Simply one of the finest strategy games ever made.

User Rating: 9.1 | Rome: Total War PC
By 481989 | Review Date:
Rome: Total War is simply one of the finest strategy games ever made. No other game comes close to offering the experience Rome: Total War provides, even previous Total War titles. As you should already be aware, there are two parts to a Rome: Total War campaign: the overlying campaign map and the individual battles, fought on a seperate map rendered to duplicate the geographical features on the space on the campaign map the two armies are fighting on. Rest assured, this makes Rome: Total War a fairly complex game. You have to essentially learn how to master two entirely seperate modes of play. It's not impossible, but still hard, yet still easily approachable even in the beginning despite the rather mediocre tutorial (which mainly focuses on battles). In my experience, even in my very first campaign I felt very confident about my abilities as a commander. Speaking of which, the AI, while not being particularly bright, is still pretty decent, especially in campaign mode. You actually have to play politics with other nations in the campaign map, and developing intricate political alliances becomes one of the most important parts of the overall campaign. The AI in the battles, while good enough to keep you entertained for several months, becomes very easy at all settings once you start to get really good. There are also some annoying glitches in the AI that become apparent and exploitable once you gain more experience (however, by the release of the Barbarian Invasion expansion, most of these issues should be resolved). But the AI is still good enough to present a challenge to you. One of the best features of Rome: Total War is its sound. The soundtrack completely fits the mood of ancient warfare and sounds nothing short of awesome when played over the sounds of thousands of soldiers marching, shrieking and dying. It's also a technical accomplishment for Rome: Total War to have thousands of soldiers on the battlefield and still retain a smooth framerate on even the most mediocre machines with the setting turned all the way up. The amount of soldiers, obviously, is something that sets the Total War series apart from all other real-time strategy games. However, while soldiers in previous games were rudimentary sprites that frankly looked a little ugly, Rome: Total War has fully 3d units. No matter how many times you play, you'll never get enough of zooming in close-up and watching your cavalry smash into the flanks of the enemy . It just looks so cool. (however, it should be noted that when you zoom out the engine switches out the 3d models for sprites, but at that distance it shouldn't make much of a difference). And, in case you're wondering, Rome: Total War does have a fairly active mod community. It's not anywhere near as big as the mod communities for games like Half Life and Battlefield 2, but then again it doesn't have to be, because Rome: Total War is so easy to mod it can be modded by hand without using any kits. At present there are two realism mods in development, which are set in the same time frame as the original game but make it far more realistic, called Rome: Total Realism and Europa Barbarorum. RTR 6.0 is currently out and available at DLX, while EB will not be released until late 2005. There is also a Medieval mod called Chivalry: Total War being developed, a Napoleanic era mod called Napoleanic Total War 2 (the sequel to the mod for Medieval: Total War), and a mod based on east-Asian myths and legend called Blue Lotus. Overall, RTW is a complete masterpiece, and can last you literally for months on end. If you like strategy games, or even if you don't, this game is a must-have.

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