 | |||
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Rome: Total War Preview May 03, 2004 Jakub Wojnarowicz |
|
 |
|
| |
Summary: Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears as I describe to you the wonders we saw at Activision's Rome: Total War event. Marvel along with us at the 10,000 fully 3D units that will be charging across the Fields of Mars this fall, in Creative Assembly's newest strategy game. Witness the dirty politics and diplomacy of war, the brutal nature of combat, and mighty siege engines!
 Overview | Page:: ( 1 / 4 ) |
Moreover, those battles used realistic units and tactics. Every individual was rendered, modeled, had its own AI and statistics, and would work as part of a unit. Of course, they had to be deployed properly, so rushing your cavalry against spearmen wasn't almost as bad an idea as leaving archers too far out in the open. The game engine supported advanced concepts like the advantage of higher terrain, the importance of having deep lines to resist charges, and the effect of weather on archers and gunners.
As soon as Shogun was released, development started on Medieval: Total War and Rome: Total War. Medieval, using the Shogun engine, was released 18 months ago to considerable commercial success thanks to its improved gameplay (if poor interface.) Development on Rome continued in the meanwhile up until the present day.
[image]
| <% print_image("01"); %> | <% print_image("02"); %> |
Screenshots and feature lists were released a long time ago already, and it's hard to believe that the game has made the transition from 2D sprites on a 3D map to being fully 3D, but it has. Even the strategic map is 3D. In fact, the terrain that your armies traverse on the world map is what gets translated into the battle map. If your army was following a road with mountains on the North and a plain to the South, then that's what your battle map will display.
The maps have also gotten a great deal larger. I don't believe the exhibitors from Creative Assembly explained how much larger, but the difference was quite visible in the multiplayer scenarios we played. In a rough estimate, I'd guess that the total area would be at least four times greater, meaning that a map would be twice as long and twice as wide as it was in Medieval. This extra maneuvering room factors into the gameplay a great deal, it allows players to sneak behind hills or through forests, and makes a world of difference in team-based multiplayer, such as we played at the event.
| Strategic Aspect | Page:: ( 2 / 4 ) |
One of the weak points of both Shogun and Medieval was that the late game became both dull (since the challenge was gone) and tedious (because you ended up managing so many provinces). With Rome, this changes. As with its historical source, Rome around 270BC, at the start of the game, was a budding power but it was regional, contained in Italy. Roman forces were not necessarily dominant at this time, it was only later that the mighty legions sprang forth. However, as with historical Rome, the legion and other tools of war will appear and the Romans will almost assuredly secure primacy in the Mediterranean basin. The goal for the player is to secure that primacy for himself in Rome itself.
[image]
| <% print_image("03"); %> | <% print_image("04"); %> |
If he plays well, the player will amass enough power for his faction to proclaim himself the Emperor. Or rather, the player proclaims the leader of his faction as the Emperor. As with Medieval and Shogun, the player leads a family. This time around, that aspect is even more important since the best, and most loyal, generals are those related to the faction leader. Fortunately, in both virtual and ancient Rome, adoption is a common and accepted practice. Thanks to the declaration of Empire, the endgame will be an intense Roman civil war, ending only with the capture of Rome. This should solve the late-game doldrums problems. Other factions, when unlocked, will have different goals - to control a certain number of provinces, for example.
Along with the new engine there will be of course a completely redesigned interface. No longer will the player spend 5 minutes memorizing what was built where and what faction assassinated what general and which priest was doing which task, while clicking off a seemingly endless number of popups. Instead, the interface will be streamlined, providing a summarized lists of completed tasks.
Creative Assembly has promised a very detailed and important diplomacy system. Players will be able to demand or offer alliances, peace, bribes, and land. They'll be able to ask their neighbours to wage war against a common enemy, or to demand them to stop attacks.
The AI will be able to control most aspects of the game, so if a player would rather not handle the building of armies or cities for example, he can ignore that and just play the battles. Or, if he'd rather manage an empire rather than fight those battles, that is possible as well.
| Combat Aspect | Page:: ( 3 / 4 ) |
The move to 3D has also permitted and necessitated some changes in gameplay mechanics. For starters, individual characters on the screen are now truly independent. They try to remain in formation of course, but aren't as tight as they used to be. This is most evident on three occasions - a rout, when undisciplined formations charge, and during a cavalry charge. However, the move to 3D means that units can't respond instantly - they must go through their animations. So if you order them to pull back, they don't just turn around instantly and go the other way, they must rotate. This has the unintended but very welcome effect of seemingly delaying battle orders. Combined with the faster pace of play, a player can't immediately adjust his forces to counter his opponent's moves - it is possible and quite likely to make mistakes now if you don't anticipate correctly.
[image]
| <% print_image("05"); %> | <% print_image("06"); %> |
Speaking of animations, the cavalry charges are most spectacular. Our equestrian friends don't just run up to a group of infantry and stand there, hacking it out hand-to-hand. They rush in, smashing the footmen down and knocking them aside - blasting right through an entire formation and then cutting down the survivors. Elephant charges are even more impressive, trampling men and knocking them about like nothing but soccer balls. The designers at Creative Assembly are looking to recreate the power of Shogun's cavalry, rather than the toned-down version present in Medieval. From what we saw, they're well on their way to achieving this.
In the build we played, archers were severely overpowered due to a bug that had just been solved, ironically enough. However, despite the power of cavalry and archers, it was clear that victory still required a balanced attack. At the core, the game is still, in the designers' words, paper-rock-scissors. Each unit has a counter or two, and a unit that it's devastating against. These counters are compounded by the various tactical considerations. Spearmen are devastating against cavalry, but not even the toughest hoplites are going to stand up to a charge from the rear.
| Conclusion | Page:: ( 4 / 4 ) |
As you may have guessed, the units are as historically accurate as possible. While there is some question about what kinds of units you might expect in history from the lesser-known civilizations like the Parthians, or barbarians, but educated guesses can be made about them and their effectiveness - as well as how they were all eventually defeated by Rome.
Finally, there is proper siege equipment, and it will no longer be stuck in place like in Medieval. Even the mighty catapults will be maneuverable, though very slowly - and they're quite devastating against tightly packed enemy units that have poor morale. Other siege equipment comes to use in the very dynamic city sieges; various civilizations can build catapults to knock walls down (or to simply destroy structures in the city), as well as siege towers and of course ladders. Once a breach is made, the goal is to rush into the city and control the central plaza, and then the town is considered conquered.
[image]
| <% print_image("07"); %> |
Conquest, of course, isn't all. Provinces have their own cultures and populations. To build Roman units in a foreign province, the province must be Romanized. This includes the resettling the populations (colonization) and the building of Roman structures in the principal city of said province. In addition to their own units, the Romans will be able to use many foreign units, as mercenaries.
Needless to say, Rome: Total War looks like the most exciting strategy game expected this year. The turn-based portion is being brought up to world-class standards, similar to those of Civilization, and the real-time aspect will be much more exciting and dynamic. Finally, the end game won't be a boring, tedious chore that has the player clicking off information screens longer than playing the game. Although it's bad karma to count your chickens before they hatch, it really seems like Creative Assembly has this Total War title down pat. We should see it in stores in Fall 2004.