Total War: ROME REMASTERED review friv game - Careful with nostalgia

I'm sure that someone's life in 2004 turned bright colors when the legendary Total War: ROME came out. It set the bar for its genre and pushed the Total War series forward quite a bit. Both critics and players raved about this creation and together with that they mashed it to holes, and in 2021 there is an opportunity to experience these emotions again. Will the remaster be able to give the same impressions as the original - learn from our review.

Admittedly, I'm not a huge fan of Total War: ROME, but it was one of the first online games from the studio Friv2Online Studio in the series I ever played. The news about the release of the remaster got me interested, and I eagerly plunged into the fierce period of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.
Greeting us is good old-fashioned gameplay, which is now seen as a strict benchmark for the series, but in 2004 the developers were just coming to that formula.
The gameplay is divided into two components - it's the solution of cases on the global map, which consists of North Africa, Europe and Western Asia, and tactical battles in real time, in which the player looks at the battlefield from a bird's eye view and gives orders to the subordinate units.

The goal is very clear - to lead your faction to victory by any means necessary, be it by brute force, diplomacy, alliances, espionage or other actions. The beauty of Total War: ROME lies in the details - for example, the friv game simulates a number of historical events, every turn you have to make hard decisions and reap their rewards in the future, cities are built and grow before your eyes... You can even choose heirs, marry and weave intrigue in the style of "Game of Thrones".

However, I won't go into gameplay, because you are probably already familiar with it. I am primarily interested in the technical side of the remaster, and Total War: ROME is quite ambiguous.
Let's start with the most obvious - graphics and visual elements. The naked eye can see that it became much better than in the original - ROME got a modern graphic design, which gives cartoon style, as well as optimization for wide and ultra-wide screens. New textures have been added to the models of buildings, objects and units.

The picture is really impressive (and the global map is impossible to tear yourself away from), but it's not up-to-date. And it is not so critical, because other features of the remaster, namely the cut graphic content, cause perplexity.
So, beautiful loading screens disappeared, and the videos made on the friv game engine do not give you goosebumps, as the original did. Such a decision is not quite understandable, because thanks to such trifles you are more immersed in the atmosphere of the strategy and anticipate every battle.

The next thing that the remaster brings is changes in gameplay and additional content. Here too it's 50/50 - on the one hand we get Alexander and Barbarian Invasion additions, all factions are available at the start, and minor gameplay changes are not superfluous (there is a new type of agents - traders, the camera became more convenient, and excessive distance will cause a "heat" map with various icons).

On the other hand, the AI seems to have become dumber (for example, neutral warlords on the global map just stand in their places and seem to be waiting for you to attack them), and battles feel a bit "slow", as troops do not immediately respond to commands. Such little things quickly remove the veil from your eyes, and you don't understand why such ridiculous bugs weren't fixed, since the original was known to be sinful with them.
The next innovation, which was also controversial, is the interface. I found it small and inconvenient. Out of interest, I looked at how it was in the original, and my fears were confirmed.
There are various tabs that deliberately hide the necessary information from the gamer and such important elements as building construction and hiring units. As for me, in the original was much more convenient. By the way, users in Steam agree with this, and they call the newfangled interface the main problem of the remaster. However, it should be noted that it is quite stylish and pleasant to look at.

Everything is good with the sound - the menu is greeted by the original soundtrack, which tells you that something unforgettable is ahead of you. Russian voice-over is pleasant, but some commanders were deprived of "manly" voices.

Optimization is lame - users note bugs, freezes, and crashes in their reviews. On the other hand, the friv game launched on my non-modern laptop with MX150 graphics card and is quite playable at low settings, although the launcher warned that it might not launch at all.
Readers may think that these are all nitpicks. You can really turn a blind eye to some of them - after all, the visuals have been tightened up, new gameplay features have been added, and, most importantly, the classic has been brought back after 17 years, which is sure to please gamers who spent more than a dozen hours in the original. So what's the reason for the outrage?
Price. At the release it is... 1700 (!) rubles. So, Crusader Kings III (2021) costs 930 rubles, and Imperator: Rome (2019) 725 rubles, even though the game received mixed reviews. For such a cost, players clearly do not expect bugs with immobile commanders, inconvenient interface and other unpleasant moments, and the price for a remaster is clearly overpriced.
In the end, Total War: ROME REMASTERED can be called a controversial remaster, and I recommend waiting for the discount, even if you are an ardent fan of the original. On the other hand, I'm sure that enthusiastic modders (and there is support for custom mods in the friv game), will bring the game to life much faster than the developers. Moreover, partly thanks to such craftsmen Total War: ROME has earned its fame.