The History Channel: Great Battles of Rome (PlayStation Portable, 2007)

This game places you right into the heart of Rome in it's greatest strongest times. It allows you to play both as Rome and as some of the enemies against Rome (Gaels, Celts & Carthage). You get to organize your units, set up tactical battlefield maneuvers and at points you can get promotions, medals and fame for victories on the battlefield. After a battle you return to camp and can promote some of your units and increase their skills and restrengthen your losses.

The controls are easy to use and simple to understand. Everything you need to control the game is right on screen and makes sense. The battles truly require strategy and planning. You really need to plan certain types of troops or skills against your enemies. What works well against one enemy won't always get you the same results against another. That's wht it's called a RTS (Real Time Strategy) game.

The graphics in the game are a little bit dated. If you are looking for sweeping graphics that will blow your mind away and test the limits of your computer's graphics card, this game won't do it. The graphics are more in line with the graphics of the early 2000s. The music accompanying the game is on a similar level as the graphics and likewise will not test you sound cards capabilities.

Overall, I like this sort of game, as it challenges me mentally with all of the strategy elements, planning and details. I like that you can play both as Rome, and as it's enemies. The graphics and sound are very average, but don't distract from the gameplay.

My Overall Assessment:

Graphics:
3/5 STARS (Pretty Average)
Music/Sound:
3/5 STARS (Pretty Average)
Story:
5/5 STARS (I really enjoy the cleverness of playing both sides)
Controls:
4/5 STARS (Average control. Simple to use. Not crazy complicated)

OVERALL SCORE:
4/5 STARS (This is a good game and is worth buying if you can get it for under $10.00. You will enjoy being able to play both sides of the famous historic battles against and for Rome. Graphics and Sound won't impress you, but shouldn't detract too greatly. In total you can play 100s of battles recruit, train and promote troops. Strategy and thinking are very important to this game.(In other words you will need to use your brain.) Controls keep it simple and easy to use; nothing fancy but nothing complicated.)