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Nemesis of the Roman Empire The following report compares gadgets using the SERCount Rating (base on the result count from the search engine). |
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POPULAR HAT - 2006-02-13 11:39:00 | © Copyright 2004 - www.hat.net () | sitemap | top |
I am a history enthusiast. I am particularily interested in the Roman times and WWII. I usually buy Real-time strategy (RTS) games becuase of this. My first problem lies with historical innacuracies. Screenshots, packaging and advertising lead you to believe that this will be a game with the same amount of historical accuracy as Age of Empires One or Two. This is a lie. The game is actually more like WarCraft with ghouls, magical items and enchanters. I do not like this. When I bought this I felt it would be a game where you used actual Roman tactics to defeat Carthiginians, or vice-versa. Instead, you lead a troupe of characterized "heroes" through wilderness where you are ambused by wild priests.
My second issue is with the method of play. I will once again relate to Age of Empires I and II. I thought it would be a simple RTS game where you select units at the same time as building an economy. This is completely different. Once again, it is more like Warcraft. Characters and heroes lead small armies into battle with evil forces. There is no time to build an economy, and even if there was, you couldn't because there is no option to build. The game consists of taking groups from fortress to fortress scattered about the massive map, claiming them until you finally can take the town center of you enemy. THere is no oppourtunity to build, which the advertissements deny.
My final issue is with the resources. In this game there are two resources: gold and food. Gold is hard to come by. Villagers produce it and the only way to get it is by selling stuff or by waiting ages. There is the option, in the single player games, to equip your team with "Wealth", "Fortune", or "Riches", which produce gold automatically at different rates, but the campaigns do not allow this. Food is also a slow accomidating resource. Villagers once again produce it, but it is required for every person in your population and must be shipped from place to place by mules. Only the Roman civilization can buy food, making the campaigns even harder.
Now the positives. There are 5 civilizations to choose from, which, although not many, is a lot to deal with. Each has unique units and functions, as well as technologies. The units are barely historically accurate, but it's a game. It is challenging, but not impossible. There are several campaigns in which the main topic is the Punic Wars and basically what lead up to the fall of the Roman Empire. Races include: Carthiginians, Romans, Iberians, and Gauls. There are a number of interesting methods and techniques about going about winning these games. It has a single-player, a multi-player, and a scenario function, as well as a "builder", which I have not yet tested. Campaigns are mind-bendingly hard.
I guess what I'm saying is this: If you enjoyed WarCraft a lot, go ahead and buy this game, it's pratically a duplicate. But if you're more into games like Age of Empires, Stronghold and Stronghold Crusader, and Rise of Nations, ignore this completely. It looks appealing to RTS fans, but it really isn't. There's lots of room for improvement. But what the hell...it's just $25. It's pratically disposable. And you get what you pay for.