Updated: 24 Nov 2018 6:09 pm
Posted: 31 Jan 2003 8:00 am
Today, Electronic Arts, the world's largest games publisher, invited IGNers and at least four other big name games media publications, themselves, and even the developers at DICE to partake in several not so friendly rounds of Road to Rome. As expected, IGN came out on top every single time. Out of the four matches we played, our team won four times. Out of the four matches we played, one of our players made first place four times. That's right, Buttsy, Fatty, myself, Talmadge, Mana, and Franjo were all on hand to lay down the hurt in a big, big way.
The first match, Monte Cassino, is literally a rush. The allies, desperate for a base, start at their permanent location on the north side at the bottom of a long, straight, hilly, hill. There they assemble and move forward, attempting to take base after Axis controlled base until finally reaching the top, where a large monastery with two bases facing each other sits ominously. We call it the deathtrap. Battlefield, sorely lacking more rush maps of its own, really needed this one in the expansion, and it is a hoot to play.
As the Axis, the key to victory lies in setting up strong defensive positions and always coordinating with one other, filling roles and sticking to them. Dan the artillery man pelts the east end preventing enemy armor from crossing the furthest most of the two vital bridges and doing an end-around on us. Westward bound, Fran sneaks across the river as a sniper and lays down a target for Daniel. I, stationed just south of the west bridge, crouch behind cover and keep my team aware of incoming armor and units. All the while I'm liberally picking off infantry as they come sauntering past hoping for something that they'll never, ever get. Once the west bridge is relatively clear, Stephen rumbles over it and toward their permanent base in his tank of mass destruction and unleashes hell for as long as he can. Believe me, when the cooperation and coordination is in place, this is quite simply the most fun you can have at the keyboard (pornography included).
And this is just the beginning -- the beginning of Road to Rome, the beginning of our great day of slaughtering everyone, and the beginning of this review. If you'd like to read on and eventually stumble across those always satisfying final scores, please feel free; however, if you'd prefer to see the game in action and at the same time enjoy a solid oral account of its many delights, we've already assembled our second video review here at IGNPC and it's a whopper. Insider membership or participation in the free trial is required, but if you're already on the Inside or willing to open the door and get in, go right ahead and start downloading the video while you read through the rest of this.
At the end of Monte Cassino, Stephen came out in first, while Dan, Fran, and I all rounded out the four, five, and six slots. Naturally, our team won. And as awesome as the blackened skies and scorched Earth of Monte Cassino was, it was about to get a hell of a lot better.
The best part of Road to Rome is the retained but expanded balance. Everything you loved about Battlefield is back, but bigger, cooler, and most importantly, workable. The six new maps, though failing to offer much in terms of sheer quantity, are fantastic additions to the base game. Much like how Monte Cassino adds that extra, needed rush map to the total sum, the others (Baytown, Husky, Anzio, Salerno, and Santa Croce) all do the same, but for their respective styles.
Distant bouts of air superiority, close-quartered king of the hill matches, parachute drops, beach storms, artillery shootouts... Oh my. Each map is brilliantly devised. Even the controversial non-spawn flag point at Salerno, which forces teams that control either opposing point and the center to still walk quite a ways, is masterfully done to keep balance intact. For if a faction could control the center, then the day would easily be won. The same holds true for the new emphasis on bridges and choke points. All except Cassino incorporate a range of varying bridges placed in strategic locations. This keeps the action tighter, even in large maps, and places an even greater emphasis on coordinating advances with artillery strikes. Awesome.
And the vehicles, they further this level of coolness. New halftracks with back mounted machineguns, forward mounted artillery, and small spots in the top for engineers and scouts to perch come hand-in-hand with speedy and uncannily lethal medium range attack bombers, and even new tanks complete with shielded machinegun nests and limited firing arcs for the main cannons. Beautifully, they all work to add a new level of balance to the game. For the first time, the machinegun nests on the tops of tanks are not only useful, but absolutely necessary, since these new vehicles are incapable of swiveling their turrets 360 degrees and laying out everyone in sight. They lack forward mounted machineguns too, which makes the importance of a second, now protected man, all the more apparent. In this way, their originally unfair lethality has been reduced, but their effectiveness, when used appropriately, has been increased. Additionally, we see new rotating anti-personnel and anti-air cannons mounted on the tops of some of the metal beasts with limited firing arcs, making effective ground and air cover all the more possible.
It's in the vehicles that I am most pleased with Road to Rome. Each is new, distinct, and offers a whole new level of play that, when coupled with existing vehicles and strategies, really changes the game. I wish I could say the same for the weapons.
If we weren't on Axis most of the time, I'd imagine we would have been able to beat all of the lesser men hell of a lot quicker today. Sure, Stephen still got first place for three of the four matches, including one where his computer crashed out and he came back in half way through, but it would have been nice to make the 45 minute matches 20 minutes. I blame it on Italy.
The Italians suffer most from the new weapons. Not only are they forced to use the shoddy Breda assault rifle that just doesn't feel right (realistic in life, not fun in a game), but their engineers, like all others, benefit little from the included bayonet option. Despite being a one hit kill weapon, it doesn't help much when equipped for it takes the place of the indispensable zoom function.
Granted, Battlefield sort of follows a Warcraft II philosophy, where different sides each have a unique look, but are basically the same. There is certainly an appreciable level of diversity (ammo capacity, shot effectiveness, etc), but generally speaking, the assault rifle of one is comparable to the assault rifle of another. The Italian's "gun" is just wrong. I find it difficult to hit people, it's too quick to reload, and it's even awkward to look at. Dan, on the other, wrong side of the fence, actually likes the crazy thing. Go figure. Thankfully, the British make out better, as their new medic gun, the Sten, is both lethal and lovely. Still, the additions in this department are few, and often times work more negatively than positively for the game, unlike new presentational aspects that help everything all around.
Like the others from the original, voices for the French and Italians are dead on and always serve as that perfect reminder of what it must have been like to shoot their respective peoples in the face while they screamed for reinforcements or tried vainly to alert their friends of an impending attack. Sadly, there is no new introductory video, but the backgrounds and loading screens have gotten an overhaul, even if the stellar musical score remains unchanged.
What will be extremely disappointing to fans is a complete lack of performance improvements. Pretty much all of Road to Rome is centered around content, thus if you had problems before, you'll likely have problems now. This might seem as a serious downside, but take into consideration the imminent 1.3 patch, scheduled to release before the launch of the expansion, and the bad isn't so bad. 1.3 is designed to help bring those owning just the original and those owning both up to a better, synchronized level and it negates the complaint entirely. Expect big performance increases, big stability increases, and a lot of balancing from it.
Saddest then is the fact that there aren't any new modes. I'm still longing for my historically inaccurate but sure to be incredibly fun three or four-sided map. Imagine Germans vs. Japanese vs. Americans vs. Russians. Sure, this mystical battle for Nebraska never really happened (God I hope not), but it'd be a hell of a thing to go through such a battle, all the while worrying about four factions instead of two. Also, where are the objective based missions and multiplayer favorites like assassin (with 64 people, holy goodness), tag, and steal the bacon? A heck of a lot could and should have been added, especially considering that these are practical suggestions, capable of being realistically implemented in a real world setting. They don't reflect the outlandish requests for an RTS component (commander class) and so forth.
But then you realize that it just doesn't matter. As we continued playing through Husky, Salerno and Santa Croce -- winning every match and killing every person -- we were reminded of what we've actually always known: this is awesome and we are great.
Verdict
A lack of modes, no performance and stability increases, and somewhat pitiful weapons keep Road to Rome from being the perfect expansion it could have been.
Who cares?
Considering Battlefield is such a fundamentally awesome game, Road to Rome managing to significantly improve the base in the ways that it does is at the very least commendable and the very most fantastic.
Level design is supremely awesome. The new weapons, though arguably making things worse, still add something new and different. The vehicles add a completely new strategic dimension to play. Some tanks are less effective and thus people need to be more effective. More emphasis is placed on artillery and thus more emphasis is placed on coordination. Going back, it's the levels that bring it all together. The end result is an experience that remains intact, but plain better than before. That feel, that rush, that intensity... It's all here.
Next time we'd better see some more modes or else I'm going to have a fit while I once again willingly and happily help my team to devastate all comers. IGN over all. Believe it.
For $20 you can't go wrong.
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