Rome total war gold edition review

Like most wargames, Rome Total War not only lets players re-create classic battles but also gives them an opportunity to try for alternative endings. This adds context and ties together battles as a player leads his own faction, using politics and religion to forge alliances and break enemies. The Gold Edition also packs in the Barbarian Invasion add-on, which looks at the challenges a divided Rome faced from other peoples, such as the Franks and Saxons.

Each race features some historical characteristics and well-researched uniforms and weapons, though a few of the troop types veer into fantasy territory.

Score distribution:. Positive: 0 out of. Mixed: 0 out of. Negative: 0 out of. User Reviews. Write a Review. Positive: 3 out of 3. Mixed: 0 out of 3. Negative: 0 out of 3. It's and this is still one of my favourite games the graphics are dated, the AI breaks agreements and isn't a real challenge but if you It's and this is still one of my favourite games the graphics are dated, the AI breaks agreements and isn't a real challenge but if you want the best total war experience so far this is it especially with the help of some great mods!

This review contains spoilers , click expand to view. This is a superb game, and is extremely cheap at retailers too these days. The strategy component is breathtaking and the graphics are great for such an old game. I easily give this a 9, but not a 10 since not all the factions are playable. Slightly out of date now especially with its successors release this week. For those who tire of these lengthy campaigns, two alternatives are available. The Quick Battle function takes you to a set piece clash in some clearly defined scenario for example, British tribesmen repelling a Roman assault on their hill fort.

The Custom Battle function allows you to choose any two countries in the game, pick the right combination of units in each, and set them on scenery of your whim. The Custom Battle function thus offers endless possibilities of martial carnage. As you advance into the game, some of the non-Roman nations become unlocked. Carthage and the Greek cities are the first two. The different military units give you a different feel, and the non-Roman countries are not divided into ridiculous factions see below.

Unfortunately it is hard to win with Carthage's weak military see below. However, with a little clever strategy one can go far with armored Greek hoplites. I had fun making a reborn Hellenic empire in the East, and even sacked a few Italian towns for good measure.

The game offers one of the best collections of choice quotes from Antiquity, displayed before a battle. They all deal with war and strategy, of course, but these days it is probably a better exposure to classical thought than what many high school history courses offer.

It is a nice touch! Game play can be complicated at times. The Tutorial does its best to introduce you to the basics, but the mechanics of the Battle Map can still be hard to negotiate. This becomes exponentially true as the size of one's army increases. I discovered that the more units I had, the more I was likely to lose simply because I could not coordinate numerous units in real time engagement.

The game gives you the option of automatically resolving a battle on the campaign map rather than slugging it out on the battlefield map. The computer analyzes the numbers and strengths of the two armies and generates a win or loss with varying degrees of intensity. I found myself doing this quite a bit to spare myself the agony of a convoluted battle on the battle map.

But yet the battle map is supposed to be the hallmark of RTW, and thus I felt I was missing the point of the game. The campaign map is far easier to navigate, but also less exciting. Once a battle is won, one must improve one's settlements and conduct diplomacy and espionage with one's neighbors. Unlike the Caesar games, one cannot build the city oneself; one simply tells the computer which buildings to erect, then one waits for the construction queue to be completed.

The results are usually less than spectacular. But the central problem of RTW is that the strategic structure of the game is anything but realistic, unlike its graphics and audio. The most egregious example is that Italy's resources and armed forces are divided among three great houses: The Julii, Brutii and Scippii.

These families own their own towns and their own armies. The great Roman Senate assigns missions to these three factions, which the factions are free to accept or decline.

If one successfully completes a Senate mission, one is rewarded with finances or military units. This is the fastest way of augmenting one's strength; unfortunately if one accepts all the Senate's increasingly burdensome missions, it means stretching one's resources across the Mediterranean before one has had time to fully utilize one's conquered territories. One can decline the Senate missions, but to do so too many times means alienation from the Senate and the other two factions.

It is a delicate balancing act I never mastered. The only counterweight is that the factions can conduct their own diplomacy with foreign powers, forging military and economic ties that may hem in the ambitions of rival factions. This is of course all ludicrous. The Republic did not work this way. Having Italy divided between three great houses which can ignore the Senate is sheer lunacy. The player should be able to play the Senate and command the full resources of the Republic.