I know this isn't Europa Barbarorum but this is ridiculous!

User Rating: 4.5 | Battle for Troy PC
By iloneforcombat | Review Date:
As a fan of Real Time Strategy, I ended up with this game (a trial, played repetitively in different computers) and it seemed fun at first: one can establish camps and collect gold from enemies. However, it does have a fundamental flaw: lack of variety. There are only so many types of units in the game, most of the game revolving around infantry. Cavalry is unthinkable in the trial versions (alas, even though Greece never had a great history of horsemanship), and although there are some room for tactics, clear advantages are not so clear after few units kill off many of yours. Frustration mounts with the units, but it would have been better, if they placed a greater emphasis on things like cavalry, Greek military terminologies (such as the hoplitai/hoplites) and tactics.

Units and game dynamics:
There is no way of accurately measuring the ability of an unit from just looking at the recruitment buttons, and the spearman for some reason resemble the Thureophoroi that came WAAAY after the Trojan Wars (to be honest, after the Gallic invasion) rather than the Hoplitai that the producers probably wanted the players to associate with. Skirmishing is limited at best, limited to the archers (who were never really a major part of an hellenic army, even after Alexandros) and the Thureophoroi carrying aspis shields that are dubbed "Spearmen." This isn't Europa Barbarorum, I know, but the units are too generic and doesn't really generate a Greek feel. There is no phalanx, there is no troop formation (who needs that when the combat mechanics suck anyways?), and believe it or not, NO Greek feel at all, save for the HUD. But there are some elements that would make a person ask, "what went wrong?", because there are realistic elements like charging at the enemy, emphasis on maintaining the units (despite the fact that so many die even with experience), and plundering. It isn't too terrible, but it certainly isn't stellar. Long story short, unit designs are rather anachronistic and naming generic, and combined with rather disappointing combat mechanics, drop the game out of fame.

Graphics/Sounds: Graphics aren't too terrible: it is doable even in low-resource computers, which is a big boon, and toonish model of what seems to be a Korinthian helmet certainly is a plus, even though Korinthian helmets didn't exist in the time period accepted. it's well... acceptable. Sounds aren't too spectacular, nor are they too terrible either. This does not help the fact that the game dynamics are relatively crushed by terrible combat dynamics. But the music is quite enjoyable, so that is a lifesaver for the game

Long story short, it could have been better.with major overhauls, especially to the combat system as mentioned by Gamespot.

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