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DO NOT BUY THIS GAME - CRASHES CONSTANTLY

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 33
Date: November 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Do not buy this game until they release a patch that solves the constant crashing. They are currently at patch 1.3 (which was designed to bring Rome up to the level of Barbarian Invasion, for multiplayer ... 1.3 is not a patch for BI)

Many, many people who have this game are sufferring from crashing, if you are lucky you will have no problems, but very likely you will have.

Note that I do not have any problems with any other games and also, Rome Total War works perfectly and has never had any problems whatsoever.

Barbarian Invasion expansion however, crashes ALL the time.

Having said all that, it is not a bad expansion (from what little I have played of it). The original Rome: Total War is very worthwhile and you should find it actually works. The other game they made earlier, Medieval:Total War and the Vikings expansion are also very, very good, and should be picked up cheaply, and run perfectly well (and fast) on any machine.

This expansion pack though is terribly buggy.

There is no support from the creators.

Volunteers (other people like you and me) are trying to help people get through the many problems, but are overwhelmed and have no idea how to fix it.

Keep your eyes on it though, the first patch might clear things up.

A Huge Disappointment

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 13
Date: January 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

There are a lot of things wrong with this expansion, only the most annoying of which I'll mention. First of all, I don't think the developers thought the whole horde-thing through. When you defeat a Hun army that you had reduced from God knows how many to only a few hundred, take their only remaining settlement, and then realize, by taking their last settlement (which they had just gained the turn before!), you had just given them a massive army that could wipe out your entire faction, you will be very angry, and understandably so.

And then there are the bugs. There are a lot of bugs. I've had the game for less than a week, and I've had to reboot the game many times because infantry couldn't get inside their own seige towers.

blah...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 65
Date: October 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

i've seen reviews calling rome: total war the finest game of 2005. more like the biggest disappointment of 2005. if you want to play the absolute best strategy total war game out there pick up medieval: total war. it comes in a double pack (the original game plus the expansion) for something cheap like $9.99, and it is 500x better and more entertaining in every way than the hugely disappointing rome: total war. if you have never played medieval: TW and don't know how much better it is than rome: TW, in that case rome: TW is ok.

Not so Hot

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 5
Date: January 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Barbarian Invasion installation corrupted Rome Total War, requiring a complete reinstall. I did not include BI in the reinstall.

The most obvious thing is still missing...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 17
Date: October 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The most obvious problem was not addressed: cannot do multiplayer campaigns. Why would this not be included in the game? It takes away a ton of potential fun.

Things you should know

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 18 / 28
Date: September 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

While much of what has already been said is true, I just want prospective buyers to understand you Don't need to buy BI to get the "fixes" of the 1.3 patch. Within a few weeks they will release patch 1.3 for your Rome Total War origional game that will bring much of the issues with it into the perspective of Barbarian Invasion. You'll get the improved AI, the fix to the load/save bug and anything else that is a fix for the origional game that is now in Barbarian Invasion.

Why no patch 1.3 upon release? Figure it out, this is a marketing strategy to get the "impatient" people to buy Barbarian Invasion to get the patch that will fix a lot of RTW now. In essence if you buy BI now you are paying for a patch and not for a whole lot more, this is merely a "mod" more than it is an expansion. Much like a RTR mod or SPQR mod.

New "features" of course that are in BI will not be in a patch like "night battles", and of course the different factions. The campaign map is practically identical though with less on it that was in the origional RTW.

Also, once you install Barbarian Invasion all your old save games will no longer function or work, while it patches everything you must start from scratch again instead of being able to play your old save games from the origional RTW.

So, for those that are just inlove with RTW and Creative Assembly it's a no brainer that they/you will rush out and buy this without thought. But, for the more patient, but, perhaps unaware that there is going to be a "free" patch in a few weeks it's important that you know this now before buying an expansion you might not really want.

Great game, new features, but more problems with cities

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 16
Date: September 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Like Rome Totalwar the look and feel of the Barbarian Invasion addition is great. There are a number of nice new features, (Hordes can be fun) but one old problem has been made worse. Any one who has played Rome knows that large cities especially non Roman ones can be very difficult to manage. Now with religion added in it is even harder. The cities are even larger and many of the barbarians still do not get adequate sewage and road options. There are too many things to build, and it takes to long to build them. Building time scale is unrealistic. There is also no map included with the game, and the one from Rome does not work.

It is still a nice addition and I'm glad I bought it. If you liked Rome you will love this on too, even if it is a little frustrating at times.

Totally changes the game, not a bad thing.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: October 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

After waltzing through numerous Rome: Total War campaigns with every faction, playing this was a humbling experience. It is hard, super hard. Which is a good thing in my opinion. I like the feeling of just delaying the enevitiable defeat when playing as either of the Rome's, but it should be worse. The rest of Europe is a complete mess, with huge hordes running into each other lands changing hands frequently.

The negatives are the graphics and skins. The skins are almost "team colored", to make it easier to distinguish who is who on the battlefield but it has sort of an overly bright cartoony feel to it, but this should be easily modded given time. Some of the units have incomplete models, missing a leg or half an arm here and there, also something easily fixable. The other features religion and night battles have only a moderate impact on the game. Religion causes more headaches strategy wise than it solves, and night battles are nothing all that special after the initial wow factor wears off. The horde function adds a whole new layer to gameplay.

Many people, including myself, have suffered huge lag with the game, I'm glad I did a second install exclusively for the expansion pack as not only does my first install of RTW not suffer from slowdowns, but savegames are not compatable.

If you liked the first game and are interested in the period, get it for sure.

tedious

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 13
Date: October 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Slow and aggravating. Takes forever, especially since the AI is overwhelming. Also, the tribes aren't balanced nor do they play the same under player control and AI. Medieval Total War and Viking Invasion were much more fun and satisfying.

An expansion with both pluses and minuses

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 19 / 23
Date: October 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Fans of Rome Total War would do well to give serious attention to this expansion set. In the best tradition of expansions, Barbarian Invasion offers new challenges and twists to players grown jaded. By moving the game forward a few centuries to the early Christian era, players can enjoy playing new factions, such as the Huns, as well as playing Eastern or Western Rome. Also a major plus, the designers have improved mightily on AI, so the game no longer makes serious mistakes, like not launching counter attacks as you advance and not exploiting obvious player weaknesses. Indeed, if you tired of Rome Total War because you got bored playing circles around the AI and simply mopping up to achieve victory conditions, this represents a whole new game.

On the less positive side, the game now incorporates religion into play. On the whole this offers intriguing possibilities to the player, forcing you to deal with a major social force in the period, competing faiths. While designers did a good job, incorporating the impact of important characters and geography, in a few crucial ways they made mistakes. Cities, all of which have official faiths, never change those faiths. Thus, a pagan city where the entire population is Christian after 100 game years remains a pagan city. The people revolt because there are no churches, and the player can only sit and pound the table. Forums on the game hash out this issue ad nausea, but in the end it is simply ham handed, frustrating, and offers an excellent opportunity for a patch.

Despite such foibles, BI represents a major challenge. Any Rome Total War fan will certainly derive a great many hours of new challenging play from this excellent expansion.

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