I regret not checking out all the updates earlier, as many of my criticisms from Early Access have been addressed. Plus, playing the game with a partner makes it significantly more fun because you can share the work. But it also means there’s more time for way too many projects…
Just finishing this road, aaaaand it’s half past 1
Romestead has the “problem” that you constantly find something to do. Actually, you’re quite satisfied with your small settlement, but you can always improve something. And then comes the chain reaction:
- Production chains are running, but if I want to do something manually, it could be faster. So I quickly plan and build the entire road network for the city.
- Meanwhile, Benedikt has brought new offerings for the gods, and now we can upgrade some buildings or build new ones, so we definitely have to do that “real quick”.
- For my equipment, I still needed materials from a boss nearby, but right next door are also two dungeons. A quick detour wouldn’t hurt.
- Back home, it’s starting to get late. But actually, I could expand the roads and pave them well, so I could move faster…
After each small task I complete, two new ones pop up that I could also tackle “real quick”. We started just after 9:00 PM, and only around 2:00 AM did we finally stop – but only because we didn’t have the materials for the next upgrade yet. But honestly: I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way; I get too lost in Romestead.
A game doesn’t need AAA graphics to be completely immersive
Some of you might now wonder why on Orcus I sink so deeply into a game that looks like it was outdated back in 1990. Graphics aren’t everything, because Romestead does everything else right.
Instead of trying to dazzle with visuals, many details contain thoughts that only true nerds might really appreciate. Our conversations revolved around Hastae, Pila, and Garum – things that you know if you are engaged with Roman culture. Otherwise, probably not.
But even if you have no idea what these terms mean: Just the fact that the developers distribute not a “sword” but a “Gladius” gives Romestead a stronger immersion than I know from some AAA productions.
Tonight, we will continue working on our steadfast Campagna and discover more of the world, hopefully with more innovations that I don’t know from the early Early Access yet. Maybe not for so long this time. But I know myself… It will be 2 AM again.
Do you also have such games that keep you occupied longer than reasonable? Which one is it for you? Or do you have a friend with whom these situations happen regularly? Leave a comment!
Romestead will occupy me for a while longer, I guess, at least until the dozens of other games come out that I’m waiting for – and there are hell of a lot this year. Next up is Enshrouded, which I have been looking forward to for ages: One of the best survival games on Steam will cost me over 50 hours again starting in October, and it is finally finished
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