Customer Reviews

The History Channel: Great Battles of Rome

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Buy Rome: Total War instead, because this game is not worth the money you pay for it. You line men up, and then watch them run at each other swinging their swords or shooting their arrows. Just not worth it!

This is a repackaging of Strategy First's Legion Arena. For those ancient wargamers who have played Slitherine's Legion & Spartan Legion Gold, SPARTAN, you will find the battle mode of THC's GBR game very familiar. The game plays very differently from its two predecessors, as there is no strategic play. You play a series of battles in chronologial sequence, starting as either a Roman or a Celtic leader. The time line follows the historical sequence of events and regardless of your victory or defeat, you don't change the fixed sequence. The Roman time line ends with the Civil Wars circa 40 BC. The Celtic time line ends with combat with Caesar's expedition to Britain. You can't advance to the next battle unless you win the scenario you are in. After each battle, you have the opportunity to purchase new units and/or upgrade your existing ones. Upgrades can be equipment for better leathality, protection, mobility, level of training, or formation drill. There are different types of units from militia to Praetorian heavy infantry, light/heavy cavalry, skirmishers/archers, with tribal/national characteristics. There is a leader unit, which over time and with upgrades, can command more units, extend range of command influence, and give more commands, and therefore very important. There are limited command options once a battle begins, which is a change from the earlier games, where you set your formation commands at the start, then just watched the action. Leaders can redirect units and there are more tactical options for the formations to start a battle. The battle graphics are improved from the earlier mentioned games and you can zoom into a unit-on-unit engagement. There is a historical narrative between the each battle that gives you the context of each scenario, which is a nice teaching tool. The graphics are not state-of-the art, but also don't make heavy demands on your computer either. You don't need much more than a basic laptop to play the game, a plus in my book. For the ten dollars I paid, I found the game a great value - I only rate it 4-stars because, as far as I can tell, once you have played through the Roman and Celtic time lines, that's it. You can restart at the beginning, but you will go through the same sequence of battles.

This game is awesome, intoxicating as well as very addictive. If you are an admirer of Ancieht Rome and wondered what it would be like to control your own Legions in desperate combat, this is it! Forget about building cities and roads, theres no time for that. The enemy is at the gates! Deploy your Legions quickly and immerse yourself in real time combat. Visuals are awesome and the Legions are impressive. I find myself playing Campaign after Campaign after Campaign. This game is very well thought out, and I hope there will be future additions to it. Thank you for a great product!

This game is possibly the worst game ever produced. I would strongly recommend the History Channel to disown this game. After playing the History Channel's Civil war which also was one of the worst games, I will never buy any game under the History Channel label and I would advise everyone to stay away from games under their logo.