The Spaniard's Review of Aristeia
This is so beautiful, this is the game I've always wanted. Ever since reading the Iliad and Odyssey I've wanted a game like this. Now that we all have it I'm at a loss for words. Everything is so good, the music, the atmosphere, that very interesting intro script, the initial deployment area for the war, the heroes, the animations, and everything else. Okay now that the overwhelming emotional outpour is done I'll get realistic.
The units: They are superb, enough to make me lower my graphic settings lol. The stylized appearance of each factions units fits with the overall design of each faction or alliance. I like how the Achaeans all share a similar base unit along with their own unique units. It prevents what one saw in the movie Troy where the greeks marched up to Troy in an unorganized manner with scattered Spartan and Ithacan troops throughout the whole formation. There is a sense of order and uniformity throughout the factions which fits with the stylized interpretation and with the what Agamemnon did in the Iliad with putting all the troops together by kingdom. An interesting note to point out in regards to the level of detail in research was when I played as the House of Peleus. The banners in-game had an ant on them, for those who know the word myrmidon roughly translates to "ant-people". Also was the fact that the Myrmidons themselves wear brown colored armor in line with what I've read.
The Heroes: While my opinion might be biased in the light of me being Aeneas, I like how some heroes match their description given in greek mythology, such as Achilles' blond hair and shield (the most detailed piece of armor I have yet to see in a TW game) as well as Paris' uniform. I can also see where the team got some of their inspirations from, like classical artwork, which is a plus. It is good as well to see often neglected heroes finally given a chance to show up.
The gameplay: The battles actually frustrate me to a point in the sense that they are harder than fighting a vanilla RTW battle. This is good because now I actually have to worry about the hero units seeing how well they preform. The AI doesn't do any crazy. I've never considered the idea of my army routing until now.
The Interface: For me this change makes the most difference when trying to distinguish this game from the base Alex TW. Changing the names in the tabs to terms such as "warrior host", the traits, and various other name changes fully immerses you with Homeric and ancient Greek terminology.
The music: Great piece of musical talent on the part of Marios. The battle music is intense and thankfully lacking any trace of James Horner's repetitive piece of music (for those who know what I'm talking about, that doesn't mean i don't like Horner's music, but originality in a game is good).
The atmosphere: The bronze looking world of Aristeia is by all means mythological in scale. I can't imagine what this game might look like with the vanilla RTW atmosphere.
Background research: By far this mod has a plethora of background information. So much so that one would be missing out if they don't read the background information or listen to the intro to the campaign. Every tiny detail about the characters and factions was taken into account whenever possible. As I previously mention, the symbolism when playing the House of Peleus is by far the most surprising work of background checking I have seen. (Note: this sub-category was added after the initial posting of this review; upon careful deliberation I felt that this missing category could not be excused away or it would leave out an important aspect of the mod. This is not to be mistaken as this reviewers bias addition but as a necessary point of critique.)
Points of interest:
-surprised to find out Diomedes is Zhuge
-intro is informative and original
-Trojan War deployment is a great starting point.
-individual heroes....can we really say anymore
-intrigued by the knowledge of easter eggs hidden somewhere.
- the battles are quite balanced and the AI is co-operative.
Negatives:
Every game has those little and major bugs that end up getting fixed, so far i have not encountered any bugs, so its either me being lucky or a lack of bugs. Either way, what game doesn't have initial bugs.
For being a "beta" its bold, handles well, and is nothing like I've ever seen before in a mod. The game keeps its promises and looks to add to its glory with the prospect of future add-ons.
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Originally Posted by The Spaniard
It gives a new light to all the comments you made on the diomedes preview 
?
