"Imperator for a day"

A while back I'd gotten to play Rome: Total War.

It was pretty fun at first, but it slowly soured on me. I think there's a really great game hidden inside of it, but a bit like Master of Orion 3 that great game is hidden. Unlike Master of Orion 3 you don't have to take a crowbar to the game to get a pretty good playing experience. Contradictory? Maybe. We'll see.

So, I installed it without a hitch and plowed into the tutorial mode. Very interesting and fun for a tutorial. That first tactical battle it has you fight really got me in the Roman frame of mind. I crushed my enemies and saw them driven before me.

Eventually I finished off the tutorial mode and went into Campaign mode. I picked the Julii family because, well, they're the Julians. I felt all very Ceasar. Right off the bat I started a war with the Gauls. Then the Senate told me to go fight Carthage. Well thanks Senate. I can barely field one army, and now I'm supposed to hold off the rampaging armies of Gaul while I lay siege to that city on Sardinia.

I got a crash course in city management at this point, taking that rebel city between Rome and Gaul (Narbo Matius maybe?) to get more cash flowing into my coffers. City Management is essentially very simple, it's not even a set of sliders, just a few selectors and a pair of build queues. I got my warmachine going and beat back the Gaul and embarrassed the Carthaginians in Sicily after they made the Scipii look bad.

Movement on the map reminded me of Lords of the Realm 2 or Lords of Magic, especially the latter with the use of Spies, Diplomats, and Assassins. That's alright. It's a little annoying, in my opinion, but I can live with it. I became very fond of Assassins, by the by. Few things in life are as fun as bopping enemy Diplomats on the head and killing them. I found spies and diplomats to be a bit useless, especially spies. I never bothered with them. I suppose if I hadn't been fielding massive Roman legions I'd have been more wary about who I picked a fight with, but come on, I am a Julii, my forces are superior! Diplomats did come in handy during those times the Senate would tell me to go make a deal with someone, but otherwise I didn't use them too often... Although I did a good bit of bribing the Spaniards when fighting them.

Combat can be interesting, and certainly with smaller armies it is. But once both sides start fielding maxed out armies it becomes a simple matter of attrition. Late in the game I found myself letting the computer simulate the fights instead of spending a halfhour grinding down and enemy army. I did find the controls a bit odd. I never did, for example, figure out how to tell my spearmen to "turn and face the direction where the cavalry is coming from, you sons of dogs!" The speeches commanders give at the beginnings of battle were great and really set the mood. My favorites are given by the commanders with Bloodthirsty - "I want to bath in blood!"

All in all, it's a pretty decent affair. It didn't strike my fancy, mainly because of the sheer absurd number of troops needed to police cities, and the tactical combat was a bit lackluster, but I think a lot of people can like the game.

Now for a quick scoring summary for those of you keeping track of the numbers:

Gameplay: 6

The AI did a decent enough job, and most of the controls are intuitive from icons and well laid out. The underlying mechanics didn't sit well with me in the world map mode, and I don't particularly like Real-Time combat. For people that do like Real-Time combat, your mileage will probably be much higher.

Graphics: 8

The world map is only average. There's nothing really special about it for the era the game was released in. Combats do look great, however. Detailed models with good skins on adequately modeled ground make for a visual treat. The scale for cities seems off, some of those places could not house the populations that the game claims it does, but that's a small thing. Very good work here.

Sound: 10

I absolutely loved the music on the world map. And the effects in combat were good. The speeches top this off and shove it up to "awe inspiring."

Replay: 7

It should be very replayable, but personally I didn't feel too compelled to play a third campaign after I finished my Julii and then Scipii campaigns.

Other: N/A

I spent a week or so marching around my house pretending to be a Roman patrician. Just warning you that you might suffer the same fate.

Overall: 7

It was definitely fun for a while. I think this is one of those games that you should definitely lay hands on and play for a while. You'll either love certain parts of it and be put off by little things, as I was, or you'll probably end up loving it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/31/05