Product Details
 | Rome: Total War Gold Edition |
| List Price: | $19.99 |
| Price: | $13.45 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com
42 new or used available from $9.15
Average customer review:
Product Description
Rome: Total War Gold Edition brings together Rome: Total War and it's expansion, Barbarian Invasion. Available in one offering, this is the opportunity for armchair Generals to conquer and control the greatest empire ever known by man. In Rome: Total War you must guide one of three noble Roman families on a century spanning quest to seize control of the Roman Empire. In Barbarian Invasion witness the decline of Rome as it come under attack from Barbarian Hordes and a bitter internal struggle between rival factions.Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1538 in Video Games
- Brand: Sega Of America, Inc.
- Model: ROMETOTALWRGOLD
- Released on: 2006-02-01
- ESRB Rating: Teen
- Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP
- Format: CD-ROM
- Dimensions: .75 pounds
Features
- Up to 10,000 men on screen at once are yours to command
- A century-spanning campaign the charges players with managing the economic, civil, religious and military arms of their empire
- Unprecedented scale and detail make Rome: Total War one of the definitive historical war game
Customer Reviews
Excellent price for a great game
Not only do you get the full
game but also the expansion pack for a reasonable price. The replay
value of both titles alone definately justifies the expense. I cannot
recommend this game enough. Even after almost 2 years on the market I
can still pick it up every couple months and march my Legions to
conquest.
Below are my comments for each game.
ORIGINAL
ROME: TOTAL WAR
This is the game I've always wanted to play. It
has such a superb blend of strategy and real time action. Ever play a
turn based strategy game and want to really watch your troops battle it
out and control the formations and tactics? Now you can. Of course there
will be something people don't like, but there are many mods out there
to tweak it to your exact taste. The Total War community is healthy in
that there is a significant population tweaking and modding the game to
your particular flavor.
Let me just say also I am not a RTS fan. I
do not like "whomever clicks the fastest wins" games. Each single
soldier is represented on the battlefield. It's truly amazing watching
your Legions march across arid deserts, snow covered mountains to engage
the enemy and clash together right in front of your eyes. Each battle
is like a scene out of Braveheart or, more appropriately, Gladiator.
No
other game can capture the scope of an immense battle like Rome: Total
War can. Especially the battles consisting of many units, it's like an
epic battle from your favorite movie.
It is not purely the
battles, it has a strategy element in it to where you will manage
cities, build structures and conduct diplomacy.
Overall, even if
you are not a fan of Strategy or RTS games you will find this to your
liking. There is so many good things about this game, it would fill many
pages writing about all the pluses and things the developers did right
here. A definate must have for any gamer.
BARBARIAN INVASION
The
Total War community has given a lot of feedback to the developers on
the improvements they would like to see. I'd say pretty much all of the
biggies were addressed and added in Barbarian Invasion. Rome: Total War
is hands down one of my all-time favorites and a game I can still pickup
and play again and again.
There is a lot of upgraded features
you would expect from an expansion...little better graphics, upgraded
units and increased functionality. The upgrades to the AI are the most
noticeable, in my opinion.
The Total War community waited over a
year for this to be released and it is readily apparent the developers
spent this time to deliver an outstanding expansion. The price tag is
definately worth it as well. The time period for the expansion is set in
the declining years of the Roman Empire so basically you are getting a
whole new game with this expansion.
The new game element
rearranges the map to take into account what has happened historically
in the last three hundred years. The Roman Empire is split between west
and east and all the old factions from Rome:Total War have been
assimilated into the Roman Empire. An interesting historical note when
the game begins for the Eastern Roman Empire is the Faction Leader
Valens. His defeat against the Goths was considered a milestone in the
decline of the Roman Empire (for both halves). Not only was his army
defeated, but the Emperor Valens was also killed. Oh and the Goths will
come for you...Oh yes, they will come.
The Parthians have been
surplanted by the Sassanid Empire in the east, but essentially all the
old factions have become roman provinces. Basically, it's the barbarian
factions battling it out for the choice pieces of real estate.
The
new expansion is noticeably harder depending on which faction you play.
The Western Roman Empire is by far the most difficult which took a
great deal of time to beat. Why is it so difficult? Barbarian factions
with a few exceptions don't die when you take their last city - they
become a Horde. This is challenging in that you can't just move through
and conquer cities to annihilate the Huns, Vandals, Sarmatians,etc. You
need to not only conquer all their cities but kill every single family
member in order to wipe the faction from the map or they will just keep
spawning as new Hordes. You must fight them out in the open which pits
you against their horse archers. As you play you will find different
strategies on dealing with them, but needless to say it's very fun and
challenging. My personal method is the very liberal use of assassins and
fortifying cities while I pick apart their horde until I get their
family members eliminated.
Bottomline - 5 out of 5 and highly
recommended no matter what game genre you typically lean towards. You
won't regret it.
Strategic combat at its
best
While I am personally more
fond of Rome's predecessor, Medieval: Total War, the latest in the Total
War series is nothing short of excellent. Much has been improved on,
especially the real-time combat and gameplay mechanics. The meek AI,
underdeveloped naval combat, and drab visuals that marred Medieval have
been done away with for the latest installation.
One of the
greatest strengths of the series has always been its ability to capture
the truly epic feel of worldwide warfare, regardless of whether you are
looking over the whole of Europe or watching rank-and-file armies
advancing upon each other. This is especially true with the new 3D
combat engine, which is vastly superior to Medieval's. The units are all
fully modeled and animated, and the camera is much more maneuverable,
allowing you to get up close. This isn't very handy from a command
standpoint, but it really makes the battles come alive. Battles in
cities and forts are also much more fun, since they are more balanced
and take place in full-sized replicas of the cities you see on the world
map, down to the individual buildings you or your opponent have
constructed.
The mechanics of the strategy portion of the game
are different. Instead of treating each provence as a whole entity, with
units being able to move between them once per turn, units move
relative to the physical distance they must cross on the map, with
cities being the points of interest you must find. While this adds more
strategy and realism to the game (since it will obviously take longer
for an army to cross an African desert than the Italian peninsula), this
makes the game move much more slowly and, I feel, detracts from the
excitement and fun. Fortunately, the game compensates for this and does
not require conquering the entire map to win; under the new rules of the
game it would take a very, very long time.
The expasion, while
not lacking in content, is slightly on the boring side. I believe my
opinion may be slightly tainted since I am not as fond of the play
styles inherent in choosing tribal factions which compose virtually all
the playable ones in Barbarian Invasion. Still, after playing several
full games of Rome, I found that the expansion did not offer enough new
material to hold my interest for very long. Besides, there is plenty of
fun to be had without the expansion, due to the wider range of factions
and units.
Fans of the series will not be disappointed, which
seems to be a rarity these days. Newcomers should be prepared for a
challenge, but the game does a good job of breaking people in and
letting them enjoy the game from start to finish.
More addicting than Civ or Pirates
I'm not what would be called
an intensive gamer. I buy maybe 2 games a year. This is the most
addictive game I've played since the original Pirates came out for the
Commodore 64 home computer. I would play that game for literally 6 hours
or more at one sitting. This is just as bad. I'm 37 now and not 14 like
I was then too, but I'm having flashbacks LOL! It helps that I'm
absolutely fascinated with the late republic/early imperial period of
the Roman empire. I've played the historical campaign of the original
through twice. Haven't even touched Barbarian Invasion yet, except to
watch the intro. Has the "4X" feel of a Civilization style game, but
without all the micromanagement. New buildings provide benefits to
population control, revenue, and combat units. Pretty basic. Where the
game shines is in the tactical battles. You can literally zoom in on an
individual soldier.
My only criticisms are that there aren't
enough historical battles in my opinion, and that when creating a custom
battle you can't choose the "rebel" faction. Also in the custom
battles, the various Roman factions don't have access to all Roman
units. I wanted to create a "Spartacus" style battle. I couldn't use
"rebels", so I choose two Roman factions. Each Roman faction has access
to one style of Gladiator, not all three. I wanted to make an army of
the gladiator types, but I couldn't.
If you are interested in the
historical background of the era covered in the game you might like
Rome - The Complete First Season and Warfare in the Classical World: An
Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons, Warriors and Warfare in the Ancient
Civilisations of Greece and Rome
No comments:
Post a Comment