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All the fun of that other Strategy Game, plus battles!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: November 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

As a long-time Civ fan, I was excited about the strategic aspects of playing Rome: Total War. Then I fought my first tactical battle, and was completely enchanted. The ability to pause the game, move the camera to all sorts of angles, and the start the game again to see what happens is incredible.

Wow. What the other reviewers said. The music and action on the battlefield are outstanding. I imagine I will eventually start letting the game autoresolve some of the minor battles, but right now even the small skirmishes are great fun.

Kudos to CA!.

Best ... game ... ever!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 20
Date: October 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I don't normally feel the need to write reviews here, but after seeing negative review after negative review, I have to shake my head and wonder what game everyone else is playing, because it's not RTW. It's the finest strategy game, ever, hands down, without a comparison. It's not even a close race. The only way I can see someone not liking this game is when they just don't like the genre (realistic strategy), or are unaware of some of its features.
Yes, in some ways, it's a lot like civ, but with strategic battles.
Don't like building your buildings civ style? Click the auto-construct, and no more civ in your rome. But then, I adored civ II like some kind of deity, so this is all the better anyway.
Battles too confusing? Use the pause button to study the situation and give orders.
Honestly the only problem I can find with this game is that I wish the sea battles weren't automatically auto-solved. I'd have loved them to be strategic as well. Oh, and AI-controlled reinforcements I'd like to see fixed in a patch (either make the ally general a touch less brave (stupid), or allow for direct control).
But otherwise? Flawless. Absolutely flawless. The generals (the main characters) actually seem to have more complex personality ratings than characters in rpgs, as they have various personality traits like drunkard, brave, gloomy, deranged, good orator, etc. All the bonuses are easily added up on the character's sheet (you don't need to add it up yourself, just look at their management, command, and influence ratings, it's all there). Before each battle, the general gives a speech about the upcoming battle. Once, one of my deranged, gloomy generals (he was quite insane, but hey, he won battles) gave a speech complaining that he was depressed and just wanted to go home, but then accussed the enemy survivors of being his sister and ranted something about "frocks for everyone!". Ooookay, so Roman leaders go crazy in the game too, just like in real life. ;)
So, yes, it's basically flawless, and more addictive than _any_ game I have ever played - I'd think it would be for any history strategy fan, that is, unless you need constant click-fest action with fireballs (well the catapults come close) and dog-headed men. But for history buffs and people who appreciate and care about the differences and uses of soldiers such as hoplites, peoni infantry, velite, equite, and praetorians, this is heaven. I'm surprised I could stop playing long enough to write this review. Speaking of that... I better get back to Rome, I think my crazy general is supposedly biting people again.

Could be good BUT

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 20
Date: April 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is great if you can play multiple turns in one sitting. However there is an issue with the save game feature where the AI basically resets every time you have to load your game. So if you can only play one or two turns before having to save and then load again later the AI will not expand at all. You are left playing a fatally crippled opponent.

near miss

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 13 / 18
Date: April 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game could have been one of the greats, a must buy for anyone remotely interested in strategy, war or empire building games, really even if you are only interested in strategy this game will blow you away. BUT! That isn't the case, the game has MAJOR GAME RUINING BUGS that have not been fixed in any of the patches. In fact unless you are willing to play the game in 12 hour stints without loading your game, the AI factions will NEVER take territories. Enough said. There are many more bugs but that alone is worth ignoring this game for the time being.

Good idea, poor execution.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 13 / 18
Date: April 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

While this game is visually stunning, it lacks the challenge of a quaility strategy game. There are several game design flaws that result in a particularly weak computer opponent. Definately not 'Game of the Year' material.

Great Addition to the Total War Series

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 16
Date: October 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is great. There is no comparison between the graphics in Rome Total War and Medieval Total War. In Rome you can use make the camera drop right down on the ground with your troops while they are fighting instead of being way up above them. If you have a computer that can handle it, you can set the everything in the graphics detail up as high as it will go and everything is amazingly detailed to look at- flaming arrows, elephants, burning pigs, flaming bolders from catapults, all your troops fighting, and even their faces. Another thing is the calvary charges are much better in this game than the previous ones. The horses actually plow through the enemy troops and send them flying through the air rather than just stopping when hitting a line of troops as in previous Toal War games.
Graphics are just a part of the game. The gameplay is great to. It is definately a strategy game, from the placement of troops on the field and readying them to flank an enemy to the position of armies on the main strategy map and knowing which cities to conquer.
I have heard alot of people saying that the speed of troops in a battle is much to fast on this game. I think the speed is fine and even makes it look more realistic. Horses runing at full speed should not look like they are just jogging along.
This game does require more from your PC than other games normally do. It requires at least Windows 98SE to run on, 256MB of ram, and almost 3 Gigs of free hard drive space. I recommend more than 256MB of ram though because the game seems to be a bit sluggish if you don't set the settings down very low. My computer has over 1 Gig of Ram and the game runs like a dream on the highest settings.
With that said, Rome is definately a game worth buying and if you like strategy games, you will absolutely love Rome: Total War.

Age of Empires has some Competitin...BIG TIME

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 16
Date: February 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This, is in my opinion, the best rts ever created. Actually it sould be called rtts (real time tactical strategy). Imagine combining the political, economical, etc (non-fighting elements) as in Civilization III; with the fighting and graphics of Empire Earth or Age of Empires. And then improviong all of those elements 100 fold. You then have the very realistic and historically acurate Rome: Total War.

Off the battlefield. You play on a fully animated, very nicely graphiced (I made a word up) map screen. You see your cities and all kinds of others. Here you do all the economical and politic stuff that those who want realism...get. You can send diplomats out to other civs or gather armies, build stuff in your cities, etc.

But sometimes the only way to solve a problem is with an opponent's blood. You may attack their cities or a roving army. From here you are sent to a battlefield such as the place on the map would be (a forest area, moors, open fields, mountains, etc...) and in that time of year (spring summer fall or winter) and you have with you whatever army you have as do they. You place your army tactically if you wish, as do they. Then after an always wonderfally scripted battle speach you launch into the fight. There are so many different tactical things for each type of soldier you have at your disposal. It takes a lot more than numbers to win a battle. It takes thought and strategy. It is about time a game came out like that!

Once off the field whatever happens comes up onto the map. You may have a new city. You can take it over, enslave the populace or exterminate them all if you wish. Then you must take care of them.

Another different aspect is family. You must pick heirs and marriages and the such. And you also have to make sure to please the senetors of Rome, especially if you are still too weak to defy them.

If you like rts or if you are a history buff, or just like fun games in general. Pick this one up, you shall not be disapointed!

I ask Jupiter and Mars, how can I go to bed when my empire is not intact?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: April 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I hate to think how many times since I received "Rome: Total War" for Christmas that I have made the mistake of playing one more round before I turned off the computer and went to bed a night. The next thing I know one or more of my cities have revolted and that means I have to crush them so that the city is back under my control before I go to bed. But when you send reinforcements over to make sure you get one city back, another one (or two or three) can revolt and the next thing you know it is 3 in the morning before you have things under control again.

In other words, this game can be quite addictive.

I have now won the game twice, first as the House of Julli (the third time I tried, after I got acclimated to the way the game works), and now as of 2:12 this morning as the Egyptians. This was after having failed to come even close as either the Brutii or the Scipii, the other two Roman factions, and then getting no where as the Carthaginians, Pontius, or the Greek cities. Clearly the Julli are the best bet for winning the game: you have the advantage in that the other two houses are taking your backs while you go up against the Gauls. Then comes the point where either (a) the people of Rome ask you to march on the capital or (b) Rome demands your faction leader commit suicide, either of which is your cue to cross the Rubicon and take the city. Ironically, taking Rome is easy: it is conquering more territories to get to the required 50 that proves to be difficult (you are going up against both of the other houses and whatever barbarians are left).

Be forewarned that the opposite is true if you try to win with Egypt or any other non-Roman power. I got up to 53 territories at one point, with only a tenuous foothold on the Italian peninsula (literally), while losing ground in Africa. What finally tipped the balance was that I controlled the western part of the board, including a bunch of cities in the Black Sea that could produce third-level ships. These cities keep turning out ships that are combined into fleets and I was able to blockade every Roman port in the Mediterranean (and sink most of there new ships as soon as they were built). Finally, taking a page from Ender Wiggin, I abandoned my two cities in Italy and shipped in four other armies to go after Rome, take the city, and win the game. Sure, it looks strange just to control Rome and nothing else in Italy, but I had been making no progress for THREE DECADES by the game clock (LOL).

Because I have proven myself to be pretty inept when it comes to the real time strategy battles, I have been sticking to the basic strategy campaign game and having the computer automatically resolve battles. At some point I might get more ambitious and try to fight things out like a proper general, but I can still up the ante on playing the campaign game. You can go with no, low, medium, or high advice; both the campaigns and the battles can be easy, medium, hard, or very hard. There are also options for playing Arcade Style, having the computer manage all settlements, and following AI characters. If you want to practice on the real time battles, you can pick a historical battle, customize one, or do some quick ones for practice. I am still working on how to manage my cities (I am doing much better than I did when I tried to do "Civilization" and I got tired of hearing the computer yell "Plebs are needed! Plebs are needed!"), and I have to start paying more attention to using diplomats, spies, and assassins. I also have to stop moving too fast and being more strategic in how I build my empire (when you play a Roman faction Rome will push you along by giving you orders to take specific places).

I also get to look forward to playing this game on line against my son, who bought this for me in the first place (which is why I cannot talk about already having my money's worth from playing this game). Plus there is a "Barbarian Invasion Expansion Pack," which is good because I can tell you from my current game that the Gauls are not going to win this game (I might have to try the Germanic tribes next, but I do not have high hopes). Most of the comptuer games I have played in the past have been narrative puzzles: you play them, solve them, and never really play them again. I expect to be playing "Rome: Total War" for at least the rest of this year. I suppose this is not really the 21st century version of "Risk," but it is in the running.

Great game in concept - but oh, the implementation

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 19 / 32
Date: April 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First off, I have to give kudos to the CA for what they tried to do - to build a gorgeous, extendable game that would model Roman Empire in it's full glory. Unfortunately, the bugs which they have not corrected (stumbling AI, strange pathing behavior, incorrect unit values) make the whole experience very frustrating. With much regret, I had to put this game aside.

Potentially Great, but bugged and poor service

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 21
Date: April 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Update: They have released a 1.3 patch and do not require you to buy their expansion set. It seems they have corrected the load/save bug and a few others. AI could still be improved though.

Note Amazon will not allow me to add stars to my old review...

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