Rome: Total War

One day I was at a local Wal-Mart. I was walking through the video game section looking at some PS2 games when I decided to look at the CP games. I looked over them and came across this. It looked entertaining. Eventually I bought it. WOW!

Rome: Total War is set in and around the highest point of Rome (270 BC - 14 AD). You are able to choose from a house of the Roman Empire (Julii, Scipii, or Brutii) and go from there. You are presented the most stunning graphics for a strategy game of this multitude. You can battle on the grassy plains of Briton, the deserts of Africa, and the forests of Germania.

Build a variety of units from Elephants, to Cavalry, to Headthrowers. There are something around 25 different factions you can choose from: Rome, Gaul, Carthage and Egypt just to name a few. I usually stick with a game around a month, I've been playing this for nearly six! the outline and design of this game is unbelievable. Full fledge armies confronting each other on the field of battle. Cavalry charges, arrows crashing into lines of soldiers, and elephants stomping men into the ground.

The graphics are top notch and no blood is present in the battles (thats a drawback to me but parents mite like that part). The game spans three continents and sea battles may also takes place. As you conquer cities you must learn to manage taxing and home guards for each city. You'll be confronted with the task of being the emperor of your own kingdom!

Rome: Total War.

Graphics: 5/5

Replay Value: 5/5

Design: 5/5

Overall: 5/5 A great strategy game.

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.

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)

Barbarian Invasion is set some few hundred years after the campaign shown in the original and the setting is extremely different. The mighty Roman empire has fractured into two factions the Western and Eastern. Despite still having large territories there are few troops to go around, and there are hordes of barbarians such as the Goths, Vandals and Huns waiting to take advantage of any weaknesses on their borders...

In this game you are given the option of commanding most of the factions present from the Saxons in the far north to the Sassanids (the only faction in the add-on with elephants) in the Middle East. The campaign is more limited in that some factions only need 10-15 territories for victory, but that is not as easy as it sounds. Whereas in Rome Total War most battles might be fought with 1000 or less on each side, in the expansion you can find cities besieged by closer to 5000 barbarians! There are some changes to the game-play - some units can now swim, offering an alternative to losing many men crossing a bridge head on. Some troop types can also form shield walls and 'schiltroms', offering better protection from a head-on attack and the ability to prevent cavalry attacking infantry from the rear respectively. Superior generals can now attack at night, which is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also has some benefits such as archers will be less accurate at night. There are a very large number of new units as warfare has changed a little since the earlier game.

All in all this exciting strategy game is better suited for those people who preferred the real-time battles in RTW to the more drawn out campaign map aspect. The battles are more numerous and often challenging as there have been some improvements to the AI, making it more intelligent than before.

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.