Total War: Rome Revisited – A Game Review

After our last Total War: Rome Recap, we were quite eager to see if this version of the Total War series would live up to the hype. And we have to say, it did! Playing as the ancient Italians against the barbarian tribes led by the Roman general Gannic, we are once again plunged into a never-ending conflict. This time, however, the stakes are much higher and the consequences much more significant, as each side tries to establish and secure its own destiny in the Mediterranean basin. With new dynamic events such as the sack of the Eternal capital and the rise of the Roman commander, control of the Mediterranean is once again in the hands of the Mediterranean conquerors.

A handful of changes have been made to this version of Total War: Rome. First, the graphics and overall aesthetic have been improved. The detail and colorization of every object in the game has been improved; so too, the actuality of each event and tile. There are new military and political buildings and resources, each of them offering a different mix of power-up effects and special abilities for each race. The terrain is also more detailed and reacts to your actions more realistically.

However, this improvement is not enough to get by the difficulty of the campaign, which for Total War fans, is already enough to turn them off to the game. In fact, one of the most frustrating aspects of the game is the speed with which you advance through the campaigns. Each individual faction fights like they should, but often get stuck in a rut where they are forced to grind out victory points rather than moving around the map to take on new battles. If you want to avoid the frustration, you’re going to have to spend more time focusing on each individual aspect of the game.

Fortunately, Rome Revisited makes an excellent use of the Rome Total War Strategy Guide, which covers all the historical areas in great detail and tells you exactly what you need to do to advance your cause. As you get started, you’ll learn just how important each city is to overall victory, as well as how it affects your relationship with other factions. Knowing just how the politics of the time plays into your game is key, and the manual certainly covers that angle enough so that you won’t be steered away from your goal. However, the game itself is much more dynamic than it seems at first. You can take on the role of any leader of your chosen faction and using the right combination of tactics and military units, you can either crush your foes or take the throne and become the greatest ruler the world has ever seen.

It is in the later stages of the game when things really begin to get exciting. All the historical areas are introduced, and each one offers a new strategic objective to complete as you struggle to control the Mediterranean. Combined with the all new historical research tools provided for you to dig up the past records of your faction and learn about your enemies’ strategies, Rome Reminisced is a fast-paced expansion pack that keeps you interested throughout. In fact, after only a few hours, you might find yourself overwhelmed by the decisions and the action, and you may find yourself wanting more. Well, Total War: Rome is one of the biggest Total War: Rome games to come out in years, and with such a huge single player campaign, that is exactly what you should expect.

The single player campaign in Total War: Rome Revisited will provide gamers with over one hundred hours of pure action, which is more than most expansions can give. That being said, it does help to have the multiplayer options available, where you can take on the role of either one of the major historical figures involved (Julius Caesar, Hadrian and Domitian), one of the minor ones such as Pompey the Younger or Marullus, or one of the new factions introduced in the game. These changes were clearly made with the single player campaign in mind, and they do make the game more interesting and varied, with new events and challenges every few days. If you loved the original Total War: Rome, then you’ll love this expansion pack, because it truly improves upon what made that game so popular in the first place. It also gives you a taste of what the grand strategy games have to offer, without ever treading into territory that seems a little too mature for the tastes of younger players.