499 Words About: Rome Total War Defeating Carthage…with Cheatcodes
I’ve written in two articles for this website, one about Pharaoh and the other Freedom Fighters, about how I miss cheat codes in videogames. I wish I could say I never used them when playing Rome: Total War on PC, but my title already gave me away.
What’s unique about the cheat codes in Rome: Total War is how the effects they have rarely, if ever, create an absurd moment.
Looking at a list of the cheat-codes, it becomes obvious immediately the only reason to enter these codes is to benefit gameplay rather than futz with the system. The codes a player can enter into an in-game prompt can either add funds to the player nation's treasury, adjust the various traits their generals can have, set up automatic wins for battles, and even remove the “fog of war” thus allowing players to see all enemy and friendly units on the battlefield.
Trying to write about these codes, I thought at first I should examine the lack of absurdity in them, but upon reflection I couldn’t do this. Despite the apparent, and real, benefit of these cheat-codes, Rome: Total War does allow the player a chance to create absurdity within its system using its cheats.
Like any good Real Time Strategy (RTS) videogame, Rome: Total War is built around building. The player assumes control of a nation, some troops, a patch of territory, and from there the goal is to build up an economy and military to expand outward. Recently playing the game again on Steam, I assumed the role of the Scipii, a roman faction that’s notable only because it’s the “blue team.” This path puts me immediately in line to fight, and defeat the nation of Carthage.
And, spoiler alert, I did.
I used cheat codes to generate close to 100,000 denari to invest in various city infrastructure projects, but mostly just invested it in military units and buildings. In a few moves I had completely destroyed Carthage and held most of their cities in my possession before Jullii had even crossed the Rubicon. The sands of Carthage hadn’t even been salted yet before I immediately shifted focus to Numidia and began moving troops across North Africa. It wasn’t long after they were vanquished that I looked to the Iberian peninsula.
Somewhere in this conquest, I finally observed what was so absurd.
In classic Doom there was a cheat-mode called “God Mode” where the Doom Slayer became invincible.
The cheat code, “add_money” was not “God-mode”…but it was close.
Money in RTS games is the ability to gain strength, move freely, and care less about obstacles. Should an enemy attack me I can simply bribe them to join my side or go away, and that’s exactly what I did. The absurdity of this cheat-code became that my faction, regardless of whatever challenge they face, became unstoppable effectively removing the strategy component of the game.
And, a strategy videogame without strategy, is not a game. It’s just absurd.
Joshua “Jammer” Smith
8.12.2024
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