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I've been following this series since I started playing Medieval Total War, and Rome is a beautiful sequel. I bought this for my dad, and he can't stop playing. It appeals to fans of the Civilizations series (like my father), as well as fans of Age of Empire's real-time battle sequences. Like Medieval, it's really two games in one, except with significant improvements over its predecessor. What's great is that if I'm not in the mood to fight lengthy battles, the option exists to autocalculate them but you won't get to lead the troops the way you want.
When I first started playing Medieval Total War, there was a steep learning curve to understand how to win real-time battles against larger forces. Some of what I learned in Medieval I've been able to translate over to Rome, so I can imagine anyone trying the game the first couple times might have some difficulty getting the hang of the battle sequences. Start with easy battles where you outnumber your opponents, and learn which units oppose which the best (horses against archers, spearman against horses, etc). Use Pause as much as you need. Eventually you'll recognize the strategy involved with flanking your opponent, hiding your cavalry in forests, and positioning archers behind a protective wall of infantry on a hilltop. If you suddenly charge an enemy from behind them, they will panic! If a general dies in battle, the troops will be demoralized! And if you destroy a building, or worse lose an heir, that will be reflected in the main game.
The reverse is also true. What units you build in the main game and where you position them on the map will directly control how the real-time battles will look when they begin. It's that kind of realism that makes this game truly dynamic and fun.
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I remember playing civilization for the first time. I started playing friday evening, and only stopped when I could hear the birds outside on saturday morning.
RTW is the same deal. You get drawn in totally to the world of strategy and compelling gameplay. There are differences of course. The main one is the added realism... better graphics, and it doesn't look like RTW cheats (Civilization did). In fact, the graphics engine was used in a recent TV program on BBC3 (a BBC channel, aired in the UK), where a team of tv personalities re-enacted famous historical battles in real time via a virtual simulation that was provided by a networked version of this game!
I have all the graphic settings up to max and it works a treat on my Radeon 9800 pro, 1 gig or RAM and an XP2800. In fact, the final game works better than the demo (in terms of performance and less bugs), although, admittedly I still see crashes to desktop once every 10 or so hours of play. In most games, this would be unforgivable, but I haven't docked any points because it always seems to crash immediately after auto saving, so just re-loading the game and hitting the Continue Campaign option seems to put me back where I was.
One of the defining factors of a good strategy game is that it gets more difficult the more successful you become not because you get to harder levels, but simply because being successful means you have to work harder to keep your conquests, and this game gets this perfectly. You start off with a few cities, but as your empire grows, you not only have to deal with enemy armies, but also keeeping your own people loyal (through either loyalty by keepin them happy, or by fear via large garrisons in every town). You also start to find your armies stretched, and cities well away from your capital become particulalry prone to attack from rebels. Being a good general on the battlefield is only part of winning this game.
The game also has a twist about half way through, where something unexpected happens within the Roman Empire (well, it was for me, perhaps I just didn't pay enough attention in history class!), and its something that totally turns the game.
You also get non-roman civilizations unlocked if you complete the Roman campaign, something that adds to the longevity.
A (very) minor niggle is some of the voice acting and scripting, which seems to be produced by the same casting people that produced some of the over-the-top Hollywood dialogue from the 1950/1960 era... the ham-it-up spirit of Tony Curtis lives on!
If you are a fan of the previous total war games, you really need to play on hard medium is just too easy, particulalry because on that level, the enemy doesnt seem to mind getting too close to your castle walls and just sits there and gets decimated by arrows. Previous fans of TW will also really appreciate the better modelling of castles, which are now more realistic. The battlements now work (you can place soldiers on them), and to storm an enemy stronghold, you have to either scale the walls, batter the gate down, or simply demolish the walls. Sea battles are still not modelled in real time, although the reasoning for this is probably so they have something for the next game (or expansion) because everything else is modelled perfectly, and in detail.
Overall though, its a must have for any strategy fan. There's simply nothing out there to compete in either scope, depth or realism, so I must give it full marks. Oh, and also because its just an addictive, thoughtful, thinking-persons strategy game, with enough graphics and fun-factor to wow the video console kids into playing the game!
S
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This game is INCREDIBLE!
I am Roman, from Rome, Italy. Classical studies are in my backgroung... this game is a perfect recreation of ancient Rome: its politics and, especially, the way Romans used to conduct war.
You can play the game in tactical and strategic way, deciding to just stick to strategic or to delve into tactical too.
In strategic, you govern cities, move armies, build new structures (as Temples, Academies, Stables, Training Facilities, Arenas), hire and train troops, etc. If you do battle you then decide if you want to go into tactical or just want the fight to be resolved based on the number and kind of troops you have.
In tactical you fight. You will see hundreds of soldiers on the battle field. All in formation, just as the Romans used to fight. You will battle hordes of barbarians, opposite Roman factions, greeks, etc...
What was in history... IS IN THIS GAME.
But most of all...this game is FUN.
Normally games that are too realistic are really boring. This game has it all.
I won't go on and comment too much on graphics, fighting engine, help menu, sound... because it is all so good it all deserves a 10 out of 10 and just one comment: SUPERB!!!
I'll just add a note on Soundtrack: I makes you feel like you were in the first 20 minutes of the movie Gladiator. Incredible.
This is one of the best games I EVER SAW IN PC.
If you are an RTS fan YOU HAVE TO BUY THIS GAME.
Honest reviews on Rome: Total War - PC
I got Rome:Total War [hereafter refered to as rtw] the week it came out, late in september last year. I got home at about eleven, from going somewhere, i don't remember, it's not important. What is important is that i played this game until five in the morning, then woke up at ten to keep playing it. It's that good.
You ought to start out with the Tutorial Campaign, which teaches you the basics of the campaign map and fighting battles. The graphics for the campaign map and battles are superb, really.
Well, before I continue, I should explain more about the system. Players start on the Campaign map, where you control cites and provinces, and can build buildings, recruit units, set tax rates, attack and conquer armies and provinces. This system is detailed to the point of laberinthine complexity. Fore example, at least ten factors can influence the population growth rate, the annual income, and the happiness, or 'public order' of a city.
You can construct a myriad of buildings in each province, such as walls, to augment the defensive capibilities of the city, Barracks, which allow the recruitment of better troops, and roads, which allow armies and other units to move further along them, and increase trade income.
One has to start out as one of the three available Roman factions: the Julii, the Brutii, and the Scipii. Each of these factions controls different cites, and have different natural enemies. The Julii, for example, will find themselves fighting mostly with the Gauls. These tree factions, or families, are allied with each other, and with a fourth faction, known only as SPQR [senatus populusque Romanus, or the senate and people of Rome], who controlls Rome alone. You'll soon find, however, that they pretty much control your lives, too.
Before I ramble about the Senate, I should explain about family members. Your faction is lead by a pater familias, the male head of your particular family. He has sons, who serve as generals along with him, and get married to have children of their own, and daughters, who can marry other men, who will enter the family, and become generals as well. You can also reward a valourous captain [the commander of an army when it is not lead by a general] with membership in your family, and bribe foreign generals with diplomats to join your family.
The Senate is extremely well integrated into the game. Most prominatley, they assign you missions, such as to take a province, blockade a port, or achieve some sort of diplomatic goal. But don't dispair: the Senate will give you some sort of perk for doing their bidding, be it denarii [money], an advanced unit, or priority appointment for an office. And, of course, it'll improve your standing with the Senate, but more of that a bit later. Anyway, yes, the Senate also assigns several offices to members of each Roman faction [including their own]. I won't go into details about these offices, except that some are obviously more prestigious than others, and give bonuses to the attributes of the family members who hold them.
Ok, well, anyway, you have a standing with both the Senate, and the People. At the start, your standing with the Senate is rather high, and the average citizen on the street hates your guts. Obeying the Senate improves your standing with them, whilst military conquests, and disobeying the Senate improves your standing with the people. If the Senate starts to dislike you, they'll start making more difficult demands of you, setting stricter time limits, and simply refraning from punishing you if you suceed. If you conquer enough provinces the Senate may demand the suicide of your faction leader, or you will be outlawed. If you refuse, the Senate will outlaw you, and the other families will declare war on you. Your next step is to take Rome, making yourself Imperator [emperor].
All this will take a while, of course. And after you beat the campaign as a Roman, you're allowed to play as many other factions, including barbarians, Greeks, and Egyptians.
Well, yes, this review is long, but I still have to discuss the battles. Whenever one of your armies encounters an enemy army, or attacks a city, you can either have the computer take all factory into consideration and automatically resolve the battle. Or, you can take the more fun option, and fight it yourself. The game goes to the battlefield mode, where the geographical features of the area where the battle's taking place will be taken into consideration. Your general [or captain] will open the battle with a speech to his troops, where he'll highlight such things as the numerical balance of forces, the makeup of each army, and your chances. You'll then be allowed to position your troops.
The battles themselves can go any way. Legionaries throw amor-piercing javelins known as pila before charging and can enter the famous testudo formation, cavalry can form wedges, amd archers can fire flaming arrows. The battlefield physics are great, too, men can be killed by falling stone from damaged walls, men go flying if hit by a cavlary charge or elephants, and men fighting downhill will have significant advantages.
Anyway, the graphics of the whole game are stunning, you'll find yourself hooked in mere hours. This is why I made my two suggestions. Trust me, as a veteran of both other Total War games, rtw is the best yet, graphics aside. Its level of detail is simply amazing, soon you'll find yourself thinking about what the senate'll think of you going out to the movies. Well, maybe not quite that involved, but trust me, you'll be hooked. If you have a good enough computer, this game is an absolute must!
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Over the years I have played a number of RTS games such as this but RTW has to be the absolute best so far.
The graphics and attention to detail are incredible and the gaming system is outstanding. From the novice to the hardcore gamer, everyone will enjoy this program.
Once of the main things I really like about the game is the ease with which you can be up and playing the game without having to spend countless hours reading a complex game manual and more hours getting "slaughtered" learning to play.
The game includes a very good tutorial scenario that takes you step by step through the game play system. After that, you can be up and succssfully commanding your armies in short order.
To truly and fully enjoy the game does require some practice and getting used to managing your empire, however, the system is not overly complicated and if you don't want to attend to all the mundane details of administering your cities, simply turn on the "automanage" feature and continue with your conquests.
The automanage system does a fair job of keeping your cities running and the local population happy, however, from time to time, it will be necessary to intervene in the administration of some of your cities to get the best results or order them to build specific units. The only thing in this area I think they could have done better or differently is to make it possible to to manually administer cities that do not have a governor. The way it works now is if a city does not have a governor, i.e. one of your royal family members, physically in the city, the city defaults to "automanage" and you cannot order the city to build specific buildings or units, you can only tell the city what focus you want it to work towards, i.e. military growth, cultural growth, financial, etc. Otherwise it's a good AI system.
I couldn't find many negatives with the game or the play system other than some minor shortcomings mentioned in other reviews so overall I give this RTW a well deserved 5-Stars!
On the hardware side, I highly recommend upgrading your video card to get full enjoyment from the game. When I first installed the game, the graphics card in my PC was a 64mb
Ge-Force 420 MX and it was struggling to keep up, so I upgraded to a Radeon 9550 256mb card and the game now runs flawlessly. Having the more powerful card allowed greater resolution in the game and full use of all the special effects and full character/object rendering.
Anyway, enough for now, if you don't already own this game, this is a must have for the strategy and war game buffs. If you want a bloody, mindless, hack and slash game, this is probably not for you although there is plenty of action, death and mayhem for all.
Thanks,
Rick
