9 / 10
23 Apr 2006 at 17:31
Review by: djslammin
Rome total war is the 4th in the total war series. This is as you can guess from the previos games, about owning a country/state and invading others to eventually build up your massive army and empire and take over the known world (or at least what is shown on your map)
There are two campaigns in rome total war; A full campaign and a mini. A mini campaign requires the player to take over Rome and 50 other provinces.
50 provinces is actually a hell of alot. It is a massive acheivement.
The civilizations,Britons, Greeks, Egyptians, Gauls, Germans, Parthians, and Seleucids, are unlocked in two ways. If you win the campaign,its unlocked. Also if you take over a country, you can use their faction for a campaign. But a few civilisations are not unlocked throughout the game. Spain scythia, Numidia, and somebody elce.
AI civilizations are tougher. They will not only fight the battles better but their economy is far better and you cannot just sweep through with massive numbers because they will often find that they have some good or odd way to combat the whole strategy.
For negotiations, it seems as if the AI is also keyed in to try and control certain provinces. The Egyptians always seem to want cyprus allthough it has little strategic value (but prehaps it has somethiong to do with history. But another thing is that allinces are now harder to nagotiate.
This does have the effect of making wars often last 50 or once in my case evan 100 is years in a one on one battle which neither side has any efficent troops on the border. I eventually one by bringing massive massive numbers from rome and crushing them. But this is what I like I do not really want to just get everybody on my side and win the game on a technicality. I want large scale wars that eventually end by fineally nagotiating that crucial alliance with your enimies neighbor and attacking them on two sides. It makes that game feel; less of a game, without being to real.
The player is encouraged to follow the suggestions of the Senate with rewards like units and money and senate places/offices for yourself.
These can be used to train better generals and great things like that.
Cities and armies function better when the boss man knows what hees doing.
Speaking of cities, sieges are quite different now. For example If you or your opponent dosent prepare well enough for the battle its impossible survive under your Attack. A battering ram may only be good enough for a wooden wall and will not cut through stone Which is a nice touch because in the previos installments you can use the single log of a battering ram to knock down a whole wall. So now there are alot more seige weapons to try your luck at. One compleatly useless one is the ladders which are simply beaten and knocked down (allthough its funny watching your troops getting killed in this fasion. And also their are many new artillery units.
Graphics have been greatly improved since the last game, with everything looking more polished and shiney if you like. Now you can see through trees better and its not just all black if you look through like in the medieval and shogun total war gemes.
A great game a basicly a must have for any gamer who loves strategy gaming or who just wants to let out a little anger on a certain country or a certain people.
A well deserved 9 out of ten for this game.
Alex Nangle
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