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. 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
  2. werwortmann
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    Has so much potential,
    But AI is everything in the end.
    Got bored on my first campaign try, AI just sits pretty and takes it up the A.
    I still play Rome 1, guess I should do campaign number 500 on that one.
    Vote this down to stop them from destroying this great series with similar future releases.
  3. hernethehunter
    Sep 9, 2013
    8
    Bugs and some game play issues aside at the moment this game will grow with patches. So that's why I gave it a genorous 8. Long time Total War fan since Shogun 1 but Rome 2 is more than just war and that might put some fans of previous titles off?
  4. zarule
    Sep 9, 2013
    5
    Rome Total War 2 does not live up to either advertismen/marketing or even earlier games in the series standards. It does bring some innovative ideas and concepts but the execution is so poor, the bugs are so many that the only explanation is they released a BETA and charged for the full game using buyers as testers. Unacceptable!
  5. IgnasPrzybylski
    Sep 9, 2013
    6
    My first impression was great gameplay and awful optimalisation. I ran Shogun 2 on very high settings without a problem and it was really pretty, while in Rome 2 my good old 448-bit GTX 260 had terrible issues because it cannot support dx 11. I was shocked, first TW games looked way better than what I saw. Got a rather cheap new GTX and the performance is good, I have no more problems withMy first impression was great gameplay and awful optimalisation. I ran Shogun 2 on very high settings without a problem and it was really pretty, while in Rome 2 my good old 448-bit GTX 260 had terrible issues because it cannot support dx 11. I was shocked, first TW games looked way better than what I saw. Got a rather cheap new GTX and the performance is good, I have no more problems with it. The poor AI doesn't really bother me that much, I got used to it and sometimes it's cool that I can hold them off with small armies just because they're dumb. Simplified city management... I like it, to me it's much better than management from the previous releases. Simplifying armies wasn't a very good idea though. Recruiting right on the general anywhere in the province is comfortable, but limit of armies sucks, I mean, economy should be the only thing that stops me from having a lot of troops. What I don't like about it is that I can't just split whenever I want. I can't leave some additional units to help city's garrison, they can't stay anywhere without a general now. This is imo the worst thing in the gameplay itself. But ok, it doesn't really make the game bad, garrisons are pretty strong now, at least I don't have to pay all those guards I usually kept in my cities. The most annoying thing would be ending your turn. There's so many minor factions it takes ages to wait for your next turn and it takes even longer when I alt-tab, not to mention that stuff happens, AI may attack me or some diplomatic proposal may appear. Personally I just play piano or write SMS in the meantime. If you don't have anything to do while waiting for your turn you will spend most of the time looking at the silly AI running around several times longer than in previous games. Of course, it's nice that there is a big variety of factions instead of just anonymous rebels like in, say, Medieval 2, but sometimes it's just scary to press "end turn". I thought it took long in Shogun 2, I don't anymore. Technical issues will probably be fixed, but even though my rig is rather mediocre (i3, gtx650ti boost, 12gb ram) it works and looks decently on high settings now. Lack of a nice multiplayer like the one in Shogun 2 disappoints, that's a huge step backwards. I loved almost everything about Shogun 2, except the fact it's set in Japan, which I dislike. I wanted a new TW game with S2's awesomeness set in Europe, but I feel a downgrade. It's still a fun game to play though, the only thing I really want fixed now is BLOOD. I don't care I have to pay for that anymore, I just want it released SOON, not year after I stopped playing the game. I like watching them fight, but without blood it's really dull. At least the "kill captives" and "raze city" options have returned.

    Pros:
    - very comfortable province management
    - great skirmish map choice
    - huge map
    - very pretty gfx and good audio

    Cons:
    - awful technical issues right after release, bad performance
    - no more depth in multiplayer
    - long wait between turns
    - still no blood    … Expand
  6. Belidon
    Sep 9, 2013
    7
    The atmosphere is all you would want from the sequel to the legendary rome: rome total war. It is a very enjoyable game but it just feels it could've been so much better. It's unoptimized, it lacks depth in the diplomacy and political systems and battles currently suffer from blob fights rather than well executed strategy.

    Patches and potentially mods can make this good game, great.
  7. Abolfazl3007
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    Where do i begin ?!

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

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

    Performance is Horrible !

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

    Absolute Technically broken all the way !

    The most stupid AI ever ...

    Thousands and Thousands of different bugs and glitches everywhere !

    Unplayable

    BROKEN PRODUCT    … Expand
  8. Code18red
    Sep 9, 2013
    2
    55 hours of gameplay mostly on legendary difficulty prior to reviewing.

    The good: 1.Graphics are amazing with latest patch and beta graphic drivers on extreme settings and run smooth as silk on 2 6990 running in crossfire if I had reviewed it prior to that they would have got a 1 2. I like what they did with the spies, diplomats and champions, that side of the game seems well thought    55 hours of gameplay mostly on legendary difficulty prior to reviewing.

    The good:
    1.Graphics are amazing with latest patch and beta graphic drivers on extreme settings and run smooth as silk on 2 6990 running in crossfire if I had reviewed it prior to that they would have got a 1
    2. I like what they did with the spies, diplomats and champions, that side of the game seems well thought out and purposeful

    The bad:
    1. The AI is bad on the campaign map: they don't ambush but sometimes fortify when absolutely decimated and will just let you waltz all over their territory without even a hum on legendary
    2. Diplomacy is terrible: good luck trying to secure trade agreements without a mountain of gold, never take a vassal state ever as they are consistently more of a hindrance than helpful.
    3. Anything to do with slaves is broken, they cause way too much unrest and I actively try to kill off armies outside of cities so I have a chance to loot a city without taking too many slaves. I really want an option to loot cities with releasing/killing captives. Having too many slaves will cause slave revolts which don't reduce slave population so the negative unrest per turn stays the same and causes perpetual endless slave revolting.
    4. The entire political system seems tacked on and not finished. No family trees, no marriage except to bring a political rival into your fold and no offspring. Taking political office with any faction other than rome is next to useless as its impossible to accumulate enough gravitas to get anything other than the base bonus.
    5. Ship battles are really really horrible, to be auto resolved with stacks of doom or preferably avoided at all costs. Tons of glitches, for example tiny ships without rams ramming my huge ships and sinking them.
    6. The factions all seem to be the same unit wise and get very similar 'unique' units
    7. Slingers are better all round than even mid tier bowmen and it makes me so damn sad.

    I will attempt to update this review as the game gets patched but for anyone thinking of buying it... Wait for a sale, maybe it'll be patched by then.    … Expand
  9. Cainga
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    I feel Rome 2 is a very poor total war title. I am doing this because reading these forums I feel like many people are content with the game. I personally find that hard to believe. I have played every game in the total war series for anyone who is wondering what I am comparing it too.

    The game has a few pros/features that I think are excellent additions: 1. The new top down birds eye    I feel Rome 2 is a very poor total war title. I am doing this because reading these forums I feel like many people are content with the game. I personally find that hard to believe. I have played every game in the total war series for anyone who is wondering what I am comparing it too.

    The game has a few pros/features that I think are excellent additions:
    1. The new top down birds eye view accessed via the tab key. This is a great idea for managing large battles.
    2. The region concept on the campaign map where multiple cities give you control of a region. This is a brilliant addition and adds depth and complexity to the game.

    Now for the cons, sadly this is a much longer list.
    1. No seasons, these have been in every total war game and add depth ad complexity to the game. Attacking in the wrong season has serious consequences. There is absolutely no good reason to remove this long standing feature.
    2. VASTLY reduced options regarding defense on the campaign map. Spending your precious resources on walls and towers was always something to balance with the rest of your empires needs but it paid huge dividends when your town came under siege. Now some cities have walls some don't and regardless you cant modify them.
    3. Generals skill trees/abilities: In previous installments in the Total War Series generals who had won many battles had numerous perks and skills that were sometimes quite unique. Losing a veteran was a huge deal as it would be a long time indeed before you had another commander that was his equal. Rome 2's generals all follow the same skill set and come and go so easily its like they are another regular unit card. There is no need to care about them.
    4. Family/Clan management is basically non existent now. Where it was once a deep and involved part of the game.
    5. Agents no longer have cutsceens. While not a vital part of the game by any means, every previous iteration of the game had this and they added to your immersion.
    6. The encyclopedia is now bare bones containing minimal information and no historical references. All the previous Total War games included a substantial amount of history about a unit or advance. Really added to the games depth.
    7. The AI is poor and borderline incapable of doing its job. I at least believe this can and will be patched.
    8. The battles are over in a few minutes. No more epic battles here just 5 minutes, 10 if you are lucky and things will be decided. Why the sudden shift in the scope of battles?

    In summary I believe that all the technical bugs will be fixed in the coming months. The problem I see is that several reason why Rome 2 is a poor game boils down to features that were intentionally removed. I doubt they will be addressing anything like this in the patches. Thus in the end we are left with a hollow "Rome Lite" when we should of had their best work to date. Am I missing something here is this really the game the rest of you were looking for? Or are you as disappointed as I am?    … Expand
  10. alhypo
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    Well, as a loyal Total War series player, I have to say this game is kind of an embarrassment. There are so many great things about it yet one very serious flaw destroyed my enjoyment. Basically, the developers someone managed to eliminate any element of strategy in the open-field battles. In the heat of a huge open battle, I learned the hard way that there is a "Victory Point" placed onWell, as a loyal Total War series player, I have to say this game is kind of an embarrassment. There are so many great things about it yet one very serious flaw destroyed my enjoyment. Basically, the developers someone managed to eliminate any element of strategy in the open-field battles. In the heat of a huge open battle, I learned the hard way that there is a "Victory Point" placed on the map in my defensive territory. The point is out in the middle of nowhere and of no strategic importance. However, I found that if I don't commit my soldiers to defending this seemingly unimportant, arbitrary spot, the computer AI will send one unit directly to the point and claim victory. Having not noticed the victory point, I strategically positioned my defending army atop a hill so I would have an advantage. Unfortunately, the battle was over before it even got going. I lost with a decisive defeat. I started with 2200 soldiers. When the battle finished, I had only lost about 300 of them in the actual battle. Does that sound like a decisive defeat? No, it's utterly absurd. Only more so because I still lost the entire army after the battle was over. I was going to lose the battle anyway, but I missed out on the chance to take down the enemy's numbers a bit. I lost all 2200 of my soldiers, but the enemy only lost the 300 or so men that I took down in battle. This Victory Point nonsense is game breaking for me. I really enjoy the economic strategy, but real-time battles are the core of this game. This game could be close to a 10 for me if they would fix this one little victory point problem. Being that I'm not going to play the game anymore, it does deserve a zero. What a disappointing waste of money.… Expand
  11. Porkenstein
    Sep 8, 2013
    7
    This game is fun, atmospheric, epic, and just generally awesome. However, it is hopelessly broken.
    Technical issues aside, the battle and campaign AI are completely nonfunctional, removing all challenge from every difficultly level. Also, many changes to gameplay in favor of appeasing the more "casual" customer base have destroyed much of what made Rome I great.
  12. 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.
  13. ShaiCZ
    Sep 8, 2013
    10
    Being TW series veteran, I really enjoy TWR2 as it is exactly what I have expected it to be. All the new features are improvement to me.

    + much more user friendly (provinces, building, recruiting etc.) compared to previous games + huge and beautiful map + epic battles + no story campaign (the one thing that I didn´t like in Napoleon) freedom to act as I like + cinematic camera (oh,    Being TW series veteran, I really enjoy TWR2 as it is exactly what I have expected it to be. All the new features are improvement to me.

    + much more user friendly (provinces, building, recruiting etc.) compared to previous games
    + huge and beautiful map
    + epic battles
    + no story campaign (the one thing that I didn´t like in Napoleon) freedom to act as I like
    + cinematic camera (oh, how nice!)
    + for the first time in TW I actually use diplomacy and it works for me

    All in all, I am enjoying the game from day 1. "Must have" for all the fans of strategy games and TW in particular!    … Expand
  14. Dasein808
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    ET TU, CA?! (Total War for consoles)**

    I was going to hold my tongue, but after having a reply to a CA forum post deleted and the thread locked, I figured why not take it to an uncensored forum? Many players of the TW series have commented on the seemingly unintuitive design decisions that separate this most recent iteration from its predecessors': - the removal of the family     ET TU, CA?! (Total War for consoles)**

    I was going to hold my tongue, but after having a reply to a CA forum post deleted and the thread locked, I figured why not take it to an uncensored forum?

    Many players of the TW series have commented on the seemingly unintuitive design decisions that separate this most recent iteration from its predecessors':

    - the removal of the family tree
    - the removal of series defining formations/stances (loose/guard)
    - preventing individual unit campaign map movement without a general
    - oversized unit cards
    - shorter battles compared to previous versions

    Why fix what is not broken?

    These are not elements that taxed PCs' resources, but they might strain a next generation console's APU and limited RAM.

    Removing or modifying these things does nothing to streamline the game for PCs, but it would likely help ease the burden imposed by a console port (i.e. fewer stances/formations to better accommodate controller play, larger unit cards for easier TV viewing, short battles for shorter attention spans, less individual army micromanagement through movement limitations, etc.).

    CA has remained cagey with regard to their intentions on whether or not they plan to try and port it; to the point that the moderator that deleted my reply and locked the thread ("Rome 2 is designed for next gen consoles") responded with:

    "No plans for any of this right now.

    Thread closed."

    Attentive readers will recognize that everything about this statement hinges on the word, "now."

    Combined with the speed with which my reply was deleted and the thread locked, as some form of preemptive damage control, I'd say that all but answers the questions as to why this game is so watered down in ways that don't make sense; that's assuming that you can even play and don't have the technical issues that seem to have plagued a lot of people.

    Thankfully, I have not had problems running the game, but it still feels off; like a game designed with intention of console porting.

    Et tu, CA?!

    You guys used to make amazing games that pushed boundaries and represented the epic potential of the PC.

    I'll happily eat my words if this turns out not to be the case, but the signs are all there.    … Expand
  15. xSw4gL0rd_420x
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    The swag level in this game is too damn low. I mean, just look at those soldiers, what the Where is the swag? I honestly don't know what the developers were thinking not implementing the appropriate amount of swag to cater for SwagLords like myself.

    -xSw4gL0rd_420x
  16. 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
  17. Argon
    Sep 8, 2013
    1
    Tested on i7 2600, GTX 770, 16gb RAM on HIGH and EXTREME graphics quality:

    - Graphics are horrible, the Anti alaising is completely messed up (Empire TW looks better... seriously) - AI is not reliable, often attacks an army of 16 units with only 1 unit on campaign map and just stands around until you get closer in real time mode - FPS drops are common, triggered i.e. by pressing    Tested on i7 2600, GTX 770, 16gb RAM on HIGH and EXTREME graphics quality:

    - Graphics are horrible, the Anti alaising is completely messed up (Empire TW looks better... seriously)
    - AI is not reliable, often attacks an army of 16 units with only 1 unit on campaign map and just stands around until you get closer in real time mode
    - FPS drops are common, triggered i.e. by pressing spacebar during combat
    - Multiplayer Campaign unplayable, processing the moves of the AI factions takes around 3min EACH turn
    - UI is confusing, the art style is appealing but gets in the way of things

    I'm sick of beta testing games that I paid 50€ for. No for Sega until patched properly!    … Expand
  18. Jokkie
    Sep 8, 2013
    2
    The only people who like this game are the same type of people that liked Star Wars: Episode I when it came out.

    ::Greek States are DLC ("free" if you pre-ordered). That right there is a huge warning sign seeing as Greeks were very relevant in Roman history, but are sold as a DLC faction. ::Unit card art, although a cool concept, are not varied and small enough for the player's    The only people who like this game are the same type of people that liked Star Wars: Episode I when it came out.

    ::Greek States are DLC ("free" if you pre-ordered). That right there is a huge warning sign seeing as Greeks were very relevant in Roman history, but are sold as a DLC faction.

    ::Unit card art, although a cool concept, are not varied and small enough for the player's peripheral vision. This is especially important seeing as they placed great emphasis on unit abilities; which feel more like activating abilities for your MMO character.

    ::I press enter to chat, but nothing happens. You have to open a separate chat box which takes up the already limited space on your screen. It should be easy and convenient.

    ::The battle flow doesn't feel right. The walking speed and double time speed don't match up. Units also rout too easily, but the rout doesn't affect nearby units enough.

    ::The graphics scale horribly. The lower settings for Rome 2 will look much worse than Shogun 2 at max.

    ::No guard mode or loose formation.

    ::No faction intro or agent videos.

    ::Terrible online balance. They made it way too easy to acquire powerful units, making for boring army compositions. Players who try to bring something different to the table will get punished. Army compositions usually consist of heavy melee infantry with cav, no ranged or specialty units.

    I could go on and on.

    Save your money. This isn't a kick starter project. I put a score of 2 for the cool animations, which is pretty much the only enjoyment I got out of this beta mix alpha.    … Expand
  19. Hogan350
    Sep 8, 2013
    2
    Just have to add here after seeing 34 positive "professional" reviews to only 2 negative... well, just goes to show you what gaming "journalism" is all about nowadays, I've come to expect no less from these hacks.

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

    _____________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    I'm giving this horribly disappointing, sterile, bloated mess of a game 2/10, the 2 purely for the nice visuals.    … Expand
  20. SoulSurgeon
    Sep 8, 2013
    5
    I pre-purchased this game the day it was pre-released. I installed it the day it came out. It ran ok the first night...but I noticed a LOT of bugs. I tried some custom battles. I used 4 squads of Spartan Hoplites against some Rome Cohorts...I got pwned. I even out-flanked them and out-maneuvered them...nope, dead. It is on "normal" difficulty.

    Since day 2, I have spent 30+ hours    I pre-purchased this game the day it was pre-released. I installed it the day it came out. It ran ok the first night...but I noticed a LOT of bugs. I tried some custom battles. I used 4 squads of Spartan Hoplites against some Rome Cohorts...I got pwned. I even out-flanked them and out-maneuvered them...nope, dead. It is on "normal" difficulty.

    Since day 2, I have spent 30+ hours trying to get the game to launch..it won't...freezes on the load-up screen. Right now there are 434 positive reviews of RTW2, and 767 negative...make that 767. CA and Sega have my money....I don't have anything in return except anger and frustration. I'm going to make sure that they lose lots of money by helping scare away potential buyers...until the game is FIXED. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME yet. Wait until they get their together.    … Expand
  21. 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...
  22. Tamlynn
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    I would rather play RTW1, particularly with the Europa Barbarorum mod. For someone who absolutely loved the original and played it for many, many years, this is a heartbreaking fail. No need to list all of the problems, as they are covered in so many of the other reviews just adding my voice to the chorus. Not sure what game the critics were playing, but the massive discrepancy betweenI would rather play RTW1, particularly with the Europa Barbarorum mod. For someone who absolutely loved the original and played it for many, many years, this is a heartbreaking fail. No need to list all of the problems, as they are covered in so many of the other reviews just adding my voice to the chorus. Not sure what game the critics were playing, but the massive discrepancy between their reviews and actual user reviews suggests that most of them are either bought or incompetent. Both CA and the critics have utterly failed. This is probably the last straw for me... Don't see myself ever buying another CA title again.… Expand
  23. Clemenza
    Sep 8, 2013
    3
    So, I´ve been waiting for this game forever... I spent hundreds of hours with Rome 1 and pretty much every other TW... Shogun 2 is the masterpiece, most of the mechanics work like a charm, they are clever etc. So what I expected from Rome 2 was Shogun 2 mechanics in ancient world with some new features and furthermore improvements... In a sense, it is the case. But... it doesn´ t work, forSo, I´ve been waiting for this game forever... I spent hundreds of hours with Rome 1 and pretty much every other TW... Shogun 2 is the masterpiece, most of the mechanics work like a charm, they are clever etc. So what I expected from Rome 2 was Shogun 2 mechanics in ancient world with some new features and furthermore improvements... In a sense, it is the case. But... it doesn´ t work, for now... It just doesn´t... I like most of the new mechanics, like provincial system (including food which many people seem to be having problems with, but I like it... makes the empire management more real), army management etc. The problem is that there is a big problem in almost everything... Optimization, for starters... It´s horrible... The game doesn´t use CPU or GPU properly. So while I get 60 fps on extreme settings in the benchmark, in some battles my fps drops to 15 with very little GPU or CPU load... For example when I hold spacebar to see where my army is going or holding RMB to send all army somewhere in a formation. The campaign map performance is a mess too... lags, fps drops all down to 8 fps etc. etc.

    Then there is the AI. There are blinks of brilliance there. The enemy army tried to flank me on campaign map and it went pretty well, it found my undefended city and attacked it. But then again, many things just don´t work... First of all the AI is too passive. It just sits there waiting for you to attack it, raising almost no armies and occasionaly dying out from hunger because it didn´ t manage to build the buildings in proper order so that the ballance between food storages, public order etc. is preserved.
    It´s similarly dumb in battles too. Although it´s not that bad. What is bad is the battle speed. The battles last 5 minutes now, because the armies start routing almost immediately after starting the fight (fortunately an excellent Czech modder Radious fixed it really soon).

    All that said, I believe that R2 will become the best TW after most of the biggest flaws are fixed (and I hope they will be fixed). But I just keep wondering, was it really worth releasing in this state? Look ate the score of this game, it deserves so much better.    … Expand
  24. 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
  25. ManRammer
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    Well, this game is just one enormous let down.

    How are they allowed to release a game in this state? Just bought my high end computer, and I must admit: this game beat it. In campaign map (late game, most of map visible due to trade everywhere) I keep dropping down to 18-24 fps. Sometimes down to 2-7 if I end the turn. And should I mention end the turn? I often go away to do    Well, this game is just one enormous let down.

    How are they allowed to release a game in this state? Just bought my high end computer, and I must admit: this game beat it.

    In campaign map (late game, most of map visible due to trade everywhere) I keep dropping down to 18-24 fps. Sometimes down to 2-7 if I end the turn.

    And should I mention end the turn? I often go away to do something else for a couple of minutes and come back, only to find it still running.

    AI. Don't get me started. I played a game against my friends kid today (9 years of age). He put up a better resistance than the highest AI setting. Incredible.

    EVERY battle: I march towards enemy move 2x2 horse units out on both his flanks his entire army just starts running around in circles until it forms a blob because AI doesn't know what to do I charge from all directions routing him instantly. Unless he just separates his army in 2 parts: archer blob and spear/sword blob making my cavalry happy, but me extremely bored.

    Sea combat: just autoresolve. No need to play it, most of it is just luck of the boarding-dice. Just board and hope his ship is the first to catch fire. And also, that your entire ships crew doesn't decide to miss the enemy ship and jump into the water and drown. And if u have more ships than him u stand a greater chance of losing, because your other ships will block eachother from being able to board. Even if u just send 1 ship for 1 ship, somehow 8 out of 10 ships just stop next to the other ship and refuse to board.

    For the love of Mars, Jupiter and Juno, I must stop here. I could write so much more. I could fill pages upon pages with information of how this game is a fail of gargantuan proportions. But I will not. I will just.. Leave it.

    Back to Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV. CA needs to learn from Paradox. How to actually improve your game series over time.

    Over and out, guys    … Expand
  26. Flam1ng
    Sep 8, 2013
    6
    The game started out with poor graphics and iffy AI but with a good friend it can be alot of o fun, the single player is fine but naval combat is very weird and Seriously underdevolped
  27. BaronVonSachsen
    Sep 8, 2013
    9
    Total War has been a long standing favorite of my mine. I've been with the franchise since the first Rome: Total War so this game is like coming full circle for me. While it's not a perfect homecoming by any means, it's a homecoming that any Total War fan will enjoy.
  28. BigLuvin
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    The game has potential but is unplayable atm to those of us who have played any game of the TW series in the past. AI sucks and fighting is blob vs blob. No guard formation to hold a line? Really??? The main reason I can't play this game in its current state is the fact that I can't play an open field battle without playing capture the flag. Want to have one of those epic battles whereThe game has potential but is unplayable atm to those of us who have played any game of the TW series in the past. AI sucks and fighting is blob vs blob. No guard formation to hold a line? Really??? The main reason I can't play this game in its current state is the fact that I can't play an open field battle without playing capture the flag. Want to have one of those epic battles where you are outnumbered and have to use the terrain to your advantage to fight off an aggressive AI? Too bad because it is capture the flag and you will lose if you camp a hilltop. This kills any possibility of engaging a larger army at all unless you are pretty closely matched. RUINS THE CAMPAIGN. Jesus this is what made TW so much fun in the past. My first battle with land and naval units, my boats came in and started doing donuts at 100mph and wouldn't stop. One even clipped through the land about 200 yards inland. WTF??? This game is unplayable right now and it will probably be 6 months to a year before it is made right if it ever is. It's a sad sad day for TW fans because I have been looking forward to this game since at least 2006. CA always f's something up at release but I just don't know if this game can be fixed by patches given the inherent flaws in the game play. I hope I am wrong.… Expand
  29. 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
  30. tontonfun
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    You can tell that the people who rated this game weren't biased!
    Did they even play the game? Or did they just watch the trailer?
    I give it a ZERO( 0 because I felt that I was lied to by these people.
    It is a good for nothing piece of garbage, just like Skyrim. But
    in this case the majority are not in a trance, yelling ROMA!
  31. toredevir
    Sep 8, 2013
    7
    Lets play statistic: 1285 ratings vs 93k people playing the game right now not caring about metacritic
    753 say it sucks, but only 433 show they like it.. LETS BANISH THIS GAME
  32. LSHE97
    Sep 8, 2013
    10
    This game is amazing! It's WAY better then Shogun 2, I say this because I didnt like the game or where it was set. The really awesome thing is how f*cking realistic this is, when an enemy throws a javelin in your soldier's shields, they stay there throughout the battle and you randomly can just see deer in the background of battles derping. I know alot of people have problems with thisThis game is amazing! It's WAY better then Shogun 2, I say this because I didnt like the game or where it was set. The really awesome thing is how f*cking realistic this is, when an enemy throws a javelin in your soldier's shields, they stay there throughout the battle and you randomly can just see deer in the background of battles derping. I know alot of people have problems with this game, but it's not because of CA, it's because of NVIDIA or AMD. I did some changes to my NVIDIA control panel and everything works great! GotY 2013!… Expand
  33. Malorix
    Sep 8, 2013
    5
    Earlier I gave a score of 8 for this game. I played for 40 plus hrs now and have to lower that score. This game is not finished. I was extremely excited for this game, but at this stage it is simply not fun to play.

    - Tame campaign AI I was not declared war a single time in my Rome campaign!! There is no challenge. Conquer factions one at a time. They're rarely allied with one another.    Earlier I gave a score of 8 for this game. I played for 40 plus hrs now and have to lower that score. This game is not finished. I was extremely excited for this game, but at this stage it is simply not fun to play.

    - Tame campaign AI I was not declared war a single time in my Rome campaign!! There is no challenge. Conquer factions one at a time. They're rarely allied with one another.
    - Battle speed is too high. All battles are over in under 10 minutes. There is no satisfaction because units move too fast and I have lost the familiar TW feeling of control.
    - Naval battles are disfunctional. Real pity.
    - Beaten rebels keep attacking you after being defeated (unlike in Shogun 2).

    There is much that I do like in the game (UI actually, recruitment at general only, limited amount of armies, diverse battles, naval/land battles, the idea of the political factions, etc.). But unfortunately they are prevented from shining because of gameplay flaws.

    I doubt whether CA can fix these issues they purportedly couldnt with Empire but I keep an open mind.    … Expand
  34. Machinist_X
    Sep 8, 2013
    2
    Totally disappointed in the buggy casual game that rome 2 is, they have removed previous features much loved by the community for no reason but to make the game easier for braindeads, UI has gone backwards for ease of use, trade information for example are simplified, diplomacy is broken for example you will need to pay 3000 for a trade agreement with a faction worth 60-120 per turn, AI isTotally disappointed in the buggy casual game that rome 2 is, they have removed previous features much loved by the community for no reason but to make the game easier for braindeads, UI has gone backwards for ease of use, trade information for example are simplified, diplomacy is broken for example you will need to pay 3000 for a trade agreement with a faction worth 60-120 per turn, AI is extremely passive even on the hardest difficultly allowing you to basically expand with ease, land units can magically turn into a naval unit and sail around the seven seas without actually needing to build ships, the game is not optimized even i have had graphics problems with a 770gtx which is one of the best cards available on a fresh install of windows 8, multiplayer is still capped at 2 player and has desync issues and crashing like shogun 2 did previously, unit balancing is awful, you can spam foot companions with macedon for example and rape a full army within 2 minutes of battle. AI bugs in battles and get stuck in sieges and open battles due to bad pathing. CA are pumping out DLC factions you have to pay for on day 1 which should be in the game from day 1 anyway and its just pure greed of them to charge for them. Currently i have no movitation to play the game even though i only owned it a few days and was waiting for it for years, its like total war has been consoled ported, i can only hope the modding community is given the tools to sort out this mess out and i doubt i will buy another total war game even with preorder bonuses.… Expand
  35. 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.
  36. Fenarid
    Sep 8, 2013
    1
    The game is broken. Tons of bugs, very bad AI, the lack of true garrisons in cities is retarded. Just as armies that can only exist and move with general. I recommend buying EU IV or Shogun 2 TW, not this crap.
  37. Affiliatorz
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    bro this game sucks BIG TIME BRO. u all got scammed. GG

    ................................................
    ................................................
  38. antropan
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    this game is much poorer compared to the previous (Shogun 2). The multiplayer is ridiculous, has no avatar as in Shogun 2 and has no customization and upgrade units. THIS GAME WAS A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT!
  39. Deavon
    Sep 8, 2013
    5
    Apart from the bugs there are some serious game breakers for me; not in the least the capture points during battles. Don't too be tempted by the critic reviews, most of them aren't TW players anyway.
    Wait before you purchase.
  40. Ayreos
    Sep 8, 2013
    1
    Total War: Rome II does one thing right. It allows you to see which professional reviewers don't play the games they review for any significant amount of time or deliberately lie about their experiences playing them. This game is a hastily thrown together beta, and at least one year of full development away from being playable. The other comments cover the issues in exhaustive detail.Total War: Rome II does one thing right. It allows you to see which professional reviewers don't play the games they review for any significant amount of time or deliberately lie about their experiences playing them. This game is a hastily thrown together beta, and at least one year of full development away from being playable. The other comments cover the issues in exhaustive detail. Thank god i got to try it before purchasing. For anyone who did purchase it, i recommend asking a refund whenever applicable. Even though Steam policy doesn't support refunds, many European countries legally require a refund option regardless of agreements. For now, it's back to playing the first Rome: TW, with mods of course.… Expand
  41. conantbh
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    This game was rushed. Abysmal optimisation, cardboard IA, first grader UI, broken replays, and totally lack of features such guard mode, chat lobby, multypler modes, family tree etc. We are lacking at least 6 to 12 months in development.
  42. KingShree
    Sep 8, 2013
    8
    I write this review in a hope that the creators will fix the massive bugs, try to optimize the game and improve the AI of enemy player. Gameplay is great, graphics arent too great but they had to be toned down because of many units and big maps. If they fix it, it will be one of the best games in its genre but for now, i have to put lower score.
  43. 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
  44. Stellen
    Sep 8, 2013
    1
    Truly dreadful game, it's as if no-one ever play-tested it. It plays like game written by some third rate company, trying to make a Total War clone, but running out of money half way through and just dumping it on the market unfinished.
  45. DStow
    Sep 8, 2013
    8
    I feel some of the reviews here have been quite unjust. This is my honest review as a long time fan of the Total War series. This review will look beyond the release day issues people are having. I am a lucky member who has not had many problems.

    A complaint from many is the is horrible. Which seems strange to me. As with all the other TW games it takes 5 10 minutes of learning to    I feel some of the reviews here have been quite unjust. This is my honest review as a long time fan of the Total War series. This review will look beyond the release day issues people are having. I am a lucky member who has not had many problems.

    A complaint from many is the is horrible. Which seems strange to me. As with all the other TW games it takes 5 10 minutes of learning to understand the way the UI works and such. This is surely why Creative Assembly added the prologue? The UI is clean and useful once you understand it's layout.

    The enemy AI while lacking on normal and hard was a good improvement on the very hard difficulty. It does have it's moments which is why my score is 8.

    The campaign map is excellent, it is as zoomed in as Shogun 2 but on the large scale of Rome 1's campaign map. The detail of it and the variation from continents is good. The down part to his is the lack of seasons but to me that is a minor personal preference rather than issue.

    The graphics are clean and capture the units look and feel well of the game however at this current time I would say that Shogun 2 looked nicer but this is not the point of this review.

    Limiting the armies you can have in the campaign has made this a much better experience for me. It means I have to focus more on specific locations and make crucial decisions on where to place my legions or armies, whereas in earlier titles you could just spawn a quick army with no general and set them to defend a castle.

    An issue that caused me to drop a score point is the speed of the combat. There are many times that I will spend more time marching into the fight than actually fighting the battle. Leaving me little time to attempt to flank or use any other kind of tactic. It a lot of the time turns into a large gaggle of men pushing against the other side.

    Automatic naval transportation is a welcome feature for me. It allows you to mobilize and send your armies anywhere you need without having to attempt to gather a fleet and get that fleet and army to a port.

    I think this is all I have to say for now! Thanks for reading!    … Expand
  46. Captainrave2
    Sep 8, 2013
    10
    The more I play this game the more brilliant I think it is. Sure, it is not without its flaws, but once patched out this will be an excellent addition to the series. If you are a Total War fan, this is an absolute must buy. It looks fantastic, the UI is much improved, the load times much reduced since Shogun. The only problem is that I can't put the game down!
  47. 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
  48. xogart
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    Disaster and embarrassment. The game created by experienced and well known developers looks like beta of low-budget console port. Tons of disadvantages:
    - UI is really awful
    - graphics is disappointing, shogun 2 looked much better
    - AI is bugged,
    - lack of family tree and online Avatar campaign.

    The weakest TotalWar game in the history of CA, not worth buying.
  49. Romund
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    Major dissapointment on release. Huge problems and game breaking bugs. I even unable to finish tutorial campaign because game crashes.

    Stay Away until they fix the issues and release it much cheaper in a few months! dont fall for the hype and pay the extra cash to play it now.
  50. vidusia
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    Yet another game series has been killed off by the likes of casualization in the industry. They removed so many great features. My biggest problem were the visuals. How does Rome 1, a pretty old game, look so much better than Rome 2? The new cartoony artstyle and modernistic ugly UI doesn't fit at all, the textures and models are horrible. 55 euros just waisted for crappy beta.
  51. tommyboss
    Sep 8, 2013
    1
    A beta game.
    Broken AI.
    Horrible Ui.
    Poorly optimized.
    Confusing unit cards.
    One year per turn.
    One season.
    NO ITALIAN LANGUAGE.
    50 euros wasted! ridiculous
  52. CharlesK
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    As a big fan of the franchise I've waited years for this game. And it's lousy. It's not like a Total War game, it's like a bad port of a cheap console RTS game. Hyper speed battles where armies merge into huge blobs, awful AI, dumb capture the flag garbage, troops with magical powers. Before you get to all the other design flaws and terrible optimisation. Arcade Total War. Avoid like the plague.
  53. Bethrezen
    Sep 8, 2013
    2
    After playing for 44 hours, here are my conclusions:
    (-) Very poorly optimized (low FPS and mini-freezes in-battles and on campaign map, especially after hitting End Turn);
    (+) Relatively good loading times; (-) Relatively average intro cinematic in terms of epicness and actual showing game mechanics and battle, at least when comparing it to the Rome TW intro (or BI intro); (-) Long    After playing for 44 hours, here are my conclusions:
    (-) Very poorly optimized (low FPS and mini-freezes in-battles and on campaign map, especially after hitting End Turn);
    (+) Relatively good loading times;
    (-) Relatively average intro cinematic in terms of epicness and actual showing game mechanics and battle, at least when comparing it to the Rome TW intro (or BI intro);
    (-) Long time waiting for other factions, after hitting End Turn (4-5 minutes);
    (-) Horrible UI and menu design you can actually take these menus and put them in any other game, they don't have anything special or related to a Total War game; they don't contribute in any way to the atmosphere;
    (+/-) The unit cards are neither bad nor good, in my opinion; it's just a matter of taste;
    (-) Creating fleets is useless since your troops "transform" into fleets anyway (very bad design here);
    (-) Totally unesthetic and unsuggestive building card images; absolutely NOT contributing to any kind of atmosphere;
    (-) Lots of bugs everywhere: graphical corruptions outside of the world map, provinces that don't show they are conquered (happened with Baktria), units which stop after you send them to attack or pursue the enemy, units blocked in buildings, etc. etc.;
    (-) Core gameplay design flaws: battles lasting 10 minutes at most, really bad AI, no Guard stance, no Fire at Will option especially for melee troops with pilum/javelins, overpowered fire missiles, overpowered cavalry charge, broken phalanx, illogical unit abilities, useless siege equipment (since you can just burn the gate much easier and faster), javelins on fire used by all factions, wrong testudo formation etc. etc.
    (-) Researching just about everything and seeing all units long before actually winning the game (at least while playing with other factions other than Rome);
    (-) Passive campaign AI with no diplomacy improvement from the previous titles;
    (-) Stupid Steam achievements (play for an hour? fight a battle without auto-resolve?);
    (+) More historical accurate factions and units;
    (+) Pretty good sound effects;
    (-) Not working coop multiplayer due to very long turns and desynchronizing;
    (-) No avatar campaign, just a really boring versus multiplayer (a return to RTW and a downgrade from Shogun 2);
    (-) Incoming DLC fest
    (-) Asking for buyers to test all incoming patches.

    I will rate the game accordingly.    … Expand
  54. Andrey1111
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    Very bad.

    with these mods as Europa Barbarorum and Roma Surrectum releasing game similar to Rome-2 should just be ashamed of.

    0 points for Historicism
    0 points for the strategy
    0 points for tactics
    and 11 points for advertising, but the advertising we do not play.
  55. Ryuzaki
    Sep 7, 2013
    1
    I wanted to enjoy this game, but i couldn't. This game has so many problems, i'm thinking they didn't even test this game before release.

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

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

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

    Overall this game feels like a beta, not worth full price..if they want a 10/10 they would have to wake up and come out with a HUGE patch..but they probably wont, they robbed us.    … Expand
  56. JVK
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Creative Assambly raped own child Total War series and lowered their reputation in the toilet. If before I watched their creativity in all the sources, now if I see the name of the CA, I think that the scammers want to cheat again and collect money from unsuspecting people. SEGA need to investigate about where did the money from the budget dedicated to the game. Is it all spent on PRCreative Assambly raped own child Total War series and lowered their reputation in the toilet. If before I watched their creativity in all the sources, now if I see the name of the CA, I think that the scammers want to cheat again and collect money from unsuspecting people. SEGA need to investigate about where did the money from the budget dedicated to the game. Is it all spent on PR campaigns with these stupid clowns? Epic battles? No, it's an epic failure!You said that you know best what we need, you spit on the desires of fans Well, that's my score of 0/10… Expand
  57. rcrothman
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    NEVER AGAIN will I be sucked into your flashy ads and trailers for a game that is absolute crap!! I have paid ONCE AGAIN for a lackluster game in the hope and belief your company would learn from its mistakes and give the consumer what it wants in a historical strategy game. I have played every single game you have put out from Shogun to Napoleon and now this last entry into your line upNEVER AGAIN will I be sucked into your flashy ads and trailers for a game that is absolute crap!! I have paid ONCE AGAIN for a lackluster game in the hope and belief your company would learn from its mistakes and give the consumer what it wants in a historical strategy game. I have played every single game you have put out from Shogun to Napoleon and now this last entry into your line up of games is the last straw. This is NOT, I repeat NOT a game. It is a beta and no more, for which we paid a ridiculous amount of money and even more so because I promised not to allow myself to be ripped off by Creative Assembly/ EA games anymore. You need to learn that we are NOT your donkeys for testing. You pay people to do that and need to be much more selective in your hiring process for those who develop the AI in the game. The AI is atrocious. You can beat any army within minutes and the graphics are terrible for a game for a game being put out in 2013. Give us our money back and get it together. I will never again buy one of your products. Rome Total War 2 is a farce!! DON'T buy into it. Let them do their research and development properly at their own expense NOT ours!!!… Expand
  58. Mattyboo69
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    I wrote a five thousand word essay of complaint. It just died so I'll keep it short. Awful game, this coming from a loyal customer. Lack of hellenic and other unit diversity, recycle of same unit of hoplites and pikes, without ethnic looks or statistics or aesthetic changes. All recycled for each faction. Sounds correct. Compare this to Rome 1: Alexander expansion, there you know howI wrote a five thousand word essay of complaint. It just died so I'll keep it short. Awful game, this coming from a loyal customer. Lack of hellenic and other unit diversity, recycle of same unit of hoplites and pikes, without ethnic looks or statistics or aesthetic changes. All recycled for each faction. Sounds correct. Compare this to Rome 1: Alexander expansion, there you know how diverse the eastern and hellenic armies were.

    Want a funny Joke? Watch Rally point episode 14 on youtube, 8 minutes of the AI lead programmer lying about his extensive AI advances. It's so funny and makes one maddeningly angry. The second funny joke is Rome 2. Can we have the real one please, and not this obvious piss take?    … Expand
  59. Thwaite
    Sep 7, 2013
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Please Read before you grade.
    Several key elements exist within any game that very import to a lot of gamers such as immersion, re-playability, user friendly interfaces, uniqueness, and the list can keep going and going depending upon the player and their personal interests. I will review several facets of the game as they are important to me and stood out fairly immediately.

    Stability
    For my system, the game is not stable at all. Rome II is default set to high graphics and causes immediate issues. I have also found these same issues (freezing, graphical glitches, black screen of death, ect) were discovered with several different "standard" computer systems. Several known bugs have already populated the technical support forums with issues from integrated Intel chip-sets and graphics cards. My aging gaming laptop was barely able to keep up and setting the graphics down to low helped out tremendously. At the obvious sacrifice of visual stimulation. The game ended up looking like Medieval: Total War from 2001. Even with the game set to low, the performance was still very sluggish however playable.

    After starting the game up for the first time and loading the tutorial, I didn't make it very far past that. After annihilating my enemy in a very fashionable noob manner, the screen turned black instead of populating a victory window. Needless to say I ended up closing the program and "failing" my first mission. After doing a little bit of homework, this is also a known error with game as of day one.

    Immersion
    Immersion within Room II is non-existent comparatively speaking. There is not any avatar/character customizations, renaming, history, background story, nothing. The generals and statesmen are empty husks of simple skills with predefined names in order to keep track of your armies. When they died in battle or of old age, it doesn't mean anything to the player because there is literally no connection. When you are required to replace the generals you eventually don't even look at the names on the newly populated list. You just randomly click and go because there isn't any difference. Where did these people come from? Who knows? Who cares? They just in charge of my entire army now! They are also identified as royal versus non-royal families. What does that mean to you? Nothing, not that I have discovered thus far anyway.

    Another calamity within Rome II that erodes any element of immersion for the game is waiting for your turn. I am not opposed to turn-based strategy games, honestly I love them however I do have a significant problem with the amount of time Rome II takes to get back to your empire. By the time my empire had scouted or obtain city-states from one part of Europe to the Middle East, I had to watch and wait for ALL of the empires to take their turn. This may not sound that bad, but it is, because you will wait on average 10+ minutes for all of the other empires to move their armies and all other units. I was able to get up and do some chores, make my kids lunch, watch some TV for a moment and come back to my computer and it still was not my turn! By this time I was ready to just turn the game off because I was losing interest. Not to mention during some stages of your empire's development, you may only have a minute or two worth of improvements and/or movements to make. Thus, most of your game play hours are spent watching little computer army symbols skip around a map.

    Artificial Intelligence
    Dumb. I could leave the review at that because there really isn't any other way of describing the AI, but I'll try to elaborate. I have slaughtered over 1,000s of enemy hoards, outnumbered 3 to 1, just by using simple military strategies at the loss of only a few hundred of my forces. These same battles were originally calculated as being a defeat or victory with severe losses, at times predicting over 60% my forces will die. I am not an epic military strategist and I only had the difficulty set to normal however I find it hard to believe I was able to turn the tables of battle by approximately 50% in my favor (You'll always have some battle losses regardless of what you do).

    THE GOOD

    Entertainment Value
    Regardless of all the problems annotated above the game is still highly addictive and fun to play. I am honestly surprised at the fact I have played 25 hours of this game within first 5 days of release, but the game is honestly hard to put down. There is nothing better than scaling the walls of my enemy and slaughtering the archers as they try to flee or running the enemy down with my cavalry as they retreat from the battlefield; out flanked and tasting my Spartan spears!

    Potential
    There is a lot of room for improvement which can be added in order to make it more timely and enjoyable for the average player. Such as adding a save option on the battle maps for starters, would be nice considering you have an hour to finish the battle. Sometimes the enemy just doesn't want to walk into your trap and these    … Expand
  60. Geordan
    Sep 7, 2013
    1
    Almost nothing redeems the flawed structure and tacky feel of this game. I got Medieval 1 when I was 7 and have loved every total war game since (Empire was ok). But this game just sucks, it's no so much the slowness as much as the arcade and disjointed layout and of course bad AI. Anyone who honestly says they enjoy this game/alpha is pretty stupid.
  61. Nachoredskin
    Sep 7, 2013
    10
    I understand how people are having issues. With bugs and graphics and what not. This has some of the best AI in Total War history. They gave PC specs that they recommend, WAAAAYYY before the game even launched. For people who say this game looks like complete and utter crap graphically. You need to learn that there is something called Graphics Setting which you can change. Also CreativeI understand how people are having issues. With bugs and graphics and what not. This has some of the best AI in Total War history. They gave PC specs that they recommend, WAAAAYYY before the game even launched. For people who say this game looks like complete and utter crap graphically. You need to learn that there is something called Graphics Setting which you can change. Also Creative Assembly has posted plenty of videos on Youtube about the game so you can see it and judge it way before you buy it, and also there will be patches every week or so for a while, including this Friday for bugs. This game is amazing! No complaints here. Cheers CA!… Expand
  62. Philippus
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    simplistic game
    no depth strategy
    poor tactically poor optimized poor performance horrible AI horrible UI "...CA have taken what was an immersive, detailed, tactical, and market leading series and have turned it into a better looking but fundamentally simplified and dumbed down version of its formal self. They have seriously damaged the tactical element to this game, taken out    simplistic game
    no depth strategy
    poor tactically
    poor optimized
    poor performance
    horrible AI
    horrible UI

    "...CA have taken what was an immersive, detailed, tactical, and market leading series and have turned it into a better looking but fundamentally simplified and dumbed down version of its formal self. They have seriously damaged the tactical element to this game, taken out tried and tested elements and have replaced them with arcade elements.''    … Expand
  63. Dynex811
    Sep 7, 2013
    5
    Rome 2 has a LOT of potential and a lot of great points. But it is clearly unfinished, there is no way anyone can deny that this is not a finished product and any way shape or form. Agents can block armies, client status is meaningless, siege towers are too short to be used against Athenian walls, bronze gates can be burned down by torches, naval transports are stronger than dedicatedRome 2 has a LOT of potential and a lot of great points. But it is clearly unfinished, there is no way anyone can deny that this is not a finished product and any way shape or form. Agents can block armies, client status is meaningless, siege towers are too short to be used against Athenian walls, bronze gates can be burned down by torches, naval transports are stronger than dedicated warships, etc. (believe me I can go on).

    It does have positive aspects It has wonderful campaign aesthetics (and i mean everything on the campaign map from the strategic views to your army set pieces fighting each other). The civil war is a fantastic addition to the game as well. The concept of combined naval and land battles is incredible. And the fact that other factions don't constantly and pointlessly declare war on you is what I have been waiting for since Rome 1 in 2004/5. Field siege weapons such as the ballista are amazing, using their explosive rounds is so satisfying. The cinematic camera is a great addition and the fighting animations are great as well. Lastly, the Civil War event is crazy fun.

    However the game has a LOT of pitfalls. Aside from what I mentioned before: units don't hold formation, they took out a number of working diplomatic features that shogun 2 had, fights descend into blobs fighting other blobs and they only last 30 seconds before units flee with more than half their troops remaining, the battle ai will just run past your troops without engaging to try and capture victory points (which are arbitrary points on a map you can capture to win the battle, these are negative points in of themselves), troops will not chase down routing enemies.

    I want to give this game a higher score for its clearly seen potential, but I cannot rate a game on what it can be but only on what it is. As of right now its a mediocre game that I'm going to enjoy playing because I love the series and I've already bought it, but I would not under any circumstances recommend buying the game until it is balanced out and polished. If that never happens, avoid this game and play Shogun 2 Total War if you're itching for a great strategy game.    … Expand
  64. Jgarza2754
    Sep 7, 2013
    3
    Started the total war series with Shogun long ago. Have bought every game and watched the progression. This game was a disappointment for me. It is playable to a degree but the AI is seriously the worst I have seen yet. I spent the last 30 minutes in fast forward while a huge enemy army ran in a circle blob thing outside of my city. The naval combat is meh. The graphics are relatively okStarted the total war series with Shogun long ago. Have bought every game and watched the progression. This game was a disappointment for me. It is playable to a degree but the AI is seriously the worst I have seen yet. I spent the last 30 minutes in fast forward while a huge enemy army ran in a circle blob thing outside of my city. The naval combat is meh. The graphics are relatively ok but the optimization is horrible. Even with a kick ass gaming comp, it is going to be clunky for you. The UI is invasive, but at least you have the option to turn it off. Sadly this game is a perfect example of what is wrong with the game industry nowadays. Even the critics push games for the dollar sign. The metascore for this game is an 81 and the user score is 4.2 Really goes to show you. The solution to the problem is this: Don't buy anymore of these games, and don't buy this one. This company is no longer focused on making excellent games, this company is focused on making more money, and form a game designers standpoint, there is not a whole lot that was done to the game. Certainly not enough to take as long as it did to come out. EA and CA can officially suck it from here on out....… Expand
  65. Shazbat68
    Sep 7, 2013
    2
    I could not even play thru the first campaign before feeling like I wasted my money. I have 2X 680 and SLI is not supported. The game really needs to be optimized. That aside my biggest gripe is that if you fail any part of the campaign you have to start all over. What a pain. Also the UI is NOT intuitive.
  66. mangothecat
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    The worst total war to date! Even ignoring the huge number of bugs and performance issues the game play is terrible. No units in the game hold cohesion in battle so all battles quickly degenerate into a mass brall. The ai in battles is worse than in previous versions of the games so in general the battles are simply not fun to play.

    The single player campaign takes so long to carry    The worst total war to date! Even ignoring the huge number of bugs and performance issues the game play is terrible. No units in the game hold cohesion in battle so all battles quickly degenerate into a mass brall. The ai in battles is worse than in previous versions of the games so in general the battles are simply not fun to play.

    The single player campaign takes so long to carry out the processing at the end of a turn that is almost unplayable. The provinces system in the game has potential but the necessary information is not easily available and in some cases unavailable. The result is the player is forced to micromanage in order to survive in the later campaign. The result is that playing the game becomes a chore and not fun to play at all.    … Expand
  67. Scottishdwarf
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    I know a 0 rating is harsh even almost unthinkable for most people to place on a game. Despite this, rome total war 2 needs a slap in the face for releasing an un-optimized alpha stage game.
    Personally i can look past most of its short comings and still enjoy playing the game a bit, although putting on my critical cap this game is as close to completely broken as anything iv played in    I know a 0 rating is harsh even almost unthinkable for most people to place on a game. Despite this, rome total war 2 needs a slap in the face for releasing an un-optimized alpha stage game.
    Personally i can look past most of its short comings and still enjoy playing the game a bit, although putting on my critical cap this game is as close to completely broken as anything iv played in years.

    The game has literally taken 3 steps backwards taken out a ton of good features and introduced some good new ones which few and far between just to complement thier completely broken and/or defunct ones.

    If your a huge total war fan you'll enjoy it like me but come to hate how badly done it is very soon into playing it. You can grit your teeth and hang on through the turn times and horrible AI but it dosnt get any better. Only worse.    … Expand
  68. luise7001
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Game is a absolute, utter, disappointment. The gameplay it self is horrible, dumbed down, and hand holding. The optimization is terrible, not only graphics look worse than 3 year old Shogun 2, but the game is buggy as hell with constant CTDs.

    DONT BUY THIS GAME
  69. Torka_FIN
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    I can honestly say there has never been another game that has disappointed me more. It is almost like Creative Assembly tried to make a game that could be simple enough to be ported to consoles. Because quite frankly this is really, really pitiful. The reasons have been covered enough, don't buy it.
  70. Yougotowned
    Sep 7, 2013
    3
    Worst UI made by CA
    - Horrible and ugly looking unit cards
    - Graphical issues all over the place - The Turn in campaign takes forever (2 min, even with decent Hardware) - Poorly optimized engine - Graphics is`nt so good as supposed to be - Rushed release of the game - Land-battles are too fast no strategy at all ) -Even my grandma can command better than this trash AI - AI     Worst UI made by CA
    - Horrible and ugly looking unit cards
    - Graphical issues all over the place
    - The Turn in campaign takes forever (2 min, even with decent Hardware)
    - Poorly optimized engine
    - Graphics is`nt so good as supposed to be
    - Rushed release of the game
    - Land-battles are too fast no strategy at all )
    -Even my grandma can command better than this trash AI
    - AI Path-finding is insane
    - 1-day DLC

    Outcome Biggest over-hyped game of 2013. Cant believe my eyes this game made out of beta.
    Worst total war even made by CA.    … Expand
  71. Kolklik
    Sep 7, 2013
    9
    Good:
    - More focus on individual armies and their generals
    - Multiple settlements in provinces adds a nice strategic element to building your cities. - Huge map Bad - Bugs. Sadly this game have some pretty nasty bugs. Especially in multi player, which is a real selling point for this game. - Poor optimization. - UI mediocre. Some areas simply does not work well enough. Diplomacy    Good:
    - More focus on individual armies and their generals
    - Multiple settlements in provinces adds a nice strategic element to building your cities.
    - Huge map

    Bad
    - Bugs. Sadly this game have some pretty nasty bugs. Especially in multi player, which is a real selling point for this game.
    - Poor optimization.
    - UI mediocre. Some areas simply does not work well enough. Diplomacy for example.

    Reason for 9/10:
    I give this a 9 because this game, despite the bugs and all, is FUN.
    And I'm absolutely sure that Creative Assembly will fix the bugs, and optimize the game.    … Expand
  72. Cefsky
    Sep 7, 2013
    10
    Despite having a few bugs on release, the core of the game is magnificent. So many changes with almost all of them being large improvements on past TW games. With weekly patches coming out and mods already being developed, this will definitely become the best TW game yet.
  73. angry_player
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Its rushed, crappy game of 2013. They abused the title and did a lot marketing brainwash to make some quick money and us off with crappy game. If they polished it and released maybe next year, it would have been a decent game, but as of now its just rubbish. Totally not 2013 standards.
  74. Amas
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    As much as I dislike giving this game a review score of Zero, it must be done. CA use Warscape engine in their games for years and developers still manage to make a game with tons of bugs and dreadful optimization. I was hugely disappointed with changes such removal of walls from settlements and removal of family tree. AI is retarded. User interface is unimpressive. It fails as a game, andAs much as I dislike giving this game a review score of Zero, it must be done. CA use Warscape engine in their games for years and developers still manage to make a game with tons of bugs and dreadful optimization. I was hugely disappointed with changes such removal of walls from settlements and removal of family tree. AI is retarded. User interface is unimpressive. It fails as a game, and it fails as part of TW series.… Expand
  75. Foerster44
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Game with decent potential, but the once epic TW battles devolved to incoherent, chaotic blobs where the victor is determined in ca. 30 seconds by a total routing of the opponent without any TW atmosphere being created (great idea to insert brilliantly detailled battles when you never have the time to actually watch them), game lags where it shouldn't, 1 turn per year in a slow-pacedGame with decent potential, but the once epic TW battles devolved to incoherent, chaotic blobs where the victor is determined in ca. 30 seconds by a total routing of the opponent without any TW atmosphere being created (great idea to insert brilliantly detailled battles when you never have the time to actually watch them), game lags where it shouldn't, 1 turn per year in a slow-paced campaign, no family tree, poor soundtracks, problematic unit cards, professional navys being screwn against transport navys, programmatic errors running havok in your RAM causing the whole system to freeze without any remarkable reason, the capture points on open-field battles that ruin any sense of tactical or strategical deployment all this just ruins it and makes the game unenjoyable for now, so to balance out the undeserved top ratings, I'm giving this a 2. Although if CA fixes most of the current crucial game breakes, I will come back to correct my rating, but for now, the awkwardness of Rome 2 is unacceptable.… Expand
  76. Dovakhin
    Sep 7, 2013
    9
    First of all i want to say that the release day glitches are patched today so stop since total war usually has release day glitches albeit this one was a annoying one if you got it. Anyways the campaign map and battle setting are breathtaking, the game has attention to detail, the units and faction are historically accurate and the little improvements go a long way. It is a must buy forFirst of all i want to say that the release day glitches are patched today so stop since total war usually has release day glitches albeit this one was a annoying one if you got it. Anyways the campaign map and battle setting are breathtaking, the game has attention to detail, the units and faction are historically accurate and the little improvements go a long way. It is a must buy for total war fans and strategy game enthusiasts in general.… Expand
  77. Mr_Stark
    Sep 7, 2013
    2
    Wow, I can't believe I preordered this...
    This game fails on so many counts. The 5 year engine is poorly optimized and graphics look terrible. The basic TW gameplay is dumbed down for casual audience. UI looks bad and very confusing. Disappointment.
  78. KeyserSozeNZ
    Sep 7, 2013
    4
    Maybe in 6 months time this game will be worthy of a 6 or 7, but you can only review it in the state it is in now. The AI is terrible, pathing issues, AI doing nothing, having to reissue orders multiple times etc. Oh and the prologue is stuck in a loop for, another bug which has been acknowledged by CA, so I'm fighting the same battle over and over again.

    I know games will have bugs but    Maybe in 6 months time this game will be worthy of a 6 or 7, but you can only review it in the state it is in now. The AI is terrible, pathing issues, AI doing nothing, having to reissue orders multiple times etc. Oh and the prologue is stuck in a loop for, another bug which has been acknowledged by CA, so I'm fighting the same battle over and over again.

    I know games will have bugs but we are talking some real big deal breaking bugs here, which makes me surprised they would even release in this state it's that bad.

    Avoid for now and pick up on sale in 6 months time.    … Expand
  79. zengoboy
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    This is NOT Total War game. Don't even try it, don't even buy it. Even if you bought it by accident, don't even pop the disc in. The problem isn't bugs or anything, just doesnt feel like other TW games.
  80. Maximus44
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Over 25 hours played.

    The game is total junk and should have not ever been released in its current state. Like others had said terrible UI, same units for all factions besides Rome and Egypt, same music over and over again, lack of artwork even for the loading screens. Terrible avatar type graphics. Lack of wonders. Do they have any effects by the way as we were promised? No    Over 25 hours played.

    The game is total junk and should have not ever been released in its current state. Like others had said terrible UI, same units for all factions besides Rome and Egypt, same music over and over again, lack of artwork even for the loading screens. Terrible avatar type graphics. Lack of wonders. Do they have any effects by the way as we were promised? No notification as was shown by CA when you take a region that has a wonder. Generals with ships that are better than full navies. Longer than usual turn times. No seasons. One turn per year. Each faction feels the same. No sense of accomplishment. Generals die too quickly. I won't even mention the terrible AI. Diplomacy is still not right. This is an obvious cash cow for SEGA. Wait for an expansion maybe that actually works instead of buying this mess. Oh and the sound. Could you not include more than just a few songs? Rome 1 had many more beautiful songs. One could write for hours on the flaws of the game.

    Some positives such as the edicts, army traditions, large map, and the province system, but everything else brings the score down.    … Expand
  81. Sylanus
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    This game is a complete mess. The AI is pathetic and just stands there doing nothing, the commands i give during the battle half the time are unresponsive and have to repeat them 300 times to get my unit to actually follow and stop taking arrows to the face, HUGE lag spikes and my PC is well over the recommended requirements, you just CANNOT win a naval battle without auto-resolving, andThis game is a complete mess. The AI is pathetic and just stands there doing nothing, the commands i give during the battle half the time are unresponsive and have to repeat them 300 times to get my unit to actually follow and stop taking arrows to the face, HUGE lag spikes and my PC is well over the recommended requirements, you just CANNOT win a naval battle without auto-resolving, and the graphics are horroble EVEN after the new patch that came out today. 0/10 this game is a flaming turdball rolling down a hill.… Expand
  82. Nikk27
    Sep 7, 2013
    2
    This game in the current state is seriously overrated, it's a beta release at best, the ai is terrible, whatever settings i try it lags, i can run every other game but this refuses properly to work with my pc and to add insult to injury i get wise guy remarks by sega programmers saying that only 2% of gamers have problems....... well you know what? screw you sega! just screw you!
  83. DuskRaider
    Sep 7, 2013
    1
    If you are expecting this to be like the previous CA games MTW2 or even RTW1, then do not purchase this game as it is totally different using none of the great features that were used in these games.
    The number of factions they have is good, but that's about it for me on this game.

    Very poor, I for one will never ever pre-order a CA game again.
  84. Woopya
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Let me start by saying I am a fan of the previous TW games for about 5 years. This however, barely qualifies. They tried to streamline the game and failed miserably. Since getting the game a couple days ago they have patched more than a couple times. I would like to be clear here: if your game is not ready to be played, don't release it. This game is full of bugs. Most notably the game hasLet me start by saying I am a fan of the previous TW games for about 5 years. This however, barely qualifies. They tried to streamline the game and failed miserably. Since getting the game a couple days ago they have patched more than a couple times. I would like to be clear here: if your game is not ready to be played, don't release it. This game is full of bugs. Most notably the game has a nice little feature where out of nowhere it "alt tabs" out of the game. This is not something only I am experiencing either. It wouldn't be a problem if you could simply alt tab back, but often you cannot.

    As for the game itself, wow I don't know what to say. In my heart I think that they realized they should try to hurry this game out prior to the new consoles systems due out in a couple months. I am not sure why because traditional TW fans would not be affected by consoles. I feel when Im playing it that the various nation "campaigns" are a lot more scripted than previous games and I hate it. It ruins replayablity. I kept Medieval Tw on my Comp for years and loves Shogun 2. I would play either 1 of those with my butt cheeks before I would play this money grab garbage. Releases this bad ruin great titles and make customers like me not want to trust those developers again.    … Expand
  85. crazyc987654321
    Sep 7, 2013
    2
    Ok so First off the performance issues. I had none initially and was able to run the game on ultra with no problems (speaking of which the graphics are good but not what was advertised). However they have released a patch and since then the game has been unplayably laggy for me on the battle map end.
    Next, the AI is terrible, for example, running through your units to capture points in    Ok so First off the performance issues. I had none initially and was able to run the game on ultra with no problems (speaking of which the graphics are good but not what was advertised). However they have released a patch and since then the game has been unplayably laggy for me on the battle map end.
    Next, the AI is terrible, for example, running through your units to capture points in battles where you defend cities. GG Instant win for you. When your attacking cities they will stand still and let you shoot them to death. GG another insta win. Field battles the AI does better but the Macedon preview battle where they stressed its intelligence was HUGELY exaggerated. Also I should note that battles are incredibly short with units routing within seconds of entering melee. Its so bad that you cant really use flanks and ambushes because your frontal units will route before you could possibly spring a trap. It feels very arcade like.
    Campaign mode suffers from a great many bugs and broken features. You cant attack a town who's port is blockaded by a neutral faction, transport ships will crush early navies, mixed land and sea battles have had forts spawning in the middle of the ocean with the AI bugging out and trying to run into the sea to name a few.
    The tech tree is pointless and feels like a last minute add on. The AI's diplomacy makes decisions that often are against its own best interest. Just a lot of general nonsense. Essentially I feel like this game has gone the way of Empire, something I hoped would never happen again, but it is worse in many ways. Like Empire I imagine that a year from now with patches and whatnot it will be an amazing game. But I have to review it as is not as it may be a year from now. And at this time its honestly a glorified beta. Indeed had they had an open (or broad closed) beta I feel many of these problems could have been avoided pre launch.
    Ignore the critic reviews as they were based on pre released builds which were clearly cherry picked. Wait a year and buy this game from a steam sale or bargain bin. And for the love of god someone tell the fan boys to stop giving this 10 ratings to give the score a false boost, all it does is encourage CA to release a game in this sad state again in the future.    … Expand
  86. wilbhaas
    Sep 7, 2013
    2
    system:
    NVIDIA Geforce GTX 670
    i5-3570 CPU 3.40GHz 16GB Ram 45 hours of gameplay extreme settings with ~38 fps ~5 crashes creative assembly has laid siege to the total war series and they are willing to raise the franchise to another level of depth. the worst: The AI in Total War Rome 2 is very persistent in doing nothing or sending one unit at once into the ensured death    system:
    NVIDIA Geforce GTX 670
    i5-3570 CPU 3.40GHz
    16GB Ram

    45 hours of gameplay
    extreme settings with ~38 fps
    ~5 crashes

    creative assembly has laid siege to the total war series and they are willing to raise the franchise
    to another level of depth.

    the worst:
    The AI in Total War Rome 2 is very persistent in doing nothing or sending one unit at once into the ensured death and no they aren't trying to lure you into a trap.
    The game is rushed like their ground Units are rushing, but god thanks they are only a pack of suicidal morons, who are absolutely free of any creativity besides waiting, smashing gates, running to the flag.

    the bad:
    On some maps:
    can't deploy units near a ledge or on other accessible places (walls, meadows)
    lack of anchoring places, the AI can't debark all units
    AI smashes a gate of a building which isn't connected to anything and then they wait

    units die to fast
    nearly extinguished Units replenish instantly without loosing experience
    no family tree
    Generals spam
    Generals now have magic abilities
    no skill-tree
    ugly UI
    town system and research looks and feels like a part of a browser game

    total war has changed to another pretty shallow game for people who want no challenge and their enemies in a vegetative state

    auto-resolve or you will die mentally    … Expand
  87. ArthurVon
    Sep 7, 2013
    2
    So, the game is full of bugs and miss a lot of features that made Total War a great series of games in the past 10 years. I cannot understand how a game can be so downgraded from the old good games (like shogun 2), this game is so bad right now.
  88. Crowstorm
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Horrible UI
    Horrible unit cards
    Horrible fpses
    Horrible world map
    I dont know about AI because i quit after doing tutorial and starting campaign.
    Stay away from this piece of garbage
  89. galactafunk
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    I can't believe a company with Creative Assembly's history and pedigree and resources could sell me a $60 game so technically sloppy, so unfocused, so uninspired. Rome I was a brilliant game. Way to celebrate that feat by publishing this junk.
  90. ironbrigade
    Sep 7, 2013
    1
    The worse battles in any tw series. They added magic special buffs to this game, you click a button and magi adds morale or takes away fatigue, makes unit better at x and o etc. The game is just a click fest and even the largest battles are over in 2-3 minutes. units run around like gazelle,no strategy,no fun.
  91. jaydi
    Sep 7, 2013
    5
    ive played over 1000 hours on both STW2 and ETW both with darthmod. This game is an insult to the TW core fans and an insult to grognards the world over. They have removed key features that made the old games grand strategy like the four seasons, guard mode and fire at will for roman legions. The AI is the worst of any TW game to date. The strategic game plays more along the lines ofive played over 1000 hours on both STW2 and ETW both with darthmod. This game is an insult to the TW core fans and an insult to grognards the world over. They have removed key features that made the old games grand strategy like the four seasons, guard mode and fire at will for roman legions. The AI is the worst of any TW game to date. The strategic game plays more along the lines of CIV and they added magic spells to commander abilities... perhaps in prelude to the fantasy series they are working on for the next game. Rumors abound that it was dumbed down for a port to the XBOX1 and CA's attitude is "So what. You dont like it to bad. You dont need those features now deal with it." I dont like spending money on falsely advertised products and will never do so again. This is the end of the series. They even had the hubris to admonish darth whose many mods ressurected past titles and inspired an entire community of modders to give a hoot about this lame duck franchise.… Expand
  92. danyellow
    Sep 7, 2013
    4
    Rome 2 is an ok game, but does it make a worthy successor to the original Rome? No.

    The original Rome was the most innovative total war yet, and Rome 2 was supposed to live up to that. But when it comes to the end, it turned out to be one facepalm after another. As repetitive as it sounds, this game desperately needs a huge patch. They released the first patch, but for me personally,    Rome 2 is an ok game, but does it make a worthy successor to the original Rome? No.

    The original Rome was the most innovative total war yet, and Rome 2 was supposed to live up to that. But when it comes to the end, it turned out to be one facepalm after another. As repetitive as it sounds, this game desperately needs a huge patch. They released the first patch, but for me personally, it did more harm than good, as it degraded performance.

    Issues that need addressing
    -A.I. (Both battle map and campaign) A.I. in campaign would attack a 15+stack army with a single unit. A.I. isn't as intelligent as I would have liked it to be.
    -U.I. is not the greatest it's a lot of menu then submenus.
    -Graphics need a huge overall (bad textures, horrendous faces, etc.)
    -Battle speed NEEDS to be slowed down. All my battles have been under 10 minutes (Usually averaging 6 minutes.) 2 of those minutes are spent walking to the battle, 3-4 mins for the entire battle.)
    -Naval battles are buggy!
    -Capture points make no logical sense in game. (needs to be removed)
    -A lot of features from the original rome have been removed. (assassination videos, family trees, unable to toggle use of pila on roman units)
    -Campaign end turn times are LONG

    Overall, they released the game way too early. The game is 60-70% done in terms of content, and 30% done in terms of testing. What really grinds my gears is that before release, a lot of the community at TWC were addressing 60-70% of the current gameplay issues. Also, it would have been smart to release a beta to a variety of people with different systems, to have had a stronger release.    … Expand
  93. Yddraiggoch
    Sep 7, 2013
    3
    Poorly optimized GFX and AI
    UI reminiscent of a console game feels really dumbed down.
    Too many factions takes too long to process AI's turn.

    It's against my princples, but really wished I'd pirated this rather than pre-ordered....
  94. JohnDeer
    Sep 7, 2013
    1
    I played this game for almost 25 hours so far. I could not play longer. This game has many issues. I am not talking about performance issues, surprisingly I did not have many. I am talking about flowed gameplay issues terrible AI, Victory Points which kill all tactics in the battle, lack of family tree, 3-5 minutes waiting for turns etc. i don't know if this can be fixed in futureI played this game for almost 25 hours so far. I could not play longer. This game has many issues. I am not talking about performance issues, surprisingly I did not have many. I am talking about flowed gameplay issues terrible AI, Victory Points which kill all tactics in the battle, lack of family tree, 3-5 minutes waiting for turns etc. i don't know if this can be fixed in future patches, I hope so, but for now this game will go to shelf for a few months.… Expand
  95. Suyadon
    Sep 7, 2013
    9
    Am I just lucky? I'm trying to be helpful with this review.

    Any rating below 7 is just ridiculous. I've played 14 hours now. My hardware: I did a clean operating system install (win 7) recently to avoid possible conflicts (which many seem to be experiencing), samsung SSD, i5 2500k processor overclocked to 4.5ghz, 1GB mid-tier VGA card 8GB Ram (nothing spectacular). I've been a fan of    Am I just lucky? I'm trying to be helpful with this review.

    Any rating below 7 is just ridiculous. I've played 14 hours now. My hardware: I did a clean operating system install (win 7) recently to avoid possible conflicts (which many seem to be experiencing), samsung SSD, i5 2500k processor overclocked to 4.5ghz, 1GB mid-tier VGA card 8GB Ram (nothing spectacular).

    I've been a fan of about every Total War game and modded games. I only experienced one glitch (fixed in patch notes) to date and run the game on extreme w/ no frame rate or other glitches. I believe this is the best of the series to date and will only get better with time, especially with mods.

    Now to the game: Took me 11 hours to figure out the UI. Yes, it's very clunky, you will need hours to figure it out. And when you do, many things will make sense. A lot of info and a different method of finding it will frustrate long time Total War gamers. My first 11 hours were as Sparta on "Hard" (too easy). I'm now playing Rome on "legendary" and loving it. You make stupid mistakes and you will pay dearly but not be completely wiped off the map.

    Diplomacy is awesome, Campaign AI is very good, Battle AI is just ok (not broken just a speed issue and I think will be resolved by raising unit Hit points as well). Game is more epic than ever and more manageable. 3 Amy's & 3 fleets max. Additionally, fortifying units based on buildings is perfect for this game. No stack spam or ridiculous rebel spawning.

    This is a massive game so expect long turn wait times. I think a lean SSD helps. My turns complete w/in 20 seconds unless you want to watch every opponent unit make it's move which drags it out.

    Last note: I still haven't figured out how the family systems works and probably a lot of other things, but I think that will only make the game that much more enjoyable when I do! If you don't have the patients to learn the UI and how it works, you will hate this game.    … Expand
  96. Classical
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Claps to the devs you just made a abomination thats called Rome 2
    now you can go walk hand in hand with EA and such
    hope you like the money you got from it
    and thanks for letting down True Total War Fans
  97. Machiavellian
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    If you like being a beta tester, buy this game. The game is currently unfinished. Numerous graphical issues, terrible AI, unoptimized game engine. This Total War game breaks from the previous games and will need much modding from the community before it is worth playing. Wait a month or two and you can buy it from the bargain bin.

    Main issues: AI Enemy AI will send waves of weak    If you like being a beta tester, buy this game. The game is currently unfinished. Numerous graphical issues, terrible AI, unoptimized game engine. This Total War game breaks from the previous games and will need much modding from the community before it is worth playing. Wait a month or two and you can buy it from the bargain bin.

    Main issues:
    AI Enemy AI will send waves of weak missile units to their deaths etc. pitiful really.
    Technical issues.
    Game is unfinished (reminds me of Empire Total War).
    Multiplayer features lacking (if you liked Shogun 2s multiplayer move along there is none of it).

    Summary: Do not buy at full price!    … Expand
  98. Einherjar_DK
    Sep 7, 2013
    5
    This is not a game this is a beta. With optimisation issues that make it unplayable more often than not, Rome 2 is so broken it's a disgrace it was allowed to be released in this state. Aside from the frankly game-breaking performance issues, the gameplay is a real step down from previous titles. The AI is as incompetent as ever. The campaign map has been taken in completely the wrongThis is not a game this is a beta. With optimisation issues that make it unplayable more often than not, Rome 2 is so broken it's a disgrace it was allowed to be released in this state. Aside from the frankly game-breaking performance issues, the gameplay is a real step down from previous titles. The AI is as incompetent as ever. The campaign map has been taken in completely the wrong direction, with all areas of gameplay dumbed down, and soul-sapping load times rubbing it in. Battles are simply no fun to play. Combat is resolved in minutes, with units destroying each other near-instantaneously. The array of stupid unit abilities emphasises the arcade-like nature of the battles.

    I won't go into the host of minor complaints with the game. Creative Assembly have released an unfinished product that you SHOULD NOT BUY. Those of us who have bought the game now wait for CA to fix the performance issues and independent modders to fix the gameplay. You decide for yourself if this is the state a game should be in at release, and whether this is the sort of product that you should pay for.

    And last but not least, no SLI Support...    … Expand
  99. jstmcook
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Terrible game. Its like they went back to Empire for their battles. no excitement to winning battles as the AI is terrible. The UI is horrible. Even with a good system, the graphics are bad. Its just not a good game in general.
  100. Mortmal
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    As many i preordered as the city state dlc come with it, everyones want to try sparta...Sadly i am too impatient, should have wait for users reviews, as i cant find anything positive to say aboutt he game.

    From the unoptimized graphic engine, lagging strategic map, unintuitive UI, abysmal AI nothing is done right, its an alpha test or its similar to those steam indies early access,    As many i preordered as the city state dlc come with it, everyones want to try sparta...Sadly i am too impatient, should have wait for users reviews, as i cant find anything positive to say aboutt he game.

    From the unoptimized graphic engine, lagging strategic map, unintuitive UI, abysmal AI nothing is done right, its an alpha test or its similar to those steam indies early access, clearly not worth full retail price.

    Everything is a step backward compared to shogun 2 and 4-5 min inactivity after pressing end turn doesnt lighten the mood.
    Theres nothing working, its sounds like theres part of the code missing, the AI never declares war to you wonder why its called total war.
    Sometimes throwing small armies to their doom without any hope to success, sometimes jsut standing there completely frozen One thing i noticed is its never ever doing well in any city battle. You probalby seen the "genious AI" gameplay videos those are completely true alas.

    Maybe after intensive patching and heavy modding it will be great but as of right now a,void avoid avoid!    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 71 Critic Reviews

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