Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX

"Out with the new and in with the old. Is it a step back?"

Romace of the Three Kingdoms VII signifigantly changed the ROTK series by implementing the ability to play as an officer. ROTK VIII followed suit. ROTK VIII opened up a whole new realm of possibilities and scenarios for the ROTK series, but it narrowed the scope of possibilities of what ROTK is all about, fighting wars.

ROTK IX takes us back to the way ROTK used to be. As a ruler, you must make alliances and enemies, fight battles, keep your officers happy, and draft an army. While in ROTK VIII a huge part of the gameplay was raising a great city, in ROTK IX its thankfully a much faster process. In ROTK VII and VIII armies would spend 5 years just developing the economy but that is not the case in 9. The game also has been divided into 3 turns per month as opposed to one, making the game go at a more realistic speed. It wont be the year 220 before Cao Cao starts attacking Yuan Shao.

ROTK VII is often criticized because it was extremely easy. In ROTK IX, its actually possible to lose a battle. The enemy AI will put up a strong defense in this one. My only gripe is that the AI still makes very dumb decisions, attacking a city of another ruler while leaving 10,000 troops in their city, easy prey for your army to destroy. Actually, I lied about that being my only gripe, the enemy will often send 1 general in a legion while they can send up to 5, severly lowering their odds of defeating you.

ROTK IX is a better multiplayer game than others becasue you dont have to wait around for you friends to finish battles because the AI controls your armies.

In 9, things are better balance. In ROTK 8, sometimes very strong forces would go into debt because they had so many officers working economics. A much weaker army could then end up beating them. In ROTK 9, this doesn't happen. The stronger armies will thankfully win battles in this one.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX may be a step back in the evolutionary process of The Romance series, but the player=general game seen in VII and VIII needs some serious tuning anyway, and we will see if thats successful in X. ROTK IX is the most enjoyable ROTK yet and should be bought with VIII so one can get all there is to enjoy out of this series.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/18/04