Brilliant super good game.

If you like strategy and or war gaming you will not be disappointed with Rome: Total War. I've played a few games on this level which are much newer in terms of release date, but are much behind the times in terms of graphics, playability, content and general all round quality really. That's what strikes you when you first start playing this game - it's quality.

What's better than 5000 Romans marching for what they believe in, against the invading Gauls? It was thought to be impossible to have such battles on a computer, and with such graphics, but CA (Creative Assembly) has passed all odds by creating Rome: Total War; a PC game which takes the player back to 500BC and puts him in control of the greatest empire in history. Putting the fate of history in the palm of your hands.

If you love historic battles, managing settlements, trading, forging empires and escaping for a few hours then you'll love this game. Be warned, you need a decent graphics and sound card to enjoy fully, plus lots of free RAM etc. I also found myself waking in the night, thinking of new tactics etc. Sad? You bet, but you'll love it none the less! It's so involved and once you have lots of settlements, you may find time flies a little too fast!

Rome Total War was introduced to me by my friend's brother, I ditched my friend and played with his brother...LOL, I played this game for 4 hours and then got kicked out... sad. The next day I RACED to the nearest computer store and bought the game. I've been trying to conquer the Imperial Campaign with every civilisation possible on 'medium' difficulty. This game is an addictive thing with the ability to get you glued to the screen and be completely oblivious to all else. The graphics are not the best but still good and can keep the storyline flowing - especially when you start each civilisation and they introduce the civi. etc. The aim of the game is brilliant. But each little event pop-up thing gets old and you already know what each of them say, the only differences in them are the name of the victim or city. But overall this is a great game and I've loved it ever since the day I played it.

Rome: Total War is a great PC Game! GET IT! (But it's highly addictive)!

General Comments:

This review is for the Rome Total War PC game and the Barbarian sequel. In this game you play on an overall campaign map, which shows the then Roman 'known world'. However, when you play a battle you zoom into a very impressive 3D-battle landscape where you then control your army.

In the 1st game you can play as one any one of three Roman factions. As you progress the game opens up other none Roman factions which you can then play as well. In the Barbarian sequel the Roman world has moved on a few hundred years, and you then play one of the two Roman Empires staring defeat in the face, or one of the emerging Barbarian invaders.

This is an absolutely massive game that you can play for days, weeks or even months. I would not hesitate to recommend this as one of the most impressive PC games available at present.

The Good points: -

Rome Total War is a very, very, impressive game. The game is probably the best game available at present for this type of War conquest on the PC. This is the latest game in a number of similar war conquest type games from Activison, and it is by far the best yet. The graphics are much better than the others, such as Medieval Total War, and the games computer artificial intelligence is very good as well.

The Bad points: -

It's a very minor moan with such a good game, but the Senate missions in Rome Total War are a real pain, and they distract from the overall game. Also in the second game, the difficulty of some of the factions are a bit off-putting.


Conclusion: -

Total War Rome and the Barbarian sequel are probably the best examples of this type of PC game. I would not hesitate to recommend it as long as you have a big space in your diary to play it.

I play Rome: Total War and once you have adapted to the different factions fighting methods it's too easy to win battles. I continuously take 300 soldiers to battle with another equally if not stronger army and come out victorious with a maximum of 50 soldiers dead. Most of the time its route and I end up sending my cavalry to trample the cowards as they flee.

Note: Make the game more realistic and challenging.

-General Imad

This is Rome: Total War: Following on from Activisions earlier hit Medieval Total War Rome TW has exceeded everyones already high expectations and become the number 1 strategy game. With so many diferent factions to choose from how can you get bored? There must be about 200 different units to choose from. The strategic element is amazing, there are so many differnet formations and tactics to use it could last you a lifetime. Overall this game is thoroughly enjoyable.

Rome: Total War is a well researched game, in terms of units you can use and the tactics you can deploy.
The game takes time to get into and can keep you engrossed for hours, especially when you are at war a lot. The only problems I can find are that the sieges can get repetitive and the amount of units you can use seems small once you have learnt the commands of the game.

I thoroughly enjoyed Rome: Total War, though it could be better. On a high spec machine the graphics are truly spectacular and not to be missed. Give it a go if you've got many hours to play. You'll also get the option of numerous modifications to download and try, I'd definitely recommend doing that. Keep an eye open for Napoleonic TW.

Rome: Total War is very good to begin with. When you first go on if you've played a "Total war" game before you'll ask yourself: campaign or "Quick" battle?. I went on campaign and found that a compulsory tutorial awaits. This is probably so impatient players don't just go and play the campaign, dont know what they are doing, start losing and then hate the game after that.

Well the tutorial certainly is helpful and seems to teach you everything from the manual and more. It is a very good one if a little boring if like me you have played total war games before.

After the tutorial you can either keep playing from where the tutorial has left you or you can play choosing another faction (of the Romans only to begin with) and play on a map of Europe and North Africa. However before this you can choose to play the "short" game or the "long" game. The short being to capture 15 provinces and the long to capture 50 provinces and to outlast or destroy the senator. Both are fun.

After choosing the pre-game options you get presented with a cinematic (which my computer couldn't run so I pressed Escape and skipped it).

After that you are presented with the map. Now if you have played any of the "Civilization" games you will realise that the moving of the troops is almost identical to the "Civilization" methods and the settlements look similar to the "Civilization" Settlements too. This in my opinion was very offputting as I already own "Civilization 3". However it shouldn't be too offputting to ruin the game.

You can then upgrade your settlements or command your army to take over the province capitals, which presents you with a pre battle menu (like the other "total war" games which you can decide to automatically decide the battle, command it yourself or withdraw). If you choose command personally the game brings you to the battle view. This is were the game gets good, if you have a good graphics card and processor to handle it). The graphics are amazing, almost life like allowing very interesting battles.

Another new feature is the siege methods. No longer is the time where you fire catapults at walls and then go on a mad killing spree. No, you now can use siege ladders to get onto the walls and then you have to use Urban fighting methods and actually take over the city which is a lot more fun than destroying a fort as in "Medieval: Total War".

So i'd say its fun to begin with but gets boring as you play over time.