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Excellent price for a great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 94 / 100
Date: February 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Not only do you get the full game but also the expansion pack for a reasonable price. The replay value of both titles alone definately justifies the expense. I cannot recommend this game enough. Even after almost 2 years on the market I can still pick it up every couple months and march my Legions to conquest.

Below are my comments for each game.

ORIGINAL ROME: TOTAL WAR

This is the game I've always wanted to play. It has such a superb blend of strategy and real time action. Ever play a turn based strategy game and want to really watch your troops battle it out and control the formations and tactics? Now you can. Of course there will be something people don't like, but there are many mods out there to tweak it to your exact taste. The Total War community is healthy in that there is a significant population tweaking and modding the game to your particular flavor.

Let me just say also I am not a RTS fan. I do not like "whomever clicks the fastest wins" games. Each single soldier is represented on the battlefield. It's truly amazing watching your Legions march across arid deserts, snow covered mountains to engage the enemy and clash together right in front of your eyes. Each battle is like a scene out of Braveheart or, more appropriately, Gladiator.

No other game can capture the scope of an immense battle like Rome: Total War can. Especially the battles consisting of many units, it's like an epic battle from your favorite movie.

It is not purely the battles, it has a strategy element in it to where you will manage cities, build structures and conduct diplomacy.

Overall, even if you are not a fan of Strategy or RTS games you will find this to your liking. There is so many good things about this game, it would fill many pages writing about all the pluses and things the developers did right here. A definate must have for any gamer.

BARBARIAN INVASION

The Total War community has given a lot of feedback to the developers on the improvements they would like to see. I'd say pretty much all of the biggies were addressed and added in Barbarian Invasion. Rome: Total War is hands down one of my all-time favorites and a game I can still pickup and play again and again.

There is a lot of upgraded features you would expect from an expansion...little better graphics, upgraded units and increased functionality. The upgrades to the AI are the most noticeable, in my opinion.

The Total War community waited over a year for this to be released and it is readily apparent the developers spent this time to deliver an outstanding expansion. The price tag is definately worth it as well. The time period for the expansion is set in the declining years of the Roman Empire so basically you are getting a whole new game with this expansion.

The new game element rearranges the map to take into account what has happened historically in the last three hundred years. The Roman Empire is split between west and east and all the old factions from Rome:Total War have been assimilated into the Roman Empire. An interesting historical note when the game begins for the Eastern Roman Empire is the Faction Leader Valens. His defeat against the Goths was considered a milestone in the decline of the Roman Empire (for both halves). Not only was his army defeated, but the Emperor Valens was also killed. Oh and the Goths will come for you...Oh yes, they will come.

The Parthians have been surplanted by the Sassanid Empire in the east, but essentially all the old factions have become roman provinces. Basically, it's the barbarian factions battling it out for the choice pieces of real estate.

The new expansion is noticeably harder depending on which faction you play. The Western Roman Empire is by far the most difficult which took a great deal of time to beat. Why is it so difficult? Barbarian factions with a few exceptions don't die when you take their last city - they become a Horde. This is challenging in that you can't just move through and conquer cities to annihilate the Huns, Vandals, Sarmatians,etc. You need to not only conquer all their cities but kill every single family member in order to wipe the faction from the map or they will just keep spawning as new Hordes. You must fight them out in the open which pits you against their horse archers. As you play you will find different strategies on dealing with them, but needless to say it's very fun and challenging. My personal method is the very liberal use of assassins and fortifying cities while I pick apart their horde until I get their family members eliminated.

Bottomline - 5 out of 5 and highly recommended no matter what game genre you typically lean towards. You won't regret it.

Strategic combat at its best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 30 / 32
Date: May 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

While I am personally more fond of Rome's predecessor, Medieval: Total War, the latest in the Total War series is nothing short of excellent. Much has been improved on, especially the real-time combat and gameplay mechanics. The meek AI, underdeveloped naval combat, and drab visuals that marred Medieval have been done away with for the latest installation.

One of the greatest strengths of the series has always been its ability to capture the truly epic feel of worldwide warfare, regardless of whether you are looking over the whole of Europe or watching rank-and-file armies advancing upon each other. This is especially true with the new 3D combat engine, which is vastly superior to Medieval's. The units are all fully modeled and animated, and the camera is much more maneuverable, allowing you to get up close. This isn't very handy from a command standpoint, but it really makes the battles come alive. Battles in cities and forts are also much more fun, since they are more balanced and take place in full-sized replicas of the cities you see on the world map, down to the individual buildings you or your opponent have constructed.

The mechanics of the strategy portion of the game are different. Instead of treating each provence as a whole entity, with units being able to move between them once per turn, units move relative to the physical distance they must cross on the map, with cities being the points of interest you must find. While this adds more strategy and realism to the game (since it will obviously take longer for an army to cross an African desert than the Italian peninsula), this makes the game move much more slowly and, I feel, detracts from the excitement and fun. Fortunately, the game compensates for this and does not require conquering the entire map to win; under the new rules of the game it would take a very, very long time.

The expasion, while not lacking in content, is slightly on the boring side. I believe my opinion may be slightly tainted since I am not as fond of the play styles inherent in choosing tribal factions which compose virtually all the playable ones in Barbarian Invasion. Still, after playing several full games of Rome, I found that the expansion did not offer enough new material to hold my interest for very long. Besides, there is plenty of fun to be had without the expansion, due to the wider range of factions and units.

Fans of the series will not be disappointed, which seems to be a rarity these days. Newcomers should be prepared for a challenge, but the game does a good job of breaking people in and letting them enjoy the game from start to finish.

More addicting than Civ or Pirates

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 22
Date: April 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I'm not what would be called an intensive gamer. I buy maybe 2 games a year. This is the most addictive game I've played since the original Pirates came out for the Commodore 64 home computer. I would play that game for literally 6 hours or more at one sitting. This is just as bad. I'm 37 now and not 14 like I was then too, but I'm having flashbacks LOL! It helps that I'm absolutely fascinated with the late republic/early imperial period of the Roman empire. I've played the historical campaign of the original through twice. Haven't even touched Barbarian Invasion yet, except to watch the intro. Has the "4X" feel of a Civilization style game, but without all the micromanagement. New buildings provide benefits to population control, revenue, and combat units. Pretty basic. Where the game shines is in the tactical battles. You can literally zoom in on an individual soldier.

My only criticisms are that there aren't enough historical battles in my opinion, and that when creating a custom battle you can't choose the "rebel" faction. Also in the custom battles, the various Roman factions don't have access to all Roman units. I wanted to create a "Spartacus" style battle. I couldn't use "rebels", so I choose two Roman factions. Each Roman faction has access to one style of Gladiator, not all three. I wanted to make an army of the gladiator types, but I couldn't.

If you are interested in the historical background of the era covered in the game you might like Rome - The Complete First Season and Warfare in the Classical World: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons, Warriors and Warfare in the Ancient Civilisations of Greece and Rome

Understand: This is a very very unstable game with NO SUPPORT

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 35 / 59
Date: February 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game, as all have said, has all the hallmarks of being a near-perfect strategy and wargame. It remains a terribly disappointing option because of its frequency of crashes - don't believe me? check their forums: you will find hundreds of lost souls trying to find out how to make the game run - most often by chasing down obscure drivers from years past. SEGA support is non-existent - they neither know nor care about fixing your problem whatever it may be.

I run a dual-core 64-bit system with 1G of RAM and a 256mg video card. I can run any game made today. I purchased the new February 06 Gold Edition of this game - it includes all patches and updates and the expansion.

Crashes. every. single. time. A good test is to note right off if when playing the tutorial if youre mouse lags slightly behind normal. This is a sure sign that it will crash very soon. If going on line and postin gyour dxdiag file in a forum and praying that someone will help you sounds like your cup-of tea, then release the hounds.

I commend the game in it's visuals, game design, and the AI is wonderful, but No One should buy this game expecting it to work without a lot of work by the purchaser getting it to run.
And make no mistake: no single entity involved in creating this game is available in any way to help you.

Best and most addicting RTS / Empire Building Game I have ever played

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: August 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I actually purchased Civilization IV about a week ago, because I heard all kinds of hype about how awesome that game is. I was completely disappointed. I got bored of that game very quickly. I felt like I was a city planner or something, not an empire builder....

Then I decided I would give this game a try...wow what a difference. Ironically, this game is very similiar to Civilization IV, but with one HUGE difference, as well as several other improvements. I would have to say that in a way RTW is the same game as Civilization IV, but the FUN version, MUCH MORE FUN.

The HUGE difference I am talking about specifically is the EPIC HUGE BATTLES that you have in RTW. By comparison ---in Civ 4 --- the combat system is basically like moving chess pieces on a board, and the computer tells you if you won the battle. Interestingly, in RTW you also move "chess pieces" around on a board, but lookout --- as soon as you move your army chess piece onto a square with another army ---you go to battle mode: and this is the best part of RTW. Playing the RTW prologue (which is basically the tutorial campaign) I was really impressed with the large battles with over 200-300 units on each side. I had no idea though that this was just a scaled down version of the main campaign where you typically have armies of 1000-2000 units. Yes that is right, when you battle the more powerful enemies you will have battles with 1000-2000 on each side for a total of possibly up to 4000 units (but this could actually be much higher if you have a couple of large armies reinforce each other). Now the largest battle I have had yet has been about 1200 vs 1500, but that is because I have my armies spread out over a dozen different cities / areas. In total, I probably control about 15,000+ military units right now, and my empire is still in it's early stages. I don't even have the game settings for the largest possible amount of units, yes you can change this option in the options menu if your pc is powerful enough to handle the EXTRA large battles.

To make things even more fun --- you also can siege a city or be sieged --- complete with fortified walls, siege weapons, onagers, scorpions, ballistas, archers shooting through the port holes in the walls, having ladders that your infantry climb up to battle on the ramparts --- just think of Lord of the Rings where they have the battle at the keep, you know when Aragorn, the erm horse guys, and the elves are outnumbered and they have to defend until Gandalf arrives...the battles are kind of like that, but ok, the graphics / special effects aren't as fantastic :) Now yes the graphics are fairly basic --- but given the choice between best graphics and small battles and simple graphics and HUGE HUGE battles, I think most people would agree the later is more fun. I mean come on, we have all played the RTS games of the past where you thought you were a bad mofo with 300 units...well now just imagine 3000 units.

the other thing that I like about RTW vs Civ4 is the city management is much more user-friendly and understandable, and yet still complex enough that you have to pay close attention to it because it can literally win or lose the game for you. So this game is not just pump out as many units as you can and destroy everything in your path---but you also have to be careful about managing your cities right or you could go broke. I actually failed the prologue campaign (which in itself is quite long) because I didn't manage my economy well enough and I eventually went bankrupt and couldn't afford to replenish my armies.

My current game is going pretty well though I have been the dominant faction for most of the game and I just recently invaded and took 3 egyptian cities! FUN!

The only bad thing I could say about RTW is that it is very addicting....I haven't been able to stop playing it since I started....

I haven't even installed the expansion yet....

and there are several expansions for this title....

and there are several mods....

I haven't tried multiplayer yet, but I don't feel any need, the single player so far is very entertaining.

The best Historical War Game ever. Or at least so far.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 27
Date: February 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have been playing war games since before computers. Avalon Hill etc. I started with computer war games in 1995 and have bought many games since.Probably around 100 or so.

This game encompasses historical economies, war strategies and social dynamice unlike any before it. If this genre interests you....look no further.

Pretty good.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: February 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is pretty good I guess. I enjoyed it but if you are planning to buy it keep the following in mind.
1. Be prepared to put a lot of time into this game
2. This game requires a lot of micro management (building up towns, maintaining diplomatic relations, improving trade and production)
3. If you are looking for an action game, try a different one. The battles are outstanding and there is an option to play "Historical Battles" (like a quick action function) but the main focus of the game is to create an Empire and the battle aspect seems to be only a fraction of the entire gameplay.

Very well put together. I highly recommend it.

Civilization meets real time tactical combat

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 20
Date: March 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The AI isn't entirely challenging, but that is really true of all games. Until programmers can come up with truely great AI I will just have to keep giving games 4/5 and 9/10. This game is more a 9/10 than a 4/5 btw.

If anyone knows about an old game called Archon, this game is to Civilization what Archon was to Chess, it takes the basic Civilization game (capturing cities, expanding empire, building armies and upgrading cities) and adds a real-time combat element.

Vista compatible!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: June 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is a great game, as many other reviewers have noted. Just want to add that it seems to be compatible with Windows Vista. I have a Acer laptop with an ATI Radeon XPress 1100 card, and have not encountered any problems.

Addicting

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: July 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you're like me, and wait for a game to get a year old and a reasonable price before buying it, this is a good value. It has a number of changes from the earlier Medieval series which adds to the challenge and depth of the game.

The main difference is that movement on the strategic map is no longer the area to area Risk-type movement of the earlier games. Instead, movement paths are almost micromanaged to put your armies in specific places compared to their opponents once the game converts to the tactical battlefield level. This adds a nice level to the military aspects of the game. Unfortunately, every agent and navy's movement must also be micromanaged, which adds to the eventual tedium that takes over the game in the latter stages of the campaigns. This might not be so bad except that the movement rates tend to be VERY VERY slow, so that it can take years for a ship to sail across the Mediterranean. I realize that it's a game, not a simulation, so you just have to accept the artificailities built into the game-system. For the agent and sea movement, I preferred the area movement of the earlier series.

Still, all things considered, if you have time on your hands and don't mind dedicating a significant portion of your life to your computer, this one will keep you entertained for a long time.

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