Rome: Total War Gold Edition | 
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| From: Sega of America, Inc.
Category: Video Games
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $9.19
You Save: $10.80 (54%)
New (48) Used (8) from $9.19
Rating:  48 reviews
Sales Rank: 1091
Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Windows Me, Windows 98, Windows Xp, Windows 2000
Genre: Strategy Games
ESRB: Teen
Media: CD-ROM
Edition: Gold
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 12 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows 2000
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.4 x 1.1
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
MPN: 85166
Model: ROMETOTALWRGOLD
UPC: 010086851663
EAN: 0010086851663
ASIN: B000E2D3LC
Release Date: February 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Jewel case or software is still shrink wrapped.
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| Features:
| | Up to 10,000 men on screen at once are yours to command | | | A century-spanning campaign the charges players with managing the economic, civil, religious and military arms of their empire | | | Unprecedented scale and detail make Rome: Total War one of the definitive historical war game |
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Product Description
Rome: Total War Gold puts you in command of the ancient world's greatest armies. Storm clouds will gather over Europe, Asia and North Africa as you lay siege to civilizations using powerful war engines. Prepare your army and develop strategies for victory, then enjoy wealth and power unlike any who came before you. Gold Edition features the original Rome: Total War and its expansions, The Barbarian Invasions.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 43 more reviews...
 Excellent price for a great game February 9, 2006
Acoma
96 out of 102 found this review helpful
Not only do you get the full game but also the expansion pack for a reasonable price. The replay value of both titles alone definately justifies the expense. I cannot recommend this game enough. Even after almost 2 years on the market I can still pick it up every couple months and march my Legions to conquest.
Below are my comments for each game.
ORIGINAL ROME: TOTAL WAR
This is the game I've always wanted to play. It has such a superb blend of strategy and real time action. Ever play a turn based strategy game and want to really watch your troops battle it out and control the formations and tactics? Now you can. Of course there will be something people don't like, but there are many mods out there to tweak it to your exact taste. The Total War community is healthy in that there is a significant population tweaking and modding the game to your particular flavor.
Let me just say also I am not a RTS fan. I do not like "whomever clicks the fastest wins" games. Each single soldier is represented on the battlefield. It's truly amazing watching your Legions march across arid deserts, snow covered mountains to engage the enemy and clash together right in front of your eyes. Each battle is like a scene out of Braveheart or, more appropriately, Gladiator.
No other game can capture the scope of an immense battle like Rome: Total War can. Especially the battles consisting of many units, it's like an epic battle from your favorite movie.
It is not purely the battles, it has a strategy element in it to where you will manage cities, build structures and conduct diplomacy.
Overall, even if you are not a fan of Strategy or RTS games you will find this to your liking. There is so many good things about this game, it would fill many pages writing about all the pluses and things the developers did right here. A definate must have for any gamer.
BARBARIAN INVASION
The Total War community has given a lot of feedback to the developers on the improvements they would like to see. I'd say pretty much all of the biggies were addressed and added in Barbarian Invasion. Rome: Total War is hands down one of my all-time favorites and a game I can still pickup and play again and again.
There is a lot of upgraded features you would expect from an expansion...little better graphics, upgraded units and increased functionality. The upgrades to the AI are the most noticeable, in my opinion.
The Total War community waited over a year for this to be released and it is readily apparent the developers spent this time to deliver an outstanding expansion. The price tag is definately worth it as well. The time period for the expansion is set in the declining years of the Roman Empire so basically you are getting a whole new game with this expansion.
The new game element rearranges the map to take into account what has happened historically in the last three hundred years. The Roman Empire is split between west and east and all the old factions from Rome:Total War have been assimilated into the Roman Empire. An interesting historical note when the game begins for the Eastern Roman Empire is the Faction Leader Valens. His defeat against the Goths was considered a milestone in the decline of the Roman Empire (for both halves). Not only was his army defeated, but the Emperor Valens was also killed. Oh and the Goths will come for you...Oh yes, they will come.
The Parthians have been surplanted by the Sassanid Empire in the east, but essentially all the old factions have become roman provinces. Basically, it's the barbarian factions battling it out for the choice pieces of real estate.
The new expansion is noticeably harder depending on which faction you play. The Western Roman Empire is by far the most difficult which took a great deal of time to beat. Why is it so difficult? Barbarian factions with a few exceptions don't die when you take their last city - they become a Horde. This is challenging in that you can't just move through and conquer cities to annihilate the Huns, Vandals, Sarmatians,etc. You need to not only conquer all their cities but kill every single family member in order to wipe the faction from the map or they will just keep spawning as new Hordes. You must fight them out in the open which pits you against their horse archers. As you play you will find different strategies on dealing with them, but needless to say it's very fun and challenging. My personal method is the very liberal use of assassins and fortifying cities while I pick apart their horde until I get their family members eliminated.
Bottomline - 5 out of 5 and highly recommended no matter what game genre you typically lean towards. You won't regret it.
Strategic combat at its best May 12, 2006
Peter Rieke (Tacoma, WA)
31 out of 33 found this review helpful
While I am personally more fond of Rome's predecessor, Medieval: Total War, the latest in the Total War series is nothing short of excellent. Much has been improved on, especially the real-time combat and gameplay mechanics. The meek AI, underdeveloped naval combat, and drab visuals that marred Medieval have been done away with for the latest installation.
One of the greatest strengths of the series has always been its ability to capture the truly epic feel of worldwide warfare, regardless of whether you are looking over the whole of Europe or watching rank-and-file armies advancing upon each other. This is especially true with the new 3D combat engine, which is vastly superior to Medieval's. The units are all fully modeled and animated, and the camera is much more maneuverable, allowing you to get up close. This isn't very handy from a command standpoint, but it really makes the battles come alive. Battles in cities and forts are also much more fun, since they are more balanced and take place in full-sized replicas of the cities you see on the world map, down to the individual buildings you or your opponent have constructed.
The mechanics of the strategy portion of the game are different. Instead of treating each provence as a whole entity, with units being able to move between them once per turn, units move relative to the physical distance they must cross on the map, with cities being the points of interest you must find. While this adds more strategy and realism to the game (since it will obviously take longer for an army to cross an African desert than the Italian peninsula), this makes the game move much more slowly and, I feel, detracts from the excitement and fun. Fortunately, the game compensates for this and does not require conquering the entire map to win; under the new rules of the game it would take a very, very long time.
The expasion, while not lacking in content, is slightly on the boring side. I believe my opinion may be slightly tainted since I am not as fond of the play styles inherent in choosing tribal factions which compose virtually all the playable ones in Barbarian Invasion. Still, after playing several full games of Rome, I found that the expansion did not offer enough new material to hold my interest for very long. Besides, there is plenty of fun to be had without the expansion, due to the wider range of factions and units.
Fans of the series will not be disappointed, which seems to be a rarity these days. Newcomers should be prepared for a challenge, but the game does a good job of breaking people in and letting them enjoy the game from start to finish.
More addicting than Civ or Pirates April 26, 2007
J. Okerlund (Jamestown, NY USA)
20 out of 22 found this review helpful
I'm not what would be called an intensive gamer. I buy maybe 2 games a year. This is the most addictive game I've played since the original Pirates came out for the Commodore 64 home computer. I would play that game for literally 6 hours or more at one sitting. This is just as bad. I'm 37 now and not 14 like I was then too, but I'm having flashbacks LOL! It helps that I'm absolutely fascinated with the late republic/early imperial period of the Roman empire. I've played the historical campaign of the original through twice. Haven't even touched Barbarian Invasion yet, except to watch the intro. Has the "4X" feel of a Civilization style game, but without all the micromanagement. New buildings provide benefits to population control, revenue, and combat units. Pretty basic. Where the game shines is in the tactical battles. You can literally zoom in on an individual soldier.
My only criticisms are that there aren't enough historical battles in my opinion, and that when creating a custom battle you can't choose the "rebel" faction. Also in the custom battles, the various Roman factions don't have access to all Roman units. I wanted to create a "Spartacus" style battle. I couldn't use "rebels", so I choose two Roman factions. Each Roman faction has access to one style of Gladiator, not all three. I wanted to make an army of the gladiator types, but I couldn't.
If you are interested in the historical background of the era covered in the game you might like Rome - The Complete First Season and Warfare in the Classical World: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons, Warriors and Warfare in the Ancient Civilisations of Greece and Rome
Best and most addicting RTS / Empire Building Game I have ever played August 28, 2007
L. Deleon (USA)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
I actually purchased Civilization IV about a week ago, because I heard all kinds of hype about how awesome that game is. I was completely disappointed. I got bored of that game very quickly. I felt like I was a city planner or something, not an empire builder....
Then I decided I would give this game a try...wow what a difference. Ironically, this game is very similiar to Civilization IV, but with one HUGE difference, as well as several other improvements. I would have to say that in a way RTW is the same game as Civilization IV, but the FUN version, MUCH MORE FUN.
The HUGE difference I am talking about specifically is the EPIC HUGE BATTLES that you have in RTW. By comparison ---in Civ 4 --- the combat system is basically like moving chess pieces on a board, and the computer tells you if you won the battle. Interestingly, in RTW you also move "chess pieces" around on a board, but lookout --- as soon as you move your army chess piece onto a square with another army ---you go to battle mode: and this is the best part of RTW. Playing the RTW prologue (which is basically the tutorial campaign) I was really impressed with the large battles with over 200-300 units on each side. I had no idea though that this was just a scaled down version of the main campaign where you typically have armies of 1000-2000 units. Yes that is right, when you battle the more powerful enemies you will have battles with 1000-2000 on each side for a total of possibly up to 4000 units (but this could actually be much higher if you have a couple of large armies reinforce each other). Now the largest battle I have had yet has been about 1200 vs 1500, but that is because I have my armies spread out over a dozen different cities / areas. In total, I probably control about 15,000+ military units right now, and my empire is still in it's early stages. I don't even have the game settings for the largest possible amount of units, yes you can change this option in the options menu if your pc is powerful enough to handle the EXTRA large battles.
To make things even more fun --- you also can siege a city or be sieged --- complete with fortified walls, siege weapons, onagers, scorpions, ballistas, archers shooting through the port holes in the walls, having ladders that your infantry climb up to battle on the ramparts --- just think of Lord of the Rings where they have the battle at the keep, you know when Aragorn, the erm horse guys, and the elves are outnumbered and they have to defend until Gandalf arrives...the battles are kind of like that, but ok, the graphics / special effects aren't as fantastic :) Now yes the graphics are fairly basic --- but given the choice between best graphics and small battles and simple graphics and HUGE HUGE battles, I think most people would agree the later is more fun. I mean come on, we have all played the RTS games of the past where you thought you were a bad mofo with 300 units...well now just imagine 3000 units.
the other thing that I like about RTW vs Civ4 is the city management is much more user-friendly and understandable, and yet still complex enough that you have to pay close attention to it because it can literally win or lose the game for you. So this game is not just pump out as many units as you can and destroy everything in your path---but you also have to be careful about managing your cities right or you could go broke. I actually failed the prologue campaign (which in itself is quite long) because I didn't manage my economy well enough and I eventually went bankrupt and couldn't afford to replenish my armies.
My current game is going pretty well though I have been the dominant faction for most of the game and I just recently invaded and took 3 egyptian cities! FUN!
The only bad thing I could say about RTW is that it is very addicting....I haven't been able to stop playing it since I started....
I haven't even installed the expansion yet....
and there are several expansions for this title....
and there are several mods....
I haven't tried multiplayer yet, but I don't feel any need, the single player so far is very entertaining.
Vista compatible! June 23, 2007
Frank Mattins
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a great game, as many other reviewers have noted. Just want to add that it seems to be compatible with Windows Vista. I have a Acer laptop with an ATI Radeon XPress 1100 card, and have not encountered any problems.
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