Writing this review as a first impression. I have over 1000 hours (self-estimate) in the original Rome Total War and 6 hours in one day in this. This is entirely based on single player.

The good:
- battle graphics are beautiful and much improved
- battles run silky smooth
- most of the campaign improvements are actually useful and were badly needed
- the AI is more aggressive and will actually run away from fights it can't win if led by a skilled general.
- character information is greatly expanded and incredibly useful
- it's Rome Total War, so at its core it's still a fantastic game.
- interface is scalable
- fixes a lot of the issues that plagued the original game like the rampant squalor due to never ending growth in cities which led to places like Carthage to be revolt every 5 or 6 turns by end-game.
- some factions that were very hard and cumbersome to make playable in Barbarian Invasion, like the slavs or Romano-Brittish, are now naturally playable and actually very fun once you get past the weird start turns.
- cultural differences make a lot more sense now.
- achievements for achievers.
- battle Ai seems to be tied closer to general skill, though this might be an optical illusion on my part.
- auto-resolve is better and you can actually lose generals / kill enemy generals using it - even though it is rare. in the original all characters were guaranteed to survive auto-resolve.

The bad
- intros and videos in general are of poorer quality than in the original. missing 7 wonders videos.
- doesn't fix ALL issues with the original game. barbarians are still limited to level 3 cities in the base game, meaning you have to either rush civilized cities early on or completely demolish cities like Rome and Carthage if you want them to be manageable, because otherwise the culture differences will make it rebel often.
- "new" factions are not new except for a few.
- while in the original game the "new" faction rosters were never made to be playable or balanced because they were not meant to be played in campaign this issue was not fixed here either, they were just made playable as is. Enjoy your 8 unit roster as Dacia or spamming a single unit as Scythia.
- the interface is absolutely horrible and barely usable. doing anything from the most basic things like building something to checking your family tree is needlessly cumbersome and requires far too many clicks than it has any right to be. Furthermore the screen-space is used incredibly poorly, with over 40% dead space while the information you actually need is crammed in corner with the smallest font possible.. Seeing what buildings a city has is a complete chore. Navigating between armies, cities and agents is a chore. The interface is incredibly slow to respond to clicks, and the looks made for mobile. The position of some of the buttons is completely uneconomic. For example news can be closed from the top right corner instead from the bottom right corner - half a screen away from where your mouse naturally is whenever you access news.
- AI will besiege your cities more often and will take opportunities to attack where you are vulnerable or bait you into a trap, but once the city is under siege it does not do anything, doesn't build siege equipment, doesn't send spies to open gates. only had a single instance of the AI attacking a city it besieged.
- merchants feel tacked on and are of dubious utility and function.
- the campaign map looks ugly (highly subjective here) regardless of settings. the colour palette of the previous one or medieval II would have been much better here.
- while the interface being scalable is great, objects on the campaign map also scale with it. If you set it to 110% because the unit description text is too small prepare for mines taller than mountains, cities that cover hundreds of kilometers and gigantic ports the size of islands.
- features missing from the original such as the ability to read the description of enemy units before battle or the ability to right click on a province you don't have full vision on to see who owns it. I got penalized for trespassing several times because I was invading what I thought was a rebel province while in reality it had changed hands a few turns earlier.
- Ai pathing for your own units is visibly worse . There hasn't been a single battle where ol the 3 cavalry units I ordered to flank a unit of hoplites from behind 2 understood they have to go slightly around while the 3rd decided to cut diagonally straight though their spear wall.

Bugs
- lots and lots of bugs from people not being able to play the game to the game demanding you install a version of win 10 from 2018 to gameplay bugs
- agent missions panel is buggy and causes the game to crash when using it to take over merchants.
- the new agent mission system interferes with pathing. For example if you send a diplomat from Scythia to Armenia the game will automatically detect Campus Alani as the single interactable object within a 3 turn range and will automatically path your agents towards that settlement. This means that you have to manually correct your agent's path at end of every turn.
- the quick movement option (spacebar in most total war games) is set to right click for some reason and as a result randomly resets whenever you tell an army or agent to move. It also resets at the start of every single turn
- missing sounds in battle and after battle result screen. footsteps on campaign map sound more like static noise than actual footsteps.
- AI agents will sometimes spazz out on the campaign map seeming to move in place at end of an action. this only lasts for a couple of seconds so no biggy.


Conclusion:
If you can get this for 15 euros and you don't mind the interface, go get this now. If not wait awhile until some of the issues are fixed and hopefully feral gives us the option of using the old interface.

As far as I'm concerned I think this is an excellent game that needed 3 more months of development and is ultimately made barely playable by the horrible interface.
I'm giving a thumbs down for now and waiting for patches and an interface redesign that will make me change this to a thumbs up.

It pains me to give this game a Not Recommended but the state in which Feral Interactive released this game -- a game that no one anticipated, let alone, expected in the month-long window they announced it -- is abysmal. I am saying this as both a long-time Total War fan and someone intimately familiar with the original Rome: Total War and its expansion.

Right now this is a Remaster in name only and the only thing improved from the original are the graphics. Everything else from pathfinding, tactical and diplomatic AI, and the UI are abysmally bad if not outright broken especially compared to the older game, which while janky, are serviceable; the remaster amplifies the existing jank and kicks it up to 11.

There are so many issues I don't know where to begin. In my brief campaign as the Julii, one of the Roman factions, my faction family members failed to have children and adoptees died instantly (due to an oversight with the way the game handles event notifications). The enemy AI is even more schizophrenic than the original, declaring war a turn after suing for peace, or harassing your cities with tiny armies of one or two units then running away when you challenge them.

Units will pour out of an gate or opening like brain-damaged lemmings running back and forth in a mosh pit of confusion until the entire unit clears the opening. While the original did have a certain level of jank with pathing these issues are exacerbated by the Remaster.

The UI is atrocious with tiny icons and nested formation options that sprout even smaller icons. Text is small even at 1080p and difficult to read; the new notification system removes a lot of the anticipation of the original system as they slid down the screen and in its stead is a three-tiered news widget that feels like something designed for mobile screens.

I finally gave up when the game started crashing on me.

There was absolutely no reason for Feral to rush this remaster out the door (in retrospect it was probably the looming WH3 announcement that caused them to rush). On paper this Remaster should have been a slam dunk that improved on the original (which, while a classic, has not aged well graphically or mechanically) but instead actually delivers a poorer experience. The small improvements don't compensate for the myriad issues and three weeks out from release and Feral has yet to update the game to address the bugs.

I've since gone back to the original Rome, but I'll return to RR once this title has been updated to a playable and polished state.

Overall a great remaster, very modular, mainly focused on quality of life changes to the classic Rome TW UI that were confusing and/or clunky, and modernising the game a bit with a few unobtrusive changes. They added the merchants mechanic from Medieval 2 (except the ones in this game are actually useful), which I think was a nice touch. Diplomacy also seems to be a lot less... weird, than in classic RTW; i.e, I haven't gotten a single "please do not attack, accept or we will attack" request yet, in nearly 150 hours of gameplay. Protectorates are now somewhat more viable, with factions you are dominating more willing to make a deal with you rather than face extinction. Roman factions are still backstabbing A-holes, but hey, I'm chalking that one up to historical accuracy.

What I can't chalk up to historical accuracy is that (at least on hard and very hard, can't speak for the lower difficulties as I haven't tried them yet) the AI seems waaaay too hyperfocused on attacking the player, like, even more so than in classic RTW. You'll have the Julii completely ignoring or even forging alliances with the Gauls, and the Scipiones ignoring the Carthaginians for the sole purpose of dog-piling the player faction, regardless of how impractical a target your faction currently is. Playing as Carthage in particular is a bit of a slog, as you're spread thin from the very beginning, and, quite literally, the whole world is out to get you. If your faction starts with territory in the north or northwest, be prepared to fight full stacks of Hastati and basic Warbands ad nauseam in the early game. I don't typically mod TW games, but I'm fervently praying for a mod for this game that makes AI factions behave more naturally. If you've read this far and know of any mods that do so, please leave me a comment. I'll love you forever.

This will be a short review of my personal thoughts and experiences of Total War Rome Remastered.

*Total War Rome Remastered includes the base game, the Alexander expansion, and the Barbarian Invasion expansion. Once you install the game and hit play, you launch each game individually through the launcher. Hopefully that helps clear up any confusion!*


As someone who grew up on the original Rome 1, playing the Remastered version causes a ton of nostalgia and brings back pleasant memories. But nostalgia alone doesn't create a good game/remaster. But in my view, the game delivers on what it sets out to do. The Remastering is faithful to the original while enhancing the graphics ui/ visibility of important game elements. This remaster gives you the option to choose between the new, remastered settings, or to play the original game with unmodified settings. I recommend the remastered settings, but do whatever you'll have the most fun with. Battles are a bit too quick for my taste, but that's personal preference and isn't a major complaint, there are ways to increase it.

The enhanced graphics are probably the most significant and noticeable improvement, and they look quite good. There's something quite pleasant about playing a old game that's new again through a remastering. You get fun and enjoyable mechanics that make sense, but with a more streamlined experience overall.

One of my favorite aspects of the game is the population system. If you only play the newer total wars, this will probably be a foreign concept to you. But yeah, population actually is a sort of resource here. Each of your cities will have a population number, with various ways that it can be decreased or increased. Recruiting soldiers will take from a city's population to recruit them. Tax levels influence the growth rate (or decline) of a city's population. A certain population number is needed to upgrade your cities to their next level, and hence to unlock further buildings. Modern total wars are sorely lacking these type of mechanics, and it's unfortunate. Features like these give the campaign a greater degree of depth.

My biggest gripe or complaints with the game would be the pathfinding of units (sometimes units will get lost in settlements or have trouble navigating them.) They have improved this, but sometimes there's no avoiding it. Another issue is that the game crashes every once in awhile. Again, they have improved this but it still happens at times.

With any total war game, mods bring more longevity to the game, and RR is no different.With the latest update to the game modding capabilities have been enhanced considerably. There are already a few good mods worth playing now, with many more that I've heard of being in the works. (Including a Lord of the Rings mod). Expect many many more mods in the future worth checking out.

The verdict? Total War Rome Remastered is worth your time. If you like some of the concepts I talked about that the game includes, you will probably enjoy it. Or if you were a fan of the original Rome 1, this is just a more streamlined and better looking version of that with steam modding support. I will be playing a lot more of this game in the future, and I strongly feel that now is the time to get involved playing the game, considering the modding support and latest update.

I'm home.

After following dev but hearing nothing about stability and FPS I was worried a bit. Original Rome runs like ass on modern day (AMD) systems with huge lag in big battles and sieges. The first thing I did when the game unlocked was start a huge siege in Rome itself and do a field battle. No lag, good frames. Bliss.

I can finally go back to enjoying the game that I loved during my childhood, without having the actual FPS I had in my childhood!

Now, if you'll excuse me I will go back to playing the game as it is meant to be played. As Macedon, Light Lancers and phalanx cheese in city streets. See you in a thousand hours.

Great game so far, however the large elephant in the room right now is the UI. Considering that this game was previously ported to mobile makes it feel like the mobile game. It's not a normal Total War UI, where information is present on the screen. Just recruiting troops for example, instead of a window opening up that shows all of the available troops to recruit as well as supplementary information, all that pops up is a small window to the right, with pictures of units you can recruit. Definitely feels like the mobile port brought over to PC with graphical updates. I mean, you can't even view settlement income at a glance. You have to hover over an icon at the top right. Maybe there's ways to change things around I don't know, but it's telling if I would rather take the UI from the early 2000's over this one.

But hey, you can move the screen with WASD now, so there's at least some quality of life improvements.

Until the UI is improved it's going to be a don't buy from me.

How often do you think about the Roman Empire?

*** If you had reasonable expectations, you won't be disappointed ***

If you are a master of the Total War games, and expected something earth shattering, you must live on a different planet. This is a remaster, not a total remake, of an old game with mostly outdated stuff with minor tweaks.

For what it is, it's not bad at all. If you were always on the fence about buying a Total War game, this would be a great introduction. If you liked the game years ago, and wish to enjoy the spectacle with a fresh coat of paint, it's exactly what you are going to get.

A new addition that seems to have confused long time fans of the game, is this new "wheel" looking addition to the units when you click on them. Some people are screaming up a storm about it, but if you can be bothered to simply open the in game wiki, it will tell you what these mean. Also, you can easily select all units, which will pop up these "info wheels", and then you will find them very useful. It's a clever addition once you know that. Heaven forbid someone try something new.

The AI has minor tweaks, but is pretty much the same as all other Total War games. Once you get good at the game, there is little challenge. I have always played for the spectacle. Expecting the game to school you in the finer arts of war is a fantasy.

Pathfinding is still ...meh... just like in all the other games of the franchise. If you want insane unit sizes, be prepared to experience traffic jams and loony games of duck, duck, goose.

There's also some screaming around about UI size. Well, there's a slider for it I'll bet some people didn't even notice. People scream about this stuff quickly so they don't lose their refund time limit.

You will also want to take your time, and not jump to conclusions, by examining the options menu, and checking out the in game wiki. Play a few quick battles and take note of any changes, then read about them instead of just going berserk. I spent about an hour testing things, and figured most of it out.

It's still a good game, and the new paint job is nice. The price tag of $15 if you owned the original is reasonable. It's like a weeks supply of Gummi Bears.

Specifically, this is Rome Total War. Every turn you basically go to towns and queue up units and buildings. In the classic version, it was very simple. You double-clicked on a town, it opened the build menu, you picked something and next to it was the recruitment menu and you picked something from there. Moreover, you could just press the left or right arrow to do this and go to the next town. I remember playing the game and worrying if I spent too much time building and recruiting, but now, with this remaster, I realized how good, simple and efficient the old system used to be.

In the new version, you click on a town. You can't double click anymore to open the build interface. You click once, then you click a small button from the lower right part of the screen to open the build menu, then click to build. Then you have to close this and open a different tab to train units. AND you can't cycle through the towns because of the same problem that you still need to do this for every town.

This might have been a nitpick but this is Rome Total War. You have to do this all the time. I started a new campaign and eventually quit because I was so bored and tired of how this mechanism is used-which is part of the core experience. You can even auto-resolve battles, but you need to do proper town management to get anywhere in this game.

Besides this, reading unit and building info is now harder, in non-changeable small font, you need to perform more operations to find it and you lose some neat features such as mouse wheel click to zoom into a unit or that neat feature where you could pause the game and read about some cool unit that you encounter. Or read about buildings in settlements that you do not own.

Sadly a lot of the features that provided great immersion in this game are gone.
What is better is some better graphics at the expense of load times. Merchants are added but they are much more tedious to use than in Medieval 2 total war. Seriously, now you need to recruit merchants and always micromanage them to not be in their town of origin. This imposes a lot of extra micromanagement in a game that was otherwise already too full of it.

The only real improvement I see in this version is the ability to play some Barbarian Invasion factions from the get-go such as Slavs, Romano-British and maybe one or two others, but that's about it.

All in all, if you enjoyed the classic version, stick to it. This version does not add anything to it that improves the core experience but only detracts in some aspects such as immersion. I know that they tried to make the game 'more modern', but making it a semi-mobile game for a PC game is just not good market tailoring.

Update: For a comparison I replayed today the Brutti in the Old Version. I could go through a playthrough of conquering about 20 regions in several hours and it's ok. Because in the old version you build a lot and recruit every turn. This is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed because attempting to do that in the newer version is much more tedious.

The only people who are going to see this are my friends but this is my favorite rts game