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Rome: Total War & Expansions
System: PC
Genre: Turn-Based Strategy
Year: 2004
Rank last year: 19 (^ 2)
Developer Creative Assembly was on a roll for a while until Empire: Total War (#36). Before that there was the excellent Medieval II: Total War and before that there was Rome: Total War and it's expansions Barbarian Invasion and Alexander. The game is a turn-based strategy game like all are in the Total War series, and the objective is to successfully manage your empire, and conquer and rule the known world. As the title suggests, this title takes the player to age of the Romans, in particular the latter two centuries of the Roman Republic.
Contrary to other games in the series, this game has the player choose one of three Roman families, who's faction they'll represent and in who's name they'll add territory to the Roman sphere of influence. Naturally, as it went millenia ago, your goal is to overthrow your peers and become sole ruler. This added an extra gameplay mechanic not seen in any other game in the series, which makes me want to come back to it.
The game's first expansion, Barbarian Invasion, depicted the Roman Empire's (the western part anyway) last two centuries and their struggle to protect the borders against tribes fleeing from the Huns under Attila. This basically added as much content to the game as there already was. The second expansion, doesn't really have anything to do with the Romans, rather with the Macedonian triumph over Persia by Alexander the Great. This expansion features a bit of a lazy world map, but is a fun addition.
