Celtic Kings: Rage of War

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Celtic Kings: Rage of War
Developer(s)	Haemimont Games
Publisher(s)	Strategy First
Release date(s)	August 21, 2002
Genre(s)	RTS - RPG
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone(E)
Platform(s)	PC
System requirements	RAM: 64MB Hard-drive space: 500MB

Celtic Kings: Rage of War is a game developed by Haemimont Games.

1 Overview
2 Genre
3 Gameplay
4 Reception
5 References
6 External Links

[edit] Overview

Celtic Kings takes place in ancient Roman times, during the years that Julius Caesar was the military and (possibly) political leader of the Roman Empire. There are three main modes: Adventure, single player (a classic RTS Skirmish mode), and multiplayer. Adventure mode includes a tutorial and the main story. In both campaigns, you control a hero named Larax. In the main story, he loses his wife in a Teutonic raid. In grief, he swears vengeance, and gives his body and soul to the Goddess of War, to enable him to achieve his revenge.

[edit] Genre

This game uses both role-playing and real-time strategy elements. Units are controlled in a standard RTS fashion. Most units have the ability to gain levels. This is done either through fighting, training(to a certain limit, usually level 12), or, in the case of the priest/druid, learning from units with more experience (levels) . In adventure mode, the player will constantly move between maps, which are all greatly varying in landscape and objectives. For dialouge, it is in the form of text, where the player has a choice of what to say.

[edit] Gameplay

There are 2 main factions, the Romans, and the Gauls. These two factions are diverse from each other, in terms of gameplay. There is a third, non-playable faction, the Teutons. There are two resources, food and gold. Food is mainly produced from villages. Food is an important resource for keeping units alive, since they can starve, thus losing health, weakening them in battle. Gold comes mainly from taxes. Unlike a traditional RTS, the players resources are not "global". Mules are used to transport resources between cities.

Structures cannot be constructed, with the exception of a catapult, an immoblie artillery unit built by military units. However, structures are captured instead. Structures have a loyalty rating, which gradually decreases if military units are ordered to capture it. If the rating reaches zero, than the structure switches to the conqueror's side.

There are hero units in the game. Heroes can attach units to themselves, giving them the ability to march in formation. The hero's experience is shared between the units under his/her command.

[edit] Reception

The game was well-received by critics. IGN gave the game a rating of 8.2/10, Gamespot gave it a rating of 8.4/10, while Gamespy rated the game a 4.5/5. The game was praised for its success in mixing the elements of RTS and RPG. Some critisms include the somewhat overblown soundtrack and the voice acting.