Modern Total War games, take note: Epic scale units rule. Modern Total War games have decided to emphasize unit model quality over scale, but Rome Remastered thankfully does not make this mistake. They're just clunkier, simpler, and less dynamic than you want them to be. They were great in 2004, but today's standards are much higher. Where Rome Remastered doesn't shine? The real-time tactical battles. The controls are pretty shiny too, with a modernized suite of hotkeys and mouse control standards that incorporates over a decade of innovations. Making these old campaigns easy and quick to play with a much-updated user interface is where Total War: Rome Remastered really, really shines.

There's also the Alexander campaign from that expansion, if you want a more streamlined experience. With two huge campaign setups between the original game and the Barbarian Invasion expansion, there are a lot of ways to conquer the ancient and early medieval worlds. I think the best compliment I can give is that, with the changes made, the graphics look as good as nostalgia says they looked 17 years ago. The battles especially just look lackluster because the battlefields are so bare of features. They're better by leagues, with lots of sad building models getting remade, especially on the campaign map, but they're nothing compared to any modern Total War. The music especially is much higher quality than the old game, and whatever magic was worked there has revitalized one of the best soundtracks of an entire era. That's not to say the graphics or sound are lacking. The somewhat-aged rig I played it on was able to chop along at maximum settings and peak unit sizes quite happily, with no stuttering in even the largest battles. The old Rome: Total War didn't always play well with modern hardware. As a remaster, a lot of attention is going to be given to how it looks and sounds, but what you really get out of this remaster is how it plays.

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