The grand daddy of epic strategy games!

I’ve been a devoted fan of the Total War franchise since the original Shogun, but switched to the Mac about six years ago. I was absolutely thrilled when Feral released Rome Total War for the App Store and have been playing it religiously since (and note that Medieval 2 Total War is also now available!).

I downloaded the game in about 25 minutes and started it right up with no problem. Back in 2004, I was running this game on a powerful “gaming laptop”, but even then it was slower on High graphics settings. Surprisingly, I can run the game on my new 2015 MacBook 12inch at MAX settings, with no noticeable lag at all. Amazing!

As for a review of the game itself, if you are a fan of ancient history and fantasize about the clash of swords and armor, Roman legions in marching in formation, catapults hurling flaming pitch, truly massive armies and siege battles, and enjoy a grand strategy game, then look no farther than this. RTW (and it’s brother, M2TW) are epic in scope, fun to play, and challenging enough to keep you playing, but not so hard you get frustrated and want to give up. A word of warning: These games are majorly time-consuming….plan on spending a least 1-2 hours per gaming session, and, as is often the case for me, find yourself saying “just one more turn...” at 2am!

You’ll notice I didn’t mention the newer Total War games, Rome 2, Empire, Shogun 2, etc. As great as those games are (and they truly are fantastic), for me, the original TW games are the best, despite their relative age. The battles are mind-blowing HUGE with no lag, and the campaign map game balance is just the right blend of tactical real-time combat with sweeping, massive scale strategy. In many ways, these games feel like good old fashion chess, but with little armies being moved about a virtual map; better yet, you can then zoom down and direct each cohort and legion as you smash your way to victory!

hrtrekker about Rome: Total War - Gold Edition