Rome: Total War

Rome: Total War is the entry that in 2004 defined the shape of the entire Total War series for years to come and became one of the most influential titles in the historical strategy genre. The game combines a turn-based strategic map, on which the player, as the leader of one of the ancient factions, manages provinces, economy, and diplomacy, with battles fought out in real time, where thousands of units can clash on screen at once in fully three-dimensional terrain. It was precisely this contrast between slow strategic planning and tactical chaos on the battlefield that gave the series its distinctive identity, one that later entries only built upon.

Compared to the series' previous entries (Shogun and Medieval), studio The Creative Assembly moved the action from Japan and medieval Europe to ancient Rome and the surrounding civilizations, which made it possible to depict legions, war elephants, and functioning phalanx formations. The campaign offered playing as Rome as well as so-called barbarian and exotic factions, with the conquest of Rome itself possible as one of the playable scenarios.

Thanks to the combination of depth, accessibility, and the visual grandeur of its battles, the game won a broad audience beyond traditional strategy fans and kicked off a series of sequels that still define the genre of historical turn-based and real-time strategy games to this day. The controls combine turn-based decision-making on the strategic map with direct command of units in battles, where the player arranges formations and directs combat in real time, which was a fairly new approach for the strategy genre at the time of release.

Why play it: A key title for anyone interested in the history of the Total War series or ancient Rome, even though the graphics and interface naturally show their age today.