Roman Consul HD review: A particularly honest graphics upgrade

Since game resets have become a mainstream branch of game development today, players have long expected that more and more resets will appear on the store pages of major gaming platforms. However, not all games can be eligible for "reset". Popularity and feelings are the hard criteria for measuring whether a game can be "fried".

Since it comes to feelings, RTS games that were once popular in the LAN online era must become the main object of "reinvention". This is indeed the case, whether it is the classic Age of Empires 2, or the famous Warcraft 3. Have launched corresponding resets or remastered games.

Therefore, when I read the news that the Roman Archons would be reset, I was not much surprised or surprised. Although the Roman Archon did not compete with classics such as Warcraft 3, Red Alert 2 and Age of Empires 2 in the wave of domestic RTS games that year, its inherent fan base and its own style of combat play were worth Pyro Studios spending some time to reset in HD.

This is another reason why game makers are happy to reset RTS games -- the cost is low and the returns are high.

But that doesn't mean Roman Archon HD is a shoddy, feel-good game. On the contrary, when it comes to the term "HD reset", Roman Archon HD and Pyro Studios are quite honest - the game as a whole deserves the term in terms of the improvements and adjustments to the sharpness of the graphics and textures.

But that's about it.

The reason for this is that Roman Archon HD has not changed at all, except for resetting the game graphics and character models. What Roman Consul used to smell like, Roman Consul HD still smells like inside.

"Original" is not a bad thing, but if it is really unchanged, it will be difficult to make players feel fresh and want to buy. Moreover, with the development of The Times, game products continue to upgrade. Many of the Settings in Roman Archon that seemed "hardcore" back then don't apply to today's game market and player base.

For example, AI that was somewhat unresponsive at the time, in today's game environment, it makes players feel cumbersome. The most obvious place is in the firefight between troops, all of which requires the player to manually operate one by one - if there is no order to attack, even if other friendly troops are engaged in a firefight, the remaining friendly troops in the attack range will not attack on their own.

In Roman Archon HD, the players are not recruited by individual soldiers, but by "legions", which are recruited one by one. This is what makes it different from games like Warcraft 3 and Age of Empires 2, and is also its feature and highlight. But as a result, unit movement and combat in the game is much bulkier than in other games. In addition, the legions have to give additional instructions to adjust the legion-oriented Settings while moving, which also makes people feel cumbersome.

The setting, which provided only three optional forces, was also kept intact in Roman Archon HD. In addition to the small number of electable forces, the characteristics of the camps among the forces are not significant. There was no difference in design between the Roman, Egyptian, and barbarian regiments of bowmen. The way the Roman and barbarian infrastructure regiments attacked was simply the difference in the weapons they used - one with a spear, the other with a flying axe. The real difference lies in the higher ranks of the rear - the Romans are mainly infantry, the Praetorian guard (ace infantry) can carry and fight; Egypt's long-range forces are agile; Barbarians rely on mountains and dense forests, and cavalry is the most lethal.

But think about it another way, Roman Archon HD also retains the redeeming qualities of the original game. For example, "light resources, heavy combat" game ideas. Gathering resources and building buildings play an important role in many RTS games. Building key buildings and recruiting key arms are often the ideas used by many players to defeat the enemy. In Roman Archon HD, however, there are no resources to gather, and there are not many buildings to build. Recruiting high rank requires "honor," which can only be earned by defeating enemy troops.

This encourages players to keep sending troops to fight. Operational terrain and pre-war reconnaissance are particularly important. In contrast, the reconnaissance system and terrain system in Roman Consul HD are quite mature. And these two elements also largely affect the outcome of the military firefight.

This design was unique in the resource-gathering RTS games of the time. Such a setting is conducive to players quickly get started, "F2A" does give people the pleasure of fighting. However, the drawback of this design is that the game is not as enjoyable as traditional RTS games, and the game ceiling level is not as good as that of high micro RTS games such as StarCraft 2 and Warcraft 3.

If this reset version can further optimize its viewing or improve playability while inheriting this style of game, it may be able to make more viewers shine. Unfortunately, Pyro Studios is not planning to further reinvent the Roman Archon IP.

Moreover, even if the name of the game is crowned with the word "HD", due to technical force and other reasons. The picture of the whole game still can not keep up with the game quality of the era. In addition to the game cutscenes, the opening CG has not been reset in HD, which will inevitably make players feel that they have been poured cold water after the excitement.

"Normal, no highlights of a reset game", perhaps the most in line with the "Roman Consul HD" evaluation. It really does implement the "HD reset" these four words, and as for all other parts, there is no change.

Perhaps there is a reason for it, because the pit of resetting the game is too deep, and the players who have been "pit" by this pit are countless. Many players even see the word "reset" and directly button up the hat of "cheating feelings" and "frying rice". Because of this, not making any changes to the game itself is more like an insurance policy to protect the game's IP and reputation.

Of course, this also better saves development costs, thus increasing sales profits.

However, for now, the original game experience of Roman Consul HD is still very good. The design that focuses on the battle allows the player to have more thinking in tactics, and does not require too many complex micro-operations, which is also suitable for many old players to re-taste this work.

If you can wait for a sale, so much the better.