The Bottom Line: If you're a fan of the series, or have enough patience to deal with the Campaign Mode's shortfalls, you're bound to have fun with the battles.
bloodfyr's Full Review: Rome: Total War for Windows
For the armchair general, nothing hits that sweet spot like the Total War series. Where games like Command and Conquer and Starcraft focus on a small group of overpowered units battling it out in small-scale combat, Total War has embraced the exact opposite. Field armies numbering in the thousands. Strategize to your heart's content. Laugh maliciously as you lead your enemy into a well-laid trap. Curse his name as he outflanks your seemingly invincible line of spearmen to pound at them from behind. Flanking, phalanx, formations...all of these become part of your very vocabulary as you become engulfed in the rush of commanding thousands of men to either greatness or death.
The series was off to a great start with Shogun, and now the third installment arrives, carrying with it the biggest of the series hallmarks: a deliciously addictive real-time strategy mode and a campaign mode in which you raise your troops and plot your domination.
The latter is the game's biggest problem. The first two games in the series involved campaigning on a "paper" map of your land, where it was easy to see a region's statistics, including bonuses and troops in-country. Rome's 3D map is indeed pretty to look at, but the popup mountains and forests obscure what needs to be seen and studied.
The campaign mode, while updated, still follows the same basic formula that it's two predecessors used. Inside each territory is a "settlement", where you can construct one building, and recruit one unit at a time. Various buildings allow for various new units to be trained, or more income to be generated. In Shogun, and Medieval, the campaign modes were simple, but Rome's new additions add complexity and prove just how ineffecient this simple system is at a game with such a huge scale as conquering all of the ancient world is.
Family plays a big role in Rome. Where in the past, you were required to protect your heirs simply because without a leader, your faction was destroyed, in Rome, you are required to manage your family in a much more detailed fashion. Your sons all have stats of their own, and special traits. Their bonuses are a great bonus to either battle command, or city management, but the biggest problem is figuring out who is who. Announcements come each turn as your sons and their sons wed, producing more members of your family. Each family member gains retainers, who furthur increase their Master's stats, but managing all of this is a complicated affair without a central list to check and compare your various generals and sons.
Furthermore, the series' system of "one building/one unit" construction at a time proves to be too slow to properly maintain a grasp on worldwide affairs. It's no secret that the world of Ancient Europe is much bigger than any maps previously in the series. Added to this is the increased complexity of managing your finances. Where increasing your monetary output was a streamlined matter in Shogun and to a lesser extent in Medieval, Rome breaks things down into pieces. Instead of building one building that increases agricultural output by a percentage, instead, you build buildings that each increase your wealth by a much smaller amount. Couple this with the fact that in a single territory, you can only construct one building at a time, and you can see how difficult it would be to maintain a grasp on your finances.
Oftentimes, however, my finances confused me more than frustrated me. In one turn, I would lose six hundred denari. I would end my turn without making any changes to my nation's economic structure, and in the next, I earned a profit of over a thousand. Analysis of my financial report showed me nothing to explain why.
The biggest offense of the campaign portion of the game has to be how the great Roman Republic is established. Instead of a unified Rome, three families exist, as well as the ruling Senate. Each Family, the Brutii, the Scipii, and the Julii, begin in a different region of Italy and are charged with protecting Rome from whatever particular threat exists in that direction. The Senate assigns missions, such as blockading an enemy port, or capturing an enemy city, with a particular time limit. While, in theory, this may be beneficial at keeping the game moving along at a steady pace, this may alienate players (like myself) who prefer to establish their own destiny, and move at their own pace. Oftentimes, the Senate orders you to attack a city or unit belonging to a neutral civilization, who you have no intention, nor means to go to war with. One time comes to mind: As I captured and was busy assimilating one of my Senate-assigned targets (a slow process because of the aforementioned system of construction), I was ordered to capture a city far off. In order to get to it without attacking any neutral forces along the way, I had to rush the occupying army onto a boat, abandoning my new city (which soon rioted), in order to capture a farflung city. Ignoring any Senate missions will cause your faction to lose favor in their eyes, and may cause them to order the other two families against you. While some may enjoy the pace-quickening approach of Senate missions, I feel like I'm not commanding the Roman civilization...rather, the computer is commanding me.
The campaign mode of the series has always been weak compared to the strategic portion, but adding more complexity is not the solution. Shogun's campaign mode was simple, but it was effective. Rome's is a complicated mess of units, regions, and family members.
As seems always seems the case, the strategic portion is the part where the game truly shines. Nothing beats the rush of watching as an enemy's charge falters because I placed my defenses properly. The graphical system is a massive update to the system of previous games, as your armies become fully 3D instead of animated sprites.
The gameplay of the mode has been upgraded as well, with a new, more streamlined interface. Your advisor offers regular advice based on enemy movements, warning of you of potential flanking attempts (he can be turned off).
If you're used to throwing your units against the enemy's and expecting to come out on top, prepare to be defeated soundly. The AI, even on it's most basic levels, is tricky, hiding units in forests, luring you into traps, and attempting to outflank you at every opportunity. History's greatest generals have been able to adapt quickly to changing battle situations, and take advantage of even the slightest weakness in their enemy's formation. The same is expected of you.
This leads into the system's biggest drawback, as it is not a friendly game to beginners, or those expecting something more along the line of traditional RTS. There is a tutorial campaign, but not much is explained beyond the basics of moving and commanding your units. It's up to you to learn how to defend yourself, to analyze your enemies and to emerge victorious. It's a fun process, but it may not be for everyone. If you're the kind of player who restarts a mission in Red Alert 2 at the first sign of trouble, get used to Rome's load screen. You'll be seeing a lot of it until you learn.
In terms of both graphical and aural presentation, the game slides along in the middle of the road. The graphic system has been overhauled and looks very gorgeous in both modes compared to the game's predecessors. The sound is a real disappointment. The soundtracks of both Shogun and Medieval were so catchy, worth listening to outside of the game. There's a handful of songs, such as the battle tunes, that are decent, but there's a noticible lack of songs period. Units all acknowledge you with one of three or four common acknowledgements. The voice acting is decent, though for the other nations besides Rome, it leans more towards over-the-top. Adding particular voices for generals or family members would've made the game that much more engrossing, and would make your massive family easier to manage.
Offering up a mixed bag of an addictive combat system with a less than stellar campaign mode, Rome Total War will only really appeal to people with familiarity with the series, or those with patience enough to learn all the intricacies and complexities of economy and nation building.
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