Total War: Rome II

 PC
  • Publisher: Sega
  • Release Date: Sep 2, 2013
User Score
4.4

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 3974 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,184 out of 3974
  2. Mixed: 613 out of 3974
  3. Negative: 2,177 out of 3974
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  1. ibuyonlyquality
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    Launching Second Shortcoming of the Year. Retarded UI, poor optimization, no SLI. Yes, I was talking about CoH2. Applies to this title also. Support better game developers, there are a few.
  2. Brosman
    Sep 10, 2013
    1
    I know its not a real review. But just warning to people wanting to buy this game, Im pretty sure 90% of the critics on the left side there have been paid off. 100/100, really?
  3. Studpuffin
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    This game is only slightly better than Empire Total War, in that it is actually playable. That doesn't mean you'll actually want to play it, though. The game is full of annoyances: graphical bugs, bad computer AI that will literally run in circles around the battlefield and use almost nothing but slingers in battle, constant crashing during siege battles, and an bad unit cards that areThis game is only slightly better than Empire Total War, in that it is actually playable. That doesn't mean you'll actually want to play it, though. The game is full of annoyances: graphical bugs, bad computer AI that will literally run in circles around the battlefield and use almost nothing but slingers in battle, constant crashing during siege battles, and an bad unit cards that are hard to tell apart from other unit cards. At the beginning of the game the time it takes to load a new turn is maybe a minute for me. After about 50 turns, I'll be lucky to have the end turn cycle done by the time I cook and eat dinner and enjoy some time with my family (you know, if the AI doesn't interrupt the end turn sequence with constant begging for money).

    On the plus side, it is pretty compared to the graphics of previous games. However, this doesn't make up for the atrocious game play. All in all, I would suggest that if you have to purchase a total war game, don't make it this one. Go back and buy the original Rome Total War or Medieval 2 (I can't vouch for Shogun 2, because I never played it).

    To sum up, this game was a disappointment. I regret buying it.    … Expand
  4. hedgeknight86
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    Total War is my favorite games series. Not just strategy games, but in all of gaming. However, with the release of Rome 2 I realized I paid $60 for a game that isn't finished. This is just unacceptable.
  5. EckSi
    Sep 10, 2013
    1
    I am fan of the TW series at heart. For my credentials as a critic, I currently have over 100 hours in game, have beaten a campaign, and am one of the top of the leaderboards in multiplayers (Xtreme Chaos).

    Rome 2 feels entirely dumbed down when compared to the previous title, Shogun 2. The terrible campaign&battle AI, the lack of unit customization, the lack of general customization,    I am fan of the TW series at heart. For my credentials as a critic, I currently have over 100 hours in game, have beaten a campaign, and am one of the top of the leaderboards in multiplayers (Xtreme Chaos).

    Rome 2 feels entirely dumbed down when compared to the previous title, Shogun 2. The terrible campaign&battle AI, the lack of unit customization, the lack of general customization, banners, etc.

    Shogun 2 took the series two steps forward. Then Rome 2 came and took three steps back. While the graphics may have improved visually, there are still many many bugs and graphics related issues like water floating a battlefield etc. that it makes the game feel unfinished and untested.

    I would have been more than happy to volunteer my time and test this game for free so that the game could be passable on release, but CA and SEGA didn't feel like quality took a priority to advertising.

    Lastly, the moderating on their online forums are terrible. They cherrypick what threads do or do not stay, they keep horrendous and troll praisers yet they delete and ban valid criticisms. I'm looking at you, Sasu.    … Expand
  6. jojo1983
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    I don't know why people give good reviews. There is no depth in gaming experience. After a couple hours of playing its bored. My views are:

    Good: - nice campaign map, many factions - province system is better - good music Negatives: - Terrible campaign and battle AI, but that is fixable - no family tree and seasons; characters are quiekly dead (after 30 turns) and you have no    I don't know why people give good reviews. There is no depth in gaming experience. After a couple hours of playing its bored. My views are:

    Good:
    - nice campaign map, many factions
    - province system is better
    - good music

    Negatives:
    - Terrible campaign and battle AI, but that is fixable
    - no family tree and seasons; characters are quiekly dead (after 30 turns) and you have no feeling with a person, there are not enough marriages. When I play with pontus Mithridates is soon dead and there is no heir, strange in the Mithridates dynasty Is the same with other dynasties. The gravitas is not a additional value but a step backwards.
    - the army system, when a army is demolised you can recruit the same army again included the positive traits and good troops. It's more spamming of armys then a good gaming experience
    - the flags in open battles, but that it's fixable
    - the fast battles, avergae 5 minutes 1 minute active battles and 4 minutes when the troops met each other

    I hope that Sega or CA listen to this views, its also on the forums. Roma total war 2 has potentialin the future but in this form its boring to play.    … Expand
  7. Thunderlion59
    Sep 10, 2013
    1
    Look, It's time for gamers to realize that some companys are trying to fu## us. I'm tired of it, 40% bigger budget my A##. Crappy AI, and a total downgrade to the past entrys in the franchise. I really am wondering if the critics actually tested the game or watched a trailer. This game has so much potential, but this is completely unacceptable. I actually gave this game a 1/10 because ILook, It's time for gamers to realize that some companys are trying to fu## us. I'm tired of it, 40% bigger budget my A##. Crappy AI, and a total downgrade to the past entrys in the franchise. I really am wondering if the critics actually tested the game or watched a trailer. This game has so much potential, but this is completely unacceptable. I actually gave this game a 1/10 because I remember the good days that made this my favorite strategy franchise. Please. stand up for gamers. Don't buy this game it is stripped down and not worth it.… Expand
  8. leeroybrown151
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    Well where do I begin? Its hard to put my utter dissapointment into words here really! Have been playing the TW Series since Shogun all those moons ago and have been playing games much to my wifes disgust since 86. I LOVE my games! And nowadays consider myself to be more picky about where I spend my money, so RTW2 was seen by myself as an essential purchase, more fool me, shame on me to beWell where do I begin? Its hard to put my utter dissapointment into words here really! Have been playing the TW Series since Shogun all those moons ago and have been playing games much to my wifes disgust since 86. I LOVE my games! And nowadays consider myself to be more picky about where I spend my money, so RTW2 was seen by myself as an essential purchase, more fool me, shame on me to be honest!

    The game is very good looking yes and unlike many I have no issues running it, it LOOKS good! But its sooo shallow, like a swan on water it looks graceful and beautiful but under the water is paddling away like mad and far from graceful!! I like strategy games, the campaign is NEVER going to deliver depth, that I know and have come to expect from a Total War game (I play a Paradox game for that great experience!!), I play a Total War game for the battles and here lies the issue, after years you would think they would improve the AI with every release not make it worse??? But this is just a mess! Capture Flags? No use of the battlefield? No Tactics? Blobs? Mechanized infantry (30 mph I reckon!)? Suicidal AI? WHO was testing this? Seriously, WHO? It defies belief!!! I am or was a CA fan! No longer.

    I await mods which I pray salvages my spent pennies, but no longer am I to be fooled again, once a mistake, twice just makes me stupid! I drive past their HQ most days on the way to work, I would love to have a constructive conversation (dreaming! lol!) about just what happened here! Can only think that the original CA team has changed over the years, its a damn, damn shame and gutting! But the sad part is that the money will be made and therefore deemed a success, money is what talks, pure undeniable fact, so all the "noise" will be unfortunately lost in the wind of the money blowing past to SEGA and CA's doors.

    DO NOT BUY NOW! Wait if you eventually must line their pockets till at least December when modders who wont see a penny of your cash help you potentially love this game.    … Expand
  9. Stellen
    Sep 8, 2013
    1
    Truly dreadful game, it's as if no-one ever play-tested it. It plays like game written by some third rate company, trying to make a Total War clone, but running out of money half way through and just dumping it on the market unfinished.
  10. saviwise
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A complete and utter disappointment after 35 hours play (i.e. the equivalent of a working week)

    The good: Interesting province idea, big map, many factions, the new stance system works ok.

    The not so good: Awful AI, boring graphics (not like the trailers), unit types play the same, family tree removed and marriage options not properly implemented, over-powered free transport ships, flawed and limited tech and build trees, implementation of the province vs city idea is abysmal (you can build a maximum of five buildings in Rome), battles resemble the WWE Royal Rumbles but with more garish costumes, different agent action types pointless, generals die after 20 turns, no seasons or winter weather, random attrition travelling on the map, no roads, no buildable walls or defenses in towns, HORRIBLE UI, units have magic powers that can be spammed indefinitely (but can't they stay in formation), formation movement buttons removed from battle map, Varus give me back my guard button, legionary fire at will button and defensive pilum removed, testudo doesn't work, phalanx formation for the Greeks doesn't work, units run at 40mph, battles over in 4 minutes (big ones), few videos in game those that appear are random, random politics and events outside of the player's influence, co-op campaign doesn't work, diplomacy doesn't work, single player campaign doesn't work no one will attack you even on hard very hard, over simplified and boring economic system, slow-opening encyclopedia (web pages load faster), poorly implemented mouse over information, poorly implemented general system reduces you to few big armies but the AI pointlessly throws a multitude of tiny armies at your cities, horrible massive unit cards, unattractive icons and unit card images, lacks the historic polish and informational depth of the previous games .

    Apparently many people are also experiencing technical issues. Doesn't support SLI (or Crossfire so I've read) either.

    I could go on. I really wish I hadn't pre-ordered this game. I know people who took time off work to play this this week. Creative Labs, EA, Sega Shame on you.    … Expand
  11. MERC123
    Sep 11, 2013
    0
    I've been playing Total War games for about 8 years. I've spent over 1,000 hours playing Medieval 2, Empire, and Shogun 2. Rome 2 is a massive disappointment in comparison to the incredible previous games. Now I know that Empire was extremely buggy when it was released, but it was a completely revamped and expanded game. CA didn't bother to add anything new to Rome 2. They actuallyI've been playing Total War games for about 8 years. I've spent over 1,000 hours playing Medieval 2, Empire, and Shogun 2. Rome 2 is a massive disappointment in comparison to the incredible previous games. Now I know that Empire was extremely buggy when it was released, but it was a completely revamped and expanded game. CA didn't bother to add anything new to Rome 2. They actually simplified and dumbed everything down. You know what this reminds me of? SimCity. EA promised all sorts of amazing new features and gameplay. Then they released an unplayable, broken game without delivering on anything they'd promised. CA has done the exact same thing with Rome 2. Horrible AI, graphical glitches galore, and unplayable multiplayer are just a few things I'll take the time to mention. And the sad thing is that the professional reviewers don't even punish CA for all these gamebreaking problems. The same exact thing happened when SimCity came out. I've lost all faith in the mainstream game review companies. They're clearly working with the corporations and not the consumers in mind. CA should be publicly shamed and protested for releasing such a painfully disappointing product.… Expand
  12. Huber
    Sep 10, 2013
    1
    Huge step back =(

    Played this game 10 hours looking for the promised experience, but it lacks strategy, depth and is bugged as hell. Here the things that bothers me the most: - family trees removed no connection to my nation - passive campaign AI - too easy, too fast and too acardish battles with lack of strategy - UI is horrible (why didn´t they just copy the perfect Shogun    Huge step back =(

    Played this game 10 hours looking for the promised experience, but it lacks strategy, depth and is bugged as hell.

    Here the things that bothers me the most:

    - family trees removed no connection to my nation
    - passive campaign AI
    - too easy, too fast and too acardish battles with lack of strategy
    - UI is horrible (why didn´t they just copy the perfect Shogun II ???)
    - the sound is boring compared to the other TW Games
    - bugs everywhere

    This game really feels like a beta!!!

    I do like the campaign graphic and it´s maybe the best TW game to start with, if you are new to the series, but TW veterans will be disappointed.    … Expand
  13. SirFondlebottom
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    I think a bullet point list best summarizes my problems with this dumbed down excrement. In no particular order:

    -No Guard button. I mean... what? -No ships needed. Your army will summon ships out of thin air to move over water, removing the natural obstacle that is water. -No seasons, everything is done by year. It takes a year to march through that small valley. -Agents block    I think a bullet point list best summarizes my problems with this dumbed down excrement. In no particular order:

    -No Guard button. I mean... what?

    -No ships needed. Your army will summon ships out of thin air to move over water, removing the natural obstacle that is water.

    -No seasons, everything is done by year. It takes a year to march through that small valley.

    -Agents block army movement. That invisible Spy you have? Yep, he just blocked a 3000 man army from moving through that pass.

    -About 150+ factions that lead to pointless mini wars dragging out the turns way worse than any preceding Total War instalment. You can turn off Show AI Turns, and it will still take up a good portion of your time and make you miss important movement, to boot!

    -Capture points, on open field battles. Apparently made to balance ship landings. Well you just killed the whole terrain factor of the open field battles, I think that far outweighs what little you actually, truthfully gained by creating the ship landings feature to begin with. This is so aggravating that it validates removing ships altogether from the game, including the sea battles.

    -The AI cannot handle ship landings to begin with. Whenever it receives reinforcements in form of ships it will fail miserably to utilize them, giving you a free victory.

    -Playing on Very Hard, this game has a difficulty comparable to Shogun 2 Normal, possibly less. The AI is incredibly timid and will simply not exploit your weakness. It will leave your undefended villages without walls be. It will ignore your open flanks and go for the capture flag like a retard and lose because of it. For what it's worth I've completed Shogun 2 on Legendary several times, I expected SOMETHING from the AI in this one. At least an attack? Try damnit?

    -Diplomacy is worthless: It may be because I'm playing on Very Hard and am getting demodifiers, but who knows, not like the AI ever agreed to anything even if it clearly was in it's best interest to do so. Pile up gold and riches, have long standing relations, it will not help. They will still pester you and demand payment tribute even though you have vast armies compared to their little village. Did I mention there's 150+ of the tards?

    -No family tree. No leader. I mean this literally, you have no family tree and you recruit generals willy nilly out of thin air.

    -Complex politics promised. I've yet to see any kind of politics. I mean there's not even a family tree as mentioned above, how am I supposed to have complex politics?

    -Unbalanced army traits. You can customize and grab the obvious good trait line, or go with the options for flair I guess.

    -Army MUST HAVE general. You cannot hunt down that 160man band of rebels without a general. Your general recruits out of thin air. You cannot recruit units and have them walk from your town to the general, they themselves must have a general to move. You can't train extra garrison. No logistics. You cannot intercept enemy reinforcements from a city.

    -Problems in your little village? Well it affects your whole province. Want to exempt from tax? Done for the whole province, let alone finding the button to do so is a quest in itself. Only Province capital can have walls, so only one in 3 villages will have walls and you can't pick which. Since you need Population to build improvements, you therefore have the choice to improve behind safe walls, or let all your important stuff be in the better located but worse defended village, since population is by province.

    -Can't garrison vs. Public Order problems, the effect is extremely small, not to mention doing that garrison requires a general of which you have a limited amount able to be had.

    -Worst UI in the Total War series, everything requires several button clicks instead of say right clicking once on that village.

    -Tech tree UI is 100% worthless. What was one perfectly perspicuous tree on one popup page, you now have 4 buttons that switch between 4 branches of a tree that is smaller than the predecessors.

    -Everything, and I do mean everything, needs to be inspected in the encyclopaedia. What you can build in a city depends on faction and actual city, meaning you visit the encyclopaedia each time to look at your options. Don't forget that it is browser based and seems to be requiring an internet connection, I have load times on the pages.

    -Want that advanced popup that will actually tell you what the damned thing does? Better wait for that fade-in and delay-to-show in the first place.

    -I cannot stress enough how useless the UI is. General gained a trait? How neat! Now which one is it? Is it this army? No wait it's not showing me when having the army selected. How about hovering the general unit? Ah no it simply shows the general unit type. If I press this detail button? Oh no that was the army detail page, which does not show general name either, how weird! Oh it was the third button!

    -Coop MP broken. Constant desynchs and longer AI turn time    … Expand
  14. astralheights
    Sep 6, 2013
    5
    On first impulse, I was going to give this game a 0. But, after some thought, I decided to give the game a 5. Why? Because it is an average RTS game. As a Total War game it deserves an even lower score.

    Read other reviews for the host of problems. I'm sure the graphical issues will be resolved. Many other issues will be resolved. But, how do you fix the fact that the battles aren't    On first impulse, I was going to give this game a 0. But, after some thought, I decided to give the game a 5. Why? Because it is an average RTS game. As a Total War game it deserves an even lower score.

    Read other reviews for the host of problems. I'm sure the graphical issues will be resolved. Many other issues will be resolved.

    But, how do you fix the fact that the battles aren't tactical? I buy Rome: Total War so that I can set up the Roman war machine and put my enemies through the meat grinder! I want every one of my legionaries to thrust their gladius into the stomachs of the enemy! How can I do this without legendary Roman organization and discipline? When is that going to be fixed. How will that ever be fixed? Answer to the former: Don't know that it ever will be. To the latter: I don't know that it can be. But, if only this issue were fixed, I could play the game, and happily too. As it stands, I can't. If I wanted a turn-based game without tactics I could have played Civ or a Paradox game.

    Will never again pre-order a Total War game.    … Expand
  15. gilly93
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    The games should never have been released in its current state for the following reasons:
    - Poorly optimized
    - Removal of popular features for no good reason e.g fire at will for infantry, guard mode, tight/loose and no family tree. - CA have simplified the game for the masses in terms of game play and UI, it looks like they have consoles in mind e.g tech trees and less facts and    The games should never have been released in its current state for the following reasons:
    - Poorly optimized
    - Removal of popular features for no good reason e.g fire at will for infantry, guard mode, tight/loose and no family tree.
    - CA have simplified the game for the masses in terms of game play and UI, it looks like they have consoles in mind e.g tech trees and less facts and figures
    - AI is useless, armies made up of skirmishers and the AI has tactical awareness above rushing the flag or standing still
    - Game play is arcadey in terms of 2 minute battles because of game speed, also stupid magical abilities and the units lose all tactical cohesion breaking formation and forming a large blob
    -Worst idea is the frustrating capture points which remove any strategy in battles as I'm forced to defend an open field and can lose a battle despite having 20units left to the AI's 1, IMO this addition is just a cheap way of simplifying the AI path finding as it forces both armies to a single spot
    - Many many glitches on both campaign and battle maps
    - Most annoying aspect is many of the problems are clear to gamers within a few hours of playing so this shows CA are either completely inept and haven't tested their game or consulted their core fan base or they knew of the problems and released the game regardless either way next time I wont be buying the game on day one or per-ordering as I'm not interested in paying CA to be their game tester.    … Expand
  16. 3HeadedMonkey
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    Total Casual War: Rome Beta 2

    Graphics poorly optimized for my high end rig with an AMD card. Running absolutely terribly when it should not be. User interface is terrible. Battlefield AI is a huge step back beyond Shogun 2, how is this possible? The battlefield AI developer should be politely be asked to take his coat and find another job. Capture points on a battlefield?! Why    Total Casual War: Rome Beta 2

    Graphics poorly optimized for my high end rig with an AMD card. Running absolutely terribly when it should not be.
    User interface is terrible.
    Battlefield AI is a huge step back beyond Shogun 2, how is this possible? The battlefield AI developer should be politely be asked to take his coat and find another job.
    Capture points on a battlefield?! Why should we care about an innocuous bit of dirt on the ground?
    Removal of family tree. This was the BEST part of the RPG element of total war. Why would you remove this?!
    Addition of far too many "special" abilities. Come on. This is total war, not Skyrim.
    Naval battles are completely broken. Buttons don't work, units don't do what they are told to do. Glitchy crap.
    Cities and sieges are completely underwhelming; I understand the point for having less regularity with sieges, but why no great big city in the background, or a small settlement outside of the main city with a fantastic city in the background? Where is the scope and imagination?!
    Unit control is now beyond awful. I never used to have to make hotkeys in order to control my army, now I feel I have to because the control element is terrible.
    Skirmishing units still can't skirmish. How many years have we waited for this to be fixed?
    Phalanxes, oh look they are not working again.
    Ridiculous load times on the campaign map, I don't really want to have to make a sandwich and cup of tea after every turn thank you.
    The loss of seasons and one year per turn. Less atmosphere, less RPG element with characters, no tactical planning around when the right time is to fight. The campaign map just looks the same ALL the time. Where is the variety?
    Tech tree is broken in its current form. Technology should take a LONG time to acquire, to make it more interesting when you actually get it. Right now, getting legionnaires by 250 BC is frankly, ridiculous.
    Battle speed, most battles are over within 2 or 3 minutes! Where is the strategy? Where is the tactics? Another point which proves CA are now targeting the casual gamer who are the completely wrong target audience for these types of games.
    No zoom button on the campaign map?
    The units are interchangeable pieces, with different skins. Some of which are pretty, some of which are distinctly uninspiring.
    Less of the wardogs, flaming pigs, flying elephants, and scuba camels. Can we just get a game that works pretty please?
    The lethality of units is so high everyone just dies within 30 seconds. Was this even tested?
    The audio is boring and lacklustre. Where is Jeff Van Dyck?! The horrendous monotone voices make me want to disable my audio. I've never had this in any total war game.

    The terrible thing is, I could go on! There are so many issues with this game.

    I was going to give this a four of ten if the first patch actually fixed some of the issues above, HOWEVER..the first patch does nothing to fix anything I have raised. Therefore a buggy, unpolished, uninspiring, boring, beta game which should never have been released this early gets a two out of ten. Its just an unplayable ball of frustration and mess. What a disappointment and HUGE step back in the series after the fantastic Shogun 2.

    If your a hardcore Total War fan, do not be fooled by all the positive reviews.    … Expand
  17. croninsdisease
    Sep 9, 2013
    2
    A completely watered down, stupified version of a classic series. This game has gone wrong in so many places for me personally. Nearly every aspect of Total War that I love is absent from this title. With patches it will be "playable" i'm sure, but it will never be a true total war game, stop trying to say otherwise. No functioning diplomacy. No family tree. Every turn is a year. AI isA completely watered down, stupified version of a classic series. This game has gone wrong in so many places for me personally. Nearly every aspect of Total War that I love is absent from this title. With patches it will be "playable" i'm sure, but it will never be a true total war game, stop trying to say otherwise. No functioning diplomacy. No family tree. Every turn is a year. AI is somehow more dumb than in previous titles, including Rome 1. The provincial system is atrocious and lacks explanation, tell what what these new "features" are without making us go through the obnoxious encyclopedia full of useless information. I could go on, if you're looking for a game that feels like total war, and looks good, get Shogun 2 if you haven't already. Otherwise, ignore this title for now ,at least until it's priced accordingly to the quality of the game. Thoroughly disappointed in the Creative Assembly. Thanks for making this title for people who don't play the series....… Expand
  18. Zukku
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    Everything is horrible about this game.
    I LOOOVED Shogun 2, and i had so many dreams and high hopes for Rome 2 (Even though i did not expect it to be better)
    I just wanted Shogun 2 but with Rome.. But no. It feels so different and many things you know from Shogun they have removed. My score is low, and some may say that it is too low. But I have horrible FPS especially during anything    Everything is horrible about this game.
    I LOOOVED Shogun 2, and i had so many dreams and high hopes for Rome 2 (Even though i did not expect it to be better)
    I just wanted Shogun 2 but with Rome.. But no.
    It feels so different and many things you know from Shogun they have removed. My score is low, and some may say that it is too low. But I have horrible FPS especially during anything with water eventhough i have a good build, with low to none problems in any other game. Ran Metro Last light on highest with no problems.. In Rome 2 it's nearly impossible for me to play.
    AI is... Not even worth mentioning. I have no idea how they thought that it was an improvement from the others. Damn.

    You dropped the ball on this one.    … Expand
  19. TJarnold92
    Sep 11, 2013
    3
    The game is basically unplayable. I have a Nvidia GTX 760 and 8 GB of RAM, and can run A.R.M.A. III and Metro: LL on MAX settings and get 50 FPS, yet this game on the LOWEST SETTINGS pushes 20 FPS at the most.

    I have no idea what systems the professional reviewers have, the game runs horribly and almost everybody else has this issue. It's just unoptimized.
  20. Coeurdacier
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    What a fail....
    The battle are too fast, the graphism are like cartoons, my generals die always after three or two turn.
    The troops are all Usain bolt, they run very very fast.
    This game is not finish.
  21. lordpain
    Nov 25, 2013
    0
    It's a bad game, over hyped crap. The AI is retarded, UI looks like agents do the same thing so no point in having 3 different types, no point in besieging a city you can attack right away and have your soldiers burn down the huge metal gates with magical torches that they keep up their ass during battles, naval combat is broken, load of bugs and so on... Do not buy
  22. kosciuszko
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    To begin, no game should receive anything over 4/10 if after two days of release, the creators have to say that a patch is being put together. If its buggy and not working correctly, do not release it! Simple! For this reason alone you should steer clear of the critical reviews of this game, I am truly amazed that it has scored as well as it has.
    Why?
    Because a game is intended to    To begin, no game should receive anything over 4/10 if after two days of release, the creators have to say that a patch is being put together. If its buggy and not working correctly, do not release it! Simple! For this reason alone you should steer clear of the critical reviews of this game, I am truly amazed that it has scored as well as it has.
    Why?
    Because a game is intended to entertain you, this just bores you, terribly.
    But lets begin on a positive note.
    The map looks superb, while the cities no longer assume the square box on a map look, but expand as the city grows.
    The armies look great and respond much better than previous offerings, especially the cavalry, who actually attack the enemy this time. It is refreshing to be able to hire mercenaries within the city too, and the range on offer is greater than before.
    The diplomacy, initially at least, gives a greater depth to the campaign as you interact with your neighbours without having to create and send a diplomat to do the job, especially if they are within earshot anyway.
    And, errr, that's about it.
    It becomes evident rather quickly that Sega have finally trodden the well beaten path of other gaming companies by pouring their resources into impressive eye candy and gimmicks, rather than stick to their niche of well rounded offerings, where graphics are sacrificed to the god of war in the quest for gameplay.
    To begin looking at the negative (and the list is larger than the empire Rome built), the UI for city management is truly horrendous. I tell a lie, its not even that good.
    It looks like it has been created for our PS and XBox friends to quickly flick through, so that they can hurry on to something else without taxing their thumbs too much. It is a series of poorly detailed and visualised boxes, with a dumbed down 'technology' link that again, looks like it was made for either small children to access or the console clan to enjoy.
    The two do not link well at all either; with the result being turn after frustrating turn of not building anything within your city, whilst you look on with envy as your allies and enemies create the second Rome.
    Apparantly people did not like the Medieval-esq approach to city management, though I have as yet to meet these 'people'. It worked well, was tidy, and more importantly, was easy to understand.
    Given that you may not even move your army and/or spy at all during a turn, and given that you are not building anywhere near often enough either, leads to abject frustrating and repeated 'end turn' clicking.
    Which leads to the 80's return of the king. The waiting for the 'end turn' fiasco.
    I have this installed on an SSD with an i7 kicking it along, and it still takes around a minute for the AI to take their turn. Add to this the fact that for large swathes of the time you are doing precisely nothing, and you can see how quickly boredom creeps in on a grand Total War scale.
    It is not that you can not build an army to create havoc, you can, but you are extremely limited in maintaining and upgrading it because your cities do not produce enough cash, whilst your neighbours garrisoned armies are far more numerous than yours.
    Added is the fact that nine battles out of ten are sieges. I did not in encounter an enemy with a decent army in the field at all in the three days I played it, leading to bus stop tours of city sieges, nothing more, which again, becomes boring faster than Usain Bolt on steroids.
    The dreadful AI during battles too verges on the insane; one instance amongst many I came across had the enemy simply scarper from their city whilst my two divisions of slingers (no dragons, tanks or F15 strike eagles in tow before you ask) walked straight into central city complex and held it, without an ounce of blood being spilled. The main bulk of my army was sitting around outside, enjoying the sea views and sipping tea.
    It is also in the small detail where this game fails to deliver on an epic scale too.
    You can now talk to your neighbours via the diplomacy button without having to physically move an object their, but you can not start trade in the same way for instance. Why not? So I can talk to my immediate neighbours night and day, but can not trade? Makes perfect sense that.
    Also, the idea of using family members and 'ordinary' folk to lead your forces is a nice touch; apparently the idea is that the more gravitas a general receives, the better his chances of taking over.
    But this just does not deliver excitement on any level, and ends up being just another useless side note in the long list of failures that Sega have collected up and dished out under the 'Rome II' tag.
    I could continue, but the word count is dangerously close to the 5000 max.
    To summarise, go back to earlier offerings folks, and wait until either the community either mod this shambles, or Sega bring out the much anticipated patches.    … Expand
  23. chicharito86
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    Don't waste your money on this trash. It's boring as hell, full of bugs, graphics suck, UI is terrible, AI is terrible and it feels like it's unfinished, like there is a lot of stuff missing.
  24. mrchinchin25
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    This game is good when it works. However the bugs and gfx issues are crippling, and its a step back from the rich strategy tapesty of history and battle I expect from the Total War series.

    Biggest issues for me? Battles are too fast to really enjoy. I want to feel like I'm in the thick of it, not having to panic zoom in and out to micro-manage my units. Also day 1 DLC so -2 points    This game is good when it works. However the bugs and gfx issues are crippling, and its a step back from the rich strategy tapesty of history and battle I expect from the Total War series.

    Biggest issues for me? Battles are too fast to really enjoy. I want to feel like I'm in the thick of it, not having to panic zoom in and out to micro-manage my units.

    Also day 1 DLC so -2 points automatically.    … Expand
  25. Foerster44
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Game with decent potential, but the once epic TW battles devolved to incoherent, chaotic blobs where the victor is determined in ca. 30 seconds by a total routing of the opponent without any TW atmosphere being created (great idea to insert brilliantly detailled battles when you never have the time to actually watch them), game lags where it shouldn't, 1 turn per year in a slow-pacedGame with decent potential, but the once epic TW battles devolved to incoherent, chaotic blobs where the victor is determined in ca. 30 seconds by a total routing of the opponent without any TW atmosphere being created (great idea to insert brilliantly detailled battles when you never have the time to actually watch them), game lags where it shouldn't, 1 turn per year in a slow-paced campaign, no family tree, poor soundtracks, problematic unit cards, professional navys being screwn against transport navys, programmatic errors running havok in your RAM causing the whole system to freeze without any remarkable reason, the capture points on open-field battles that ruin any sense of tactical or strategical deployment all this just ruins it and makes the game unenjoyable for now, so to balance out the undeserved top ratings, I'm giving this a 2. Although if CA fixes most of the current crucial game breakes, I will come back to correct my rating, but for now, the awkwardness of Rome 2 is unacceptable.… Expand
  26. Gunteraz
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    This is the biggest game launch failure i have ever seen. The game is not even in beta stage at the moment and should have not been launched at least until 6 more months of development. Paying 60 euros for this garbage has convinced me to never again buy one of Creative Assembly games again. Ever.
  27. clairbear_ski
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    This is without a doubt the worst Total war game to date
    It allows you to have only 3 armies and 2 navies while the enemies have unlimited troops
    You troops desert while you enemy does not For the first time you cannot merge depleted units Graphics are not as advertised it is a major step backwards from it's predecessors Playability on maps is weak You armies cannot move while    This is without a doubt the worst Total war game to date
    It allows you to have only 3 armies and 2 navies while the enemies have unlimited troops
    You troops desert while you enemy does not
    For the first time you cannot merge depleted units
    Graphics are not as advertised it is a major step backwards from it's predecessors
    Playability on maps is weak
    You armies cannot move while "mustering" new troops and only generals or admirals can recruit
    It was a waste of 60 bucks
    You want a Total war game stick with Shogun 2, Empire, Medievil 2 or other earlier games in the series
    Even the original Rome was vastly better    … Expand
  28. Googleness
    Sep 6, 2013
    4
    Total war is long term game so you are expected to do a campaign for about a week or two if you play casual.

    50 turns into Rome II -> 1. End turn 2. Alt Tab 3. Have babies, get them married. 4. Get grandchildrens 5. have your new grand kids to come and see the historic moment. 6. clean pc from dust. 7. Alt tab 8. wait few more minutes 9. turn 51! yay! grand pa 'his c'wap is    Total war is long term game so you are expected to do a campaign for about a week or two if you play casual.

    50 turns into Rome II ->
    1. End turn
    2. Alt Tab
    3. Have babies, get them married.
    4. Get grandchildrens
    5. have your new grand kids to come and see the historic moment.
    6. clean pc from dust.
    7. Alt tab
    8. wait few more minutes
    9. turn 51! yay! grand pa 'his c'wap is cool!

    in more serious note,
    1. graphics the game gave me automatic Extreme settings which runs kinda well but game looks bad.

    2. gameplay this is NOT total war. total war is about using agents on the strategic map with wise and smart province management combined with small specialize inferior forces to outmaneuver and outmatch your opponents and conquer the world. here we got world map which is basicly LAME version of civilization with no sense what so ever. a battle mode in which there is no strategy only blob wars over victory points in which slingers will annihilate everything (try it... full slinger army will destroy anything in the game lol). In fact game so bad they added "Economic" and "cultural" victory so you don't need to conquer anything! just use diplomacy and ofc enhanced auto-resolve which tells you now not only if you win but how many troops you get left with!

    3. Navies are so crap now they deserve their own section, you take and unit and drive them into the see they turn into a fleet. the get a ramming ship! and they can board. no need to build navies just get 20 mobs send them into the sea and you got doomstack navy. Also because land units can now easily turn free into NAVAL units some weird stuff happens like minor barbaric tribe from north Europe invade into Arabia!!!! wtf is that crap.

    4. Politics, no more senate floor... no more family tree.... now you get weird list of generals which shows who got most power... once in few turns you get some weird event which cause little problem until you resolve it.. how? pick a button.. that's it. no politics what so ever!

    5. diplomacy... hmmp... well... faction so stupid they will stay with 1 province, no armies, under siege and refuse peace treaty 5000 gold that stupid. in previous games you could set trade agreements and do stuff here it's dumbed down diplomacy as most options like switch cities, stop wars, exchange map information, BRIBE are removed from the game.
    then when you finnaly manage to get trade agreement some weird stuff happens like your new buddy wants to help you in your war so he sends 1 ship to navy blockade a port of the enemy last city for OVER 20 turns and so you can't kill them... bah.

    6. limited number of armies, navies and agents.
    on previous games you could recruit some units then have a captain with them which if he was successful could be adopted and become a general but here you need to "Raise" force as general or admiral then recruit straight to him the forces and most of the game start you can have no more then 4-6 armies! it's pathetic. as militant player I did lots of conquest and combat on this series with smart small forces and wise tactics but here I'm limited to 3 armies! on game start so basicly if you got bad luck and enemy got allies or 2 factions declares war o you suddenly 4-5 doomstacks vs your 1 little stack as you can't divide it to ambush them or use one small force to lure them while your main force gank their cities sun-tzu style... nope.

    7. city development is utter stupid. no point at all you reach to a point where you got income like 10k per turn while city is mostly level 2-3 buildings. no need to build anything! the population remains the same when it's growing you actually get more building slots to get more money from buildings. actually building more advanced stuff in cities gets you ton of squalor and shortage in food which do not benefits enough income wise (extra 1000 per turn for empire wise upgrade) to actually do it so build 2-3 military building rest is farmings and agricalture boosting buildings tehn get ton of money and spam slinger armies of doom :X fail.

    this is fail game from design to execution. shogun 2 is superior and more pretty, Rome 1 is a better game and much better game with mods. Medieval 2 was one of the best game in the series.. add medieval 2 with a mod which exteneds the map so you can do grand campaign on HUGE map which contain the vanilla all the Kingdoms campaigns at same time for utter victory.
    Empire was decent as casual total war and had good points as it did gunpowder decently but overall Rome 2 is step backward.

    "IT WILL GET A PATCH YOU FOOL!" fact: i finished campaign on all of the total war games WITHOUT patches. on Rome II I cannot finish a campaign cause the end turn takes 2 years to finish cycle 30000000000000000000 factions.
    rig: 8 Gb ram i5 2500K GTX 550Ti OC edition Win 7    … Expand
  29. ArcDeus
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    Every thing's broken :
    - Performance
    - AI
    - UI
    - Economy
    - Battle
    - History
    - Soul

    This is both a failure in terms of development, a marketing lies and betrayal of values ​​and spirit.

    No interest.

    **** treason.
  30. Ryansmithee
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    A poor excuse for a game which I'm frankly shocked by. after playing 30 hours of this broken, incomplete game I'm surprised that they where able to charge money for this mess.

    -The AI in total war games has always been lacking but never to the point where factions will not engage you on the campaign map and will walk right up to your formations on the battle map and then run away    A poor excuse for a game which I'm frankly shocked by. after playing 30 hours of this broken, incomplete game I'm surprised that they where able to charge money for this mess.

    -The AI in total war games has always been lacking but never to the point where factions will not engage you on the campaign map and will walk right up to your formations on the battle map and then run away without any reason.

    -WARNING- do not even attempt a naval battle they are completely bugged (My Gran could code better AI) the ships will randomly chose to ram or to board depending on how the game is feeling.

    -WTF decision to add capture point on land battles which removes all tactics making you rush for the flag making it feel like a game of domination from COD

    -The game will rape your PC even on the lower settings. The lowest graphical setting look worse than the original total war which is shocking.

    -The game does not run smoothly at all, just panning the camera will look like a power point presentation

    -THE MAIN POINT why on Earth was there no public demo or beta to iron out these bugs in the first place, personally I feel as though CA and SEGA (SEGA (SCUM)) should have paid the 'per-orderors' of this game instead of us paying them.

    Also the lack of pre-launch content e.g. videos, previews and next to no details on the multiplayer which is by the way completely F*****.

    To concluded I have lost all faith in the total franchise which in my opinion was day light robbery of the fans money, shame on you for this shambles of a game.

    A FINAL MESSAGE TO THE DEVS-

    What where you thinking you fools!

    One does not simply release a game in this state!    … Expand
  31. Mattrtnz
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    Please ignore any good reviews about this game! This game is the worst Total War Game I have ever played. Since release day I have experienced plenty of game crashes for seemingly no in game reason. The AI is absolutely awful, you see opposing units randomly walking instead of defending or whatever else they should be doing. The units that you are controlling constantly break formation.Please ignore any good reviews about this game! This game is the worst Total War Game I have ever played. Since release day I have experienced plenty of game crashes for seemingly no in game reason. The AI is absolutely awful, you see opposing units randomly walking instead of defending or whatever else they should be doing. The units that you are controlling constantly break formation. The frame-rate drops all the time for no reason, and it definitely shouldn't be on my PC. This game needs patching majorly and immediately simply to make this game even worth the money that was spent on this game! Do not buy it until an update/patch is released!… Expand
  32. Angry_Tomano
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    Sadly a disappointment. Poor performance, Poor AI, Late game turns take 5+ minutes waiting for the AI to finish their turns, Naval battles are a failure. AI does not know how to attack, i have seen indie games that are more polished and entertaining than this, Overall a poor effort for a AAA title, QA should feel bad, because they are bad.
  33. Fenarid
    Sep 8, 2013
    1
    The game is broken. Tons of bugs, very bad AI, the lack of true garrisons in cities is retarded. Just as armies that can only exist and move with general. I recommend buying EU IV or Shogun 2 TW, not this crap.
  34. Abspara
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    Horrible AI

    Sluggish graphics

    Poorly optimized

    Lacks any of the soul of other Total War games.

    An abysmal launch that is characteristic of Creative Assembly.

    Paid reviewers got paid to give this game high marks. The average joe who had to spend $60.00 on this got taken advantage of. Avoid at all costs!
  35. singakes
    Sep 6, 2013
    1
    lag, bad optimization, idiot AI, suck graphic etc... what happen CA?? and when release fix patch? this game beta version?? in the history of Total war series very horrible
  36. jedi72it
    Sep 6, 2013
    1
    As a long time follower and enthusiast of Total War serie, i must admit that this is the worst "thing" i have ever seen.

    The devs had a splendid opportunity to make ROME 1 better....they instead were only able to destroy its glory. Cons: - Sci-fi UI, without ANY sort of differences between cultures (No Immersion, it's all like controlling from your speaceship...), and way too many    As a long time follower and enthusiast of Total War serie, i must admit that this is the worst "thing" i have ever seen.

    The devs had a splendid opportunity to make ROME 1 better....they instead were only able to destroy its glory.

    Cons:

    - Sci-fi UI, without ANY sort of differences between cultures (No Immersion, it's all like controlling from your speaceship...), and way too many abstract subslidingmenus.

    - No Family tree, no story to create, and in the end all armies will be the same.

    - 3 minutes battles???????

    - Capture the flag???????

    - Brain Dead AI???????

    - i don't enumerate all the technical bugs and glitches...there are too many and in every aspect of the game.....

    - this game lacks any "spirit" and any real challenge, you can actually see online casual players burning through Legendary difficulty like hot knife in butter.......

    CONGRATS CA AND SEGA, you were able to utterly destroy and annihilate one of the Glories in PC gaming history.

    I fear this is my last Total War.    … Expand
  37. Mannschaft
    Sep 5, 2013
    4
    Disappointment.
    No family tree
    Graphics worse than Shogun 2 Capture points in open fields on non-siege battles Every faction has a British accent (Slavic if you have the German version) Battles end quicker than a virgin's first time with a lady Horrible AI, it does not react at all to being flanked Minor factions are destroying all major factions Every faction and their mom has    Disappointment.
    No family tree
    Graphics worse than Shogun 2
    Capture points in open fields on non-siege battles
    Every faction has a British accent (Slavic if you have the German version)
    Battles end quicker than a virgin's first time with a lady
    Horrible AI, it does not react at all to being flanked
    Minor factions are destroying all major factions
    Every faction and their mom has ships everywhere
    Sieges are boring
    Unit cards are huge and take up a lot of screen
    Upon hitting end turn you have enough time to have a fap until you're able to play your next turn
    Obviously set up to charge lots of microtransactions like the previous two or three titles ($2 for blood)

    The list goes on but I'm tired and need to go have a fap. Avoid this game for now. I only gave it a 4 because it's a Total War game.    … Expand
  38. Gasaraki
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    What a crummy AI. How can you have a grand strategy game single player game and have such horrible AI?They have made no progress on this front. All they did was churn out another game with the same exact problems. Rome: Total War was one of the best total war series. This is probably the worst.
  39. Joker85
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    This game is simply a disaster. Words don't describe what an utter and complete disappointment and failure Rome 2 is. Throughout the process CA has obfuscated, dissembled, and outright lied in order to conceal this trainwreck.

    Total war has been turned from a compelling, fun, historical sandbox into a crappy starcraft wanna-be console port. At least a dozen major features that have been    This game is simply a disaster. Words don't describe what an utter and complete disappointment and failure Rome 2 is. Throughout the process CA has obfuscated, dissembled, and outright lied in order to conceal this trainwreck.

    Total war has been turned from a compelling, fun, historical sandbox into a crappy starcraft wanna-be console port. At least a dozen major features that have been in EVERY SINGLE TOTAL WAR for the past decade have been removed without even a peep of warning during the year+ long marketing phase.

    Not only have they removed features for no other reason than to attempt a horrid console cashgrab, but the features that DO remain have been dumbed down, broken, or ruined.

    Shogun2 was a highly polished, tight, competent game. This is a disheveled debacle.

    The UI is absolutely dreadful. From the menu in a menu in a menu design to the god awful transparent black border to the horrid, 1998 3d portraits. Every single thing that they removed or attempted to "improve" on from shogun2 has been an unmitigated failure.

    There are at least 15 major features that have simply disappeared. Just gone. If they had spend a quarter of the time they spent on their incompetent, ugly facial animations and "the face of war" hype and instead put it toward maintaining the features that its fans have grown accustomed to, perhaps this wouldn't be the worst total war in the history of the franchise. Perhaps those people about to be fired for this disaster in the coming months would still have jobs.

    This game has certainly earned its spot among the Diablo 3s, Simcitys, CoH2s, and Dragon Age2s of franchise killing debacles.

    Oh by the way, the game shipped with no anti-aliasing and no SLI/CF support. That's right. In 2013 an AAA released with no true AA and no multiple GPU support. That's the level of care and concern that went into the development of this farce.    … Expand
  40. Viva_Fanta
    Sep 6, 2013
    5
    Looks Good. Plays Bad. New province system is rubbish, absense of walls makes city defence ridiculous, unit cards are example of poor game design.

    This game has potential and probably after 2 years of patching it will be great game. Unfortunately at this moment this game is awful beta with poor optimization, retarded AI.
  41. xogart
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    Disaster and embarrassment. The game created by experienced and well known developers looks like beta of low-budget console port. Tons of disadvantages:
    - UI is really awful
    - graphics is disappointing, shogun 2 looked much better
    - AI is bugged,
    - lack of family tree and online Avatar campaign.

    The weakest TotalWar game in the history of CA, not worth buying.
  42. saladfork
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    This game has no soul. I wanted to love this game. It could have so easily gotten a score of 10 from me with the littlest bit of effort. The game obviously has a lot of technical glitches that are disappointing and frustrating, but that is not the core problem. Although, some of the problems such as the A.I. should have been identified in the most basic levels of testing.

    The real    This game has no soul. I wanted to love this game. It could have so easily gotten a score of 10 from me with the littlest bit of effort. The game obviously has a lot of technical glitches that are disappointing and frustrating, but that is not the core problem. Although, some of the problems such as the A.I. should have been identified in the most basic levels of testing.

    The real problems are that Rome 2 is a step back in many directions. The land battles and naval battles are awful. The land battles problems are vast. They are way too quick, soldiers run way too fast, soldiers flee way too fast and the whole thing is a damn mess. Soldiers do not even attempt to stay in any kind of formation, even in the beginning. They just form a mosh pit immediately after contact, even if its only 2 units. You cannot even see the combat animations as the soldiers float around and die randomly. Also, soldiers from the enemy can just run straight through your formations, which looks ridiculous. Naval battles are a joke, as land armies are more powerful than naval armies. What is the point of having weak naval ships when I can have land units that double as superior naval vessels.

    The campaign A.I. is so goofy that I cannot tell you if the campaign map works. I could talk forever about how much the battles suck, the campaign sucks, the music sucks, the design decisions suck, but I'm getting too depressed writing this review. I was so excited for this game!!! I bought a new monitor and video card just for this game! CA really misrepresented this game in the previews such as the battle for Carthage. They had the biggest budget for any total war game, but where the hell did it go? Many of us pre-ordered based on the belief that this game would be an improvement, not a de-evolution of the franchise. We also pre-ordered based on what CA told us the game would be, which it is not.

    I am 31 and married with 2 kids. The Total War series are some of the few games I still play due to time constraints. I am not asking for much, but they could not even provide me with a game that is just as good as the previous one (Shogun 2), instead they went way backwards.    … Expand
  43. Hammerheart
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    Is this beta or some kind of joke? Or maybe this game is targeted for 7yo console players?

    I am a huge fan of Total War since Shogun, but Rome 2 is a different game, much worse.

    We want strategy! We want tactics! We want well expanded economy, well expanded diplomacy,
    we want realistic battlefield.

    And what we get? Bugged, casual, arcade game for lots of money.

    DON'T BUY IT!
  44. hazel1393
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    What the hell... How could you sell a game like this and feel good about it? This game isn't ready to play at all. If you want to pay to play a pre Alpha... go ahead.
  45. Denta-80
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    Horrible UI.
    Horrendously confusing unit cards.
    Poorly optimized.
    Fix the triremes.
    Where is my guard button.
    Make a unit card that covers half my screen.

    2/10 for releasing.

    Glad I paid 60$ for beta testing.
  46. Praetorian_bgx
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    As someone that is following TW franchise from first release, i was unpleasantly surprised with RTW2. Past experience with Warscape engine sent clear warning many times. I guess i believed that they can't let their biggest title fail in such a horrible way. Rome Total war was a game that allowed them to expand and experiment with rest of sequels. MTW2 followed that line on great level andAs someone that is following TW franchise from first release, i was unpleasantly surprised with RTW2. Past experience with Warscape engine sent clear warning many times. I guess i believed that they can't let their biggest title fail in such a horrible way. Rome Total war was a game that allowed them to expand and experiment with rest of sequels. MTW2 followed that line on great level and combined with mods its one of the best games ever.

    Problems started with Warscape engine. Empire Total War. There is no need to talk about this product. It was a clear example how not to make an rts. Warscape is probably one of the most unfinished and strategy unfriendly engines ever. It was bad presenting gunpowder units but much worst in melee combat.

    After few more titles released in the last couple of years, they managed to pull the best of this software. It was far away from perfect, but Napoleon and Shogun were much better. They mastered the look of campaign map. New role-play elements with Generals and agents were welcomed by all fans.

    In all Warscape titles, one thing was heavily missing to make those games worthy successor of RTW or MTW2. Battles. From the very start, its was clear that this engine cannot produce interesting and fun battles. Not on the level that previous one could. Not even close. Every melee battle looked like hooligan street fighting after a very bad derby. No tactics. No Strategy. Just a mess with a lot of movement and different colors.

    What CA did is that instead of working on new engine, they decided to build Ancient RTS on engine that doesn't support melee combat and strategy at all. Complex formations like Phalanx or Cohort pilum attack that were made 10 years ago now don't exist. This software simply can't follow ancient warfare. Basic rts elements like "guard mode" are erased from game. There is no flanking with cavalry cause flanks don't exist no more. Everything is over in a 3 minutes.

    I will not even enter into bug/crashed/freezes subjects. They exist, and game is far way from finished.

    Once again, CA repeated same story. They exploit warscape so many times with different set of models and textures that they didn't feel any guilt to do this again. They perfectly calculated that investing in marketing branch and recycling the old stuff cost much less that building new engine. Then, as always before every major release, Laurel and Hardy shows their funny faces, hyping you to death with fake images and gameplay shots. Material that's always somehow deleted from official game cause it didn't fit. They are actually presenting that as they did a favor to fans cause it would hurt gamplay or make game unstable, bugged....

    Total War Rome 2 is a school example of false advertising and CA fraud.

    After this one, I just hope that the franchise is done and they're finally done milking the title that made them great many years ago.

    Rating 1 Just because campaign map still looks beautiful    … Expand
  47. andre_nqml
    Sep 5, 2013
    9
    This game is basically CA lying to us players during all development stage. First of all, they released the "pre-alpha" gameplay footage and said the game would look even better than that. First lie. The game doesn't look like that not even on the strongest PCs. They also kept emphasizing the entire video that they were going for a darker feel of war. What we get is almost a capture theThis game is basically CA lying to us players during all development stage. First of all, they released the "pre-alpha" gameplay footage and said the game would look even better than that. First lie. The game doesn't look like that not even on the strongest PCs. They also kept emphasizing the entire video that they were going for a darker feel of war. What we get is almost a capture the flag, and a bunch of special abilities (known as magical abilities). More of an arcade feel of war.

    There was a video where they talked about the phalanx and said the units would try to keep formation over anything. This is also a joke, since they break the phalanx in a few seconds of combat. Actually, if there is something they DON'T do is keep formation during combat.

    In another video, they said the AI has greatly improved. The AI keeps doing suicidal attacks on the cities during the campaing. I also played a custom siege battle where I was defending a city, and the AI sent some troops and then just stood with 90% of the army doing nothing, so I had to quit the game. You don't need any tactics to win the battles, just charge everyone (maybe use some of the magical abilities if you want) and the opponent will break in less than a minute and you will win the battle, killing 700 troops and losing 70. Even on legendary the AI is not a real challenge.

    They said they were going to have a more complex tech tree than the one from Shogun 2, with 6 different branches. They do have 6 different branches, but surprisingly, the one from Shogun 2 is much more diversified and useful. On Rome 2, you have lots of useless tech tree that grants for example (+2% wealth from agriculture, -2% agriculture construction costs) and the next level exactly the same, but instead, with a 4% bonus. Shogun's tech tree was a lot more creative! It's a stepback.

    Yet another thing they said, was that the interaction and intrigues between the roman houses would improve. You would get to the point where you could chose between overthrown the republic or be it's savior. This time you choose your faction, but you even control generals from the other houses and you already begin the game with full control over Rome. There is hardly even a senate. So what's the point of having a civil war at some point of the game if I already control all Rome? Why should I care? Also, there is not even a family tree anymore, to further ruin the immersion.

    By the way, the new recruitment system doesn't makes sense and just doesn't work well. You cannot recruit troops in cities anymore, unless you have a general inside the city, and you have a very limited amount of generals to recruit. So there are many cities you would like to guard, but you can only count on the city garrison. Also, you cannot send troops from an army to another, because they can't travel alone, so, you gotta get both generals close enough to exchange troops.

    I think they focused to much in small details like giving the soldiers facial expressions when someone dies next to him and they forgot to focus on the gameplay itself. By the way, we can't even notice if they actually added the facial expressions to the game because the combat is just a blob of troops and they actually hide some nice animations that gets hard to notice.

    I'll stop here, but those are not the only bad things about the game. It's still pretty much a beta version, and I don't think that many of the bad things about the game are patchable. They can patch the AI, the graphics, the animations, but for the content, I guess we'll have to wait for mods. They said over and over again that it was going to be the best total war game ever. They created a huge hype over it. They set our expectations extremely high. I bought it on pre-sale, and it wasn't cheap. I feel really disrespected.    … Expand
  48. werwortmann
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    Has so much potential,
    But AI is everything in the end.
    Got bored on my first campaign try, AI just sits pretty and takes it up the A.
    I still play Rome 1, guess I should do campaign number 500 on that one.
    Vote this down to stop them from destroying this great series with similar future releases.
  49. Rigel86
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    This is not what you do to hold your customers. I will not pre-purchase ANY game in the future, after this experience. CA, your board of directors should be held responsible for this you should not get a decent job in the future even if you escape CA...
  50. p0rtus
    Sep 5, 2013
    2
    Though I love Total War games and believe that they are among the greatest games of any genre ever made, I can't say that I was impressed. The battle graphics are horrible, especially when you zoom out, and the diplomacy is also terrible. The custom battle maps are also very bad, with the fact that there are barely any buildings, and the AI players are absolutely horrible! Quality of theThough I love Total War games and believe that they are among the greatest games of any genre ever made, I can't say that I was impressed. The battle graphics are horrible, especially when you zoom out, and the diplomacy is also terrible. The custom battle maps are also very bad, with the fact that there are barely any buildings, and the AI players are absolutely horrible! Quality of the game is very low.… Expand
  51. razmachaz_69
    Sep 5, 2013
    2
    So disappointed.

    I dont care about graphical issues or anything like that first up. Mine is ok. I do care about the worst AI total war series have ever had. And i mean terrible. It charges Cav front on to spears. Lack of armies mean i cant expand without leaving settlements unguarded despite having more money than i can spend. There are so many contradicting ideas here which detract    So disappointed.

    I dont care about graphical issues or anything like that first up. Mine is ok.

    I do care about the worst AI total war series have ever had. And i mean terrible. It charges Cav front on to spears. Lack of armies mean i cant expand without leaving settlements unguarded despite having more money than i can spend. There are so many contradicting ideas here which detract from the 'fun' of 4 minute battles with dont need any tactics at all.

    Autoresolve is so broken its untrue also. Clear mis-weighting going on here. Slingers are useless, do no damage at all. All you want it heavy infantry and charge and grind.

    I have played over 500hours on Shogun 2 and even more on RTW. I have played 12 on Rome and have uninstalled as i find it so terrible.

    I cant explain how let down i feel on this game. I dont understand where the 10x budget or whatever went? jollying around europe looking at weapons to make textures for most likely.

    Most of the 10/10 reviews have prob played it for about 2 hours and dont see the glaring flaw in this very poor game. Ill be asking for a refund. Off to play RTW1 again for good gameplay and decent management system.

    Adios CA. Rome 2 was a waste of 10 years ''work''    … Expand
  52. dup
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    This is not Total War this is Total Failure.
    To start with the most obvious: turn time takes FOREVER. You make your turn in 20 seconds and then have to wait for almost a minute until you can play again. And during the wait time you can just do nothing. You can not check you settlements or fill production queues. And my PC is well equipped and plays almost every game perfectly. The next    This is not Total War this is Total Failure.
    To start with the most obvious: turn time takes FOREVER. You make your turn in 20 seconds and then have to wait for almost a minute until you can play again. And during the wait time you can just do nothing. You can not check you settlements or fill production queues. And my PC is well equipped and plays almost every game perfectly. The next big thing is the AI. It is not just total stupid, but simply non-existing. Both on the world map, but foremost in the battles. Horse archers dismounting their horses and charging you walls equipped with bowmen?? This is too bad to be just stupid. Another thing is the lack of immersion. You do not get the feeling that any of your choices matters in some way. Somehow things are not well stitched together. More related things are: bad user interface, totally mis-formatted in-game help, and a general lack of polishing.
    Related to the previous games this is not a step backwards, but it is just an incomplete game full of bugs which totally misses the point of grand strategy. Rather play Empire, Shogun 2 or Rome 1 you will actually have fun with theses game.
    Without the bugs and playable game turns I would give it a 6/10 but like this the game is almost junk.    … Expand
  53. BabbyConsoleRts
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    Pre-ordered this game for a pretty penny hoping to get an improved Shogun but lo and behold we got a watered down piece of and soon to be console RTS. At least that would explain why they took all of the depth from the campaign map/city management and left battles a simple matter of auto resolving every battle like a preschool version of Europa Universalis. On the rare occasion that youPre-ordered this game for a pretty penny hoping to get an improved Shogun but lo and behold we got a watered down piece of and soon to be console RTS. At least that would explain why they took all of the depth from the campaign map/city management and left battles a simple matter of auto resolving every battle like a preschool version of Europa Universalis. On the rare occasion that you have to join the battle you'll have the pleasure of routing the enemy without so much as moving an inch if you have any artillery because they won't move either! No artillery to be found? I'm sure right clicking the enemy once for victory with your infantry or calvary is going to keep you busy forever!

    Sad that they throw away the goodwill of their hardcore fans who have bought title after title with this dribble. Save your money pc, and inevitably, Xbox and PS owners.    … Expand
  54. mosilvers
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    No SLI/Crossfire support at release. It's 2013; catch a clue game developers. Make games that support multiple GPUs and can support more than one core of a CPU.
  55. thedawn
    Sep 10, 2013
    1
    Low fps, texture issues( black spots, and texture popping on the campaign map and battle map), bad AI way to passive one the campaign map, and just poorly coded, poor optimazation (shogun 2 was way better optimized), battles last like 2 or 3 minutes, they turn in huge blobs with no strategy needed, bad path finding, now for some reason routing enemys canot be runed down and be killed,Low fps, texture issues( black spots, and texture popping on the campaign map and battle map), bad AI way to passive one the campaign map, and just poorly coded, poor optimazation (shogun 2 was way better optimized), battles last like 2 or 3 minutes, they turn in huge blobs with no strategy needed, bad path finding, now for some reason routing enemys canot be runed down and be killed, there is no family tree, the different houses for Rome and Chartage make no inpackt on gameplay, the internal politicks system makes absolutely no inpackt on gameply i completely ignored it in my campagne, and nothing happened, in terms of some penalties or riots, i thought it will come to a civil war or something. Turns now last a year, making genearls die like flys, coop does not work, and crashes..............and much more what has been said here, and on the forums.

    The pre pre pre-alpha of the Cartage siege looks supperior to this!    … Expand
  56. Minderrx
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    his game failed its Total War predecessors. It is too fast paced, it´s hard to actually "feel" the game and immerse in to it, because of the new campaign, in which you just don´t give a what happens next. Diplomacy is ok but could stil use improvement (especially the trade agreements).
    But the battles! Oh my god, they suck balls. Even with high tier units, the battles tend to last at ma…    his game failed its Total War predecessors. It is too fast paced, it´s hard to actually "feel" the game and immerse in to it, because of the new campaign, in which you just don´t give a what happens next. Diplomacy is ok but could stil use improvement (especially the trade agreements).
    But the battles! Oh my god, they suck balls. Even with high tier units, the battles tend to last at ma… Expand
    Helpful? 18 of 23 users said Yes. All this user's reviews
    Necromonger Sep 4, 2013 0 Extremely disapointed and i see revieuws of this game scoring 9 and 9.5 Do game revieuwers get payed these days This game isnt even in Beta stage, seriously what an abomination... I got a beast of a system and it runs crap, crashes, textures bugs, politics what politics insane wait times per turn... I wait a few months to the modders can fix this game as the originel is jus… Expand    … Expand
  57. Dexyt
    Sep 5, 2013
    2
    Beware, the game is a flop. I tried to like it, but I just can't. There's nothing in it that makes it worth playing. The UI is inefficient, awkward and provides too little information. The turn times are extremely long. The AI is dumb. The tech tree, unit upgrades and the like offer no real advancements, just tiny increments, like +3%, to some attribute which makes them feel pointless. TheBeware, the game is a flop. I tried to like it, but I just can't. There's nothing in it that makes it worth playing. The UI is inefficient, awkward and provides too little information. The turn times are extremely long. The AI is dumb. The tech tree, unit upgrades and the like offer no real advancements, just tiny increments, like +3%, to some attribute which makes them feel pointless. The strategic layer is shallow, almost primitive. Battles tend to revolve around capture points which eliminates any strategic freedom. Indeed, battles is what the game should be about, and they simply aren't fun nor interesting. The game feels like a Frankenstein game in which different game elements are haphazardly sewn together. I could go, but I've made the point sufficiently clear: somehow this game turned out really bad.… Expand
  58. Isaristh
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    This game is full of bugs (zombie faces), errors (Egyptian obelisk in Greek town), and the AI is absolutely atrocious. You can literally capture cities without any resistance just by having your armies stare at each other while you run cavalry around the back to the "capture point".

    Don't buy this game. Your money is better elsewhere, supporting companies that actually release a    This game is full of bugs (zombie faces), errors (Egyptian obelisk in Greek town), and the AI is absolutely atrocious. You can literally capture cities without any resistance just by having your armies stare at each other while you run cavalry around the back to the "capture point".

    Don't buy this game. Your money is better elsewhere, supporting companies that actually release a finished product.    … Expand
  59. bordric
    Sep 5, 2013
    2
    To start with all of these 10s and 9 voters saying that we are all angry children or computers are no good or whatever other excuse they make for the horrible thing called TW Rome II. They are just sad people or their expectations are very low while most of us TW players had huge expectations but even then we knew there might be bugs etc. Even performance issues. Most TW games have bugsTo start with all of these 10s and 9 voters saying that we are all angry children or computers are no good or whatever other excuse they make for the horrible thing called TW Rome II. They are just sad people or their expectations are very low while most of us TW players had huge expectations but even then we knew there might be bugs etc. Even performance issues. Most TW games have bugs but and performance issues at release if that were the only problems I would not write this....

    However, the problem with this game will not and cannot be patched and fixed they have dumbed down the core of the game so drastically that I suppose they are going for the kid market on Consoles. There is no challenge what so ever the AI is dumbest ever but those things could be fixed generally sometimes. However you cannot fix ripping the heart out of TW Rome II without rebuilding it I don't even think Modder’s can save this one as they have saved most TW games in the past.

    The game is heartless and soulless there is no connection at all with me I can't even be bothered to care. I have no connection with this so-called Total War game it is more like a console game for the masses! It has been dumbed down to a level of a game like going back 15 to 20 years in AI and core game play. Hell I had far more connection with the original Shogun in 2001.

    All other TW titles I had a personal connection too even Empire with its problems stuck to the core of the TW series and I could survive the first growing pains and I still play it to this day (especially now Rome II is such a failure). That doesn't exist with this game I don't think they can patch this POS to any level that Empire rose to and several would claim Empire was the low point of TW history (not me but several).

    So for all of you Rated 10 reviewers here saying we are wrong and we are just dumb or computer sucks... Or my favorite we don't understand that game. Let me assure you I can almost promise you all these 0s and 3s and 6s are the people who have always played and loved Total War. However they know those days are over because this is not going to be fixed they took one of the greatest strategy games franchises in gaming history and destroyed it for the masses and dumb people on consoles.

    CA must have gotten rid of all their talent because whoever designed and lead the creating of this POS needs to be fired.

    -Ugly Graphics
    -Dumbed down Game play
    -Ugly confusing Unit Cards
    -Units are all the same ALL the ones I ran into in over 10 hours of play
    -Naval Warfare is badly broken units will not respond to orders
    -Land Battles are so pathetic just use Auto Resolve how sad I have come close to losing a battle
    -Battles the enemy will just charge one unit at you constantly and run away until you attack
    -Campaign is the worst ever in TW I have seen suicides 1 unit armies against cities and then I have seen the AI just watch me take their cities without any resistance. I have never been attacked.
    -The one year turns are stupid. It takes 2 years (TWO YEARS) to sail to the backside of Sardina really? Really?
    -The immersion is totally broken by 1 year turns and the fact that the Family Tree is gone all the little things that made it personal are gone from the game. I could careless who my Generals are they have connection to me and die every other turn. I don't get to guide them I just add redundant and totally useless cards that add useless skills that mean nothing.
    -Factions are totally waste of time I have no connection to my factions or even know why I am gaining more and more senators every round. There is no known reason or care of how I gain them and I can't like make new laws and sway the senate so who gives a damn?

    Anyway it is a lifeless soulless game that is sad and will miss TW if this is the future.    … Expand
  60. Hogan350
    Sep 8, 2013
    2
    Just have to add here after seeing 34 positive "professional" reviews to only 2 negative... well, just goes to show you what gaming "journalism" is all about nowadays, I've come to expect no less from these hacks.

    _____________________________________________________________________________________ Agents are better than in Empire where they were no doubt terrible, but far, far worse    Just have to add here after seeing 34 positive "professional" reviews to only 2 negative... well, just goes to show you what gaming "journalism" is all about nowadays, I've come to expect no less from these hacks.

    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Agents are better than in Empire where they were no doubt terrible, but far, far worse than Shogun 2, in which they worked fantastically.
    As for the long wait times between turns, this was an issue that used to be solvable by switching off "watch AI turns"; now, that does very little.

    For the AI, it has not improved one bit since the first Rome. That's 8 years. In 8 years the graphics have improved dramatically and yet, despite promises for every new iteration, the AI is equal to if not worse than the AI in Rome.
    Shogun 2 and its expansion Fall of the Samurai improved AI somewhat, but it's back to square one now, it seems.

    Auto-boat armies are a problem indeed, they totally negate the need for a navy.

    Another issue is the fact that every turn is one year and generals age as such, meaning that general that you need to create and move your army, the one you spent time giving upgrades and experience, is often dead from natural causes within 30 turns. It also makes no sense that it takes 7 years to travel from Rome to Sicily by boat, and longer on foot.

    And WHY OH WHY has how we raise/use our armies in a TOTAL WAR GAME been limited?! Seriously, 3 general limit at the start? That means 3 stacks only (which contributes to passive AI). What happened to scouting parties? Did they not exist in Roman times? How about skirmishes? Why can I not garrison or move or even recruit troops without a general? It just seriously limits player choice and freedom and I think that this is perhaps the most egregious offence committed. Sure, raids by a few measly units were annoying, but nowhere near as annoying as having to have a general who will die in a few turns in order to do anything with any of my troops. Really, what was the point of it?
    I used to have light cavalry units as scouting parties, actually I think that was a hint that CA gave for M2TW. I also used to use captains to lead small armies around low-risk areas, send small stacks to replenish my main armies and do all sorts of things with my unlimited number of stacks.

    On the battle side:
    - I think that the removal of tight/loose formations and guard mode are unforgivable

    - Pila-wielding units can now only throw them on the charge and MUST throw them on the charge even if that means hitting their allies. It's incredibly stupid (as opposed to Rome 1, where pila-wielding units could be ordered to fire at will/hold fire and could throw their pila even whilst stationary)

    - "Victory points" totally negate any kind of strategic or tactical thinking, it is just a mad dash to the arbitrary points on the map

    - Even "super heavy" infantry run at speeds that would make Usain Bolt wilt and they fatigue far too slowly

    - Units no longer maintain formation (partly due to the removal of guard mode), so even the most hardened, disciplined Roman troops descend into disorganised mass-brawling when engaged by an enemy, and will not move even if their allies are being hacked to death right next to them or they are being pelted with arrows from a few metres away, but will also pursue any enemy that engages them to the ends of the earth unless stopped (another result of removal of guard mode).

    That is along with battles being way too short. Top-tier units, entire battle hardened armies will rout in under two minutes. In a game famous for its epic, real-time, 3D battles...

    All in all, the bugs and graphical issues may be fixed, as with previous instalments. However, I feel that unlike the previous games, Rome 2 does not really feel like a Total War game, it lacks that certain something, the soul of the Total War series. It feels like a cheap imitation from some two-bit company on a budget trying to emulate Creative Assembly. Except the graphics, which are good... when they work.

    This is not the game we were promised, and after years of waiting, it is such a huge disappointment.

    The UI is also, in my opinion, way too large and obstructive; you can't even reduce the size of the mini-map any more, only remove it. The unit cards are confusing and take up a lot of space. Information is too hard to easily discern and the whole campaign map aspect has been horribly castrated.

    I'm giving this horribly disappointing, sterile, bloated mess of a game 2/10, the 2 purely for the nice visuals.    … Expand
  61. alex-kit
    Sep 9, 2013
    2
    This is Rome Total Mess. They managed to fail in all aspects of the game: strategy, tactics, even technical (which is probably the only aspect that can and will be fixed). It's so not fun and so disappointing! Do not expect epic tactical battles, TW has become just another arcade with quick-button-pressing 1-minute fights. Being a TW fun since the first(!) Shogun, I pre-ordered the game,This is Rome Total Mess. They managed to fail in all aspects of the game: strategy, tactics, even technical (which is probably the only aspect that can and will be fixed). It's so not fun and so disappointing! Do not expect epic tactical battles, TW has become just another arcade with quick-button-pressing 1-minute fights. Being a TW fun since the first(!) Shogun, I pre-ordered the game, and I feel stupid now for supporting the product that does not deserve it. Avoid buying it, and if you do buy it, do not complain you were not warned.… Expand
  62. Southers
    Sep 12, 2013
    5
    After playing for 45 hours through a brilliant prologue, some great historical battles, a few (very laggy/ desynced) quick matches and two 100 turn in progress campaigns as Rome and Iceni, I feel like it is time to give my opinion. I have read some real troll reviews, and some real hype reviews, and it may look like i'm sitting dead in the middle but this is my honest opinion so pleaseAfter playing for 45 hours through a brilliant prologue, some great historical battles, a few (very laggy/ desynced) quick matches and two 100 turn in progress campaigns as Rome and Iceni, I feel like it is time to give my opinion. I have read some real troll reviews, and some real hype reviews, and it may look like i'm sitting dead in the middle but this is my honest opinion so please bare with me.

    The game has some serious flaws right now, mainly performance related and AI. Especially a dreadful waiting time for turns-end. It also lacks some really important features such as the family tree, and a capable political system especially for the roman faction. I was also fairly jaded by character progression from agents to generals, with not only a lack of but also no real logic to how it all works or flows. Not to mention them dyeing on you as soon as they become your hero. New province system and transport over sea system seemed great at first but soon came to be a nuisance late game for many reasons. Army traditions is overall a great additions, and one of the best in my opinion.

    Rome 1 was a very long time ago but parts of that could do with returning to this game. Especially if you plan to play as a roman faction. I'm talking about the senate and family system which we shall all remember so clearly. It doesn't feature in this game, instead you have 1 faction panel which tries and fails to convey a poorly designed and rushed system.

    I have also had a terrible experience with Multiplayer desyncs, whilst the singleplayer battles are flawed from the capture points system through to the whole mosh pit over in 5 seconds deal. Naval battles fair worse with many issues from balancing to some really strange auto resolve decisions and spamming of transport fleets (which dominate).

    However, I will be fair to this game because it has some real wow factors. The animations and generally the visuals (if you can get them to work) look stunning. The prologue is also fantastic, if a little buggy/ short. The campaign map itself is stunning, not only extensive, but offering a great detail and historical correctness. The amount of factions added is unbelievable, half the reason for turn end time problems...There is a crazy amount of work that went into the design of this game from all fronts, but again I just feel a serious lack of testing and optimization of the engine has taken place.

    I am not sure what CA plan to do but I 'hope' they make a vast array of changes where needed, and learn that striping out perfectly good features from previous games was perhaps a mistake.

    If they can focus on performance issues and tear down the turn end time to below 30 seconds this would receive a 6 or 7, as I am sure it will get from various patches.

    If they could improve drastically on AI in all areas of the game from battles to simple diplomatic actions such a trade agreements, and balance the many different units in the game, as well as coax in a family tree system with easier marriage and less of an aging issue we might be looking at a near 8, however this should of been in the game for release, as I feel that is what I was really sold.

    If they wanted to head toward or above a solid 8 i would need to see some significant additions. Basics like general speeches and agent action cinematics (absolute favourite), through to more complex additions like a deep political system, polished UI and a deeper multiplayer (fully working) experience.

    Finally I am also skeptical of the DLC direction of the game, similarly to CoH2, another sega game. It feels to me like they will be selling a lot of what is already in the game, such as cultures and factions. They may also add some missing units or even features through DLC, something I would not be happy to pay for. These should have come with a well polished game upon release, not later on as a stab for cash. If CA/ sega want any more of my money I will be expecting a fully finished expansion after a decent amount of work on the base game. I will certainly not be pre-ordering sega games after doing this for both CoH2 and Rome2 until major changes occur in both (free changes).

    I wish CA the best of luck for it will be a massive undertaking to reinvigorate what they have lost. Sadly in its current state as of 12.09.2013 its a mediocre 5/10.    … Expand
  63. Robert_Capu
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    Honestly this game deserves 4 out of 10 but I will give it a solid zero. Why? Because I am tired being CA beta tester which pays 60 euros for unfinished product. I am tired that developers from CA make each new TW more simple and casual than old games. I am tired of terrible AI which is absolute embarrassment. SEGA and CA are big fat liers!
  64. Rexxig
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    Unoptimized even a high end PC cant run it more that 15 fps...
    **** AI.
    Buggy as hell.
    Alot of missing features....They should of not released it at this stage its a kick in the balls to all TW FANS
  65. Strategist1979
    Sep 11, 2013
    4
    This game is just broken. The AI is so stupid. This game is not challenging at all. It is very buggy. RIP Total War franchise. The only reason I'm giving this a 4 is because there seriously are worse games out there. I can not believe they spent as much production dollars on this as they did. unbelievable. Time for people to get fired.
  66. Agriphal
    Sep 7, 2013
    5
    I prior ordered the game in expectation of the kind of visuals likely to knock my socks off. The hype was very effective and I was suckered in, like the fool I am. I checked my computer specifications against the list provided by Creative Assembly and to my joy I found that I met the recommended specifications. Wonderful, I thought, I'm going to get the close to the top graphics. On MondayI prior ordered the game in expectation of the kind of visuals likely to knock my socks off. The hype was very effective and I was suckered in, like the fool I am. I checked my computer specifications against the list provided by Creative Assembly and to my joy I found that I met the recommended specifications. Wonderful, I thought, I'm going to get the close to the top graphics. On Monday I started playing. Well, tried to play. Strained my eyes trying to look at the screen that looked more like a slideshow than a computer game (frames for each second at ten or less). It turns out that you need the very best computer on the market to get anywhere near attractive graphics. Sad of heart I turned down the graphics and unit size to the lowest settings. Visually it looked worse than the first Rome game. Then I encountered the worst part. The units had almost zero weight. So, this game still carries on the tradition of floaty combat established by Empire Total War and perfected by Shogun Two. Back in Medieval Two time units felt like they actually had mass. They clashed with a crunch. It was the most satisfying part of the game. That is now ancient history (ironically). Overall this game is both unfinished and underwhelming. Even when all the patches are out, this game wont be worth the effort it takes to click "purchase". Or the time wasted downloading it. If you're a fan of this franchise, and you want more, get Medieval two Total War, and download one of the many excellent modifications out there.… Expand
  67. njsfc
    Sep 5, 2013
    2
    This is not a TOTAL WAR GAME
    this is a crap arcade console game released in the PC market just to make profit
    from people expectations.

    After this release any company could sell poison on refresh bottles and simple say
    "this is our vision of a proper refresh" drink and die.
  68. tarq
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    Terrible release, full of bugs and incredibly questionable game mechanic decisions..Diplomacy and battles AI are broken, game code in unoptimized. they removed several features from previous games and dumbed it down for no apparent reason.Some stuff will be fixed by community and/or CA but other things (like flag points in battles are not possible to remove and they are killing the game.Terrible release, full of bugs and incredibly questionable game mechanic decisions..Diplomacy and battles AI are broken, game code in unoptimized. they removed several features from previous games and dumbed it down for no apparent reason.Some stuff will be fixed by community and/or CA but other things (like flag points in battles are not possible to remove and they are killing the game.

    Wait till it's fixed and in bargain bin, not worth full price att    … Expand
  69. whuu
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    AI is horrible. A huge amount of bugs. I hope there wil be hope with future patches and modding or else i will probably be done with that company. they should have invested in beta testing because this is like alpha version.
  70. Jaguar_Paw91
    Sep 6, 2013
    1
    In past times, when you buy game, that is that. You know what you get for your money. Today, every game must release patch in 2 week period. What that tell us? They build games for profit now, not for the gamers. They all have sweet advertising, buy our game it is the best. This game just sucks. I have monster pc, but i cant play it on high, frps drops everywhere, even on campaign map, theIn past times, when you buy game, that is that. You know what you get for your money. Today, every game must release patch in 2 week period. What that tell us? They build games for profit now, not for the gamers. They all have sweet advertising, buy our game it is the best. This game just sucks. I have monster pc, but i cant play it on high, frps drops everywhere, even on campaign map, the longest battle was 6 min, that is just funny and not good. You cant have trade agreement with no one, even if you are "same blood" people. Maybe some people dont have problems with graphics, but everyone have problems with in-game setup. People who say this is good game simply lie, maybe they are paid from SEGA to talk such lies, but core of the problem is simply this game isnt FINISH… Expand
  71. Morogath
    Sep 6, 2013
    5
    Just to clear it up: I've been a TW fan since the start.. In all honesty: this is probably the worst title in the whole series. Why? Good question.... Extrem performance issues on my high-end PC, the AI is stupid as bread.. every round there is some single unit attacking one of my gigantic armies... I mean really... Even the campaign-map AI is too dumb for this world on hard difficulty.Just to clear it up: I've been a TW fan since the start.. In all honesty: this is probably the worst title in the whole series. Why? Good question.... Extrem performance issues on my high-end PC, the AI is stupid as bread.. every round there is some single unit attacking one of my gigantic armies... I mean really... Even the campaign-map AI is too dumb for this world on hard difficulty. What was CA doing while developing? This is the first time that i regret having paid for a TW game. The politicial plunder is unmotivating, not really well explained and straight up boring. Sorry for the harsh words, but I'm just so extremely disappointed.… Expand
  72. Doctor-J
    Sep 5, 2013
    4
    The AI is completely broken, the battles in a city have no strategy at all, there are f0ck1ng special powers in the mid of the battle, i feel like i'm playing a MOBA, and I HATE MOBAs!!! I really miss the General Speech, it was one the favorite features in Rome TW. I'm really disappointed with this game, specially because they probably won't add the speeches back so soon, or maybe not atThe AI is completely broken, the battles in a city have no strategy at all, there are f0ck1ng special powers in the mid of the battle, i feel like i'm playing a MOBA, and I HATE MOBAs!!! I really miss the General Speech, it was one the favorite features in Rome TW. I'm really disappointed with this game, specially because they probably won't add the speeches back so soon, or maybe not at all. The reason i like Total War games is because they're games about history and realistic battles, not some goddamn MOBAs that have no strategy at all! This Game needs a ENORMOUS patch...… Expand
  73. Abolfazl3007
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    Where do i begin ?!

    Visuals looks way worse than shogun 2 in almost every way !! Performance is Horrible ! With a Rig that runs shogun 2 at maximum i cant even get a descent frame rate lag free game at medium-low setting !! Absolute Technically broken all the way ! The most stupid AI ever ... Thousands and Thousands of different bugs and glitches everywhere !    Where do i begin ?!

    Visuals looks way worse than shogun 2 in almost every way !!

    Performance is Horrible !

    With a Rig that runs shogun 2 at maximum i cant even get a descent frame rate lag free game at medium-low setting !!

    Absolute Technically broken all the way !

    The most stupid AI ever ...

    Thousands and Thousands of different bugs and glitches everywhere !

    Unplayable

    BROKEN PRODUCT    … Expand
  74. asir
    Sep 6, 2013
    1
    When will gamers learn? There have been dozens of huge disappointments just like this (SimCity comes to mind recently on PC) yet you people keep buying them. This is a terrible, glitch riddled, derivative game, released WAY WAY too early.

    The only way to change this horrible trend in the industry is to STOP BUYING THE GAMES.
  75. Ciroc384
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    Rome 2 is actually not a bad game for casual young player. But for me as dedicated player of the Total War series this is the greatest disappointment in gaming history. Graphics are nice, but gameplay lacks heart and soul. I would never thought I will write negative review for Rome 2. If this game was named differently and was not released by CA, I would rate it probably 5/10. But IRome 2 is actually not a bad game for casual young player. But for me as dedicated player of the Total War series this is the greatest disappointment in gaming history. Graphics are nice, but gameplay lacks heart and soul. I would never thought I will write negative review for Rome 2. If this game was named differently and was not released by CA, I would rate it probably 5/10. But I consider it also the biggest scam. 60$ for this is simply too much. Replayability is at zero … Expand
  76. Silenus
    Sep 12, 2013
    1
    My God, where do you begin with this game? Awful performance, dreadful AI, poorly balanced units and broken features.

    I feel like a complete fool for pre-ordering this.
  77. Bethrezen
    Sep 8, 2013
    2
    After playing for 44 hours, here are my conclusions:
    (-) Very poorly optimized (low FPS and mini-freezes in-battles and on campaign map, especially after hitting End Turn);
    (+) Relatively good loading times; (-) Relatively average intro cinematic in terms of epicness and actual showing game mechanics and battle, at least when comparing it to the Rome TW intro (or BI intro); (-) Long    After playing for 44 hours, here are my conclusions:
    (-) Very poorly optimized (low FPS and mini-freezes in-battles and on campaign map, especially after hitting End Turn);
    (+) Relatively good loading times;
    (-) Relatively average intro cinematic in terms of epicness and actual showing game mechanics and battle, at least when comparing it to the Rome TW intro (or BI intro);
    (-) Long time waiting for other factions, after hitting End Turn (4-5 minutes);
    (-) Horrible UI and menu design you can actually take these menus and put them in any other game, they don't have anything special or related to a Total War game; they don't contribute in any way to the atmosphere;
    (+/-) The unit cards are neither bad nor good, in my opinion; it's just a matter of taste;
    (-) Creating fleets is useless since your troops "transform" into fleets anyway (very bad design here);
    (-) Totally unesthetic and unsuggestive building card images; absolutely NOT contributing to any kind of atmosphere;
    (-) Lots of bugs everywhere: graphical corruptions outside of the world map, provinces that don't show they are conquered (happened with Baktria), units which stop after you send them to attack or pursue the enemy, units blocked in buildings, etc. etc.;
    (-) Core gameplay design flaws: battles lasting 10 minutes at most, really bad AI, no Guard stance, no Fire at Will option especially for melee troops with pilum/javelins, overpowered fire missiles, overpowered cavalry charge, broken phalanx, illogical unit abilities, useless siege equipment (since you can just burn the gate much easier and faster), javelins on fire used by all factions, wrong testudo formation etc. etc.
    (-) Researching just about everything and seeing all units long before actually winning the game (at least while playing with other factions other than Rome);
    (-) Passive campaign AI with no diplomacy improvement from the previous titles;
    (-) Stupid Steam achievements (play for an hour? fight a battle without auto-resolve?);
    (+) More historical accurate factions and units;
    (+) Pretty good sound effects;
    (-) Not working coop multiplayer due to very long turns and desynchronizing;
    (-) No avatar campaign, just a really boring versus multiplayer (a return to RTW and a downgrade from Shogun 2);
    (-) Incoming DLC fest
    (-) Asking for buyers to test all incoming patches.

    I will rate the game accordingly.    … Expand
  78. pedosupreme
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    Are you FUKIN kidding me? this is a absolutely disgraceful game, this is daylight robbery. why? well...

    1) no refund, have fun with that. 2) This is beta...100%, people say total war games are buggy on release, well it's true but not a good excuse at ALL for a business. Especially since this game might very well be the worst of the series. 3) Bad performance period. (in all    Are you FUKIN kidding me? this is a absolutely disgraceful game, this is daylight robbery. why? well...

    1) no refund, have fun with that.

    2) This is beta...100%, people say total war games are buggy on release, well it's true but not a good excuse at ALL for a business. Especially since this game might very well be the worst of the series.

    3) Bad performance period. (in all aspects)

    4) A.I is abysmal, THIS right here is what broke the game for me. (campaign, naval and battle A.I) even on legendary!

    5) completely misleading information about the game including the pre rendered screenshots(claiming they were in game footage) and the video's claiming they were "pre-alpha"

    6) Day 1 DLC (red flags)

    7) completely ignored the fans.

    8) patches DO NOT COUNT. they released a beta period. (People rely on patches WAY too much)

    9) 60$

    10) graphics on extreme look like shogun 2 but worse.

    Biggest over hyped game of 2013

    final) do not buy this, if you own it, try to get a refund if you can immediately.    … Expand
  79. EchelonEffect
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    Shame on everyone involved in the production of this game, and shame on the publications that were obviously paid handsomely by Sega to give it positive reviews. Charging 60 dollars for what amounts to a game that could barely be considered to be in its beta stage, and THEN throwing in day 1 DLC on top of it is absolutely reprehensible. A GTX Titan, which will run you 1,000 dollars, isShame on everyone involved in the production of this game, and shame on the publications that were obviously paid handsomely by Sega to give it positive reviews. Charging 60 dollars for what amounts to a game that could barely be considered to be in its beta stage, and THEN throwing in day 1 DLC on top of it is absolutely reprehensible. A GTX Titan, which will run you 1,000 dollars, is barely capable of running this game. Unless you've got a NASA supercomputer, avoid this pile of trash like the plague.… Expand
  80. AlexWizz
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    I would like to get my money back because of false advertising. Shogun 2 was a great game, but this one is crappy mess. So many things are missing: family trees, walls in minor cities, old building system and population numbers. UI is terrible! Worst game of 2013!
  81. Kante
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    Quake 2 like graphics due to untweakable bugs, dummy AI, strange stuttering? (Benny hill sensation).
    Seems a bit rushed to release but it could have good potential if improved. Lot of tweaking/optimization needed.
    Maybe it will be fixed someday, i'd suggest waiting on buy, you could have a better experience at a lower price.
  82. alhypo
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    Well, as a loyal Total War series player, I have to say this game is kind of an embarrassment. There are so many great things about it yet one very serious flaw destroyed my enjoyment. Basically, the developers someone managed to eliminate any element of strategy in the open-field battles. In the heat of a huge open battle, I learned the hard way that there is a "Victory Point" placed onWell, as a loyal Total War series player, I have to say this game is kind of an embarrassment. There are so many great things about it yet one very serious flaw destroyed my enjoyment. Basically, the developers someone managed to eliminate any element of strategy in the open-field battles. In the heat of a huge open battle, I learned the hard way that there is a "Victory Point" placed on the map in my defensive territory. The point is out in the middle of nowhere and of no strategic importance. However, I found that if I don't commit my soldiers to defending this seemingly unimportant, arbitrary spot, the computer AI will send one unit directly to the point and claim victory. Having not noticed the victory point, I strategically positioned my defending army atop a hill so I would have an advantage. Unfortunately, the battle was over before it even got going. I lost with a decisive defeat. I started with 2200 soldiers. When the battle finished, I had only lost about 300 of them in the actual battle. Does that sound like a decisive defeat? No, it's utterly absurd. Only more so because I still lost the entire army after the battle was over. I was going to lose the battle anyway, but I missed out on the chance to take down the enemy's numbers a bit. I lost all 2200 of my soldiers, but the enemy only lost the 300 or so men that I took down in battle. This Victory Point nonsense is game breaking for me. I really enjoy the economic strategy, but real-time battles are the core of this game. This game could be close to a 10 for me if they would fix this one little victory point problem. Being that I'm not going to play the game anymore, it does deserve a zero. What a disappointing waste of money.… Expand
  83. Injenu
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    Yea they obviously spent more money on marketing than on improving their series.

    1. AI is pathetically bad, both the way the game reacts to player orders as well the computer opponents. Example In the "siege of caligua", you'll start off with the Samnites to the left on this plateau, take your melee troops and have them try to flank the enemy on the plateau on the right of it.    Yea they obviously spent more money on marketing than on improving their series.

    1. AI is pathetically bad, both the way the game reacts to player orders as well the computer opponents. Example In the "siege of caligua", you'll start off with the Samnites to the left on this plateau, take your melee troops and have them try to flank the enemy on the plateau on the right of it. Instead of pathing correctly, and not engaging while the line is thin, the troops will get stuck on the corner, basically creating a bottleneck to be killed in 1s and 2s. The funny part is that this tactical blunder then causes the AI to retreat!

    2. UI is terrible why they decided to use these unintuitive cards is beyond me... Another thing, is that there's about 60 factions, and when you hit end turn, you'll have to go through that entire lineup before next turn.

    3. Meta game is basically about surviving with your taxes on the lowest so that your people don't revolt, until you can build up cities to support a positive public order (i've yet to accomplish this).

    While you can field great armies, the game is just a copy-paste from Shogun 2, with no new additions, no reworks, and the same hype about naval combat which has never lived up to expectation.

    Do yourself a favor, if you even decide to pay for this game, do so when the price is 29.99, which will be in about 3 months. I will warn you the load times are so slow that if you're not putting it on an SSD it'll just create frustration.    … Expand
  84. icemanerz
    Sep 4, 2013
    5
    Having started my Total War fascination with Rome 1, and having played every Total War from then on. I can honestly say Rome 2 is a let down. It's far from a 0 or 1 you are seeing here (overreaction), however, the game needs a lot of work. Optimization is a serious issue, as my well over recommended rig does stutter on high settings; and the visuals don't even look good to be worth theHaving started my Total War fascination with Rome 1, and having played every Total War from then on. I can honestly say Rome 2 is a let down. It's far from a 0 or 1 you are seeing here (overreaction), however, the game needs a lot of work. Optimization is a serious issue, as my well over recommended rig does stutter on high settings; and the visuals don't even look good to be worth the stutter. Computer AI is dreadful, beyond the usual bad of a strategy game AI. But my biggest gripe is the quick/non-strategic combat. If you expect anything from a Total War game, it's strategic combat. And sadly that is sorely lacking here. Combat is usually a giant ball of death that doesn't even last long. No guard stance, unit abilities don't stand true for form (phalanx not holding up to even weak charges), and archers with dreadful range (why bother?). Patches may fix this game.. eventually.. but it's far from being the release it should have been.… Expand
  85. DilonBello
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    Total War: Rome 2 deserves nothing more than 0/10 because of a simple fact: it is broken. Unplayable. You have two options of play; a lag-fest of high settings, or a lag-fest of a map looking like a glazed doughnut. My computer well meets the specs, playing Shogun 2 at highest flawlessly, but this game ruins all the progress CA has made beyond Empire. With a bigger development time andTotal War: Rome 2 deserves nothing more than 0/10 because of a simple fact: it is broken. Unplayable. You have two options of play; a lag-fest of high settings, or a lag-fest of a map looking like a glazed doughnut. My computer well meets the specs, playing Shogun 2 at highest flawlessly, but this game ruins all the progress CA has made beyond Empire. With a bigger development time and budget this is the best they can do?

    Until the game leaves early beta, which I expect will take a good few months for people with graphics card that are incompatible which is most of them DO NOT BUY. Rome 2 is a broken mess. Repeat: a broken, unplayable mess that squanders its potential and says 'FU' to all fans like myself    … Expand
  86. Renzi_IS_Fonzie
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    Well, the game was very promising, until...
    The very moment you start a battle and experience heavy lag, pathfinding glitches, missing core features (guard mode, fire at will on "Hastati" and units which don't follow routing enemies...), random crashes...
    The game is really poorly optimized and it will lag in medium size battles regardless of your system because it happens to use only    Well, the game was very promising, until...
    The very moment you start a battle and experience heavy lag, pathfinding glitches, missing core features (guard mode, fire at will on "Hastati" and units which don't follow routing enemies...), random crashes...
    The game is really poorly optimized and it will lag in medium size battles regardless of your system because it happens to use only about half the power of powerful GPUs like GTX Titan, it has poor multi-core support and worse graphics than it's predecessor.
    The campaign turns are just unbearable, they last 4 minutes full of nothing to do, you can't move units between settlements unless you have a general to drive them, garrisons are composed of random units depending on which military buildings you have in the city and armies can travel on seas generating their own ships in no time (the transport ships they have are almost as good as real navies and cost nothing...).
    The game feels greatly dumbed down in features, most concerning is the really bad AI in campaign which is not able to stand up to players unless with cheats and often attacks with poor units your huge armies, getting defeated in 5 minutes.
    Also, battle speed is absurd, most fights last less than 10 minutes including the initial march.
    UI is TERRIBLE an covers half the screen!
    I would say this game is not worth 50 bucks, not even 20 in it's current state.
    But i see much potential in here when it will be fixed, so for now it's only 3, but it could possibly raise up if the issues are resolved in decent times.    … Expand
  87. matthiasgaming
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    Total War is the only series I buy every game at (or near) full price. I am disappointed that this game randomly crashes within 30 minutes of play. This is on a newer laptop with a fresh install the OS. The game is slow and clunky. I hope a big patch comes soon. It's also noteworthy the difference between the user score and the critic score. What game are they playing? It's not theTotal War is the only series I buy every game at (or near) full price. I am disappointed that this game randomly crashes within 30 minutes of play. This is on a newer laptop with a fresh install the OS. The game is slow and clunky. I hope a big patch comes soon. It's also noteworthy the difference between the user score and the critic score. What game are they playing? It's not the same one I'm playing.… Expand
  88. Baldos
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    I have owned and played every TW game since the original Shogun. I have played each game for hundreds of hours. However I am VERY disappointed with Rome 2. I have no bugs and the game runs very well on My new PC (i5-3570K, GTX 770, SSD ungraded to play Rome 2). BUT the game is DUMBED DOWN. The IA is worse than Empire, cities can only build 4-6 buildings, the faction/ internal politics isI have owned and played every TW game since the original Shogun. I have played each game for hundreds of hours. However I am VERY disappointed with Rome 2. I have no bugs and the game runs very well on My new PC (i5-3570K, GTX 770, SSD ungraded to play Rome 2). BUT the game is DUMBED DOWN. The IA is worse than Empire, cities can only build 4-6 buildings, the faction/ internal politics is senseless, the documentation is useless. I don't even know what I can build in the future. The aux barracks show every unit in the game as available when that is not the case.....just dumb;(… Expand
  89. Amas
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    As much as I dislike giving this game a review score of Zero, it must be done. CA use Warscape engine in their games for years and developers still manage to make a game with tons of bugs and dreadful optimization. I was hugely disappointed with changes such removal of walls from settlements and removal of family tree. AI is retarded. User interface is unimpressive. It fails as a game, andAs much as I dislike giving this game a review score of Zero, it must be done. CA use Warscape engine in their games for years and developers still manage to make a game with tons of bugs and dreadful optimization. I was hugely disappointed with changes such removal of walls from settlements and removal of family tree. AI is retarded. User interface is unimpressive. It fails as a game, and it fails as part of TW series.… Expand
  90. VendettaBB
    Nov 22, 2013
    1
    I really would not trust these high reviews that are coming up now praising CA for patching the game and "fixing it" in their eyes. Most of these people are just advertising blood and gore ("oh my blood and gore dlc is so amazing it makes the game so fun") really? like do you have family at CA or what? Give me a break. And no they did not give us "a bunch of free dlc" like some of theseI really would not trust these high reviews that are coming up now praising CA for patching the game and "fixing it" in their eyes. Most of these people are just advertising blood and gore ("oh my blood and gore dlc is so amazing it makes the game so fun") really? like do you have family at CA or what? Give me a break. And no they did not give us "a bunch of free dlc" like some of these phoney reviews are pointing out to. What... some uninteresting factions that were cut from the original game is somehow supposed to win me over now? Of course they couldn't sell it as DLC they would just look like a bunch of morons like they are for marketing the blood and gore pack and then having the audacity to call that Patch 6. lol, oh and the state of the game you might ask? Again don't believe these fraudulent reviewers that have been attempting to raise the score. The game is still poorly optimized for high end machines and patch 7 has gone live. (I have AMD FX 8350 8 core, GeForce GTX 670 and 8 GB ram and the campaign map is still stuttering very noticeably, aka low frame rates). The UI is as ugly as it was at release (the pre-alpha looking ui), the trivial design decisions are still in the game armies cannot be merged as effectively (general has to be in an army), armies can instantly turn into ships, no seasons and 1 turn per year, broken politics system that has no use replacing the family tree, ai is still horrible and lackluster (still much worse than previous entries) after CA has attempted to patch it, battles are still very non-strategic (capture the flag, broken siege battles, broken formations and on and on), truthfully the game is so painfully broken compared to shogun 2 that I actually don't even have the urge to engage in battles let alone even play past several turns (I always go back after patches hoping it might be the one to at least fix some problems but I've been disappointed for over 2 months now). The game is not even in a beta state, now going on 3 months after release, CA has completely sold out and basically robbed us of our money, people telling you otherwise are flat out lying or are completely unaware or ignorant of what constitutes quality. I've poured over 500 hours into Shogun 2 and that was the pinnacle of the total war series. Rome 2 still does not even come close. I'm being as honest as I can after having my heart broken (this was my most anticipated game of the year).… Expand
  91. Gunydii
    Sep 5, 2013
    2
    The 2 if for potential.

    At launch this game is not good enough. The bugs are bad, the optimisation is worse and some of the design decisions are, in the game's current state, fatal. In some ways this game improves on the formula, but for each step forward there are several back. There are some good ideas in there, provinces (limits the time spent managing an empire), limiting the    The 2 if for potential.

    At launch this game is not good enough. The bugs are bad, the optimisation is worse and some of the design decisions are, in the game's current state, fatal.

    In some ways this game improves on the formula, but for each step forward there are several back. There are some good ideas in there, provinces (limits the time spent managing an empire), limiting the number of armies (so the armies are bigger leading to bigger fights), agent use and recruitment.
    But for each good idea there are several bad ones.

    Battles are over absurdly quickly (means you spend more time on the campaign map, which is streamlined too, so you spend all your time pressing 'end turn' and the end turn process takes forever), the battle AI is all over the place, capture points don’t add anything positive, some formations don’t work, naval battles don’t work, loss of guard mode, all add up to battles with no need for or use of tactics.

    On the campaign map, the loss of a family tree, faction intros, one turn per year, difficulty in getting diplomatic agreements (and the inability to trade regions) all break immersion and make you feel that side of the game has become too streamlined.

    Fundamentally, CA didn't release a demo and seems to have failed to do adequate beta testing, either could have solved many problems. They also got caught trying to satisfy two opposite camps, the casual gamer who wants something easy to pick up and easier to master and the strategy gamer who wants something believable, deep and nuanced. Problem is they'd done neither and have ended up in no man's land.

    There's a great game in there, but there's far too much work still needed to get it out.    … Expand
  92. Gfresh
    Sep 9, 2013
    2
    I for one am so disappointed with this release, how any one marks this game up is beyond me, where do i start, for one there are about 100 factions, in my game egypt and carthage were destroyed by some desert raiding parties after 10 turns and now all i have to fight are tiny tribal factions so the challenge has completey gone, the fps is so bad i can't bare to attack settlements so justI for one am so disappointed with this release, how any one marks this game up is beyond me, where do i start, for one there are about 100 factions, in my game egypt and carthage were destroyed by some desert raiding parties after 10 turns and now all i have to fight are tiny tribal factions so the challenge has completey gone, the fps is so bad i can't bare to attack settlements so just autoresolve most battles, i have no idea who is even the leader of my faction half the time, naval battles develop into farce and are impossible to control when you have more than 5 ships. The battle speed is horrendously fast and the flag is probably the most ridiculous feature i have seen in a computer game, gone are the days where you could fight with a small army and lead them to victory against overwelming odds due to clever manipulation of the terrain aka MTW2. The units are boring, graphics and textures look worse than MTW2 and RTW, how can that be possible!! For some reason land armies can move the same distance as ships in open ocean??? I was so excited for this game and its a complete let down, i adore this series i even liked ETW and STW2 but this is a complete let down, i'll keep plugging away hoping for fixes but only half my issues are surrounding AI and FPS the rest is surrounding the diabolical "improvements" they made wich i'm sure there far to stubborn to remove or amend so i think i might have to just chalk this up as a waste of time, money and excitement.… Expand
  93. NL-Woody
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    First Aliens
    Then Company of Heroes
    and now Total war.

    Its time for SEGA to go bankrupt, all they care about is quick money grab. They are ruining my 2 favourite franchises Coh and TW. you SEGA piece of
  94. ntkb
    Sep 4, 2013
    5
    Go look at Shogun 2 user scores, then look at this game. It's not the fans CA... it's you. Thanks for the Alpha version game. I really wish you pushed the release date back if you still needed to polish and fix the game. I have bought every single TW game since Shogun ONE on release day or preorder. I won't be doing that with your next title. The next title I will wait till theGo look at Shogun 2 user scores, then look at this game. It's not the fans CA... it's you. Thanks for the Alpha version game. I really wish you pushed the release date back if you still needed to polish and fix the game. I have bought every single TW game since Shogun ONE on release day or preorder. I won't be doing that with your next title. The next title I will wait till the modding community fixes your game for you before I buy it. 4/10, 5/10 being average is my initial impression of the game.… Expand
  95. Ryuzaki
    Sep 7, 2013
    1
    I wanted to enjoy this game, but i couldn't. This game has so many problems, i'm thinking they didn't even test this game before release.

    First problem is the AI, horribly programmed, doesn't attack and it can't defend worth sh*t Second problem: The units you're controlling cant stay in a f*ckin formation. Overall this game feels like a beta, not worth full price..if they want a    I wanted to enjoy this game, but i couldn't. This game has so many problems, i'm thinking they didn't even test this game before release.

    First problem is the AI, horribly programmed, doesn't attack and it can't defend worth sh*t

    Second problem: The units you're controlling cant stay in a f*ckin formation.

    Overall this game feels like a beta, not worth full price..if they want a 10/10 they would have to wake up and come out with a HUGE patch..but they probably wont, they robbed us.    … Expand
  96. danrose93
    Sep 10, 2013
    1
    First of all, cannot really run the game, downloaded patches but still terrible animations and FPS quality.
    Also the features in the game are poor, like squalor levels that really ruin your game play experience. also flaming torches that make rams and ladders pointless. Not a fun game, until future patches sort things out.
  97. Ceaugo
    Sep 11, 2013
    1
    Hey Shprax this is not about gaming Rigs. I do have an I7 core gaming rig with dual video cards on SLI, 32 megs of ram and a 64 bit OS. Which does nothing to enhance a mediocre game. Only 36 critics and 494 reviewers gave somewhat positive reviews. That's 530 people out of 1716 reviews. That's is 70% of true gamers that voiced their opinions for a faulty game that they truly care about.Hey Shprax this is not about gaming Rigs. I do have an I7 core gaming rig with dual video cards on SLI, 32 megs of ram and a 64 bit OS. Which does nothing to enhance a mediocre game. Only 36 critics and 494 reviewers gave somewhat positive reviews. That's 530 people out of 1716 reviews. That's is 70% of true gamers that voiced their opinions for a faulty game that they truly care about. Maybe you got the game version that the critics got along with some perks. out of curiosity.Do you work for CA??… Expand
  98. melaa
    Sep 12, 2013
    1
    Just terrible. To purchase a full price game, pre-ordered I may add, and it's clearly a beta test that other's will benefit from our testing by buying it at half price 6 months away.

    The AI is bad. The FPS issues and graphics incompatibility issues (With a high end pc and gpu) are just ridiculous. The worst game release of the decade. Still not fixed!
  99. 21-5-73
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    I've seen games ridden with bugs you people wouldn't believe... Bikers vanishing under ghost roads in RIDE TO HELL RETRIBUTION, I watched brainless companions leave me die without batting an eyelide in STAR TREK: THE VIDEOGAME. All those moments will be lost compared to enemy spearmen refusing to attack me while I march on them at 10FPS in Rome 2, like tears in rain...
  100. Blacklyche
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    What a disappointment! From the initial laggy play and jerky graphics, through to just out and out bugs and missing features this game feels like a cut-down unfinished update to previous total war titles.
    The problem with trying to review a game that plays/feels like this is that it's very difficult to give it a fair rating. Sure.. there is potential here, when everything is ironed out I    What a disappointment! From the initial laggy play and jerky graphics, through to just out and out bugs and missing features this game feels like a cut-down unfinished update to previous total war titles.
    The problem with trying to review a game that plays/feels like this is that it's very difficult to give it a fair rating. Sure.. there is potential here, when everything is ironed out I may be giving this game a 7 or even an 8. Somehow I don't think the city management will change for the better nor will the annoying absence of the family tree.
    At the moment its difficult to see past the performance issues. The bugs include help windows that don't render.. units getting stuck or refusing to move, an accelerated time mode that just seems to turn the sound off and didn't actually accelerate anything.. the list goes on..

    Okay, so CA have reacted by announcing patches/updates to follow. Not good enough I'm afraid. The growing tendency to release unfinished games has finally hit the Total War franchise.

    Buggy, Laggy, Unfinished.

    Worth buying maybe in 4 months time. I wish I'd waited.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

4
#4 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
7
#7 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 71 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 49 out of 71
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 71
  3. Negative: 7 out of 71
  1. Worth Playing
    Nov 18, 2013
    74
    The game is far less polished than Shogun 2, and a few more patches will help, but Rome II is still a flawed game that is underwhelming when compared to previous titles in the franchise.
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  2. PCGamesN
    Nov 6, 2013
    70
    And here’s the rub: every addition, every sub-system, every mechanic is subservient to War. War is what Total War is really about. Everything else not directly related to conflict comes across as ancillary. Rome II is a game for warmongers, on both the campaign map and, obviously, on the battlefield. When peace is happening, nothing is happening. When war is happening, Rome comes alive.
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  3. PC PowerPlay
    Oct 28, 2013
    40
    If you will play literally anything featuring Total War and Rome in the same title and don't value your time, this is for you. [Nov 2013, p.80]
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