High: Over all very solid and fun gameplay, also very interesting cut screens.

Low: Lackluster graphics and interface.


CDV &THE HISTORY CHANNEL's Great Battles of Rome could have been a great strategy but falls short of expectations. That said what the game lacks in dept is made up by being fairly simple to play yet with fairly complex strategies to employ. Thus we will dub Great Battles of Rome the everyman's strategy.

Though the game may not win game of the year the gameplay is straight forward and there is enough to do in the battles the game is still fun to play. The Cut scenes and battles to have little rhyme or reason in the preview game we have played. With that though it is a very interesting game and if you are interested in Rome in the least you will at least learn a thing or two.

The game starts off like most with a tutorial of how to play, it's a great tutorial though the info boxes can get in the way at times. In the tutorial you start off against Rome, but like with all things Rome, even when you win Rom still takes over your land. After that you control a Roman army. The game has a pretty robust set of legions to fight with and seems fairly well balanced even in this preview build.

One of the more interesting parts of the game is picking and setting up your different legions. You do this between your battles which is very true to the period. You also set up and plan the first part of your battle before the real battle starts. This start strategy is essential to winning because once the battle starts you only have so much order power, though it does regenerate as the battle progresses.

Also important to your overall strategy is not only picking the right units to add to your ever growing army but to also pick the correct upgrades. The upgrade system is based on '"on field' experience, which really adds to the realism of the game. Upgrades like picking your units is done at the home base of your army between battles.

The battles feel very limited, though they are grand in scale, the maps you fight on have very little detail and often times are very boring. Though there are different terrains that effect different units it's not always easy to tell which is which. Hopefully that is improved in the final version of the game. The camera is a very powerful tool you can zoom way out to set new orders or zoom in to watch the battle. You can also change angle and direction of the camera which can be helpful.

Over all the graphics are mediocre at best in the preview build but since this game is geared towards the general masses the graphics do there duty. The interface is very lackluster but again since the game is geared towards the masses it does its job, simply and easily. Even with its shortfalls graphically the game still progresses well and will most likely be polished in the final version. There also isn't very many resolutions to choice from in the settings, which makes the game look interesting on wide screen monitors*.

* Editor's Note: We will be asking CDV if this was due to it being a preview build or if the two settings available will be all that's available in the final version.

The sound of the game is fairly simple, there are some odd quite moments at the end of some of the cut scenes, but that will most likely get fixed before the final release of the game. The sound effects on field are clean and clear, almost too much so. Overall the sound system of the game seems very complete in the preview build we have.

If this where the final build of the game would I recommend this game to anyone? Yes, to anyone that has a love for history, to anyone that has a love for strategy, or anyone that likes real time strategy games. Its different enough to be fun, yet simple enough that anyone can enjoy it.

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