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| Pick your starting lines | Humble beginnings |
Graphically this game is very weak, with obvious little ambition to make it easy on the eye. These types of turn-based strategies aren’t necessarily warranting of top notch eye candy but we come to expect a little glamour. Rome Total War is split into both a turn-based overall campaign map and real-time battle scenarios, the former being just as attractive as the latter. The menus and units are plain in design so unless you really have a craving for the genre you’re unlikely to stick around long.
Sound effects kick off when a unit is moved, or used to attack but other than that expect to be left in silence. No music except for the menu can leave you feeling lonely, I felt they wasted an opportunity here to bolster the games appeal but alas.
The gameplay itself is nothing new at the core if you’ve ever played the original. You buy units, place them on the World before you and plan where to commit them. Each unit can move a maximum number of spaces each turn so don’t expect an armoured division from Paris to reach Moscow in a single go. WWII was infamous for its technological leaps and so that won’t go amiss here – you must spend your purchased research points wisely. Investment in one area could leave you overconfident and expose another of your weaknesses at a critical time, each turn should be analysed. Mostly you’ll be moving units around that calculate through a number of factors, who takes damage and by how much. This is a numbers game after all. Diplomacy can be a key factor, gaining favour of a resource rich 'friend' could aid you in times of strife and help pump up those research grants.
The AI depends upon ones choice of difficulty, if you want a push over then don’t expect everything to go your way but do take note of how easily your opponent can overstretch themselves. Think you’re ready for the big boys then whack it up and prepare for an all out slaughter on your frontlines. Tides can turn fairly quickly; you can’t afford not to keep an eye on everything the enemy does. The computer easily provides you a challenging adversary.
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| Plan your research carefully | Churn out your choice weapons of war |
Overall this game really is for the hardcore of turn-based strategists as otherwise you could soon be finding yourself turned away by the lack of visual and audio passion in Strategic Command 2. Not being one myself, I struggled to keep interest and left my Axis domination of Europe on hold …indefinitely.
Top Game Moment:
TOP GAME MOMENT
Reading the responses from neighbouring nations once the Allied forces declared war and invaded Belgium!
