Simply the best strategy game ever.
Gameplay:
It is rare to find a strategy game that will leave you sweating from the action. This is such a game. The best word to describe the gameplay would be addictive. The battles are all done in real time 3D with hundreds and sometimes thousands of troops on the map. Each soldier swings his sword or spear or axe and this provides for some very cinematic battles. Nothing is as exciting as seeing your first cavalry charge and watching the foot soldiers get slaughtered and knocked out of the way.
There a good bit of nations in the game that are all playable and most of them have several unique units. You will start the game of as one of three families, the julii, the brutii, and the scipii. All of them have the same troop type. The difference is the start location and who your main enemy is going to be. For example; the julii's rival would be the Gauls and the Brutii's rival would be macedon and the greek cities. The Scipii's rival is carthage and Numidia. The game allows for some great non-linear gameplay by allowing you to attack whomever you like, with consequences of course. The game also suceeds in giving you a purpose or mission of a sort. The Senate will constantly give you missions that usually involve taking a city, blockading a port, or securing trade agreements with certain factions. You can of course choose not to obey the senate and become an outlaw after continued failure. The objective of the campaign is to take rome and secure a number a regions under your control. Getting outlawed is a way to attack Rome but is not such a good idea in the beggining.
The game's turn based perspective is viewed from a map similiar to the way civilization does it. You have cities that require you to build improvements such as a barracks or a sewer system as well the ability to train troops. Cities have levels of squalor and unrest as they do In Civilization. The only difference is that you cannot construct your own cities which is something I was rather dissappointed with. Cities are not the only element of the non-real time strategy half. Your faction has a number of generals which age and eventually die. R:TW does a good job of incorporating a family tree system into the game . Each of your generals will have unique attributes that come naturally to them over time or are there from the very beggining of their command (age 16). You can also cultivate your generals do be good at certain things such as being a good commander or being a good administrator. Constant failure of your generals will also bring negative attributes. Aside from attributes, which are called traits, the game also allows a thing called retinue. These are basically underlings of your generals that improve (or hurt) your general's traits in some way. The amount of retinue your generals receive is dependant on the level of education the city they are in or certain military achievments. For example; if you defeat the carthaginians a number of times you may receive a retinue called a "carthaginian turncoat" which improves your command status in battles against Carthage.
If you dislike Civilization type gameplay then you may set everything to "automated" which leaves you only to worry about battles which is what I will discuss next.
The 3d portion of real time strategy is simply a master peice. When a battle starts you are given a chance to set up the position of your units which are comprised of one type of troop for each unit. Once the battle starts the two side, or one side, begins to make their move towards the other army. There are many things you have to take into account while approaching an enemy such as the morale of your troops and their stamina. If the enemy army is positioned on top of a hill it can be hard for you to charge up the hill since your troops will tire quickly. THe best course of action is to position yourself on the most gentle slope and slowly approach the other army. There is always a different strategy for every battle. If an enemy army has a lot of archers then simply approaching them head on can lead to disaster. If an enemy has a lot of cavalry then speared units are the way to go. Every battle is a new experience and is almost never the same as the previous one even if the two armies are exactly the same in number and troop composition. However, if you dislike such battles and only want to enjoy the civilization type feature then all you have to do is enable "arcade battles" in the options or simply click auto-determine battle.
R:TW can get very addictive. I found myself staying up into the wee hours of he morning playing this game before I even realized what time it is. It would not be so impressive if that happened once but it happened for two weeks straight! Finally I calmed down (mostly because of Half-LIfe 2).
Graphics:
The graphics are very decent especially since the game has to render up to multi-thousand troops on the battle field at once. Helmets and armor have a nice shimmer effect and the models (Unless set to be so) have a good amount of polygons and no stick-like limbs. The battlefield has a nice look to it with random farms strewn about and plenty of grass and trees. The cities are extremly well done and sometimes I feel I would have a hard time telling the difference between this game and counterstrike (1.6) if you dropped me in the middle of the city with a gun. The topography has a nice shadowy look to it from far away. This game is more CPU intensive than anything else. The graphics are some of the best you will see for an RTS. On a side note, the graphics for the world view are also done in 3d and are rather nice as well.
Sound:
Sound was nice but not as good as it could have been. The music is completely engaging and very memorable. The only part of the sound that I disliked was the battle sounds. There could have been much more clashing and slashing sounds. For the most part the sound is very good, however.
Value:
For $50 it will give you a lasting satisfaction. This is not a game you play for 4 days and throw down. 10/10 for value.
Tilt:
This game has offered me countless hours of fun and has also caused some sleep loss and missed schoolwork. 9/10.