All Roads Lead to Rome: Total War; The Ultimate Strategy Game!

System(s): PC


"Veni, Vidi, Vici"
(I came, I saw, I conquered)
~Julius Caeser\

Veni, Vidi, AIIIIIEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!
(I came, I saw, I screamed!!!!)
~SmashedBrother



Rome is an extremely detailed game that combines the best elements from all the best strategy games. You mission - To conquer all the known world.

To do this, you will have to train & position your troops and agents, such as spies and assasins along a turn-based campaign map, and fight with opposing rivals in real-time battles as you work your way towards being the dominant power in the world.

Gameplay:
Rome: Total War allows you to control historical factions like Rome, Greece, & Carthage (got to love those War Elephants! ) with the simple goal of deafeting your rival(s) for power.

Since Rome has so many gameplay elements it can be confusing at first and take's some time to get the hang of things, but since the game allows you to turn off or minimize irritating things like the weather and soldiers getting fatigue after a short jog and taking years to recover from the shock. ( and they say modern Americans are bad, lol! ) it's worth the time it takes to learn

You can choose to play battles customized exactly the way you like, even down to the time of day and the weather, in addition to more important things like giving yourself a couple hundred armored War Elephants to "battle" the enemies two dozen peasants You can alos fight in a "Quick Battle" which randomly throws you into a predetermined fight. These would e funner except for the fact that there are only about a dozen or so.

Finally, we get to the meat of the game - Campaign. The Campaign allows you to choose one of a dozen unique factions, all of which have their own unique advantages. (there are also some "filler" factions that tend to be similar or inferior to other factions, and cannot be played in Campaign) For example, Rome is the master of armored infantry and siege equipment. Greece's spearmen leave horses in slightly uncomfortable positions (A horse just doesn't seem to like a spear decorating it for some reason ) and the Selucid Empire has some of everything, ranging from Pikemen to Legionairees, from war elephants to chariots, though they're not the best at anythng.

After you choose your faction, things get interesting. First, you have to manage your own cities before you go conquering others. Each city controls a certain region, in which your ruling family (whose attributes can hopefully run your cities better, and improve armies that they lead) can build watchtowers to follow what goes on in your territory. You can choose to build a number of different building, each of which has it's own special effect. Barracks and improvements allow you to train better troops. Ports allow you to build ships which can carry your troops, blockade enemy ports, and destroy enemy ships. Hopefully, wall improvements are obvious. You also choose which shrine to build, whihc can be important as many have unique effect, ranging from population happiness (which avoids the mildly annoying experiance of getting kicked out of your own city!) to giving experiance to units which are trained there.

You move your armies, agents (such as spies, who scout out the enemy and can open city gates, and assasains, who keep enemy gernerals nervous) & control your cities on a turn-based campain map. Once in a battle you can choose to simply have it automattically determined (although you're really missing a lot of the fun of the game if you do) or to fight it out. On the battle map, you can control up to 20 units at a time, with the option to pause and order them, group them to together, and other convenient shortcuts.

To win, you must complete the objectives you chose when you first started the game - To win the long campaign, you must control Rome and at least 50 other territories. The short campaign varies, but usually you have to out last two other factions. You lose if you either control no cities, or have no more members of your ruling family.

Graphics & Music

The graphics are impressive considering the scale of the game even though they may not be eye candy,.

The music is excellent, blending into the background of the game, to come out roaring during battle. The sound-effects help make it come to life, and hearing the trumpet of an elephant and the marching feet of a unit of legionairees help bring the world to life.




The Bottom Line is -


Pesentation
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You are the leader of a powerful faction
aiming to conquer the world. It manages to
get the "feel" pretty well.
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Gameplay 9.2
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Excellent. It combines all the best
elements of all the best strategy games
while having the feel of conquering all
the ancient known world. I would rate it
higher, except for the time it takes to
get the hang of the game.
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Graphics - 7.3
_____________________________________

They're good at what they're meant to do -
display a couple thousand soldiers without
hanging up.
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Music -8.7
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The campaign music is blends fairly well into the
ckground, to come out with a bang during battle
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Replayablity - 9.2
_____________________________________
Replayability really depends on how patient
you are, as it can take a while to finish a
campaign. Still, playing as differant factions
and at harder can make the time enjoyable, and if you're
half as addicted to the game as I am, you'll come back to this
game for years. The option of online play also adds a lot.
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OVERALL (NOT an average!)

9.5

Well I've finally finished my first review!!! I know you've all been waiting breathlessly ) I'd love to get any helpful criticism from you guys, and I'd love heaps of overwhelming praise even more!

so it's basically the same as Age of Empires but wthout the suicide bomber and super Canada bear cheats...

firegremlin wrote:

so it's basically the same as Age of Empires but wthout the suicide bomber and super Canada bear cheats...

Np, unfortunately I, umm, missed part of my review (I typed it on Wordpad originally.. amnd tryed to copy & paste....... )

I intend to redo this totally.

P.S. It's significantly differant from age of Empires