Gameplay
Gameplay
The Road to Rome plays on the strengths of the main game where everything that was great about the original is improved in this one.
It is essentially the same game (now relatively bug free of course) but with two new sides (Italians and the Free French), some new vehicles, a little bit of new weaponry, 6 new maps, and the latest patch version.
The new vehicles are all up to Battlefield 1942 standards. They include a well-hard German SturmGeschutz tank, Italian M11-39 (fast and small tank), American M3 Grant (strange 2 turret tank, one is anti-air gun), improved American Halftrack as well as two bomber/fighter hybrid planes.
The maps, which were well designed in the main version (albeit a bit too big for smaller amounts of players) are designed even better this time round. Not only do they look more detailed, but the levels and missions themselves tend to focus a lot more on promoting offensive/defence style games and focussing the fire-fights to make them more intense.
What do I mean by that? Well, in the majority of the older maps the flags were placed in positions where lone players could easily sneak around and snatch them with ease. There was generally no flow on the map of troops going from point A to B to C logically. At times it felt more like a free-for-all, people grabbing flags at random that didn’t really encourage team play.
So, a lot of the time in the older maps you could jump into a jeep, and move straight to point C undetected, causing a hell of a lot of problems for your enemies when players started spawning behind their own front line!
This time maps are designed to create natural paths to each flag in turn, where you do go from A to B to C etc. Sure you still can deviate if you want and try the ‘sneaking around the back’ manoeuvre like I said before, but if you do then you’ll have to have a lot of patience as the routes are long and lonely. The way the developers have designed the terrain is to create clear routes where troops naturally will want to follow, thus promoting enemy forces to meet head on. This in turn encourages both teamwork, but also leads to both sides using defence/offence tactics. Pushing in, or pushing troops back from the front line is a common occurrence, and adds to the feel that you are fighting an army body in a campaign rather than being in some free-for-all WW2 version of Quake 3 Arena.
Defence has also become more appealing. In most B1942 maps a lot of the time was spent ignoring your own territory and charging to the nearest enemy flag. Machine gun turrets, new stationary anti-tank guns, well placed buildings and walls, are all executed perfectly in RTR to make you want to defend and present a formidable obstacle to any would-be aggressor. It just adds to that whole being ‘involved in a real battle’ feel.
The maps in RTR are fun, and each is uniquely different from the others in terms of design and structure. The only bad thing I can think of though is the size of maps. Big is not always better (when it comes to maps) and in this game it is most defiantly true. The maps are HUGE. While that’s fine if you can get a full 32 or 64 players for those who can’t it means a lot of walking around for ages. With smaller amounts of players the game quickly loses its offence/defence style of game play I praised above, and again descends into players running around missing each other, and grabbing flags with little or no resistance. The only map that is relatively small is Monte Cassino, which is awesome for smaller player loads.
I understand that the developers are trying to promote large scale matches, but not everyone has 31 friends for a LAN party!! Playing 1v1 for instance over a LAN is potentially ridiculous because you can’t add bots to stand in as players (as far as I can work out you can't), and the maps are too huge for you to meet up on! Some smaller close quarter combat maps (like seen in Medal of Honor) would have been valued.
Missing in action
Although the add-on pack is almost spotless in what it does (as well as solving bugs/issues in your main game in case you hadn’t updated to the latest version yet) it does feel a little lacking on the inspiration front. True it has two new sides but the French feel exactly like the Americans (as they use their weaponry). The maps, although well very designed are nothing truly unique or special.
Why didn’t some other interesting ideas show up and be explored? I'm not a games designer but I can think of a few. What about motorbikes for instance? They were in WW2 and the motorised infantry did serve a purpose during the war. Most battles in WW2 also were not just fought by two sides, but often with allies and other empires present. Why couldn’t their have been a three-sided battle? For example the UK and US vs. the Germans? UK and US start in different camps, German start in middle with overpowering weaponry? I can't believe that other (interesting and workable) ideas didn't come up on the drawing board.
It just feels like the developers struck to the original formula a bit to meticulously, afraid to venture too far into the unknown and untested.
I understand why of course. As most failed add-on packs usually change the balance and feel of the old game in doing so, thereby ruining the experience and fan base. Luckily the developers don’t add anything to drastic to change the pace and focus of the game (like a ridiculously over-powerful weapon etc). It’s just a shame that something a little different wasn’t added that’s all. £20 as well, for essentially 6 maps, to me seems just a tad high.
Single player blues
Something I didn’t add was single player. Those who recall my review on B1942, and those who now own the game, will know how dreadful the A.I. was for the bots in SP. You’ll now be glad to hear that they are very much improved.
However, that does not mean drastically better, not enough that you’d want to spend much time on it. Single Player is too easy, plus there still is no control over your troops meaning you end up feeling incredibly distant from your computer comrades. Good they solved the A.I. glitches, still don’t mean you would want to play it.
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