Reviewed: October 11, 2004
Reviewed by: John DeWeese

Publisher
Activision

Developer
The Creative Assembly

Released: September 22, 2004
Genre: RTS
Players: 8
ESRB: Teen

9
9
9
9
9.2

System Requirements

From the shadows of the forest explodes wave after wave of ax-wielding fanatics. The Roman front line is cut to ribbons but the legion holds its ground. Catapults hurl flaming boulders into the enemy ranks, killing scores of barbarians without halting their onslaught. Sensing this is the turning point of the fight, I order my heavy cavalry to attack, then zoom in with my mouse to watch them trample the German warriors under thundering hooves.

Rome: Total War is the first strategy game I’ve played to capture the spectacle of the first few minutes of the movie, “Gladiator.” Produced by The Creative Assembly and Activision, “Rome” is the third game in the Total War series that over the past five years has completely transformed the strategy genre.

First and foremost, the Total War series did away with the tedious food gathering and base building of Microsoft’s historical “Age of Empires” series. The action got way bigger too. For players used to the skirmish size games of “Warcraft” or “Age of Empires,” “Rome: Total War” offers massive clashes between legions.

Controlling your army is pretty intuitive, click on a unit to move it on a 3-D battlefield, then click on an enemy unit to attack. One of the complaints about Rome’s predecessor “Medieval: Total War” was that games took forever. That’s not a problem anymore; most battles take minutes instead of almost an hour to unfold and the action is relentless.

Weather and terrain all come into play as woods, hills or heavy snow can block your line of sight. Leadership and morale are incredibly important. Moving a general to the front can mean the difference between a failed charge and victory. But your warriors can become demoralized if your general dies – like real life most of the casualties occur when a unit breaks ranks and gets steamrollered.

Sieges are particularly fun to play as the attacker can deploy battering rams, ladders or siege towers to scale or bash through the walls. There is a one-off battle mode where you have a set point limit for any faction, choose your troops from that limit, and then select a battlefield ranging from a Middle Eastern desert to Rome itself.

This seems like it would be a multiplayer dream, except Rome doesn’t have dedicated servers, instead relying upon Game Spy. Multiplayer games have so far been plagued with some serious stability and lag issues, though patches are on the way to fix that aspect. The single player campaign seems to be the most popular with many players.

You take command of one of three noble families – the Brutii, Julii or Scipii- and conquer your way to glory as Rome’s Emperor. Over a series of battles, your generals and troops improve, more provinces are added to your empire and your prestige with both the Senate and people of Rome improves. Popularity is important, since to even start a civil war with the other two families you need enough popular and political support. The way to do that is to accept missions which may be as simple as brokering a peace treaty or as complex as besieging Carthage itself. Once a player beats the Imperial campaign, then other factions become available for play.

While I didn’t like having to “unlock” factions since it feels like playing some racing game, the Roman campaign offers more intrigue as you must accept missions from the Senate while at the same time showing up the other families to win.

The dirty little secret of such a testosterone drenched game is the campaign includes elements of the popular “Sims” titles. You take control of an entire Roman family, in charge of not just managing your armies but also the suitors your sons and daughters marry. Your children and grandchildren grow up to become new generals or governors of your provinces.

Much of the game is also played out on the campaign map, which is alive with detail. Ships move across the Mediterranean, wagons roll between cities on trade routes, volcanoes erupt on the screen. Much of the game is about micro-managing the provinces and cities you conquer, deciding whether to build a coliseum to keep the mob happy or a new barracks, risking revolt over high taxes and no circuses. You can send out spies to reveal the map, assassins to kill enemy leaders, or diplomats to sign peace treaties and forge alliances.

When a problem can only be solved at sword point, the campaign screen zeroes in on two battling armies and the game goes into battle mode. During sieges, whatever you¹ve built in your city appears in the battle, so great monuments and temples loom over the soldiers trying to storm the walls. The computer intelligence is merciless in battle mode, hitting you with sudden cavalry charges, setting up sneak attacks from surrounding forests or moving reinforcements to flank you when you were busy watching another battle.

Too bad the AI is not as great on the campaign map. Computer armies allow you to easily bring up reinforcements and surround them, or besiege and capture a city without responding. “Medieval:Total War” was infamous for the computer sending a horde of assassins and spies to either bribe or kill your leaders at the worst possible time. At medium difficulty, I rarely saw the computer deploy strategic units against me. The biggest challenge is taking on the massive armies the computer throws against you, and in many battles you are outnumbered two to one (or more).

Nevertheless, the challenges of taking and managing an empire make up for the shortfalls, and I have no complaint on how well Rome: Total War captured the sweeping drama of ancient warfare. I wholeheartedly recommend this game to any history buff or strategy gamer.

Zoom in on two battling units and you can see soldiers individually cutting and parrying with their gladius swords, or watch as elephants trample or fling high into the air hapless hoplites.

There is easily something for everyone in Rome: Total War regardless of your dedication or stamina. Perhaps, once the aforementioned online issues are resolved Rome will be as much fun online as it is playing alone.