Why this Rome: Total War is the best strategy game ever and that you should honor it by trying it.

User Rating: 9.6 | Rome: Total War PC
By stamoz | Review Date:
Hi, I felt obligated to do this review and only because all gamers need to become aware of this extraordinary masterpiece. There are a lot of very good games around, but only few magnificent ones, and believe it that Rome: Total War is one of them, like its predecessor. Let’s crack on it then, shall we? The developers have done a very good job, graphics wise. The strategic map is more 3-D now, compared with the Medieval: Total War. It’s definitely more impressive this way, but it can be a bit frustrating, for the old Total War fans, to find a specific item like your assassin among all these 3-D graphics and animations. However, if you get used to it, then you are ready for the greatest adventurous and strategic game experience ever made until now. The in-battle graphics are amazing and much superior to its predecessor. You can actually zoom face-to-face with your soldiers and there are different animations for each individual, thus making it more realistic. It’s definitely more enjoyable to play all battles, especially when assaulting cities. I was impressed with the sound as well. There are an infinite number of sound clips for each occasion to avoid repetitiveness. For example, in the beginning of every battle, you can hear distinguished dialogues from your army’s general, to increase the moral and spirit of his soldiers. The improved sound has definitely improved the battle experience. I loved the realistic sounds of the assassinations performed every time. There are a lot of changes compared to the previous one, and I felt that they have tried to make this game as much life-like, realistic and similar to those days that the events occurred. For example, you are required to choose your family faction among the three main ones available and you have access to the Rome Senate. This means that the course of your actions is very dependent to the Senate’s will and has an impact on your popularity towards the people. Somehow, you cannot easily keep happy both parts and trying to get the best balance, makes the game just more fun. I loved the interaction between the diplomats. Your diplomat can now make offers, or demand as well, alliances, trade rights, payments, map information, sell regions, etc… The ships can also transfer armies and leave them in any place on the map, thus you can avoid straight contact with the enemy. The main difference though, that it is noticed immediately on the map, is the separation of the regions which is based in towns/cities rather than countries. This is how it used to be anyway those years and improved the realism of the game since it is harder to conquer an entire country. You will love the 3-D animation of the strategic map that apart from being interactive, it seems to be highly corresponding to your various actions. So, for instance, if you improve the roads between your cities, you will see the change upon the map as well. If you start trading, you will also see caravels or ships come and go. This was for sure an improvement over the previous game. The campaign seemed to be a bit longer to finish, whereas the battle durations tend to be a bit shorter. This was very wise and makes the battles more attractive to play manually. I loved the idea of having to conquer most of the cities and then having to fight against the other Roman factions, take over Rome and become the new Roman true Emperor. The main downside that I can think of is that I would like to be able to play by choosing any of the other non-roman factions as well, but maybe then they would have to rename the game itself. The reason for that is that because each faction has different cultures and armies, but I guess the Senate would not make any sense if you were joining a non-Roman faction. Finally, they could improve the tracking of your various sources (armies, agents, assassins, etc) because it can be really hard to find them when you have expanded your kingdom. In addition to this, they could provide a functionality (like in the old game) to quickly identify which cities are about to rebel against you, rather having to go through each one. To sum up, I believe this is the best strategy game I have ever played, like its predecessor with a few more features. The level of gaming experience and learning gained is spectacular. It is game that lets you think before you act, thus not get bored easily and spent well worth your money.

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