Hello. I got this wonderful game pre-ordered and to my suprise it was available in my local store ready to get picked up and payed for.
Lets get on with the review
My first impression of the game was very suprising. And i havent been reading about this expansion too much so i had an open mind when i installed it. The cd case contained a manual and "a" disc of course so it went smooth to install. And when i finaly got to the main menu i took a look at the options menu to find whole new graphics options. I dident experiment what everything did so i choose everything and it dident effect performance at all. Ok i got myself to the campaign as the western roman faction thinking it would be a good first time play choice. But once i played it for a while i was so shooked by all new thing that i started a new campaign until i had taken a look at every faction. The campaign map is the same as before but with fewer settlements. So no more Sparta or corinth for example. But what this does is creating more tension betwen faction as they get more aggressive to expand their territory. The battles are also in better condition now as the battle AI is improved and when your general gets the ability in form of a command trait you can fight your army in the darkness which is the highlight of this expansion and it really adds to the atmosphere. And of course some commanders are better then others in the darkness some dont even find the battlefield!.
The Barbarians got the most faction including Huns , Celts, Sarmatians, saxons and some have the ability to move its entire faction to a new homland if you are in trouble, as your "horde" is on the move you dont pay any fees besides mercenaries. But you are vulnerable to attacks. If your horde is destroyed you are too. So this is a very welcome feat aswell. When you finaly find a place to live you got the option to etiher settle or sack the settlement. The sacking which has been discussed on this forum is not really of a carthage scenario but the entire population is killed and most buildings are destroyed or damaged.
Overall this is a very good expansion but it has its flaws aswell. Example the campaign map is not so lively as before nothing added to the nature. The wonders are gone except 2 (which is accurate) but removes the quality of the terrain maybe some ruins would be good enough to add a litte variation. And there are some minor glithes that is not worth mentioning really. Some skins could be worked on etc.
But i see through those thing for now. What i did not see through was the improved pathfinding. This i was very pleased by. i play on Huge unit scale(up to 240 units) and i could steer my cavalry quite good in the city. And if you have wardogs in the city also that is not a problem they go where they suppose to go. The town square is saddly still a chaotic place thou.
If i was to grade this expansion now i would get it a 7,5 of 10 It still got the magic replayability and the wow factor when you first start the game puts this game close to original rtw which i grade a 9,5 out of 10.
Thank you Creative Assemble and Sega for the work.
Some screens of the relic.
graphics option
http://upl.silentwhisper.net/uplfold...load7/menu.JPG
celtic lineup
http://upl.silentwhisper.net/uplfold...oad4/celts.JPG
http://upl.silentwhisper.net/uplfold...ad1/celts2.JPG
a desert night
http://upl.silentwhisper.net/uplfold...ad5/desert.JPG
http://upl.silentwhisper.net/uplfold...d1/desert2.JPG
http://upl.silentwhisper.net/uplfold...d7/desert3.JPG
The worlds first BI Heroic victory :laughing:
http://upl.silentwhisper.net/uplfold...load8/hero.JPG
Thanks// Peter