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THIS IS NOT A DEBATE THREAD - There will be no criticizing someone else's ratings here this thread is STRICTLY for reviews and ratings as presented by each user - If you want to debate how LOLSTUPID it is to give Awesome Commander Ring-jumper 7: The Chocolate Chronicles a 6 for graphics, go to testing.


I will ask The Vortex Empire not to participate in this particular thread, having already submitted his nomination/ratings

As nominated by The Vortex Empire, Please submit your ratings/reviews (if you are so inclined) for Rome: Total War; on a scale of 1-10 in the following categories

Quality/Innovation
Graphics/sound
Fun Factor
Replayability
Learning Curve
Immersion

Since I have played R:TW, I will go first.

Quality/Innovation: 5
R:TW is a great game, but it's definitely been there, done that territory. It's not innovative in it's presentation at all, and as such is a middle-of-the-road performer in that category.

Graphics/Sound: 6
I liked the graphics and sound for R:TW ALOT - that being said, there was nothing groundbreakingly JAWSOME about it.

Fun Factor: 7
What's not fun about taking over the world, especially if your some backwater empire no one has ever heard of? PARTHIA FTW

Replayability: 5
It's replayable. As a different empire. If you're good.

Learning Curve: 2
Are you kidding me? The curve on this game was so steep I had to post a thread on SDN to learn something apparently BASIC about the game (Spearmen Vs. Horsses, IIRC) This eliminates a LOT of people from enjoying the game.

Immersion: 2
How immersive is it when I am the all power ARMYGOD floating above a giant formation of troops. I did not feel any connection with my cities beyond "Damn, there goes loads of gold each turn." The game was jawsomely fun, but not very immersive.

Total: 27/60

Quality/Innovation - improved on earlier Total War games, relatively polished but hardly impressive. 6

Graphics/Sound - looked good at the time, sound was a bit poo. CA are hopeless cunts for making a game that mods made way prettier. 7

Fun Factor - AI was totally broken, 'strategy' was an adventure in tiresome micro-management, winning was absolutely trivial and the only excitement was trying to kill 5000 guys with 2 casualties. As fun as any game where you chop a bunch of mans. 3

Replayability - Almost nil. You can play as other factions, but the basic tactics are the same and the 'strategy' level never becomes interesting due to 'kill the player' dip AI. 1

Learning Curve - the UI didn't present some information well, but the game was clear as far as 'proper' strategy games went. The 'wah?' impact on starting a strategy game is very steep. 3

Immersion - flying my Micheal Bay helicopter around battles was fun, but not even remotely immersive. There's no dirt or blood in the game; no hunger, no sweat or disease. MOVE MANS TO SQUARE. FORM LINE. STRIKE REAR WITH CAV. LOLOLOLOLOL I WIN. The life of a Roman general? 1

Total; 21/60

Quality/Innovation: 8
Despite the problems of a stupid AI who thinks it is wise to charge your leader to a wall of spears, the game is innovative in the sense that you do not have to build buildings while fighting a pitched battle. Moreover, managing a large army in a unit consisting of many men makes it easier for the player as well. Micro-management will not be a huge issue for the players, as compared to playing games like Warcraft and etc.

Graphics/Sound: 8
For its time, the graphics can be considered good enough, especially considering the fact that this is an RTT, not a FPS. Unlike FPS, you have several THOUSAND troops in the field. Which means we should not expect a comparison between RTW and Half life 2. In comparision to other RTS and RTT games at that time, the graphics of Rome total war is quite good.

Fun Factor: 9
Being able to control a massive army? An easy control system? Being able to plan your strageties on a grand scale, without getting overburdened by mirco-management? It IS damn fun.

Replayability: 9
Any RTW fan should try out its mods. From EB to RS, not only does those mods improve the graphics of the game, but they also add tons of fine features to the game. AOR (Area of recruitment ) is one of the many features that makes it fun, as well as unique legions for RS. You also have a unique management for different factions in some mods.

Hell, there is even a Napolean era mod for RTW!


Learning Curve: 7

In comparision to other RTS, Rome total war is easier to learn in my opinion. Once a person can get pass the Hollywood tactics, where you simply charge your entire army head on, you are on your way to victory.

Immersion: 7
If you want immersion on a ground level, you should try the general CAM. However, general CAM does has its limitation because you have a restricted view. Given that in the past, Generals commanded and receive information using messagers and music, the only 'real' way to command an army in a game is to use the bird's eye view.

When you organize your army properly, such as equipping the Roman army with the right sort of units to form a proper legion, you can get attached to an army. The lost of one legion can have your cursing at the screen and AI.

Total: 47/60

I won't go into a decent in depth review here; but let's go.

Graphics/Sound - Generally a very decent graphical game. Does what it's intended to do very well.

Fun Factor - Agree with Stark here; once you learned how to exploit the game, you could win virtually any battle; send up your guys to fix and hold the enemy's infantry or troops, and then sweep around and shred him from the back with your general's cavalry + cavalary assistants. Worked like a charm every time.

By the way, did anyone tried to play multi-player?

ray245 wrote:By the way, did anyone tried to play multi-player?

Dickhead - I said this thread is for rating and reviewing the game in the context of the previous thread- this is not a discussion. GTFO.

Chardok wrote:

ray245 wrote:By the way, did anyone tried to play multi-player?

Dickhead - I said this thread is for rating and reviewing the game in the context of the previous thread- this is not a discussion. GTFO.

You only said that there will be no debate here.

Debate over another person's rating of the game. Asking them about multi-player is not debating I think.

Well, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong then.

And here we go:

Quality/Innovation: While improving on the Total war franchise, the improvements themselves were often done poorly and half-heartedly. For the most part, these just managed to balance each other out.
6/10

Graphics/sound: Graphics were pretty good for the time, and the sound was also generally good. Graphics of course fall down when compared to other genres as 5000 men is a bit more than the typical dozen that most other games claim.
8/10

Fun factor: Conquering things, and putting people to the sword is always great fun. The strategic part of the game was not nearly as well done as even previous Total War games, but if you enjoyed the others, then you will enjoy this.
7/10

Replayability: There were a couple dozen different nations that one could choose from, but only 3 were available at first. Unfortunately, as the stategic system was mediocre at best, the only real difference between countries were their military selection, of which there are only something like 5 types. The modding community more than make up for any shortcomings the original game had though, with mods ranging from Napoleonic Era, Medieval, East Asian, Lord of the Rings, and everything in between.
9/10

Learning curve: Has a mandatory tutorial that spells things out for first time players. Total War veterans will be at home, and should discover how things work pretty quickly due to the large amount of information available to the player, even though the User Interface could use a do-over, and some critical bits of info are in fact hidden.
7/10

Immersion: The ease of the strategic element ruin the immersion on that level, with previous Total War games being geniunely harder due to the rather more limited options available to it, the AI in R:TW drownes in the freedom it has, making it difficult to feel like a statesman upon whose decision rests the fate of the Empire. And while historic personages, offices, and events exist, they are not nearly as common as in the rest of the franchise, and often of limited gameplay impact.
5/10

Total: 42/60

PS - this thread will remain in an "active" state for 1 week from posting. (January 9th) - totals will then be tallied and we'll move on to the next game - So why not start a multiple threads for multiple nominees? Simple - Fatigue - I think I will get a more thorough review and ratings if people aren't confronted by 10 threads a day - plus, it allows for blah blah blah - I was going to say something there, but I forgot what it was. Anyway - three more days!

RTW has a steep learning curve? Are you kidding? My son started playing that game when he was 9 years old.

Quality/Innovation - 6. Superb Quality, but Shogun and MTW show that the only innovation is the change of scenery.

Graphics/sound - 8. The graphics, when cranked, are excellent--their main issue is the clonetrooper problem when viewing your armies up close. The sound is essentially flawless; I can still recall the chills I got when I ordered my first cataphract charge and followed it to its devastating conclusion.

Fun Factor - 7. Nothing quite satisfies like grinding enemy nations and 'neath your mighty heel. And while the enemy AI is laughable on the battlefield, it does offer you the chance to attempt some innovative battle strategies, rather than simply applying a "Hammer and Anvil" technique over and over.

Replayability - 8. The main issue is the sheer amount of replayability possible. If each campaign takes an average of 10 hours, and there are what, 13 playable factions in the original R:TW? That's 130 hours of playtime right there. Can't beat that.

Learning Curve - 6. The tutorials and the overwhelming power of the Roman troops make the early game pretty simple. If you leap straight into, say, a Parthian game, you might find yourself a little overwhelmed at the first.

Immersion - 9. I consider a game immersive if I suddenly find myself plunged into total darkness because I played through the afternoon, sunset, and civil twilight, and my wife's asking me what I want for dinner. R:TW has almost uniquely done this to me numerous times.

Total: 42/60.

Ratings/reviews now closed for R:TW. Participation is key here, if you want your game to WinRAR.