The first game that taught me about winning and losing was the board game Risk. I simultaneously hated and loved my friends when we played together.

I always imagined myself leading my little plastic pieces into a battle determined by the roll of a die. So when I was given the opportunity to review Rome: Total War by The Creative Assembly (published by Activision), I felt the same kind of excitement. I had tried games such as Rise Of Nations before but they were too RTS (Real-Time Strategy) for my liking.

Even though it has a world domination campaign, I didn’t have high hopes that Rome would give me the same kind of thrill as the board game.

How wrong I was.

Briefly: You control a great Roman House, the Julii. You have the ability to make alliances with other nations (such as the Macedonians, the Greeks, the Gauls), invade and take over their lands, assassinate leaders, spy on other nations and many more options — all with the ultimate goal of becoming Emperor and ruling the known world.

Your children can marry, thus increasing your power within the Roman Senate and producing more children. Your family can control either your armies or your towns, depending on their skills — some are natural commanders, some are natural managers. The idea behind the game is incredibly simple but the complexity expands the more you play.

Gameplay

The management part of the game is essentially turn-based with each nation having a single turn (six game “months”) to perform all its available actions — moving armies, increasing army sizes, changing town taxation, attacking or defending.

These last two are where the game really shines. The game turns into a very enjoyable RTS, exactly like those re-enactments of famous battles you can see on The History Channel.

When you decide to attack someone (or someone dares to challenge your military might), you can take direct control of your troops on the battlefield. Using the traditional Roman Cohort arrangement, you move your army across the battlefield and engage the enemy in any way you want.

You can do a full-frontal charge (although your army is usually defeated pretty quickly by this rash tactic) but tactics can and do win the war.

Anyone who has read even a little about Roman battle tactics can apply them in this game, with a very high chance of victory — even against superior odds.

These battles are extremely exciting, and you often wish the battles could take a long time to complete.

Unfortunately there is always a time limit applied to every battle, a slightly disappointing choice in game design.

The game has Short and Long Campaign modes, and letting the Long Campaign mode have indefinite battle sequences would have been an addition to the enjoyment.

Graphics

You cannot compare a game of this type with some of the blockbuster titles to have been released recently, such as Halo 2, Doom 3 and Half Life 2 — the game type and style is so different that it would be unfair to judge the look of Rome by the same standards.

Possibly the most important graphical feature of an RTS is the user interface.

The user interface in Rome is clean and uncluttered, although the plethora of game options can be quite confusing at first (the tutorial level does a very good job of leading you through everything in simple and very clear order) but everything has a purpose.

Where the game really scores is in the battle sequences. Character models are reasonably low-poly and so appear a little jagged or unpolished in places, but the animations are fantastic.

Cinematics before battle scenes show your legions performing various intimidating moves such as spearmen (Hastati) banging their spears against their shields.

Huge sweeping cameras pan over the opposing armies, and the landscape in general add to the sense of grandness, the sense of scale, and the sense that you are actually taking part in some historic battle for the survival of your house.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed playing this game, and indeed I’m still having fun playing it. There is enough variation in the gameplay for you to start a new Campaign several times and take different routes. One time you will be struggling against the Gauls for territorial dominance, another time you will be working with the Gauls to oppose Carthage.

Game length is further extended by the inclusion of various missions given by the Roman Senate, asking you to blockade various ports or secure trade agreements with different nations. The concept of this game is very simple, but the depth is incredible.

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