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Creative Assembly makes Rome: Total War “spectacular” and “accessible”
Balance issues worked on as game hits alpha stage
“We had to do two things (with Rome: Total War),” stated Michael De Plater, the creative director of The Creative Assembly, “one: make it spectacular, and two: make it accessible.”
De Plater, Michael Simpson (the development director) and other members of the Creative Assembly team were on hand in Las Vegas on April 19 to show off progress on the latest PC title in the Total War franchise. Activision arranged for a host of videogame writers to attend the unveiling of the multiplayer aspects of the title, and will publish this remarkable real-time strategy outing in early fall.
The time period for Rome: Total War is 270 B.C. down to 0 and that will allow for different advances in technology.
“You are really playing a family,” said Simpson, “playing as one great Roman family. You can adopt people and your daughter can marry to increase your family.”
While the game features are “essentially complete,” the game itself “has just reached alpha, we are still working on balance,” stated Simpson.
Rome: Total War was started after the release of Shogun: Total War and was being developed in conjunction with the Medieval: Total War game. In some ways it almost feels like this was the title that Creative Assembly was really aiming to make. While Medieval: Total War has certainly been a successful outing for this RTS developer (Ok, Creative wasn’t always an RTS developer, but the company has certainly made its mark on the genre), it almost seems as though Rome was the title the company really wanted to make. There is an innate sense of pride and achievement, quick little smiles that light up their faces when they speak of the title.
“The basic rule is that gameplay always comes first,” stated Simpson, “but it was surprising how little it (historical accuracy and gameplay) conflicted. We find that doing things historically correct makes good gameplay.”
The single-player game tracks popularity with the Senate and popularity with the people. You can bribe generals to aid your cause, but the Senate will initially give you missions, but as you increase in popularity through success in the campaigns, the Senate will start to become paranoid. From the outlying areas, eventually you will have to return to conquer Rome and put yourself on the emperor’s throne.
“We stop the game when you have become emperor,” said Simpson.
The game itself has seen an array of near features, from the camera views (“one of the original ideas behind the Total War camera view is you see what you expect to see,” said Simpson), to the AI.
“Most of the AI advances have been on the strategy side, on the battle side,” said Simpson.
“In Medieval (Total War) there was a system of vices and virtues,” he said, “Rome has the same in traits but the general can have other people who can accompany them (and have the right traits needed).”
Rome: Total War is a much bigger title, with immense battlefields and mapboards. But one recurring theme underscores the enormity of this game and that is the way the units perform.
“If you simulate the individual man correctly, then the unit performs as a unit,” Simpson said.
If the gameplay, controls, graphics and the soundtrack supplied by award-winning composer Jeff Dyck are not enough, then another selling point of this game should get RTS gamers excited. The game will ship with an editor that is amazing. Not only will players be able to design their own scenarios, “you can do cutscenes, you can script the AI – it’s really a very powerful editor,” stated Simpson.
The multiplayer aspects were on display in Las Vegas, but it seems very evident that Rome: Total War will be one of the strongest RTS titles of the year. One only has to look at the faces of the Creative Assembly team to realize that.
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