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Roads of Rome HD
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Graphics & Sound:
Road to Rome HD has delightful graphics, even if things are a bit small due to the restrictions of the top down isometric viewpoint. Despite this, everything is easy to see and the levels you play in are pleasant to look at. Even in the overview map, the water effects are mesmerizing and it's nice to see so many wonderful little details. There are four main areas that you'll work through: a grassy valley, a frozen mountainous region, a cracked and desolate volcanic region and a beautiful desert island-looking location. Each area has its own foliage, including berry bushes and trees, and each has a specific dangerous animal to watch out for, like wolves and different types of bears. The workers who assist you all look the same, but they have a decidedly Roman flair to them; after all, you and your team are working on behalf of Julius Caesar himself.
I love Road to Rome HD's soundtrack. The background music changes depending on your location, and is comprised of stringed instruments and lilting horns of different types; all of it makes me want to go immediately to a Ren Faire. Other sound effects include hammering, picking at stones or mining gold, chopping down trees, picking berries and the occasional pig grunt from the farm. There's a celebratory "hurrah" when you upgrade your camp, thereby obtaining a new worker, and tinkering sounds when food or resources appear after the proper facilities have been erected. You'll also know exactly when a dangerous animal appears on the scenes because it will roar fiercely and your workers will quickly run back to camp.
I really enjoyed an area called My Valley which is a quick visual representation of your progress through Road to Rome HD. There are four statues of Roman gods which initially are large hunks of stone, but as you complete levels on Expert, a worker chips away to reveal the lovely statue within. There are also representations of the different facilities you can erect like the farm, sawmill, storehouse, quarry, and gold mine, plus busy little workers scurrying about, with you, General Victorious, overseeing it all.
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Gameplay:
Road to Rome HD reminds me a lot of the old PC title Settlers. Although I never pictured myself a fan, because I used to watch Geck0 play all the time and never quite saw the appeal, now I totally get it and I have been having a blast with Road to Rome HD.
So the story goes that you are General Victorius and you and Caesar's beautiful daughter, Julia, have fallen in love and want to marry. Caesar can't have his regal daughter marrying a member of his armed services, but he can't deny the union without alienating one of his best men. So what does he do? He sends Victorious off on a mission to build a road through his conquered lands. If Victorius wants to someday make it back to Julia, he must accomplish his mission.
You'll have 40 levels in all to complete, 10 in each region. You begin in a grassy valley and there's a helpful tutorial that will pop up tips from time to time to make sure you know how to proceed. You begin with one worker and you will tap to have him cut down a tree to gather wood, then tap to have him extend the road. He will require food to keep working, and for this, you will either have to pick berries or build a farm or fisherman's hut to generate food. In the warmer climates, the berries will regenerate, but in the colder climes, once you pick the berries from a bush, that's it, so you must use your resources carefully. As you progress, you'll be able to gather stone for building by picking away at small stones in the area, clearing large stones from your path and eventually building a quarry. Some points will require you to build a hot air balloon launch or boat launch to reach previously inaccessible areas. You'll have opportunities to increase the number of workers per level by upgrading your camp and there are power-ups that will appear from time to time, such as a pair of shoes to increase the speed your workers travel, a hammer to make them work faster, a clock to stop the timer for a select period and a bag to increase the resources they gather during a select period.
Your mission goals will be listed at the top of the screen, over a bar signifying your timer. If you can complete the level prior to the bar timer reaching a set point about 2/3 of the way down the timer, you will earn the Expert rating on the level and add to the beauty of the My Valley area mentioned above.
The last level in a given region will actually be a Tetris-styled game where you remove colored gems from the playing area by matching three or more. You have a set number of a certain colored gem to collect and you have to survive long enough to obtain these gems. Once you do, they become a necklace to send to your beloved Julia. It's a nice change of pace and tie-in to the storyline.
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Difficulty:
Most levels in Road to Rome HD are easily doable in the allotted time period, however there were a few that took several do-overs before besting them. Getting an Expert rating on every level is another matter and will take a long time to accomplish. Certain levels will require you to execute things in a specific way with absolutely no slip-ups if you want to earn Expert. I know, because I have played some levels over and over and have missed getting the Expert rating by one second. One second! So then, you tweak your approach and poof, you get the Expert rating. Overall, I think the difficulty rating is just about perfect. I was able to burn through the game and its 40 levels in a handful of days, but in order to complete the entire game on Expert, it will take considerably longer.
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Game Mechanics:
Everything in Road to Rome HD is done by tapping the touch screen and, for the most part, it works very well. Some of the power-ups or resource items can require a second or third tap because they are so small, so I did run into that from time to time. This can be annoying if you only have seconds to spare when you are trying to get the Expert rating.
Additionally, I did have a few occasions where food items would pop up in places they weren't supposed to, just randomly lying in the grass. I'm not complaining, mind you, because the extra food was helpful, but I think it was a bit of a glitch. What I can say is that I haven't had problems with the game crashing, like I have seen on some of the comments on the Road to Rome HD iTunes page. There were two times when I completed a level only to be taken back to my desktop, but that very well could have been a slip of my finger. I have an iPad 2 and the latest OS, so those people may be having issues because of an outdated OS.
Overall, I had a blast playing Road to Rome HD and I am still playing it, even after beating it. Mainly, I want to get the Expert rating on all of the levels so that I can see the statues in My Valley in their completed form. If you like strategy, resource management or even time management, give Road to Rome HD a try because it's a great game. |
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-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications AKA Ashley Perkins |
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