MiniKiller
01-02-2004, 04:45
Rome: Total War, from Creative Assembly, was demoed at Activision's pre-ECTS event and looked mighty impressive indeed. You may recall that IGNPC awarded it Best Strategy Game of E3, and for good reason. Following the history of Rome over the course of about 270 years around the turn of the millennium, there are over ten different playable factions, each with their own unique units, general, tech tree and so on.
The graphics engine, started practically from scratch rather than lifted from the previous "Total War" games, looks stunning; for the first time, the game is fully 3D with polygonal units. The effect of thousands of detailed, fully animated, motion-captured troops involved in hand to hand combat has to be seen to be believed and combined with an incredibly detailed battlefield environment (with blades of long grass clearly discernible), makes for a fantastic spectacle. Shown on a massive plasma screen, there were frequent gasps of delight from the assembled press; the battles truly do justice to the adjective "epic".
That's all well and good, but how will the game run on your average gamer's rig? Although demoed on a 2.5Ghz, Geforce 4 machine, Creative Assembly assured us that they were on track for a minimum spec of around P3 600 level, which, given the sheer number of troops and the detail visible on each unit, is very impressive indeed. Again, most of the gameplay features demonstrated were identical to those seen at E3, and have been extensively reported on by IGNPC, so be sure to check out our previous reports.
Creative Assembly were particularly keen to stress the amount of research that went into ensuring a historically accurate representation; including consultation with experts on the time-period. Wherever it doesn't have a detrimental effect on gameplay, the game is as historically accurate as possible, from the types of units available to each faction, the formations available (such as the famous Roman "tortoise"), and the terrain, which has been accurately mapped into the game, covering most of Europe and North Africa.
A fantastic example of this accuracy is the Roman tactic of covering a bunch of pigs in tar and then setting the tar alight. Seriously. The squealing, panicking swine are then sent into the midst of an attacking group of elephants, who will be spooked to such a degree that they forget about attacking the Roman troops and may even trample some of their own soldiers in the panic to escape the bacon flambe. PETA friendly? No. Cool? Yes.
Of course, there'll be a number of historical battles to try out as well, so you can have a go at whooping that pesky Hannibal's ass yourself. The historical battles will be as accurate as you could wish: troop types and numbers, positioning and battlefield layout as well as how the battle actually progressed in reality (again, as far as it didn't detriment the gameplay) will all be true to history.
Another point that Creative were emphasising is that Rome: Total War is fully aimed at being accessible not only to existing TW fans, but to gamers new to the genre as well. To this end, there are a myriad of advisors and tutorials available throughout the game and a simplified UI which allows the whole game to be controlled with just the mouse. The UI is a lot more similar to other RTS games than previous TW games were, so, for example, units can now be selected by dragging a box around them and they can be sent to a destination with a simple click.
The game is going to be huge, with Creative Assembly suggesting gamers could get at least one hundred hours out of it; but this has a downside: we have to wait longer for it. Unfortunately, a release date was still a pretty vague "next year". But then again, Rome wasn't built in a day. Sorry, I had to work that joke in there somehow.
-- Kaveh Barkhordar
The graphics engine, started practically from scratch rather than lifted from the previous "Total War" games, looks stunning; for the first time, the game is fully 3D with polygonal units. The effect of thousands of detailed, fully animated, motion-captured troops involved in hand to hand combat has to be seen to be believed and combined with an incredibly detailed battlefield environment (with blades of long grass clearly discernible), makes for a fantastic spectacle. Shown on a massive plasma screen, there were frequent gasps of delight from the assembled press; the battles truly do justice to the adjective "epic".
That's all well and good, but how will the game run on your average gamer's rig? Although demoed on a 2.5Ghz, Geforce 4 machine, Creative Assembly assured us that they were on track for a minimum spec of around P3 600 level, which, given the sheer number of troops and the detail visible on each unit, is very impressive indeed. Again, most of the gameplay features demonstrated were identical to those seen at E3, and have been extensively reported on by IGNPC, so be sure to check out our previous reports.
Creative Assembly were particularly keen to stress the amount of research that went into ensuring a historically accurate representation; including consultation with experts on the time-period. Wherever it doesn't have a detrimental effect on gameplay, the game is as historically accurate as possible, from the types of units available to each faction, the formations available (such as the famous Roman "tortoise"), and the terrain, which has been accurately mapped into the game, covering most of Europe and North Africa.
A fantastic example of this accuracy is the Roman tactic of covering a bunch of pigs in tar and then setting the tar alight. Seriously. The squealing, panicking swine are then sent into the midst of an attacking group of elephants, who will be spooked to such a degree that they forget about attacking the Roman troops and may even trample some of their own soldiers in the panic to escape the bacon flambe. PETA friendly? No. Cool? Yes.
Of course, there'll be a number of historical battles to try out as well, so you can have a go at whooping that pesky Hannibal's ass yourself. The historical battles will be as accurate as you could wish: troop types and numbers, positioning and battlefield layout as well as how the battle actually progressed in reality (again, as far as it didn't detriment the gameplay) will all be true to history.
Another point that Creative were emphasising is that Rome: Total War is fully aimed at being accessible not only to existing TW fans, but to gamers new to the genre as well. To this end, there are a myriad of advisors and tutorials available throughout the game and a simplified UI which allows the whole game to be controlled with just the mouse. The UI is a lot more similar to other RTS games than previous TW games were, so, for example, units can now be selected by dragging a box around them and they can be sent to a destination with a simple click.
The game is going to be huge, with Creative Assembly suggesting gamers could get at least one hundred hours out of it; but this has a downside: we have to wait longer for it. Unfortunately, a release date was still a pretty vague "next year". But then again, Rome wasn't built in a day. Sorry, I had to work that joke in there somehow.
-- Kaveh Barkhordar