Deep, addictive strategy game. The heir of Civilization and Master of Orion. Marred by bugs, alas.
User Rating: 9.3 | Rome: Total War PC
Rome: Total War is an awesome game in scope and depth. It is more than fun; it is absorbing, engrossing, -in fact, mesmerizing. With R:TW, The Creative Assembly has realized not only the potential that they themselves have promised with the previous games in the series, but, to a large part, the potential of the modern PC to produce epic strategy games that will appeal to serious strategy gamers. Truly, I have not felt so transported by any game in a long time. I dream of living and fighting in classical or ancient times, and with R:TW, my imagination has been given a powerful shot in the arm. Oh, -this game is enhanced by truly beautiful music, -maybe the best I have ever heard in a game. But that being said, -there is no doubt that this magnificent game was released too early. As is, it simply isn’t done. Enemy AI is not particularly good in fights, but I find that forgivable. The real issue is friendly AI.; units can be very hard to control, and the interface is not very intuitive. And when you are battling it out in a city, fun-but-problematic changes to God-awful-miserable. Units break in half when ordered to turn; divisions become stuck on walls; units will ignore the wide street that leads from where they are to where you are ordering them and walk instead in random directions, sometimes even leaving the city! While I, as much as anyone, understand the reason for this game’s popularity, I do not understand why so many gamers and critic have opted to give CA a pass on this glaring, -frequently agonizing issue. It is because of the bugs that I can't give this game higher than a 5 for value. Should have been a perfect 10. Have I kept playing nonetheless? I have. In fact, I have now played R:TW for well over 150 hours, and I still find myself learning new strategies, getting a feel for new units, and just being mesmerized by the depth of the game. This game teaches us, at last the difference between the words great and flawless. Not every flawless game is great, and not every great game is flawless. For the true gamer, great is better. The bottom line is that if you are a PC strategy gamer, you should not only own this game, but play it incessantly. Well, nearly incessantly. I hope you will take time out occasionally to complain about the glaring bugs, -at least until CA does something about them... BTW, A few people told me they have been using my Scipio strategy, and like it. Here it is if you are interested. I’ll be adding my Bruti and Julii strategies once I have them finished. http://forums.gamespot.com/gamespot/show_messages.php?board=35243&topic=17037639 Also, my blog is a Scipio family journal. If you like it, -just keep flaming me until update it. http://forums.gamespot.com/gamespot/journal.php?user=sevenwarlocks 
