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. Rhazes
    Sep 24, 2013
    3
    This is by far the worst Total War game I have ever played and I own them all. I was so excited because Rome is my favorite of Total War games. This game is an Alpha build. This is what you deal with in closed beta testing. I don't even think it will be fixed. CA has never been a company that supports there games for long. They will drop down to a skeleton crew for support and DLC andThis is by far the worst Total War game I have ever played and I own them all. I was so excited because Rome is my favorite of Total War games. This game is an Alpha build. This is what you deal with in closed beta testing. I don't even think it will be fixed. CA has never been a company that supports there games for long. They will drop down to a skeleton crew for support and DLC and everyone else will be working on the Rome expansion.

    Creative Assembly went heavy on the marketing and it only took 10 turns to see they never even play tested their own game before release or they just didn't care.

    Avoid this game unless you like to waste money.    … Expand
  2. TARZAN
    Sep 24, 2013
    1
    Worst strategy game i've ever seen.
    It's not a game, it's trash and It is broken, it's trash and It is broken
    It's not a game, it's trash and It is broken, it's trash and It is broken
    It's not a game, it's trash and It is broken, it's trash and It is broken
    It's not a game, it's trash and It is broken, it's trash and It is broken
  3. chunter
    Sep 24, 2013
    1
    Rome 2 Boring. Out of all the total war games, this is the 1st total war game I have found boring even after patch 3, I can not play more 13hours of this game. I recommend buying Shogun which I played 640 hours. And wait 6-12 months for CA and see if they re-write the game or release an expansion.
  4. isamurai
    Sep 24, 2013
    1
    Played since first rome and was so hyped to play this game but this was a great disappointment...
    A few of the many things that wounded my love for CA: (sorry if there is many english mistakes)
    -Unfinished game, Bugged to death and tends to crash. -removed features - game dumbed down -badly optimized -terrible AI. -poor UI. - Simplified to death multiplayer...    Played since first rome and was so hyped to play this game but this was a great disappointment...
    A few of the many things that wounded my love for CA: (sorry if there is many english mistakes)
    -Unfinished game, Bugged to death and tends to crash.
    -removed features
    - game dumbed down
    -badly optimized
    -terrible AI.
    -poor UI.
    - Simplified to death multiplayer... What happened to the new features of the last opus?
    -unbalanced units
    -illogical features (torches on Metal doors... Really?!) Great no need to spend energy on siege towers! (sarcasm to the max)
    - Magic boats because yay magic!
    -in the same idea Magic like battle changing abilities.
    -Lost immersion
    -Battles last 30 seconds
    -No real political system.
    -Graphics errors
    -DAY 1 DLC This, just this is enough to make me cringe... As Angry Joe said the DLC whoring is out of control...

    I could go on for long like this but i think you all know this already. just go on any forums, youtube or facebook page talking about rome 2 and you will have many complete list of what is wrong.
    Now, it is not just some problems related to my machine... In fact i had bought a system in prevention to be able to play Rome II at its Maximum... What a disappointment...
    Okay the Campaign map is nice. I can give em that. I cant believe any of the "pro" reviews I am reading :
    "Rome II is a testament to all that is great about PC gaming and should be a must buy for all its followers"
    The Digital Fix.
    What in the seven circles of hell is this?! How much did they paid you to say that?! CA are you making a game for the reviewers or the players? How can there be so much distance between "journalistic" and real user review and scores?! I have been on the total war forums and saw the going on in there... Sadly, i really don't think that complaining as I am doing right now) has any effect. They have made the money they needed and they will probably patch it to the minimum then rush to the next money shot with a new expansion or new god damn DLC. Hopefully I am wrong. I really do hope with all my gamer heart that I am wrong...

    To conclude, this game, this disgrace, is a slap in the face of most if not all) the hardcore Total war fans. Fans who believed in the franchise even after some errors in the past. Fans who pre-ordered the game asap. Creative assembly you now feel like a traitor to your fans.

    Et tu, CA    … Expand
  5. havoccau
    Sep 24, 2013
    3
    The game is on its third week and third patch since launch. It's immediate predecessor runs well on my computer, look gorgeous and has the deepest campaign map system (not the largest) of the Total War games to date.

    Rome II is a big step backwards. The game doesn't run smoothly on any settings for me and a lot of players. The AI is a big step backwards (even for a series known for poor    The game is on its third week and third patch since launch. It's immediate predecessor runs well on my computer, look gorgeous and has the deepest campaign map system (not the largest) of the Total War games to date.

    Rome II is a big step backwards. The game doesn't run smoothly on any settings for me and a lot of players. The AI is a big step backwards (even for a series known for poor AI), the characters and agents are convoluted and oversimplified, and the game just kind of chugs under its own weight at this point.

    I would have loved this game if it was just a paint job on the original Rome: Total War. But it's nowhere near as fun as that one, and will need a lot of work before it lives up to its true potential.    … Expand
  6. RhbynYew
    Sep 24, 2013
    2
    Gutted features, terrible AI, fast paced COD style action battles, dumbed down, they are preparing to enter console area with what this game looks like. DO NOT BUY if you are a total war fan, you will regret it. Developers in interviews and videos clearly lie, I do not even know how they sleep bluntly lying to fans like that.
  7. mokawa71
    Sep 29, 2013
    4
    I believe the most of us liked the advertising of the game which looked great and made us buy the game.
    Game flaws are all known in this metacritic forum but lets hope the patches are improving the fun over the next weeks and months
    Anyway, my action to prevent a purchase of a CA/Sega game on release day is that I set a monthly reminder in my cell and lotus notes calendar. Secondly I    I believe the most of us liked the advertising of the game which looked great and made us buy the game.
    Game flaws are all known in this metacritic forum but lets hope the patches are improving the fun over the next weeks and months

    Anyway, my action to prevent a purchase of a CA/Sega game on release day is that I set a monthly reminder in my cell and lotus notes calendar. Secondly I used the code 0903 (release date) on my ipad to remind me on the catastrophic Rome 2 release. I can recommend this actions to everybody if you are serious with not buying a CA/Sega game on release day or never again.    … Expand
  8. zeock9
    Sep 30, 2013
    2
    Unfinished product at best the core concept was grand, but the devs rushed it out the door with zero polish and absolutely zero play testing.
    It's full of bugs and incompetent AI behaviors that render all other good aspects of this game moot.
    Shame on them.
  9. Beeeno
    Oct 3, 2013
    4
    This is an unfinished and broken game released without beta testing with several heavy issues. Advertisement before game release was false as the game is not fully localised in Italian and Spanish language. Untill today we've had 3 patches but the mess is still on. If you want to buy this game wait 'till next Xmas sales and check how patching proceeds. Just my two cents. P.S. I'veThis is an unfinished and broken game released without beta testing with several heavy issues. Advertisement before game release was false as the game is not fully localised in Italian and Spanish language. Untill today we've had 3 patches but the mess is still on. If you want to buy this game wait 'till next Xmas sales and check how patching proceeds. Just my two cents. P.S. I've preordered a CA/Sega game for the LAST time.… Expand
  10. Yoritomo
    Oct 3, 2013
    4
    Rome II the divorce between TW Fans and Developer.
    From Shogun 1 i played all titles in Series and loved the MP Part of Shogun 2. Now i am totaly disappointed from my pre-order after 3 Patches and 4 Weeks trying to find joy in playing this game.
    Singleplayer Gameplay is still broken and cant be fixed by patch. Exploring new bugs every day is not fun. Facing Bugs that are unfixed since    Rome II the divorce between TW Fans and Developer.
    From Shogun 1 i played all titles in Series and loved the MP Part of Shogun 2. Now i am totaly disappointed from my pre-order after 3 Patches and 4 Weeks trying to find joy in playing this game.
    Singleplayer Gameplay is still broken and cant be fixed by patch.
    Exploring new bugs every day is not fun. Facing Bugs that are unfixed since Empire is a insult.
    Seeing the potential of the game and realize that it wont be reached is frustrating.
    Technical aspects may be fixed with upcoming patches, Mistakes in Gamedesign wont.
    This game feels like its a beta version for a console or smartphone TW Title.
    Absolute no depth at strategic campaign mode (from broken AI to Province Design) and no tactical depth at real time battles. Camping, Spamming, rushing, no brain AI better autoresolve it. Wait 4 Minutes till AI done its turn, spend more time waiting than acting is not a game.

    No beta pre-release, a step back for Multiplayer mode. All the inventions from Shogun 2 are gone and the player is draw back to a empire like gamelobby without a chat. Empire MP works fine now, this mode in Rome 2 seems to be alpha. MP Campaign and you will face stupid AI with a player by side and play a waiting game till it crashes for no reason.

    Score 4 cause i belive CA will get the tecnical aspects done and already apologiesed for the mistakes.

    Quo vadis Total War Series?    … Expand
  11. Shu1984
    Oct 3, 2013
    3
    I would gladly give this game a good rating, but unfortunately I can not. It is my first TW series purchase and, being a strategy games' fan for a long time, I expected much more from this title, but so far I can not find a single reason why a seasoned strategy vet would recommend this one. And believe me, I have tried hard (100+ hours of play).

    The game is flawed as hell (3 patches    I would gladly give this game a good rating, but unfortunately I can not. It is my first TW series purchase and, being a strategy games' fan for a long time, I expected much more from this title, but so far I can not find a single reason why a seasoned strategy vet would recommend this one. And believe me, I have tried hard (100+ hours of play).

    The game is flawed as hell (3 patches so far with HUNDREDS of alleged changes and improvements prove this fact), and it seems that it has been dumbed down to the point where it lacks the minimum depth in almost all of its areas: campaign, province management, battles, diplomacy, politics, etc. Former players of the TW series describe it as "lacking any soul". To me its simply shallow, repetitive, unchallenging and in the end boring. There is almost no real reason to go one turn beyond.

    Do not believe the hype (if you still think Santa is out there) and please think twice if you want to spend euro 55 (plus upcoming DLCs of course) on this one.    … Expand
  12. ruarz
    Oct 4, 2013
    2
    This game deserves far worse press coverage than it has received. Thumbs up to the Guardian and the users on here for letting people know the truth. Its just a shame about the reporting standards of PC Gamer and the like.

    Before the patches I would have probably given this game a 0 or a 1. It was utterly broken and reeked of rushing out an untested and unfinished game in ordered to meet    This game deserves far worse press coverage than it has received. Thumbs up to the Guardian and the users on here for letting people know the truth. Its just a shame about the reporting standards of PC Gamer and the like.

    Before the patches I would have probably given this game a 0 or a 1. It was utterly broken and reeked of rushing out an untested and unfinished game in ordered to meet a deadline. Everything in the game or not in the game points towards these guys trying to making a quick buck. Since the patches I have amended my score to 2. The game runs slightly better but it still falls way short from acceptable. Some of the bugs have been smoothed out but it is still a 'buggy' game.

    The gameplay itself remains awful. Everything is over-simplified. There is no need for a fleet as ships magically spawn for you troops at no cost when you send them into water. The public order system is unbalanced and utterly nonsensical. The UI is unnecessarily bulky, especially during joint sea and land battles.

    The graphics are dull and muddy. They look far worse than Shogun 2 yet the game runs far slower. The fonts are not crisp and are blurred at the edges.

    The diplomacy feature is fundamentally flawed by forcing the player to use a minimum of 10% of their treasury in any payment. This is fine in the early stages of gamplay but when you have 200,000 in you get hammered every turn by AI states asking you for 20,000 or 40,000 just for a trade agreement that will generate a fraction of that over the rest of your play through.

    Worst of all, both the Campaign and Battle AI are absolutely dire and seem like a massive step back from the already lacking AI in Napoleon and Shogun 2. The gameplay is incredibly easy, even on the hardest setting and gets boring very quickly. With the long AI turn times you will spend at least half the time on the campaign screen just waiting for the AI to finish their moves. Simply put, this is not a fun game. It is not a good game. It is a shameless exploitation of Total War's existing fanbase. I only hope that fanbase shrinks and these crooks get the bad press they deserve in the mainstream.    … Expand
  13. Rome
    Oct 6, 2013
    4
    Ugly graphics, even on Ultra. On Extreme(the highest setting) it begins to look somewhat ok(but not very great), but at a heavy cost: even on high end rigs(like mine) you'll get fps as low as 20. It's nearly 2014, there is no excuse for an (supposedly) AAA title to have 2009 graphics. I feel cheated just by looking at the game...

    Battle camera is a complete joke. There is no click and    Ugly graphics, even on Ultra. On Extreme(the highest setting) it begins to look somewhat ok(but not very great), but at a heavy cost: even on high end rigs(like mine) you'll get fps as low as 20. It's nearly 2014, there is no excuse for an (supposedly) AAA title to have 2009 graphics. I feel cheated just by looking at the game...

    Battle camera is a complete joke. There is no click and drag action at all. I said: NO CLICK AND DRAG ACTION!! What were they thinking? The camera movement is just horrible. Since you'll be using the camera all the time during battle, this is a potential game breaker for me. However it should be an easy fix, so why are they not fixing the camera!!?

    Tech tree. It's awfully uninspired. No really interesting choices here. Every step in the tech tree will mostly bring you benefits like +2 trade income, -2% unit costs etc. Yawn, it seems utterly irrelevant and dumbed down.

    Icons. Apparantly CA thought it a great idea to have all uni, building, and tech icons look like something a an average 10-old greek child would have drawn thousands of years ago. They are just ugly to look at. I guess they wanted them to have an ancient feel... We dont want that!! We want them to be highly detailed, beautiful and in 3D. Another moronic design decision.

    This games deserves not 0, it deserves a maximum of 4, so thats what it's gonna get from me.    … Expand
  14. Brac
    Oct 7, 2013
    1
    The game is obviously still in Beta testing as there are so many problems with it. After a patch, the game didn't even load anymore. Developers deserve all the bad press they get.
  15. kiwisneverfly
    Nov 23, 2013
    3
    Not worth the price. I had a better time with Medieval 2, Empire and Napoleon then this game. It isn't well put together, with bugs and disappointing graphics. Hell I've played FTP games that look and play better than this one! I suggest getting a older and better total war game, like medieval 2, empire or shogun 2.
  16. Z47_B
    Jan 9, 2014
    2
    After several patches the game is still poorly optimized and the ai is only slightly better. However, if you go to the Steam Workshop and download everything you may get close to what we were promised.
  17. Sarrix
    Nov 8, 2013
    2
    Hahaha the people have spoken and I could not agree more. This is the biggest failure I have seen in a while. I WAS a devoted Total War fan until CA decided to bring out this husk of a game to slap me in the face. I really do not understand what was going through their heads... Do they actually play their own games? They dumbed this game down so much I felt like C&C had more strategyHahaha the people have spoken and I could not agree more. This is the biggest failure I have seen in a while. I WAS a devoted Total War fan until CA decided to bring out this husk of a game to slap me in the face. I really do not understand what was going through their heads... Do they actually play their own games? They dumbed this game down so much I felt like C&C had more strategy involved in it.

    Also have a look at the critics im sure they can be bought out for a high score any day by the looks of it. Good work all on the HONEST reviews. With the exception of the dim wits giving it 10 out 10. Most likely work for CA or just have no idea.    … Expand
  18. Kherny
    Sep 30, 2013
    2
    Jesus H Christ... uninstalled today, just cant take it anymore. 3 patches in and its easy to see this needs a hell of a lot more work and to be honest right now just don't bother after seeing the progress in a month of patching, give it a year. The AI is simply atrocious. The UI is unwieldy. The turn times are awful although I have managed an entire ebook between turn times. play time ofJesus H Christ... uninstalled today, just cant take it anymore. 3 patches in and its easy to see this needs a hell of a lot more work and to be honest right now just don't bother after seeing the progress in a month of patching, give it a year. The AI is simply atrocious. The UI is unwieldy. The turn times are awful although I have managed an entire ebook between turn times. play time of 75 hours on first campaign, it feels like half of that is on turn times alone on my high end gaming system) Poor fps campaign map performance. There are a hell of a lot of generic looking troops cross faction( I don't mean type of troop but the look, copy and pasted). The politics system is basic and mystifying in its point of even being there. The speed of the game in battles on land and naval has been sped up to arcade levels. (consoled) This makes naval battles pointless thus rendering half the tech tree pointless as its naval based. The unit blobbing (look up rome 2 blobbing makes any unit formations pointless. The interviews and trailers painted a completely unrealistic view of the released game. Overall such a huge letdown and I have not touched on all its problems. One in a series of huge letdowns lately for PC releases in general.

    Never preorder in general but now add Creative Assembly who are known for buggy released games to the list of "delayed purchase" depending upon user reviews 6 months down the line.

    For a more in depth review try the Angry Joe review on youtube. He pretty much nails it. Also, Totalbiscuit has slated the attitude of Creative Assembly for a recent interview in which the head states he aims for a 90% metacritic review before anything else, cutting features if they dont add to that goal. (search for content patch sept 24th 2013 7.24 in) How about trying to make a good game primarily, for a good score? What a novel thought.

    "Rome 2 Total War" should now be renamed "Rome 2 Total rethink needed"

    On a positive note, I enjoyed using the unit camera. But the blobbing of units and lack of fight animations took the fun out of that after a short while. Dear me, hard to be positive. The general speeches before battle were enjoyable when they worked and did not cut out.

    Reinstalling Empire/Napoleon as we speak.

    /sigh    … Expand
  19. JasonDaCritic
    Nov 13, 2013
    3
    This is a long waited sequel for the hit game Rome Total War I'm a total war fan myself. But what I see in this game is a big disappointment. The A.I is horrible they charge randomly not at my army but in other directions I was really disappointed at this but it's not just the A.I but also there are a few bugs that I found in this game but it could be patched. The UI is really confusing IThis is a long waited sequel for the hit game Rome Total War I'm a total war fan myself. But what I see in this game is a big disappointment. The A.I is horrible they charge randomly not at my army but in other directions I was really disappointed at this but it's not just the A.I but also there are a few bugs that I found in this game but it could be patched. The UI is really confusing I don't know what the hell am I doing. It also has tons of lag and when your processing "next turn" you wait longer more than your playing longer. But there are good adjustments to this game like the graphics have improved. Overall 3/10… Expand
  20. remosu37
    Oct 2, 2013
    1
    Very poor. I have been a fan of the Total War series since Shogun, many years ago. Out of the box, Rome 2 was near unplayable, and even with 3 patches, the game remains disturbingly unfinished. The AI is poor, both in battle and campaign map, the stability issues persist, the game progresses very slowly between turns, and the game is simultaneously too simple (not enough strategicVery poor. I have been a fan of the Total War series since Shogun, many years ago. Out of the box, Rome 2 was near unplayable, and even with 3 patches, the game remains disturbingly unfinished. The AI is poor, both in battle and campaign map, the stability issues persist, the game progresses very slowly between turns, and the game is simultaneously too simple (not enough strategic decisions) because of its emphasis on moving army units around, and too complex (due to the horrid interface, poor instructions).… Expand
  21. kharnevil
    Oct 2, 2013
    4
    A return to the second most lauded setting after the Shogun period, Rome. The game is graphically pleasing, but for older machines the fidelity will come at a hefty price in terms of frame rate drop.

    The battle AI has no perceived improvement since Rome: Total War, while the campaign map has been reduced to a series of tactical choke points. The simplified campaign map I can live with,    A return to the second most lauded setting after the Shogun period, Rome. The game is graphically pleasing, but for older machines the fidelity will come at a hefty price in terms of frame rate drop.

    The battle AI has no perceived improvement since Rome: Total War, while the campaign map has been reduced to a series of tactical choke points. The simplified campaign map I can live with, the in-battle capture points less so.

    Over all a shamefully buggy release from a well respected developer, blame would probably largely lie with SEGA and their questionable marketing 'gurus'.

    Recommended to wait until Darth comes back from retirement to create a community patch to make it into a game worth buying. Until then, wait for the sales.    … Expand
  22. Matteo21
    Mar 30, 2014
    4
    only new players of Total War saga are going to like this game, this is the worst, too much advertising and not programming enough. i'm am italian and this game is not translated in italian, but CA wrote on the pack "All in Italian". bad for a Total War fan!
  23. SneezeJunky
    Nov 7, 2013
    3
    Sad to say that this is THE WORST Total War game i've ever played. Game is not optimized. Gameplay is dull and boring. Ai doesn't work properly.

    It really hurts giving it such a poor score. Since I really love total war series. But this game is a Complete joke.
  24. korab
    Nov 7, 2013
    2
    Part 2:
    -Retreating units can open the gates and run away even though they do not own/occupy the gate before, but eager and standing of course they cannot as they do not own them!-totally ridiculous and same in other TW games!
    -Retreating armies can pass through boats(literally through half of boats when retreating and my elephants pursuing them too! Totally ridiculous and annoying!    Part 2:
    -Retreating units can open the gates and run away even though they do not own/occupy the gate before, but eager and standing of course they cannot as they do not own them!-totally ridiculous and same in other TW games!
    -Retreating armies can pass through boats(literally through half of boats when retreating and my elephants pursuing them too! Totally ridiculous and annoying!

    -Enemy boats have terrible route planning and get stuck in siege battles and as a rule choose farthest shore to disembark loosing valuable time...

    -No bracing of units in moments before the AI charge! Medieval and Rome 1 had this solved long ago...
    -Spears of hoplites are too short! And serve nothing. Historically they were 3 meter long and bracing shield and spears made hoplite wall very strong: much better in old Rome 1 although there spears were too long...

    -NO BLOOD. Plus idiotic animations of single combat, Shogun is a masterpiece compared to Rome 2 and medieval 2 also is much better. Terrible individual animations in battles where units kill by missing opponents and burning people die „praying on knees“ instead of screaming and rolling to put out the fire...
    -Winning unit never pursues fleeing unit but jumps like girls on the playground!? and do so exhausted and under full equipment after combat although that same unit walks with head down simulating being tired). And do so also if there are other units charging into them that very moment! In all previous TW games pursuing or not was resolved with defending or normal stance! Why did you remove this great option???

    -Exactly the same female monument and same colour(black) in both Carthage and Rome and it is well known they had totally different God families(as a matter of fact one of the most conflicting issues among them was that Carthaginians sacrificed children in terrible Baal rituals and Romans despised and hated them for that)! And they both stand in the same city center location more less in both cities?! No effort or whatsoever to make culturally appropriate monument in a particular city corresponding to actual god temple one has chosen to build or AT LEAST FACTION!
    -SUGGESTION: No random citizen people running around the city during sieges which would add greatly to the atmosphere of being under siege... For example a mother with a child runs from one house to another! Or someone runs half naked and hits some wooden stands with goods in a hurry... Much better to have this than to have stupid birds flying around which serve nothing as town looks like ghost town! At least these birds should come down and eat on dead people and/or deserted food...In all battles birds were first to feast on corpses...

    -no historical and logical correspondence of towns or whatsoever neither on the campaign map nor in battle. How is province capital of Syracuse(Greeks) and Lilybale...(Cartaghe) under Roman city in the south!? Even today in 21st century Sicily is like a different country in Italy with still strong mafia lords, not to mention 300-200bc when three different nations controlled the island... Each city HAS to be for itself and maybe only Rome and Carthage and Athens could have small satellite cities VERY close to them... OR use Empire system of small villages which are without army and cannot produce many different buildings...
    -Cities are extremely big compared to land mass and they look ridiculous when they grow...! Actually campaign map paradoxally looks small due to this although it is actually huge! The very first impression is that no attention was given to details (no world wonders, proper mountains, rivers...) and that it is a copy of civilization IV kind of maps with those growing cities... Simply disgusting and not in the spirit of other tw games...

    -Walls of every town does not have a proper end?!(to the hill or sea or rugged terrain or connecting to wall circle but it looks like enemy can pass many units around it. Totally ridiculous as old Medieval did not have such issues...
    -No multi level capital cities, easy to conquer Rome and Carthage..
    -Carthage has one front tower so destroyed that a man on shoulders of another can easily enter the tower and whole army can do that as well so it is totally unrealistic and walls look so easy to bypass on the side or through damaged towers. Carthage historically had GREAT WALLS which could be entered from below and not on the side and it took Romans years to conquer it! Not a slight historical accuracy or whatsoever...
    -With any infantry unit selected when cursor is on the wall it automatically shows positions of units on the wall as if a player wants to put them there!? In all previous TW games this occurs only when one holds left mouse button which means he does want to put units on the wall but not before!

    -    … Expand
  25. jsijason
    Nov 8, 2013
    3
    Graphics took a big step backwards since Shogun 2, the AI is unbelievably terrible, making terrible choices, it's pointless to have military allies and set combined points of attack. Which is a disappointing advantage to someone looking for a challenge: you can always count on the AI to screw up and give you the clear upper hand.

    The bulk of the voice acting is embarrassing and lame.    Graphics took a big step backwards since Shogun 2, the AI is unbelievably terrible, making terrible choices, it's pointless to have military allies and set combined points of attack. Which is a disappointing advantage to someone looking for a challenge: you can always count on the AI to screw up and give you the clear upper hand.

    The bulk of the voice acting is embarrassing and lame. All the special character units basically do the same things, nothing to truly distinguish them and make them interesting individually.

    I give it a 3/10, mainly on nostalgia for excellent predecessors.    … Expand
  26. JamesGHarris
    Nov 8, 2013
    1
    This is by far the most disappointed I've ever been about a game. I expected a game that would stand tall along side Shogun 2 and the original Rome total war. I sure that with this game we'd forget the horrors of Empire and Napoleon. But alas, that;s not what we got. This game was ultimately broken on release, and even now it still doesn't run as it should... The UI is terrible, the AI isThis is by far the most disappointed I've ever been about a game. I expected a game that would stand tall along side Shogun 2 and the original Rome total war. I sure that with this game we'd forget the horrors of Empire and Napoleon. But alas, that;s not what we got. This game was ultimately broken on release, and even now it still doesn't run as it should... The UI is terrible, the AI is somehow worse than previous games, and most of the factions 'unique' units are just re-skins of a basic skirmisher or whatever with slightly buffed stats. This game is probably the worst total war game of the lot, I could at least (maybe) see the appeal of Empire and Napoleon but there's no reason to play this over the original Rome total war, or any other total war, or even game for that matter. This is just garbage, and if you defend this game, you're a shameless fan boy.

    Seriously though where did the budget for this game go, it's a mess. It does not even compare with it's predecessors or games like Europa Universalis IV (which had a tiny budget by comparison.

    I guess they spent all the money on porn and top quality tissues.    … Expand
  27. Capshaw
    Nov 8, 2013
    3
    This game is wait and more wait. So much marching. Only did one mission and i was fed up. Great graphics, easy enough to play though. If you REALLY like strategy games, this probably is right up your ally. But for me it just became to boring.
  28. kvaroyaldo
    Nov 15, 2013
    2
    Rome 2 is quite nice to look at if you got a decent gaming rig. However, thats about it.
    I certainly do not play strategy games for their looks. Thats just a bonus for me.
    The issues with rome 2 are: -horrible ai -same ai mistakes since empire(sometimes the ai will attack your city, but they wont do anything, just stand still outside your walls) -bad ui -poor performance    Rome 2 is quite nice to look at if you got a decent gaming rig. However, thats about it.
    I certainly do not play strategy games for their looks. Thats just a bonus for me.

    The issues with rome 2 are:
    -horrible ai
    -same ai mistakes since empire(sometimes the ai will attack your city, but they wont do anything, just stand still outside your walls)
    -bad ui
    -poor performance
    -multiplayer is a gigantic letdown (co-op campaign, vs campaign and battles)
    -endgame/late game is just boring
    -the game is way too easy because the ai is quite passive(ive never run into some huge ai empire)

    I really really wanted to like this game. I really did. I even bought a friend another copy of the game so we could co-op the campaign. We have spent some 100+ hours on that bit, but we havent been able to finish it. We get desynched around 50 turns into the game. You can feel the game at that point is extremely slow. The save games stop working. All sorts of bugs ranging from ctd to bluescreenofdeath, all depending on which of the 2 of us click first when ai attacks us on the ai turn. have tried to start over 2 times, but with the same result. Unable to finish it because all sorts of bugs and glitches come around. Really painfull.
    Ive spent more time in co-op trying to get the game to work, than we have spent time actually playing it.
    The whole faction/political thing is just a realm divide. However you beat it quite easy. And from there on out it is a complete breeze. Making the last part of the game feel like a complete chore.

    Another thing which really annoys me is that some guy made a mod which basicly makes you able to play all the factions. They are all there, on your hdd. However Sega/CA seem to gone completely off the wall when it comes to dlc's. It leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.

    True, some mods do help. But you shouldnt rely on the community to fix your 60 dollar game. It should be working from the second you buy it.

    The 3 different types of agents have too similar actions. The ingame wiki is painfully slow.
    The agent/general upgrades window is a mess.

    This is an overpriced game which doesnt even come close to your expectations of a Total War game.
    And I am a huge fan of the series. I got every single of them bar shogun 1.
    A real shame. This could have been so good.    … Expand
  29. Serene86
    Nov 15, 2013
    4
    All I can say after forcing myself to play for 43 hours since release, it's not me. The game isn't fun. It looks great on my machine. It's just not fun. And I don't want to force myself to play a game I am not enjoying. Back to Minecraft until something good comes out.
  30. rBose
    Feb 28, 2015
    0
    Decided to give it another try after almost 2 years in the "patching" process where they have sprayed numerous doses of huge "improvements" that actually aren't there.

    I played day1 and stopped immediately once I witnessed how **** up the game is, I think it was released as a **** alpha and I played the latest version a few days ago, fully patched, the only thing I could definitely    Decided to give it another try after almost 2 years in the "patching" process where they have sprayed numerous doses of huge "improvements" that actually aren't there.

    I played day1 and stopped immediately once I witnessed how **** up the game is, I think it was released as a **** alpha and I played the latest version a few days ago, fully patched, the only thing I could definitely notice was the huge fps improvement, other that this nothing seems fixed.

    The AI is like a miniature retarded puppet that twitches and freezes whenever you give him orders, there are thousands of pathfinding issues.

    Uninstall and find something else to fill your time with, this **** is not even worth pirating.    … Expand
  31. Lunaheal
    Apr 6, 2014
    0
    The game is completely broken.A lot of bugs.AI dead. Diplomacy is completely awful. Battle is worse than in Rome one. Music is 10 times worse than in Rome one.
  32. SmoothCriminal
    Apr 19, 2014
    0
    This game was the most disappointing and boring game in a long line of Creative Assembly disappointments It was not worth the £30 tag and I was galled I couldn't get a refund only recommendation however shrill would be to look up the previous game and play that instead . The much toted graphics and AI were poor and broken even on my gaming laptop this game was grudgingly drawn out and slowThis game was the most disappointing and boring game in a long line of Creative Assembly disappointments It was not worth the £30 tag and I was galled I couldn't get a refund only recommendation however shrill would be to look up the previous game and play that instead . The much toted graphics and AI were poor and broken even on my gaming laptop this game was grudgingly drawn out and slow this has to be the worst game I've played on PC, not in terms of its not Rome 1 ergo its bad, It was bad because it was slow, boring and too long like all the bad parts of Empire total war without the fun of any previous TW games. Its a shame because I looked forward for years for this (I was a child playing Rome 1 and a fan) and once again creative assembly disappointing and doesn't deliver.This however, is the straw that has broken my resolve I am no longer a fan of CA and when they release another TW I cannot say I will trust them to make it good or at least playable. P.S. this game was dismal and poorly optimized at best and the most nice thing I can say is that I don't know how they managed to release this without also releasing an apology as well 2nd P.S. I still cant believe they withheld so much content for a game so bareboned and sold it for a tenner the day after I bought 3rd P.S. (AND A WARNING OF GRAPHIC LANGUAGE) **** you Creative Assembly you traitorous thieving **** how dare you sully your name and my trust in you I'm going somewhere else for my conquering fix next time( you had a golden chance to rekindle my love for the TW franchise with this you could have just released a HD remake and wallowed in old ground nostalgically but no) tip for CA sometimes nostalgia is neither good or bad as a well for ideas it is just the ideas which are good and bad like, oh i don't know criminally retarded AI or picking on new ideas the food and happiness balancing act which... sigh I cant actually think of a worse idea in the entire total war series which is incredible its like this game can only be compared with the worst Nicholas Cage movie. Definitely the worst game I have ever played on anything I.e. I'm actually trying to think of something worse and I cannot so well done CA in that field you've made my jaw drop like you did for Rome 1 but for the exact opposite reason. 4th P.S. hahah so many of these but seriously I am a fan of TW and CA I've liked Rome, Medieval 2 but I am not completely blind I.e. I thought Empire started **** but got good later and the sort same for Shogun and Napoleon however this game really scares me because I cant believe how bad it is I cannot phrase it in words or letters. I can only say what has gone wrong here? and hope someone at CA will take notice I know this is constructive criticism however I want it to be destructive instead I don't think there is a way so save this game I just want CA to not make anything with the ideas from this game for It is all bad and irredeemable and should instead be a model for how we can fail for CA. ( CA stands for Creative Assembly and TW stands for the Total War franchise)… Expand
  33. cylian3
    Dec 8, 2014
    0
    Boy am I glad I didn't pay for this game. Despicable launch issues and disgusting day 1 DLC's aside, Rome 2 is a cancerous mess that took the overall excellent concept from Shogun 2 and fundamentally ruined it entirely. The AI is a bunch of dumb bricks, Tech trees are linear as all hell, generals and agents die every other week from "natural causes" leaving any real character developmentBoy am I glad I didn't pay for this game. Despicable launch issues and disgusting day 1 DLC's aside, Rome 2 is a cancerous mess that took the overall excellent concept from Shogun 2 and fundamentally ruined it entirely. The AI is a bunch of dumb bricks, Tech trees are linear as all hell, generals and agents die every other week from "natural causes" leaving any real character development to be absolutely pointless as the developers had to make the disgusting new "Family" features be used somehow, city expansion through warring is absolutely retarded as the game DEMANDS you need to rush-build culture and religious buildings to avoid, and I'm not kidding now, a whopping -75 to a -100 out of a possible +100 "Unhappiness" in cities you occupy as peacefully as possible. ON THE NORMAL DIFFICULTY LEVEL.

    To put it into a comparison, stacking a maximum sized grand army with the most hardiest of units lead by a fearsome general into a city's garrison will net you about 15-20 happiness. Build 2-3 very expensive buildings that help the population's happiness and you might bump that up into maybe the 30 mark.. Exempt the city from paying taxes and you got another 20. This still leaves you with a -50 city unhappiness and rebels WILL flood your gates. IT. IS. INSANE. I played as the Germanic barbarians, conquered 3 cities, rushed every singe stability & happiness building I had on all of them while specializing in construction (to make these happiness & stability buildings better), declared peace, lowered taxes to the minimum for about 30-45 years (turns) and I STILL HAD MASSIVE REBEL & SLAVE UPRISINGS EVERY YEAR.

    The new UI is a crystal clear example on why you shouldn't try to fix what ain't broken. The battle unit controls have been hamstered by making one M1 click be the command for units to get in a line (removing your ability to De-select all units as was commonly wanted in Shogun 2 while having Mouse button 2 + drag be that EXACT EXISTING COMMAND FROM THE PREVIOUS GAMES), they removed the convenient control ball you had on the bottom left where you could tell selected units to turn in unison, back away or more forward mere inches. While a bit confusing to beginners, it was FUNCTIONAL. What did they get to replace it? Calling this a replacement would be an overstatement since you can no longer do any real precise movements but what we got instead is an ball-busting charade of moronic and messy "Formations" that pretty much only adhere to all your units on the board at once. Flanking? Ambushes? Tactics? What's that?

    And don't even get me started on the camera. You have either the choice of watching from space with a telescope, being unable to see anything clearly or zoom in and have your nipples be plowing the ground and your nose stuck in a random soldier's armpit. While the camera in Shogun 2 was nowhere near perfect, this one makes a bad situation even worse as If you are all the way down on the ground, It will "Lock" itself onto there and require you to tell it to go up TWICE. Fail to do that over and over again flawlessly in the midst of battle and the camera will instead just change the angle of staring into a random armpit to a nearby sweaty blood-stained crotch of your fellow soldier because the developers thought It would be a good idea to leave the camera design to some random guy off the street with Alzheimer's sniffing paint.

    Moving past that, the AI diplomacy reminds me of whining children, constantly pestering you about wanting free money, military access, alliances and trade agreements every other 5 years. While not bad in itself as you can conquer them to make them shut up, IT CANNOT BE TURNED OFF OR AVOIDED IN ANY WAY DURING THE LOADING SCREENS. And If you conquer the annoying spammers, you'll get new borders with other spammers! An endless cycle of annoyance created as a place-holder for actual AI relationships due to lazy design.

    I could keep on pouring sewer on this game but I don't want to spill any on my shoes so I'll simply suggest everyone to avoid it.. Unless you enjoy swimming in feces.    … Expand
  34. Tannumber17
    Oct 10, 2014
    0
    it's just a terrible terrible game. the AI is complete derp and when i tell my units to skirmish they hurr derp durr around until the enemy kills them. any time a give an order to a unit one or two guys will obey the order and the rest of the unit will derp looking at the cool things in between their toes until the enemy charges them from behind. I should be able to build walls around allit's just a terrible terrible game. the AI is complete derp and when i tell my units to skirmish they hurr derp durr around until the enemy kills them. any time a give an order to a unit one or two guys will obey the order and the rest of the unit will derp looking at the cool things in between their toes until the enemy charges them from behind. I should be able to build walls around all of my cities. i should be able to manage garrisons. if some enemy agent comes and flexes their muscles at my army the whole army can't move or reinforce the next turn; that literally makes zero sense, "our friends are dying 2 inches to the left but we can't help because of that guys muscles". this game is seriously embarrassing and CA should never be allowed to make another game ever again. literally the most frustrating game i have ever played. I will not be buying the next total war game.… Expand
  35. ttnordbo
    Feb 26, 2015
    0
    The total war series has dwindled and now they just pump new ones out with better grahpics and minimal additions otherwise. In fact, I much prefer playing medieval 2 total war these days, as its actually fun to play.
  36. Nogard123
    Nov 15, 2013
    1
    Go play Rome 1,it's a far better game then this.
    The AI was never very good in these games but in Rome 2 is just one big joke.
    Also the day one dlc leaves a bad taste and lets not talk about the horrible UI.

    I though it wasn't possible but this is even worse then Empire.
    So people,do not pre-order ....Ever and don't support these greedy weasels.
  37. Atr0s
    Jan 22, 2015
    2
    Every problem was brought up unchanged from the previous game and added up with new ones thanks for many half-tested features. While some of these problems have been fixed, like the complete absence of AI to deal with specific but regular situations (like sieges) the problems intrinsic to the engine still stand. All big fights devolve into 1v1 duels like in Shogun II (no single unit can beEvery problem was brought up unchanged from the previous game and added up with new ones thanks for many half-tested features. While some of these problems have been fixed, like the complete absence of AI to deal with specific but regular situations (like sieges) the problems intrinsic to the engine still stand. All big fights devolve into 1v1 duels like in Shogun II (no single unit can be attacked by more than one unit), making melee battles last than it reasonably should (even if it's one elite survivor against a whole mob). The battle mechanics also changed unreasonably from the previous Rome title, turning pikemen in phalanx from the previous unpassable wall to a murder machine to anything that dares a frontal assault and making some hybrid units only able to use ammunition when charging. The siege machines also have an absurd degree of precision for its time, particularly when using first-person mode (you can actually point the general location you want your projectile to land, unlike Shogun II on which you had to guess its trajectory based on angle and distance). The naval battles, the first big "improvement" to the series (marines, for the first time, can disembark and help in land battles), also suffer from the same problems as land battles during boarding (1v1 duels), boarding can't be disengaged under any circumstance and several glitches still plague it (jumping marines for example, on which your tripulation jumped off ship as a boarding action, only to inexplicably fly high and drown by landing on the sea). If it wasn't enough, the ONLY thing worthwhile about voice acting in this game is Mark Strong as the narrator as they didn't bother with the factions languages (not even making a fake eastern/greek/latin/celtic-esque accent) unlike the previous titles.

    All in all, it's a poor Total War game. Stick to the previous titles as they didn't have as many killjoy bugs as this one. CA is offering here a bad product as the graphics will be nowhere as good as trailers show (tons of videos on Youtube to show what this game really looks like on Ultra, with often hilarious results when zooming in the individual units) and most official reviews were done by people paid to put up a good word for the game or too lazy to actually research the previous titles and evaluate the overall improvement (or lack of).    … Expand
  38. Slabsurfer1
    Jun 16, 2015
    0
    Anger... not something I have ever associated with an evening of gaming, but this particular title has raised such a wave of it in me that I feel compelled to warn all viewers of this post to stay the hell away from this game.
    if you still want this game you will need the following
    1- the worlds next supercomputer to load it in any kind of respectable time. 2- some monster of a graphics    Anger... not something I have ever associated with an evening of gaming, but this particular title has raised such a wave of it in me that I feel compelled to warn all viewers of this post to stay the hell away from this game.
    if you still want this game you will need the following
    1- the worlds next supercomputer to load it in any kind of respectable time.
    2- some monster of a graphics card, which still wont be enough.
    3- lightning fast Internet to download this massive file and all its patches.
    4- €$£ to pay for all the DLC (costs about as much as the game itself).
    5- a Metacritic account so u can join the rest of us in trying to dispel some of our fury at having been cheated out of what should have been a game of epic proportions.

    please don't waste money on this like i did    … Expand
  39. heime2003
    Nov 16, 2014
    2
    i didnt think creative assembly could messed it up cuz they are good develpers and has good record
    but it was slap to fans face. everything in this game is steps back from rome 1
    not to mention huge framemate problems, every moments u have to fight glitches, non responsiveness and bugs instead of units. even high end computers cant run this game on high setting without lag or    i didnt think creative assembly could messed it up cuz they are good develpers and has good record
    but it was slap to fans face. everything in this game is steps back from rome 1
    not to mention huge framemate problems, every moments u have to fight glitches, non responsiveness and bugs instead of units.
    even high end computers cant run this game on high setting without lag or stuttering. thinking the game looks not better than rome1 i wonder dev leave programming of the game to their interns
    biggest let down. luckily i didnt upgrade my com to play this which saved me $$$ and bitter disappointment    … Expand
  40. LosingStreak
    Dec 25, 2014
    2
    I gave this game a year to fix itself from the terrible release state but it still has glaring problems.

    Bad UI that fails at showing you unit status whilst at the same time blocking a big part of the screen Poor optimization Confusing unit cards Stale battles due to scripted kill moves Units don't feel like they have weight when they collide Politics suck and is a useless gimmick    I gave this game a year to fix itself from the terrible release state but it still has glaring problems.

    Bad UI that fails at showing you unit status whilst at the same time blocking a big part of the screen
    Poor optimization
    Confusing unit cards
    Stale battles due to scripted kill moves
    Units don't feel like they have weight when they collide
    Politics suck and is a useless gimmick
    No avatar conquest mode    … Expand
  41. Truth_
    Nov 5, 2014
    4
    There are thousands of reviews and thus I do not expect this to be seen. And there is little to nothing I can say that wasn't said, or wasn't said better, elsewhere. I am simply posting to add my score.

    I was mad just the same as everyone else. The difference, however, is that I was expecting it. I was expecting graphical and technical glitches galore. I was expecting bad AI. And    There are thousands of reviews and thus I do not expect this to be seen. And there is little to nothing I can say that wasn't said, or wasn't said better, elsewhere. I am simply posting to add my score.

    I was mad just the same as everyone else. The difference, however, is that I was expecting it. I was expecting graphical and technical glitches galore. I was expecting bad AI. And I even expected, although hoped against, the game's mechanics that weren't pulled out in Shogun 2 weren't further widdled or dumbed down. And I got what I expected.

    There is little variety to troops between factions, there's little variety to the gameworld, there's no role-playing/story elements like was promised, economy is incredibly simple and easy, AI is horrible on the campaign map and in battle, and multiplayer did not work for the longest time.

    In all, it seems all facets of the game are worse. If only the probably hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars spent on motion capture, that doesn't even seem that great or functional, was spent on making a better game.

    Note: Kudos for releasing free factions with each DLC expansion. And kudos for patching the game constantly (although that wins little points as there should have been fewer problems to begin with).

    Objectively I want to rate this game a "5" as it's playable and has fun elements of other Total War games I've enjoyed... but for some reason I just can't have fun playing this game. Unfortunately I must give it a "4".

    The game is clearly inferior to prior titles. I do not expect this to change. My only wonder is if this will affect future sales of new titles.    … Expand
  42. LaughingSam
    Jan 27, 2015
    3
    A very disappointing entry in the serious marginally improved by a years worth of patching. Sieges are still horrendous affairs, but not in the way we all hoped for, and naval battles are essentially unplayable. The political system may as well not exist for all the impact it has on your game, and why would you care about being emperor anyway when you've got no stinkin' family?!
  43. InsaneCarduelis
    Oct 9, 2014
    3
    Bugs, too long time spent by wainting, too big promises, boring. UI is horibble. Where is good options like for example guard button. And it's not cheap game. The worst strategy I played.
  44. herbertbracke
    Nov 28, 2014
    1
    I really liked the first rme total war, medieval total war, shogun, empire and even napoleon.
    But now they lost me completely, this game is bad. period.
    it feels like you're playing beta all the time, the graphics are really crappy (and i have a geforce gtx 880), the ai does stupid maneuvers,...

    it's crap basicly
  45. Shurkhan
    Dec 27, 2014
    1
    This is my first review. I decided to create an account so I could write the review I would like to have had read before buying this game. This game is NOT like previous Total War games that I've loved! The UI is very different and confusing. The whole feel of the game is different. You start off limited to only two armies, so defending is a pain in the butt. There may be a wayThis is my first review. I decided to create an account so I could write the review I would like to have had read before buying this game. This game is NOT like previous Total War games that I've loved! The UI is very different and confusing. The whole feel of the game is different. You start off limited to only two armies, so defending is a pain in the butt. There may be a way around this, but like I said, it is confusing, and not interesting enough to really want to learn it. It might be okay if you aren't expecting a game that is ANYTHING like the original Rome Total War or Medieval Total War. The battle are similar, but the campaign is an entirely different game. I am very disappointed that CA decided to move away from something that really worked.… Expand
  46. simon665
    Feb 21, 2015
    4
    I very much looked forward to this game. I spent countless hours playing it. At one point, playing as Rome, I controlled all of Europe and most of North Africa. Just as I was getting ready to invade Greece, the number of rebellions in rear areas was simply out of control. In out of the places, like the northern Baltic, small settlements could rebel and create armies that were moreI very much looked forward to this game. I spent countless hours playing it. At one point, playing as Rome, I controlled all of Europe and most of North Africa. Just as I was getting ready to invade Greece, the number of rebellions in rear areas was simply out of control. In out of the places, like the northern Baltic, small settlements could rebel and create armies that were more powerful and larger than anything I could field. How elephants can magically show up here is beyond fantasy. Also, the covert actions were far more organized by my various enemies than could be believed. Within a few turns northern Italy, most of Spain and the Baltic states were lost to vast armies that magically appeared. It would have been nice to have been warned, but even if you were, these rear area revolts were simply too strong. A turn or two later Rome fell and I lost interest in this game. If I were to suggest an improvement to the game, I would allow the building or improvement of fortifications of settlements. This would have stopped the loss of far flung outposts because they were just too weak to defend against huge rebel armies. I will not go into the poor AI in the battles, many people have already done that. The Roman army was famous for building structures like forts and defenses, this is lacking in this game.… Expand
  47. Bribarian
    Mar 26, 2015
    4
    An extreme disappointment. I can't understand some of the "10" scores. I imagine they are either not Total War fans, or they simply played the game for less than an hour. Lots of bugs, poor AI, and just a huge mess. Graphics and maps would be a step up, if not for all the bugs.
  48. thetruth21
    Jun 3, 2015
    3
    to the people who rated this game at an extremely high score are paid out liars. I played the game for about 4 hours and the game isn't even that good. I hadn't the played the game for long time because it kept crashing. there are some good things about the game that i like, like when you finish a battle against an army you get to decide about the prisoners you captured by enslaving themto the people who rated this game at an extremely high score are paid out liars. I played the game for about 4 hours and the game isn't even that good. I hadn't the played the game for long time because it kept crashing. there are some good things about the game that i like, like when you finish a battle against an army you get to decide about the prisoners you captured by enslaving them to help build your cities more quickly but will have a downside. I think that the developers of creative assembly really want to perfect the game but they were rushed by the greedy CEO's just to make a quick buck off of the consumer. the crashes and updates that failed to fix the game proves that the company doesn't give a **** about the consumer only their greed and lies… Expand
  49. teedeedubya
    Jun 14, 2015
    3
    I'm late to the game on writing this review, but I just want to make sure no one wastes their money needlessly.

    This game is OK at best. It's not terrible, but you'd be better of just buying the original RTW. The interface on this game was designed by Helen Keller. Which means truly few things come intuitively and all these interface and control issues show their wicked teeth during    I'm late to the game on writing this review, but I just want to make sure no one wastes their money needlessly.

    This game is OK at best. It's not terrible, but you'd be better of just buying the original RTW. The interface on this game was designed by Helen Keller. Which means truly few things come intuitively and all these interface and control issues show their wicked teeth during battle.

    I have no Fing idea what my troops are doing. I just don't. There's almost no facilities in the game to show me what they're doing. I'm constantly, CONSTANTLY accidentally moving my troops. That alone is a good enough reason for me not to play this game.

    The camera issues existed with the old version of Rome total war but I managed... for over 400 hours of gameplay. I've played this game for maybe 20 hours, but I knew the camera was retarded within the first few seconds while I was trying to stage my troops for a battle. YOU JUST CAN'T ZOOM OUT FAR ENOUGH. WHY WOULD DO THAT!!!?!>?! WHY!>!>!> wtf is wrong with you morons. seriously?

    Trying to get your troops to stay in formation is actually impossible with RTW2. It's just so sad how they managed to screw up something so fundamental. Why is this important? Well, it guts the S out of RTS(Real Time Strategy ), because your formation is what you use to:
    - form a defensive line
    - flank the enemy
    - regroup in a nonretarded fashion
    - be able to actually watch the battle instead of a big blob of troops

    the pathing and combat in this game is comically bad. about 10 percent of your troops follow your orders, about 30 percent are tripping on LSD, the rest are just sitting in the back wondering where the hell they are.

    They nailed morale in the first version of RTW, MOST of the time, units ran away because they were suffering truly terrible causalities. In RTW2, if someone, somewhere, does something (this includes baking a cake), your army will surly flee.

    I didn't really enjoy the ability to select how your general leveled up. It just doesn't make sense... think about it. If you're general inherently enslaves the people he captures... that would give him personality and leadership traits of a slaver. My question... should I have to select that trait now that he leveled up or should he just get those traits because HE'S ALREADY DOING THEM. Leveling in RTW was superior in every possible way to RTW2.

    The political aspect is slightly more mature imo with RTW2. That said, no one cares.... It's an RTS and the banner on every one of these games says "Total War". I wonder who your target audience is? They must care about fictional politics a lot... or maybe they prefer the RTS part of RTS.

    Pretty disappointing game... I don't think people should buy this.    … Expand
  50. Mefisto_
    Jul 27, 2015
    4
    From the score you see above you may consider that this game is somewhere in the area of crap, and yet its true.

    If you install few mods from Steam, there will be enormous choice of fractions to play both in custom battles and campaign. One of the best features in Total War games is campaign, and examples of Empire and Shogun total war are confirming that. However, in this game    From the score you see above you may consider that this game is somewhere in the area of crap, and yet its true.

    If you install few mods from Steam, there will be enormous choice of fractions to play both in custom battles and campaign. One of the best features in Total War games is campaign, and examples of Empire and Shogun total war are confirming that.

    However, in this game there is nothing special holding you from carrying on long campaign play through, as politics and economics features as well as poor user interface(in my opinion) are stopping you from doing that.

    Now, as I have noticed from many user reviews, optimization is a great issue. Surprisingly, in contrast to all trailers and demos before the release of this game, graphics are not very good. Moreover, benchmark test for performance made me and my friends laugh as faces of Roman soldiers are looking like orcs or goblins from The Lord of the Rings.

    Talking about performance, my PC is running Battlefield 4 at 80 fps least on Ultra settings, while GTA 5 is flying at 75 fps average on Ultra settings as well. Yet, this piece of sh!t is still lagging on me, in fact, that forced me to write this review.

    So considering price tag at the release date and all the issues connected with this game, I think 4 - 6 is a fair score, not minding critics opinions, as most of us know, they are not the most reliable source to judge products.    … Expand
  51. Wiebe
    Feb 26, 2020
    3
    Uninspiring installment. Total war has barely evolved over the years and the game concepts show their age, even when all the bugs are fixed.
  52. thequailboy
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    To put it simply. Whatever you do, no matter how you feel about past Total War games. Do. Not. Buy. This. Product. Not only is it totally unfinished. It is not a fun game to play. The AI is ridiculous. The game design is deeply flawed with contradictions and annoyances. I have played for 25 hours. 5 of those hours have been waiting for the CPU to take its move. I run this game on a £4000To put it simply. Whatever you do, no matter how you feel about past Total War games. Do. Not. Buy. This. Product. Not only is it totally unfinished. It is not a fun game to play. The AI is ridiculous. The game design is deeply flawed with contradictions and annoyances. I have played for 25 hours. 5 of those hours have been waiting for the CPU to take its move. I run this game on a £4000 system. GTX680, i7 3.33ghtz, 16gb Ram and it is too slow, choppy and laggy (offline) to bare to play any longer. It is torture. I am so, so disappointed to have waited so long for such a terrible excuse for a game. May CA and Sega learn a harsh, harsh lesson. RIP PC gaming.… Expand
  53. PriceofShadows
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    RIP Total War, this is last time I got tricked into buying Total War game.I feel cheated and robbed, my fault I believed hype but at least no money for DLC !

    1.Game looks like crap textures are blurry and ugly 2.AA doesn't work !!! 3.Music is dull and boring, sounds are reused from older titles especially extremly loud and annoying marching sound when you zoom in, 4.There is no    RIP Total War, this is last time I got tricked into buying Total War game.I feel cheated and robbed, my fault I believed hype but at least no money for DLC !

    1.Game looks like crap textures are blurry and ugly
    2.AA doesn't work !!!
    3.Music is dull and boring, sounds are reused from older titles especially extremly loud and annoying marching sound when you zoom in,
    4.There is no way to switch off bloom and everything shines and reflects
    5.Soldiers run too fast poor game mechanics.
    6.Army cards are ugly and confusing difficult to recognize troops

    Ancient Medieval 2 has better graphics,gameplay and realistic soldiers movements.Game is totally dumbed down,people who made this 'game' should take a look at masterpieces like Medieval 2 or Rome 1 to see what this is all about.Biggest disappointement of 2013, save your money and don't buy it until it's 90% OFF.    … Expand
  54. Jexiah8bit
    Sep 5, 2013
    4
    As someone said, publishers have used the digital age to turn us all into suckers who beta test their "finished games" only after paying full price. Total War: Rome 2 is the penultimate example of this. If you do not believe me, youtube the glitches and bugs in the AI and game design. You will be astounded. For my experience, I can only say that this is a new low and I am deeply troubledAs someone said, publishers have used the digital age to turn us all into suckers who beta test their "finished games" only after paying full price. Total War: Rome 2 is the penultimate example of this. If you do not believe me, youtube the glitches and bugs in the AI and game design. You will be astounded. For my experience, I can only say that this is a new low and I am deeply troubled by the scores most "professional" game sites are giving this game.… Expand
  55. distractonator
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    This is one of the few games that I literally could not play. after marathoning Shogun 2, Rome 1 and Medieval 2 for the last two months I have concluded that this game strays way too far from the original formula over complicating simple things and oversimplifying the things that have worked well in previous installments of the franchise
  56. dogboy907
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    The graphical issues and AI issues, as noted by other users, are indeed atrocious and indeed present.

    However, this could be forgiven if there were a good game lying underneath all that. There really is not though; this game is a huge step back from Shogun 2, aesthetically and in terms of gameplay depth. The user interface is not intuitive and inaccessible and frankly boring. Shogun 2's    The graphical issues and AI issues, as noted by other users, are indeed atrocious and indeed present.

    However, this could be forgiven if there were a good game lying underneath all that. There really is not though; this game is a huge step back from Shogun 2, aesthetically and in terms of gameplay depth. The user interface is not intuitive and inaccessible and frankly boring. Shogun 2's UI was far better. The gameplay mechanics have been severely dumbed down. There aren't even seasons anymore. The game is just not engrossing like other total war games.

    Overall this game is a total failure. They aimed too high trying to put in a bunch of features no one really needed or wanted, took out a lot of the core elements fans of the series loved in order to make it more appealing to the masses, and failed spectacularly to even provide a functional game at launch. This game should still be in Alpha it needs a total overhaul.    … Expand
  57. rcassar
    Sep 13, 2013
    0
    I played this game for a couple of hours and felt a huge sense of disappointment. It felt like Empire: Total War all over again. I have been waiting eagerly to play this game for years but everything seems to be worse than it was in the now 10 year old Rome: Total War. As the other reviewers pointed out; graphics, AI, bugs, user interface, the campaign mode itself, the music, everything! II played this game for a couple of hours and felt a huge sense of disappointment. It felt like Empire: Total War all over again. I have been waiting eagerly to play this game for years but everything seems to be worse than it was in the now 10 year old Rome: Total War. As the other reviewers pointed out; graphics, AI, bugs, user interface, the campaign mode itself, the music, everything! I cannot find a single redeeming point.

    I ended up throwing this pile of garbage away and installing Medieval II: Total War and it was so much better. That game is fun and interesting. I feel that this game is so broken that no patch will fix it and make it enjoyable. I cannot understand how they managed to ruin such a game in this way. I cannot understand the ratings of the professional reviewers either. It's all sad, very sad.    … Expand
  58. Fhear
    Sep 5, 2013
    4
    I will do it in a summit:
    Positive points:
    + Campaign Map is BIG, detailed and good designed for the gameplay + Many Factions with mostly individual units(no more hundreds of rebellion cities) + Provinces are a good idea + Diplomacy: Even if it's kinda buggy right now, and your diplomacy partners s.t. do illogical things, THEY actually join you in fights! Negative Points: - the    I will do it in a summit:
    Positive points:
    + Campaign Map is BIG, detailed and good designed for the gameplay
    + Many Factions with mostly individual units(no more hundreds of rebellion cities)
    + Provinces are a good idea
    + Diplomacy: Even if it's kinda buggy right now, and your diplomacy partners s.t. do illogical things, THEY actually join you in fights!

    Negative Points:
    - the Battle A.I: is absolute bad(even on legendary), sometimes buggy and not capable to do the simplest maneuvers
    - the Turn loading Times are EXTREME long in further gameplay
    - The Battles are WAY to fast and reduced in complexity; also they reduced some features p.e. "loose formation"; often the battles are just 5 minutes long
    - Bad gameplay-decisions p.e. Flags in open battlefields(you have to capture them to win); magic abilities from some units or the general; autotransport for the navy; too strong torches etc...
    - Balancing of the units is not the best atm
    - 1 year per turn (agents/generals die too fast)
    - no family-tree(generals are generated from a random pool)
    - no recruitment/agent videos
    - EXTREME reduced Multiplayer-Gameplay
    - many many bugs and glitches, as well as bad performance atm

    Maybe they will patch it back to life    … Expand
  59. wud9
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    1. The game is way too simplified, only fun for dumb youths.
    2. My 6 months old chihuahua is 9 billion times smarter than the AI.
    3. The battles are just mini-games with fancy graphics. 3 things that make up for a real Total War game. 3 most important things that the dev should have focused on. 3 most disappointing things from this game. I'm a fan of this series. I've been    1. The game is way too simplified, only fun for dumb youths.
    2. My 6 months old chihuahua is 9 billion times smarter than the AI.
    3. The battles are just mini-games with fancy graphics.

    3 things that make up for a real Total War game.
    3 most important things that the dev should have focused on.
    3 most disappointing things from this game.

    I'm a fan of this series. I've been playing them since I was a teenager.
    I will never ever buy another Total war series.
    You've fooled me with your misleading previews. Well done CA PR team This one goes to you !
    40% more budget than the last game? 140% more advertising and hyping.
    CA is not the only one I'm disappointed at. It's the game reviewers too.
    really? 100, 95, 90 for this game? I will not only trust CA anymore but also these stupid reviewers.

    Thanks. But no thanks.

    PS.. CA may have made cash with this one. But remember CA, that not many customers get fooled twice or three times or four times or another time. Hahahahaha.    … Expand
  60. HectorofTroy
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    Very disappointed. Diplomacy is still terrible, political affairs are nonexistent, CAI is brain dead, BAI can be atrocious at times, naval warfare is broken, units and stats are very unbalanced, there are bugs, capture point battles are laughable...What else can I say?

    Well, believe it or not, Rome 2 could still be fixed and thus classified as a very good game, but that unfortunately    Very disappointed. Diplomacy is still terrible, political affairs are nonexistent, CAI is brain dead, BAI can be atrocious at times, naval warfare is broken, units and stats are very unbalanced, there are bugs, capture point battles are laughable...What else can I say?

    Well, believe it or not, Rome 2 could still be fixed and thus classified as a very good game, but that unfortunately won't happen. Don't expect for miracles at this time of the year. SEGA has already established deadlines for the next expansion and there is no way this game will be seriously improved in a few months.

    Once again, let' see what modders will be able to come up with to make up for CA's incompetence.    … Expand
  61. ChosunOne
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    For all the experience you would think the CA team has, you would think that Rome 2 would have expanded upon features from its previous titles. Almost every aspect this game has either backtracked from Shogun 2 (UI, AI, battles, units) or been completely removed (family trees). There are really no ways this game is any better than Shogun and it feels less like a Strategy game and moreFor all the experience you would think the CA team has, you would think that Rome 2 would have expanded upon features from its previous titles. Almost every aspect this game has either backtracked from Shogun 2 (UI, AI, battles, units) or been completely removed (family trees). There are really no ways this game is any better than Shogun and it feels less like a Strategy game and more like a "lets just tell units to attack and watch them win" kind of game. Sieges are mind-numbingly easy (ai stands in a courtyard and doesn't budge, even under the torrential rain of flaming arrows), and on battles in open fields it camps its start area. I tried to reenact the battle of thermopylae and only had about 350 units versus about 7000 and they just stood there. I slowly creeped up to their line to try to draw them out, but the ai just started repositioning units along the line indefinitely. I even took out about 1500 of their units and routed half the army mostly because they would not even attack my units when they would walk into them while trying to reposition. You also can't siege cities that are under naval blockades, so my campaign against epirus as sparta ground to a halt when a tattered roman ship was sitting outside the harbor, and my army of 9000 spartans could not siege the city. This game needs a major overhaul to live up to the reputation of any other total war title.… Expand
  62. Ahumata
    Sep 8, 2013
    4
    40 hours into the game, single player and multi player, this is a staggering disappointment. While I don't run into any performance issues despite having a 3+ years old gpu, mostly everything else is still wrong.

    Short version: Rome the Europa Barbarorum mod is still a far better offering. Rome alone is still undethroned by Rome 2. AI is terrible, is there even one? Battles are too    40 hours into the game, single player and multi player, this is a staggering disappointment. While I don't run into any performance issues despite having a 3+ years old gpu, mostly everything else is still wrong.

    Short version: Rome the Europa Barbarorum mod is still a far better offering. Rome alone is still undethroned by Rome 2.

    AI is terrible, is there even one? Battles are too messy and simplistic. Units don't respond well and can't hold formation. Strategic map gameplay is better but dulled by slow progression, no sense of stakes and overlong load times. Alexander conquered the known world in 10 years, you couldn't conquer much in 10 turns. UI is very questionable, good in some parts, terrible in most others. Diplomacy finally feels somewhat relevant.

    Long Story
    I didn't play Empire or Shogun 2 and stopped at Medieval 2, being an immense fan of Medieval and Rome (+Europa Barbarorum) before Medieval 2. So I'm coming from the "classical" TW games and it's from that experience that I'm reviewing Rome 2.

    ===Strategy & Management
    I would say that management and diplomacy have been overall improved. Things, while feeling more abstract (since everything goes through icons and cards now), give a little bit more depth to the strategic game. It feels a bit disembodied, but it generally works. However, the AI is absent, both from strategy and battle, and that doesn't help making the game involving. The world is huge, many factions, but it doesn't feel deep, so it's hard to connect to what goes on. No sense of real stakes, no sense of grandeur or epic. So in that sense, with the fact that everything is abstract and the upgrades you go for are stuff like "+3% to this" or "+2% to that", therefore never feeling like anything's really meaningful or matters, the strategic layer does feel a bit boring very soon. You'll be trying to complete provinces, which are sets of regions owned or controlled by you, chasing ghostly signposts in-between.

    Not to mention the extremely long load times between turns, as the game features so many factions. I'm not sure who thought that it would be so great to have dozens on faction active on the map at the same time: it simply breaks the pace utterly, all this mostly for factions that are simply not interesting enough to exist in that way. I'm all for diversity and richness, but there could have been many other ways to include all those peoples significantly and in a relevant manner that wouldn't have bogged the game down completely.

    ===Battles
    Battles, I don't know where to start. There is no AI. If you lose, it's because you have the wrong unit makeup AND are significantly outnumbered. Just moments ago I played a battle where I went in 1500 against 3000 in a siege. In any TW game, a victory in such circumstances would have been very, very hard to pull off. But instead, here, I just "happened" to win: somehow my two cavalry units killed 1600 men (according to the tally) and routed most of the enemy army while I all I did was stand there watching a mess of fisticuffs in broken formations. All of this took but a few minutes.

    Which is the next problem. Battles are so messy and so deadly, that they're done, for the most complex ones, in less than 15 minutes. Most of the time, it's 2 and 4 minutes. There again, as everything soon descends into close-up fistfights (units just won't maintain formation), it doesn't help making you feel involved. Stuff just happens, very fast, and there's none of the planning, waiting, and flying over the battlefield to give decisive orders that previous games might have gotten you used to.

    ===Multiplayer
    Co-op multiplayer has a pretty great point in that you can lend your units in battle to that spectating friend, so he can play the battle with you. Makes you wish you could end up with battles where every unit is controlled by a person. The unit abilities system calls for that, too. As you manage your army over 5-15 minutes long messy battles, there simply isn't enough time or room to micromanage every unit to the extent of making worthwhile use of its special cooldown-based abilities. So that too is a design blunder. The game is full of them.    … Expand
  63. SF44
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    Poor UI, AI, several features were left out of the game that were in previous Total war games. Music and artwork is lacking. Poor job by CA on this one. Hoping for a expansion to fix the plethora of problems.
  64. Klofi
    Sep 8, 2013
    3
    This was supposed to be the best PC game of 2013. Unfortunately it is very far from that. Even after first patch the game keeps crashing, is EXTREMELY slow during AI turns in campaign map, drops FPS randomly, etc. And I am playing it on a very high-end PC. Pre-ordering this expensive game was a big mistake. Should have waited...
  65. Spindrift1
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    How have they come to release this game? I, like so many here have actually gone to the bother of creating a metacritic account in order to vent.

    I've pre-ordered games in the past and being mildly disappointed but with Rome II Total Bore I'm actually seriously pissed off. I've given hard earned cash for this? I could accept the slightly crap graphics (certainly not living up to the    How have they come to release this game? I, like so many here have actually gone to the bother of creating a metacritic account in order to vent.

    I've pre-ordered games in the past and being mildly disappointed but with Rome II Total Bore I'm actually seriously pissed off. I've given hard earned cash for this? I could accept the slightly crap graphics (certainly not living up to the hype), and maybe the slow game pace on the strategic map if the outcome was worth the wait. But it's like playing against a 5 year old at chess, it would be mildly diverting if they were my child, but they aren't and when they repeatedly drop my nicely crafted pieces on the floor, or refuse to even take their turn I start to tire.

    I'm not sure I can be bothered to even keep trying the patches as they're released because in its current state even if it ran smoothly, and the AI was half decent, the game just lacks depth. I feel no connection to my empire, or my generals. Couldn't really give a cr@p if they all die. Of course they won't because the enemy will just stand still on the battle field while I dispatch them.

    Still I've gained new found respect for the reviewers that actually noticed this game is a complete joke:
    http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2013/09/06/creative-assembly-fiddles-rome-ii-loads/ Not sure what version of the game all the other professional reviewers were playing, it certainly isn't the one they've released to the public.

    I'd advise people to give this at least 6 months, then check up on metacritic to see if user reviews are starting to improve. In the meantime, try the excellent Europa Universalis IV (http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/europa-universalis-iv) which lacks the battles of Rome II but is a sparkling diamond next to the rough cut pyrite that is Rome II. Also, if you want to try a game that actually has an AI then try the brilliant AI War Fleet Command (http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/ai-war-fleet-command), a game that is similar (in setting at least) to Sins of the Solar Empire. While it lacks the graphical finesse, the game-play is brilliant and the AI is properly challenging.    … Expand
  66. kuatofkuat
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    Game is simply unfinished and therefore totally unplayable.
    This is a worst Total War release ever.
    Disappointed to the point that I feel cheated and want to get a refund.
  67. kaibert
    Sep 9, 2013
    4
    Performance problems aside, this game gets a 4 out of 10 for gameplay at this time.

    I will not play this game until mods have fixed the glaring mistakes made by the developer team. Many features seem tailored to the casual crowd, apparently for monetary gain.

    There are many new strong features, but the current state of the game is a disgrace to loyal fans of the Total War series.
  68. ge0s
    Sep 10, 2013
    4
    Its fairly easy to say Rome 2 may be the worst Total War game in the series as it stands right after release, but damn does it hurt. Even Empire didn't feel this bad for me and it's likely due to Empire's problems having to do more with AI and smaller technical details than the blatant problems appearing in Rome 2. Unfortunately most the TW fans have taken the PreOrder Free DLC hook lineIts fairly easy to say Rome 2 may be the worst Total War game in the series as it stands right after release, but damn does it hurt. Even Empire didn't feel this bad for me and it's likely due to Empire's problems having to do more with AI and smaller technical details than the blatant problems appearing in Rome 2. Unfortunately most the TW fans have taken the PreOrder Free DLC hook line and sinker, but now its our job to try and warn other gamers about this game as it stands. It's easy for gamers not familiar with the problems plaguing CA's AI flaws to buy the game out of nostalgia for the Rome:TW brand, which is easily the most famous and most know game in the TW series.

    The AI simply doesn't act competent in any way shape or form. Usually poor AI isn't a big deal for us TW fans, we've seen it before and usually upped the settings for a tougher challenge(not anymore). Most TW AI is at least smart enough to exploit flanks and run down archers in battle, while attacking major cities with larger stacks on the campaign map. Rome 2's AI however suffers from some of worst AI I've ever seen in a strategy game and worse it feels like CA has added deliberately gamey features to cover over its incomplete AI. Units will charge solo then turn tail before impact with a better unit, allowing your ranged units to sit behind and slowly pelt them to death. When a unit does decide to charge it'll send all of its units (including archers) into the front of Phalanx and Legionaries without trying to first use its ranged units to dwindle your numbers or exploit flanks along alternate routes. These are things you could see the AI doing to some extent in Shogun 2 on release, but are astonishingly absent from Rome 2. Formations, a staple of Ancient Roman period combat and often what won battles in Antiquity, completely dissolve into blobs when sent into combat; a far cry from the constant formation and impact units had in the original Rome:TW. Your well set phalanx and legion formations will collapse before impact (usually after throwing javelins), instead these units rely on puffed up numbers CA has put in to give those unit better strength, that was usually due to superior formation.

    On the Campaign map, AI appear to always try to max out the number of armies they have, resulting in many factions having a 3 or more small Armies of 2 or 3 units, with only 1 army with a medium size force but no where near the number of units it needs to pose a threat. I have managed to find one army in the entire game with a massive unit stack at about turn 30. It came from a random barbarian tribe north of Greece and proceeded to wreck Macedonia, burn Athens, grind Sparta to dust until I could finally see it take out Epirus. Due to the AI splitting its forces, this single fluke army carved out an empire until I smashed it with a Legion half its size, discovering it was nothing more than a bunch of tier 1 troops. After you destroy a faction its remaining armies will then suicide charge with single unit stacks, rather than group up and attack as one.

    Unit balance has become another major issue. Navies themselves are pointless (beyond later game catapult/ballista ships) while Land armies can instantly gain bigger ships, easily ram the smaller naval triremes and win most boarding actions due to land units having 200 men vs the 60 aboard naval units. That's if you can get the boarding function to work properly for yourself, leaving you forced to use ramming while the AI can pick and choose who to board, although I imagine this will be one of the first things fixed within a month. This makes the formidable Naval powers of Carthage and Athens feel no where near as formidable as they should be to take down. Elephants are far more over powered than they should and a single general unit with Elephants can destroy and entire army on its own. However the worst offender of poor balancing goes to the Roman dog units. These units have trainers which send out packs of dogs as shock troops, which historically were used to scare enemies and weaken them before the real Roman assault began. In Rome 2, however, you might as well build legions of just them as they can destroy units in seconds and stop an elephant or chariot charge dead in its tracks.

    Rome 2 saving grace is its streamlined map and city management which is really well designed and its fantastic to see your cities grow in size. The technology tree is also streamlined, but still well displaced and easy to understand. I also like the number of factions and the map itself, but waiting for all of them to take their turn takes forever and don't dare play a co-op campaign.

    Multiplayer is a huge step backwards however, as the great campaign style fight for territory multiplayer is completely gone, leaving only custom battles. The ability to also call on jump-in multiplayer battles while in campaign, first introduced in Napoleon:TW is also no where to be seen. A feature that could save the poor AI.    … Expand
  69. Victory
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    It's fun but right now it's easily the worst total war game in the series. Absolutely horrendous optimisation, horrendous ai problems, horrendous ship combat.

    Conquering people and running an empire is always fun, and I have played 20 hours so far conquering people. Very rarely does a challenge actually occur and the bugs are ridiculous. It crashed because I merged armies. It    It's fun but right now it's easily the worst total war game in the series. Absolutely horrendous optimisation, horrendous ai problems, horrendous ship combat.

    Conquering people and running an empire is always fun, and I have played 20 hours so far conquering people. Very rarely does a challenge actually occur and the bugs are ridiculous.

    It crashed because I merged armies.
    It crashed because I tried to assassinate a general and attack with my stack at the same time.
    It crashed because blah blah blah.. the list goes on.

    The textures are pig ugly, on all settings with all tweeking. The frames per second is terribly optimised too.

    The game lacks atmosphere and doesn't really suck you in like shogun 2. all the cut scenes are pretty much cut, the music is just generic windy washy sounds with a few shouts thrown in. I already miss the victory song from Fall of the samurai and when you win in this you just get a shout.. oh great yeah.. give me some war drums or anything? Just lacks atmosphere.

    I wish I hadn't bothered, the sad thing is I expected this from the developers but I anticipated it would actually be an improvement over shogun 2 which is excellent..    … Expand
  70. Jimbo364
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    CA needs to stop releasing buggy games on release. "Total War games are always buggy at release", that is obviously not a good thing, its a nasty habit. Don't be an enabler and mindlessly preorder games. If the developers can't be bothered to polish a game before release, they aren't worth anyone's time.
  71. blaugrana
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    The biggest disappointment in the total war series. The battles are extremely fast paced and arcade and lack any strategical depth. Both campaign and battle ai are terrible.
    I know it is my fault for pre ordering because while I didn't expect the game to be perfect on release, I never expected such a disappointment. If you haven't bought it yet, wait until they have fixed it to get it    The biggest disappointment in the total war series. The battles are extremely fast paced and arcade and lack any strategical depth. Both campaign and battle ai are terrible.
    I know it is my fault for pre ordering because while I didn't expect the game to be perfect on release, I never expected such a disappointment. If you haven't bought it yet, wait until they have fixed it to get it dirt cheap, or better still, go play real strategy games like Europa Universalis or Crusader Kings.    … Expand
  72. Halberd12
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    Poorly optimized excuse for mastered rome 1. Almost half of the new features are either broken or not working properly, they've also screwed around with the AI so they just run at you and flee, that's your new generation of Artificial Intelligence. The best you get out of this is a beta which you have to pay for, some might argue it is still in alpha stage.
  73. declates
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    The release of this bugged game is just sad.

    - Bad Performance Why the game works smoother on higher settings than on low? ) - AI just behaves like crap.( Ships not boarding/ramming ships, own units are no attacking other enemy units after theyre routing and so on. ) - Battlespeed, YES Battlespeed. 2-4 Min Battles, what the heck is that? Where is are the tactics when the units    The release of this bugged game is just sad.

    - Bad Performance Why the game works smoother on higher settings than on low? )

    - AI just behaves like crap.( Ships not boarding/ramming ships, own units are no attacking other enemy units after theyre routing and so on. )

    - Battlespeed, YES Battlespeed. 2-4 Min Battles, what the heck is that? Where is are the tactics when the units are bashing each other arcade-style? Maybe one find it good, but yeah... for me its a no go.

    - Whole core game is total unpolished and mainstream optimised.

    Im a big fan of the Total War games but this one is just a mess, a disaster. Creative Assembly has reached its zenith and now its going down like the mighty roman empire    … Expand
  74. MoonCheese
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    Compared to previous TW games this is a huge step in the wrong direction. Plus it barely runs and I have higher than recommended specs--so they lied to me. Even if you can run it, the gameplay is pretty bad. Can't believe I paid $60 bucks for this. Don't buy this game, Creative Assembly needs to learn its lesson and start to actually listen to its customers and given them what they want.Compared to previous TW games this is a huge step in the wrong direction. Plus it barely runs and I have higher than recommended specs--so they lied to me. Even if you can run it, the gameplay is pretty bad. Can't believe I paid $60 bucks for this. Don't buy this game, Creative Assembly needs to learn its lesson and start to actually listen to its customers and given them what they want. Also would it have hurt them to properly beta test. For the sake of future Total War games please don't buy this game...

    A long list of complaints (a little unformatted--sorry):
    • Serious performance issues
    o needs to run faster
    o worst of any TW games I have played in terms of performance
    o one would need a supercomputer to run this at extreme settings
    o can barely zoom in on cities, units, or trees without stuttering
    o when opening diplomacy map, strategic map, and tactical map stuttering occurs
    • Sometimes black squares appear in the ground on both the campaign map and battle map
    o I think turning on veg alpha improves this issue
    • Ground when moving around on the campaign map the ground takes time to load
    o not everyone has a solid state drive, most people don't
    • Draw distance needs to be greatly improved
    o can't tell whether a unit is in phalanx or not without zooming in to check
    • The AI is just ****ing retarded
    o I don't know where to begin on this one but I know the AI can't handle these capture points--get rid of the ****ing capture points
    o also, while the line of sight is good on multiplayer, I don't think the AI can handle it so the AI shouldn't need line of sight
    • What happened to building roads/highways?
    • There are barely any pitched battles on the map
    o Next time the AI should be deployed OUTSIDE the settlement at startup
    • Too much of my screen is taken up with panels
    o unit panel, map panel, advice panel are all too big and need to be made smaller
    • Unit sizes are too small
    o I would rather have huge armies with the unit detail of Rome 1 than tiny armies with realistic details (my computer agrees with me on this)
    o I don't need to see ****ing facial expressions--its a strategy game!
    • There is hardly any need for unit formation and 'strategy' because it's just bash and smash
    • Character portraits are ****ing ugly for anyone running on anything other than extreme (and even then they are ugly)
    o drawings would have been better than computer generated images
    • The music is boring, repetitive, and I swear some of the music is recycled from Empire
    • The UI is cluttered, confusing, and isn't centralized around any particular buttons
    • Ram/board button is broken for navel battles    … Expand
  75. Mangeduvet
    Sep 6, 2013
    4
    There are just too many issues with this game on release to give it a higher score.
    - Low fps
    - Performance issues - Multiple fixes needed to even get the textures right Further on. - A.I is so bad in battles and the campaign map that it's laughable - No guard mode (stand ground) - No fire at will mode for melee infantry using javelin, only works when charging You cannot    There are just too many issues with this game on release to give it a higher score.
    - Low fps
    - Performance issues
    - Multiple fixes needed to even get the textures right

    Further on.
    - A.I is so bad in battles and the campaign map that it's laughable
    - No guard mode (stand ground)
    - No fire at will mode for melee infantry using javelin, only works when charging

    You cannot release a game in this state! You simply can't, It's exactly like paying 60 euros to play a BETA. I'll probably never pre order a game CA makes ever again, first thing you need to do is look in forums and sites like these and be sure that there are no game breaking problems that you don't want to pay FULL price for...

    For everyone thinking about buying this game, WAIT until it's on sales or something because it's not worth the money they are currently selling it for, and definitely not your time. The game has some serious potential but as of right now it's not close to what it could be. I'm probably forgetting some of the issues I've encountered playing.    … Expand
  76. StuG
    Sep 6, 2013
    4
    BAI: 2. Quite stupid, too bugs
    CAI: 4. Low engagement, diplomacy same of napoleon, arcade-feeling
    Graphics: 4. Nice to see at ultra/extreme but far too many resources needed for what it offers User Interface: 6. I like it, the units/city panel icons are nice but too big, a bit confusing in general Management: 4. Arcadey and i say it all Average: 4. 55 euros is a robbery: 20 for the    BAI: 2. Quite stupid, too bugs
    CAI: 4. Low engagement, diplomacy same of napoleon, arcade-feeling
    Graphics: 4. Nice to see at ultra/extreme but far too many resources needed for what it offers
    User Interface: 6. I like it, the units/city panel icons are nice but too big, a bit confusing in general
    Management: 4. Arcadey and i say it all

    Average: 4. 55 euros is a robbery: 20 for the game, 25 for the patches

    CA MUST fix it and give FULL support to the mod community or this will be their last game many people buy.

    Bye    … Expand
  77. Stephen2013
    Sep 8, 2013
    4
    Don't buy this game I bought it and I know what you're thinking; Shogun 2, Rome, Medieval 2 where great I can look past the bugs.

    It is not finished. The bugs in this crash the game; my first bug happened before I had my first fight and my first turn I clicked on the faction button and it crashed the game. I tried again a couple of days later and played it for a while it    Don't buy this game I bought it and I know what you're thinking; Shogun 2, Rome, Medieval 2 where great I can look past the bugs.

    It is not finished.

    The bugs in this crash the game; my first bug happened before I had my first fight and my first turn I clicked on the faction button and it crashed the game.

    I tried again a couple of days later and played it for a while it crashes each time you try to invade carthage I tried twice in a row and it just freezes and crashes to desktop.

    The FPS are appalling, the AI turns take about ten seconds in the first 6 turns then jumps to 3 minutes. The campaign AI is okay (they don't randomly attack you but they are very passive) the battle AI is totally stupid.

    Due to a stupid capture the flag mechanic in the battles you will lose even if you outnumber the enemy if you allow a flag to be captured.

    Don't let games companies treat you like this the developers have had years to solve these issues but they don't why? Because we keep buying it.

    We will all need to wait a month before they patch this thing play Rome 1 Total War instead.

    Also Day 1 DLC is a joke.

    Not buying a Total War game again this is my last purchase.    … Expand
  78. Polosatiy
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    Everyone makes mistakes. But! That is not an excuse to take 50 EUR from our pocket for a broken game and not even apologize. In Estonia (where i'm from), average salary is 500 EUR a month. 50 EUR is 1/10 of a months hard work! And I sincerely regret spending so much money on something broken like this and not even being able to get a refund. As someone said before me: game will "probably"Everyone makes mistakes. But! That is not an excuse to take 50 EUR from our pocket for a broken game and not even apologize. In Estonia (where i'm from), average salary is 500 EUR a month. 50 EUR is 1/10 of a months hard work! And I sincerely regret spending so much money on something broken like this and not even being able to get a refund. As someone said before me: game will "probably" get fixed in half a year time and will cost half the price by then.

    LOUD MESSAGE TO CA and SEGA: Fix AI, interface and performance ASAP. Or you will loose many loyal customers FOREVER.

    Angry and disappointed Estonian citizen.    … Expand
  79. septimus
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    Doesn't work. Games that cannot be played upon launch are nonfunctioning products, and receive a zero: not buying the game and not being able to play it is actually more fun than buying the game and not being able to play it.
  80. logan0178
    Sep 9, 2013
    4
    There are significant number of bugs, performance problems and glitches that make this game difficult to enjoy.

    The battle AI is horrible. During defense battles they just sit there and stand their ground while your ranged units shoot them to death, and in offense battles they just make a beeline towards your capture point and ignore all other considerations even if it's a suicide    There are significant number of bugs, performance problems and glitches that make this game difficult to enjoy.

    The battle AI is horrible. During defense battles they just sit there and stand their ground while your ranged units shoot them to death, and in offense battles they just make a beeline towards your capture point and ignore all other considerations even if it's a suicide charge through your phalanx.

    Naval battles are poorly done and the boarding commands are not responsive. You have to continuously give commands to board for melee ships or they just get into close range and sit there.

    Amphibious battle AI when attacking tend to glitch out completely where one or a few characters in the army unit does not get off their ship and when this happens they cannot be attacked or take any other action so you end up having to wait out the full 60 minutes before the battle is over and they lose by default.

    Campaign map inexplicably has terrible fps performance and turn ends could take a long time even on a high end machine like mine. (16 gb ram, 2 gb graphics card, quad core top of the line intel cpu)

    The campaign AI is also passive and very ineffective and very rarely if ever fields even a full army. In higher difficulty levels it simply gains a cheating advantage in resources and unit stats rather than actually being smarter. It takes no time at all to gain an absolute advantage because no factions ever expands to enough territory to pose a threat once you've expanded past a few provinces.

    There are also various settings removed from modding like campaign_unit_multipler which will make player modding more difficult, but this is not calculated into my score since my review is only for the base game. I am only mentioning this as a side comment.

    Even with all these issues my score would've been higher if this was the first game in series or of the genre, but frankly many of these same bugs and design issues have been seen in every one of the past total war games and there's no excuse for them to release their game with these known issues without fixing them.

    Bottom line is, this game had great marketing and propaganda going for it but little to no testing based on the number of obvious bugs and glitches players run into in even the first hour of playing.

    This game is not worth getting at the current time. Perhaps in a few months once most of the bugs are fixed and it's on sale on steam with 60% off.    … Expand
  81. LairdEJM
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    The critics must be watching trailers on this one!! The biggest problem for me right now is the ever present lag, even on my very capable gaming rig. It detracts from a game which I long to delve into, and frustrates me after short amounts of play. This along with the graphical bugs, such as popping and texture streaming make this game look very shoddy for the AAA title it so keenly clingsThe critics must be watching trailers on this one!! The biggest problem for me right now is the ever present lag, even on my very capable gaming rig. It detracts from a game which I long to delve into, and frustrates me after short amounts of play. This along with the graphical bugs, such as popping and texture streaming make this game look very shoddy for the AAA title it so keenly clings to. Mopping these issues up is ESSENTIAL for me to ever boost my score.

    Smaller irritations that I have noticed, albeit not game breaking for me personally are:
    The complete lack of managing to retain a formation during battle; troops just kind of smush together in a big conglomeration which sends the whole "tactics" bit out of the window.
    All units seem to route extremely easily and rapidly, meaning that battles are very very short.
    The bizarre interface which is counter-intuitive and makes me spend ages figuring out what a certain button actually builds, and what the construct actually does.
    Troops seem to run extremely quickly...as though they are all wearing roller blades.
    Diplomacy seems utterly pointless, (at least at my stage of play.) The same can be said of politics.
    I don't understand the household pool thing at all.

    These are the problems which spring to mind right now, although they keep on flooding in as I rethink.

    I give this game, perhaps confusingly to those who have read this, a 3. I believe (hope) that were the lag issues to be sorted, I could perhaps try and live with the other problems and irritations. And also, I honestly believe, that somewhere amongst this mess is a very good game with huge potential. Unfortunately however, in its present form, it is nowhere near the quality I would expect for my £30.

    Roll on the miracle patches.    … Expand
  82. Satori22
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    I'm writing this to send a warning: Don't buy it at full price! If you really want to, wait for a few months or a year, when it's on sales including expansions. It's not worth 60 bucks, that's for sure. It could become somewhat average if good expansions and patches comes out, but even then I think it's still going to be the worst total war title.
  83. Cremno
    Sep 11, 2013
    0
    Unfortunately, I was unable to actually play the game coherently, being forced to wait more than I play,a s well as lagging etc. I don't actually see this as a game... More of a "patience simulator" and I'm not a very patient person, so 0 until they do something about it. If they actually do something about it. They have left a lot of their games bugged and then jumped to the next project,Unfortunately, I was unable to actually play the game coherently, being forced to wait more than I play,a s well as lagging etc. I don't actually see this as a game... More of a "patience simulator" and I'm not a very patient person, so 0 until they do something about it. If they actually do something about it. They have left a lot of their games bugged and then jumped to the next project, so I'm not getting my hopes up.… Expand
  84. Finfid
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    Avoid this game like the plague. Wait a few months, and then check back with the community at large to see if the issues have been fixed. As it stands right now, the game is unplayable, unless you like the misery of endless bugs and missing features. The Creative Assembly has failed in an epic fashion this time.
  85. Magnum9
    Sep 4, 2013
    3
    It really saddens me to rate this game this low... Total War Rome II is a bait and switch emblematic of a trend affecting a disturbingly large amount of game releases these days.

    If you've had the misfortune to purchase Sword of the Stars II or read any of the complaints for that game... this is a repeat scenario, yet this time by a studio with an enormous budget and massive resources.    It really saddens me to rate this game this low... Total War Rome II is a bait and switch emblematic of a trend affecting a disturbingly large amount of game releases these days.

    If you've had the misfortune to purchase Sword of the Stars II or read any of the complaints for that game... this is a repeat scenario, yet this time by a studio with an enormous budget and massive resources.

    The game is not in a release state. I can't even understand how the release version is related to the promo videos I have seen spammed across review sites. I have a high spec machine, no issues running Battlefield 3 or Skyrim with some pretty over the top system sapping mods.

    The AI is still woefully underwhelming, and formations are still pretty much eye candy that evaporate moments after contact. Post contact maneuvering is marginally improved over Shogun... but the clumsiness of selection tools makes it a bit of a chore to do any real kind of general-ing (excuse the fake word). What's disturbing is this lack of tactical control doesn't really matter because conflict quickly breaks down in to a blob of routed units getting chased by your troops who then refuse to turn around and reengage etc etc.

    To bullet point other issues,

    • Tech Tree is shallow and redundant.
    • Frame rate on my machine is ok for spans of time then just inexplicably implodes without any discernible reason.
    • Diplomacy has nothing to it. An empty vessel slapped in because it's "expected" as part of the rehash cycle of game design for this genre.
    • Information gathering feels almost purposefully obstructive.
    • Stability issues. Especially in Multi-player.

    There MIGHT be a great game hidden in here somewhere. But it's not something that we're going to get with patches. The game design just was not implemented at the core to make this game a grand strategy title. Unit/Faction variation is skin deep, empire management is absurdly easy in some aspects and mind mindbogglingly obstructive in others, and honestly... it just isn't any fun right now. It doesn't make me feel like I'm in command of tens of thousands of troops engaged in important history changing battles.

    This along with several other PC releases of late (Diablo III, SimCity, etc) really reinforce that people need to start being discerning with their purchases. The puppy mill system that has infected gaming is too efficient at pulling money from an impatient, hype sensitive consumer base. I'm guilty of contributing myself. I don't say it lightly when I ask, do not buy this game. We're destroying our hobby by continuing to accept half finished games at full price.    … Expand
  86. Jaymiec1
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    The game is poor quality to begin with, however the problem gets much worse. After turn 60 or so the game simply won't load and crashes to the main menu. This is a common problem and many people have reported it, yet there seems to be no solution.

    So just to cap off: 1. UI is awful. You can't see what unit is what and the game can get confusing. 2. Awful AI. 3. Poor city    The game is poor quality to begin with, however the problem gets much worse. After turn 60 or so the game simply won't load and crashes to the main menu. This is a common problem and many people have reported it, yet there seems to be no solution.

    So just to cap off:
    1. UI is awful. You can't see what unit is what and the game can get confusing.
    2. Awful AI.
    3. Poor city management; almost everything you do makes your people unhappy.
    4. The game simply won't load after a certain amount of time. Nothing you do can fix this.
    5. Navy battles are awful, you have the option to ram, board, throw things and that's it. You can't have a plan or strategy, you simply tell your ship to attack and can then sit there and do nothing.
    6. Your army often has trouble marching places or gets stuck. If an agent is standing near an enemy army, your army simply can't find a way to attack the enemy.
    7. The campaign map lags awfully. If you select an army or agent the game will simply almost freeze, with FPS of around 5. This has nothing to do with my computer and is the same for everyone.
    8. The game doesn't even look good. The graphics you see in the trailers aren't the same ones you'll see in the game; I have everything on max and the game still looks fairly ugly and dark and gloomy. It's not a pretty game.    … Expand
  87. wjf83
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    No Family tree, yet the faction panel has limited marriage options as long as its not your family getting married
    No more portrait art
    No more thumbnail art for buildings, uses stupid tiles the encyclopedia looks like it was copy and past from windows note pad and no art work a lot of cities are missing battles end way too fast its like CA took total war and tried to repackage it as    No Family tree, yet the faction panel has limited marriage options as long as its not your family getting married
    No more portrait art
    No more thumbnail art for buildings, uses stupid tiles
    the encyclopedia looks like it was copy and past from windows note pad and no art work
    a lot of cities are missing
    battles end way too fast
    its like CA took total war and tried to repackage it as a game for casual gamers.
    general and family member progression is just lame, rome 1 formula was better people change as they age and from there experiences and the way rome did it reflected that this game does not
    how dare they try and pass this off total war.
    I don't have the words...    … Expand
  88. BruceWayne
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    Mechanics dumbed down, battles are too arcade-ish, performance is BAD, FPS on campaign map take a hit from 40/50 to 15 whenever UI appears on screen i.e selecting units, cities, agents. I have pretty capable gaming PC that was able to play Shogun II with a stable frame-rate. If you wonder that game is for you, hold your horses for at least 3 or 4 months. At the moment this game is inMechanics dumbed down, battles are too arcade-ish, performance is BAD, FPS on campaign map take a hit from 40/50 to 15 whenever UI appears on screen i.e selecting units, cities, agents. I have pretty capable gaming PC that was able to play Shogun II with a stable frame-rate. If you wonder that game is for you, hold your horses for at least 3 or 4 months. At the moment this game is in "unofficial beta stage" publisher and CA lied it's not finished yet.… Expand
  89. Signatus
    Sep 8, 2013
    3
    Rome 1 was one of my favourite games. I should have just stayed with it and install a HD mod. Unfortunately I bought Rome 2 instead. I don't have the performance problems other people experience although I'm running it on a quite aged system. The game looks really beautiful and they had some good ideas like the province or diplomacy system. This game has a lot of potential. But I thinkRome 1 was one of my favourite games. I should have just stayed with it and install a HD mod. Unfortunately I bought Rome 2 instead. I don't have the performance problems other people experience although I'm running it on a quite aged system. The game looks really beautiful and they had some good ideas like the province or diplomacy system. This game has a lot of potential. But I think gameplay is just completely broken. CA's promises about the AI are just a joke right now. AI on the campaign map is far to passive or attacking with way to small armies, in battles sometimes just brain dead, not even pathfinding is working properly. Battles are way far to fast, consisting of big melee blobs because units can't hold their formations (no guard mode). Not even charging down routing foes with cavalry works. Units have fancy arcady special abilities, what has happened to the realism approach? Features are just missing like the family tree, generals basically just pop randomly up and die after a few rounds, since seasons are gone and one turn now lasts a whole year. Maybe the family tree was colliding with the new "feature" that each army must be lead by a general and number of armies is limited. Building navys is atm pointless, each army can just march into the sea and instantly free magical transport ships will appear which will suffice to beat most "real" naval units. Of course this makes strategical blocking of regions just impossible. I also don't understand why you can only play campaign factions in custom battles.
    This game just feels unfinished. I think CA will eventually fix performance bugs and improve AI behaviour, but salvaging the core of the game with getting rid of ridiculous new "features" will be left to the mods. I can't recommend this game to anybody at this point, wait at least a few months to see if CA/modders can salvage this train wreck.    … Expand
  90. daboke
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    I've paid to be a beta tester with no voice.
    This 'game' is very VERY disappointing. It seems as though they have completely restructured their development team, bringing in a lot of youngsters with 'ideas' on how to 'improve' things... and I'm thinking their intent is to move towards console gaming. Total Shambles.
    1. Slow with no affinity to whoever you choose to be (i think my leader    I've paid to be a beta tester with no voice.
    This 'game' is very VERY disappointing. It seems as though they have completely restructured their development team, bringing in a lot of youngsters with 'ideas' on how to 'improve' things... and I'm thinking their intent is to move towards console gaming. Total Shambles.
    1. Slow with no affinity to whoever you choose to be (i think my leader died the only interesting thing that happened was one wife got kidnapped... don't even know her name. meh.)
    2. AI stupid no common sense and just awkward. (4 slingers took out 15 groups of tribesmen without taking a hit; they don't want to trade even though it's good for everyone; they WILL trade but only if you give them 80% of your money, bartering can bring this down to 70% but not worth it. Trying to get military access just so you can walk through a tiny part of their land to take over someone else is pointless. Best off just making war with them too.
    3. Tech tree is boring, time consuming (split across 6 pointless pages) and doesn't really have much affect.
    4. Battles are so easy even on Legendary. No excitement at all. Less said about naval battles the better.
    5. General limitations, household is slightly interesting but they're all drowning in a pool.,
    6. No more micromanaging towns everything is dumped together. Try sorting out dissatisfaction...? forget it.
    Lots more... not even started with bugs.....

    I paid money to be a tester and didn't get any dlc. I will not be purchasing anything else from CA until I get a personal apology but I bet they would screw that up.    … Expand
  91. kokodas
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    This game is really horrible. I played every total war games except few DLCs.
    But this one is absolutely the worst of all. I even had to buy Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai one of few which I have not played and it is much better in every way. ROME 2 is horrible even in the tactical side of game boring, stupid politic, not rewarding. Shame
  92. SoakerCity
    Sep 11, 2013
    3
    Dismal.

    Lets assume that this game should have gotten a 10, being of top pedigree and probably the most anticipated game of 2013. Rome 1 was perfect. This game should have been a graphical update with a few new features, a handful of more daring gameplay innovations, and a better narrative, AI tweaks, and more varied units and factions. Instead, we have a game released that lags    Dismal.

    Lets assume that this game should have gotten a 10, being of top pedigree and probably the most anticipated game of 2013. Rome 1 was perfect. This game should have been a graphical update with a few new features, a handful of more daring gameplay innovations, and a better narrative, AI tweaks, and more varied units and factions.

    Instead, we have a game released that lags even three thousand dollar computers, and is unplayable by mid range rigs. This makes no sense, since its predecessors, notably Shogun, ran beautifully. Subtract two points for being unfinished and poor graphics management that leaves the target audience unable to play the game.

    Next, the AI is not fun to play, realistic or challenging. Another strike.

    The new innovations; A system of management by generals which has nothing to do with any previous Total War game, and thus unfamiliar and cumbersome. Same can be said for the regional management. Every previous Total War game was easy to both manage and find information. In short, the old way gave excellent control. These two new abominations alienate the Total War loyals and are just plain awkward. Not fun. That's four strikes.

    Next we move to Naval combat. You have to play it to believe it. I simply couldn't figure out what was going on until I read other people explain on forums, just exactly how they butchered this. Awful. Another strike.

    And we will throw in one more strike for adding capture points that appear after you set up your men and form a strategy, as well as the blob rush that has replaced the old strategic combat. Things get particularly gruesome around the gates of a city, where fancy graphics such as the burning gates, the gigantic war banners, and the overload of nice graphics in general turn my computer into a slide projector. I'm running an I5 with a GT640 BTW.

    Finally, to bring this game the dismal score of 3/10, I'd like to address the overall lack of warmth, homogeneous characters and lack of control over them. The portraits of the generals all look the same. Their abilities are hard to find because of the UI (shouldn't I just be able to click on the General's portrait??) and the new system where new followers supplant a random old one, all of which happens behind the scenes, suck.

    I was horribly disappointed with this game, quit playing after 16 hours, and I won't be back for months to see if the updates make it at least playable. I believe that the flaws are too fundamental, however. People should be fired for this.

    The biggest disappointment of 2013 in any meta-category.    … Expand
  93. Romellispoop
    Sep 12, 2013
    0
    Rome 2 is like an abusive husband I don't want to believe how awful it is and how badly it let's me down.

    Angry Joe says it best but I'll try to quantify and express my disappointment. Being a Total War fan since Shogun(like most loyal fans) I have had many years of amazing triumphal conquest, Shogun, Medieval, Rome, Medieval 2, Empire, Shogun 2 but and many amazing mods build on the    Rome 2 is like an abusive husband I don't want to believe how awful it is and how badly it let's me down.

    Angry Joe says it best but I'll try to quantify and express my disappointment. Being a Total War fan since Shogun(like most loyal fans) I have had many years of amazing triumphal conquest, Shogun, Medieval, Rome, Medieval 2, Empire, Shogun 2 but and many amazing mods build on the Total War engine and this is the most diabolical excuse of a stripped down game that looks like its going to console(xbox360 rather than next gen). Even with my explosive imagination I cant create a story to invest my emotions into while playing a campaign. There is no family tree a staple basic for any Total War game for instance which helped create a sense of story and intrigue why strip out something so basic but which added so much!? You get the picture over a tiny point I could rant for days, you let me and the whole loyal community down CA and Sega...Sad face.    … Expand
  94. TheWitcher
    Sep 12, 2013
    0
    NO WAY!!!!
    THIS IS NOT A TOTAL WAR GAME!!!
    Yeah, just like that: he simply sucks!! AND IT IS NOT YET FINISHED!!! THEY RELEASE A BETA FOR 55 EUROS!! In my opinion, the most relevant problems are: 1- totally idiot AI, both in strategic map and in battle, there is no challenge in single players or co-op multiplayer campaign, and without challenge there is no achievement of any kind: the    NO WAY!!!!
    THIS IS NOT A TOTAL WAR GAME!!!
    Yeah, just like that: he simply sucks!! AND IT IS NOT YET FINISHED!!! THEY RELEASE A BETA FOR 55 EUROS!!
    In my opinion, the most relevant problems are:
    1- totally idiot AI, both in strategic map and in battle, there is no challenge in single players or co-op multiplayer campaign, and without challenge there is no achievement of any kind: the game experience is too boring, it's a self inflicted punishment, it's a loss of time!!! The AI does nothing all the time!!! AND IT SUICIDES AGAINST YOUR CITIES!!!
    2-historical units stats are totaly unbalanced!!! In this game sone elite units are so broken that you can simply spam them and win!!! There is no strategy, both in single and multiplayer.
    3-the morale is surely broken: units flee after 3-4 minutes battles. Even in the major battles (40 units vs 40)!!!
    4-siege equipment broken!!! Each siege is a painful experience, trust me...
    5-naval battles bugged to hell, cannot control ships!!!
    6-FLAGS IN OPEN FIELD!!! O_o!!! You can cap a flag and win in 30 sec for no reason, while the enemy army is fighting you in the real battle elsewhere on the map...
    7-the end turn phase in campaign is 5 minutes long...in which AI only does idiot things...
    8-LAG!!! FIX THE LAG!!!
    9-GRAPHIC BUGS!!! FIX THE GRAPHIC BUGS!!!

    Ok, this is the point: DON'T BUY ROME 2 TOTAL WAR!!!!
    Simply like that.    … Expand
  95. Ezze902
    Sep 4, 2013
    3
    I have played the Total War series for a very long time... This is the dumbest downed version, buggy, alpha version of a game that was looked forward for so many. It literally just ended one of the greatest franchises, I will not buy the next one.

    I have enjoyed some battles, but theres not enough units, special units... its nothing like old versions... I kinda felt the same with    I have played the Total War series for a very long time... This is the dumbest downed version, buggy, alpha version of a game that was looked forward for so many. It literally just ended one of the greatest franchises, I will not buy the next one.

    I have enjoyed some battles, but theres not enough units, special units... its nothing like old versions... I kinda felt the same with Shogun Total War II but liked that more than this The Steam sale on old Total Wars is a better option.

    This game might pass for newbies who dont know better... but for the core fans, its a Total Fail. It is unlikely it will be modded or fixed anytime soon... Just one giant cash out for Creative Assembly... release it early, make money and peace.

    Funny story, a friend of mine said after he played for 4 hours on release he checked the forums, and there was a Hitler reacts video on youtube to Total Rome War II

    Whats funny, is the BS reviews of this game... its like they couldnt imagine it being bad, didnt even review it. Also this metacritic is so far fetched... 84???? the gap between users and reviewers is Crazy.    … Expand
  96. Brahemian
    Sep 5, 2013
    2
    The only thing that makes sense to me about the way this game turned out is that it feels as though somewhere between the Teutoberg and Carthage gameplay videos and release someone decided that the Total War series should end up on the consoles.

    The graphics as evident by most people are quite terrible and nowhere near the quality in the early pre release videos. The game lacks a whole    The only thing that makes sense to me about the way this game turned out is that it feels as though somewhere between the Teutoberg and Carthage gameplay videos and release someone decided that the Total War series should end up on the consoles.

    The graphics as evident by most people are quite terrible and nowhere near the quality in the early pre release videos. The game lacks a whole lot of complexity in the battles, there is no 'loose' formation which has been a staple for ever, and it's dumbfounding to wonder why that isn't in the game. Battles on average seem to last roughly around five minutes. These things give one of the central parts of a Total War game a complete lack of strategy or tactics and leave you with no sense of accomplishment or feeling.

    The map is beautiful, and the sea battles are pleasant, but in the end if you exempt all the myriad of bugs and other mishaps the complexity and deepness that this game should have is non-existant, this game feels like it should be played on a console, not on a computer. It is a truly dissapointing game after Shogun 2 and Fall of the Samurai.    … Expand
  97. HerrMelin
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    A new low point for a once great series: The game shipped unfinished and needs to be patched soon, at the moment suffering from a catastrophic artificial intelligence and battles that lost most of the appeal they held in older parts of the series. Once a nerve-breaking, hard struggle, confrontations between armies are solved much too quickly now, feeling rushed. Tactics, formations andA new low point for a once great series: The game shipped unfinished and needs to be patched soon, at the moment suffering from a catastrophic artificial intelligence and battles that lost most of the appeal they held in older parts of the series. Once a nerve-breaking, hard struggle, confrontations between armies are solved much too quickly now, feeling rushed. Tactics, formations and intelligent strategies are less rewarded than they were in the past, the Total War mostly turning into Total Chaos. The epic feeling of being the leader of a great empire and and a great army is watered down remarkably by unnecessary changes and over-simplifications that disappoint most of the fans.… Expand
  98. Tedoki
    Sep 5, 2013
    2
    Ever since Sega took over CA as a studio these games have been going down hill.

    - The AI in Rome 2 is non-existent, both on the campaign map and in battles, CA have really taken 2 steps backwards in this release. All in-game battles amount to blobbing melee units and charging them in. - The UI is unclear and unforgiving, having to click through 3 or 4 menus to find relevant    Ever since Sega took over CA as a studio these games have been going down hill.

    - The AI in Rome 2 is non-existent, both on the campaign map and in battles, CA have really taken 2 steps backwards in this release. All in-game battles amount to blobbing melee units and charging them in.

    - The UI is unclear and unforgiving, having to click through 3 or 4 menus to find relevant information. This is simply unnecessary.

    - The graphics have not improved since Shogun 2, I played the game on Very High and found that it looked dull and bland with the texture quality nearing that of Rome 1. There is NO art style in this game. The units, the map, the floor texture, the water everything is a mismatch and nothing seems to fit in. Don't get me started on the horrendous missile trail that looks like something from 2001.

    - Diplomacy has always been a null-factor while playing Total War games and nothing has changed here. The AI does not and never has understood diplomacy, the only way to change the outcome of diplomacy is to offer or demand payments alongside the other conditions. Boring.

    - Battles take no longer than 10 minutes in length, what happened to the 30 minute tactical positioning in the older games? Now all you have to do is blob your army and send it in, that's as good as tactics get on this game, ranged units are pointless.

    --**Conclusion**--
    I could go on and on about nearly every aspect of this game and why it's bad but I have said enough here. This is an abomination of the Total War Series. There have been no advancements in any area of the game. CA are attempting to simplify and funnel the experience for the casual gamer in-order to get more copies sold to win more artificial awards and to bolster their grand marketing campaigns.

    The Critic Reviews for this game are shocking and really show the true nature of these so called "Big Names", so much for games journalism. Just look at the difference in score from critics to users, this is simply a joke no more needs to be said about this, you are all smart enough to work this out for yourselves.

    Lucky to get even a 2 from me, I am extraordinarily disappointed and ashamed as a fan of the series.    … Expand
  99. blunt
    Sep 5, 2013
    2
    Well, I hardly know what to say this game is messed up. Maybe if you've never played a Total War game before, you'll like it if you don't have any of the technical problems ).

    I haven't had any technical issues myself, but the game itself is rubbish. It's as though the developers thought "what made previous titles good then removed all of that and replaced it with some sort of    Well, I hardly know what to say this game is messed up. Maybe if you've never played a Total War game before, you'll like it if you don't have any of the technical problems ).

    I haven't had any technical issues myself, but the game itself is rubbish.
    It's as though the developers thought "what made previous titles good then removed all of that and replaced it with some sort of simplified dumbed down version to try to appeal to "mass market"

    Battles are too fast, all units have some sort of magical "fight better" abilities.
    UI is clunky and uninformative half the abilities my generals/agents have I have no idea what they do no explanation is given, even in the so-called encyclopedia.

    I doubt it can be fixed as most of the rubbish seems to be design decisions.
    Money spent on this game is a waste IMO.    … Expand
  100. XxMetalMartyrxX
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    What a broken game this is! I'm packing an ATI Radeon 7970 3GB and the game pre-selects "Extreme" for the graphics settings, and I get around 10fps on the campaign map. WHAT A JOKE! Oh, might I also add that the Roman legions are RIDICULOUSLY OP. I can defend an entire city with 200 Legionaries against thousands and I'll walk out with maybe 5 of my own dead. I know the Romans were tough,What a broken game this is! I'm packing an ATI Radeon 7970 3GB and the game pre-selects "Extreme" for the graphics settings, and I get around 10fps on the campaign map. WHAT A JOKE! Oh, might I also add that the Roman legions are RIDICULOUSLY OP. I can defend an entire city with 200 Legionaries against thousands and I'll walk out with maybe 5 of my own dead. I know the Romans were tough, but heck they weren't THAT TOUGH.

    Regardless, what a rip off this was. Next time delay your game if it's still in pre-alpha...    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 71 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 49 out of 71
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 71
  3. Negative: 7 out of 71
  1. Worth Playing
    Nov 18, 2013
    74
    The game is far less polished than Shogun 2, and a few more patches will help, but Rome II is still a flawed game that is underwhelming when compared to previous titles in the franchise.
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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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