The classic strategy game title Rome: Total War ($9.99) arrived for the iPad in the fall of 2016, and it sure was fun to be able to shape history while on the go. Since then two expansion releases have arrived: Rome: Total War – Barbarian Invasion ($4.99) was released just over a year ago and Rome: Total War – Alexander ($4.99) released last July. All three games are strictly for the iPad, which makes sense on one hand being that they’re menu-intensive games with tons of UI elements and tiny little soldiers running about. On the other hand, that sucks for iPhone owners, you know?
Developer Feral Interactive, who ported the Rome trilogy to iPad, has vowed to make the impossible possible by releasing an iPhone version of the original Rome: Total War. Feral originally planned for this iPhone version to be released this past winter, and even teased some of the redesigned interface that they’d been working on. However, it’s taking longer than they anticipated, and a month ago they announced that it would instead be arriving sometime this summer. To ease the blow the announcement came with a great new trailer of Rome running on the iPhone, and today they’re teasing even more with two new looks at the new zoom functionality for the iPhone version.
In that top gif, you can see an enhanced version of the normal zoom found in Rome: Total War on the iPad, but with the ability to zoom in further and zoom out further, giving you a better up close look at your units when needed and a better overall look at the map when needed. The lower gif shows a brand new type of zoom Feral built into the game specifically for the iPhone version, and they explain how it works: “Zoom in automatically by tapping close to selectable objects on the Campaign Map, such as armies or cities. A quick pinch gesture zooms you back out." It all sounds really slick, and over the coming weeks Feral plans on showcasing more new features like these ones leading up to the iPhone version release this summer. When that version does arrive, it’ll cost $9.99 but will also be a free Universal update to existing owners of Rome: Total War on iPad.
