As are the mouse-driven menu structures in the interface. The overblown, annoying tutorial from the original is still intact, too. The player can exploit this in various ways like quick strikes on undefended towns, or avoiding undesirable battles. Units wander back and forth without apparent aim. The AI is a solid enough opponent on the field, but it's hopeless on the strategic map. Unfortunately, other aspects of the game haven't had a modernising overhaul, and show their age.
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Textures are a little better than the 2004 PC original, and resolution is much sharper. Watching hundreds of legionaries scale ladders and leap into melee atop the wall of a Greek city state on your iPad screen is just incredible. But there's almost nothing on mobile that can match this for scale and depth. Soft power isn't a guaranteed route to victory, but it can help.Īll this has, of course, been part of the Total War franchise on PC for years. There are chances to negotiate alliances and trade deals, and to build political units like diplomats and spies. If you don't want to fight, you can take less violent options. You can even manage your family tree and their retinues of followers, indeed it's essential since only family members can lead your armies. Your choices make a real difference, splitting and building armies between aggression and defence. It's a whole battle you can control, if you wish, or set to resolve instantly if you don't.Īt this level there is naval transport and warfare too, although you can't control sea battles in real-time. And the experience is as addictive as ever it was, nurturing your digital world and watching it grow.Įxcept more so, because every fight isn't a quick animation of icons smashing in to each other. The goal is to become Roman emperor and conquer most of the world.Īnyone that's played a civilisation style game will be at home here. From modest beginnings you'll build and grow your cities, research technology and expand your empire.
This is a turn-based system which puts you in charge of a noble Roman family. Although you can play single battles and historical scenarios, most fights happen inside the campaign. That of the tactical and strategic layers. Total War: Rome's legacy rests on another successful marriage. Battles ebb and flow and need you to make tweaks and decisions on the fly. Equally, lack of forethought can see you defeated by weaker ones. With skill and cunning you can beat superior armies. It's tempting just to select everything in your army and charge in, but doing so is suicide against a roughly equal force. Terrain plays a key role too, especially bridges and escarpments. There are siege engines for breaking sieges and silly faux-fantasy units like German Screeching Women.
It also encourages you get round the flanks and rear of enemy units to make them break and rout quicker. Set spears will triumph against cavalry charges, archers are deadly at range but crumble in close fighting. The game rewards sensible use of combined arms. Viniīattles are an incredible marriage of visual spectacle and tactical nous. But that's a small price to pay to get such an astonishing package on your iPad.
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Veterans of the series on PC will find you need to pause a lot more often than usual. You can just stop the fighting, wander your eye over the field and issue new orders to anyone out of place. With the pause facility in the top-left, though, it doesn't matter. You can also select multiple units by holding down on the screen and drawing round them which is near-useless. In the heat of the action, you can select and direct single units or your whole army with ease. But Total War has a secret weapon: the pause button. Real-time strategy doesn't have a great record on touchscreen. The big draw of Total War games are the huge, historical real-time battles. Especially with a raft of potential porting problems standing in the way. Just because Total War: Rome is fondly remembered as the greatest Total War doesn't mean it still is. It isn't just video and sound that move on: mechanics and accessibility do too. Porting classic games onto mobile has an unfortunate history of reminding us how badly a lot of games age.
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