Tech Info:
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Creative Assembly
Genre: Turn-Based Strategy - Real time battle
Release Date: Sep 22, 2004
ESRB: TEEN
ESRB Descriptors: Violence
System requirements:
English version of Microsoft® Windows® 98SE/ME/2000/XP
DirectX® 9.0b (included)
Processor: 2GHz Pentium IV or equivalent
RAM: 512MB
Video Memory: 128MB
Hard Drive Space: 3.4GB
The year is 270 B.C. The republic of Rome has reached a critical stage in its development as a new political and military power in the Mediterranean. To the north the Gauls and Germans assemble their barbaric warriors to prey on the republic's provinces, to the south west the wealthy Carthage is readying its war machine to expand even further, and to the south east the Greek states try to recover from their fall and achieve their former greatness. The Senate relies 
on the three great roman families, the Julii, the Brutii and the Scipii to protect the roman lands and bring law and order to the uncivilized world. The Roman law and order.
How difficult can it be to build an empire? How do you divide your army between conquering, defending and occupying a territory? Your coffers are limited and professional troops are expensive. How do you maintain alliances and trade rights when your purpose of expanding is all too clear? You certainly can't fight the whole world at once. How do you prevent unrest in newly conquered lands while imposing your culture and taxation to the people inhabiting them? How do you answer to the Senate's call for duty when your armies are divided on countless fronts and your supply lines are stretched to the breaking point? The Senate loves competent leaders, but the Senate's greatest fear is a too competent leader.
And how do you develop a computer game that can offer an insight in all that but also keep it simple and intuitive enough to make it fun, instead of frustrating? Well, it seems that Creative Assembly found a way to do just that. Of course, this is not their first try and the experience from the two previous Total War games obviously played an important role in achieving this goal. Rome: Total War turned out to be an almost perfect combination of historically correct turn based strategy with spectacular real time, epic scale tactical battles and role playing elements.
Like it's predecessors, Rome: Total War has two different types of gameplay. The first one is the turn based strategy which takes place on the world map, where you manage your cities, move your armies, establish diplomatic relationships, spy or assassinate your opponents, while the second one is represented by the real time tactical battles where the outcome often depends more on the decisions of the player than on the size of his army.
The single player campaign starts with a prologue that also serves as a tutorial, in which a computer advisor will familiarize you with the interface, the basics of army maneuvers, combat and empire management. The advisor is content sensitive, and can be summoned at any time to explain a certain screen or function of the game menus. Even if you haven't played Shogun or Medieval: Total War, the tutorial will get you up the learning curve in a very short period of time, considering the number and complexity of the actions that can be performed in the game.
After you have finished the tutorial you can start the main campaign as one of the roman factions. The Julii, Brutii and Scipii have the same technology tree (being all roman factions), and even though the units and buildings are the same, the gameplay styles are very different. The Julii must achieve land superiority over the barbarians in the north, relying on superior units and tactics rather than numbers, as their trading is weak and the fronts will be wide and very numerous. The Scipii must develop naval trade between Europe and Africa as Carthage is very wealthy and military advanced and has access to the most feared unit in the game: elephants. Probably the easiest task falls to the Brutii who must deal with the Greek Cities and the weak 
nations in the east. And while the Greeks are technological advanced and have a rather large fleet, their weakness lies in the fractioned territory and poor choice of cavalry and ranged units.
The fourth roman faction, the Roman Senate, or S.P.Q.R, is unplayable, and holds only one province: Latium, with its city, Rome, and while holding virtually no military or economic power, it is without a doubt the most powerful political faction on the world map. Basically the Senate will order around the three roman families, deciding which nation is a fried of foe of the roman people and further more which town or port must be conquered, respectively blockaded. If you carry out the Senate's missions with success, besides the material reward, your family members have and a higher chance to be elected for certain senate posts which in turn offer influence. You can choose not to engage in these missions, but if you fail to obey the Senate's orders too often they will offer threats instead of rewards to motivate you.
Family members are very important in Rome: Total War, as they, and only they, serve as generals and governors. A certain family member is practically described by four attributes: command, management, influence and age. Command is very important for a general, raising the morale of the troops he leads in combat and if you ever choose to resolve a battle automatically the outcome will largely depend on his command rating. Management is, obviously, the main attribute of a city governor, influencing the growth rate of the populace, as well as the city's income from trading, farming, resources, and taxation. Influence is the trade of the politician, having an impact on diplomatic relationships and city order, and the most influential family member is generally the faction leader. Age is always a concern, and while youth offers strength
and quick advancement in skills, as your characters get old this will have a negative impact on their attributes, not to mention the fact that they will eventually die.
The character's attributes are influenced by traits, which can be good or bad, and which are given from birth and through life experiences. For example a general who runs away in battle will have a coward trait, and men fighting under his command will have a morale penalty. Opposed to this, a general who has won some battles against the odds will gain the trait of legendary commander. There are numerous traits, ranging from the passion for alcohol to bloodiness in combat or fear of city walls. Besides traits, family members have retinues composed of advisors, bodyguards, geographers, mathematicians, hunting pets and more. These retinues always have a benefic effect in certain situations, providing better military command, lessen the chance of an assassin to eliminate the character, enlarging the viewing range on the world map, giving bonuses to the taxation and so on. Unlike traits, you can exchange retinues between family members, so that when an older character dies, he won’t take everything he has accumulated in his life to the grave with him.
Making a long story short, you will always be short of good generals and governors and while you can still manually command your troops in combat without the presence of a general, the lack of morale bonus and the ability to rally routing units can be decisive in tight situations. You can't fully control your cities without a governor, as you can only change the policy of the 
automanager to military, population growth, cultural development, etc. Also, in the late game, when you must hold a lot of newly conquered provinces far from your capital, it will be almost impossible to stop them from rebelling without a good governor. If you want to skip all the micromanagement you can turn automanage on all provinces, but this will only be ok on the easy difficulty.
You only get new family members through birth, marriage and adoption. A male character will have more descendents if he takes a lot of trips on the world map, so a general will have more successors than a governor. This is very important as birth is the only way you can get 16 year old new family members, which will inherit some of his father's abilities. Unlike family members, you can recruit as many diplomats, spies and assassins you can afford. These types of units play a very important role in building your empire, depending on the path you choose to achieve your goals. Diplomats are a must for any style of gameplay, and you depend on their influence rating to forge alliances, trade rights, ask for regular tribute, etc. Spies and assassins depend on their subterfuge rating to carry out their missions, and if they should fail they get captured and killed. Spies in particularly are very useful for seeing exactly what units and how many there are in a certain army or enemy town, if they can infiltrate that city they will open the gates for you from the inside if you choose to attack, and they act as a secret militia in your own towns, maintaining the public order far better than a large garrison. But just like family members, diplomats, spies, and assassins grow old, losing their abilities and eventually dieing, so they're not a “place and forget” type of unit.
The single player campaign will get the player through all the stages of the Roman republic, from
its struggle to survive to its undisputed supremacy and finally the transition to an empire. Unlike any other game, Rome: Total War will keep you in constant difficulty, even when you control more than half of the world map. The struggle to keep a huge empire from collapsing is even harder than surviving your larger neighbors in the early game. And if at the start of the game the other roman factions will be your best friends, the Senate will eventually start to fear your expansion policy and military power. When your public support will be high enough to take on Rome and become imperator, the Senate will declare you an enemy of the true roman ways, and the other two families will turn on you. This is the hardest part of the campaign, as you will no longer face technology challenged enemies, and you will get a taste of your own medicine in the form of disciplined roman troops and extremely wealthy opponents. After you complete the Roman campaign, you can start a new game with any of the playable factions, which include Britannia, Carthage, the Gauls, the Greeks, Egypt and so on.
A nice change from the previous Total War games is that the world map is now 3D, easier to read and more fun to watch. Trade is depicted by caravans who travel along roads between the cities and ships on the naval trade routes. For example, it’s now easy to notice that in the case of 
a siege or port blockade, the city's land respectively naval trade will cease, making it an effective tactic to weaken your opponents' financial power before you engage in combat, because war is more about money than anything else. The terrain features on the world map are not only decorative, since they serve precise strategy roles. For example, you can hide your armies in forests to ambush nearby passing troops, build forts at natural choke points such as bridges and mountain passes, etc. It is also important to attack an enemy position from a certain direction, as it is preferred to hold the upper ground, or to approach an army with a lot of ranged units from a forest. Also, if you are largely outnumbered you should consider a bridge or any other map that contains a choke point as your best aid in obtaining victory. Guerilla tactics are unfortunately not an option, since the battles are limited in time, and if the attacking faction doesn't destroy all the defenders in that period of time the outcome is considered defeat, and this will have a negative effect on your general's stats.
Units gain experience from battles and the bonuses are well worth the effort of trying not to send them to be butchered. You can retrain your troops in cities, and you can also refit them with new armor and weapons if you have built an upgrade to the armory. Be aware though, if too many unit members have fallen in combat and you replace them with new recruits this can have a negative effect on the unit’s experience level. The thing is that soldiers never age or die, so you
can preserve the same conquering force through almost the whole length of the campaign, making it easy to prey on the enemy city garrisons who are mostly composed of "green" troops.
Now on to the other gameplay style: the new 3D real time battles. Here the transition from 2D sprites from the previous two Total War games to fully 3D units and map make the battles nothing short of spectacular. Thousands of units can battle it out on life and death, and while the engine can render you a birds eye view on the general situation, you can get close enough to see which way the balance will incline in a certain regions, and further more, see each individual unit hacking, slashing or thrusting its weapon at its enemies. The variety of animations is truly impressive if we consider the epic scale of the battles. It is pure visual treat to watch your cavalry charge the enemy lines, lifting clouds of dust into the air, knocking down the infantry, or falling from their saddle when they encounter compact Greek phalanx or roman testudo formations. The horse man will try to jump over the units that happen to be in their way to get to their targets. An onager projectile will smash several units, and throw them meters away from the point of impact. The archer's volley is impressive not only in looks, but also in terms of sound, as you can hear the bows' cords being released, the arrows in mid flight, and the sound of the impact on different materials. Also, the volleys of flaming arrows will sound differently from regular ones, but the effect of units dying 
engulfed in flames is somehow simple and unrealistic.
The sounds are very good and veridical and you can differentiate between weapons that are being used, the sound of cavalry or infantry marching and so on. The general will also hold a speech before combat, depending on his reputation, the balance of numbers, the standing of the nation you are attacking, etc, even making jokes about the barbarian's excessive hairiness, and the troops always respond after the speech with war cries and by clashing their weapons. The music both on the world map and in combat is very good and complements the visuals, making the game more immersive. Without a doubt the care for details is impressive, and the whole experience is no less than mind blowing. It is easy to understand why Rome's engine was chosen by the History Channel to depict some historical battles on their "Decisive Battles" program.
The new 3D engine also plays an important role in the gameplay style. You must place your archers with care, not to fire at your own troops, approximate the trajectory of missiles to get them over city walls and certain map features. Also, it's easy to recognize that charging downhill is more effective than ordering your troops to run up a steep slope. The compact wall of spears
of the Greek phalanx will make you think twice before attacking it from the front, and the roman testudo will almost completely ignore missiles, while it will tire you infantry who have to hold up a heavy shield.
The sieges tend to be more fun and challenging that the open land battles where cavalry is mostly the only thing you’ll need. But in the case of a siege, the game turns becomes almost chess like, as the attacker searches for vulnerabilities in the city defenses. At the beggining range units fight for supremacy over the city walls, and if the attacker manages to create a breach, infantry will get through it much faster than cavalry, which is obviously not comfortable on narrow city streets, not to mention it can't get up on the walls or siege towers. However cavalry does have its role in city sieges, mainly using its superior speed to cut the retreat of the defeated to maximize its loses or getting fast around the city walls to get behind the attacker while he is trapped in the narrow entry points. It would be impossible for me to write here about all the different tactics and military maneuvers available to a skilled general on the battlefield, but most of them are very intuitive and the military advisor will brief you on the details if you choose that in the options menu of the game.
Rome: Total War is the most advanced, complete and realistic strategy game out there. No matter if you are looking for a great single player campaign which can fill weeks or even months with continuous challenges and new experiences, or you just want realistic cinematic multiplayer skirmishes of epic scale, this game delivers true value for money which isn't something too common these days.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Rome: Total War
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Crusader Kings
Tech Info:
Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Paradox Interactive
Genre: Turn-based strategy
Release Date: Sep 28, 2004
ESRB: EVERYONE
ESRB Descriptors: Violence
System requirements:
• Windows 98SE / 2000 / XP
• Pentium III 450 MHz 128 Mb RAM
• 600 MB Free Hard Drive Space
• 4 Mb Video Card DirectX Compatible
• DirectX compatible Sound Card
• DirectX 9.0 or higher
Those who enjoy historical biographies are also in for a treat. Befitting its name, Crusader Kings
places a great deal of emphasis on historical personages. So while you still play through three campaigns--the turbulent aftermath of William the Conqueror's victory in the Battle of Hastings in 1066, the Third Crusade of 1187, and the onset of the Hundred Years' War in 1337--filled with the usual economics, diplomatic machinations, and military campaigning, you do so as an individual.
So if you want to try your hand at keeping the Muslims out of Jerusalem in 1187, you might step into the stirrups of England's King Richard I, or don the robes of France's King Philippe II Capet, or take over the beleaguered court of Guy de Lusignan, King of Jerusalem itself. There are thousands of authentic characters and virtually no limit on which king you can portray, as long as he is in feudal Christendom--Muslim states, the papacy, and Christian orders like the Knights Hospitallers are included, but they aren't playable.
Every person in the game features characteristics that wouldn't be out of place in an RPG. In addition to the four basic attributes of martial, diplomacy, intrigue, and stewardship, there are 26 character traits, plus another two-dozen education and special traits and over a dozen diseases.
Each of these quirks has positive and negative effects. King Malcolm III Dunkeld of Scotland, for instance, is vengeful and suspicious--nasty tendencies that make him appreciate naïve rivals who are forgiving and trusting. He was educated as a martial cleric, which means that he's skilled when it comes to diplomacy, intrigue, and the military. William I of Normandy is on the other side of the fence, with a laundry list of positive attributes that make him energetic, wise, merciful, and valorous. Of course, such features make him the natural enemy of those who are lazy, reckless, and cruel cowards. He's also a bastard, though, so other nobles naturally dislike him and his prestige takes a hit. And then there's Constantine X Ducas of Byzantium, an indulgent but knowledgeable ruler who is unfortunately afflicted with a clubfoot that reduces his chances of marriage.
All of these factors come into play in every aspect of the game. If your vassals are at the other end of the personality spectrum, betrayal and revolt in your provinces is a constant threat. Conflicts are also accentuated when rival kings have different interests. Don't expect to be arranging too many marriages, or successfully suing for peace during times of war, if this is the case.
Traits aren't set in stone, however. As in previous games based on the Europa Universalis engine, you are regularly confronted with situations that require you to make some choices. Many of these incidents personally involve your character, and you are asked to react to events such as a pretty wench catching your eye or your son riding horses hard through the woods. No
matter what you do in these situations, you win and lose. Give in to your passion with the wench and you wind up with a bastard and the lustful trait. Hold back and you might never father an heir at all. Encourage your son's physical activity and his health and fertility scores go up, but so do his chances of illness and developing the reckless personality trait. There are so many events and potential choices to make that you really get the sense of molding a character, much like in a role-playing game.
Each individual's place in history is further cemented with a massive web of familial relationships. In addition to its role as a strategy game, Crusader Kings also functions as a de facto encyclopedia of European feudal dynasties in the Middle Ages. You can open up your king's main screen and then explore all of his formal connections by clicking on icons representing his parents, wife, sons and daughters, vassals, potential successors, and even court hangers-on. These relationships are so broad that you often begin clicking at one end of Europe and soon end up at the other.
Start clicking and it's hard to stop, too, since you are creating your own dynasty as you go. It is absolutely captivating to follow the progress of bastards born from lustful assignations that you permitted as well as the careers of heirs once they assume the throne, and the success of arranged marriages, and so forth. There is more of an earthy tone here than in any of the preceding Europa Universalis-styled games, and as a result gameplay is much more grounded. It reduces the overly formal epic sweep of those earlier titles to a more manageable center that 
adds a needed touch of soap opera humanity to some of the most momentous events in history.
Still, some problems have been held over. Although this style of epic strategic gaming has never been more approachable, Paradox repeats many old mistakes. A tutorial has once again been ignored and the manual is woefully inadequate at helping newbies get into their first campaign. There are no solo campaign objectives aside from simply surviving long enough to build prestige and a strong family dynasty. Unlike Europa Universalis II, there are no immediate, stated goals on which you can focus while getting comfortable with the immense depth of play, the number of historical personages with which to deal, the daunting main map screen with over a thousand provinces, and so on. It's nice that Paradox encourages an open-ended, almost sandbox style of play, but this philosophy is too extreme, leaving newcomers adrift in an intimidating sea of kings, counts, and courtiers.
Also, multiplayer still isn't what it should be, largely because of the subpar Valkyrienet matching system. Considering the significant number of people out there playing these games against the computer, Paradox should be doing more to develop an online community to play them with other human beings.
The Europa Universalis engine is also starting to look and feel old. Backward compatibility is nice--especially here, since you can port saved games into Europa Universalis II for a full 800
years of historical gaming goodness--but we've been looking at essentially the same map since the start of 2001. And while it is a clean and attractive map, it would be nice to see the engine finally move into 3D territory. Sound quality remains impressive. The musical score is overly bombastic and somewhat out of place for this era, although at least these martial tunes sound great. Atmospheric audio effects are better than ever. Open up the character screen to get information on the king and his vassals and you're greeted by the sounds of hushed whispers as the courtiers gossip. Have trouble with the plague or malaria and voices calling "Bring out your dead!" swell up ominously.
Nevertheless, Crusader Kings is an impressive addition to the Europa Universalis family. The addition of playable characters adds a welcome human touch that both broadens the historical scope of the game and makes it friendlier to newcomers to the series who want to attach faces and personalities to the names and numbers.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
FINAL FANTASY TACTICS: The War of the Lions
Nearly ten years ago, players first got to experience the world of Ivalice through the exploits of a young man named Ramza Beoulve. The game was Final Fantasy Tactics, the vastly different successor to the recently-released Final Fantasy VII. Gone were the full motion videos throughout the game, the varied cast of unique characters, the exploration of dungeons, and even the overworld map itself.
In their stead were planar battlefields that seemingly float in space, and player-created armies that clashed realistically in a hybrid of turn based and ATB combat. This extreme change in visuals and gameplay was a bit much for some. But for others, it was a treasure that could only be found in used game shops, if at all, and often cost more than when it originally sat sealed on store shelves until getting re-released as a Greatest Hits title. Though the game was scarce at one time, gamers are once again invited to the war-torn land of Ivalice via the PSP in Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, and this time, it comes with beautifully animated story sequences, a couple new characters, and a freshly translated script. The plot follows the aforementioned Ramza, the youngest son of the noble house of Beoulve, and his best friend Delita throughout the titular War of the Lions. History records Delita as the one responsible for bringing an end to the bloody conflict, but the game's narrator thinks the true hero is actually Ramza. After a short tutorial battle that takes place in the middle of the plot, the game shifts back to when Ramza and Delita were still just cadets at the Akademy. From there
, Ramza and a few novice soldiers begin a journey that eventually sees the end of entire armies and villains with supernatural powers.
Final Fantasy Tactics features a class system similar to that seen in some other games in the series. All jobs begin at the lowly squire or chemist class. Squires are the gateway to all things physical, including knights, monks, ninjas, and dragoons. Chemists eventually yield mages, summoners, and arithmeticians; magic users that use any acquired magic on targets determined by such things as the unit's level or location. Characters acquire Job Points in battle, which allow skills to be purchased in any order and even open up new classes. All in all, there are 22 different classes to master, and each character can also choose a sub-skill from any other attained class.
Like other tactical RPGs, the bulk of the game takes place on the battlefield. After placing up to five characters on set starting spaces, battle progresses with turns happening based on each unit's speed. Faster characters get more turns than slower ones, and play usually follows one side moving before the other, though this is not always the case. Units have a set range and can only select one location per turn. Should you get there and decide that probably wasn't the best choice, the unit is stuck in place until its next turn. Thus, all decisions to move are critical, and mistakes can be costly.
Once in place, characters can pick from any of their available actions. Simply attacking results in an immediate action, but most special abilities, particularly those of the magical variety, require some time to charge before being unleashed. The charge time can easily be checked to decide if 
it's worth doing that move, since a unit preparing an action is highly vulnerable to attacks of any kind.
Like most games in this genre, Final Fantasy Tactics has a twist on combat. Units felled in battle have a counter above their body. After three turns, that unit will either turn into treasure chest containing a piece of equipment, or a crystal, which can either restore the HP and MP of anyone that acquires it, or transfer all learned skills to the finder. Those who meet that fate are removed from the game forever, so care must be taken to revive fallen allies or finish the battle before their timer runs out.
Most battles are won by defeating all enemies, but some can be won by just defeating a single key enemy. These battles are generally what defines the game's variable challenge. Some are pretty easy, but others can be punishingly difficult. Without a proper strategy and suitable equipment, some battles are nigh impossible. To make matters worse, there are stages with multiple battles where the player is invited to save in between combat. Though the player is allowed to re-equip characters and choose different classes or skills, the party is not permitted to travel elsewhere to level up. Woe to the player that overwrites his only save file during such a battle; unless a successful strategy can be devised, your only recourse is to start again from the beginning.
When not in battle, the rest of the game takes place in menus. This even includes the towns that are scattered throughout Ivalice. Shops are nothing more than a menu with a backdrop. The
same is true of taverns, which yield backstory and offer sidequests that give money and job points for completion. The rest of the time will be spent customizing your party one character at a time. This takes place in yet another menu and serves its purpose well.
Visually, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is almost indistinguishable from its original PS1 incarnation save for the flawless stretch to a 16:9 screen ratio. As such, the graphics are not exactly the most advanced seen on the PSP, yet for some reason, most special attacks bring battles to a crawl for their duration. While someone not familiar with the pace of the original game might mistake the slowdown for dramatic pause, experienced players will be bothered a bit by the constant drop in pace. Fortunately, it doesn't detract from the game very much, but it is the one major flaw in what is otherwise an excellent port. This is particularly strange since the PSP's hardware is vastly superior to its eldest console brother.Though it loses a point for the slow battles, the animated cut scenes more than make up for it. In a word, they are gorgeous, and fortunately, they frequently replace what were previously in-engine sequences for plot development. In all, there are probably around ten, and they are fully voiced. Not only that; the voice acting is quite good and is a welcome addition.
For those that enjoyed the original score by Hitoshi Sakimoto, rest easy; the soundtrack still sounds great, even through the PSP's tiny speakers. Sadly, there are no new songs. The sound 
effects sound slightly different this time around, but it neither adds nor detracts from the original game. Luckily, the music is great, but it can grow a bit stale by the end. You will hear a handful of tracks over and over by the game's conclusion.
For those that have already played the original Final Fantasy Tactics, most will agree the game's highly political story stays interesting to the finish with all its twists, turns, and backstabbings as Ramza and company unravel the plot surrounding the mysterious Zodiac Stones, around which the game centers. In what is arguably worth the price of admission alone, this time, there is a new translation. And this time it even makes sense. No longer will characters stupidly utter "I got a good feeling!" and then find a piece of treasure hidden in a rock. Now everything actually flows, but considering the script has been put in a dialect that is fitting for the time period and setting, it still might take some deciphering to understand. An interesting effect of this is the way it separates those born of high blood from commoners by the way they speak. This addition brings just a bit more depth to the plot and is a nice touch.
Completing the game can be done in as few as twenty-five hours, but most will find that it takes at least thirty. Those that want more can have their game extended quite a bit longer. The PSP incarnation adds two new classes to the mix. Dark Knights take considerable leveling to unlock,
and the Onion Knights require even more to be useful. Considering the work required to use these classes, it is entirely possible to finish the game the same way it was played on the PS1. And those that find the main plot too easy can explore an optional dungeon filled with extremely powerful foes and a hidden boss. There is also the option for versus and co-op play, but this requires having a friend with another PSP and a second copy of the game. There are some things that can only be accessed by playing with a friend, but it's nothing one can't live without.
In conclusion, fans of the genre that missed Final Fantasy Tactics the first time around are highly recommended not to let it pass them by a second time. Those that fell in love with the game back in its PS1 days will probably find it worth another play. If tactical RPGs aren't your cup of tea, you won't like this one; as its title suggests, it is one. Otherwise, this game is perfect for on-the-go battling.
