The demo for Pyro Studios’ Imperial Glory is available at an online location near you. I got mine from 3DGamers.

The verdict? It’s pretty good. There are two battles, one in farmland in Hannover and one in North Africa. There’s also some video of parts of the game not available in the demo – naval battles and the strategy map.

The battles look convincing enough and the interface is almost perfect. It’s as if they just said “Rome: Total War is the look we are going for, let’s just use their interface”, though of course they didn’t, since Imperial Glory has been in development for over a year now.

The demo did not leave me breathless in anticipation though like Rome’s did, even though prima facie the IG demo has more in it. Maybe I wanted a better looking set piece battle or a chance to try my hand at sailing HMS Victory. But it has also done nothing to dampen my enthusiasm for this game. It’s near the top of my most wanted list and doesn’t look to fall.