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Horrible lack of Support

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 18 / 27
Date: April 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

When I bought this title several months ago, I was impressed with the graphics and scope of the game. But then I realized that the turn-based strategy element was dumbed-down horrible, and the real-time strategy element was impossibly simple. And then there were the bugs; many, many bugs. On top of these game-crippling bugs, Activision slammed a "two-patch" policy on the title, thus forcing the game to stay in a crippled state.
Had great potential, then was destroyed by trying to appeal to console kiddies and a total lack of support from the developers.

could have been a great game...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 23
Date: April 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The game is too buggy - every time you reload, the campaign map AI completely resets itself, and the battle AI isn't much better either. The lack of a willingness on the part of the developers to even admit there's a problem is the most disturbing part...

Nice idea, flawed implementation

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 21
Date: April 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'm giving this a 1-star, because it's got a major game breaking bug in it. The AI is flawed. Everytime you load a game, it manages to forget what it is doing. If it's sieging a city, the army will stop sieging and wander off to do whatever armies do.

The consequences of this are huge. If like me you only play 4-5 turns at a time (and given a turn can take 10+ minutes that's not unrealistic), then every five turns the AI will stop. Consequently it doesn't expand, and there is no challenge.

To add to the frustration, the developer, CA has stated that this is not a bug (despite evidence to the contrary), and that nothing will be done about it.

Highly disappointing, and I can't honestly recommend it. The way I have been treated is awful, and I won't be buying another product by CA for a long time.

Almost there

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 21
Date: April 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

RTW is ALMOST a wonderful game. It's full of great ideas but it's seems finish in a rush, and it's shipped incomplete. It seems that 80/85% of the things in the game are complete, and in the others are plenty of bugs. The worst it's the load game bug (well, 'feature' in the Creative Asambly termonology). The AI lost of this long-term plans after a reload and play dumb for one or two turns. Of course, CA denied this and have no support/no acknowleged about this bug.
So, it was a pity. RTW is almost there, in the edge of be a great game.

Dissappointing

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 14 / 19
Date: April 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've played the TW series since they first came onto the strategy gaming scene. I'd highly recommend STW or MTW to anyone who's interested. RTW shows great potential but the game isnt ready for sale. There are numerous bugs and faults that make this game virtually unplayable unless you can leave the game running in the background. Other less serious problems require player developed modifications to fix. The developers have refused to address the serious problems with the game. Check with the independent fansites and dont buy it until it is fixed.

Unfinished Product

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 19
Date: April 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This title was obviously rushed out the door. It has amazing graphics and a very solid, enjoyable concept, but these pros pale in comparison to the many glaring, game stopping bugs. The developers have release two patches to remedy some of these issues, however, it seems they only did this out of contractual obligation with their developer as their efforts were greatly lacking. Again, what had the makings of an excellent game is nothing more than a high priced paper weight riddled with errors.

Save your money.

Fun but a few short commings

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: May 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Though I've never played any game in the total war series, I enjoy strategy games and found the excellent reviews for RTW more than enough to convince me to buy this game. Over all, I found it very enjoyable but with a few cons that put me back a bit.

Pros:
*Flexible: You can play RTW on a strategic level, letting the computer resolve battles instantly, on a tactical level playing historic battles as a general without worrying over the grand design, or a combination in an imperial game choosing which battles you want to play with direct control over your units. This flexibility allows you the player considerable control in how you play, depending on your style.

*Graphics & Sound: Both excellent, particularly when fighting tactical battles.

*Historical acuracy: No doubt some will quible and as a student of the era several faults stand out (elephants on ships crossing the med and legions of pretorian guards stand out), still the game is generally strong in this area. My major quible remains with the idea of Wonders of the World lifted from the Civ series, which seems decidedly out of place in this game and should have been eliminated as inacurate and unballanced.

AI: On the tactical level at least, the AI will give players a run for their money and keep you on your toes.

Cons:
*Speed: The game is large and can run slowly and even crash older machines. Beware.

*AI: as good as the AI is tactically, in the strategic game one wonders where the play testers were. The computer's game remains at best timid, especially when a player begins to win (I awaited a counter attack several times and it never came). Moreover, the AI lacks several obvious strategies that would have improved the game (surprise landings when you leave a major city poorly defended, hiring merceneries when weak, etc).

*Manual: This remains a pet peave of mine. The instructions are skimpy at best; players will need to consult forums for several basic playing instructions.

These cons may lessen this RTW, but a player who enjoys the genre should still find dozens of hours of fun.

Somewhat Over-rated

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 19 / 30
Date: June 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

To put my review into context let me first say that I have been addicted to the Total War lineup of games for several years. I played Medieval constantly and had the greatest hopes for Rome. I've also waited to do this review until I've played Rome enough to give it a critical look. Hopefully this will help if you are considering purchasing this game.

Pros:
- Expanded campaign map is no longer set up with simple "Risk Like" territories as in Medieval but instead allows armies to use terrain to their advantage. Armies can hold mountain passes, river crossings, etc. This creates much more freedom for strategic decisions on a large scale and is a HUGE improvement.
- Accurate historical strengths and weaknesses. As always the Total War team has done a good job of incorporating the strengths and weaknesses of the different troop types into the game (Ex: limited mobility of the Greek Phalanx).
- Much more involved sieges. Sieges are very detailed in Rome. You can now post troops on the walls to repel scaling ladders and seige towers and use the layout of the city itself to help in your defence. Cities are much more detailed and attackers have many ways in which to attack.
- More realistic transportation over water. Troops can no longer travel great distances in one turn over many ships but are required to make the journey in a realistic amount of time using one ship or group of ships.
- Roman politics. When playing as the Romans the Senate is involved in what you do which can be interesting.
- Battle graphics and sound are excellent.

Cons:
- Poor game mechanics abound in battle mode. They really dropped the ball here. Units frequently have problems doing simple things like moving from one location to another in formation. Sometimes when grouping different units together the game will add other unselected units to the group which messes up your formation and leads to giving commands to the wrong troops. When defending or attacking bridges troops will frequently jump off the bridge for no reason or miss the bridge entrance and run into the river and drown. Many other problems like these exist, especially in sieges. I was hoping that the bugs in Medieval would be fixed in Rome but instead it looks like the guys at Total War decided to hurry this game out and ended up adding a few more.
- Much more involved cities. Cities revolt for no reason. You can have a huge garrison, a great governor, and extremely low taxes and the city will still revolt. Large cities are frequently very unprofitable and unhappy even with civic improvements. Many times I've had to let a city revolt just so I can exterminate the populace through a seige to get the city in line. If ruling a city were performed on a reasonable cause and effect basis it would be a different story. As it stands you will spend way more time and effort than necessary on things that you frequently can't even change. Definetly not the usual for a Total War game.
- Idiotic governor system. You can only have governors over your cities that are in the family. The computer decides when you have children and when you adopt. You have no say and when your empire starts to get large you will not have governors for many of the cities even if you expand slowly to allow your family to grow.
- Horrible AI. Archers will shoot their own troops. Reinforcements sometimes won't enter a battle. Different enemy armies almost never work together. Enemies will walk right up to your city walls with no hope of entry and just stand there until every last one is shot down.
- Computer imposed limitations. You are unable to force a Roman civil war until the computer says that you are powerful enough. Why limit the player like this?

I've played as every faction and beaten this game multiple times with almost all of them. Sometimes I am overjoyed by the game and sometimes I am infuriated. Mostly it's the last one. It may be more flashy than other games but the mechanics of the game itself are not that good. Instead of building on the success of the excellent Medeival, the Total War team seems to have gotten in a hurry with this one. All show and no substance with tactics and strategy getting sacrificed.

However, having said all that I would recommend Rome Total War to anyone looking for a decent strategy game. I've encountered a lot of problems with the game but still have fun playing it. There are always problems in games, especially games of the magnitude of Rome. A lot of thought and detail went into the game's design and overall Total War succeeded in creating a decent strategy game. A "decent" game for Total War still blows most other games out of the water.

Major bug prevents you from saving game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 22
Date: April 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The computer player's AI is reset after every save. After a save, the computer player lifts sieges, does nothing with its armies, doesn't build anything, and its diplomacy is shot.

If you are buying this game and intend to play against the computer, buy a different game.

a ROME phenomenon

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: December 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I'm no novice to the total war series, just about a year a go, I was leading my CG british troops, waging war across the land of Europe with knight templars and archers and catapults. While the combats were real and the strategic values great, nothing of it compared with the 3rd installment of the Total War series. ROME is a turn-based strategy game. I've logged in several dozen hours in it, I believe I'm in about 120 BC now. The game progresses slowly since a turn takes only a year, it takes takes 100 turns to go from 220 BC to 120 BC, plus, a whole lot of things usually happen in a turn, such as building armies and constructing buildings. In general, the more cities you have in your possession, the longer each turn takes.

The map, which is presented to you at the beggining of the game is the whole of Europe up to the northern borders of England, plus northern Africa and part of middle east. The map is divided into 50 provinces, you have to counquer all the provinces to win the campaign. Each Province contains a city, cities are laid out on the very detailed 3D terrain map so you can see where they are on the terrain how large they are in scale. You have to conquered the city that sits in the province to receive the province. Installing governors in conquered cities allow you to continue building improvements in the city, as well as recruit more soldiers.

At 120 BC, about (100 turns) I have conquered about half of the provinces. With more provinces you conquer, the more money you receive each turn, since each city in the province generates income. Enough money usually go around for recruiting troops and buildings, the problem comes when you don't have enough governers to go around. Since the ancient romans only allowed trusted family members of the ruling house to be governors in provinces, governors only become available when one of the sons in your family tree come of age, or when a suitable husband marries one of your daughters. It is important to keep track of your family members, since only they can be governors, and you have to make sure to send them across the provinces that you conquered. Governors are essential since only the provinces with governors can build new buildings, which are essential for building up a healthy troops. Some of my provinces are without governors since it takes time to move them from your capital city (where they live). These provinces can get by, but I can only build rudimentary military units such as peasants and town watchers since, for instance, you'll need a barrack in the cities to build legionaries, and an archery range to guild archers. Better units also become possible as you take time (and money) to upgrade buildings. Governors are absolutely essentials in this game since only they can build, upgrade buildings, train, and retrain (damaged) troops.

Governors also serve as generals when in battle. Governors are regarded as a military unit and are usually accompanied with a complement of elite body guards of about 40 horsemen. They're incredibly useful for charging enemies, plus, a Governor with a good commend rating can improve the performance of your troops when leading them as a general on a battlefield.

The battles of ROME: Total War, like its predecessors are carried out on a "battle map", which is essentially a 3D environment with a terrain that rises and falls, with trees and grass. When you're attacking a city, the city is placed in the middle of the map, complete with walls and gates and village houses. In a battle, you and your units battle against the enemies ones. Each unit are a band of 3D rendered soldiers usually numbering about 40 to 60 men, better units usually come in smaller numbers. For instance, a roman hastati unit (an early legionary) comes in 40 guys, while a peasant unit come in about 100. Unit size are not very essential since a fully trained roman legion unit of 40 can easily defeat peasant troops of 200. On the Strategy map, it is essential in deciding which units to make, as you can only make one unit per city per turn. Newer units are also expensive, so you also have to consider the balance between strength and expense.

So far I've covered very many details about the uniqueness of this game, I could go on, but many of strategic details are familiar to strategy game players, for instance, never lead your horsemen to charge against spearmen is one of the few pertinent rules, as spearmen does especially high amounts of damage on horses. The greek phalanxes of this game are especially fierce, their 6-foot long overlapping spears can easily crush any unsuspecting horse unit. So keep your Equites, roman calvary, and general bodyguards away from them.

The battles are very realistic and the voice-overs are much improved from the previous Total War titles, that gives each engagement more action and cinematic feel. Each unit yells out its name and says "yes Sir!" when you move them, and yells "let's KILL them!" when you tell them to attack or pursue your enemies.

The units are so detailed that you can see the markings on each shield and helmet, and armor, the action animation is so realistic that the intense scenes at the front-lines of battle rival that of a Hollywood movie production. You can see soldiers jagging spears, shielding clinging, and much slashing action. soldier falls as they get hit by arrows, screams when slashed by a thrusting sword, and ranks of warriors are blast apart without dignity as horses and chariots charge them.

With much said, ROME total war is a superb game for military-minded geniuses (like you) and history fans alike. At the end of each victory, you feel like nothing short of a proud roman general who has just added a piece of glory to the greatest empire of all time, the power can be very rewarding.

-S.

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