The name Rome: Total War Collection says it all. It compresses the classic strategy trilogy Rome: Total Wall into a single bundle that goes for a slightly reduced price. And trust me when I say this, if you’re going to jump onto this bandwagon, you WILL want to get the whole thing.

The collection includes the base game alongside its two robust expansions, Alexander and Barbarian Invasion. Combined, they tell the entire history of the Roman Empire, from its establishment to its rise to power and, ultimately, its downfall.

 
Rome: Total War Mobile Release Trailer

From turn-based Civilisation-like management

And it’s a story well worth going through because you won’t find anything that is quite comparable to the Total War series on the market. The gameplay is divided into two distinct parts. The first one is a turn-based experience almost like Civilisation, where your task is to manage every aspect of your kingdom, from the economy and military to the government and diplomacy.

The goal is to seize control of the 15 provinces present in the game and become the emperor. There are multiple ways you can achieve this: through negotiations, bribery, or just straight up conquer the city by force. Once the city is yours, though, you must manage it properly unless you want it to become a liability.

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Manage your cities

Each city is a source of income for your empire as it provides tax. With appropriate management, you can increase the amount of money you get and lower the maintenance costs as wekk. That involves constructing more infrastructures such as temples, amphitheaters, and aqueducts. In fact, if you don’t take proper care of your cities, they might actually riot.

To real-time strategic combat

The second part of the gameplay is a real-time combat mode featuring massive armies in full 3D. You’ll have controls over every aspect of your units, from formations to positions on the battlefield. The terrains can have both positive and negative effects on your troops too, so do take that into account.

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Control massive 3D armies in real-time

And speaking of troops, there are infantry, archers, siege weapons, cavalry, and more. Naturally, each type comes with different stats and skills, and understanding them is crucial to achieve victory. A little bit of the management element seeps into this part as well through the morale system: If you keep the morale of your soldiers high, they will fight for you until the very end. Vice versa, demoralized troops will break formation and flee when things start to go south.

Combat also has two forms: There are open-field battles in which you basically try to completely destroy the opposing army before they do the same to you, and then there are sieges, in which the attacking side must capture a city’s town center and hold it for a set period of time while the defending side tries to prevent that from happening. All in all, pretty entertaining stuff.

Miscellaneous

The two expansions add tons of new content such as huge new campaigns and stories that span across various periods in the history of the Roman Empire and several new factions.

On the technical side, moving to mobile has not affected the quality of Rome: Total War at all. It’s still one of the best strategy games of all time, and in fact, it runs very well on the smaller screens. The UI has been thoroughly reworked to suit the touch-based nature of the platform and I had absolutely no problem with any part of it. Managing the small details of the daily city life and directing units around a frantic battlefield all feel incredibly smooth.

Rome Total War Graphics
The graphics and interfaces are solid

The graphics are also pretty impressive for a game that originally came out 15 years ago. I’d even go so far as to say that it’s one of the most beautiful games of the genre on mobile at the moment.

The verdict

All things considered, I can’t praise Rome: Total War enough. It’s a game that any fan of the strategy genre should not miss out on. Don’t let the $16.99 (Rs 1175) price tag put you off. Once you’ve tried it, you will surely find that it’s a small price to pay for a ton of excellent content.