Rome: Total War

[Shnay]

I usually avoid Real Time Strategy games, as I haven't found any I really enjoy yet, but I'm really interested in Rome: Total War.

This game sounds like it has a lot going for it. The graphics are the first thing that come to mind. The Total War series has always involved having thousands of troops on the field at once, but with the ability to zoom in really, really close and watch the carnage of battle unfold, this game takes the series to a whole new visual level. The screenshots for the game look like you really get the feeling that you're looking over a vast battlefield and commanding an army of thousands, rather than just "blocks" of units.

I got to play a little of Shogun: Total War, and I really liked the balance of turn based empire management and solid RTS gameplay. I remember the Lords of the Realm series did something similar a while back, but it wasn't nearly as fleshed out. Rome: TW seems to have expanded a lot on both of these aspects, which sounds really intriging to me.

As I said, I'm really not much of an RTS man, as I really don't enjoy many of the staples of the genre. But the Total War series has a lot of stuff that gets my interest (like the more-or-less accurate historical setting and the balance of the turn-based and real-time games) and avoids most of the things I don't like (such as the resource gathering in Warcraft and Starcraft).

Still, I'm not sure if I should take the plunge on this or not. Does anyone have this yet, and if so, what are your impressions?

[Mog]

I played the demo and didn't really like it, even though I'm a pretty big RTS fan. The battles were nice and big, and the graphics are fantastic, but you don't have any real control. You can tell your men where to go, but they may or may not follow. Sometimes they would flee. Sure, it seems more realistic, but it's also a pain. IMO, if you haven't played them beofre, go and buy the previous Total War titles and try them out. If you like the old titles, Rome will probably blow you away. If you don't like them, you just saved yourself $50 and you have some nice coasters.

[ohmrbill]

I recommend downloading the demo. You can find it at all the obvious places. Great fun. I should also be noted that it has almost nothing in common with the games of what you would typically call the real-time strategy genre. Yes, the battles are real-time (although you can pause the game to give commands; particularly useful for large armies), but the similarities pretty much end there.

And IGN gave it a 9.4 for what it's worth. The reader score is 9.7.

Also, you may be interested to know that they used the engine to recreate historical battles on The History Channel's show, Decisive Battles. You may want to give that a peak as well.

[Shnay]

I have seen Decisive Battles, and I thought it was really cool. I was gonna mention it in my original post, but decided against. A very cool show, though they seem to repeat an awful lot of animations. Anyway...

I did download the demo, and while I did enjoy it, it didn't really reveal that much about the game that I didn't already know. As I said, I've played a little bit of Shogun, so I knew the basics about how the series handled combat. It was impressive to see the new engine and the new military units, but I had seen that in the previews for the game.

The demo is still a lot of fun (there's nothing like having elephants trampling infantry), but it didn't really go any further than what I knew about the game. I was concidering doing what Mog suggested before. I think I might just find a used copy of Shogun (or maybe even Medieval) and really test the ins and outs of the series. Then maybe upgrade to Rome somewhere down the line.

Still, if anyone has bought the game, I'd be really interested in hearing what you thought of it.

[ohmrbill]

I've had it pre-ordered from Amazon for a while now, so I'll let you know my opinions on the full version when it arrives. I don't know how long it will be until I'm able to delve into it, though; my time is already pretty divided between Star Ocean, The Sims 2, work, and school.

[Chris Wood]

I haven't played Rome yet, but the previous game Medieval War is really cool. My father is completely addicted to it.