A Legionary's Life - Demo

Set during the years of the Second Punic War and beyond, A Legionary's Life lets you play as a Roman conscript soldier. Rise up through the ranks and win prestigious awards or just focus on making it home in one piece; it's up to you.

This is a single-player game with RPG elements, extensive usage of attribute and skill checks, a turn-based combat system involving many variables (including morale, reach, confined space and high ground) and a touch of roguelike features. Among them, permadeath. If you are unfamiliar with the term, it means you'll have to start over if your character dies; but don't worry, the game is designed to be replayable and you'll see only a fraction of it in each run. Also, in non-demo versions you'll be able to spend points on your next legionary based on how well your most successful characters performed.

The demo includes the first three parts of the game.

Now available on Steam.

A little word of advice for new players.

This game is not supposed to be easy. At the beginning, you are a fresh recruit sent to war in a time of dramatic crisis, with as much training as you could be given in a few months, which means not so much, and no previous combat experience. It does not mean that the game will be unreasonably difficult; it just means that you should play as if you really were that recruit. Do not expect to cut through the enemy lines like a hot knife through butter. Remember that the most daring choices will (usually) be the most rewarding, but a much higher risk is involved. Especially in your first combat, make sure to read the tooltips, including the one about the character Stats. Do not let your Stance drop too much or you’ll become a lot more vulnerable and do not expose yourself without a good reason. Always look at the indicators under each available action: the more the sword tip is pointing upwards, the higher your chance of success (I’ll replace the sword with a thumb in a future version).

You may not be able to kill even a single enemy in your first battle; don’t get discouraged: it’s normal, you’ll get a lot better with practice. If you are careful enough, you should be able to survive this battle even if you spent your time very poorly during the previous “lull” phase.