Rome: Total War™ - Collection
RTW has an epic feel.
As of today, this game is nearly eleven years old. So, the battle graphics are not as crisp as newer titles, the historicity of some units is sketchy (or just made up), and it seems that multiplayer is not smooth in Steam. Fortunately, none of these mean a thing to me. The heart of the game is in the grand strategy and the personal narrative.
With over a hundred regions in which to play, the strategic game is where RTW shines. You need to plan where you will expand and where you will defend… and then be ready to adapt when the AI does not do what you expect. You may be the pawn of the Senate and serve at their beck and call. You might try to expand against the weak. You can follow the trade routes to gain riches through conquest. You will find yourself occupying regions merely to stymie your enemies (and your allies). Or you might work your way towards all seven Wonders to reap their benefits.
– Real player with 1982.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Rome Turn-Based Strategy Games.
Classic game, it uses a realistic battle engine which simulates battles down to minute details, in a way no longer found in newer engines which depend apon flashy graphics to generate interest. The sheer effort put into this game really tells you its creators cared about it they were not just throwing something flashy out there to get as much money as possible. The game makes up for its old and ancient graphics with interesting game mechanics that you just DONT get in the newer RTS games with intricate tactical aspects in addition to intriacate strategic ones. since so much attention has been given to FPS games in recent years. The game is well made and it shows. In modern total wars and other RTS games, troops getting into 1v1 cinimatic fights where thy slide around on the map rather than recreating actual formation dynamics and combat in a believeable way as Rome 1 does. In Rome 1 TW you don’t just have static groups of people fighting in one spot like other games, your troop formations collide and dudes go flying, people get knocked down. The larger force slowly pushes the smaller one back while its formation fluxuates, troops arrange sheilds to defend against attackers leaving weakspots open to well positioned archers. Every part of the strategic map is mapped out into battle maps that mirror that place on the stratiegic map. I am not talking you get a different set of cookie cutter template battle maps depending on your region NO!!! I mean the battle map is an EXACT copy of the terrain on the stategic map. You see a hill on the over all map and move your army to it so the enemy will attack you on ground you choose that hill is on the battle map valleys mountain you name it the battle is in that spot not a faximally of that spot THAT SPOT. The same goes for citys, each is unique and grows in unique ways and this shows on the siege map. Build something in a city and its on the battle map, if a saboteur destroys something it is destroyed on the battle map, Your family members/ generals grow as a result of the situations you put them in becoming complex individuals, put them in a big city with librarys and academys and they may become a soft person but a good organizer, or maybe if the city is a religious center he may become pious or slowly go insane, or become blood thirsty if you constantly send him into battle and he gets kills in said battles (yes even what he does in the battles matters). Another really cool mechanic is that when you recruit units the men are taken from the local populus and when disbanded the men generally resettle in that region! and city level is determined by population so recruit to many from a populas and the city will grow slowly while inversely you can move your populus around to level up citys. Another difference from newer games is the factions, they are few in number compared to the scores of factions in newer games but each faction in very unique, with some factions sharing cultures and others with similar but different cultures. Each culture has a unique city style ect.
– Real player with 1183.0 hrs in game
Aggressors: Ancient Rome
This review is actually a Thank you letter to the developer for making this game.
For unbiased reviews skip this one.
I think it was 25 years ago that most of my school holiday time was used to do what I really like. Gaming. But I did not had my first PC yet, so gaming was spending one day in the city to collect all kind of painting materials and paperboards to create the ultimate game myself.
The Civilization boardgame, HeroQuest boardgame and some rare tabletop games I owned served as an example. But mine had a bigger boards, more options, more counters and features, more of everything actually.
– Real player with 562.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Rome Military Games.
Aggressors - Ancient Rome
This obscure historical game is turn based strategy / tactics to dominate the world starting in 280 BC by default, but adustable from 1000 BC to 500 AD. It is single player and is my personal choice for game of the year. I have played it for over 480 hours in the past 60 days. It is published by Slitherine and available through them, on Steam and GOG.
Where I am coming from
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I am the curator of Strategic Win https://store.steampowered.com/curator/9074928/ and have reviewed 142 games there in the past 2 years. I bought this game from Matrix games.
– Real player with 521.5 hrs in game
A Legionary’s Life
Now at first glance you might write this game off. You would be wrong to do so. This feels like the first time defending was actually useful in a game. Combat has stance and fatigue to keep track of. Should your enemy lose their stance while attacking you you can then mount a counter-attack and take advantage of the situation. Fighting a tough enemy? Defend until they drain their fatigue. Fighting the rank and file? Go on the offensive and try to kill as many as you can. Missed your neck attack leading to stance loss? You better go defensive while trying to recover your stance or else the enemy might land their own attack on your neck or even land a feint further lowering your stance. Fighting multiple enemies at once? You better maintain a balanced attitude while fighting as if you go full offensive attitude and miss your opponents might capitalize on your loss of stance. Fighting consists of attacks and soft spot attacks targeting specific body parts where the enemy’s armour is weakest. Feints, shield maneuvers, recovery (restores stance) and respite (restores fatigue) also consist of what you use while fighting. There might not be breathtaking 3D graphics that require the best computer to play but when your see that hp bar deplete you will feel terror after sinking so much time into your character.
– Real player with 138.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Rome Pixel Graphics Games.
I’ve binged this one since I got it on sale, and if you are going to buy it that is the time. The game is fun, simple, and easy to quickly grasp. But, it is pitched to not give the AI cheats and that is a fairly blatant lie that will make you want to pull your hair out and frisbee your laptop across the room.
The Good:
-Very accessible
-Interesting (albeit short) story with some small branches en route to the end
-Simple battle mechanics
-Cool concept, decently executed
-Decent music
You get to play as a manipular Roman legionary, so anyone coming into this and wondering why their “highly trained Roman soldier” can’t beat some dirt farming Carthaginian is just not paying attention to the context of the game. Because guess what? You’re a dirt farming Roman when you start!
– Real player with 55.7 hrs in game
Europa Universalis: Rome - Gold Edition
Mix of Europa Universalis IV and Crusader Kings II with an Ancient Era theme?
As mentioned before this game somewhat finds the middle ground between Europa Universalis IV and Crusader Kings II set in the Classical Era, while keeping it a bit more simple. There are individuals with personal properties who are part of families which you can appoint to perform certain tasks in your realm, but you are not playing as a dynasty gaining and losing lands by inheritance. For some people this type of gameplay might make CKII a bit hard to comprehend (or even annoying when you lose your realm because of some patrilineal/matrilineal screw up, or lose your alliances at the death of your ruler), in which case Europa Universalis: Rome offers a nice alternative because you are playing as a state while still having a fun mechanic with indivuals with personal traits.
– Real player with 597.1 hrs in game
My most played game on Steam, and it deserves a review.
Its very indeph with loads of micromanagement, and if you happen to like the timeline, you are welcome to buy it.
You can tune it to play it with unlimited time, if that bothers you.
What sets it apart from normal EU games, is the barbarian mechanic.
There are lots of uncivilized lands where barbarians are uprising all the time, and it takes near the end of the game, to civilize them all. If you play a nation that borders to them, it makes the game very “fun” and unpredictible.
– Real player with 527.6 hrs in game
Gladiator: about to die
It will take a bit of work to get the game to where it needs to be, but great potential and fun so far :)
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Praetorians
Praetorians is a game I’ve been playing a lot lately, going through the single player campaign on hard. While the story in the campaign isn’t incredibly memorable (most of the missions are different points in roman history I believe) the gameplay itself as well as the challenge is just incredibly addicting and fun. The scenarios (especially the later ones) are challenging but fair, requiring you to think, take good positions, scout when possible. It’s a very tactical squad based rts with no worrying about gathering resources nor worrying about building up bases. It’s a game where hills and forests can either be your best friends, or worst enemies (as units that are on or in these things can’t be seen by enemy units that are not on or in these things).
– Real player with 26.1 hrs in game
I played this game growing up as a boy who loved to emerse myself in the idea of Romans, mainly due to the two nostalgic titles of The settlers IV and Rome total war. So when my Dad brought this game home I found it hard not to fall in love as the game portrays what Romans are remembered for in many little and major aspects of the game.
This game will seem overwelming at first and the fact that it is old and pretty harsh graphics to look at won’t help, especially if your new to the RTS genre. The personel management of troops is the main feature of this game as well as supplying new troops from villages that have either a barbarian or eastern theme. This works well but could be seriously expanded on. For example the only way to select troops is a drag box method. This is also fine but gets annoying when troops move indepedantly due to any stimuli. For example the troops will move out the way for a catapult and when I return to them they are somewhere else and have alerted the enemy. So some polish and rethink of coding and game aspects is needed.
– Real player with 4.5 hrs in game
Citizen of Rome - Dynasty Ascendant
I would not recommend the game. Seems to have been abandoned. And any feedback on historical inaccuracy of the game has been ignored. Visual style is fun and nice.
The reality is that it is a super addictive “mobile type” game. Which is why I have racked up so many hours in it. You can play it anywhere, at any time. And you can just open and close it. So it’s ideal for killing time while waiting for a stream to start, etc.
But. The fact remains. It’s woefully factually inaccurate. And for things that would be easy to fix, (e.g. Consuls could only run every 10 years, you can run every year in the game - women can have jobs that were exclusively for men, women can also go for education that was exclusively for men in ancient Rome). The only way to make any upward social mobility is through the annual betting activities. Which is quite a hack to be honest, because when you have played the game for as many hours as I have, you can actually tell which sequence of results you will be getting.
– Real player with 356.7 hrs in game
First impression:
This game needs a major fix. The randomness to it is out of control. Lazy programming seems to have just assigned ranges of behavior that consistently contradict your own strategy. Any game designed so that you can put in an hour of work only to have everything fall apart because of a dice roll is poorly designed. If I want to sit on my floor and roll a 10-sided die 400 times hoping to never roll a 1 lest I should become the book of Job, I can do that by getting a die out of my old box of Risk and wasting my time on hope.
– Real player with 47.4 hrs in game
Total War™: ROME II - Emperor Edition
I think I’m getting the hang of it.
– Real player with 6679.6 hrs in game
TLDR: CHECK OUT my 2021 VIDEO REVIEW of Rome II right here: https://youtu.be/qi6DNAHwIK0
FINALLY reviewing this game after almost 900 hours and over 8 years of playing. If you’re willing to pay for it, especially on sale for cheap, there is a ton of content here, likely making Rome 2 the biggest historical Total War experience out there. It definitely lacks depth in certain areas, depth its successor, Attila did a lot better. But despite its faults, Rome 2 is leagues better than it was at launch, and has honestly become a really strong Total War game in its own right.
– Real player with 875.2 hrs in game
Alea Jacta Est
Alea Jacta Est (hence AJE) simulates Roman-era warfare at a strategic level, and it is probably the best one on Steam.
As any good strategy game, AJE is a game of informations, and its brilliance shines the most in how these informations are acquired: unlike other “arcade” games (e.g. Rome Total War 1/2) the map does not show true data, but just a patchwork of rumors, whose reliabililty depends on factors under the player’s control (e.g. own army composition, scouting), factors out of control (e.g. subordinates' skill, or lack of it), and enemy’s actions.
– Real player with 153.2 hrs in game
Sooner or later, when playing Rome Total War, you start getting this uncomfortable feeling that what you’re doing on the strategic map is just a stage prop for pixel soldiers to run around in pretty period costumes.
Alea Jacta Est, though very nice to look at, is not about eye candy.
Instead, it gives you a very detailed strategic and operational view of what the opposing sides were dealing with. When battles or skirmishes take place they are resolved abstractly, though the abstraction gives a pretty detailed depiction of the tactical characteristics that were likely to be in play.
– Real player with 85.7 hrs in game
Caesar™ 3
The “Don’t Escape Trilogy” is a collection of three short first-person point-and-click adventures with static screens (no camera movement, no scrolling). The games share a creepy atmosphere and a few gameplay mechanics, but are otherwise unrelated. In the first game, you play a werewolf trying to lock himself away before a full-moon night, so that he won’t kill anyone when he turns. In the second game, you’re trying to barricade a house and protect yourself from a zombie horde. In the third game, you’re the only surviving crew member on a spaceship and need to stop “something” from getting out.
– Real player with 5.4 hrs in game
Even though the entire trilogy is available for free on Armor Games, I chose to purchase this game series on Steam because that’s how amazing ScriptWelder really is. The Deep Sleep and Don’t Escape series were some of the first PC games I ever played, and I have ScriptWelder to thank for making my early experiences so magical. I have followed each and every game you have published on AG, hunted down every achievement, set of choices, and walkthrough I could find… simply, because every single second I spent in any of your games was one of either awe, wonder, fear, or curiosity.
– Real player with 5.1 hrs in game