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Nemesis of the Roman Empire

List price:	~~$19.99~~
Our price:	that is 100% off!
Manufacturer:	Enlight Interactive
Release date:	02 April, 2004

Average user rating: Average user rating: 3.5

You get what you pay for

This game is amazingly cheap at a mere $25. It is high-quality with good graphics and an interesting technique of playing. The system requirements are very low, allowing older computers with less updated parts. My problems lie with a few seemingly non-essential but actually important areas.
I am a history enthusiast. I am particularily interested in the Roman times and WWII. I usually buy Real-time strategy (RTS) games becuase of this. My first problem lies with historical innacuracies. Screenshots, packaging and advertising lead you to believe that this will be a game with the same amount of historical accuracy as Age of Empires One or Two. This is a lie. The game is actually more like WarCraft with ghouls, magical items and enchanters. I do not like this. When I bought this I felt it would be a game where you used actual Roman tactics to defeat Carthiginians, or vice-versa. Instead, you lead a troupe of characterized "heroes" through wilderness where you are ambused by wild priests.
My second issue is with the method of play. I will once again relate to Age of Empires I and II. I thought it would be a simple RTS game where you select units at the same time as building an economy. This is completely different. Once again, it is more like Warcraft. Characters and heroes lead small armies into battle with evil forces. There is no time to build an economy, and even if there was, you couldn't because there is no option to build. The game consists of taking groups from fortress to fortress scattered about the massive map, claiming them until you finally can take the town center of you enemy. THere is no oppourtunity to build, which the advertissements deny.
My final issue is with the resources. In this game there are two resources: gold and food. Gold is hard to come by. Villagers produce it and the only way to get it is by selling stuff or by waiting ages. There is the option, in the single player games, to equip your team with "Wealth", "Fortune", or "Riches", which produce gold automatically at different rates, but the campaigns do not allow this. Food is also a slow accomidating resource. Villagers once again produce it, but it is required for every person in your population and must be shipped from place to place by mules. Only the Roman civilization can buy food, making the campaigns even harder.
Now the positives. There are 5 civilizations to choose from, which, although not many, is a lot to deal with. Each has unique units and functions, as well as technologies. The units are barely historically accurate, but it's a game. It is challenging, but not impossible. There are several campaigns in which the main topic is the Punic Wars and basically what lead up to the fall of the Roman Empire. Races include: Carthiginians, Romans, Iberians, and Gauls. There are a number of interesting methods and techniques about going about winning these games. It has a single-player, a multi-player, and a scenario function, as well as a "builder", which I have not yet tested. Campaigns are mind-bendingly hard.
I guess what I'm saying is this: If you enjoyed WarCraft a lot, go ahead and buy this game, it's pratically a duplicate. But if you're more into games like Age of Empires, Stronghold and Stronghold Crusader, and Rise of Nations, ignore this completely. It looks appealing to RTS fans, but it really isn't. There's lots of room for improvement. But what the hell...it's just $25. It's pratically disposable. And you get what you pay for.

Beautiful game with great adventure story

First of all, if you love Romans or eras with sword fighting and cavalries, don't wait any further and buy this game right now. It's very cheap for $25.

Now, this game doesn't require super-fast computers. I have a rusty Celeron 766 MHz with 128 RAM and 16 MB vid. card. It runs perfectly smooth on my comp...except for the cinematics. For some reason, they are choppy. But that's not our main concern here.

Tutorial starts off great with basic RTS elements which eventually leads to showing probably the biggest aspect of this game, the RPG feature. And eventually, you get a chance to defeat a Roman legion at the end of tutorial. I felt that tutorial was too easy to start a player off with but then again, like The Simpsons say, "99% of the games start off with easy tutorial level". But it pretty much lets you get a good grip on the game's interface, environment, etc.

If you have ever played Stronghold, you will notice that the way you can train troops and research technologies in this game is very similar to that of Stronghold. Just like Stronghold, you have a certain population you must manage while keeping them and your army fed throughout the whole scenario. Speaking of food, there is an interesting feature in this game which changes thing tactically. You must keep your army fed throughout the whole process. If they don't eat, they don't fight and morale goes down, and you lose. Therefore, you can make a pack mule from the tavern which will follow your army around. Make sure this pack mule doesn't die otherwise you can be screwed.

There is another interesting concept in this game which is heroes and their item carrying capability. Heroes are strong, generals who have certain experience level and some special abilites such as greater health or greater strength. These heroes or leaders can also lead a group of many different units under their command. You can minimize the tedious clicking and selecting the whole group or cycling through group numbers assigned to each group while remembering which group has which units, by assigning a group to follow a leader. Just by selecting leader, you select the whole group under the leader's command and it gets really easy for you to manage your troops. Groups also get certain bonuses when they follow a hero.

The only thing missing in this RTS is base building. In fact, this actually makes it more easier for the player to concentrate more on the troops and tactical aspect of the game while not worrying too much about micromanaging the economy or the population. If you've ever played Prateorains, you know what I'm talking about.

Animations are iffy sometimes but for the most part they are very beautifully depicted. The amazing swings of a macemen while the burning arrows fired by the archers and the brave fighting styles of a Prateorian will satisfy you to a great deal making you feel like you are watching a movie.

In the end, I must say kudos to Enlight for creating such an outstanding game, one of its own kind. Roman era buffs like me have been wanting for a game like this to be made and I can truly say that my wish has come true. Again, this game is worth $25 that you will spend. If you are having second thoughts, then don't. Just buy this great game. Kudos, Enlight, kudos.