Rome: Total War

Rome: Total War is a great strategy game. The Total War series is one of the best around, only Football Manager can beat it. The game is set during the growth of the Roman Empire and the mission is simple: take control of the empire! There are 3 factions that trying to gain power, the Julii in the North of Italy, the Brutii in the South and the Scripii in Central Italy and Silicy. You are meant to help gain territory for the Empire until you have enough strength to conquer Rome itself and the other two factions. As you conquer states you are also able to play as other states such as Gaul, Greece, Egypt, etc. What makes the Total War types of game in one. There is the battle real time part which is excellent and the mission is simple, win! The other part is the turn-style strategy on the European map and you have to do a lot to maintain your empire. There are other parts to the game as well, such as Historical battles and set-piece battles.

Rome: Total War is a great game and worth playing and is very addictive. Medieval: Total War II is also very good and I will like to play Empire: Total War when it comes out.

Rome Total War is a big step up from its predecessor set in the Medieval age in terms of graphics and game-play. You can now move the camera right into the action and watch as men are thrown into the air by charging cavalry or elephants, or fall from the walls of the cities. Indeed the siege combat stands out as a major improvement as there is a wider range of siege equipment such as ladders and towers that mean the long sieges of Medieval Total are much less frequent. There are no princesses or religious characters on the campaign map any longer which just reflects the era of the setting.

In Campaign mode you begin as one of the three Roman families, each have different missions assigned to them by the senate, creating varied challenges. As the Julii you will be battling your way northwards into the Gauls, Germans and Britons, all barbarian tribes that can often summon thousands of troops to the battlefield. As the Scipii you will have to conquer Sicily and aim to capture northern Africa held by the Carthaginians with their mighty war elephants. Finally as the Brutii your task is to head east and defeat their Greeks and Macedonians with their tough infantry phalanxes.

Once you have the completed the game with any of the Romans you are given the option of tackling the campaign again with other factions. This ranges from the Britons with their head-throwers and chariots, to the Greek Cities with their mighty infantry, but pitifully weak cavalry, to the Parthians with their lethal cavalry, but woeful infantry. This gives the game a great deal of re-playability, since I was given the game as a present some months ago I have played little else except the excellent expansion packs of course! It helps that the long campaign requires owning 50 settlements (including Rome itself), which can be extremely challenging and time consuming considering the amount of management has to be gone into to prevent captured cities rioting.

The Romans have the biggest range of units (especially in artillery)and probably the most balanced, but they are not invincible by any means. It just takes some time getting to understand the units of each faction and how to use them to the best of their ability. Of course most fight better in their home terrain, e.g. Egyptian troops will have a significant disadvantage in the snows of Germania.

There are some minor weaknesses. Naval combat is still decided by auto-calculating by the computer only which adds a disappointingly random element to a game that is all about careful strategy. The AI in battles is puzzling sometimes, sometimes if you are being besieged the enemy army will just stand outside the walls and gets wiped out by the wall towers.

However small glitches cannot prevent this from being best designed strategy games of recent years, as battles are decided by superior tactics rather than just weight of numbers all the time. It is also better for long-term strategists who enjoy building up cities and ultimately their empire, slowly. If you prefer the real-time battles and fast conquest then I would recommend the Alexander Add-on pack.

Rome Total War - Alexander gives you the opportunity to attempt to match the feats of one of the greatest generals in history, Alexander the Great. You command the Macedonians who are in a tough financial position as well as being surrounded by numerically superior enemies including the mighty Persian fleet to the south.

This is more based on the real-time battles than on the empire building of the original game. Your budget limitations as well as the 100 turn deadline (very short in comparison to Rome or Barbarian Invasion) mean an almost constant attacking policy against the Persians, barbarians and Indian rebels to succeed. Sacking or exterminating captured settlements is almost always necessary to pay for reinforcements - often mercenaries since shipping them from Greece will nearly always take too long. Men must be conserved which is no easy feat in the face of such heavy opposition.

New units such as the the elite Phalangists and the heavy Companion cavalry give the Macedonians the edge over their opponents. The faction plays similarly to the Greeks in the original except that the cavalry is far superior and the missile units are limited to javelin-throwers that are out-ranged by Persian archers. The infantry hop-lites are still extremely tough to break by frontal assault so the importance of not being out-flanked can not be overstated. There is no artillery, but this would be too cumbersome and therefore slow on the campaign map in any case and so sieges must be resolved with assault or starvation.

Alexander has less replay value since the in the main campaign only the Macedonians are a playable faction and there is no choice but to attack everybody to fulfil the objectives. There are different ways of approaching the campaign however, especially with the aid of the the difficulty settings. Alexander and his bodyguard are an essential key to success though failure will result if the leader himself dies.

There is a tough series of historical battles presented by the quality voice acting of renowned British actor Brian Blessed which is a definite bonus.

The game will appeal to those who prefer the real-time battles which can be fought between thousands of troops over the other aspects - diplomacy is not even an option since there are no diplomats. It still feels a little like a stop-gap measure for fans eager for Medieval II: Total War, but the cheap release price and the easy accessibility make it worthwhile.

This game is simply amazing. Words cannot describe it, for its awesomeness. The graphics are surprisingly good for a strategy game. The fighting is very engaging. It is very fun to watch your elephants wreak havoc and trample the other army's infantry. The calvary charges are very entertaining and cool. And it is very fun to play mulitplayer against each other. You will end up yelling things like "Hey", and "Why do you have elephants" and some other choice words that I cannot say here(JK). In other words:

Graphics: 5 out of 5.(very nice to look at)

Playability: 4 out of 5(just a few confusing things)

Over All: 5 out of 5(well worth $50)

I bought Rome Total War (short: RTW) because I was interested in the add-on Barbarian Invasions. The add-on promised to invoke the mood of the final days of the empire and the early middle ages, the period that is the subject of Gibbons book, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. This period holds my special interest because I am fascinated in last days and falls of anything. However I never got around to buying the add-on since I was disappointed in the way Rome Total War worked on a strategic level. Let's get around to RTW main failings before getting to the good bits. This way we can end in a happier mood.

RTW's primary failings are on a strategic level. Politics, broken down into internal and external relations, are usually based on marriages, the key component in the power-games that surrounded the rise of the roman empire. However in RTW internal relations, while being represented in the game, are beyond the influence of the player. External relationships are better represented, but in RTW you can't arrange a marriage with representant of another nation and an alliance is as easily broken as it is agreed upon by the AI, which doesn't represent reality and for game purposes it means it is useless. In fact with the exception of bribing most instruments of the diplomat in this game are either not effective or useless.

Strangely, while in politics there is not enough control, there is to much control on the economic level. You can develop every town in any way you see fit, while in reality and of necessity the ancient period lacked a tight centralized control. Only the roman emperors could, because of their vast wealth and power, slightly influence economics, but even when they applied drastic policies these would general fail or backfire.

There are more strange things in this game. For instance, populous cities always get inflicted with rebellion regardless of how many guards or pacifying buildings you assign to them, so you need to exterminate the population of all large cities you conquer. This extreme measure seems to have no influence on the opinion of the rest of the world as far as I know. A bit strange. Another strange thing is that when you are roman, the senate will give you quests that half the time simply undo-able(conquer a city in the middle of enemy territory within 10 turns, even if the trip will take 10 turns). There are many more examples, but let's leave it with these two examples.

Now after all this negativity, let's have a look at the positive sides. The best way to do it is to forget that the game tries to accurate depict historic realities of ancient roman times. If you look at the game from the bottom-up: that it is battle generator in which the battles are given a context by having a rudimentary, but easily manageable, strategic shell, the this game is superb.

The battles are stunningly well done. There is a wide selection of troops available who's composition is dependent on the nation you play. Play the Greeks and you get a hoplite army, play the Parthians and you get a horse army, play the Romans and you get a heavy infantry army. Each nation is well represented with their own troop types which allows for much replay-ability and sheer enjoyment when watched on the battlefield. The AI in combat is adequate(compare it with the AI from Mark of Chaos, which is two years younger and performs worse) although it is unable to learn from failures, so once you find the key to defeat a specific army composition(horse archers vs infantry) then the AI will not adapt his army to the new challenge. The developers have put in every effort to make sure the battles are pleasant experience by easy control, speed of pace and free range of the camera. There is little to more to require. A special remark I want to make for the sounds. The developers have chosen good sounds in the battle and for each of the nations you can play. This is well done and enhances the mood of the game.

So here is it, a weak strategic shell but a hell of a good battle generator. With these limitations it is recommended to anyone interested in tactical games. Hopefully the add-ons will be available in one big bundle in the near future.