The History Channel: The Great Battles of Rome: Review

Contrary to the law of Marx, the number does not always go into quality. However, persistent British from SLITHERINE Software made this statement of the motto of their company. Judge for yourself: for 7 years since the creation, the studio managed to throw out six games onto the shelves, and two more are preparing for the exit until next year. Is it necessary to say that these masterpieces of conveyor thought did not gain ardent love either with ordinary players, or the press? The piles of the discs, however, are regularly converted into the contents of developers wallets.

One hundred great battles of Rome

The next “lobby of Dolly” claims the role of a history textbook. Fortunately license History Channel Allows you to release any indecent and still good ladies – just remember the recent The History Channel’s Civil War: A Nation Divideed. We must pay the due to the British: they approached the task, as they say, on a grand scale. Having decided not to limit themselves to well-known punic wars and shackles with Gauls, the authors reproduced over a hundred at least some significant battles of that era.

Unfortunately, “reproduction” is expressed in several lines of the stingy text before the next massacre: who, with whom, when and where. The composition of the enemy army only remotely reminds of real events, while our valiant cohorts generally go from mission to mission, gaining experience. All brawls are similar to each other like two drops of water: either we defend in a clean field, or we advance. With this approach, by the tenth battle you lose the thread of the story, since the developers did not even bother to draw a global card. Who are the Samnites, Etruscans, to the west or east of Rome lived Latin tribes? The uninitiated layman is stuffed with dozens of geographical names and list the names of political figures and military leaders. Understand from this porridge in what relationship they were with each other, it is strongly impossible. And therefore, the role of the interactive encyclopedia The Great Battles of Rome successfully failed. Although the idea is not bad in itself ..

Gbor is an ugly clone Rome: Total War, to whom the strategic regime was amputated with the economy, diplomacy and other components. It is not necessary to strain the gyrus at all, everything is extremely simple. For victory, “Glory Glasses” and money are given. It is clear with the latter: you can hire new detachments or pump existing ones, so the excess of the treasury is not expected. But there will be as much glory as Julia Caesar never dreamed. It’s a pity that in addition to filling out losses, there is nothing to use it. Each unit has a bunch of parameters such as morality, attack, armor, speed that can be raised with a set of level. As it approaches the number “15”, the soldiers become almost invulnerable, crushing anyone up to combat elephants.

The fight itself proceeds according to a fairly curious scheme. Before its start, it is necessary to place your troops on the battlefield and set the construction to them. However, in addition, you still need to choose the overall tactics for the whole battle: sit out in the defense, advance in a single system or a stubs for the order of the enemy. This is required for the simple reason that the ability to give orders in real time is greatly limited by the abilities of the military leader. And in fact, our legate is not a bird, he does not circle high in the sky with a cursor, so he needs to think about each order. He also has a gradually replenished “action points”. If there are not enough of them, then it will become impossible to order anything at all. There is its own logic: virtual adjutants are not infinite, and therefore you always have to keep someone at the headquarters in case of unforeseen circumstances. The general himself is a separate combat unit and takes part in the battle on an equal basis with everyone, raising morality to legionnaires nearby.

In words, this sounds very tempting, but practice has shown that absolutely all the battles (well, with the exception of 3-4 completely non-standard) are won elementary. And the reasons for this are a few. Firstly, a primitive system of morality of subordinates. Forget about the Total War series – in “The victories of Rome“(As the game is called in the localized version) The trembling detachment deserts upon reaching a specific number of killed. Thanks to this simplification, the meaning of all maneuvers, side bypasses and environment is actually lost. In the very first seconds of the clash, the battle formations are mixed in a bunch of mala, in which the one who has the characteristics higher (plus small amendments to the type of terrain and kind of troops). Given the fact that the AI ​​acts according to the originally specified scripts, it will not be difficult to defeat it. The computer boob completely does not care that we, for example, were lined up by a defensive square on the edge of the map – all the same, the whole front will go on an attack on empty space, gradually grinding our forces on our flank.

So that it does not become completely boring, in almost every mission, developers provided for mandatory mini-stories: to hold out for 2 minutes, inflict such losses, win the fight in the allotted time, etc.D. Did not fulfill at least one condition – it will have to be re -extinguished, although, as a rule, there are no significant problems with this. Sometimes it comes to very comical situations. For example, a brief historical briefing says: in this battle, the Romans were defeated in such a year;Your, commander, the task is to hold the advancing enemy for 5 minutes, so that the survivors can retreat. Separately emphasizes that we will not be able to win. And what? After the specified period, the entire enemy horde turns its back amicably and begins to sparkle in heels, moving away in an unknown direction. Moreover, sometimes it is possible to defeat the opponent even earlier – but formally we are still considered lost. In this way, the conventions flooding the game lower the entire gameplay to the routine of endless battles. A reasonable question begs: you need it?

Moreover, if you dig deeper, GBOR will be almost one hundred percent copy of another Slitherine Software project – Legion Arena. This RTS came out two years ago in hot pursuit of the burdened Rome: Total War and even then he was significantly inferior to him in the schedule. So in two years nothing has changed. All the same muddy textures tightening the angular figures of warriors, faceless empty cards and a small scale of the battles (a thousand people are almost the limit). Rare special effects like rain and released arrows only exacerbate the already cheap picture. Drawing a variety of unit models should be too obscenities, and therefore the Numidian spearmen look exactly like Roman, including even skin color. The most annoying thing is that with all this, the engine manages to give out completely unlawed brakes by car, enthusiastically drawing epic battles Medieval 2: Total War.

From time to time, the disgusting military exploits are interspersed with highly stupid excerpts from History Channel’s program about Rome. We demonstrate the same fuzzy personnel in which the legionnaires flash, some wild barbarians with axes and intellectuals in tunics. The voice behind the scenes on behalf of Emperor Augustine is pathetically read out monologues about the difficult fate of his native state. And again, after his words, confusion is happening in his head, but – a license!

Final comments

Low -budget clone Rome: Total War with original, but from the hands of poorly realized ideas in the gameplay. The desire of developers to embrace the immense led to the natural uniformity of missions. Therefore, it will not be necessary to apply your tactical and strategic genius, know yourself download according to the scenario chapters, and take the enemy armies. Just get tired quickly.

Gameplay: dozens and dozens of battles similar to each other, more reminiscent of the beating of babies.
Graphics: Trying to Hustles Casino be like Rome: Total War, but a hundred times worse.
Sound: nothing special;Sables ring, brave marches play.
For a long time?: ten to fifteen missions, and then-oblivion.