=================================
SCORE:
=================================
Gameplay: 10/10
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: (N/A)
Value: 8/10
Tilt: 9/10
=================================
TOTAL SCORE: 8.5
=================================

The Darth Mod is known by the more hardcore Rome: Total War players as the best AI mod available, and this newest iteration lives up to its name.

The Darth Mod's name comes from its creator and sole project member, a guy who goes by the username of Darth Vader on the Total War Center forums. When Rome: Total War first came out, most of the mods being planned and developed for it were based around either realism or gameplay changes. The Darth Mod is, primarily, a gameplay mod. To be more specific, it improves the difficulty of the AI on the battlefield.

Battles in the Darthmod are very challenging, at least relatively. On average you should expect to take between 1 1/2 and 2 times as many casualties as you normally do. But this is also a good thing, because the battles you win are also more gratifying, and the threat of losing more troops every battle makes you rethink your overarching campaign, making you less likely to send in single armies to assault factions without having any source of reinforcements. But again, the AI is much better in the Darthmod. Phalanxes advance in orderly lines, supported by cavalry on either wing and velites covering their flanks. In one of the custom battles I played, Seleucid companions wreaked havoc on my reserves and I ended up losing virtually all of my velities and archers, and about 3/4 of my cavalry. I ended up suffering 25% casualties, and I probably have 500 hours or more experience with Rome: Total War. In the original game this army would have been slaughtered by me peacemeal. Perhaps the most impressive thing about this mod is that the actual AI is left untouched; it is just "helped out," so to speak, with intangible things such as more effective battle formations.

The Darthmod, like many other gameplay mods such as Mundus Magnus, also comes with several new units. Some of these are units that were originally created by the Creative Assembly but were later scrapped in the final build of the game, and some of these units were collected from various other mods. However, the overall quality and artistic design of these units are very inconsistent and while many of them look good by themselves, when put together they seem a little out of place. Luckily, for those of you who don't want the whole package, Darth Vader has also released a stand-alone copy of the battle formations used in the Darthmod, and for those of you who downloaded Rome: Total Realism 6.0, the latest version of the Darthmod is also being included in the upcoming 6.1 patch (sans the new units).

Many of you will also be pleased to know that the latest version of the Darthmod comes bundled with the Mundus Magnus campaign map, and even includes a few bugfixes for it. The whole effect created by the combination of the two is really excellent.

Overall, the Darthmod provides a solid gameplay experience that should have obvious appeal to veteran RTW players looking for a new challenge.

=================================
SCORE:
=================================
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: (N/A)
Value: 10/10
Tilt: 10/10

=================================
TOTAL SCORE: 9.3
=================================



Mundus Magnus doesn't do much, but what it does do it does perfectly.

Essentially, Mundus Magnus is primarily an alternate campaign map, stretching the map as far south as central Africa and as far east as the Hindu-Kush Mountain range (modern day Pakistan). The number of provinces is essentially doubled, and those new provinces aren't limited to new areas either. Several new provinces are added in every region of the Mediterranean world. Faction also start out with more historically accurate borders.

The mod also provides a challenge for more daring players. Numidia, Armenia, and Parthia now start with only a single province, with Armenia and Parthia being particularly vulnerable to the monstrous 25-territory Seleucid Empire which now stretches to its historical borders. The Greek City States also start with less provinces, having only Sparta, Athens and Rhodes at the start of the game. Rebel territories have less defenders than they originally did, each provinces usually only having 3 units, but those three units all start out with three experience points, and provide a considerable road bump to people looking to expand through rebel territories.

Not a lot has been added to the tactical side, but still, some has been in the form of a handful of mercenaries. The skins of the mercenaries blend in seamlessly with the CA-created skins, and look excellent. A few new campaign resources have been added too, examples of which being fish, horses, and salt. These too blend in seamlessly with the other resources on the map.

Mundus Magnus is a must-have for anyone who enjoys Rome: Total War. Even those who are cautious have no need to worry; the mod coexists with the default campaign, and you can play both even with Mundus Magnus installed without having to edit anything in the filesystem. Although frankly, you'd have to be crazy to want to play the original campaign having played this one.

=================================
SCORE:
=================================
Graphics: 9/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Sound: 9/10
Value: 8/10
Tilt: 6/10

=================================
TOTAL SCORE: 7.4/10
=================================

Rome: Total Realism 6.0, the sixth iteration of the Rome: Total Realism mod, is by far the most ambitious version yet and distances itself from its predecessors with a plethora of new gameplay features. Unfortunately, one of the things that stayed in RTR 6.0 is poor implementation, marring what would have been an excellent mod.

To its credit, RTR looks and sounds sleek. Every single unit model in the game is new; and many of them look much better than even the unit models in the original game. RTR also has its own original soundtrack, which despite being obviously produced with a synthesizer sounds great and accomplishes what the original RTW soundtrack did in capturing the mood of the classical era.

Battles have been altered extensively. Cavalry are particularly vulnerable if they stay in melee too long, even cataphracts. Less experienced generals will find themselves losing more elite cavalry units every battle than they would like, especially since cavalry in RTR is (and always has been) very expensive. They are also much slower than they were in the RTW, but they also apparently tire less easily. Phalanxes have also been modified to be even more damaging to cavalry. The pace of batttles in general are much slower in RTR 6.0, and while it isn't nescessarily better than the original RTW (that would be a matter of tastes), it does provide a different experience that extends the life of the game, and is of course more historically accurate.

The campaign map has also been altered extensively. RTR 6.0 introduces two new factions, Bactria and Illyria. Bactria is a Hellenic kingdom east of the Seleucid empire, and Illyria is a semibarbaric kingdom on the northern shores of the Adriatic Sea. The Britons and Dacians, unfortunately, were removed to make room for the new factions, as Rome: Total War has a limit on the number of factions. RTR 6.0 also introduces the new AOR and ZOR systems (Area of Recruitment and Zones of Recruitment respectively), the gist of which is that newly conquered provinces provide increasingly higher quality local auxilia such as Italian Cavalry or Gallic Swordsmen as you build higher tiers of auxilia barracks, until eventually, with the right buildings constructed, the province will be able to produce that faction's unique troops. It's an innovative system and for the most part it works quite well; although you are left pretty much in the dark as to how the system works (for example, in the auxilia barracks description it says that in some provinces with some cultures you won't be able to train any auxilia whatsoever; good luck finding out which provinces those are). The map, as with previous iterations of RTR, also extends all the way east to the Indus river vally in western India.

Unfortunately all those promising features are nearly cancelled out by the aforemention poor implementation. It should be immediately obvious even before you begin a campaign; in the Single campaign window, you have several options: Rome: Total Realism Campaign, Custom Battle, Provincial Campaign, Disabled, and Disabled. As far back as anyone can remember, RTR has opted for a single unified Roman Republic, yet they still haven't been able to fix the flaws in their system; when hovering your cursor over the Senate tab, a message pops up that shouts; "WARNING!!! DON'T CLICK!!!" And while the AOR and ZOR systems are innovative, they are also very confusing and the player must use trial and error to figure it out. There are also some very obvious bugs that really should have been fixed by any competent modding team; for example, the building description for the Roman Allied Barracks is "Warning! this text should never show up on screen!" or something of that nature. CTD's are more frequent than they should be, even in the unpatched version. The team behind RTR still hasn't been able to come up with a formula to decide unit costs apparently, because the costs of units are very much random; in many cases you can actually buy a unit as a mercenary for cheaper than you can train them in your own barracks. Unit pricing is a big problem in RTR, because it hurts the balance of the game; frequently, you can buy a much better unit for the exact same cost as a mediocre one, in the same settlement.

In the end, Rome: Total Realism is a mod with great potential. Hopefully, one day it will actually reach it.