Customer Reviews

Rome: Total War Barbarian Invasion

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

 

 

I've been with the Total War series through Shogun, Medieval [1]/Viking Invasion, and Rome, and find Barbarian Invasion to be an entertaining addition, although not as good as the original Rome. The game DOES warn you that the Western Empire faction is the most difficult, and it is, although I should say that I have won this game playing the Eastern Empire, which does have time to develop. I've also won it playing the other conventional empire, the Sassanids, as well as with several of the barbarian civilizations.

My preference for the original Rome may be one of personal taste. For one thing, the Roman battle speech no longer includes the sometimes comic moments and useful battle hints, but is simply a canned speech to skip over -- as are all the barbarian generals' speeches. This seems petty but it was one of the nicer innovations of the original Rome. Also, the barbarians don't develop much once they do settle down, and settling down and building up was, supposedly, their objective -- they don't get to build many advanced units (you'd think they'd pick up a few tricks from the Romans) or things like aqueducts (just, at best, cesspools and the like).

However, BI has some advancements over Rome. Now religion, and provincial governors' loyalty, matter a LOT. Instead of TW:R's relatively benign paganisms, you have mutually-hostile pagan, Christian and Zoroastrian religions, and it will matter what your state religion is, and whether you choose to demolish temples and build new ones in their place. Also, if a province revolts, they may become a new faction in their own right, not just rebels, particularly the bits of the Eastern and Western Empires.

So, if you're willing to accept the game on its own terms, Barbarian Invasion is worth while. It will be a challenge, certainly.

this game single-handedly got my son into history and geography! Before this game, he was always playing action video games on his XBOX. Now he's obsessed with Roman history and historical maps. He generally can't stand reading but he can't put down a large History of the Roman Empire book i got him at the library. Thank you Rome!

Rome Total War is on par with Everquest and those greats. The only complicated thing is the religion aspect.

the rome total war original is great and insanely awesome but the hordes in this game are ridiculously stupid they come out of nowhere to early and don't let you develop at all. medieval 2 is out just go with that it's only horde is the mongols and sega learned from it's mistakes in barbarian invasion and gave you a chance to prepare for the hordes, Medieval 2 is so awesome i've beaten it 3 times.