ROME: Total War - Alexander

For those of you who don’t know, this developer has created what may be the most profound representation of the Hellenistic era within the video game industry; the battle controls and campaign immersion are hard to beat and were impossible to compare to in it’s day when it was originally released. This game as well as it’s base program will always be one of the best strategy games ever in my opinion, but this expansion has one brutal and inexcusable flaw in that the campaign doesn’t include India or the Hindu Kush Mountains, the lands of myth and legends at the edge of Alexander’s known world, just past of which he and his armies would finally be forced to turn around. I found it hard to believe the first time I beat the campaign. I feel the expansion is not complete; it ended so abruptly that it seemed like a slap to the face even though I was suspicious of the map border the whole time. Because of this I’d say the expansion lacks length as well as informative depth and history. It’s still a great play and an excellent way to get a kid interested in Greek history, but without a multiplayer add on or other faction campaigns it will lack replay ability compared to it’s base game. I still highly recommend the game for anyone who likes the vanilla RTW, but it hardly emphasizes the accomplishes of Alexander the Great and doesn’t give any insight to his companions or their history.

It’s weird seeing a game I loved so much back when on the PC in the App Store. I have Alexander and Barbarian invasion and they’re exactly what I remembered, large scale strategic combat at its finest. I must say though, if you’re an imperial campaign type, go for Rome or Barbarian. Absolutely love the games, what a perfect iPad app to have for long amounts of time like an airplane. 5 stars, you guys earned it. I must add one thing too, it would be nice if I could complete the set with Rome (have Barbarian Invasion and Alexander) at a discounted rate, as $17 is a lot to spend on 3 games when you don’t know if the game mechanics will translate well to an iphone or iPad and like myself, I imagine people want to test the waters so to speak before investing in the 3 game pack. 5 stars, fantastic, love the games and would love to see more from the total war set on the App Store.

i think its mostly perfect. these games are my favorite type of game and feral is the best to port them for any platform. i realize porting the controls for a much smaller touch screen is a very difficult task. but thats the only issue with these games i have. commanding the battles is just something i will not do. and i wish i could. i tried a few times and setting up my army in a defensive position that i wanted took almost half and hour. its so very ineffective and broken. selecting a group of spearmen. and trying to stretch them out to form a line then adding a line behind them them flank protecting spears to the side to protect archers behind. setting a formation like this was insanely difficult. with the unit never stretching where i wanted. to the rank and file i wanted. always running out of screen to drag when trying to form lines. and just as i started to get it right. i didnt realize i had some other unit elected all the perfect set up i achieved was lost in one go. gave up so many times. lost progress and redone my campaign to lose a battle on auto resolve i know i could win. if i could set my own defense. tried many times to get used to it and i cant. on the mac ports. i ALWAYS fight my own battles. its the best part of the game. this is an ambitious port for an ipad. and i still love and play it. i hope to see these controls refined and improved. other wise. thanks for making ipad gaming interesting again. this series is my most played game on the ipads. despite the flaws.