"Possibly the best strategy game I've ever played"

It must first be said that Rome: Total War is not your usual RTS, also known as “Mouse-Clicking Competition” by many people. This is a game for true hardcore strategy fans, and is difficult to say the least. Myself I have not completed the game even once, but I have played it enough to write this. I would go on to explain the gameplay details and the basic idea of this game, but if you had wanted to know that there are only too many site reviews around. I'm here, however, to provide a normal player's (I'm by no means an expert RTS gamer, in fact I'm a poor player) point of view.

The game is neatly divided into 2 areas of play: The Campaign map and the Battle screen. I'll review these two separately.

I have no experience with the previous Total War games. Rome is the first of the series I'm playing, but the campaign map is truly exceptional. First and foremost, it's in 3D. That means that mountains, cities and game pieces cast shadows, and you can zoom and change pitch. Wonderful graphics, and for a map that's huge, there's less lag than you'd expect. There are at least 100 provinces and cities to conquer, and each of these have their own perks and flaws: trade, resources, climate etc.

The controls are also intuitive enough, and need very little experience to control.

The Battle screen is impossible. Impossibly good. A medium-end system will have no trouble rendering over 10 000 individual characters on screen, and the graphics are better than any epic RTS game out there. Even with anti-aliasing turned off, the units blend very well with the environment, and you can enjoy wonderful pictures even at medium or low settings. The terrain, though a bit barren at times, has massive trees that, although slightly off scale-wise, are perfect eye candy.

The sound is also unmatched. If you have sub-woofers or surrounds, or even if you don't and are using 2 speakers like me, you'll swear you can hear hundreds of hooves across the battlefield, and arrows zipping and darting around. Everything from javelins to elephants and bow-string tension can be heard. I must say that the voice acting, especially the senate people's voices, are not fantastic, but that's not an issue.

And we haven't even started on the gameplay. You'll find battles to be extremely exciting and interesting. Nothing beats infantry flying ten feet into the air and hundreds of horses messing up the formation of legionaries, except maybe the armored elephants of Carthage or Seleucid. Greek phalanxes impale ranks and ranks of Egyptian archers, only to get flanked by chariots. Thousands of arrows from the trusty roman Archer Auxilia rain down on Barbarian foot soldiers. I could go on.

Generally this game has excellent replay value. The Roman Imperial Campaign itself might take you a week or more, and after that you'd have plenty other factions to play as. Not only that, there are several short but very challenging historical battles in which you get to play as Caesar, Hannibal and other historical characters. And there are also custom battles you can create, plus multiplayer. All in all, I'd say Rome will last you at least 2 to 3 months playing 3 hours a day. But for me, I could take a year.

There are some glitches and bugs in this game, notably the multiplayer and some AI issues, plus the CTDs made famous in Shogun and Medieval. They shouldn't hamper gameplay adversely, but are enough for me to dock 1 point off a perfect score.

Finally, buy this game, definitely. It cost me US$34, and it shouldn't cost you more than $50. You'll realize it's well worth the money.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/11/04