On Monday night, I headed over to my local GameStop with a $20 bill in hand and walked out with a game called Rome: Total War. Though I didn’t think my computer could handle its somewhat low requirements because of its proclamation that it could show over 10,000 soldiers on screen at once, I said what the hell and bought it anyway. Due to me watching my friend play it four years ago, my own general interest in the Total War franchise, and the thought of a new way to play an RTS game, I didn’t think I could possibly pass it up.
So, with the game in hand, I brought it home, installed it, and intended to play it for an hour before going to bed. What should have been a quick run-through of the tutorial to get a feel of the game became a non-stop gaming session that lasted until 4 in the morning, at which point I finally realized what time it was and begrudgingly turned off the computer and headed off to bed.
If the previous paragraph was any indication, the game is extremely addicting. It combines part RTS game, part board game, as you can create armies, take on missions for the glory of your faction, lay siege to cities, and a great deal more. It’s sort of a World in Conflict/Civilzation IV hybrid, as land battles has you taking your army and using it strategically to conquer your foes (no base building here), while when not fighting, you control your empire in much the same way you would in Civilzation IV, albeit with less options.
Basically, the game is a shoddy Civilization IV set exclusively in the 3rd Century which allows you to take control of the battles you fight rather than have the game determine the outcome by probability (though that’s an option you can choose). In other words, I like it.
I’ve already put a large amount of gametime into the Imperial Campaign, in which you lead one of the three great families of Rome on a tour of European conquest. Here’s a bulleted list of my ups and downs with it so far, along with some screenshots I took:
- The fact that the battles can accompany up to 10,000 soldiers (most I ever had fighting at the same time was 2,000) is simply astounding and puts other RTS games to shame.
- Thumbs up for the dead soldiers never disappearing during battle, but thumbs down for their not being any blood or gore in the game. Ah well, I guess it needed the T Rating.
- Navies are effectively worthless in the game and are only worth building to blockade enemy ports and transporting units. There are no real-time navy battles in the game, meaning each sea battle is played out through probability, which is extremely lame.
- The battles are pretty basic in themselves and don’t really require an enormous amount of strategic skill, granted you and your enemy have around the same number of troops. The game really shines when you’re outnumbered or are trying to defend a city under siege.
- Speaking on the other side of the fence now, it’s a wonder why the AI enemy will even bother to fight you when they’re greatly outnumbered. One of my battles actually consisted of 1,000 of my best troops against barely 100 rebel light infantry. They were all slaughtered in less then two minutes.
- Laying siege to a city isn’t as fun as a regular battle out in a field. Catapults are a must when trying to knock through the walls of a large city, unless you want to watch your army riddled with arrows.
- Incendiary pigs? What?
- The load times can get extremely long when transitioning between the battle field and the campaign map.
- The realism can sometimes be off-setting and it effects you emotionally. You feel depressed when your army is forced to flee off the battlfield, but a sense of happiness if you’re left to cut down the enemy as they flee off the battlefield. Battles are quite the experience, if everything you set out goes according to plan.
Now it’s screenshot time!
1.
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Ah, the Death Gate. The dirty Carthaginians thought they could take my town easily, with a force of over a 1,000 men and four battering rams to knock down my wooden walls. They were wrong and paid with their lives.
2.
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As the rest of the Carthaginian forces were fleeing from the battlefield, one unlucky soldier found himself in-between a charging Calvary unit and a group of angry infantrymen. He was crushed between the two converging forces and left to rot in the baking sun.
3.
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Ah ha! It appears our unlucky friend was none other than Captain Milkherem – the general of the Carthaginian army! What a fitting and hilarious end to another Carthaginian dog!
4.
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Soon afterwards, the battle was declared over and I was presented with its results. I knew I had done well, but not that well! It turns out my scant force of 600 managed to not only hold the gate, but decimate nearly the entire Carthaginian force of over 1,000 as well! Victory to the Gods!
I’m not sure if I’ll do a review for the game soon, as I’m too sucked into it at the moment, but if I ever get the ability to do video reviews again; I’ll review this one…along with like 40 other games I’ve played over the past two months.
As for right now, I’m heading back to the Third Century to slaughter some Egyptians.
