Rome: Total War (PC)

Set, fairly obviously, during the hey day of the first Roman Empire, the game gives you total control over your own faction with the game once again split between a turn-based strategic world map and real-time tactical battles. The former allows you to build and maintain armies and buildings, but also gives increased control over diplomacy and trade--elements that were largely overlooked in previous titles.

The real draw of the game though is the tactical battles which are now displayed using some quite staggering 3D graphics that can see up to 10,000 separate warrior in battle at one time. With units ranging from elephants and inflammable pigs to centurions and escaped slaves just watching the battles unfold is as epic as any Hollywood blockbuster. What's perhaps most impressive about the game is that controlling such huge numbers of soldiers is actually surprisingly easy with a simple point-and-click interface making everything as smooth as possible.

Rome: Total War is one of those rare breed of games that is largely impossible to fault. In technical and gameplay terms it gets everything right and unless you have a pathological hatred of strategy games this is easily one of the best PC games ever made. --David Jenkins

A completely new Total War engine uses innovative technology and groundbreaking design to bring the world of ancient Rome to life to deliver the biggest and most cinematic battles ever seen in a videogame. So the battles in Rome: Total War maintain the epic-scale that fans of Total War are used to - but now use high detailed 3D polygonal troops and allows huge cities to be displayed on the battlefields.. The result is truly spectacular.

Sticking with the award-winning formula of Total War games, the campaign game lets you build an Empire using the arts of war, diplomacy and trade. The new engine recreates Europe as a 3D game world ripe for conquest - where the whole physical terrain of Europe has been re-created. Cities and settlements will grow and develop over time (providing they are managed properly) and as you develop the environment around your cities (eg by building roads and bridges or improving the agriculture) the battlefields will adapt to show these features. The result is a fully dynamic interactive world.

Features:

Epic battles between collosal armies. Over 10,000 fully polygonal, motion captured units can be displayed simultaneously with virtually no sacrifice of performance compared to Medieval: Total War.
You can command entire Roman Legions, Greek phalanxes, barbarian hordes and the armies of Carthage, Egypt, and the Successor Kingdoms, each with a mix of exclusive units.
The campaign game is accessible to all gamers from those who want to do everything through to beginners (who can use city governors and automatic systems to handle the detail of taxation, military training and building) and those who just want to fight enormous battles!
Besiege huge cities and storm mighty fortresses with powerful artillery and siege engines. Bring your enemies' defences crashing to the ground with catapults, smash through their gates with battering rams as burning oil rains rains death from above, fight your way onto the battlements with siege towers and assault ladders and undermine their walls by igniting sapping points.
Rome - Total War also allows up to 8 players to fight epic battles over a LAN or the internet.


Demo Review!   August 24, 2004
J. Weller (England)
99 out of 107 found this review helpful

Hey, this review is based on the recently released demo - it contains a tutorial and a historical battle.

When I first played it, the graphics seemed kinda rough around the edges. I was disappointed, especially after watching the game running on Time Commanders. So I cranked up the graphical options to max. I didn't think it would run too well, but whadya know? It ran even better! Strange, but true. The quality of the details, and especially the advanced shadows, took it all up to a whole new level.

Visually, Rome is amazing - provided you've got a rig good enough to run it at max.

(By the way - my system - 2.2 Ghz P4 / 768MB / G4Ti4400)

But what about the game play? Once again - amazing. I found the camera a little tricky at first, but once I'd mastered it, I was whizzing around the battlefield with ease. I'll go out on a limb here and say that I found it easier to use than the camera from MTW or Shogun, which at times were a little unwieldy and clunky. Rome feels so smooth in comparison.

The interface and map look good and I didn't have any problems finding my way around. The only problem was that the morale, weapon and defence icons on the banners was a little small and hard to read. But not really that much of a problem.

A lot of people are debating the speed of the game. Personally, I thought the speed was just right. I thought the speed of the units was quite realistic.

The animation of the units is stunning. Seeing a horse leap frog over a spearman during a charge is wonderful! Watching a group of roman infantry charge a line of spears and leap into the air, swinging their swords down onto their foe's heads while screaming battle cries was outstanding. Oh, and did I mention the poor guys getting tossed about by the elephants? It's not quite rag doll, but it looks great.

The cries of war, the calls of retreat, the cheers of victory. They all enhance an already amazing game. Oh and the music is pretty darn good too. It compliments the action perfectly.

Are the units too powerful? I didn't think so. The cavalry and the elephants can be devastating, but only when used correctly. Elephants can be just as dangerous to your own troops (as I found out!) when routing or panicking. The cavalry can be cut down easily by a prepared defence, even of light infantry, providing that the cavalry can be hit from two sides. Just make sure you watch your rear, no?

What else? Well, a couple of annoyances I guess. But nothing major. The big green triangles that highlights a selected unit are a little intrusive. I hope we can turn these off, or tone them down, but if not, then I can live with it. When your army is fleeing, you get these boxes appear down the side of the screen, which seem a little unnecessary and tend to get in the way, especially if you're trying to salvage a battle from a total loss. (I do like the boxes about the general's death though, sometimes I'd miss the close up in the battle)

The speed of the battle? Perfect. If you're playing it on the harder settings, it can take longer to rout the Romans. But if you do it right, then it's still over quite quickly. But have you tried playing as the Romans? Facing off against those elephants is tough, but possible to do. The battle tends to drag on for longer when you play as these guys.

AI? Roman AI seems fine, and it's strategy certainly becomes more complex on harder settings. Hannibal's though is a little iffy. Could be due to the fact that we're not really meant to be playing against them in the demo?

Overall, Rome turned out to be as great as what I was expecting. Sometimes, it's nice just to pause the action and zoom right on in and admire the beautiful carnage.

Personally, I hope CA don't change too much before the game ships. And I hope that happens soon! To the great battles that lay ahead!


Best pc game of the year!   August 26, 2004
91 out of 103 found this review helpful

In this awesome new game there are masses of new playable factions including, three Roman factions, (Scipii, Brutii, Julii), three barbarian factions (Gaul,Germania who get brilliant axemen, warhounds and night raiders and who can hide armies in the black forest for ambushes and the Britons who get cool druids by the way and head hurlers), the Carthiginians (who get a diferent selection of armoured war elepants), Parthians (who specialise in cavalry and horse archers),the Seulucids, ALL the Greek city states, Sparta,Athens etc, and a couple other Middle Eastern factions. And of course rebels- unplayable.there are for the new factions, countless exclusive unit types, plus fudamental units from Medieval including peasants, which are basically the same but now have a unique look for each faction they belong to.
The incredible siege system allows players to use battering rams, siege ladders, siege towers, and sapping the enemys' walls. However, unlike in Medieval , where you only need to capture the fortress, here once you breach the walls you conduct urban warfare in the city streets, all the time getting mown down by enemy archers, and you need to capture and hold the central city plaza to be victorious.Also, if you take the city,don't be suprised if the city population revolts and makes an new army. The enemy can also call upon allies to attack your besieging in the rear, making sieges an incredibly hard undertaking,but with truly cinematic gameplay.
The game also uses a complex diplomatic system, where thousands of different negotiations can take place ,e.g, If you do not pay me 10,000 denari, I will attack your faction, or I will pay you 50,000 denari to attack the Carthiginians, or I will pay you 1,000 denari to give my troops passage through your lands.
If you play as Rome,the senate will give you tasks such as defeat Carthage in 10 years or prevent a barbarian uprising in Germany.
In campaign mode, the risk style provinces have vanished an now there is point to point movement for armies, and you can zoom in on the campaign map and watch hem marching.
All of this, combined with incredible and cinematic graphics, will make for one stunningly amazing game.
The demo has been released, there is more information at totalwar.com


How can you review a game you've never played?   May 23, 2004
87 out of 172 found this review helpful

A note to all Amazon readers:

Note that some of these reviews were written almost a year before the release of the game. This means that none of these people have played it and therefore cannot review it. Seeing screenshots or watching a TV programme which apparently features the game are clearly not the same as OWNING and PLAYING the game.

The developers and some privileged others in the industry may have played the game and passed on their opinions by word of mouth, but it just isn't possible for anyone else to write a review if they have not played the game. How many books or movies get reviewed by critics who have not read them or watched them?

The release date is currently winter 2004, so I wouldn't pay any attention to any other reviews dated before winter 2004 unless it states who the person is in the computer games industry and how they managed to PLAY the game.

It's only fair that this is pointed out because these so-called reviews are not reviews and therefore could be classed as misleading to customers.

I intended to put no stars to be neutral, but I had to put at least one star as zero stars was not given as an option. My stance is neutral as I cannot review the game until I have personally played it for a period of time. It may just turn out to be a fantastic game or not, but until it is released, no-one can review it.


A glorious return to the days of empire!   November 22, 2004
61 out of 64 found this review helpful

Firstly, this surpasses any other strategy game of this type - it is comprehensive in units and the battles are simply stunning. The only problems I have found are that sometimes rebellious cities are annoying, but then that is symptomatic of people under the Imperial yoke! The wide ranging map from europe to asia minor, russia and north africa allows for a wide range of enemies as you seek to forward the glory of Rome. Also, once you have crushed those barabrians, you get to play as them in the Imperial Campaign - a must if you enjoy testing your combat skills as a wholey different army.

From first to last this is a simply quality game - your family tree expands and the ability to negotiate is certainly good fun if you get tired of defeating them on the battlefield. Also armies function as they would have done, with emphasis on different areas - for example a battle between the Selucids and the Parthians will be cavalry based - as is the nature of war in the desert. Elephants and chariots are fantastic but be careful they are prone to running amok - but nonetheless they remain devastating when used well.

The variety of game play is also fantastic, with custom battles or historical battles - I find the battle of Carrhae particularly challenging, plus there is an online multiplayer - though I have not tried that yet. Once you complete the prologue you can choose to be the Julii, the Brutii or the Scipii. If you fancy tackling the Gauls take the Julii, for the Greeks go with the Brutii and for the Carthaginians go with the Scipii - my personal favourites. Your missions are given by the senate with rewards for completing them though you can still do as you please in essence - I went for Greece and Africa as the Scipii and narrowed the Brutii territory. Also, whilst you cannot fight your allies (the Senate and the other Romans) - you will eventually get your chance!

Also the game is realistic in thatyour generals have good and bad traits, that you can rule your cities yourself, you can recruit mercenaries - Samnites being a personal recommendation along with Cretan archers. These can suppliment your armies and certainly help on long campaigns. The game also includes the Marian reforms - whereby your selection of units increases to the more traditional legionaries - but to start with, the Velites, Hastati, Principes and Equites should see you through.

If there are any drawbacks it could be that once you get 50 territories and Rome itself you cannot continue, however, if you wish you can leave the Senate in Rome and continue your conquests elsewhere!

Overall this is an absolute must for any fan of this era and of war gaming generally. Great selection of battles and armies with all of the possibilities on campaign surely make this the best in its genre, plus your generals give rousing speeches prior to battle - what more could a person want?