Product Description
Raise massive
armies and embark on epic campaigns to expand the Empire and take
control of the known world! Engage in grand-scale city building and
create magnificent cities with creativity and control like never before.
Intuitive controls make it easy to launch bone-crushing combat missions
and manage every aspect of your thriving civilization. After decades in
exile, your family name has been all but forgotten in Rome. But the
departure of the tyrant Sulla has changed everything, and Rome stands on
the brink of a new era. Sides must be chosen as Caesar and Pompey
battle for control of the Republic.The stage is set for you to gain
power and influence over one of the greatest civilizations in history.
Build an Empire worth fighting for! Featuring 4X Real-Time Strategy:
Explore - Journey to ancient Gaul, Britannia, Egypt, and more to
colonize barbarians and establish new trade routes. Expand - Stake your
claim throughout the known world in the name of Rome! Help build the
empire through military conquest and economic prowess. Exploit - Natural
resources are yours for the taking as you establish farming, mining,
and logging operations. Raze barbarian villages for riches, labor, and
property. Exterminate - Destroy all who stand in the way of Rome’s
glory! Defend your territories by land and sea to secure peace and
prosperity for the empire Set Your Sights on Domination!
Product Details
- Amazon Sales
Rank: #477 in Software
- Brand: Viva Media
- Model: 507
- Released on: 2009-03-20
- ESRB Rating: Teen
- Platforms:
Windows Vista, Windows XP
- Format: DVD-ROM
- Dimensions:
.0 pounds
Features
- Grand Ages: Rome lets you
gain power and influence over one of the greatest civilizations in
history
- Advanced Battle System with detailed RTS combat with 18
military units
- Intense online multiplayer modes for
competitive and cooperative play
- Non-linear storyline features
over 40 missions
- Use flow resources to create an intricate
economic system
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Product
Description
Raise massive armies and embark on epic campaigns
to expand the Empire and take control of the known world! Engage in
grand-scale city building and create magnificent cities with creativity
and control like never before. Intuitive controls make it easy to launch
bone-crushing combat missions and manage every aspect of your thriving
civilization.
 The stage
is set for you to gain power and influence over one of the greatest
civilizations in history. Click to enlarge. |
 Journey to
ancient Gaul, Britannia, Egypt, and more to colonize barbarians and
establish new trade routes. Click to enlarge. |
 Help build
the empire through military conquest and economic prowess. Click to
enlarge. |
 Take
command of 18 different military units, including naval command,
elephant cavalry, and mercenary forces. Click to enlarge. |
 Raze
barbarian villages for riches, labor, and property. Click to enlarge. |
Build
an Empire Worth Fighting For
After decades in exile, your family
name has been all but forgotten in Rome. But the departure of the
tyrant Sulla has changed everything, and Rome stands on the brink of a
new era. Sides must be chosen as Caesar and Pompey battle for control of
the Republic.
The stage is set for you to gain power and
influence over one of the greatest civilizations in history.
Advanced
Battle System
Take command of 18 different military units,
including naval command, elephant cavalry, and mercenary forces. Recruit
citizens of Rome, draft captured enemy forces, and pay foreign squads
for their special skills. Defend and expand the Empire by land and sea
with exciting RTS gameplay.
Intense Multiplayer
LAN and
online multiplayer functionality with 6 different strategy modes Ð play
competitively or cooperatively. Create buddy lists and challenge your
friends to a battle, or use the matching system and take on an unknown
foe with the same skill level. Advance your career and increase your
rank from praetor to consul and beyond.
Epic Campaigns
Rub
shoulders with Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Cleopatra and more in a
non-linear historical campaign featuring over 40 missions. Choose your
own fate as you create and destroy alliances with more than 20 different
historical figures. Celebrate your victories by erecting legendary
monuments such as the Coliseum, Circus Maximus, the Pantheon, and more.
Complex
Economy
Flow resources eliminate tedious micromanagement, giving
you the freedom to create thriving cities with multi-leveled economic
systems. Information overlays visualize the city economy and
satisfaction of the people on every location on the map.
4X
Real-Time Strategy
Explore
Journey to ancient Gaul,
Britannia, Egypt, and more to colonize barbarians and establish new
trade routes.
Expand
Stake your claim throughout the
known world in the name of Rome! Help build the empire through military
conquest and economic prowess.
Exploit
Natural resources
are yours for the taking as you establish farming, mining, and logging
operations. Raze barbarian villages for riches, labor, and property.
Exterminate
Destroy
all who stand in the way of Rome's glory! Defend your territories by
land and sea to secure peace and prosperity for the empire.
| Military Units
Archers
Hastati
Berber
Raiders
Gaul Berserkers
Triarii
Equestri
Nubian Warriors
Bow
Maidens
Highlanders
Ballista
Praetorian Guard
Secutores
Gladiators
War
Elephants
Teutonic Raiders
Catapults | Friends
and Foes
Julius Caesar
Emperor Augustus
Marcus Tullius
Cicero
Marcus Licinius Crassus
Pompey Magnus
Mark Antony
Cleopatra
Cato
the Younger
Marcus Junius Brutus
Spartacus
And more! |
Customer Reviews
Intriguing Premise, Workable Gameplay
A Roman city-building sim in
the vein of such classics as the Caesar series, Grand Ages: Rome has an
intriguing premise and workable gameplay, but falls short in other
areas.
Grand Ages is a game where you build an ancient Roman city
and must keep it operational and successful against adversities and
invaders. Providing citizens with food, entertainment, and religious
fulfillment are as important as keeping your resources in order. Unlike
Caesar, which relied on a road-based infrastructure (everyone has to
walk on roads, things travel to and from buildings), Grand Ages uses
areas of effect. In short, each building has a circle around it showing
the buildings that it will influence. For example, if you put down an
apartment complex, the inhabitants of that apartment will only staff a
building within the circle. A food storehouse will only feed people
within its area of effect, and so on. Some buildings produce global
resources that are added to an overall stockpile that are then used by
other buildings. A brickmaker produces 20 bricks, while the average
house uses up one unit of bricks. Therefore, based on upkeep and the
expanding size of your city, you have to maintain a balance between
population and facilities.
The problem with these areas-of-effect
is that it's remarkably easy, given their shape, for buildings to get
stuck with partial coverage. The fact that you can only build a short
distance away from your current settlement prevents you from
pre-planning where you'll need entertainment buildings or temples before
you start building houses - and the effects of not having entertainment
are immediate once those houses are plopped down, as the many riots my
cities went through can attest to. In fact, the development of the city
is often the biggest hindrance to the city. The nature of the
areas-of-effect encourages growth (by spreading resources around the
map) but also demands close-in urbanization (by requiring you to cluster
your houses around facilities). Because of the fact that you can only
build near your established buildings, it's often the case that you have
to stretch out your town to get in a position to reach the very
resources you need to build your town up in the first place. It's not a
bad system, per se, it's just frustrating at times.
The combat in
the game is simple but effective. There are many units available -
regular units like archers, cavalry, and infantry, as well as a wide
variety of mercenaries. The middle class - the Equites - provides your
regular soldiers, and when properly supplied with weapons and armor can
be called into action. Mercenaries are hired for money and for certain
other requirements (such as wine and entertainment). All units consist
of roughly 30 soldiers. Units can gain experience through fighting, and
can train when not engaged in combat to level themselves up. Some maps
have barbarian villages spread around; subduing these (simply by
engaging the guards they send out, then walking in once they're all
dead) rewards you with additional resources provided by the conquered
villagers. In addition to offense, you can also build walls and towers
to defend your city from attack.
One of the game's main features
is that your profiles are represented by characters. A character is a
member of one of five families, each with different strengths (one
family is better with military matters, one is better with mercantile
affairs, and so on). By completing campaign missions and bonus
objectives, you unlock new abilities and bonuses that affect all the
games you play with that characters - campaign, free build, or
multiplayer. For this reason, it feels that the entire game is
interconnected - there's no way to just play. Even the free build mode,
rather than providing you with open maps and settings, is only about 15
maps with predetermined start locations and resources. This means that
it's difficult to just jump into the action and make a nice city.
The
game's graphics are very good; the cities look beautiful, with paved
stones and detailed buildings. Citizens walk around the city to their
jobs, and always look busy if you ever care to zoom in and examine them.
If it rains, citizens will cover their heads and run indoors. There are
a lot of little touches that make it really feel like a city. The
ability to put down plazas and fountains is nice in visual terms even
though these things are also required for game reasons. There isn't a
lot of sound, per se, but the music in each region varies and is
generally nice without being distracting.
Overall, Grand Ages:
Rome is a good game, but the biggest problem with it is the lack of
free-play. Everything seems too objective based, and there's no way to
really make your own fun. Once you've gone through the missions, there's
not a whole lot to do. If the Free Build mode had been more free-form,
it would've been much better. Until you run out of missions, though,
it's still a fun game.
Rating: 7/10.
Great game...Just different than we're used to
Grand Ages Rome is not your
typical city-building game. It incorporates the building style of an RTS
game, rather than the style seen in the classic Caesar/Pharaoh/Zeus
style games. The graphics are beautiful and much truer to Roman
architecture than many other games I've seen. As I've said, this game is
a bit different...It takes some getting used to. The fires and crime
etc that others have mentioned is a problem for those of us who are used
to other styles of gameplay in this genre. However, the mechanics work a
bit differently, and once understood, the game is actually quite easy
and enjoyable.
First of all, each residence built only provides
workers for one building within its radius. Secondly, in order to
prevent crime and fires the people must be happy, quite frankly a very
realistic idea...especially for the time period in question. Just make
sure your people have food, entertainment and religion (in that order)
and you'll be fine. In some ways it's much like a real city. If people
have food they'll be content, but then they'll want some entertainment.
Once they have that they'll want religion. Through it all they'll want
at a fountain to provide water, thereby preventing illness. This does
require a certain density, as the relation between home and service must
be one to one. Any unemployed home or service will eventually light on
fire. There are three work types, like in Caesar IV, Plebs, Equites and
Patrician. Plebs do menial industrial work, Equites are more skilles and
Patricians mainly work in temples and some more important buildings.
But with each, as expected, the demand in each of the three qualities
above increase to keep them happy.
The game makes for a good mix
of more RTS style and City-Building. Military play isn't that great,
though better than most with the ability to upgrade and use special
skills. Everything is built based upon proximity, which makes for a
dense city, and may cause difficulty if resources are far. But in the
end, with a bit of practice you can make attractive cities, that will
have you playing with the view to see the skyline and walk the streets.
Only if you like this genre
This game is very
representative of its genre's style. It is essentially simplified city
building and simplified combat. Here are some notes:
1) no
micro-management of resources. This is either a minus or a plus
depending on if you want this or not.
2) no real combat AI.
Combat is not anything like a RTS. It is not clear at all if there is
any strategy to combat. For example, I cannot tell if there is any
advantage to attempting flanking moves. Additionally the AI is basic.
For example, computer units will chase you within a specific radius and
then retreat. You can use this to your advantage in many of the
scenarios. If you wanted a combat game I am not sure how well this will
satisfy, but then again, this is one of the traits of this style of
game. Indeed, many of the scenarios give you a "BONUS" at the end of the
mission when you finish without loosing any squads. I ask you, how
simple must it be if you can finish every mission without loosing any
units?
3) slow. The game's pace is sometimes very slow and there
is no way to "speed up time" in order to bypass it. It once took 10
minutes to send a fleet of ships across a map to attack on opposite
shore. But then again this is also one of the traits of this style of
game.
4) the CAMPAIGN is mostly a tutorial. Use it as an
opportunity to experiment with ideas. This is good because the manual is
very basic, missing many things you would need to know and which will
frustrate you at the begining of the game to the point where you may
just un-install it and move on. As an example, SLAVE LABOR can make the
difference between an easy or manageable mission or a difficult one, but
there is only one short paragraph in the manual (50 words) to even tell
you that slaves exist in the game and nothing to tell you how to
actually use them.
But there are clear positives:
1) a
lack of information means you get to figure out for yourself how things
work. This will cause you to devise your own strategies in the game.
Once you figure out a few basics your game play will improve
dramatically so if you are frustrated, go online for some tips.
2)
there is no upgrading of units other than to gain experience in battle.
However, there is a large assortment of unit types. MORE NOTABLY, each
unit type has one special ability it can employ. These special abilities
can be very effective. Even the most basic unit types have them and
used well make a different in combat. As an example, the TRIARII unit
type can "TURTLE UP" using its shields. In this mode it cannot fight and
it moves real slow, but is almost invincible. This makes them great
tanks. Indeed, coupled with the simple combat AI of your computer
opponent, these guys can keep all enmey units occupied while your other
units take no damage as they destroy the enemy. It suggests that the
special ability of each unit type is worth investigating though I lost
interest 2/3 through the game so never actually got to experiment with
them all.
3) the most interesting aspect of the game may be off
the main screen. There are five "Families" in the game, and you pick one
of them as your family. The choice of family offers you a different set
of upgrade options for your game campaign. After each mission you get
one skill point with which you can pick one attribute to take. I suggest
you concentrate on family attributes first since they are your only
opportunity to change the game experience. Additionally, completing
specific bonus objectives will open up ESTATES that you can then
purchase as part of your families holding. Each estate grant specific
bonuses that carry forward through the campaign. Thus you can select
bonses that suit how you play and if you use your head, can make some
aspects of game play easier. Still, this was a lost opportunity. I did
not feel the variation was sufficient bewteen the families. Aside from a
few obvious attribute selections, it seemed to me all the missions
would be about the same difficulty and have the same basic emphasis. Too
bad, I think this is where the game could have really excelled against
its competition, if it had created very different experiences depending
upon the family choice.
4) a nice very intuitive radial interface
for town building. It looks pretty, is well organized, and is thus easy
to use.
In the end this is a niche game for those who enjoy its
style of play. It is better than most in its niche but suffers from
several lost opportunities to distinguish itself. If you want to play,
make sure to exploit the following:
1) learn how to use slaves.
2)
pay attention to the family differences. A couple attributes are
significant to game play.
3) explore the different unit type special
abilities.
4) exploit the benefits of higher citizen types, building
upgrades, and fulfilling the needs of your populous.
5) map estate
benefits to problems you are having in your game play and use them to
help fix these problems.
6) USE THE PAUSE KEY to give yourself lots
of think time.
Hail Flavius!
No comments:
Post a Comment