Rome Total War

List Price : CDN$ 49.99

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Product Details

Platform : Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP
Binding : CD-ROM
EAN : 0047875325999
Manufacturer : Activision
Model : 32599
Product Group : Video Games
Release Date : 2004-09-22
UPC : 047875325999

ASIN : B0002MPT6Q

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Customer Reviews

Great Caesar's Ghost! How can I possibly go to bed when my empire is not intact? (2006-07-15)

I hate to think how many times since I received "Rome: Total War" for Christmas that I have made the mistake of playing one more round before I turned off the computer and went to bed at night. The next thing I know one or more of my cities have revolted and that means I have to crush them so that the city is back under my control before I go to bed. But when you send reinforcements over to make sure you get one city back, another one (or two or three) can revolt and the next thing you know it is 3 in the morning before you have things under control again and allow yourself to quit for the night. In other words, this game can be quite addictive. I have now won the game three times, first as the House of Julli (the third time I tried, after I got acclimated to the way the game works), then as the Egyptians, and most recently as the House of Brutti. In between there were failures to come close as the Scipii, the other Roman faction, and getting no where as the Carthaginians, Pontius, the Britons, or the Greek Cities. The Julli are the best bet for winning the game because you have the advantage in that the other two houses are taking your backs while you go up against primarily the Gauls (but one time Rome will send you on to take Briton and another time send you east to take Macedonia, so it is not always the same). Then comes the point where either (a) the people of Rome ask you to march on the capital or (b) Rome demands your faction leader commit suicide, either of which is your cue to cross the Rubicon and take the city. Ironically, taking Rome is easy: it is conquering more territories to get to the required 50 that proves to be difficult (you are going up against both of the other houses and whatever barbarians are left). Be forewarned that the opposite is true if you try to win with Egypt or any other non-Roman power, at least based on my limited experience. I got up to 53 territories at one point, with only a tenuous foothold on the Italian peninsula (literally), while losing ground in Africa. What finally tipped the balance was that I controlled the western part of the board, including a bunch of cities in the Black Sea that could produce third-level ships. These cities keep turning out ships every other turn that I combined into fleets and I was able to blockade every Roman port in the Mediterranean (and sink most of there new ships as soon as they were built). Finally, taking a page from Ender Wiggin, I abandoned my two cities in Italy and shipped in four other armies to just go right after Rome, take the city, and win the game. Sure, it looks strange just to control Rome and nothing else in Italy, but I had been making no progress for THREE DECADES by the game clock, and Pharaoh was losing patience big time. Because I have proven myself to be pretty inept when it comes to the real time strategy battles, I have been sticking to the basic strategy campaign game and having the computer automatically resolve battles. At some point I might get more ambitious and try to fight things out like a proper general, but I can still up the ante on playing the campaign game. You can go with no, low, medium, or high advice; both the campaigns and the battles can be easy, medium, hard, or very hard. There are also options for playing Arcade Style, having the computer manage all settlements, and following AI characters. If you want to practice on the real time battles, you can pick a historical battle, customize one, or do some quick ones for practice. I am still working on how to manage my cities (I am doing much better than I did when I tried to do "Civilization" and I got sick and tired of hearing the computer yell "Plebs are needed! Plebs are needed!"), and I have to start paying more attention to using diplomats, spies, and assassins. I also have to stop moving too fast and being more strategic in how I build my empire (when you play a Roman faction Rome will push you along by giving you orders to take specific places, but they are not always in your best interest). I also get to look forward to playing this game on line against my son, who bought this for me in the first place (which is why I cannot talk about already having my money's worth from playing this game since I did not pay for it). I have picked up the "Barbarian Invasion Expansion Pack," but my initial dabblings have not produced the same sort of enjoyment (pillaging is not as much found as conquering). We are halfway through the year and I am still playing "Rome: Total War," and while I suppose it is not really the 21st century equivalent of "Risk," it surely has to be in the running.

Rich and Creamy (2005-10-08)

This game is one of the best strategy games to come out in a long time. The game is well thought out and strongly historical even if it takes some liberties. The action is furious and entertaining, but be warned this is indeed a thinking man's game. The AI is intelligent enough to beat you on the high settings, and easy enough to get your bearings with on the lower settings. The upcoming expansion is sure to offer a myriad of new and interesting game play too. However, two warnings that must be understood. Firsly there is no plot driven narrative and instead the nature of the game forces you to create your own internal narrative. Secondly this game does tend to absord time quickly (ala Civilization III) and so be aware and be warned, but be reassured this rest among the best games ever produced for the PC. Truly amazing game.

Rome Total War - CRIPPLED BY BUG (2005-04-15)

Rome Total War has the potential to be a five-star game. BUT, a load-game bug appears to exist that cripples the computer AI every time you load the game. It appears to do so by lifting computer sieges when you load, so that the computer can't expand its territory. So while you can expand, if you load the game frequently (more than once every three hours or so?), it appears that the AI does not expand. So you fight a computer opponent that can't expand, while you can, taking all challenge out of the game. Plus, loading appears to screw up the diplomacy (the computer factions appear to automatically agree to becoming your servant) and possibly the naval actions too. There is plenty of information regarding this bug on the forums, especially Gamespy and .org (the official forums don't allow much discussion of it). So I'd have to recommend that you don't buy this game until there's news of a patch beyond 1.2 that fixes this problem.

Excellent addition to Total War Universe (2005-01-13)

Rome Total War is a further evolution of the Total War game series. You build buildings over time which allow you to train better military units and evolve better trade systems. The addition of the Roman senate and more charater abilities adds more detail to the game than previous versions. The battlefield play is great with lots of options for your various units while keeping the generalship relatively simple. You will need a good video card however so check out the total war website for recommended cards before getting the game.

This game is bangin'! (2004-12-30)

There is almost nothing wrong with this game. Seriously, it's very involved, well planned and thought out. Huge lots of history and historic battles if you watch for what happens. One thing that really gets my goat is the AI, if you play a battle with your controlled army and a reserve army with your general in it, the AI continuously tries to get your general killed so you spend your time keeping him safe.... You have to deal with the roman senate which in itself is almost enough to make you want to strangle them since they sometimes give you missions which are impossible to accomplish if you don't have your army or navy in the correct area and can't get them there in the 5 or 10 turns you have to accomplish the mission. However all these frustrations actually help make the game more real and life like. So do the speeches your Captains or Generals make when you enter the battlefield map, if you listen to what they are saying, sometimes it's enough to make you fall over with laughter. Also the traits your generals get are hilarious and you have to figure out where best to put them on the campaign map without them doing a whole bunch of damage to your ranking or city happiness... sometimes I just take them out in a battle and get them killed, they are that bad lol!

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