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. MetaAwesome
    Sep 10, 2013
    4
    The latest addition to the Total War series demonstrates some interesting new features, however the core gameplay takes a leap backwards.

    GOOD: Let's start with the positive. The campaign map is huge, there are many interesting units to recruit and there are a number of ways to customise provinces to suit your economic and military needs. The encyclopaedia includes short videos to    The latest addition to the Total War series demonstrates some interesting new features, however the core gameplay takes a leap backwards.

    GOOD:
    Let's start with the positive. The campaign map is huge, there are many interesting units to recruit and there are a number of ways to customise provinces to suit your economic and military needs. The encyclopaedia includes short videos to illustrate explanations, and the game is certainly more accessible to newer players of the series. The ability to set ambushes is improved upon, as the player now has the choice of building traps and reigning down fiery contraptions upon unsuspecting enemy troops.

    MIDDLE:
    With all this said, these features are merely the 'side order' of what Total War fans have come to love and enjoy. The 'meat' of Total War has always been the massively epic land battles, which unfortunately brings me to:

    BAD:
    After 20 hours playing as Carthage, Roman armies are attacking cities in what could only be described as a continuous stream of kamikaze warfare. Nearly all Roman armies and fleets encountered on the campaign map are made up of just one unit (not a very robust display of force for Rome, one of the world's first superpowers). This leads to the endless autoresolving of battles against an AI that is beyond idiotic, thus negating any sense of challenge and immersion.
    The battle AI is poor, particularly in siege battles where troops will stand motionless and capture the flag mechanics can be exploited. Considering that Creative Assembly have been developing Total War games for over a decade, one would expect an improvement rather than a marked disappointment.

    CONCLUSION:
    Total War Rome II feels like a city builder in which the concept of armies fighting one another was an afterthought that was 'thrown in' at the last moment. Large, epic battles should have been the strength of Rome II, not it's weakness.

    This review has not touched on any of the bugs encountered by players. There are loads of them.    … Expand
  2. FooyFooy
    Sep 10, 2013
    4
    A huge let down after Total War Shogun 2 added so much to the game and had great new feature. However, in Rome 2, they added a good amount of things to the campain UI and made the world map a lot more pretty, they took away so much more. Shogun was a step foward but Rome 2 was 2 steps backwards. I'm not going to talk about the AI too much sense that can be patched later on. They made theA huge let down after Total War Shogun 2 added so much to the game and had great new feature. However, in Rome 2, they added a good amount of things to the campain UI and made the world map a lot more pretty, they took away so much more. Shogun was a step foward but Rome 2 was 2 steps backwards. I'm not going to talk about the AI too much sense that can be patched later on. They made the unit cards all look the same making it difficult to identify the unit type, and you can now only use seige equipment on prvincial capitals which is weird. They took away the personalities of generals and made the upgrading system for them very confusing. Now generals die all the time of natural cuases and there is no way to continue they're legacy with children or a family tree like in Shogun 2. They talked about how the solider tactics were realistic and the charges were much better but it is really just a mosh pit compared to Shogun 2 chharges. You also have to babysit every unit now since there will be one unit next to them being massecered while they just sit and watch. They will only fight if you direct them to a specific enemy or when they are attacked. Climbing over walls is verry troublesome as once they finaly manage to get on the walls, they have to wait till the last man is on to move an inch and get down into the city. The Naval battles are absolutly horrific in they're current state, so I suggest you just auto-resolve them all. There are actually some positives such as a new larger map stretching from modern day Portugal to modern day Pakistan. They introduce a new province system consisting of minor settlements and one provincial capital which i love, and makes managing the cities much easier. The cities themselves are a pretty as ever before. They actually seem like cities now, and invasions have much better settings. Now to the verdict. I was largely dissapointed with this game, If you are new to the total war franchise, DO NOT get Rome total war 2, get shogun 2, a vastly superior game. I give this game a 4/10 since it is still an ok game. It seems to have been rushed out the door. I would suggest if you own it yet, you wait for the patches or buy Shogun 2 in the meantime.… Expand
  3. curtisimo
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    This game is nowhere near ready for release. I'm sick of pre-ordering supposed AAA games just to be given a beta stage product on release day.
    The stripped out features, enumerable graphics glitches, dumber than dirt AI and unplayable multiplayer make me forget any of the good aspects of this game.
  4. Stolas
    Sep 10, 2013
    4
    Feel that I paid £30 for an Alpha build, I saw better graphics, better AI and a different game entirely to what I'd bought in comparison to what I'd been shown on Rally Point and the Creative Assembly's many media releases.

    A solid concept and game has been crushed by some arcade features, a lack of a family tree, lack of optimization, lack of guard buttons, I could go on, really! The    Feel that I paid £30 for an Alpha build, I saw better graphics, better AI and a different game entirely to what I'd bought in comparison to what I'd been shown on Rally Point and the Creative Assembly's many media releases.

    A solid concept and game has been crushed by some arcade features, a lack of a family tree, lack of optimization, lack of guard buttons, I could go on, really! The AI is just laughable, I constantly get my fleets stuck in ports, I HAVE PLAYED FOR 22+ HOURS AND NOT YET EVEN BEEN DECLARED WAR ON!

    This game gets a 4/10 from someone who owns each Total war game, aside from Shogun 1. I'm unwilling to change my vote, as I believe that Creative Assembly have entirely let down their audience, despite promising to make weekly patches that isn't enough, we were sold a game that we were told was fully released, that promised so many things but didn't. (Just watch the Carthage Siege video, look at the screenshots of the units, etc)

    This game reminds me of the War Z entirely, yet a lot more dramatic. CA have an age old and loyal audience, and lied through their teeth all the way to release. So dissapointed.

    Also dissapointed in how the Critics have reviewed it, makes it awfully clear they play the game for about a half hour when not even knowing the franchise's history!    … Expand
  5. FanaticGamer89
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    In 2004 Rome Total War was released. It was the first 3D game in the Total War series. I loved that game and still do. When I play Rome Total War I am taken to the classical era. For its time the graphics were fantastic, the UI was great and the AI was okay. Even though most effort was put into Rome, each culture felt unique and had their own variation of the UI, their own soundtracks andIn 2004 Rome Total War was released. It was the first 3D game in the Total War series. I loved that game and still do. When I play Rome Total War I am taken to the classical era. For its time the graphics were fantastic, the UI was great and the AI was okay. Even though most effort was put into Rome, each culture felt unique and had their own variation of the UI, their own soundtracks and their own strategies.

    Fast forward 9 years and Rome 2 has just been released, but how does it compare to its predecessor?

    Here is my honest opinion of Rome 2 with the good, the bad and the ugly. I honestly think Rome 2 could be the best game they made and I wanted to love it. Unfortunately, there are too many issues in the game currently.

    The Good

    - Rome 2 is pretty. Very pretty. The battlefields are more alive than ever and the cities look great even at medium high settings The units look better than some FPS games. Yes there are sometimes missing textures (will get to that soon) but it still looks fantastic.
    - Custom battles are fun. I love custom battles where I can play against another army. Yes the battles are shorter than in Rome 1 but I still thoroughly enjoy them.

    The Bad
    Things such as bugs, can be easily fixed.

    - The game is buggy. This is expected for a first day release, but there are lots of bugs. Missing textures, massive frame rate drops, unkillable admirals and dumb AI makes the game seem almost complete but not quite.
    - Campaign battles are boring. Remember I said custom battles are fun? Well the same isn’t for campaign battles. The AI seems to love spamming Mobs and Skirmishers both of which are easily disposed of. I’m finding myself winning every land battle with almost no losses. The campaign battles are more of a cat and mouse game than a battle.
    - Sea battles are confusing. I thought we could initiate boarding at sea, but all we can do is ram ships like a bunch of dodgem cars. Having two lines of ships individually ram each other is repetitive to say the least.
    - Friendly fire. Yes I understand friendly fire isn’t a bad thing, but it kills more of my own men than theirs. Like any good general I position my archers and skirmishers behind my lines, but they seem to kill more of my own men than theirs.
    - AI seems far too passive. They don’t attack with big armies, only tiny ones which always get repelled.

    The Ugly
    Game mechanics, cannot be easily taken out or fixed.

    - The UI is too modern. Rome 1’s UI made me feel like I was playing in the era, Rome 2’s UI is too modern and confusing. Icons are oddly placed and are too small and unit cards are too big.
    - Transport ships. Units can run into the water and make transport ships. While the idea is okay, transport ships are just too overpowered. Why make an expensive navy when you can make an army of militia and march them into the water? I remember in the original Rome an invasion from sea took a lot of planning, in Rome 2 that planning is non-existent as you can just march your army across the water, literally.
    - City management. In Rome 1 I loved managing cities. When I selected a city I was taken into that city, could see information about it clearly and had to choose carefully what to build. Rome 2’s city management is simple, too simple. You don’t even have to select a city to manage it, just a region. I don’t find myself getting attached to cities or caring much about them.
    - No family tree. I loved the family tree in Rome 1, it made me feel attached to my generals as they were family to me (literally). Rome 2 has done away with the family tree and I can raise an army under a general whenever I want. Because of this, I don’t care too much for my generals well being.
    - No seasons. Each turn is a year, which is very quick and seasons no longer exist. The campaign map doesn’t seem as alive anymore as the only thing changing is the size of cities. If they wanted the game to have less turns in it then why make the campaign map so big? I would rather a smaller map with seasons as opposed to a big map with yearly turns. Generals and agents also age and die too quickly now.
    - I don't like the use of the horse as a movement token. It seems too arcade like to me. I loved seeing the armies move across the land in Rome 1, but in Rome 2 they seem less threatening moving around as a guy on a horse.

    So there is my opinion of Rome 2 thus far. I understand that the bugs will be fixed with patches and the game will improve in time, but I can’t shake the feeling that there are too many disjointed game mechanics, which unlike bugs will remain in the game. Patching those mechanics will be like putting a band-aid on a broken arm. I wanted to love this game, I really did but it is currently too disjointed.

    Take your copy of Rome 1. Boot it up and remind yourselves of what made Rome Total War so great.    … Expand
  6. tesfurdo
    Sep 11, 2013
    0
    This will be brief.

    I'm not going to state any of the issues that have been listed countless times by many others which I have experienced. What I will do is say this. I've never written a review for anything in my life, yet i felt compelled to sign up her and write this. I have played every total war game to date, even with teething problems with empire and shogun, I came to enjoy    This will be brief.

    I'm not going to state any of the issues that have been listed countless times by many others which I have experienced. What I will do is say this. I've never written a review for anything in my life, yet i felt compelled to sign up her and write this.

    I have played every total war game to date, even with teething problems with empire and shogun, I came to enjoy them... but with each release I find I enjoy them less. The devs know what they are doing by "taking the game series in a different direction"... they're making it more accessible to children. I am not a child and I don't enjoy successive games getting easier and fundamentally more basic. They go for graphical realism and turn the game in to an ever increasing simplification of historical battle accuracy. This latest installment is a perfect example... not a single nation had comparable units at this time... there are far to many units which are identical in every way (from fighting method to core battle stats) bar appearance. Also, hero units are pure fantasy. Quite why the devs thought they needed to introduce this kind of game influence I'll never know... it may add depth, but it destroys historical immersion completely.

    This isn't me hating on a game because I've not got what I want... I'm hating on it because I want the devs to bear in mind there are gamers out there like me... maybe there's not enough of us to make it financially attractive to make games with us in mind? If that's the case I'll hold my hands up and walk away from yet another title which is selling out. I'm pretty certain this will be my last ever total war purchase. Guess I'll just have to replay the classics and prey that the series takes the right turn for a change.

    I'm too disappointed to write any more...    … Expand
  7. rpuerta
    Sep 12, 2013
    0
    I have this game for over a week and can't even play it. I'm able to play all the other Total War games non stopping for hours at a time, but this one lags big time, very unplayable, boring and not fun at all. HORRIBLE Everything is Broken Nothing works like is suppose to be.
  8. westerntuna
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    After 2 hours of play, I loved the game. 12 hours in, it's obvious how broken and incomplete the game is.

    No unit collision. Giant formations and unique unit animations mean absolutely nothing. Battles end up being giant brawls where you can't see what's happening. Battles rely not on actually winning the game, but capturing a flag. 100 men can defeat 3000 just by getting to the flag    After 2 hours of play, I loved the game. 12 hours in, it's obvious how broken and incomplete the game is.

    No unit collision. Giant formations and unique unit animations mean absolutely nothing. Battles end up being giant brawls where you can't see what's happening. Battles rely not on actually winning the game, but capturing a flag. 100 men can defeat 3000 just by getting to the flag first. Terrain and tactics mean nothing. Just the flag.

    End your turn? Get ready for a 5 minute wait for all the other factions to go next, even with AI moves turned off. AI even on Legendary don't start wars. Heck, I had AI at war with me offer trade agreements!
    In battle, AI will IGNORE your army, even if it means running through it, and go straight for the flag.

    Game is filled with bugs. Ships WILL get caught on the smallest rock, disabling the ship's AI. If a single person is still unloading or stuck on a ship or siege engine, the entire unit cannot be used. Co-Op campaign is unplayable due to dsync, and multiplayer crashes when I tried playing with friends.

    I played this a week after release. Even after several patches, it's still broken.

    If you skip this game, you won't be missing anything. Go back to Shogun 2. Or at least don't buy this until it goes on a really steep sale.    … Expand
  9. kcanon112
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    Most people who rate this highly usually say "it's good but" this game is broken from the graphics to the AI, and what's worse is the optimization meaning it'll be difficult to get a good FPS even on good rigs.
  10. arflynn23
    Sep 10, 2013
    4
    Having been a fan of the Total War series for years (12 or so) I am so sad that this is what was released. Clearly the hype was just that. Hype. The game has major issues that I'm not sure can be repaired no matter how much patching is done. But for the sake of CA and Rome, I sure hope it can get better.
  11. TheUnbeholden
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    Total War Shogun 2 was such a massive improvement... and now this? This is a disgrace to the Total War series... it's got strip away features, it's buggy to hell and back, AI are the most retarded they have ever been before, the map AI will almost never attack you.. and even when they do they only throw tiny groups of enemies at you. Never a big group. Enemies in game will stand there andTotal War Shogun 2 was such a massive improvement... and now this? This is a disgrace to the Total War series... it's got strip away features, it's buggy to hell and back, AI are the most retarded they have ever been before, the map AI will almost never attack you.. and even when they do they only throw tiny groups of enemies at you. Never a big group. Enemies in game will stand there and stare at you... without making any movements. Those god damn flags.. the god damn flags in a open field.. Oh man The UI in game is a terrible (except for the map screen). The graphics are glitchy and very average.
    Looks like a 2005 game. The videos showing how good the game look? Fake. Nobody has been able to get the game to look as good as some of the trailer showcased video footage of this game. Somebody up big time. This looks like a Alpha! They are selling a bloody alpha version for lots of money? Who the hell was in charge of this? It's a travesty. Long time fans are royally pissed off with good reason.

    +Cinematic cam
    +tooltips help you focus on the gameplay rather than being lost clicking stuff.
    +World Map
    +Province have capitals
    -Apart from tooltips, the UI is very limited.
    -AI are totally broken.
    -No challenge.
    -Graphics are bland.
    **** multiplayer, it's barebones 2 player gameplay. Nothing else.
    -Family trees have been stripped away, diplomacy, religion/politics & skill trees are worse than before.
    -Naval battles are plain screwed. The game automatically spawns ships when you send units to the sea, which are more powerful than actual naval ships. No fire at will or guard mode, no formations.
    -Your units refuse to go down walls
    -Most cinematics are gone.
    -No context sensitive battle speeches.    … Expand
  12. penguen2013
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    Terrible beta release. Apparently CA does not care about the fun base any longer. Full of bugs. Constant ctds, horrible optimasation, terrible ai, game breaking features...
  13. Adolphobia
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    Fix this crap... bad AI, no spy cut scenes, all streamlined, no family tree... i can't believe they just took my money, this is nothing like the game that was advertised, after shogun 2 how do they do this to us... i want my money back, il never buy another Total War game...
  14. Deathmarch
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    Everything good in Shogun2 was ripped out of Rome2
    NO family trees, political part makes no sense and has little impact on the game
    They should rename it Total Siege War, because you'll never be attack by ai in field 99% of your battle will be defending a city or sieging one. gone are agent videos and agent diversity is gone apart form a few trait they do that same thing Generals    Everything good in Shogun2 was ripped out of Rome2
    NO family trees, political part makes no sense and has little impact on the game
    They should rename it Total Siege War, because you'll never be attack by ai in field
    99% of your battle will be defending a city or sieging one.
    gone are agent videos and agent diversity is gone apart form a few trait they do that same thing
    Generals are generic you'll careless if they die cause the game will generate a new one for you.
    ALL the battlefield feature have been gutted units don't hold formation, no guard mode, cant toggle skirmish for melee units with javelin. AI routes with in minutes if the ai allows them to engage in combat at all ,they will usually just stand there taking arrows to the face, OH yea Loose formation is gone too.
    Dumbed Down Too far    … Expand
  15. AjaX
    Sep 10, 2013
    4
    I have been a HUGE fan of the total war series since the release of the original Rome: Total War, it is easily one of my favourite games of all time and I have spent probably over 1000 hours playing it over the years and over the past few months I had been playing a mod called Roma Surrectum 2 to keep me busy up until the launch of Rome 2, after 17 hours of playing the new release, I amI have been a HUGE fan of the total war series since the release of the original Rome: Total War, it is easily one of my favourite games of all time and I have spent probably over 1000 hours playing it over the years and over the past few months I had been playing a mod called Roma Surrectum 2 to keep me busy up until the launch of Rome 2, after 17 hours of playing the new release, I am going back to playing Roma Surrectum 2. Rome 2 is terrible, I started off on a legendary campaign with Rome and was able to steam roll through Italy, Greece, North Africa, Spain, most of Europe and completely wipe Egypt out of the game with ease, the AI is a joke and offered no challenge what so ever. My longest battle was only 7 minutes and 35 seconds long! This game has great potential but they HAVE to fix the AI ASAP! its the worst I have seen in any total war game, I would gladly go back to playing Empire instead of this. Also, this game does not run smoothly at all, I have a pretty beefy rig and run most games on ultra but for some reason I have to run this game on normal settings and still only barely get 30 fps and it has crashed several times in the 17 hours that I have played it. It is an obviously unfinished game and has many more months to go until it is going to be enjoyable to play so DON'T BUY IT YET! After 17 hours I am done with it and like I said am going back to a MOD for the original Rome HAHA.....Unbelievable...… Expand
  16. zollyftn
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    Unfinished game with many core features not working. Terrible performance even on high end PCs with normal details settings. Playing game is frustrating due to many technical problems(stuttering campaign map, bad AI, tons of bugs).

    Buy this game only when it is heavily patched and on discount one-two year after the release date.
  17. AznaktaX
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    The game is broken, with glitches, graphical issues, and a horrendous AI.

    In its current state, I can't possibly buy this or even recommend it to anyone else. The only reason I don't give it a lower score than 3/10 is because it does have potential but it is totally overshadowed by its flaws. As for Sega....how dare you? How dare you abuse the fans' trust and bring out this    The game is broken, with glitches, graphical issues, and a horrendous AI.

    In its current state, I can't possibly buy this or even recommend it to anyone else.

    The only reason I don't give it a lower score than 3/10 is because it does have potential but it is totally overshadowed by its flaws.

    As for Sega....how dare you?

    How dare you abuse the fans' trust and bring out this game in its current extremely buggy state?

    I'm very disappointed!!

    Do not buy this!!

    Not at least until they fix the bugs.    … Expand
  18. 4rdi
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    This game ruined the franchise! There are so many bugs (a good part of those re-occurring and resulting crash to the desktop) that it is not even possible to list the here. Graphics looks nothing like in the trailer. User-interface is complicated. Game-play changes, particularly, duplicating abilities of all agents, makes the game boring and less strategic. There is no way to describe howThis game ruined the franchise! There are so many bugs (a good part of those re-occurring and resulting crash to the desktop) that it is not even possible to list the here. Graphics looks nothing like in the trailer. User-interface is complicated. Game-play changes, particularly, duplicating abilities of all agents, makes the game boring and less strategic. There is no way to describe how bad the battle AI is! People playing the game first time should look forward to beat the battle AI while 2-to-1 outnumbered. Experienced players can sometimes beat the odds of 4-to-1! Campaign AI throws many small armies, sometimes consisting of only one "suicide" unit, against you instead of using high stacks armies that actually have fighting power. Campaign AI is also very peaceful and passive altogether. Altogether, this game highly disappointing experience for any fan of the series.… Expand
  19. vanderown
    Sep 11, 2013
    3
    Long time fan of the series, thought Shogun 2 was great. Rome 2 is the only game that's every disappointed me enough to make a Metacritic account.

    1. The UI is ONE OF THE WORST I HAVE EVER SEEN IN A VIDEO GAME. Coming straight from EU4 to this is a nightmare. Everything is hidden away in ledgers, or the encylopedia, and a very few things can be found out in tooltips. It's like the    Long time fan of the series, thought Shogun 2 was great. Rome 2 is the only game that's every disappointed me enough to make a Metacritic account.

    1. The UI is ONE OF THE WORST I HAVE EVER SEEN IN A VIDEO GAME. Coming straight from EU4 to this is a nightmare. Everything is hidden away in ledgers, or the encylopedia, and a very few things can be found out in tooltips. It's like the developers have gone out of their way to try to deny me easy access to information. I do not understand why. This is everything from Public Order, what Zeal/Authority/Cunning is when something levels up, what Enslaving Captives actually does. Not hints so vague you don't know if this is a game mechanic or flavor text. This is my biggest problem with the game and the reason I think no amount of patches can ever fix it. Because of the UI, Public Order/Food management is a chore and the campaign map itself drains me of all joy. Why do I need to manually count Public Order to see whether changing a building in X region will take me into negative development into keeping it at 100? Is it listed somewhere completely different, only hidden so well I couldn't even find it?

    2. Before Rome 2 came out, I was telling all my friends how much we could have if they got it to because of how much I enjoyed Shogun 2's Avatar mode with persistent generals and their unique and game-changing skill trees, satisfying progression, customizable unit and army bonuses. I spent many, many hours playing this in Shogun 2, and as soon as I'd played about two-three hours of the campaign I was ready to try Rome 2's. Surely it would be even better, and with all of this unit variety, twice the fun. Well, it's completely gone. It's not there. All of these features are removed. Shogun 2's Avatar mode was my primary motivation for buying Rome 2. It has been completely stripped from the game. You can do a versus battle. That's it. Guess I should have done my research or waited to pre-order.

    3. Battles. And flags. In open field battles. I don't think I even need to explain this. I could see a single flag with a large connected area for sieges, that's it.

    Do note that I didn't even mention the performance issues, the atrocious AI (Battle and campaign) and de-sync issues for the still 2-player co-op campaign. Even if these (mostly launch-related) issues are fixed, the core mechanics of the game and the UI solidify Rome 2's position as a significant step back for the series. This game is spitting in the face of all of its fans. I will be highly skeptical of ordering another Total War title after this fiasco. I was certain this game would be great, but in the last 3 years, this is the game I most regret purchasing. Very disappointing. The only thing I feel has improved since previous titles is unit variety, but everything else is so much worse I don't find Total War: Rome 2 worth playing.    … Expand
  20. jamesphillip198
    Sep 12, 2013
    3
    This game, in this state, is a complete wreck. I mean I love Total War series, I've had more than +5000 hours of all TW games easily, specially Medieval 2 and Rome 1. But the game is just a wreck. The AI is NON-RESPONSIVE, the fights seem like huge heavy metal moshpits, units don't mantain formations, and I could go on and on and on. Many people seem to have performance issues (2%This game, in this state, is a complete wreck. I mean I love Total War series, I've had more than +5000 hours of all TW games easily, specially Medieval 2 and Rome 1. But the game is just a wreck. The AI is NON-RESPONSIVE, the fights seem like huge heavy metal moshpits, units don't mantain formations, and I could go on and on and on. Many people seem to have performance issues (2% according to CA.) The whole game just feels like a beta-test IMHO, and they overhyped the game way past proportion. The idea is good, I really love TW franchise, but it's hard to love the game as it is. I hope they fix this mess with upcoming patches (bajillion patches). I'll see you in 6 months, TWR2.… Expand
  21. shadowstealer
    Sep 12, 2013
    0
    I was really looking forward to this game. I've been a Total War fan since Shogun and this was sounding as though it had the potential to surpass the fantastic Shogun 2. Unfortunately this has not been the case. I don't know what game half the games 'journalists' played but it was not the one the general public were promised.

    The basic ideas are the same and the potential is there but    I was really looking forward to this game. I've been a Total War fan since Shogun and this was sounding as though it had the potential to surpass the fantastic Shogun 2. Unfortunately this has not been the case. I don't know what game half the games 'journalists' played but it was not the one the general public were promised.

    The basic ideas are the same and the potential is there but the game is just broken and unfinished and untested. It is an insult. Features have been 'streamlined' far too much and the new modern UI isn't really much of an improvement. The campaign has framerate issues, the AI is passive and the battle AI is worse than that of the original Rome. Their lacks a guard mode and don't expect your units to actually maintain formation, they descend into a blob of death. Not that it matters because the battles are literally over within minutes due to terrible balancing. It's pretty apparent they didn't test this game at all.

    Capture points are the combat AI's only concern and it's stupidity in it's attempt to get at them, suiciding and generally providing no challenge. Capture points also appear in field battles for no good reason, if you take them you win in 50 seconds. No challenge as the AI doesn't bother to defend them. It's an unwelcome addition making the game feel arcadey.

    End turns can take up to 3-5 minutes running even on a high end rig, in the end you spend more time waiting for the CPU than actually playing. There are over 100 factions though, but that matters for nothing with poor AI and optimisation. Also you have a limited number of armies and navies you can recruit which is horrible. It's like an arcade game. I always used to rely on scout forces and skirmish forces, well too bad if you did. Now logistics are more silly, forcing you to create full stacks (oh you can recruit anywhere in a region now through the general not at the cities) which effectively lets you get away with making planning mistakes before you go into battle.

    There are so many problems and issues with this game that I could write forever. I suggest anyone who has not done so to check out Angry Joe's review. He covers all the key points. This game gets a 0 from me because I wanted a Total War game. Not a broken buggy simplified mess.

    Oh yeah and no family tree. Or special agent animations. Or real depth or attachment. Hollow and bland. Urgh.    … Expand
  22. zz77
    Sep 12, 2013
    0
    This is the worst title in Total War series. It's bugged to unplayable level. Both campaign and battle AI is dumb as stone. Developers didn't add any really great and innovative features, but completely wiped out many great features of previous titles. UI is very poorly organized, its modern appearance is just immerse-breaking. Even graphics looks like downgrade of previous Shogun 2 game.This is the worst title in Total War series. It's bugged to unplayable level. Both campaign and battle AI is dumb as stone. Developers didn't add any really great and innovative features, but completely wiped out many great features of previous titles. UI is very poorly organized, its modern appearance is just immerse-breaking. Even graphics looks like downgrade of previous Shogun 2 game. Don't waste your money and time on this crap!… Expand
  23. malekithau
    Sep 4, 2013
    2
    Starting playing with Total War games with the original Shogun. Played them all. This one is by far the most disappointing. I am very sad to say that it fails to meet expectations on so many levels. The strategic side of the game is pretty decent though not so good that it can make up for the main issue which is the tactical games. They are a joke. Blob versus blob not like an ancientStarting playing with Total War games with the original Shogun. Played them all. This one is by far the most disappointing. I am very sad to say that it fails to meet expectations on so many levels. The strategic side of the game is pretty decent though not so good that it can make up for the main issue which is the tactical games. They are a joke. Blob versus blob not like an ancient battle at all. The speed is comical. Usain Bolt would struggle to keep up with these guys lugging around 4 meter pikes and wearing full armour. Formations don't really exist. On contact your units just fall into an unformed blob. Units turn on a dime. There are plenty of other issues but I can't bring myself to play another minute of this game as is. I'd rather be at work................… Expand
  24. OASkittles
    Sep 12, 2013
    0
    This game is just awful. Just awful. Paid reviewers gave this game a ridiculous score. The UI is horrible, the graphics atrocious and a total step back from the Shogun game. The multiplayer is soooo long and reduced it is not even funny. The multiplayer deals with factions so you have to wait till their turns end, with over 100 factions in the game!!! The cinematics like they had fromThis game is just awful. Just awful. Paid reviewers gave this game a ridiculous score. The UI is horrible, the graphics atrocious and a total step back from the Shogun game. The multiplayer is soooo long and reduced it is not even funny. The multiplayer deals with factions so you have to wait till their turns end, with over 100 factions in the game!!! The cinematics like they had from Shogun were cut back as well as other great mechanics/media from Shogun. What the hell CA?!?! What the hell!?!?!… Expand
  25. Hamlsh
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    Really terrible, I remember how I felt playing shogun 2 for the first time, I was excited. impressed and it was very fun, playing Rome II, I get none of these feelings, all they had to do was re-skin Shougn II, but they couldn't 't even do that right, the tech tree is badly designed, and there is no family tree and so no role playing. Every turn i get asked for gold by one of my retardReally terrible, I remember how I felt playing shogun 2 for the first time, I was excited. impressed and it was very fun, playing Rome II, I get none of these feelings, all they had to do was re-skin Shougn II, but they couldn't 't even do that right, the tech tree is badly designed, and there is no family tree and so no role playing. Every turn i get asked for gold by one of my retard neighbours, you can't attack by land a city that has its port blockaded with one allied ship, in battles if you select your group to attack the enemy they all converge on one enemy unit, ruining their formation, gauls and iceni are apparently voiced by someone trying to fake a really bad Swedish accent. Overall there is no immersion I don't feel part of the faction I'm playing, there is also no innovation in game play at all.… Expand
  26. Staki9
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    When I bought this game, I desperately wanted to love it. Unfortunately, I couldn't bear to lie to myself and give this a 10 like so many other people are. Consumers don't like to think they were wrong, so why should they be? I might have a few reasons:

    The first problem with this game is the horrible optimization. I can run it OK at best, but I have a couple of friends with    When I bought this game, I desperately wanted to love it. Unfortunately, I couldn't bear to lie to myself and give this a 10 like so many other people are. Consumers don't like to think they were wrong, so why should they be? I might have a few reasons:

    The first problem with this game is the horrible optimization. I can run it OK at best, but I have a couple of friends with computers much better than my 2-year-old tin can that can't even get 20 frames on the lowest setting. This has been an issue in essentially every Total War game to date, and I can't fathom why Creative Assembly would release their game before fixing these issues (in the past, it took them months to fix optimization a repeat of this wasn't a good idea).

    Another issue is the AI in the game itself. The game obviously focuses around single-player (or co-op) and in that endeavor the AI is a complete joke. In battles, enemy units have no idea what they're doing and at times will just run back and forth in one spot, and sometimes even charge you only to retreat instantly. Defending a settlement against this atrocious AI isn't even fun. Even outside battles in the campaign map you'll end up seeing enemy armies abandoning their settlements at the worst possible times, leaving you an opening to simply walk in. Armies of 5 will recklessly charge into your army of twenty with a complete disregard for any logical solution (besides suicide, apparently).

    The campaign itself is amazingly large, which I absolutely love. The issue with this is you'll typically be looking at 2-4 minutes of processing AI turns in the campaign map. If you manage to take two minutes on your turn, you're still looking at AT LEAST an equal return of that time doing nothing and waiting for the (horrible) AI to take their turns. Essentially, you're looking at 20-30 minutes of campaign gameplay per hour of actual gameplay. That's an absurd amount of time to be doing nothing. Of course, those gameplay times are disregarding the game's other problems, which brings me to...

    Misc. issues. One big one that I (as well as others from what I've come to understand) is campaign battles (specifically co-op) that you choose to auto-resolve might not even register, and the game will freeze up at that point and render a campaign unplayable from that point forward. Random bugs like this coupled with the constant de-sync battle crashes and even game crashes entirely make this an extremely difficult game to actually play.

    The content is great, but endless technical issues make this game unplayable; even if you do manage to play uninterrupted, the horrible AI and buggy unit control render this game a laughable full-price release.    … Expand
  27. Alex692
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    Couldnt play the game at first, it shouldve stayed that way. The game didnt even live up to an inch of my expectations. Ridiculous AI, very poorly polished and the game lagged like a mf at many points throughout the game. Still, this is ironically enough one of the best strategy titles out there, the only reason it doesnt get a 1...
  28. Datek
    Sep 11, 2013
    2
    This has the potential to be a great game someday. In it's current state, it is and disgraceful embarassment. This game is unplayable, and how it is possible to receive such high ratings from 'respectable' gaming review sites is beyond comprehension. No wonder the barbarians are up in arms. Watch the Angry Joe review on youtube if you are in any way considering buying this game.
  29. Drowsy
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    Broken, incomplete. Never been this disappointed with a TW game before. I hope they can fix everything but i highly doubt it. Stay away from this one for now.
  30. Blankolf
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    This game is just zero how can this: http://www.pictureshack.us/images/57736_Carthage_A_B_F.jpg happen on a triple AAA game like Total war series game like Rome II?

    The game has the most horrible AI I have witness in my veterany as a gamer, jesus, this is no longer a battle simulator but a game to laugh at. And the reason I am giving zero, is because from shogun 2 this game looks    This game is just zero how can this: http://www.pictureshack.us/images/57736_Carthage_A_B_F.jpg happen on a triple AAA game like Total war series game like Rome II?

    The game has the most horrible AI I have witness in my veterany as a gamer, jesus, this is no longer a battle simulator but a game to laugh at.

    And the reason I am giving zero, is because from shogun 2 this game looks like it was released BEFORE!! How can that possibly happen with 40% more budget than any other TOTAL WAR games!?!? Did they spent on Las Vegas or something?

    This Total War: Rome II deserves nothing more than a zero, all apologits are crying out in defense of the game, but if you trully love this series like I do, you would criticise so this never happens again... And sadly there's no patch that can fix:

    - Graphical downgrade (Seems like thrown the maps from alpha and beta to the bing or something)
    - It's not erratic A.I., it's USELESS A.I., they do nothing but sh*t on the battlefield.
    - A.I. again, on Campaign is so passive... Even on Legendary... My God!
    - Naval Battle, anyone who has played this knows these two words give them the shivers of the ammount of times they tried to do them and end up razed by a single fisherman ship simply because your troops won't listen to you.

    Seriously I love this series, but this is pre-alpha testing, since the alpha and beta images are far more supperior than the actual game, wtf did they do to the skins and maps they had?    … Expand
  31. MarkWester
    Sep 11, 2013
    4
    This game is not finished or play tested what so ever, I'd recommend waiting a few months, in its current state it really feels like Total War Rome 1 is more fun and has better AI, than this. I am surprised at the glaring difference between the product and the marketing campaigne. end turns take to long, there's a butt load of glitches. wait until it falls pricewise and give them time to fix it.
  32. BKMagnus
    Sep 11, 2013
    2
    Let me start by saying I am a long time TW fan. I have been playing them from the very start of the franchise, and have had fun with every title to one degree or another. You could always see the march forwards, the new features, the reworked Core of the games, the improved graphics. Always going one step forward. Untill now...

    For starters, its a broken mess. The AI (always a bone of    Let me start by saying I am a long time TW fan. I have been playing them from the very start of the franchise, and have had fun with every title to one degree or another. You could always see the march forwards, the new features, the reworked Core of the games, the improved graphics. Always going one step forward. Untill now...

    For starters, its a broken mess. The AI (always a bone of contention in the series) is the worst Ive ever seen at launch. The campaign AI is passive to the extreme, and when they do attack is only at near suicidal odds. The Battle AI is just broke, often standing still, running in circles, pacing back and forth, running straight through your forces, refusing to obey commands. Naval battles are so broken their useless, you almost have to auto-resolve them to get a victory. The graphics are a mess, and nothing compared to the "pre-alpha" footage show. Models are in places clearly low quality stand-ins never meant to be in the full release, textures are often of a similar quality, stand-ins to take a place in the development untill the real ones could be completed. All these things can be fixed with patchs though, so it is simply a waiting game.

    The following are what really drive the game down, and are not the sort of thing that will be patched out. Many, MANY wonderful features from other TW titles are gone. Family trees, varied agents, seasons, attrition, politics (in any working, or sensible fashion), formations, guard mode, character development (some would call it RPG elements), and much more are gone. In their place we have a poor UI, "magic" abilities that ALL units get to improve themselfs, useless, faceless characters that I find it hard to care in the least about, 1 year turns (which means everyone dies of old age very fast, there are no seasons, and it takes armies literally years to march to locations that would of been achieved in weeks in antiquity).

    Battles end in minutes. Armies tens of thousands men strong can and are destroyed in 3-5 minutes, leaving no time for any sort of tactics. Units dissolve into mosh pits as soon as battle is join, making battles not between diciplined armies, but masses of mobs pushing into eachother. The mass, and the speed of the battles means that all the wonderful MoCap fights are impossible to see. They threw in random "capture points" in open field battles, making all terrain, forests, or unit disposition useless and tactics pointless. Stand on flag for 30 seconds, win.

    I could go on and on about all the things I dislike about this title, but it can be summed up like this. This game was obviously streamlined to make it appeal more to the masses, and less to the Total War Old Guard. The entire game is fast, easy, boring, and frankly ugly in its current state. A massive slap in the face to my childhood with the series.    … Expand
  33. LastJohn
    Sep 12, 2013
    4
    First let me say this, it pains me so much to give this game such a low score. I have played every game in the series except the original, Shogun. I have put in more than 700 hours into this series, and the Roman era is my favorite in history. Unfortunately, this game fails in almost every regard to live up to its predecessor Total War: Rome as well as the previous game Total War: ShogunFirst let me say this, it pains me so much to give this game such a low score. I have played every game in the series except the original, Shogun. I have put in more than 700 hours into this series, and the Roman era is my favorite in history. Unfortunately, this game fails in almost every regard to live up to its predecessor Total War: Rome as well as the previous game Total War: Shogun 2.

    Due to Creative Assembly's lack of a beta the coding in the game is horrific and causes MASSIVE lag even for people who have multi thousand dollar computers. Not everyone is affected, but most are. Here are some of the issues that plague this game.

    End Turn times -

    There are more than 100 factions that have to make their turn, which cause you to wait sometimes up to 6-7 minutes every time you end your turn which is extremely frustrating as the game is mean to play over the span of 300 years (or turns). The goods news, if you have a Excellent processor these speeds can be brought down to about a minute. I have compiled a lot of information from forums and the *general* consensus is that people with i5 and i7 processors generally take less than two minutes for a end turn (some as low as 40 seconds) while everyone else takes a back seat to about 3-4 minutes on average and some unlucky people 6-7 (especially after unveiling the map).

    Bugs and Glitches -

    There are a lot of bugs and glitches. To name a few, Ship battles are pretty much unplayable by most people which is a shame because they are beautiful. There is also a bug that allows units to burn down gates during sieges exceptionally easy by throwing torches at them, even metal gates, making the use for siege units virtually useless. To be fair, Creative Assembly probably did this on purpose due to the horrible A.I. not using siege units anyways so they needed a way for them to get into cities during siege battles.

    Also, there is a bug (that from I can gather plagues the Romans, which I played for 30 hours) that causes all of your generals to go insane. Literally. For me it almost always starts out with a trait called "Not quite right" which takes away 2 Authority and then after 4-5 turns their trait slots are maxed out with negative Authority traits. This makes the Roman faction pretty much unplayable for me. It doesn't just happen once, it will constantly plague your generals randomly (for me usually ,but not always, 1-2 turns after creating a general).

    Loss of Features -

    For some reason Creative Assembly decided to take away some beloved features. For instance, there is no more guard mode. If you don't know what that is I will explain it. Do you know how in movies armies march in formation? It looks beautiful and is truly epic. In Total War: Rome I they did this. And when a army clashed into yours it was amazing as they held their line. Well, some beyond comprehensible stupid person removed that from this game. When a army attacks you your units do not stay in formation, the battle simply becomes a mosh pit.

    There is also no Family tree and the tech tree has been dumbed down severely.

    Addition of features -

    Most additions are stupid in this game. There is flag sometimes placed in open battles that you must defend, you could have 7,000 troops and the enemy has 300 and if they capture the flag on the field they win. Also, in town battles, sometimes the A.I. will ignore your forces, run through them and try to grab the flag constantly being slaughter all the way there.

    Also, battles last for 3-5 minutes due to moral inbalance issues and the running/walking speed is extremely quick, making Archers useless. Some features are good, such as the Regional hub for provinces, but most are a step backwards.

    A.I. is so so so horrible -

    And finally last but not least. I can't mention everything wrong but this is a must. The A.I. is so stupid. *Most* games they will never declare war on you. They simply wait to be slaughtered. Then, in battles they have no idea how to coordinate an attack making battles way to easy. And they never create good armies. Almost always they will have a army comprised of 70% range units which is extremely annoying.

    I won't go into how stupid this games A.I. is, there is youtube for that and it is hilarious. Look Up AngryJoeShow A.I. fails. All I will say, is that I could forgive everything else until patches came except the beyond belief stupidity of the A.I.

    They should have just copied and pasted Shogun II's A.I. instead of redoing it.

    Final Verdict -

    I wanted this game to be epic. I wanted to love it. But this was a scam if I have ever seen one. More than likely it is Sega's fault. They have a track record of publishing horrific games. They want money and that is it. Some people play this game and overlook the flaws, but I am not blind. This game had no business being release, and maybe they will patch it, but I don't plan on holding my breathe.    … Expand
  34. underdown
    Dec 9, 2013
    0
    I love Total War games; they have a great play style and can be tons of fun with friends, however this game is unacceptable. After waiting moths for Rome 2 to be released I was instantly disappointed with its terrible optimization, but i was willing to over look this as it was what seemed like a typical Creative Assembly release.

    Now months after the release and with 80+ hours played,    I love Total War games; they have a great play style and can be tons of fun with friends, however this game is unacceptable. After waiting moths for Rome 2 to be released I was instantly disappointed with its terrible optimization, but i was willing to over look this as it was what seemed like a typical Creative Assembly release.

    Now months after the release and with 80+ hours played, I am still dealing with game breaking bugs, and downright terrible AI. Coupled with the loss of features and content coming from Shogun 2, I am fed up with this game. Sure it can be fun and the game is a step in the right direction, but it is difficult to get into a game when every 10 turns or so you are forced to start a new campaign due to some new game break.

    I did not expect this of a game after paying $60 for a pre-order. This should have never been released at such low quality. Is it too much to ask for a game to at least equal its predecessor in features? I'm not even asking for innovation.    … Expand
  35. utumno86
    Dec 13, 2013
    2
    It pains me to give Rome II a bad review because the core elements of the game are actually pretty good. The graphics are great, even on my video card, and the battle AI (except in sieges) is pretty good, and probably better than in previous games. However, the smaller problems of Rome II are too many to enumerate, and I'll have to content myself with describing a few of the mostIt pains me to give Rome II a bad review because the core elements of the game are actually pretty good. The graphics are great, even on my video card, and the battle AI (except in sieges) is pretty good, and probably better than in previous games. However, the smaller problems of Rome II are too many to enumerate, and I'll have to content myself with describing a few of the most egregious.
    Crappy Campaign AI: To my mind, a Total War game has three phases: Phase I; the player uses his small starting army and province (s) to carve out a more substantial empire out of his weaker neighbors. Phase 2; the player uses his small empire in brutal wars against empires of roughly the same size that genuinely pose an existential threat. Phase 3; the players empire becomes so large that no other faction on the map can challenge him, and he rotely conquers enough territory to satisfy the victory requirements. Obviously Phase 2 is the most interesting part of the game, but it never happened in my first Rome II campaign. The AI could never get its together enough to form any decent sized empire, and I simply conquered states of one or two settlements until I became too powerful for the game to be interesting. Which transitions into

    The Campaign is too long For whatever reason, Creative Assembly decided to balance the campaign around being 300 turns, which have taken me in the neighborhood of 100 gameplay hours to complete. That is unacceptable. The 35 plus hours for the 100 turn short campaign in Empire was bad enough. The requirement of 110 settlements for a military victory is absolutely ludicrous; In my campaign as the British Confederation I was the undisputed master of the map by settlement 20 or so, and the 70 plus hours and 90 settlements it took to get from there to the victory condition was mere tedium.

    The campaign clock doesn't fast forward fast enough: The ability to fast forward the battle clock has one primary purpose: to make the time go faster when the game glitches out and your opponent either refuses to attack you in a defensive battle or you route the enemy army but the game doesn't notice (both of which happen far too often) and you have to run out the clock or concede defeat for a battle that you have won. The slow fast clock means that either of these situations can result in upwards of 45 minutes of down time to watch your army stand there waiting for the game to acknowledge their victory.

    The civil war mechanic makes no sense: The entire game I assumed that the intra-faction groups (for the British Confederation, Elder Chiefs and Other Chiefs) was important for the civil war mechanic, since that faction allegiance tab shows up every time you pick a general and the game acts as if having guys loyal to your faction is important when the other faction tries to adopt them. I assumed that all generals loyal to the Other Chiefs would join the rebellion or something. Instead, all that happened was, at the height of my military might, with some 80 settlements under my control and 12 full-sized armies, a single province changed color and sent out a few small armies to harass me. If that's all the civil war mechanic does, what the hell is the point? Why have all of the crazy faction tab stuff?

    Enemy's turns take too long: Since the map has 50 gazillion factions (as in Empire), and the game takes its sweet time pondering what to do for every single faction, every time you press that "end turn" button, you are looking at fifteen minutes of downtime. There has to be a way to streamline that.

    Normally, I would consider that all of this stuff is fixable and would hopefully be working better in a couple of patches (three of which have dropped since I started the campaign, which took the better part of two months). But the last straw for me was Creative Assembly starting to shill their Caesar in Gaul DLC. YOU, Creative Assembly. Fix your broken game I payed 60 bucks for before you start trying to gouge me for more content. What assurance do I have that the new content is any more polished than the content I already have? My advice to any Total War fans is to just play the original Rome: Total War. Its better in every way than this new mess.    … Expand
  36. Alespla
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    I have every TW game and this is the WORST Total War ever! Run away from this! I can't believe I spent my money with it! I was so full of hopes, so ansious about this game, watching every tube video, every preview... It's one major disappointment...
    The game it`s a huge faillure, technically and on it`s concepts... I can't understand why CA changed the UI so much (they just destroyed    I have every TW game and this is the WORST Total War ever! Run away from this! I can't believe I spent my money with it! I was so full of hopes, so ansious about this game, watching every tube video, every preview... It's one major disappointment...
    The game it`s a huge faillure, technically and on it`s concepts... I can't understand why CA changed the UI so much (they just destroyed it!)... So many bug's, stupid AI, no cut scene videos at all, poor animations, it`s a mess!
    I would like to give it back and get my money back!
    Back to Shogun2 Total War...    … Expand
  37. Vetinari34
    Sep 4, 2013
    4
    A long-time fan of the Total War series, I am seriously disappointed in the release of Rome Total War II. It is almost as if it was never play-tested. The battles, the game map, the water: all beautifully designed, but the game itself...

    It takes a full minute or more to cycle through all of the ai turns, and on multiplayer campaigns, this goes up to ~5 minutes for some unknown    A long-time fan of the Total War series, I am seriously disappointed in the release of Rome Total War II. It is almost as if it was never play-tested. The battles, the game map, the water: all beautifully designed, but the game itself...

    It takes a full minute or more to cycle through all of the ai turns, and on multiplayer campaigns, this goes up to ~5 minutes for some unknown reason. Waiting for the AI to finish all its movements is excruciatingly boring. This time can be spent reading the encyclopedia for Rome Total War II, which is built into the game, if you like woefully inadequate and unhelpful explanations of the various inner workings of the game.

    There is a godawful happiness/food dynamic that you try to build up in your cities; the fully upgraded food source for your region, though it is worth 12 food, generates 12 unhappiness. Unhappiness and food is shared over an entire province(if you have captured all the towns in said province) leading to a frustrating rush to capture all of the cities/towns in an arbitrary grouping that may or may not have any bearing on history.

    There is a limit of 3 armies until you get 15 provinces, which makes it near impossible to hold all of the towns you have captured since the garrisoned units amount to nothing. Turns out you can't attack a city with a land army if another player's navy is blockading it's harbor too.

    The interface itself, at first glance, appears dumbed down, but then you realize that they've hidden so much information in tooltips that could easily be displayed on the screen with no negative impact.

    CA clearly tried to overhaul system after system in Total War to produce this game. Why? We may never know, but the Total War that I love is currently a shell of what it once was. At least Civ V is still amazing, I'll go back to that turn-base strategy until CA figures out that their new incarnation of Total War is simply not fun to play.    … Expand
  38. armitage
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    Horrible, just horrible. In the short term there are the many well documented and game destroying technical issues (pretty sure CA must not have any testers on staff at all on this evidence). These will be resolved through patches etc in time, but it defies belief that they have repeated the mistakes of ETW all over again.

    Of a greater concern is that CA have also dumbed down this game    Horrible, just horrible. In the short term there are the many well documented and game destroying technical issues (pretty sure CA must not have any testers on staff at all on this evidence). These will be resolved through patches etc in time, but it defies belief that they have repeated the mistakes of ETW all over again.

    Of a greater concern is that CA have also dumbed down this game to such an extent that it no longer really resembles the great strategic game (at both the campaign level and the battlefield level) that I and many others fell in love with more than a decade ago. It is hard to see how these seemingly deliberate and intentional design choices (some might say flaws) can be resolved through a patch.

    As sad as it it I would conclude that Rome 2 sees the the Total War franchise terminally ill and only a concerted effort by CA can turn it around and redeem it in the eyes of their loyal fans.    … Expand
  39. Pharaun3
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    This game shows best, how greed destroys potential. In it's current state the game is an early alpha. Many graphic cards are not supported, Creative Assembly gives an explanation that NVidia didnt yet provide new drivers what the hell? So why was this game published in the first place when they knew it will not work on most machines? This of course has created numerous graphic issues andThis game shows best, how greed destroys potential. In it's current state the game is an early alpha. Many graphic cards are not supported, Creative Assembly gives an explanation that NVidia didnt yet provide new drivers what the hell? So why was this game published in the first place when they knew it will not work on most machines? This of course has created numerous graphic issues and glitches so half the preorder community cannot play which is unforgivable for a series this large.

    Besides the graphics, the Ai is worst of all of the game series. No more charges with his general head on to your spearmen now he doesnt do anything. I played a few good hours and the Ai does nothing. Even in a siege situation he positioned his archers on walls yes but kept giving them move orders and such so hey cannot fire... On top of that the campaign Ai is even worse every turn an army with a win chance 1% keeps attacking, and after its defeat it attacks AGAIN. It's like he wants to die.

    Considering that someone was lucky and ran the game, and he doesnt mind the Ai, the game is ok. It's a generally good game, but the Ai, graphics, unintuitive UI and silly bugs destroy it into oblivion. If not the fact that its a Total War, it would be never bought and quickly forgotten.

    But the worst offence of all is the company tactic Release an alpha and make people test it for us so we save money on game testers, and then patch ti into working shape. This way we make money quicker and finish it with less hassle." This is unacceptable. On a side note giving out a DLC on the FIRST DAY is a terrible cash jump, but announcing more payable DLC when the game doesnt work for half the community, is PR suicide.

    Do not buy this game until christmas, it will be probably patched into shape then.    … Expand
  40. Sam84
    Dec 6, 2013
    0
    This release is by far the worse release yet, been a fan of total war games since the frist rome total war, it would take too long to list all the issues on this game.

    Bugs UI worse then any other previous release? (no fire at will button just to start) Pointless objectives, Politics seem pointless? DLC all over the place the list is endless Bottom line rome total war 1,    This release is by far the worse release yet, been a fan of total war games since the frist rome total war, it would take too long to list all the issues on this game.

    Bugs
    UI worse then any other previous release? (no fire at will button just to start)
    Pointless objectives,
    Politics seem pointless?
    DLC all over the place
    the list is endless

    Bottom line rome total war 1, medieval total war 2 is far better than this game so get them and save yourself a heap of cash. Skip this release    … Expand
  41. chellboy
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    Im not sure what they are thinking! They released the game way to soon when fans would have understood. It is dumb down and streamlined way too hard. So many bad design decisions make it depressing to play this "Total War" game
  42. aaronwestley
    Sep 4, 2013
    4
    Aside from consistent crashes when loading a tactical battle, the game is ok. If no crashes, would give an 8. Nice looks, removed some features I didn't enjoy in Total War: Rome.
  43. GeorgMithrandir
    Sep 4, 2013
    4
    I played over 24 hours and i finally have to say that the game needs A LOT OF WORK....the AI is horrible(battles last up to 10 min.)....so where is the challenge CA promised? Also it has limited optimizing and the time waiting for your next turn is REALLY BORING...I don't have any serious problem with the province system but i really hate the diplomacy....Even though i don't have a lot ofI played over 24 hours and i finally have to say that the game needs A LOT OF WORK....the AI is horrible(battles last up to 10 min.)....so where is the challenge CA promised? Also it has limited optimizing and the time waiting for your next turn is REALLY BORING...I don't have any serious problem with the province system but i really hate the diplomacy....Even though i don't have a lot of graphic problems (despite the fact that my pc is old), it makes me sad that CA made a step backwards....In conclusion i hope the game will get better with time but for now even 4/10 is the best i can rate it....… Expand
  44. delappe
    Sep 5, 2013
    2
    As a big fan of the Total War Series and the first Rome game specifically (at least 150 hours played on that one alone), it is safe to say this game is a giant step backward. The simplicity of management and enjoyment of strategic battle that was present in the first Rome game has been systematically removed. The number of bugs, optimization, and ai are inexcusably poor for such a highAs a big fan of the Total War Series and the first Rome game specifically (at least 150 hours played on that one alone), it is safe to say this game is a giant step backward. The simplicity of management and enjoyment of strategic battle that was present in the first Rome game has been systematically removed. The number of bugs, optimization, and ai are inexcusably poor for such a high budget project, and so much less than I expected from the series. I hope some serious patches are released soon, but for me the game is probably a dead end now. Back to Rome: Total War for some serious modding, I guess.… Expand
  45. ajax_7
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    First ever game I pre-ordered, having played every total war since Rome 1. I've loved every single one of them, sure they all have flaws but nothing that sticks out too much. Rome 2 has been an enormous step down, a huge disappointment and a waste of money. I wish I could take it back and wait for the next release. Multiplayer is disgraceful, I would prefer to play Rome 1. The UI isFirst ever game I pre-ordered, having played every total war since Rome 1. I've loved every single one of them, sure they all have flaws but nothing that sticks out too much. Rome 2 has been an enormous step down, a huge disappointment and a waste of money. I wish I could take it back and wait for the next release. Multiplayer is disgraceful, I would prefer to play Rome 1. The UI is horrible to navigate around and the army choices are limited. Having come from the outstanding multiplayer of Shogun 2, I won't be playing Rome multiplayer at all. The turn times have been an issue in all Total War games excepting Shogun 2, but in this release they are ridiculous. I can quite literally write a page of work while I'm waiting, my only fear somebody will initiate diplomacy and halt the process until I respond. The AI are terrible as always, and the campaign game feels cut down and shabby. The UI is hard to work with, there are limited management options and nothing really flows or makes sense. In battle, there are a huge amount of bugs but the ones that stick out are faulty attack orders and the complete stripping down of the UI. No fire at will, no guard mode etc. The unit cards are hard to read and take up almost half the screen. The graphics, at my current settings (Medium-High) are worse than Shogun which I can run on high, and the frame rate is slower. I thought that there must be a glitch when I saw my first battle lasted 5 minutes but no, every single battle takes 5 minutes or less. Politics is useless, there are no more events and overall there is no real flavour to the game. There are some good points, multiplayer loading times are vastly improved and the scope of the game is impressive, but unfortunately the good is lost in a sea of disappointment. It's an incomplete money grab, and CA have toyed with their fans including me who were so keyed up for the launch. I've learned a bit of a Roman life lesson; trust nobody and never jump into anything.… Expand
  46. freundoderfeind
    Sep 11, 2013
    2
    This Game Is not bad but you can´t call it total war anymore. I played total sice rome I but rome II is the first game which I don´t like from total war. I miss all the good stuff from the older Games. I wish that they are patching it up soon and massive.
    In Hope
    Freundoderfeind
  47. labbey
    Sep 12, 2013
    1
    I am extremely disappointed in the game. FPS is 10-15 max in battles and just as bad in campaign on my ultra high end pc.

    Within an hour of trying to get the game working, anyone can see, this is not a completed product.
  48. Tooharsh
    Sep 12, 2013
    1
    I love Total War, I really do. But this game... I don't know if it is proper to call THIS a game.
    I played this for about 30 hours and the more I played, I became more disappointed.
    Huge amount of bugs, crashes, extremely stupid AI, poor optimization, minor UI issues like hidden skill tree for your characters and etc., etc. Now patches every week... CA promised us so much and gave    I love Total War, I really do. But this game... I don't know if it is proper to call THIS a game.
    I played this for about 30 hours and the more I played, I became more disappointed.

    Huge amount of bugs, crashes, extremely stupid AI, poor optimization, minor UI issues like hidden skill tree for your characters and etc., etc. Now patches every week...

    CA promised us so much and gave us so little... They fed us with gameplay videos and interviews, teasing. And then they released this. What a mockery.
    I feel like I was betrayed.

    Disappointment of the year, no doubt.    … Expand
  49. Roma_19
    Sep 12, 2013
    3
    Rome 2 effectively punished its consumer base by releasing the game unfinished. Even if patches make the game perfect, I mean a completely reskinned Shogun 2 would have been so much better than Rome 2. SEGA and CA are lucky the "press" has given them a total pass, the biggest concern is the streamlining of the game, features that really made the original Rome the epic game we all came toRome 2 effectively punished its consumer base by releasing the game unfinished. Even if patches make the game perfect, I mean a completely reskinned Shogun 2 would have been so much better than Rome 2. SEGA and CA are lucky the "press" has given them a total pass, the biggest concern is the streamlining of the game, features that really made the original Rome the epic game we all came to love.are gone, to favor a more arcade approach... Epic fail CA/Sega… Expand
  50. vivi1
    Sep 12, 2013
    3
    They sell a beta game for full price. Clearly unfinished campaing ui, undeveloped features (politics), terrible ai in combat and campaing. They laugh at the spanish and italian customers.

    The game has a lot of good thigs but those mistakes make the be below of the acepptable.
  51. gamir96
    Sep 12, 2013
    1
    Total war is about WAR!! no battles at all unless I attack a city. or the AI attacks my city with 1 unit in suicide missions.100% siege battles.dumb AI. no family tree, no immersion to the game. it feels shallow. no politics no senate,nothing that makes the game enjoyable. diplomacy is a joke. navy is useless cause you can magically take your army to the sea and it will transform in to aTotal war is about WAR!! no battles at all unless I attack a city. or the AI attacks my city with 1 unit in suicide missions.100% siege battles.dumb AI. no family tree, no immersion to the game. it feels shallow. no politics no senate,nothing that makes the game enjoyable. diplomacy is a joke. navy is useless cause you can magically take your army to the sea and it will transform in to a navy. open field battles have a FLAG?! that you have to capture or defend!!! that alone takes off all the enjoyment of battles of previous total war games. buggy to the point of just leaving the game alone. very poor choice of features. basically the game is crap regardless of the fixes the are going to do. I spend 60 bucks pre order for this THING CA I will never ever pre order again. thanks for the worst ever total war game. a decade waiting for this game and you did THAT?! shame on you. keep my money maybe you can enjoy it, I will not.… Expand
  52. gaminitup
    Sep 4, 2013
    4
    Graphically better than shogun 2. The units look great, really impressive. Thumbs up. Noticed that battles between units seem to resolve too fast at the moment. Lines and structure of unit formations many times turn into a chaotic ugly brawl. Family tree is removed which is really a disappointment from past total war games where you would try to see your family line survive through theGraphically better than shogun 2. The units look great, really impressive. Thumbs up. Noticed that battles between units seem to resolve too fast at the moment. Lines and structure of unit formations many times turn into a chaotic ugly brawl. Family tree is removed which is really a disappointment from past total war games where you would try to see your family line survive through the wars. Units cards are confusing when trying to distinguish them from another of your army. It was a courageous new decision from the art director to make them feel more like art of the ancient period but it will take memorization to remember your levy pike men from your pike men and even from your hoplite unit cards for instance. Not needing transport ships to transport your land armies is a great plus which removes a tedious step from other total war games where we would have to recruit each one. Situations pop up during the campaign map where you are presented with a dilemma and given options on how to make a decision upon it is a fun addition.
    Disappointing not to see gold and silver deposits in provinces

    Naval combat has promise but at the moment feels like the combat is resolved very quickly and ranged units on boats kill the enemy far too quickly. Naval battles in particular the boarding action could last longer. Silly as it sounds, It does seem in many of the naval battles have that "bumper cars" feel to them, I think because many of the vessels are indeed ramming into one another to attempt to gain victory. Perhaps there should be a type of vessel that is specific to ramming, while the other small vessels could receive a damage penalty if they attempt a ramming action with a boat not designed for such a maneuver.

    It looks good graphically but the game feels very much like it is at the very least in a beta version at the moment. Plus with the official announcement of more features such as gameplay, and campaign modes, it feels like I would want to wait until those additions actually come out before investing a lot of time. I believe in supporting the developer to continue making these games, however its the first total war game that I decided on day 2 after release to wait a bit on playing the campaign mode until some of the kinks are ironed out.    … Expand
  53. Monlex
    Sep 9, 2013
    2
    Looks good at a first glance that's the positive thing one can say about Total War Rome 2 by Creative Assembly and Sega.
    Campaign AI (CAI) is broken, it manages to starve its own population, it cant attack in any reasonable manner as it will only send small stacks of units to attack. I actually had the CAI declare War against me once so at least i now know its possible, out of 40h+ Game    Looks good at a first glance that's the positive thing one can say about Total War Rome 2 by Creative Assembly and Sega.
    Campaign AI (CAI) is broken, it manages to starve its own population, it cant attack in any reasonable manner as it will only send small stacks of units to attack. I actually had the CAI declare War against me once so at least i now know its possible, out of 40h+ Game play that is obviously close to never but heck it did happen, once. I could make a long list of faults but its not worth it.
    Diplomacy is, as its traditional in any Total War game, broken.
    The Battle AI (BAI) is broken, again one could make a long list of what exactly is broken but its not worth it.
    The Graphical quality is good on the Campaign map and the Battle map's villages and towns look ok. The rest is a step back from the last iteration of the Total War games, that's kind of an achievement considering they had a 40% bigger budget.
    I was a fan of the Total War Games from Shogun's first release day and i did get them all, i am done i wont pay for anything from CA or Sega again. I did and do this with many company's by now and i am sad that another of my favorite series is gone for me.    … Expand
  54. Fudaman
    Sep 9, 2013
    4
    AI is broken, naval battles are useless and there are plenty of bugs to go around. The general skill tree is a step down from shogun. I put 10 hours into this...wait a month before considering to buy. The critic reviews have been obviously paid off by sega.
  55. zedfox95
    Sep 9, 2013
    2
    A poorly adorned skeleton of what could have been. Sadly, I think SEGA pressured CA to push this game out before it was ready. Maybe they even pressured them to add flags in open-field battles, or magic abilities too.

    Honestly, I was expecting some bugs, maybe performance issues. But I'm not exactly sure the issues this game has can be fixed without redoing some parts of the game entirely.
  56. scumbag
    Sep 25, 2013
    3
    A stripped back bare bones buggy game with terrible AI. Don't get me wrong I'll try and play it with the future patches but this has to be the worst launch of a game I've ever seen.
  57. AFKeying
    Oct 1, 2013
    0
    Horribly buggy, and completely unplayable. I have never seen a more incompetent company than CA for releasing such a broken game. I love the games when I can actually play them but I see now that they are just lining their pockets without putting much of any effort into creating a good game.

    I would hope, as with anyone that has a job they enjoy, especially one meant to contribute to    Horribly buggy, and completely unplayable. I have never seen a more incompetent company than CA for releasing such a broken game. I love the games when I can actually play them but I see now that they are just lining their pockets without putting much of any effort into creating a good game.

    I would hope, as with anyone that has a job they enjoy, especially one meant to contribute to the entertainment of others; that they would put forth effort in making something as streamline, flawless and pristine as possible. Instead; they came up with a game than runs under 1fps on release, AI turns in campaign take over an hour as the game progresses and battles are just unplayable for me. I don't even care to wait until they fix the game to play it; it should have been working when I first bought it.

    The only thing I've learned is that there is worse companies out there than Jagex, and they seem to seeking a trophy for screwing over everyone that buys their products. The mature thing to do would have been to postpone release, I'm sure anyone who pre-ordered the game would agree.

    Flush your money down the toilet, its entertaining than purchasing this mess of what they call game.    … Expand
  58. Jolly_Swagman
    Oct 1, 2013
    0
    This is worse than an alpha. CA has messed up totally. Instead of being a great game, this is
    Total War: CA's Fanbase III.
    The gameplay is awful, with an AI without any brain. They constantly suicide-rush their men into my units. 1 unit of war elephants I had managed to destroy two enemy armies in their entirety just by charging into them. I suck at strategy, but I have not lost a    This is worse than an alpha. CA has messed up totally. Instead of being a great game, this is
    Total War: CA's Fanbase III.

    The gameplay is awful, with an AI without any brain. They constantly suicide-rush their men into my units.
    1 unit of war elephants I had managed to destroy two enemy armies in their entirety just by charging into them.

    I suck at strategy, but I have not lost a single battle regardless of odds in 3 campaigns, not because i'm some sort of epic general as said, I suck but because the AI is THAT dumb. I will never purchase another CA game again.    … Expand
  59. DylanMBlaine
    Nov 11, 2013
    1
    Terrible game in every sense; 1/10. The game is worse than its predecessors and yet it was developed with a larger budget. The AI system is horrible to the point where if it were the only problem, which it is not, it alone would be a game breaking feature that earns the game a score of 0/10. This artificial "intelligence" provides no form of challenge to the player on even the highestTerrible game in every sense; 1/10. The game is worse than its predecessors and yet it was developed with a larger budget. The AI system is horrible to the point where if it were the only problem, which it is not, it alone would be a game breaking feature that earns the game a score of 0/10. This artificial "intelligence" provides no form of challenge to the player on even the highest difficulty level (when playing as Rome, the faction that the game is named after and pretty much about). I could go on and on about the AI, such as how it is unable to use siege equipment (YES! That's right, the AI doesn't even know how to use siege equipment, so you either auto-resolve or play the battle and feel like you cheated), but as I said it is not the only problem and the others deserve a mention. Other problems like the game not launching, AI turns taking so long that a multiplayer campaign is nearly impossible to endure, and the fact that the AI sends all their troops into small divisions and sails them around just asking to be sunk while you steamroll through their cities on the hardest difficulty, I know I promised to move on from the AI but it's just so pathetic! Every employee that even touched the AI in development should be fired and shunned from the PC gaming industry. Let them go develop the next COD for xbox, at least there they won't be found out for the fraud that they are because the children that are their customers won't even realize that they've been scammed for years to come.… Expand
  60. Andddreass
    Nov 25, 2013
    0
    This game is buggy as hell, the coop is broken beyond belief, it freezes regularly and sometimes crashes after a battle. Whatever you do, do not buy this game, the developers doesn't deserve money for this game, go and download it from Piratebay instead.
  61. BillyBobSusanMa
    Dec 4, 2013
    0
    My review is somewhat limited because I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO PLAY A SINGLE BATTLE since the prologue, now before you wonder i do have a top gaming Rig that far surpasses even the recommended specs yet every time i choose to fight a battle the effing game crashes? its so frustrating!

    To play this game at all i'm forced to auto-resolve every battle and just play the campaign map,    My review is somewhat limited because I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO PLAY A SINGLE BATTLE since the prologue, now before you wonder i do have a top gaming Rig that far surpasses even the recommended specs yet every time i choose to fight a battle the effing game crashes? its so frustrating!

    To play this game at all i'm forced to auto-resolve every battle and just play the campaign map,

    Diplomacy? what the hell again, you have more chance of winning the lottery that making a trade agreement with a friendly faction never mind forging an alliance, i receive declarations of war from factions that i've never even met or had any dealings with and trying to broker peace is impossible even when you are far more powerful than your opponent.

    Spy's & Diplomats OK, but champions WTF is that? a single Guy can just wonder into Rome and beat the out of an entire legionary army? please i know its a game but there needs to some plausibility

    Walls? whoever decided doing away with walls needs shooting,

    Rebellions & Slave revolts -this is the core of the game because its what i seem to spend all my time auto-resolving, it seems impossible to keep the population happy, every building built every town garrisoned, plenty of food and they still revolt every other turn, its just ridiculous,

    I'am very very disappointed in what Sega and the CA have offered up, it basically looks like Medieval 2 and plays.....? well it doesn't does it,

    You really have to wonder about the seemingly massive disconnect between the "Professional" reviews and the reviews of the buying public, it really does raise issues about the credibility of these fellows, its obvious from the thousand of negative reviews that this game is a broken piece of crap, giving this game review scores of 85-90% is just insulting to peoples intelligence,

    Never again, I'm going back to Darth Mod Empire, this piece of Crap, Sega and the CA wont see a dollar from me again.    … Expand
  62. aoetje
    Nov 8, 2013
    0
    A perfect example on how NOT to treat your customers...

    Releasing unfinished game that looks worse than previous instalment but boasts the opposite? Ridiculous approach. Very poor optimization...the campaign map...waiting for other factions movement takes up 90% of your time...we did not pay to sit around waiting to play... Multiplayer desync problems. Avoid...unless you are    A perfect example on how NOT to treat your customers...

    Releasing unfinished game that looks worse than previous instalment but boasts the opposite? Ridiculous approach.

    Very poor optimization...the campaign map...waiting for other factions movement takes up 90% of your time...we did not pay to sit around waiting to play...

    Multiplayer desync problems.

    Avoid...unless you are very patient and loaded...    … Expand
  63. Cloud7
    Oct 1, 2013
    3
    I'm surprised at all the dishonest critic reviews. Surely we didn't play the same game? "This is not an easy game and require a learning curve" What?! This is by FAR the easiest Total War game I've ever played and the only Total War game that is a complete walk in the park on legendary. It's a joke. Nothing but a rushed poorly optimized game at the moment. Depending on your hardware youI'm surprised at all the dishonest critic reviews. Surely we didn't play the same game? "This is not an easy game and require a learning curve" What?! This is by FAR the easiest Total War game I've ever played and the only Total War game that is a complete walk in the park on legendary. It's a joke. Nothing but a rushed poorly optimized game at the moment. Depending on your hardware you will get pretty much the same exact FPS whether you have all settings on very high or the lowest possible settings. I will be honest and say I do like the concept that they had here, with how the UI was designed and innovative from the past Total War games. But besides that this game has nothing to offer in it's current state. The campaign map is still unplayable for some players, someone would be lucky to average over 25 frames. The player will normally dread ending his/her turn because not being able to get over 15 frames when waiting for over 100 factions (although I do like competing with a large amount of factions) is just a terrible experience. I found myself ending my turn and physically leaving to go do something in the mean time, it was that bad. This is all after CA's patch 2.0 (patch 3 beta is just a broken mess from what I've heard). The naval battles are still broken. I experienced a battle where all of the enemies routed off map but one unit couldn't leave the map. It seemed as if an invisible force field wouldn't let the enemy off the map despite me using all 4 of my units left to ram the unit (which was invincible at this point by the way) to try and force it off the map or just destroy it. However after trying to do anything that would let me just win the battle the clock ran out and I LOST. That was honestly one of the worst gaming experiences I've ever had, I just couldn't believe it. Another issue I personally experienced is that the AI factions will almost NEVER declare war on you no matter what you do. They possibly might have agents commit actions on you but never more than that unless you declare war on them. If this game was to be properly patched and all of the issues fixed (that won't happen anytime soon) the most this game deserves is a 7/10 bottom line.… Expand
  64. Sergey_Nabrusko
    Oct 1, 2013
    1
    If you will buy this game, you will buy just a part of game: there are some stupid DLC. Is this a game at all? Of course it is not strategy, cause there is no strategy at all: not in global nor multiplayer. Multiplayer in Rome 2 is the worst thing CA ever made: it's unbalanced and not interesting. These british guys prove that they love money.
  65. Rayven
    Oct 1, 2013
    3
    1.) The UI is dumbed down
    2.) The game is poorly optimized
    3.) Numerous bugs
    4.) Loooong campaign load time
    5.) AI is stupid
    6.) Balance of power bar is inaccurate
  66. crimy_x
    Oct 2, 2013
    0
    NO FREAKING SLI SUPPORT! NOT FOR ROME 2 NOT FOR COMPANY OF HEROES 2!!! On top of that the last two game you put out have been buggy, broken low qual games. I am never gonna buy another one of your games.
  67. Iakesm
    Oct 5, 2013
    0
    City management is pathetic. Nothing to do!
    Technology development is for a 2 year old to manage.
    Increase food creates more squalor??? One year per turn and only one season. The enemy is tame as they did not grow and I conquered all of Northern and Easter Europe with 3 armies??? If there is a civil war early on, when one can have only six armies, where does the competitor get 12 full    City management is pathetic. Nothing to do!
    Technology development is for a 2 year old to manage.
    Increase food creates more squalor???
    One year per turn and only one season.
    The enemy is tame as they did not grow and I conquered all of Northern and Easter Europe with 3 armies???
    If there is a civil war early on, when one can have only six armies, where does the competitor get 12 full armies from???
    Then strange things where armies can sail seas without fleets and destroying fleets? What is the use of having fleets???

    Just a bad repackage of the old, with no imagination or ingenuity, making this game a huge disappointment after 8 years of waiting.

    Complete and utter rubbish.    … Expand
  68. genesix32
    Nov 9, 2013
    0
    Rome 1 is one of my highest rated game, and there I was anticipating for how godly Rome 2 would be after the trailer with the graphics, but I spend 60 USD for this bloody piece of junk that is even worser than it predeccessor for almost everything.

    (-) First of all, the AI is outrageously dumb for the campaign as each faction does not try to expand and tries to make alliance which is    Rome 1 is one of my highest rated game, and there I was anticipating for how godly Rome 2 would be after the trailer with the graphics, but I spend 60 USD for this bloody piece of junk that is even worser than it predeccessor for almost everything.

    (-) First of all, the AI is outrageously dumb for the campaign as each faction does not try to expand and tries to make alliance which is useless as when I attack one of them, the rest does not help. Also there are times when I attacked a faction with last city with only the garrison troops, making the most important aspect of the game crappy. Initially when they released the tutoberg forest trailer, I was expecting the campaign to have short cutscenes and evens such as the forest ambush.

    (-) Next, the building and economic. Rome 1 building and layout was simply beautiful (Amphitheather, Cohort Barracks) with each aspect to building being really realistic when gave me a sense of building a great empire, Rome 2? Step 1, Building the god damn farm followed by town temple economy building which seems like I am playing a small kids game. The province system sucks especially which completely robs away the empire building fun.

    (+) The only thing that was good in rome 2, The graphics for the campaign map, the campaign map for Rome 2 really uses high-end graphics, however the trade off would be how realisticness of the distance of city as each city is only 1 turn far away from each other and upon expanding it is even easier to invade a nearby city. Just a little bit of tweaking would make it perfect.

    (-) I'm not a battle crazy fan so I wont go into details, firstly when zoom out the units looked more like bunch of black ants running across my screen than armies, I rather they used Rome 1 unit collision. Next is the siege where the same bug requires all units to climb the ladder before they are able to move properly.
    one improvement to be made for the siege could be to have AI controlling a part of the army to assault another wall to take advantage of multiple capture points, also multiple ladders should be able to assault the same walls and all tower should have peasant to should (killable) as the tower is like a complete rape.

    Seriously this game seems like created by a bunch of who cant make game as I am able to list out all these problems in the game. Its like being promised to see heaven yet was given hell.

    CA really needs the help of modders to save this game by giving them the power to mod the game. As for the AI this is my opinion that a randomising engine can be added to the game code in complement to the possible actions AI may take (lets say skirmishing has 40% success rate while going all out has 60%, the engine may choose skirmishing and further randomising causes the butterfly effect where AI uses a good tactic.

    I am really interested in help this game become better but I do not have any programming skills, my strengths would be coming out with ideas to help improve the game, if I can be of any help do PM me    … Expand
  69. gandalf55
    Nov 9, 2013
    0
    Best my game Empire Total War and Shogun Total War
    Rome 2 Total War not normal total war its another game. I am very disappointed that I bought the game.
  70. John_Sterling
    Dec 4, 2013
    0
    50 hours of play on patch 7. The AI makes me feel as if I'm playing Risk against my 8 years old cousin. Fun at first but quickly boring. There is no reason for any of its actions. I'm not even mad about the money I wasted, I'm just really sad. I had really been looking forward to this. This was supposed to be the game that kept me entertained for years like Rome 1. Every time I think about50 hours of play on patch 7. The AI makes me feel as if I'm playing Risk against my 8 years old cousin. Fun at first but quickly boring. There is no reason for any of its actions. I'm not even mad about the money I wasted, I'm just really sad. I had really been looking forward to this. This was supposed to be the game that kept me entertained for years like Rome 1. Every time I think about it I feel like Obi Wan, "You were supposed to be the chosen one" Just Sad… Expand
  71. gjgfjgfjgfjjgfj
    Apr 8, 2014
    0
    Utterly and entirely disappointing experience . A broken game months after release. The product released 10 years ago by the same developers was 10 times better. This is such an abysmal product its hard to put into words.
  72. Panopticon
    Oct 1, 2013
    3
    Got burned again. Told myself I'd never buy another Total War after Empire. Well, fool me once, shame on you, CA. Fool me twice, shame on me. I should have known better.

    In short, a terribly broken game missing many features that I just KNOW are going to cost me £10 each to implement. Sega need their pound of flesh.
  73. Maragavin
    Sep 30, 2013
    0
    This. Was. Bad. Gods. Hell, even blacklist was less over-hyped and less riddles with developer/publisher lies.
    Do not buy. It will be in a 5£ bin soon enough.
  74. FATBOYONADIET
    Sep 29, 2013
    0
    I love TW games but this game is at best described as "hollow". It is a shell of a game which no right thinking person should waste their money on. Simply put, don't buy it.
  75. fruitloopeater
    Sep 30, 2013
    0
    I have played since the original Rome Total War. I have many problems with this game. It had a ton of potential, it still has some. I am going to use bullet points so you can read this easy. I think CA made a serious error and will not ever pay for a Total War game again. This is a pump-and-dump game made by vulture capitalists stealing your money.

    The fact meta critic gives it a    I have played since the original Rome Total War. I have many problems with this game. It had a ton of potential, it still has some. I am going to use bullet points so you can read this easy. I think CA made a serious error and will not ever pay for a Total War game again. This is a pump-and-dump game made by vulture capitalists stealing your money.

    The fact meta critic gives it a 77 right now is testament to the corruption for paid reviews. The game is unplayable due to bugs. Also, I have a great computer and whatnot- these bugs are related to the game and prevent play.

    Main Problems:
    Campaign

    -buggy, will crash a good deal, impossible to complete
    -the graphical interface has no labels so you must memorize what button means what
    -if you mess up with food by conquering a city that has none and you are low on food, it can destroy any chance you had at that game because your entire empire will starve to death.
    -every army must be lead by a general, of which you are given a limited number. These armies cannot be split which takes away hugely from the experience
    -in general the game feels cartoonish and there is not the strategy of the old CA games. The game path is far more linear.

    there are other problems with the campaign but those are the ones that render it none-fun and completely unplayable.

    Battles:

    -Siege Battles are broken and very buggy and will crash games constantly. Siege Towers will move through walls, units on walls will not fight right, siege equipment for defenders will crash game if moved.
    -Capture points have been added to maps and make game play very silly. A single unit of horse can often capture the lone capture point on the map while the rest of your army is crushing the enemy. These are on land battles, not siege battles as in the old Rome. It essentially breaks the battles with these involved.
    -Naval Battles are very unresponsive in general and after the initial charge it is hard to get anything to obey
    -Units are not organized after a small amount of fighting and will form blobs. Unit formations are bugged. Many easy features of Rome 1 were removed. This includes loose and tight formations and toggle fire at will mode for Roman Legions among others.
    -Cav Camels in general are none-responsive and after the initial charge will not obey orders to retreat even if ordered multiple times.
    -Some people have FPS issues, I do not though. I have a Intel Core with a 580 twin frozer though.

    Multiplayer Issues

    This is what I do not understand most. Shogun 2 was perfect, all they had to do was copy it and they would have been set.

    -Maintaining connection- I have a great internet connection. I would estimate that 70-85% of all matches end in a desync or disconnect (none-intentional) of those involved. Siege Battles disconnect at a near 90% rate.
    -Game cannot handle large amount of soldiers- they are improving this with patches
    -Global Chat gone
    -You must click to bring up chat box. When you start game it makes it go away and you can no longer type in it. So you cannot be "ready" and still type. which is frustrating in multiplayer lobby. I don't understand once again why it cannot be how it was in Shogun 2, and like every other Total War series game ever.
    -No avatar campaign customizable general/units as in Shogun 2
    -None-moveable artillery available for reduced cost needs to be removed from the game as it encourages camping and is very cheap. You cannot beat Macedonia if they go full cheese.
    -Maps are smaller than Shogun Two. However there are beautiful custom made maps for each city. There is a huge plus.

    Overall I hope that CA listens to customers and fires the person responsible for managing this (I think we all know who that is... hint he ruined other franchises as well). They did a terrible job when they could have copy pasted multiplayer from Shogun 2 and it would have been amazing. The Campaign is currently a buggy mess and not possible to finish. Most stuff can be fixed with patches but the core problem is more that they released an unfinished product with a laughable campaign and entirely unstable multiplayer.

    This game is borderline fraud do to unplayability. Most BETAs have more stability than this game.    … Expand
  76. themasterconnor
    Sep 30, 2013
    0
    Terrible, just utterly terrible.

    They have dropped everything you would associate with total war and cut corners to the extent where the events in-game stop a quarter way through the game, conveniently just when the reviewers demo ends, they cut corners on purpose and sold a broken game to all of us.
  77. YouLiedToUs
    Sep 30, 2013
    0
    Campaign AI is extremely passive. Battle AI is simply broken. It doesn't work. It ignores your troops and just suicides into you. Its easily possible to win with 100 man against 5000. No joke.
    With far lower settings than Shogun 2 I get not even half the FPS.
    With the latest patch siege battles crash making it impossible to continue my current campaign. At least I don't have to look at    Campaign AI is extremely passive. Battle AI is simply broken. It doesn't work. It ignores your troops and just suicides into you. Its easily possible to win with 100 man against 5000. No joke.
    With far lower settings than Shogun 2 I get not even half the FPS.

    With the latest patch siege battles crash making it impossible to continue my current campaign. At least I don't have to look at the horrible Battle UI which clearly nobody tested on 1440x900 resolutions. It takes up half the damn screen.

    I hope there will be an Achievement for participating in the Beta.    … Expand
  78. tom_gr7
    Oct 1, 2013
    2
    Rome II: Totally Casual.

    Streamlined features, zero diplomacy, no family tree, lack of character progression, magical transports, complete lack of battle, siege and campaign AI, blob style fighting formations, 3minute battles, magical fire burning torches, zero seasons, 1 turn per year, awful performance on high end systems, monotonous and incredibly tedious campaign,
  79. smith1604
    Oct 1, 2013
    2
    wow what a horrible game this has turned out to be gone are the family tree gone are the little assassination cut scenes it has a complicated UI the AI is the dumbest i have ever seen in a video game.I have a high end PC i see some people stating get a better PC well i have one and the fps are pretty crappy.Really big disappointment.
  80. katzenkrimis
    Oct 2, 2013
    0
    It deserved 2/10 on release day.

    +1 for sound effects, and +1 for the lead designer admitting failure and apologizing to the world.

    But one month after release, nothing has improved. So it now gets a big, fat 0/10.

    When you play this game, you can actually smell the cattle farms. It's amazing.
  81. Pa23kings
    Nov 10, 2013
    0
    DO NOT BUY!!! This game is so bad. Waited till it went on sale thought with all the bad ratings might be ok with the sale price, boy was I wrong, Not worth anything. Can't seem to be able to make my towns happy spend all my money just trying to keep them happy but what can you do when it is 58 unhappy and the largest your army can get is 40 which by the way breaks you if you go thatDO NOT BUY!!! This game is so bad. Waited till it went on sale thought with all the bad ratings might be ok with the sale price, boy was I wrong, Not worth anything. Can't seem to be able to make my towns happy spend all my money just trying to keep them happy but what can you do when it is 58 unhappy and the largest your army can get is 40 which by the way breaks you if you go that route.bad graphics really considering, the date it was put out, should have been better then Empire. Cannot really think of one good thing to say about this game worst $45 I have ever spent. I really do not know what steam can do about it but I will not be buying another game from steam again till they start screening these games… Expand
  82. sungod
    Nov 29, 2013
    3
    After holding off playing Rome 2 for several weeks while it's been relentlessly patched, I finally started it up tonight and gave it a go, and here are my first impressions. Bear in mind I'm a HUGE Rome 1 fan and still play it. I've played Medieval II, Shogun 2, Empire, and Napoleon as well, so I'm quite familiar with CA titles.

    As a whole, I think Rome 2 is pretty boring. I have to    After holding off playing Rome 2 for several weeks while it's been relentlessly patched, I finally started it up tonight and gave it a go, and here are my first impressions. Bear in mind I'm a HUGE Rome 1 fan and still play it. I've played Medieval II, Shogun 2, Empire, and Napoleon as well, so I'm quite familiar with CA titles.

    As a whole, I think Rome 2 is pretty boring. I have to agree with others who've said that they feel R2 really has no soul I just don't see it. Yes, it's pretty, but it's boring just like a supermodel looks great on your arm, but as soon as she opens her mouth, your eyes glaze over. The UI is just awful the font is hard to read, the informational display is scattered and chaotic, it's hard to follow what's going on. The audio well, the music is fine, but all the voice overs sound like they were recorded in an empty music hall with a horrible echo. The unit cards are terrible; I don't want to have to decipher what I'm looking at, a unit card is supposed to be obvious; these are not. And as for the AI blech. I lost interest in the game after the second battle. I *never* lost interest with battles in Rome 1.

    So, I'm sad to say that I've joined the chorus of other long-time CA and Rome 1 superfans that think CA really tanked it on Rome 2. Without question the most disappointing game release since the disastrous SimCity reboot by EA. I spent a good 6 hours playing XCom Enemy Within today and loved it. I just spent 60 minutes playing Rome 2 and could care less. So sad. Such a missed opportunity by CA, and a wasted $60 by me. I'm never pre-ordering a CA title ever again. Lesson learned.    … Expand
  83. therand
    Nov 30, 2013
    1
    Bad game. Waste of money. SLOW performance. Bugs and unfinished GUI. I've only played this game about 4 times after buying it. I won't play any more. A total waste of money.
  84. Arabian_Knight
    Dec 1, 2013
    3
    An extreme disappointment-it really makes me wonder what version the critics were playing, because I would have liked to have tried it. The game's graphics are not optimized well at all, and it eats up video memory at a catastrophic rate. The graphic quality WILL be poor, it seems, no matter what you do.

    The AI is not only awful, but aggressively so. Diplomacy is broken, so there's not    An extreme disappointment-it really makes me wonder what version the critics were playing, because I would have liked to have tried it. The game's graphics are not optimized well at all, and it eats up video memory at a catastrophic rate. The graphic quality WILL be poor, it seems, no matter what you do.

    The AI is not only awful, but aggressively so. Diplomacy is broken, so there's not much dealing with them either. Territories can only be gained through battle as well, so an alliance with another faction usually turns into an impediment, since you cannot trade territories to allies. The UI is confusing and takes up much of the screen, and unit cards are nondescriptive and are stylized, so it is difficult to tell which card is which unit.

    The game feels very temporary; factions die out within ten turns usually (including supposedly powerful factions such as Egypt), battles last only around five minutes and are just a contest to see who can make who break and run first. Family trees have been removed, so forget grooming or developing characters. Characters only live a few turns before dying, and traits have been severely cut back so that characters usually only end up with two or three on average. Because characters and factions come and go so quickly, and conquering territory is so easy, the game feels very unattached and inconsequential, especially if playing as a non-Roman faction. There is nothing to unlock, or build up to. Where you start is where you are. You may research technologies to enable new buildings, but everything is pretty much set before you when you start. The game is also very buggy-certain bonuses do not work, and the graphics issues are unresolved. Despite this, the publishers think that it is appropriate to charge users for DLC packs that should have been included alongside the handful of playable factions (all of which have limited rosters) when the game shipped.

    Regions are split into provinces, usually composed of three cities, each of which is a separate region. Only around three-six buildings can be built in a city, and only the biggest city in each province has walls. The most important cities (Rome, Carthage, Athens, Babylon) have specific city maps, but these are underwhelming at best. Each building, if it does not add to public order, subtracts considerably from it, and many cost food as well. By midgame, public order strangles any sort of construction available and forces the player to either build temples en masse or put down numerous revolts. Food also becomes a problem, as most public order or wealth buildings subtract from food stocks, and food producing buildings consume massive amounts of public order. It seems that random bouts of revolts and starvation hit every now and again, which severely limit the type of buildings the player can construct and also leaves the player's armies severely drained.

    The positives are few, but are still there. Though the graphics are buggy and flawed, they on the whole are an update to the first Rome: Total War. The voice acting is very, good though there are only four or so voice sets (Barbarian, Roman, Near Eastern, maybe one more that I do not recall). While diplomacy is broken, defensive alliances have been added and so has a "point balance" to measure how well factions get along. Unit animations are much improved, and the soldiers themselves are designed better. Armies now have names and "unit traditions"-or in other words, armies can "level up" just like characters and receive bonuses. Armies also have (and this may be considered a negative) "the ability to transport themselves across water without being loaded onto ships.

    My personal recommendation is to wait if you are intent on buying this. The game's problems are too deep to fix with patches, other than maybe the graphical and lag issues. Since the later Total War games are not as conducive to modding as the earlier ones were, these gameplay problems are likely permanent. If you are intent on trying Rome II, wait until the price drops, or you will be kicking yourself for paying so much for this game. Its best positives come from the fact that it is a Total War game; unfortunately, it feels hastily put together and rushed. The best way to describe it, unfortunately, is haphazard. I personally was looking forward to playing this, but I was disappointed.    … Expand
  85. Publius-Defecus
    Feb 4, 2014
    2
    This game was a complete disappointment and well beneath the capabilities of this franchise. The game on it's own and in it's current state, I would give a 6/10. HOWEVER, because this game is part of a well known and previously respected franchise I would have to give it a 2/10 as it fails miserably in doing what the previous titles did so well.

    Simply put this game is just not fun.    This game was a complete disappointment and well beneath the capabilities of this franchise. The game on it's own and in it's current state, I would give a 6/10. HOWEVER, because this game is part of a well known and previously respected franchise I would have to give it a 2/10 as it fails miserably in doing what the previous titles did so well.

    Simply put this game is just not fun. I've lost count of how many times I've played through the original Rome, Medieval II, and even Empire in the past. I sunk over 750 hours of gameplay into Empire alone, even though I considered it to be the weakest title (until now). I can understand CA trying something new and it not working as they had hoped and I could forgive it with ease but this game was simply rushed and felt completely half-♥♥♥♥♥.

    The AI has never been worse, the battles started as mobs and now consist of awkward formations, kill animations are poorly implemented as they are the only way to kill a unit and therefore result solely in 1v1 combat amongst troops. In the original games, troops were able to help one another meaning that multiple units could engage a single unit and kill it with ease whereas now we have Shogun II stand-offs where a single soldier can take forever to kill because your individual soldiers just stand around looking like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ until it's their turn to participate in a kill animation. The buildings in this game are very unimaginative and have effects that are completely illogical to the point where the CAI has no idea how to build a proper city and instead is constantly being taken over by rebels. Unit collision is FUBAR as units just clump up together, walk through each other, and feel fake as a whole making any level of immersion impossible.

    I recall seeing similar things in Empire which leads me to believe that the Rome II engine is based off of the Empire engine which is complete nonsense as the Empire engine was built for guns and not close-combat. I could go on for hours talking about how this game disappointed me and listing (in great detail) all the things wrong with it but you could go on youtube and find numerous hour-long rants on the subject.

    All in all this game is a shell of what the Total War series used to be as many great features have been stripped from it (including good music, good voice-acting, key UI and battle components, family trees, a good diplomacy system, etc). This game feels like more of a cash grab than anything else as CA seemed to only care about DLC whoring, advertising, and focusing on silly gimmicks such as facial animations as opposed to core gameplay elements. They also flat-out lied about what they were selling as the game looks NOTHING like the advertisements.

    I honestly doubt that any amount of patching will be able to fix this atrocity and even doubt that the mods will be able to keep this title alive for much longer. If this is to be the future of the Total War series than I can honestly say that this franchise is dead as it will be further turned into the strategy equivalent of Call of Duty.

    P.S.
    To all of the apologists that see themselves as the Knights in shining armor defending CA from the onslaught of "neck-beard losers" that have valid criticisms of this game and CA's business practices, I say that you are the reason that more and more game franchises are turning to DLC whoring, releasing incomplete products, and simply worse games in general because now they know that they can get away with it. They are literally crapping in your mouths and you are thanking them for it in cash. You praise CA for listening to it's community and for actively patching it's game but remain blind to the fact that it should be unacceptable for a game to be released in such a state in the first place. Moreso, this is not even the first time CA has done something like this.

    I challenge the apologists to tell me how this title improves upon the franchise in some major way.

    - Better graphics? Not really as Shogun II looks MUCH better when looked at side-by-side.
    - Better design? No, since the game is horribly optimized (if at all) and has countless design flaws (such as huge cities preventing armies from moving)
    - Better AI? Lol no. Just no.
    - Better UI? No, since most features are missing (such as family trees and general/agent trees).
    - Better Battles? Absolutely not. See reasons in review above. Also, capture-points.
    - Better Diplomacy? No, since factions can barely be reasoned with and many diplomacy features have been stripped down.
    - The addition of something new?
    - Politics system is a joke.
    - Facial animations are useless and take up unnecessary space, time, and money.
    - Units shouting during battle sound (almost comically) terrible, repetitive, and break immersion.

    I do not hate CA or the Total War series. I am a die-hard fan of this series as it has been with me since I was 12 years old. I fear that the direction CA is taking however, will lead to the death of this once proud series.    … Expand
  86. True_Insanity13
    Nov 5, 2013
    3
    Very sad, but Total War: Rome II failed. I expected a lot of from this game, but a see only one thing- failure. The game has very good graphics, but very bad optimisation. Bad AI, that make game quite boring. In my opinion- pure waste of money
  87. narkoburger
    Oct 3, 2013
    3
    Yaaaaawn.
    I really tried my best to enjoy the game but i can't.
    Together with Sim City this is one of the worst games I've played the last couple of years.

    And I find it insulting that they even dare to charge more money for DLC, at least EA gave us something free to compensate for a poor game
  88. spinkick
    Sep 24, 2013
    3
    Every single CA game is broken upon release. There is absolutely no reason to release a game like this; its not your first rodeo. People will not put up with this forever.
  89. HONDOMAN
    Nov 4, 2013
    4
    I want to know what game the critics were playing, because it certainly wan't this one. This game is rampant with bugs. It is flat-out broken. The A.I. is horrendous. I don't even know why the game was released. It needed at least six more month's. Absolutely no polish, because the game wasn't even finished to begin with! Why i everything red as well? It looks like you're playing on Mars.I want to know what game the critics were playing, because it certainly wan't this one. This game is rampant with bugs. It is flat-out broken. The A.I. is horrendous. I don't even know why the game was released. It needed at least six more month's. Absolutely no polish, because the game wasn't even finished to begin with! Why i everything red as well? It looks like you're playing on Mars. An utter disappointment, especially after the beauty that was Total War: Shogun 2… Expand
  90. carlocgc
    Sep 23, 2013
    3
    Bad points:
    Unit collision Battles become moss pits )
    Skill cards With these cards you have no idea how your unit will progress ) Campaign AI See every other review ) Multiplayer Pointless in effect a multiplayer custom battle mode no mmo progression at all ) Historical battles The most enjoyable part for me yet only 4 battles 4! ) General speeches Very short and    Bad points:
    Unit collision Battles become moss pits )
    Skill cards With these cards you have no idea how your unit will progress )
    Campaign AI See every other review )
    Multiplayer Pointless in effect a multiplayer custom battle mode no mmo progression at all )
    Historical battles The most enjoyable part for me yet only 4 battles 4! )
    General speeches Very short and impersonal )
    Campaign AI turn time Though improved somewhat with patches still way too long )
    Good Points:
    Cinematic Camera
    Epic siege battles even with all its flaws    … Expand
  91. Xaosian
    Sep 23, 2013
    2
    I've played since the original Shogun total war loves all of them until now.

    Rome 2 is a nightmare pos of a game. The AI which was never very good to start with is horrid now, just straight retarded. Like attack a walled city and they wont put troops on the walls retarded, like do a joint naval and land assault and they just dock and off load their navy, every time. Even in field    I've played since the original Shogun total war loves all of them until now.

    Rome 2 is a nightmare pos of a game. The AI which was never very good to start with is horrid now, just straight retarded. Like attack a walled city and they wont put troops on the walls retarded, like do a joint naval and land assault and they just dock and off load their navy, every time. Even in field battles their only tactic is to form a ball and charge. Hell if they are the defender you can walk your missile units into range and just fire into them until your out of ammo then go after them with melee troops.

    Diplomacy again never very strong in the series is a joke in this one, think ADHD mixed with paranoia and a solid dose of hallucinogens. No grip on reality, no sense of deal value, no concept of friend or foe, heck not even any concept of self interest.

    Like the old family tree set up to give your generals and leaders some depth? Its gone. Politics? just a countdown to civil war and doesn't work for most of the non imperial factions. How about random event? Mostly non existent and not working, plus they seem to cut off after the first handful of turns.

    Granted those are all in game things that you might disagree with me about. Lets talk a little about performance issues and such now. A very high percentage of the player base can either barely run the game do to poor code design or can't run it at all. Think fallout 2 graphics. Massive lag both in campaign map and in battles. Game can't run more then one CPU Core, Can't run more then 1 GPU, and the coding is so poor it can't run the one core well. Not good for a game touted as next gen graphically.

    A large number of the old guard have given up on this one guys. So save your money wait for a 50-66% off sale next year and hope some of the modders have made it worth while by then.    … Expand
  92. UristMcMechanic
    Sep 23, 2013
    1
    Everything that was good in Total War series is removed, while so much issues and bugs are introduced. Post-release patches are making it even worse for more players than they do help. And it's still unplayable after almost a month since release with no AI at all, no features that we loved from previous games (family trees, city development), no challenges (because there is no AI) and fullEverything that was good in Total War series is removed, while so much issues and bugs are introduced. Post-release patches are making it even worse for more players than they do help. And it's still unplayable after almost a month since release with no AI at all, no features that we loved from previous games (family trees, city development), no challenges (because there is no AI) and full of bugs.
    Waste of money. Even when bugs are fixed it still will be worse compared to previous TW games.    … Expand
  93. nigelnire
    Sep 24, 2013
    1
    I am a Total war veteran who has played every game from Shogun 1 .This is by far the worst Total war game ever, even worse than Empire on release. Poor optimisation I have a high end PC and theres terrible lag. Capture flags on open field battles full of bugs ,the worst Ai ever totally brain dead. I could go on. six months time with mods and patches the game might deserve 6/10 but ifI am a Total war veteran who has played every game from Shogun 1 .This is by far the worst Total war game ever, even worse than Empire on release. Poor optimisation I have a high end PC and theres terrible lag. Capture flags on open field battles full of bugs ,the worst Ai ever totally brain dead. I could go on. six months time with mods and patches the game might deserve 6/10 but if you are considering buying don’t and certainly never pre order a game from CA again based on their promotion and hype.… Expand
  94. letitbee
    Sep 24, 2013
    1
    The simple fact is the game is released unfinished. Three patches later, it crashes less, but the AI just does not work at all. Half of the mechanics are alpha quality at best, innumerable bugs, typos, awkward design decisions, broken mechanics, and general lack of love and polish show utter disrespect for fans of the series.

    Make no mistake: this is an alpha version. Once finished, the    The simple fact is the game is released unfinished. Three patches later, it crashes less, but the AI just does not work at all. Half of the mechanics are alpha quality at best, innumerable bugs, typos, awkward design decisions, broken mechanics, and general lack of love and polish show utter disrespect for fans of the series.

    Make no mistake: this is an alpha version. Once finished, the game will probably be great. But no matter how much I love Total War, it is not ok to release your game in such a state.

    You should absolutely not buy it right now, it is a mess.    … Expand
  95. Noif
    Sep 24, 2013
    2
    Don't buy it now, because you don't want to pay for broken/incomplete game. While CA are fixing it, I recommend use your time for other games. Maybe in future, this will be better after fixes.

    - AI is poor and stupid, pathfinding is really weak. Passive CAI and AI never declare war for you. BAI never use siege equipment, just standing and do nothing. - Diplomacy is lazy and broken -    Don't buy it now, because you don't want to pay for broken/incomplete game. While CA are fixing it, I recommend use your time for other games. Maybe in future, this will be better after fixes.

    - AI is poor and stupid, pathfinding is really weak. Passive CAI and AI never declare war for you. BAI never use siege equipment, just standing and do nothing.
    - Diplomacy is lazy and broken
    - Poorly optimized
    - Less features
    - UI too huge and bad.
    - Transport ships are op against naval fleet.
    - Performance is weak too.
    - Some normal tweaks on units are missing    … Expand
  96. Pesticide
    Sep 24, 2013
    1
    Played 20 hours as a veteran of the series, this game is more broken then empire at release, had many features cut and basicly all the extra budget they claimed went to marketing of fancy videos adds that are not even in the game. Do not be deceived by this company ever again, they stopped caring and are now doing games by the numbers sega dictates 4 weeks after release the game is stillPlayed 20 hours as a veteran of the series, this game is more broken then empire at release, had many features cut and basicly all the extra budget they claimed went to marketing of fancy videos adds that are not even in the game. Do not be deceived by this company ever again, they stopped caring and are now doing games by the numbers sega dictates 4 weeks after release the game is still broken and unpolished.… Expand
  97. Greven93
    Sep 24, 2013
    2
    Creative Assembly have somehow managed to misuse their franchise so badly that it has caused permanent damage to their reputation. They have pushed out a game that is not finished.

    It is a clear downgrade from Shogun 2 both technically (Graphics & performance) and in game design (Art direction, polish, features etc..). Creative Assembly seems to have pushed for a more streamlined game,    Creative Assembly have somehow managed to misuse their franchise so badly that it has caused permanent damage to their reputation. They have pushed out a game that is not finished.

    It is a clear downgrade from Shogun 2 both technically (Graphics & performance) and in game design (Art direction, polish, features etc..). Creative Assembly seems to have pushed for a more streamlined game, but in doing so they have removed core aspects that were part of the definition of a "total war title".    … Expand
  98. Mackles
    Sep 24, 2013
    3
    Graphically impressive. Excellent combat animations and sound effects. Streamlined empire management. That's the good stuff.

    The campaign itself has the depth of a puddle. The much vaunted politics system is pathetic. Diplomacy and CAI in general is broken. Essentially, you'll be doing exactly the same thing 250 turns in as you were 20 turns in. Battles are ridiculously fast. Units    Graphically impressive. Excellent combat animations and sound effects. Streamlined empire management. That's the good stuff.

    The campaign itself has the depth of a puddle. The much vaunted politics system is pathetic. Diplomacy and CAI in general is broken. Essentially, you'll be doing exactly the same thing 250 turns in as you were 20 turns in.

    Battles are ridiculously fast. Units are horribly balanced. Plenty of features and controls are broken or poorly redesigned. Voice work is mostly poor. 90% of battles are sieges and siege battles are currently broken.

    All in all, an extremely poor addition to the Total War series that suffers as much from bad design choices as it does from a lack of optimization and extensive technical issues.    … Expand
  99. ironman3112
    Sep 24, 2013
    4
    This game was a large disappointment for me. I followed the game for the full year from the announce date until release. CA had an incredible marketing team, made the game look absolutely fantastic up to the release date. Any concerns on the forum were crushed by simply saying the footage shows was alpha footage. I can remember raising concerns about Al Bickhams videos showing the ai inThis game was a large disappointment for me. I followed the game for the full year from the announce date until release. CA had an incredible marketing team, made the game look absolutely fantastic up to the release date. Any concerns on the forum were crushed by simply saying the footage shows was alpha footage. I can remember raising concerns about Al Bickhams videos showing the ai in battles. Bickham played horribly and the ai won a couple battles, deep down inside I knew something was up, but I brushed it off thinking the final release would be better.

    When the day of release came I had already sunk 1 700 dollars into a new computer and had pre ordered the game thanks to having it gifted to me on steam for my birthday. I thought that Rome 2 would be too big to fail, that there would be no possible way that CA could screw it up.

    Boy, was I wrong. I'll start with the ai, the ai on the campaign map doesn't build very many large armies in the early game. They'd much rather have multiple small stacks roaming around. The armies that they do have usually consist of militia units and slingers, regardless of what stage of the game you're in. Ai empires typically don't know how to manage public order so any large empire will soon crumble (this is perhaps why large empires like carthage and the selucids were split up into satrapies or client states). This is just the tip of the iceberg for campaign ai failures.

    The battle ai is reasonable when fighting in an open battle, it creates a formation and sends every single soldier it has at its disposal at you and attacks your units. You'll typically be able to take on 3-5ai armies with 1 full stack of your own troops because they'll come at you 1 army at a time, with militia units that route incredibly easily.

    The true problem with the battle ai is when it comes to sieges. When it is defending its alright since all it has to do is camp flags, but when it's attacking it has a tendency to disregard your entire army, and bull rush the flag through your men as you hack them to pieces giving no consideration to the fact that you're slaughtering its entire army. This is gamebreaking. As well during sieges, (this isn't an ai issue, just a siege issue) it is possible to destroy the gates by throwing torches at them thus rendering all siege equipment completely useless. There is absolutely no need to build siege equipment when you can just destroy the gate with torches, there by making sieges really boring.

    The naval ai is pretty competent from what I can tell, my navy gets its ass kicked by transport fleets when I fight the battle due to transport ships being overpowered. Auto resolving battles with a navy against a transport fleet causes the Transport fleet to be annihilated, so at least that works as intended.
    Quick Points:
    -The graphics are pretty good when they aren't glitching out or causing your machine to lag. However I've found that shogun 2 is more optimized and at times definitely looks better.
    - The province system works as intended and is pretty reasonable overall. Makes recruiting easier than it was in previous TW games
    -with 172 factions the map is full of factions which is great, one thing that bothers me however is that a lot of the major factions get stomped by random no name factions, so your campaign can turn into fight no name faction A and no name faction Y. e.g. carthage gets destroyed by numidian tribes and egypt is destroyed by Ethiopian tribes typically.

    Finishing points:
    I haven't covered all the flaws in this game, there's plenty of them, however the game will get better with additional patches. So far there have been multiple patches released to fix these issues and more will continue to come out. What really irks me is that the game was shipped out the way it was September 3rd. It was a compete mess, CA has apologized twice and that is why they've sent out so many patches. I just hope that everyone remembers this release and refuses to pre order any other games let alone Total war games.

    I've played Total war games ever since Medieval 1 Total War, when I was 9 years old and this game has been the only one that's really pissed me off. I completely agree with angry joe's sentiments, check out his review its great, also check out what CA said in this interview with regards to meta critic, it's disgusting.
    http://gamasutra.com/view/feature/169354/how_creative_assemblys_process_.php

    anyways, this game definitely didn't live up to the hype. Just remember what happened with this game, the marketing, the promises, the buggy release, all the patches. Just remember this when you think about pre ordering the next game, because I gurantee that if you do pre order you'll be kicking yourself when this happens again.    … Expand
  100. uaronain
    Sep 24, 2013
    3
    After a massive build up after the classic rome total war, this one fails to deliver much more than some pretty graphics. The game just feels empty, voice acting is not much to rave about. Combat AI 75% of the time is horrible. The campaign is not a challenge and when you win it leaves you feeling like "thats it?"
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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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