Customer Reviews
Fantaaaaaastic! More challenging!
Same game but much better. The extension represents a new challenge to players who became serial winners at RTW. It adds a new level of complexity to RTW, seven centuries later, now during the sheer decline of the Roman Empire (the game logo is rusty and cracked...).
Graphics are a lot better: more realistic, richer, and more stable. Sound track is the same, while those red-ish intro pictures are less surreal and more gothic. AI is noticeably smarter.
There are several important differences in the game itself. Societies and city landscape are different; religion plays an important role in satisfying the population (with Christianity, Paganism and Zoroastrism). It is thus more difficult to manage public order. BI emphasizes individual generals and warlords who now enjoy more attributes (such as nocturnal fighting skills, loyalty, charismatic weapons, and training). Another main difference is nomadic troops: you can win a settlement and loot it without occupying it, otherwise military units of this specific type will disband and join the local population.
This is not just another patch, but a new level of game experience and difficulty. It is a bit of a shame that one has to spend over $60 to get both RTW and BI, but it is well worth it if you are a big fan of RTW.
Jaw dropping, rave reviews... Let me go, my horde of nomads is waiting for me!
A solid follow-up to the finest game of 2005
In the newest addition to the total war series (Rome total war: barbarian invasions), the game undergoes several changes from the original. Now instead of building up the Roman empire, you must recapture its glory or crush the already divided super power into peices. Instead of the old feeble senate, you have the Eastern and Western Roman empires. Both who maintain large territorys with thinly spread defenses. Other playable factions include the saxons, goths, franks, vandals, and the ever terrifying Huns. There are several pros and cons to these new additions in different aspects.
graphics: arrows and seige fire made more realistic, a moderate upgrade from the already outstanding graphics engine 5/5
quick battles: No more monotonous battles where yo No duplicates through 50 battles so far.ur always egypt at the start. Quick battles are completely random now. Also a lot more bridge fights. 5/5
Custom battles: Lack of new maps and maps period is a dissapointment. Bugs in the seige mode have been fixed, Although battering rams are still not armoured enough. Good selection of factions. Could use more unit diversity. 4/5
campaign: No more havening to beat the Roman campaign first. Generals dont gain command traits at all, bug or not a bug, I dont know, I just hate it. Campaign map is more spread out with fewer settlements. More open fighting. Hordes are too large and send you on wild goose chases. Nice idea that was way overdone. New factions that emerge. Better and more mercenaries for hire. Greater selection of retenue. 4.5/5
Conclusion: RTW:BI is a solid but not perfect addition to the total war franchise. A good buy for all RTS and total war fans.
Totally changes the game, not a bad thing.
After waltzing through numerous Rome: Total War campaigns with every faction, playing this was a humbling experience. It is hard, super hard. Which is a good thing in my opinion. I like the feeling of just delaying the enevitiable defeat when playing as either of the Rome's, but it should be worse. The rest of Europe is a complete mess, with huge hordes running into each other lands changing hands frequently.
The negatives are the graphics and skins. The skins are almost "team colored", to make it easier to distinguish who is who on the battlefield but it has sort of an overly bright cartoony feel to it, but this should be easily modded given time. Some of the units have incomplete models, missing a leg or half an arm here and there, also something easily fixable. The other features religion and night battles have only a moderate impact on the game. Religion causes more headaches strategy wise than it solves, and night battles are nothing all that special after the initial wow factor wears off. The horde function adds a whole new layer to gameplay.
Many people, including myself, have suffered huge lag with the game, I'm glad I did a second install exclusively for the expansion pack as not only does my first install of RTW not suffer from slowdowns, but savegames are not compatable.
If you liked the first game and are interested in the period, get it for sure.
