Just to be clear it’s a fictional game only loosely based on history . Don’t expect grand maps of the Roman Empire or historical context / cut scenes

It’s great as long as you have the time and patience to deal with the following:

- beta game sold for full price. Will be a year or likely much more
- many games breaking bugs
- very limited tech support
- major features are missing or in development. Developement can take a year or more for one feature (such as diplomacy that has been in the works since b4 the game released)
- absentee dev that doesn’t participate in forums
- very limited mod access

I would very strongly recommend not buying at full price for the foreseeable future tbh. If you can pick it up for $10 in a sale then go for it, but don't consider paying more than that.

The game is more or less a tech demo with some nice ideas in it, and is likely to remain so for a very long time. As Clayffo says, major elements like diplo are presently either nonexistent or placeholders at best. Enemy AI is one of those placeholders too, don't expect to be challenged by the other players (tho just running your empire is at least fairly entertaining).

It's worth a look at because there's some original things in here and a novel take on the 4X genre, but really it's barely a game right now and you'll probably get 4-5 hours of play out of it per year in between putting it back on the shelf to wait for the next update (which will happen, but usually only after 6-12 months).

I got some enjoyment out of the game despite it being unfinished and I like playing difficult games as well. It actually has a decent amount of content to enjoy but the endgame is pretty bland. Once you have reached a stable position all the challenges are gone and it turns mostly into a game where you simply build a pretty kingdom - a new road here, a new mine there, some upgrade for this and that, maybe a new clan too once in a while but their appearance slows down considerably in the end. You can theoretically also raid the Romans but somehow I never bothered even though that's how you're supposed to win the game. Probably wouldn't be all that difficult to send a few knights towards Rome / Constantinople and defeat the legions there. I don't think they will complain that you entered their territory if you're friendly with them.
There is also a lot of missing content like diplomacy or map creation options. I love building on islands for one and for that to happen I have to roll a lot of maps here. There are also some really annoying bugs like the inability to remove destroyed structures from other factions but you get used to that.

Also be prepared to lose your first few games due to starvation. It seems so easy at first to gather some berries, hunt some deer or exploit some fishing nodes. You will have a rather large stockpile of food soon and wonder what everyone is crying about... But your existing clans grow every turn so that their consumption will soon exceed basic means of production (and on top your initial food sources are also depleted after a while). Growing crops won't work in winter and heavy rainfall may halt your production as well. So it's not always safe to calculate with the given numbers either. The stockpile will suddenly be gone in one season and then you will realize that the next farm / ranch / whatever will still take a lot of turns to complete.
I think this is the biggest challenge in every game right now. Once you manage it the game becomes considerably easier. The next big obstacles would be enemies naturally. But so far the biggest opposition you will encounter in the game are actually bandits (getting rid of them is not all that easy though as they spawn new units at their camps and advance over time). Like the missing diplomacy there is no real AI to the enemy kingdoms. They will attack you when you are within their range but if not... eh well... they won't come for you it seems.

So, anyway, would I recommend it? Yes. It's playable and I found it to be fun enough fun to waste quite a few hours on it (mostly from managing my randomly generated clans and establishing a stable kingdom where I imagined it) but the game can also be a bit frustrating. Would I pay the full price? Probably not but I'm also stingy person and at full price I could also get other more fleshed out games. At the Gates does have enough content to be labelled a proper game though. It's not a complete scam as it would appear from the negative reviews, more like a giant construction site that hardly progresses. At least there was an announcement lately though. About implementing diplomacy and such in the future (right now you can only react when other leaders approach you).

Looks like I will be waiting for a sale on this then, thank you guys!

I like this game. It can be fun and it has potential. But wow, the development is the slowest that I have ever seen. At least in a game that is expected to continue development. Most games that develop this slowly end up dying.

It's more of a sandboxy toy than a proper game at this point, and probably will remain so for the indefinite future. It definitely has a fair bit of Dwarf Fortress in its DNA, although it has nowhere near the same level of breathtaking detail. Think more economic survival sim than wargame. It's entertaining enough for a little while.