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be someone left to take over as the head of the family if the current leader dies.
But, if the order is completed, and the current leader is sacrificed to stay off
conflict, it won't end the prospect of war because it will only take another turn
or two before the Senate asks for the new faction leader to commit suicide. It
will finally come time for the player to put their foot down and face their greatest
challenge: the combined might of the House of Julii, House of Scipii, and the
Senate and People of Rome.
Coming to grips with such a strong
alliance sounds like a daunting task, and it is, but for reasons one might not
expect. At this point the in the game, the player should have a fairly sizeable
empire, advanced units (Marius' reform of the army happens randomly but typically
around the time of conflict, opening up a whole new technology tree of units),
and a large income. On the medium/medium setting (medium difficulty in world map
and medium difficulty in combat), the other houses didn't give me nearly the amount
of trouble I was expecting. Since they have their own borders to worry about,
most of the later game is actually spent with them trying to secure their empire
from rebellious cities and invaders, and myself doing the same, especially since
cities are constantly revolting. As a check to the player's expansionism, Creative
Assembly made it so that cities farther from the capital and those that grow to
the largest size possible are almost always in a state of unrest. While this makes
sense, it certainly becomes tiresome after a while. I tended to pull all my troops
out of a city, let it revolt, then go back and exterminate the populace to start
fresh - conquerors can settle in easier this way, or the victor can sell some
of the people into slavery or kill a chunk of them, each option has its own consequences
as far as monetary gain and local acceptance.
When not tackling the
rebellious savages, I spent most of my time doing administrative duties. Once
a person becomes a member of the family, they can be assigned to lead an army
or administer a city. As governor of a city, the player can direct the leader
in a general financial (low, normal, or heavy taxation) and build (military, growth,
cultural, financial, and balanced) system for them to follow. Sending these men
all over the map can take quite some time, and with revolts, fights, and disease
killing them off, it's a constant struggle to keep cities with proper leadership;
cities without a governor tend to be unwieldy, and cities with a corrupt governor
will react harshly, creating a need for constant supervision - the game can also
be set to auto run this portion, but that isn't nearly as fun.
With
the world map done in a new style, sending units to far flung reaches of the empire
is a snap. Instead of moving entire armies from one territory to another by dragging
and dropping an icon, like in Shogun and Medieval, the moves are
now made like in Legion, with a route showing where the unit will go and colors
indicating how many turns it will take for the units to reach their destination.
Players can either send the units in the direction at that time, with the option
to double the speed for the impatient gamer, or let the computer do it automatically
once they end their manual turn. This is a nice system, and with the ability to
build lookout towers and forts (generals can also directly recruit mercenaries
from the map, if men are available, quickly adding men to the makeshift defenses)
to choke off key locations, moving around diplomats, family leaders, and armies
is a much more controlled event than in previous Total War titles. A new addition,
and one that has been haunting fans of the series for years, is the ability to
move through allied land without declaring war on them - it's about time.
The new system also has new dangers, though. Armies can now ambush others,
displayed by the unit crouching once they come to a stop, invisible to approaching
enemies - an ambushing army has a solid advantage over the surprised, so it's
an effective, if expensive, tactic to leave units scattered throughout the world,
awaiting would-be invaders. It's also important to mind what steps have been taken
to secure an area when the focus shifts on a different part of the empire, because
a deserted fort can fall into disarray or into enemy hands, reversing the player's
fortunes.
When it comes to actually tackling the other houses, two of
the most important units aren't of the military sort, but are actually spies and
diplomats. Now, assassins are handy for taking down lower ranked captains, but
spies have the ability to show what a city has, in terms of units and buildings,
as well as a chance of opening the gate for the player to rush in instead of having
to prepare for a siege. Diplomats are, without a doubt, the strongest unit in
Rome, mainly because of how easy it is to bribe armies. This borders on
being a bug, because I can go into a territory with about 100 men acting as a
reinforcement pool, leave them behind at a back point, and with a few thousand
denari I can have sizeable armies in no time with a small base of solid Roman
troops to replace fallen troops. It isn't unreasonable to conquer multiple cities
with that city's own force that was sent out to defend it. Since the computer
never targeted my diplomat for assassination, I pretty much ran through and took
everything I could; and, surprisingly enough, rarely did the computer bribe my
own men. Some armies can't be bought, and some can, but will disband instead of
joining the player's house. Even cities can be bribed to capitulate - although
this tactic is deadly because a huge rebel force will occupy it the next turn,
so a force has to be on hand to prevent a potentially power neighbor from springing
up out of nowhere. So in the endgame, it isn't that it is difficult to beat the
houses in combat, it's simply time consuming because of how much territory that
has to be taken, since the troops take care of themselves due to how reliable
bribing is. Never did I worry that my chances of invasion were gone if my army
was destroyed, because I knew there was a ready, already trained supply of troops
right in front of me.
If an army refuses to accept a bribe and still
wants to fight, then the game kicks in with the familiar heavy drum war music
and goes into battle mode. New to Rome are some nice intro speeches that
captains and generals give to their men before combat. These can range from solemn
vows of fighting to the death, to giving an excuse as to why he would prefer to
fight in the back, but they are always entertaining and pretty effective at getting
the blood pumping. Also new is the ability to make combat realistic or more arcade-like,
but I found even the realistic mode to be flashy and fairly lenient, which fits
the game well. Aside from marveling at the gorgeous graphics - the sight of 5,000
heavily armored Romans marching in formation or of a cavalry charge kicking units
into the air is a thing of beauty - the fighting system has also been retooled
to give flanking attacks and cavalry charges more of an impact. Units also have
special abilities, like more advanced infantry having the ability to get into
the tortoise formation, archers shooting flaming arrows, and missile cavalry confusing
enemies by going in circles while they fire off their projectiles. There is still
a pre-battle phase that allows the players to set up their troops into the formations
of their liking, but when ambushed that setup time isn't given; fortunately, orders
can still be issued while the game is paused. Rome also makes it much easier
to handle units after combat, either by retraining them in a city or just grouping
them together by dragging and dropping their icon, making an effective fighting
force out of wrecked bands of veterans in no time. Units can also become too rowdy
in combat, sometimes ignoring commands if they get too caught up into the moment
- and this tends to result in a nice, flanking cavalry charge, causing a route.
If things get too rough, though, the player can always opt to get some advice
from a military advisor - there is a civil one as well - on how to defend or attack
an opponent. One thing that might trouble some is how the computer handles the
player's men.
Now, if reinforcements are lead by a general, the computer
takes over for them. Unlike the earlier titles, the player cannot set a rally
point and bring in reinforcements when needed. I've seen this have some unbelievably
bad results, and also some good. On both sides generals seem suicidal - watching
the computer take one of my generals into a wall of spears is enough to make my
lip quiver and a tear form in the corner of my eye, while watching an enemy general
charge stacked infantry ready to engage brings a bit of uneasy happiness. I've
seen the computer take my men and completely ignore me, and I've also seen them
place men right along the battlefield border, allowing for the units to make a
quick retreat whenever they get busted up too badly. This was a pretty ingenious
move. Players can also opt to have battles handled automatically on the world
map through auto resolve, and aside from the computer being absolutely horrible
at handling the defense of a city under siege, it tended to work pretty good as
well. But with player's armies going into the battlefield as they do on the world
map - if I attack from the west on the world map, then I go into the battle on
that side - this makes setting up engagements too much fun for them to be passed
on - but it's nice the option is there, as trivial battles later in the game can
be brushed aside.
As mentioned, when giving the computer the control
to handle the defense of a city, the results are rarely as good as what the player
can manage. The computer is also horrible at laying siege as well. Rarely did
they try anything ingenious, most of the time they simply send their men charging
into a wall of arrows and run away when they took enough punishment. As the Greeks,
I had a group of 300 men defend well over two dozen attacks by the House of Scipii,
some invasion forces had as little as 40 men and some as many as 500, and each
fell because they never came fully prepared. When an enemy does arrive prepared
to throw down, the player can look forward to ladders, siege towers, battering
rams, onagers (catapults) and a few other surprises. Once an enemy manages to
make it on the walls, fierce hand-to-hand fighting rages between shock troops
while archers fire down at oncoming troops - if the city is big enough that is,
sometimes it's best just to run out and meet the enemy. Sieges can be absolutely
exhilarating or mind-boggling as the player tries to come to grips with the computer's
rationale.
Sometimes a city or Senate mission is too important to pass
up, and an extended invasion is needed. Now, the sea plays a much larger role.
Even after years of Medieval, I still had a problem wrangling in my ships
and making good routes for trading and invasion. With the new method, it's all
a snap. Trade routes become established when a port is built, and if a port isn't
under blockade, revenue immediately comes in. Boarding units onto ships and unloading
them is as simple as click on the ship and selecting them and clicking on land.
Naval warfare is still relegated to just ship to ship, with no graphic or any
sort of control, including the option to retreat, but control of the sea is of
vital importance. With world wonders, players can take them by conquering the
territories they rest in, giving them bonuses. While invading Egypt might be easier
from a land route, taking the pyramids first will make them much more loyal, so
a direct amphibious invasion becomes the better route. What is good is that even
if the computer defeats the player at the sea, they don't necessarily lose all
their men or ships, only chunks at a time, if any.
After conquering
an enemy, their campaign then opens up in the main menu. Everything about their
game is handled the same as the houses, so they still take turns, messages still
appear at the beginning of new turns, they have their own diplomats, back story,
etc., so while Rome is the focus of the game, Creative Assembly didn't skimp on
the additional campaigns. With eight additional factions (Parthia, the Greeks,
Carthage, Gauls, Egypt, Germans, Britons, and Seleucids), there is an enormous
amount of replay value. And for those who found the game too easy as one of the
houses, just try playing as one of the unlocked factions. Each new campaign has
entirely new problems for the player to tackle. As the Greeks, they will have
to deal with the chess-like warfare of hoplite fighting, then have to figure out
what to do when they become outclassed technologically by the Romans; as Egypt,
players will have an advantage in their homeland, but find the more protected
infantry of their distant neighbors to be a serious obstacle. With new units (elephants,
chariot archers, etc.), people, and strategies, these are like expansions in their
own right.
Aside from the Imperial Campaign, there are also historical
missions and online play. Thanks to GameSpy, online play consisted of me staring
at my desktop until a patch was released, but that experience left me with sour
feelings for online play. Still, players can choose a historical campaign and
either fight with or against someone or against them on a multiplayer map. Sorry,
still no online grand campaign. The historical missions are great, featuring the
Siege of Sparta (and, yes, they adequately portrayed the Spartans as badass as
they were), the ambush of Teutoberg Forest, as well as Trebia River, Gergovia,
Telamon, Carrhae, Raphia, Lake Trasimene, Asculum, and Cynoscephalae. Again, tons
of replay here.
What really goes a long way in making the game such
an engrossing experience is the music; both the soundtrack and effects are incredible.
The new engine's ability to display thousands of polygon units without significant
hits on the player's system is really what stands out. It is also the small details
that make the game so interesting to behold: idle troops will cough and scratch
their legs; units will heave forward when coming to a stop from a sprint; and
roads on the world map give way to small caravans going from city to city, peddling
their goods. The orchestral music fits right at home, and the extended track on
the world map is beautiful with crisp vocals and a soothing beat. War brings the
beating of the drums, and a heavier mood - similarly to previous Total War
titles. Infantry will pound the ground as they march to their destinations while
captains bark out orders, and the clanks and crushing blows of battle are just
as sweet as the sound of the enemy's horn as they call for a full retreat.
Rome does have some problems, though. Minor, non-technical problems
include a glaring typo in a menu dealing with ship details; the manual not adequately
explaining all of the game's facets; and some of the presentation is poor, like
using periods instead of spaces to even text out, which is odd considering how
good the rest of it looks. Also, the family tree system never seems to be as interesting
as it would seem, playing a fairly minor role as it is useful in making city management
somewhat easier, but never becoming a serious hindrance to the player winning.
More serious were the handful of infrequent crashes to the desktop (thank you,
auto save). The endgame can also be tedious with endless revolts and it being
more difficult to simply take over all the land instead of actually fighting for
it, and bribing is entirely way too easy.
Overall:
9/10
Some of the problems will begin to wear the player down after a while,
but there is so much to enjoy here that it's easy for the negative to be drowned
out by the positive. With numerous campaigns that can take weeks to complete,
hundreds of different units, a new strategic map, new siege tactics, and a fresh
approach to the series, Rome: Total War has elevated Creative Assembly,
and the genre, to a whole new level. The game simply dwarfs its competition and
will no doubt be enjoyed by strategy and history buffs for years to come. [
top ] |
After
teething on feudal Japan and medieval Europe, gamers can now feast on the ancient
world with Creative Assembly's Rome: Total War. Aside from using a new,
purtier engine, the developers have also addressed complaints to problems that
never seemed to make it into subsequent patches for any of the previous releases
in the franchise. With most old problems fixed, and only a few nuisances springing
up to replace them, Rome bests its faults and predecessors, managing to
be one of the best strategy titles to date. 
