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Member since:10.08.2004
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This is the game who's engine was used recently on one of the bbc's programs, it featured historical battles being fought by teams of people, and the public wanted to try it themselves. Thus, Rome:Total War was born and many people, including me, were and are hooked onto it.
As i hurried home with the game in my hand, and a few points on my game card, i couldnt wait to play it. The cellophane was ripped off, and the cd placed in the drive, i couldnt contain my excitement. The installation was relatively simple, no hiccups, just changing cd's every now and again. And then suddenly, the question was popped " Would you like to run Rome:Total War now". I ticked the box, and pressed ok, the red loading screen opened up before me. The small red bar at the bottom of the screen filled up and i had started my journey into the past.
The list of options on the main screen are as follows:
Prologue
Imperial Campaign
Multiplayer
Historical Battle
Options
Load game
Quit game
After clicking on prologue, which is an introduction to the game, the intense music began, the loading screen once again popped up, but in a flash it was over. The game opened up before me, and i had a lady in the top left hand corner to guide me through my battles. I found this guide unbeleiveably useful when finding out what to do. She gives you ideas on what to build in your towns, what kind of units to recruit, how to complete tasks, and what is and is not possible to do. There is a similar male guide during battles telling you what you have done right and wrong, and how to outwit the enemy.
Basic movement is simple, the arrows for up,down,left,right, and the mouse wheel to zoom in and out. When looking over the map, a double click on an item will bring up any known details about the selected item and display them in a scroll.
A single click will select the desired object which can then be moved, changed, told to attack, told to defend etc..
However there are many more possible tasks that can be completed in the map mode( as opposed to battle mode). The cities, towns and villages occupied by your army can build new buildings, recruit new men, retrain units, the army currently in the town can be told to attack another faction( a faction is the word used to describe another town or city). Fleets can moved about on sea. When clicking on an army or ship, a green area appears around them indicating how far they can move within one turn, each turn lasting 6 months.
The primary aim of the game is to capture 50 provinces and take over Rome, however i have found it much more enjoyable to take on armies much bigger than myself, even three times as big, and use all the skill i have to crush them.
This leads me on to battle mode. Battle mode is the stage entered when either your army attacks another one, or is attacked by another one. (Unfortuantely sea battles can only be fought by the computer( evidently the game developpers didnt have time to stick this in), and as a rule of thumb, he who has more ships wins. ) The movement in battle mode is similar to that on the map, however there are a few additional things that can be done here. Firstly clicking and holding the left click and then pressing the directional arrows will cause the point of view to revolve around a fixed point allowing the player to view from a variety of points. Secondly double clicking on a unit will cause the camera to follow that unit until "delete" is pressed. Ctrl + a selects all units, and right clicking on an enemy unit once will cause your army to attack them btu walk towards them, a double right click will make them run. This is also true of moving your troops, which also requires a right click , after selecting your troops, but clicking on clear ground, i.e that free of any enemy troops. There are many different buttons in the bottom right hand corner of the screen which change the actions of different units, and across the bottom middle of the screen is a description of units, men left, whether ot not they are engaged in combat, the kind of units they are, if they have given up on the battle, and if they are losing men. It sounds very complicated, but is all done using symbols which makes it easy to see at a glance.
The imperial campaign option allows you to choose one of three houses, all allies, and manage them, your ultimate aim to capture 50 provinces and take over Rome. There is no best one, but it is said that the green House of Bruti is the strongest(apparently). It is different to the prologue in that you start off with just a couple of cities, possibly in debt, and have to raise them up, and just like in real life, once you enter the spiral of debt, it just keeps on increasing!!
Mulitplayer is just that, playing against other people online, although i havent played it yet therefore i cannot comment on how it works.
The historical battle sections is one of my favourites, it contains pre set famous battles from the past, and allows you to take the position of one of the armies, it is even possible to save the battle replay. For replay value this is where the game comes up trumps, since the battles are preset, it is easy to change your tactics again and again to see which would work better.
The options sections has all the options about sound, video, and computer a.i, the works. It even has a button which tells you which settings best suit your computer, how about that!!. I will have to comment here on the graphical quality of the game, it is superb, with everything turned on, it is possible to zoom up on tufts of grass and see them individually waving in the wind. Units of soldiers do not move at the same time giving the impression of robots, but move around, sneeze, scratch themselves, look around, all at different times. It really gives the impression of a group of real people.
The AI seen in the game is really remarkable, there are three settings, easy,normal, and hard. It changes accordingly and the interactions between armies is amazing, they really make you feel as if they want to kill each other. The enemy general uses his status to rally his troops and the army can be seen to run away, regroup and come in for another attack. It simply must be seen to be believed. If you have watched that program on bbc you will know of what i am talking about.
Sound The soundtrack of this game is phenomenal, it has an excellent feel to it, and is played at all the right times. There are a variety of different types of music to flow with the feeling of the army, its status, and so on and so forth. I will definitely buy the soundtrack when it is released.
Games can be saved at any point by simply pressing Ctrl + s, alternatively, when pausing the game, through pressing Esc, there is the option to save the game, adding with it a word or two. For the daredevils out there, you can save a game, and then attack an army much too big to realistically expect to beat, and then try every trick in the book to do it. I highly recommend it!
Overall, this game is of an unbelievable quality, it is very satisfying to play, and has enormous replay potential. If you dont have this game, get up, right now, run to your local store and buy it. I have played it for almost three days straight, in fact, i only took time off to write this review. Warning, if you have an important deadline at work or do not have any sick days left this year, do not buy this game, it will probably lose you your job.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
With the glory days of the real-time strategy game now nothing but a distant memory, ... more
ActivisionsTotal Warseries has come to totally dominate the strategy market andRomeis such a huge leap above the already impressiveMedievalandShoguntitles that the ser...
Postage & Packaging: £1.93 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
With the glory days of the real-time strategy game now nothing but a distant memory, ... more
ActivisionsTotal Warseries has come to totally dominate the strategy market andRomeis such a huge leap above the already impressiveMedievalandShoguntitles that the ser...
Postage & Packaging: £1.85 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: Brilliant gameplay, huge battles, seriously addictive. Disadvantages: Seriously adictive, occasionally dodgy AI, has been superseded by Medieval II
Oodlenoodle9 20.10.2007 (20.10.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
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