Rome: Total War - Barbarian Invasion Review

However, even with all its upsides, the game isn't perfect. Even though there are many new units in the game, sometimes the differences between many of them will be minimal and some of the new special abilities do not offer too much in the way of resulting new tactics.

Another thing is that the AI still exhibits some faults during real-time combat. On the 'normal' level of difficulty, they were too easily tricked by my more mobile units into falling into ambushes and subsequently being surrounded. They would often unnecessarily try to cross the river even though that would significantly diminish their maneuverability and effectively take them out of the battle. On the bright side, things do get better in that sense when you up the level of difficulty.

Overall, though, the job that Creative Assembly has done is imposing, and my verdict is that any true fan of the series would be foolish not to get the expansion. It's well worth "the price of admission."