With the (not so) recent release of the critically acclaimed (and filled with more bugs then buffalo bills house) Empire Total War, I decided to pick up the 5 year old, graphically dated, and also critically acclaimed Rome Total War - Gold Edition. Why? Because I didn't have enough money and was itching for some good ole' hardcore strategy gaming at its (supposed) finest, is it?....I don't know
(*goes and plays it for about 42-420 hours)
Yup, its just as awesome as Gamespot said it was.
(Note: due to its age, reviewing the graphics is relatively unfair considering its much better looking sequal Empire just came out so I'm going to skip the graphics...that and they are subjective...okay I am lazy)
The gameplay is like this, take one part real time strategy and one part civilization and you get Rome Total War. First you have a massive campaign map, reaching from Great Britain, to eastern russia to north africa, you have one hellu'va map to dominate, not only that your competing with other nations such as britannia (holy shit Lord British is real), the gauls, a historicall inaccurate egypt, and even rebels who will attack just for looking at them funny. You can play as all of these factions (minus the Rebels and the roman senate...more on that later) but unfortunetly your forced to play through one of 3 roman factions first, to unlock them. The object of the game? Conquer 45-50 territories and take over rome, or (in the short game) take over 15 territories and out last "x" faction, sounds easy...well not so much. To conquer Rome, you have to have enough popularity with the people and to do that you have to conquer territories and do senate missions, like a loyal servant of rome, whilist manageing a empire of your own. You have to build buildings, train troops, set tax rates, and keep your people happy hell you even need to make sure your economy for each city is fine or you will lose money from your treasury. This may sound complex but due to the games easy interface, after a few turns a novice will have it down quick and with the helpful advice feature, novices won't have a problem, though if your up for a challenge you can turn off the advice and turn on the difficulty to high...good luck with that. You also have family members, that can be a great boon or big nusance depending on how they act and what traits they have, you can have family members boost a town economy or absolutly destroy it depending how skilled they are or what traits they have, something you need to keep in mind.
The other side of the game is the cinematic RTS battles, and they are unlike anything you can you have ever played before. If your zergling rush tactic, that you have used since starcraft, is going to work, your going to have your ass handed to you. Its not about numbers, its about strategy. You have to take in to account your troops morale and fatigue and if they fall to low they can rout and run like cowards, even if you have a massive army in comparison to your enemy and don't think you can make new troops either, you going in with what you got. When you order your troops, your not commanding 1 troop or even 5 your commanding dozens at a time, and they won't always listen. However things such as having a family member present can hurt or help, having a great commander and leader with experience can encourage your troops to follow you and do what you say but having a cowardly weak leader will discourage your troops and if your family member dies, it is a detrimate to your troops morale. Like the campaign map, it sounds complicated but its not, and a noob can get it down after a few battles, and is definatly one of the better aspect of the game but if you just like playing it civilization-esque, thats cool, there is a automatically resolve button you can press before battle if you don't want to fight it out.
Now Rome Total War is a awesome game and what good awesome game would be without a awesome expansion. Here comes barbarian invasion, if Rome Total War is about the rise of rome, barbarian invasion (here on referenced as BI) is the fall of rome, in BI, rome starts off divided with east and west rome, and not in good condition and can even be subject to further division and civil war but the real attraction are "Barbarians" most notably the Huns. If you forgot your world history class, generally the barbarians are what caused rome to fall by driving in mass amounts of people and conquering their territory, and the huns became known for their aggresive domination of asia and europe. BI however definitally shows itself as a expansion, with a much harder campaign even on the supposed "easy" ones, and can test even the best of rome total war players. It features not only the also ones like the goths among others and is probably the more engaging of the two which gets you in the thick of it quicker and removes the element having to build popularity with a certain group to conquer the required territories, but again this is the harder one and I do reconmend playing Rome Total War alot until your comfertable with a stronger challenge.
The music in the game is perfect, coming in at just the right movement, with epic music
the gets you pumped for the battle and music that just right for calculating your enemies untimely demise while you shout "Blood DRINK HIS BLOO..." (censored for your viewing pleasure).
Rome Total War - Gold edition is the perfect blend of strategy and tactics and is perfect to play while your waiting on The creative assembly to fix Empires bugs (like I am)....(*goes back to relish in the death of his enemies on day 5 turn 296, yeah it can take that long to finish a campaign.)
(Intereastingly enough, even though this is the "gold" edition I am reviewing, it doesn't include the alaxander expansion)
(*goes and plays it for about 42-420 hours)
Yup, its just as awesome as Gamespot said it was.
(Note: due to its age, reviewing the graphics is relatively unfair considering its much better looking sequal Empire just came out so I'm going to skip the graphics...that and they are subjective...okay I am lazy)
The gameplay is like this, take one part real time strategy and one part civilization and you get Rome Total War. First you have a massive campaign map, reaching from Great Britain, to eastern russia to north africa, you have one hellu'va map to dominate, not only that your competing with other nations such as britannia (holy shit Lord British is real), the gauls, a historicall inaccurate egypt, and even rebels who will attack just for looking at them funny. You can play as all of these factions (minus the Rebels and the roman senate...more on that later) but unfortunetly your forced to play through one of 3 roman factions first, to unlock them. The object of the game? Conquer 45-50 territories and take over rome, or (in the short game) take over 15 territories and out last "x" faction, sounds easy...well not so much. To conquer Rome, you have to have enough popularity with the people and to do that you have to conquer territories and do senate missions, like a loyal servant of rome, whilist manageing a empire of your own. You have to build buildings, train troops, set tax rates, and keep your people happy hell you even need to make sure your economy for each city is fine or you will lose money from your treasury. This may sound complex but due to the games easy interface, after a few turns a novice will have it down quick and with the helpful advice feature, novices won't have a problem, though if your up for a challenge you can turn off the advice and turn on the difficulty to high...good luck with that. You also have family members, that can be a great boon or big nusance depending on how they act and what traits they have, you can have family members boost a town economy or absolutly destroy it depending how skilled they are or what traits they have, something you need to keep in mind.
The other side of the game is the cinematic RTS battles, and they are unlike anything you can you have ever played before. If your zergling rush tactic, that you have used since starcraft, is going to work, your going to have your ass handed to you. Its not about numbers, its about strategy. You have to take in to account your troops morale and fatigue and if they fall to low they can rout and run like cowards, even if you have a massive army in comparison to your enemy and don't think you can make new troops either, you going in with what you got. When you order your troops, your not commanding 1 troop or even 5 your commanding dozens at a time, and they won't always listen. However things such as having a family member present can hurt or help, having a great commander and leader with experience can encourage your troops to follow you and do what you say but having a cowardly weak leader will discourage your troops and if your family member dies, it is a detrimate to your troops morale. Like the campaign map, it sounds complicated but its not, and a noob can get it down after a few battles, and is definatly one of the better aspect of the game but if you just like playing it civilization-esque, thats cool, there is a automatically resolve button you can press before battle if you don't want to fight it out.
Now Rome Total War is a awesome game and what good awesome game would be without a awesome expansion. Here comes barbarian invasion, if Rome Total War is about the rise of rome, barbarian invasion (here on referenced as BI) is the fall of rome, in BI, rome starts off divided with east and west rome, and not in good condition and can even be subject to further division and civil war but the real attraction are "Barbarians" most notably the Huns. If you forgot your world history class, generally the barbarians are what caused rome to fall by driving in mass amounts of people and conquering their territory, and the huns became known for their aggresive domination of asia and europe. BI however definitally shows itself as a expansion, with a much harder campaign even on the supposed "easy" ones, and can test even the best of rome total war players. It features not only the also ones like the goths among others and is probably the more engaging of the two which gets you in the thick of it quicker and removes the element having to build popularity with a certain group to conquer the required territories, but again this is the harder one and I do reconmend playing Rome Total War alot until your comfertable with a stronger challenge.
The music in the game is perfect, coming in at just the right movement, with epic music
the gets you pumped for the battle and music that just right for calculating your enemies untimely demise while you shout "Blood DRINK HIS BLOO..." (censored for your viewing pleasure).
Rome Total War - Gold edition is the perfect blend of strategy and tactics and is perfect to play while your waiting on The creative assembly to fix Empires bugs (like I am)....(*goes back to relish in the death of his enemies on day 5 turn 296, yeah it can take that long to finish a campaign.)
(Intereastingly enough, even though this is the "gold" edition I am reviewing, it doesn't include the alaxander expansion)