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Rome: Total War Barbarian Invasion
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Graphics & Sound:
...The fall of Rome is not as easy as it sounds...
Rome: Total War Barbarian Invasion places you in the Roman world in 363 AD. The empire that once was is broken - shattered into bitter, sparring factions. Meanwhile, the barbarian hordes are restless and looking for new lands, anxious to capitalize on their chance.
The graphics engine apparently has not been changed at all by the Barbarian Invasion expansion pack, but there are 10 new playable factions - and with them comes new art assets; there is quite a lot of variation in the troops, each type having its own appearance. The factions each have their own "feel" and unique mixes of selectable unit types. The map has also changed a bit, due to Roman administrative changes to borders and such over the 350 years between the previous game and this expansion.
The sound effects in Barbarian Invasion are good, with nice voice work (you gotta love the rallying speeches before battles), nice sound effects, and great music. |
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Gameplay:
While Barbarian Invasion is an expansion (and requires a full version of Rome: Total War to play), it provides a vastly different gameplay experience than Rome: Total War. In particular, you no longer answer to the Roman Senate. This is no small thing. In the original game, the Roman Senate shapes the gameplay quite a bit by imposing missions that can interrupt your personal plans and strategies, but can help you gain a better position if you succeed at them. Barbarian Invasion, on the other hand, gives you less direction and much more control. There are win conditions, of course, but how quickly you approach these goals and by what method is totally up to you.
The 10 new playable factions offer a variety of interesting options, with interesting units such as war elephant cavalry, camel cavalry and female archers (similar to amazons). Some units have special abilities such as the newly available Schiltrom and Shieldwall formations, swimming and axe-throwing.
You also have the "horde" dynamic; some factions, such as the Huns, can rove about as a barbarian horde, with no homeland. While in this state, your entire populace is essentially military. This greatly inflates your numbers. However, you don't have the ability to create anything that needs towns (such as training units or attracting new populace). However, if you attack a city and claim it as your homeland, you will lose a good number of your military to the city - they return to being general populace. You also have the ability to "Sack" a city with your horde, squeezing every last bit of wealth out of the city, but leaving it not useful for much else. This is basically the 363 AD version of a nuclear strike. So, once you've sacked a city, you'll most likely want to move onto the next location - it's not worth trying to rebuild it. |
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Difficulty:
I find Rome: Total War Barbarian Invasion to be very addictive and quite entertaining, but I find that, like chess, my overwhelming interest in the game does not necessarily imply an ability to play well. I found BI very fun to play, but difficult to win.
Some of the difficulty may have had to do with poor strategic choices on my part, however. I found that I spent very little attention on growing cities and developing my populace and possibly too much attention on sieging, sacking and assassinating others. This works well early on, but turns against my favor later in the game, when my enemies' units greatly outnumber mine. |
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Game Mechanics:
Rome: Total War Barbarian Invasion offers a very different gameplay experience from Rome: Total War. The inclusion of 10 new playable factions (including the Huns, Franks, Saxons, Goths and both Roman Empires, to name a few) provides more variation in unit selection and personalization of strategy.
The swimming ability is a nice addition and is nicely implemented; you don't have to do anything to use this ability. Simply ordering units somewhere that would require them to swim will cause them to do so. Be warned, however, it is possible for units to drown (if they are too tired to swim the distance) and units can't swim in the sea. Also, if two opposing units meet in a river and battle, the results seem to typically be rather grim for both sides.
The online feature uses GameSpy and is fairly easy to use, but I found that the number of available games playing BI was limited. I never had to wait to play, however, I simply had only a few games starting up at any given time that I could join. Those that I played online with seemed to really enjoy Rome: Barbarian Invasion as well, although some wished that some really elite units had been included. Still, I found that it was even interesting to watch the conclusion of these epic battles even after I had been utterly decimated by the Huns. (Okay, these guys had lots of practice - I was quite out of my league.)
If you already have Rome: Total War and you're looking for some variation or more control, I highly suggest picking up the Barbarian Invasion expansion pack. If you don't have Rome: Total War, you'll need to pick that up to be able to play BI, but in doing so, you'll get your hands on several bloody fist-fulls of strategy goodness.
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-Geck0, GameVortex Communications AKA Robert Perkins |
Minimum System Requirements:
Microsoft® Windows® 98SE/ME/2000/XP, Pentium® III1.0GHz (1000MHz) or Athlon 1.0GHz (1000MHz) processor or higher, 256 MB RAM, 8x Speed CD-ROM drive and latest drivers, 2.9 GB of uncompressed free hard disk space (plus 500MB for Windows® swap file), 100% DirectX 9.0b-compatible 16-bit sound card and latest drivers, 100% Windows® 98SE/ME/2000/XP-compatible mouse, keyboard and latest drivers, DirectX® 9.0b (included), 1024x768 Monitor Resolution, 3D hardware Accelerator Card required - 100% DirectX® 9.0b compatible 64MB
Multiplayer Requirements:
Internet (TCP/IP) and LAN(TCP/IP) play supported, Internet play requires broadband connection and latest drivers. LAN play requires network interface card and latest drivers. |
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Test System:
Intel Pentium 4E, 3.2 GHz (Intel Grantsdale i915),
1 GB RAM, AMI BIOS,
Radeon X300 Series (128 MB),
Realtek HD Audio,
Floppy disk drive,
200 GB 7200 RPM, Serial-ATA/150 Maxtor HD (24760 MB free),
DVD-ROM, Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-108,
Sony SDM-HS73 Monitor,
Cable Modem |
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