I have been gaming for almost my entire life, but until I received a Game Boy as a gift for my 11th birthday, my experiences were strictly limited to computer gaming. Sure, I would play Nintendo games when I went over to friends’ houses, but it wasn’t the same. Ironically, now that I am an adult, only a small minority of my gaming is done on the PC. The problem with PC games is that they are expensive and you can’t rent them beforehand to see if they are duds or not; you either have to take a chance, or wait until the game is cast off into the bargain bin. However, I do have a soft spot in my heart for historical strategy games. My favorite would have to be Rise of Nations, but I found myself fascinated by Rome: Total War. I didn’t have much experience with strategy games with massive real-time battles, but I was willing to give it a try.
There are several modes of play in Rome: Total War. The campaign provides the real meat of the game. The player selects one of the three playable noble Roman families: the Julii, the Scipii, and the Brutii. The major difference between the three families is the set of deities that they worship. Each family has three deities that they can build shrines and temples to, and each deity grants special bonuses. Naturally, players are going to choose the family whose bonuses best resemble their own strategy game playing style, but it’s nice to know that playing the campaign through a second or third time can offer a much different playing experience.
After selecting a noble family, the campaign begins. The game is divided into turns, with each turn representing a period of six months. The player starts out with only a couple of settlements and the goal is to amass as many settlements as possible for the glory of Rome. However, there are two other noble families and a decent number of other civilizations all vying for their share of an empire, which is shown on a realistic map. At first, the easiest thing to do is to accept missions from the Senate. These are quests that involve capturing settlements, blockading ports or negotiating trade agreements and the like. They are optional, but they are fairly easy to complete and the rewards are usually worth the effort.
The game might function in a turn-based manner, but combat is real-time. In games like Rise of Nations, a player might be able to build an army of around fifty soldiers to take over a civilization, but in Rome: Total War, the player will have the opportunity to control huge armies. The battlefield is also extremely large, and the strategy one uses is absolutely key. Again, in Rise of Nations, a player could just fling his army into battle and emerge victorious, but in Rome: Total War, every move needs to be considered before proceeding. At first, controlling such a large army was very intimidating, but fortunately, age-old control mechanisms like drawing a box around a group of units to select them all or double-clicking on a unit to select all the soldiers in that unit are present here, making management quite easy. For players used to combat in real-time strategy games, Rome Total War moves extremely slowly. Soldiers can be instructed to run, but this tends to make them exhausted. Fortunately, battles can be played in double time and triple time. Another option is to have the battle be automatically resolved. I actually used this option several times; my army was half the size of the opposing army, yet I somehow managed a “Miraculous Victory” through automatic resolution. I am fairly certain that I would have lost the battle had it been fought in real time, so it was quite a pleasant surprise to emerge victorious. This is a nice feature for players who like turn based strategy games but don’t really like commanding massive armies.
In addition to waging war and taking barbarian civilizations for the glory of the family and SPQR (Roman government), there is a lot of work that needs to be done in order to build an empire. When a player captures a settlement, he has three options: He can occupy the territory and all of its residents, he can enslave the population, or he can exterminate the population. Each option has advantages and disadvantages. Players must maintain their existing settlements by constructing new buildings like temples, sewers and training grounds. The former will keep the people happy and healthy and the latter will allow the player to construct new soldiers for military excursions. Roads must also be built to connect the vanquished cities. Players must also maintain their families; at the beginning of every turn, there will be a series of announcements that have some sort of effect on the family. Sometimes, members of the family will expand their entourage and take on a chef or a drinking buddy; adding members to the entourage seems to be random, but any expansion is positive. There are also birth, death and coming-of-age announcements, as well as the announcement of Senate offices. If players complete Senate missions, they have a better chance of moving up to important Senate offices. From time to time, the player will even be asked to choose a suitable husband for a noble daughter. Roman families can be quite large, but fortunately, there is a family tree to keep track of Decius and Quintus and the rest of the clan.
Simply put, the campaign is a huge time bandit. It will monopolize your time and is very addictive. If the campaign were all there was to the game, it would be enough. But wait, there’s more! They’ve thrown in extra modes at no additional cost to the consumer. The game has recreated a number of historical battles, which gives the player the opportunity to follow the strategies the Roman generals used or to forge their own path to victory. This certainly would have been helpful for my Roman history class in college and educators really ought to recommend this product to their students.
Finally, there is a battle mode that allows the player to choose any civilization and then set conditions such as the number of CPU players (free-for-all or teams), terrain, number of soldiers in each army and more. This can lead to some blatantly unfair battles in which Carthaginians elephants stomp on unsuspecting soldiers.
The best part is that players can zoom in to watch the battle in glorious detail, and players will want to zoom in just to sit back and watch the action. There is slowdown at times, but it doesn’t seem so problematic given that there are thousands of soldiers on the battlefields at times. Also, graphic design has come a long way over the years, but some of the characters in the in-game cinematics still suffer from shovel-hand syndrome. This is more of a curiosity than a problem; most of the time, the player will feel like he is watching an epic movie like LOTR, but without the pesky orcs.
The in-game music is also pleasant. For the most part, it remains fairly unobtrusive. Players will not forget that it is there, but they will not be turning down the volume either. There is also a song that plays from time to time that is quite lovely, but most of the music is not accompanied by lyrics. There is quite a bit of voice acting in the game, including rousing speeches given by family generals before a battle. In addition to being a nice touch, they also serve a utilitarian purpose. While the general is speaking, soldiers will react accordingly by banging their swords against their shield. As expected, the game is filled with the sounds of war like metal clanging against metal and horse hooves thundering across fields.
Rome: Total War is an excellent game. It definitely takes a lot more involvement than a game like Rise of Nations, but for strategy fans who are willing to invest their time and money, the payoff is well worth it. Rome: Total War is an intensely engaging and satisfying experience.
