Post by Keith Heitmann on Apr 22, 2006 4:40:36 GMT -5
I downloaded and played it tonight.
The demo game is fairly easy. You play as "Cleopatra" (ladies take note.) The "hero mode" is very much like a FPS shoot 'em up kill 'em all game. I single handed decimated an entire Roman century and more with my sword. The fact that there are power-ups for the hero to pickup on the map kind of takes the edge off the game.
The battles in the tactical command mode are very reminiscent of Rome Total War, but there is very little in the way of tactics involved. The Hero has three commands, Follow, Charge, and Ingore. You can move the units around and change their attributes to aggressive, guard, etc. but that's kind of hard during a battle. There are no formation control commands.
I do like the looks of the bireme and trieme when being rowed. They have a very fluid natural look. There's a big splash water as the oars hit the water to back the ship off the beach or to get it moving again. They get a little clunky when they get too close together and one is trying to turn if one is in the way. I didn't see any ability to ram another ship though. It might have been left out of the demo.
The skirmish game was much more difficult. I got wiped out twice playing against the computer. It reminds me of my experience with Empire Earth in solo mode. The computer has a decided advantage and the human player is always struggling the catch up.
It's an interesting game, not sure it would hold my attention for too long though. The "hero" thing kind of ruins it for me, even thought it is rather neat to be able to fight along with the troops as a hero, but they over compensated and it borders on an arcade game.
They did a excellent job on the warships and how they move. I'd love to see something like it in Caesar IV.
The demo game is fairly easy. You play as "Cleopatra" (ladies take note.) The "hero mode" is very much like a FPS shoot 'em up kill 'em all game. I single handed decimated an entire Roman century and more with my sword. The fact that there are power-ups for the hero to pickup on the map kind of takes the edge off the game.
The battles in the tactical command mode are very reminiscent of Rome Total War, but there is very little in the way of tactics involved. The Hero has three commands, Follow, Charge, and Ingore. You can move the units around and change their attributes to aggressive, guard, etc. but that's kind of hard during a battle. There are no formation control commands.
I do like the looks of the bireme and trieme when being rowed. They have a very fluid natural look. There's a big splash water as the oars hit the water to back the ship off the beach or to get it moving again. They get a little clunky when they get too close together and one is trying to turn if one is in the way. I didn't see any ability to ram another ship though. It might have been left out of the demo.
The skirmish game was much more difficult. I got wiped out twice playing against the computer. It reminds me of my experience with Empire Earth in solo mode. The computer has a decided advantage and the human player is always struggling the catch up.
It's an interesting game, not sure it would hold my attention for too long though. The "hero" thing kind of ruins it for me, even thought it is rather neat to be able to fight along with the troops as a hero, but they over compensated and it borders on an arcade game.
They did a excellent job on the warships and how they move. I'd love to see something like it in Caesar IV.