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. wf1675
    Jul 1, 2023
    0
    this game is depressing compared to the first one some reasons for this include but are not limited to requiring a general to for troops now capping the number of legions you can get the controls suck I order my cavalry to run away and they decide to start walking the camera doesn't zoom out enough and it also doesn't have a tactical map and armies won't flank because they don't want tothis game is depressing compared to the first one some reasons for this include but are not limited to requiring a general to for troops now capping the number of legions you can get the controls suck I order my cavalry to run away and they decide to start walking the camera doesn't zoom out enough and it also doesn't have a tactical map and armies won't flank because they don't want to get out of formation and has done all the things that makes every total war game a grindy suck fest the remaster doesn't work for me anymore which is sad but this game is even sadder… Expand
  2. dr-kenobi
    Sep 6, 2022
    4
    Absolutely disgusting release. They've fixed most of the bugs and **** later, but still, the taste of the crap on a release date is fresh as hell
  3. ZipperZbieracz
    Feb 17, 2022
    0
    Worst installment of the series ever.
    Worst installment of the series ever.
    Worst installment of the series ever.
    Worst installment of the series ever.
    Worst installment of the series ever.
    Worst installment of the series ever.
  4. Bushido95
    Sep 27, 2021
    2
    Невероятно разочаровывающая часть игры после которой я поставил крест на серии.. я буквально не мог узнать свою любимую серию игр. Тут само собой напрашивается "Look how they massacred my boy"
  5. Wiebe
    Feb 26, 2020
    3
    Uninspiring installment. Total war has barely evolved over the years and the game concepts show their age, even when all the bugs are fixed.
  6. keklolgloat
    Dec 11, 2019
    0
    Pre-ordered this game in hopes I could play it with my bro-sef come launch in some co-op fun.
    We knew it would kind of suck at first, but a day-of patch would probably smooth it out.
    The patch never came. Long story short the lan-party ended in hostility and misery. This is a game that has caused so many gamers grief both emotionally and physically and deserves every gamer with a    Pre-ordered this game in hopes I could play it with my bro-sef come launch in some co-op fun.
    We knew it would kind of suck at first, but a day-of patch would probably smooth it out.

    The patch never came. Long story short the lan-party ended in hostility and misery.

    This is a game that has caused so many gamers grief both emotionally and physically and deserves every gamer with a conceince and self-respect to deny these greedy f'''n publishers anymore of your money.

    For shame Casual Assembly, for shame. Another hero of the gaming gods fades from its former glory into an EA abyss of bargin-bin titles that gamers scoff' at.    … Expand
  7. innoclip
    Sep 23, 2019
    1
    I played medieval total war 2 and I loved it. Played it through. But this is just a joke. I really tried to understand that game. Nothing makes sence. the symbols far too small nothing is self explained. what a joke honestly. Won't buy any game of that serie anymore. Just isn't worth the time
  8. Berik
    Nov 4, 2018
    4
    The difference in scores between users and the critics probably give it away, but this game did not deliver on its promise. instead it insulted many Total War fans.

    Right from launch problems arose when the game wouldn't run, crash, be littered with bugs and glitches. And if you got passed that, you'd discover that game has nothing to offer but a broken experience. Features that had    The difference in scores between users and the critics probably give it away, but this game did not deliver on its promise. instead it insulted many Total War fans.

    Right from launch problems arose when the game wouldn't run, crash, be littered with bugs and glitches. And if you got passed that, you'd discover that game has nothing to offer but a broken experience. Features that had been present in Total War games like the family tree was gone, the AI was so broken that it was nearly impossible to lose.

    As for graphics, it looked good in pre-released footage, but not in the actual game. Even beasty PC's didn't get the beautiful graphics that were shown, and instead had to sit and watch The Creative Assembly sell The Greek States DLC for additional money. Insulting to say the least. And, the mutiplayer is broken, because it constantly desynches or crashes.

    So what's actually good about the game? Well, it does some interesting things with city building options, and gives some new naval combat that wasn't in the series on this level before. There are many factions, though probably too many to even function.

    This game single handedly made sure i will never pre-order a game again, let alone try a new Total War game. It is broken till this day, and it is a bad show all together. i give this game a 4/10.    … Expand
  9. Nircin
    Nov 1, 2018
    0
    I own all the TW games and love this, however -
    "If you don't like it, don't play it." - CA dev
    OK.
    Also Modern Politics and Political Correctness in games is a pure ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥t and please stop with this :/
  10. Devout_Buddhist
    Oct 3, 2018
    0
    One of my pet peeves are games that bill themselves as being historically accurate but then make very deliberate decisions to be demonstrably inaccurate. If that annoys you, too, then stay away from this game.
  11. JavaSquirt
    Oct 1, 2018
    0
    В древнем Риме бабо-генералы? Серьёзно? Вы блять там серьёзно? АЛЛО, ПРИЁМ КАК СЛЫШНО?
  12. bargun
    Sep 29, 2018
    0
    У создателей игры стоит поучиться тому, как можно уничтожить сразу и игру и своих фанатов. Может для кого то одно обновление это не показатель плохой игры, но для меня это показатель отвратительного отношения к комьюнити, что в свою очередь показывает, что игра создается не для игроков, а для чего то другого.У создателей игры стоит поучиться тому, как можно уничтожить сразу и игру и своих фанатов. Может для кого то одно обновление это не показатель плохой игры, но для меня это показатель отвратительного отношения к комьюнити, что в свою очередь показывает, что игра создается не для игроков, а для чего то другого.
  13. BaDTarget
    Sep 29, 2018
    0
    Tolerance that violates any common sense!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  14. Liaramancer
    Sep 26, 2018
    0
    Let's see:

    - Red Shell;
    - Bugs gallore;
    - Cash-grab titles like Britannia;
    - Tying patches to DLC and little to no performance patches;
    - Charging for Blood n gore DLC and pretending it's to avoid being Rated M;
    - Social justice implementations;
    - Taking a page from EA when responding to criticism.
  15. dougal83
    Sep 25, 2018
    0
    DON'T BUY IT before it's on budget as gold edition. The game is not complete and was released before it was complete. It has potential to be good if the huge number of OBVIOUS bugs are sorted. They never tested the game and pushed it out the door. Great play by SEGA to kill fan base and stop people buying future games.

    UPDATE: Cannot recommend any Sega game now, there is a political    DON'T BUY IT before it's on budget as gold edition. The game is not complete and was released before it was complete. It has potential to be good if the huge number of OBVIOUS bugs are sorted. They never tested the game and pushed it out the door. Great play by SEGA to kill fan base and stop people buying future games.

    UPDATE: Cannot recommend any Sega game now, there is a political agenda being exercised in historical titles to introduce female characters unrealistically. On noticing the issue that appeared to be a bug, have had my bug report post deleted and told I've broken the rules of the forum. For something so evidently inaccurate for historical titles, to have a bug report removed for a suprious breach of forum rules it is clear it is time to stop buying from Sega. Shame, I do like the historical titles as they used to be accurate. Now apparently women are worthless and can be thrown away in battle like cattle. If I wanted a fantasy title I would buy one and would not have any problems. My money will never purchase from Sega again.

    Word for Sega, if a large part of your community raises an issue, listen and adapt. Don't pretend the problem that is noticed by many is a giant conspiracy and remove posts.    … Expand
  16. jprepo1
    Sep 25, 2018
    0
    Rote and uninspired compared to many of the earlier games in the series. Stick with the original or shogun 2
  17. SammyHauguth
    Dec 25, 2017
    0
    Worthless, just like metacritic with all the ads...
    I reloaded an old save and poff I got -1400 in food...
    When I had 1400+ in november!
    Good work CA, last time I buy a game from these idiots!
  18. StrategosLC
    May 8, 2017
    3
    -Terrible optimization
    -Terrible graphics in comparison to Shogun 2
    -Clunkier user controls than ever before -Awful AI -More bugs than in any other TW game -Terrible unit cards -UI is confusing and downright ugly -Feels very unpolished I HIGHLY recommend Shogun2 over this. Edit: These issues have mostly all been fixed by now, but I'm leaving the score the same because it took    -Terrible optimization
    -Terrible graphics in comparison to Shogun 2
    -Clunkier user controls than ever before
    -Awful AI
    -More bugs than in any other TW game
    -Terrible unit cards
    -UI is confusing and downright ugly
    -Feels very unpolished

    I HIGHLY recommend Shogun2 over this.

    Edit: These issues have mostly all been fixed by now, but I'm leaving the score the same because it took a year post launch for this game to actually become playable.    … Expand
  19. Laer
    Mar 14, 2017
    3
    Creo que el principal problema de este juego es querer equilibrar tanto las civilizaciones, que deja a un lado el rigor histórico he iguala a todas las demás con Roma y Cartago, las dos grandes de su tiempo.

    Si lo que buscas son grandes batallas, y enfrentamientos multijugador, quizás no sea un mal juego, porque es en lo único que destaca, en eso y en los gráficos, que sin duda no se    Creo que el principal problema de este juego es querer equilibrar tanto las civilizaciones, que deja a un lado el rigor histórico he iguala a todas las demás con Roma y Cartago, las dos grandes de su tiempo.

    Si lo que buscas son grandes batallas, y enfrentamientos multijugador, quizás no sea un mal juego, porque es en lo único que destaca, en eso y en los gráficos, que sin duda no se queda corto para nada.

    Ahora bien, sin duda, para alguien que busque algo más, se queda bastante corto. Intentare exponerlo en diferentes puntos:

    1- Tiene muchas facciones a escoger. Y esto tendría sentido, si todas no se jugaran prácticamente igual, tanto en batallas campales, como en asedios y navales.

    2- Este punto va junto al primero, y es que al intentar igualarlo tanto, se han pasado la historia por los co^^nes, ya que las tribus no contaban con la disciplina y tecnología Romana, solo eran hordas de feroces guerreros que se arrojaban a su enemigo, pero en este juego en cambio...

    3- Roma y Cartago no se diferencian prácticamente de las demás civilizaciones, siendo incluso, que en gran parte de las campañas desaparecerán tan rápido, que seguramente no nos de tiempo ni a encontrarlas en el mapa.

    4- El mapa es demasiado grande. No suelo decir esto, ya que normalmente cuanto más grande mejor, pero en este caso no es así, ya que con prácticamente 1/3 del mapa conquistado, tienes asegurado que nadie te hará frente haya por donde vayas.

    5- No me molestaría un mapa grande, si los objetivos no fueran conquistar prácticamente una ciudad en cada punta de esté. Con esto quiero decir, que las condiciones de victorias son absurdas. ¿Por que querría un Galo conquistar Grecia o el norte de África?.

    6- Lo del multijugador lo digo más que nada porque la IA parece MR Bean intentando hacer algo bien. Apelotona unidades, enfrenta caballería contra lanceros, expone al general sin ningún tipo de sentido...

    Estos son algunos de los puntos que considero que flaquean en esta entrega, falta puntos, por supuesto, como por ejemplo decir que el juego aun vale 55 euros en Steam, y que cuenta con un abanico de dlcs que SUPERAN los 80 euros en su conjunto.    … Expand
  20. focknee
    Feb 16, 2017
    4
    FAIL do not waste your time to play this, graphics AI and gameplay are all a FAIL.
    This game is not finished.
    First time CA has failed me Shame on you to release this FAIL.
  21. OnionBoy
    Aug 19, 2016
    0
    Quite literally the worst game I have ever played. Total War games are what first got me into gaming. As a massive fan of the series I cannot put into words how disappointed I was was this game was released. It's 3 years on and it's still awful. The problems it had were not possible to be fixed via patch. They had to release a re-hash of the same game (Total War: Atilla) which was aQuite literally the worst game I have ever played. Total War games are what first got me into gaming. As a massive fan of the series I cannot put into words how disappointed I was was this game was released. It's 3 years on and it's still awful. The problems it had were not possible to be fixed via patch. They had to release a re-hash of the same game (Total War: Atilla) which was a definite improvement but still bad. This game doesn't scratch the surface of what's good about Total War. DO NOT BUY… Expand
  22. Goby
    Jun 3, 2016
    4
    I got this game way after the ordeals experienced by many at release. I have to mention that when I compare the two versions (the initial release and Emperor Edition) side by side, the improvements are definitely noticeable. My problem, though, is the fact that after three years since release some very obvious mistakes are still in the game. Some of them can be fixed or improved with mods,I got this game way after the ordeals experienced by many at release. I have to mention that when I compare the two versions (the initial release and Emperor Edition) side by side, the improvements are definitely noticeable. My problem, though, is the fact that after three years since release some very obvious mistakes are still in the game. Some of them can be fixed or improved with mods, but in the end they are still gamebreaking.

    First off: The campaign victory conditions are utterly ridiculous and will take ages to achieve (100-200 hours to finish one campaign, depending on your resolve). Sooner rather than later you will find that the game has slowed down to a grind, whatever faction you play. The Steam global achievements for this game tell me that not a lot of people finish their campaigns on harder difficulties - and the reason is not because it's too difficult to handle. In previous games there were short and long campaign modes, but this one has neither - it has just one and it should be labelled "eternal mode". Therefore playing several campaigns to experience the different factions is pretty much out of the question.

    Autoresolving is overpowered. I understand that the developers want to limit the time spent on campaign battles by having us choose to skip some where the outcome is fairly certain. This system is TOO EASY to abuse. THE MORE MEN YOU USE TO OUTNUMBER AN ENEMY, THE LESS CASUALTIES YOU SUSTAIN. And that's another gamebreaker, because once your empire is large enough, it's easy to outnumber the enemy in battles, especially if you're using Radious mod to overcome the other problems with the game (thankfully, Radious can be implemented in parts and you don't have to install the campaign mod that does this). Two changes in the code would've fixed this easy: 1 - attacking walled settlements or villages with high defensive ratings should cause you more casualties; 2 - replenishing your armies in recently conquered territories should be drastically lowered. At the current state you can just blitzkrieg your way through enemy regions once you have a few armies to spare for an offensive. The only mechanic stopping you is local unrest, most of which decays the next turn. Autoresolving is why you probably won't finish the game. At one point the battles requiring your presence will be bygones and you are tempted to just autoresolve all the way through - not the Total War I know.

    Marketing. Unfortunately SEGA has gone down the route of several other corporations in the video game industry. Now you don't even get the complete game upon purchase. Guess what, most of the interesting factions you'll have to buy separately. I should mention that the factions are already in the game, but you'll have to dish out more $ just to be allowed to play them. In fact, the whole DLC collection costs more than the game itself, while adding very little content, or content that should be in the main game.

    Not enough unit variation. Uncle Radious will help you out here, just download his unit packs in the Workshop.

    Lack of settlement models. Considering the fact that the game is expecting millions of players to finish the campaigns, they should have added way more settlement types in the game. I've been playing barbarian factions and I've been through all of the barbarian territories - every single one of them chooses between four or five different models. FOUR OR FIVE models for more than 40 barbarian regions? Excuse me for **** but learning strategies by heart and replaying them in different scenarios at different locations is not how I've come to love TW.

    4TPY mod is a must. Without this your generals and agents are highly unlikely to become specialized in anything and will die of old age very fast - agents in particular are absolutely essential and in higher difficulties in vanilla they will stress you out very, very bad. They don't add a challenging aspect to the game, they are just a bigtime annoyance that have the power to stop entire armies turn after turn and wither away all your men. If you don't have skilled agents, good luck doing... anything!

    There are more bad features, but there are features to credit as well.

    Despite some bugs like javelinmen not throwing their spears when they should, battles are a lot of fun with the Blood & Gore installed. It's proper madness in every aspect. Ballistas projecting massive rocks through enemy ranks, knocking them back in either direction; Arrows and thrown spears pierce the enemy in a very visual way - lots of gore; the individual fights between men in combat are detailed and visual. When you got the time to observe how it all goes down on ground level, it's one of the better features in this game.

    Campaign map looks aesthetic, so do the interactions between characters. Although for some reason they often move Sonic-style fast and you can't slow that down. The new province system is great - much less micromanagement and way more comprehensive    … Expand
  23. noble_savage
    Mar 22, 2016
    0
    Pece of crap game from a piece of crap studio working for a piece of crap publisher.

    There was a time when CA made games for love, now they make fail games to keep Sega happy.
  24. Thunder5555
    Mar 13, 2016
    3
    I should've been getting the hint when people told me that I need mods to enjoy this game...
    Even total war games can fail at the times, and this one is it.
    Something is just off with this one and just trying to ignore it and keep playing is not worth it when there's good total wars available.
    Empire, Rome, Shogun.. take your pick and I can tell you get a better experience than with this one.
  25. crazytony0
    Feb 21, 2016
    1
    For a game that is supossed to replace the orriginal this is just sad. Graphics are good, but the AI and the user interface just sucks, uninstalled the game now, off to the orriginal again.
  26. Syndicater
    Feb 15, 2016
    1
    I am astonished at the state of this game. Did they think that I wouldn’t notice the clumsy interface, the wretched documentation, the absolutely untenable naval combat, the weird bugs, the lock-ups, the game-killing glitches? Did they think I wouldn’t notice the AI? Did they really think this was an acceptable AI for a single-player game? A single player game with disappointingI am astonished at the state of this game. Did they think that I wouldn’t notice the clumsy interface, the wretched documentation, the absolutely untenable naval combat, the weird bugs, the lock-ups, the game-killing glitches? Did they think I wouldn’t notice the AI? Did they really think this was an acceptable AI for a single-player game? A single player game with disappointing multiplayer compared to the clever multiplayer in their last release?… Expand
  27. JXL
    Jan 17, 2016
    3
    I have been defending rome 2 since it came out against all the terrible reviews. That ends now. They have done a terrible job with the cooperative campaign. So many glitches. The final straw was the inability of my coop ally to reinforce me and vice versa, while still killing the troops that were supposed to reinforce. if you do not want to make coop viable...don't build it.
  28. scarfake
    Jan 8, 2016
    2
    low fps, bad ai, bad diplomacy, complicated interface, unnecessary country, too much turning time, boring and nonsencial details... i think rome 1 is better than this. also dlc scams exploit you
  29. Onigun
    Oct 4, 2015
    4
    It's been 2 years, the final patch has been released and so much stuff is still broken. AI will clump it's units into groups and wait to die, the prologue has no objectives or tutorial teaching you the game outside of the initial battle. To make everything worse this is still a highly priced game with no complete edition and DLC still segmented off into expensive packs.
  30. Legatus85
    Aug 11, 2015
    3
    I'm very disappointed with this game. For several reasons mainly the poor game mechanics and features.
    The worst by far is the building system which is an absolute catastrophe! What happened? There are 6 building slots for the region capitals and 3-4 for the minor towns. That's it??? There are a few different branches of construction like religious buildings, industrial buildings,    I'm very disappointed with this game. For several reasons mainly the poor game mechanics and features.
    The worst by far is the building system which is an absolute catastrophe! What happened? There are 6 building slots for the region capitals and 3-4 for the minor towns. That's it??? There are a few different branches of construction like religious buildings, industrial buildings, commercial buildings etc. Then you choose what kind of building in each branch you want to build. But you better choose carefully cause you only have a few slots to build on. This makes the building system extremely limited and boring! But the worst of all is the effects from the various buildings. You can upgrade buildings from level 1 to 4 (or sometimes 5). Up to level 2 it usually fine but as soon as you upgrade to level 3 or more the buildings bring negative effects as well as positive (only very few exceptions). Basically it either reduces public order due to squalor or it consumes food. It follows a system only based on building level and category since it makes no sense at all based on what the building actually is! The lack of effort is amazing, its like the made a system first with the effects from the buildings and then randomly filled in the empty spaces with a name of a building and a picture. Its so poorly designed that you are actually being punished for upgrading the buildings. Why????? To me this ruins the entire game and make it unplayable. Compare it to Rome 1 or Medieval 2 where you had more building in one city than i a whole region with 4 cities in Rome 2 and with no limitations. But I guess that's to complicated for the "wider audience".

    Another thing that's been dumbed down is the population system. Instead of showing the actual population and the percentage of growth based on different factors which made town development and planning interesting in Rome 1 and Medieval 2. It now shows the growth in plain numbers and the required accumulated growth to get a population surplus. When you have enough population surplus you expand the city with a new building slot (unless you already have the maximum number of 3-6 slots). I guess % and numbers above 500 is to complicated too.

    Next is the extremely simplified and boring traits and retinue system for generals. Its limited to 3 traits and 1 retinue per general. Plus 1 bonus you get to choose at each level up (which follows standard template for all characters). In Rome 1 your general received traits and retinue based on events in his life and with no limits to the number of traits. For example if he lost health in battle he would get the trait scarred which had some effect on his influence and popularity and so on. Which made it interesting to shape a character and follow him throughout his life. Traits could be inherited as well. In Rome 2 your generals lacks personality and get replaced automatically when they die, then you go through exact the same process of choosing upgrades for the new guy at level up. You just don't care about them. On the other hand the 10 year old's of the wider audience probably don't appreciate a sophisticated system of character traits.

    But if you are one of those who don't care about strategy and planning and challenge and so on, don't worry your armies will replenish themselves automatically (no retraining here) you can stop and kill almost an entire army with a couple of spies and then finish the job with a few units that's easier to manage.

    I wont say much about the graphics since its not that important to me personally but could the unit cards, building pictures (or rather lack of) etc be any more boring and same looking? They actually had to give buildings different color backgrounds to be able to distinguish them from other type of buildings

    The AI is too poor to mention, its not worth the attention.

    If the next game in the series continue on the same path as this it will be a point and click linear game with an advisor saying click on this enemy to kill it, well done! Click on this settlement to make it happy.

    The things i like about this game:
    I welcome the region system with a fortified capital and smaller towns with no walls.
    Useful garrison armies.
    Beautiful campaign map

    So this game is a huge step backwards for the franchise. Things don't make sense. Rome 1 was infinitely better. They betrayed the fans and stripped away everything that was good and unique to have a much much simpler game so that people who uses a computer for the first time in their life also can play and enjoy. They could have made a great game but they just didn't want to and didn't care.

    I give it a poor rating mostly because it's such a disappointment from previous games. A sequel should be better than the game before. It would score slightly better if this had been the first game in a franchise.    … 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

All reviews »
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.
    Read full review
  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.
    Read full review
  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]
See all critic reviews »