Rome Total War Review

The Total War series is one of those that has set the bar when it comes to grand strategy and offer its players the somewhat unique, among grand strategy games, possibility of controlling their forces in tactical battles. Rome Total war is the third standalone game in the Total War series and, released in early 2004, the first to feature a 3D grand map where the players can move their forces freely.

In Rome Total War you are in control of one faction in the time of the early Roman Republic, free to pillage and conquer to your hearts desire. With more than a dozen playable factions and nothing to force you along a certain narrative it offers an awesome sandbox environment for your grand strategy aspirations.

Gameplay

Gameplay is split between a grand map where players interact with their towns, armies & navies and a tactical mode where armies clash on the battle map and players control the regiments of their army.

While on the grand map players must handle their nations national interests and ensure a steady flow of cash to pay for the development of settlements, upkeep of armies, and to raise new forces as necessary. Not to mention making sure your troops are where they will be needed, counter uprisings and basically keep everything under lid.

The tactical map is where the fighting happens, here you will lead your army to gallant victories and crushing defeats, all while having tons of fun.

In battles you have direct control of your armys regiments and issue orders as to where they should go, formations, when to attack or whether or not to fire missiles at will. This gives you a ton of options when finding the strategies that work for you, some more rewarding than others.

An important aspect of battles, that will influence your overall strategy, is that losses in battles carry over to the grand map. Thus if a unit were to lose the majority of their rank and file in an engagement, they will be at half strength in the next engagement until it can be reinforced.

Graphics

Being some 14 years old the graphics in Rome Total War is without question dated, though not necessarily bad. This also means that the game runs fine on almost anything, I can even run it without problem on a low end 100 bucks windows tablet, which is nice when on the move.

Replayability

There are some 20 playable factions in this game, with different types of units and and goals, even playing as the same faction can be quite fun as no playthrough is the same.

My Most Humble Opinion

Its a fun game that does a lot of things right, I would however recommend the newer Rome 2 Total War over the original. Not because the original is bad, it’s quite spectacular, though if money is an issue and you can only get one then by all means get the original. It will give you hundreds of hours of entertainment and with a wide variety of mods most shortcomings are easily fixed.