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. Hamishduncan
    Sep 6, 2013
    5
    I have a middle of the range computer like most of you will and this game just doesn't run as well as the rest of the series,i love total war and have all of them but this beta of a game is a let down,the game lacks substance and the draw in factor of other titles,its sad and hopefully they will fix it but i have no trust in the game any more you can see me playing Rome 1 or empire overI have a middle of the range computer like most of you will and this game just doesn't run as well as the rest of the series,i love total war and have all of them but this beta of a game is a let down,the game lacks substance and the draw in factor of other titles,its sad and hopefully they will fix it but i have no trust in the game any more you can see me playing Rome 1 or empire over this until its fixed… Expand
  2. Jaguar_Paw91
    Sep 6, 2013
    1
    In past times, when you buy game, that is that. You know what you get for your money. Today, every game must release patch in 2 week period. What that tell us? They build games for profit now, not for the gamers. They all have sweet advertising, buy our game it is the best. This game just sucks. I have monster pc, but i cant play it on high, frps drops everywhere, even on campaign map, theIn past times, when you buy game, that is that. You know what you get for your money. Today, every game must release patch in 2 week period. What that tell us? They build games for profit now, not for the gamers. They all have sweet advertising, buy our game it is the best. This game just sucks. I have monster pc, but i cant play it on high, frps drops everywhere, even on campaign map, the longest battle was 6 min, that is just funny and not good. You cant have trade agreement with no one, even if you are "same blood" people. Maybe some people dont have problems with graphics, but everyone have problems with in-game setup. People who say this is good game simply lie, maybe they are paid from SEGA to talk such lies, but core of the problem is simply this game isnt FINISH… Expand
  3. rcmunro22
    Sep 6, 2013
    10
    I am 25 years old now, I grew up on Total War. Straight from Shogun 2 (and those 2d Samurai) straight to Rome 2.

    I have 100's of Hours invested into each and every Title. This is by far the best Vanilla release of any Total War to date. The game is brilliant and quite honestly I can't comprehend why people are giving negative feedback. I have 40 Hours in so far and honest I    I am 25 years old now, I grew up on Total War. Straight from Shogun 2 (and those 2d Samurai) straight to Rome 2.

    I have 100's of Hours invested into each and every Title.

    This is by far the best Vanilla release of any Total War to date.

    The game is brilliant and quite honestly I can't comprehend why people are giving negative feedback.

    I have 40 Hours in so far and honest I would write more on this but I want to get back to playing. So I am going to!    … Expand
  4. KickingMo
    Sep 6, 2013
    5
    Horrible. Gameplay is extremely dumbed down, lack of family tree in campaign is obvious mistake and the greatest disapointment is the lack of online modes. Also, removing walls from cities is a horrible idea.
  5. ErnieGMB
    Sep 6, 2013
    8
    The graphics are beautiful and I have experienced few problems. It has taken a couple of days to learn the new features but I now have a good Roman faction game going. On the negative side, it takes enormous patience to wait for turns to complete and I'm not fond of the unit cards. I know that It will be my favorite game for several years and I look forward to enhancement from CA orThe graphics are beautiful and I have experienced few problems. It has taken a couple of days to learn the new features but I now have a good Roman faction game going. On the negative side, it takes enormous patience to wait for turns to complete and I'm not fond of the unit cards. I know that It will be my favorite game for several years and I look forward to enhancement from CA or modding community.… Expand
  6. chicharito86
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    Don't waste your money on this trash. It's boring as hell, full of bugs, graphics suck, UI is terrible, AI is terrible and it feels like it's unfinished, like there is a lot of stuff missing.
  7. Isaristh
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    This game is full of bugs (zombie faces), errors (Egyptian obelisk in Greek town), and the AI is absolutely atrocious. You can literally capture cities without any resistance just by having your armies stare at each other while you run cavalry around the back to the "capture point".

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

    Don't buy this game. Your money is better elsewhere, supporting companies that actually release a finished product.    … Expand
  8. elietu
    Sep 6, 2013
    10
    Creative Assembly sets a new standard for RTS games.
    I'm not the one to usually buy into what is called "hype" but Total War: Rome II has not only met my expectations, they exceeded them. The real time battles in this game is so intense that I actually feel like Julius Caesar himself commanding an army to expand my Roman Empire. The battles are so real, that I get so immersed and find    Creative Assembly sets a new standard for RTS games.
    I'm not the one to usually buy into what is called "hype" but Total War: Rome II has not only met my expectations, they exceeded them. The real time battles in this game is so intense that I actually feel like Julius Caesar himself commanding an army to expand my Roman Empire. The battles are so real, that I get so immersed and find that hours just seem to go away as I play this masterpiece that CA has created. I could go on and on about how great the campaign is. The multiplayer CoOp is truly amazing. CA has truly outdone themselves. Fans of Total War will be playing this game for the next decade I suspect, just like its Rome I predecessor. Enough typing for now, I'm going to go play some more Rome II total war, and so should you.    … Expand
  9. Viva_Fanta
    Sep 6, 2013
    5
    Looks Good. Plays Bad. New province system is rubbish, absense of walls makes city defence ridiculous, unit cards are example of poor game design.

    This game has potential and probably after 2 years of patching it will be great game. Unfortunately at this moment this game is awful beta with poor optimization, retarded AI.
  10. Clownageddon
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    I have bought and played all TW game including expansions except the Alexander one. I have tested most mods for MTWII and RTW and a few for the other ones.

    I have a mediocre gaming rig, but the game runs perfectly on ultra for me. 15 hours of play logged. Not one hickup. Its beautiful, with good framerate and lodsa eyecandy, even if i HATE the BIG! user interface and the UGGLY BIG unit    I have bought and played all TW game including expansions except the Alexander one. I have tested most mods for MTWII and RTW and a few for the other ones.

    I have a mediocre gaming rig, but the game runs perfectly on ultra for me. 15 hours of play logged. Not one hickup. Its beautiful, with good framerate and lodsa eyecandy, even if i HATE the BIG! user interface and the UGGLY BIG unit cards. So this rewiev is not biased by technical performance on my system.

    The game sucks. A huge leap backwards. Instead of writing the same thing over and over again, read the other 0 score reviews out there to se why. But to sum up:

    Its a dumbed down, arcadey, eye candy wrapped console port with way better marketing budget than the testing and development budget put together. Calling this a strategy game is just laughable.

    I am now done with this series. The good times of playing TW will not come back. TY CA. In total, you have provided me with countless hours of great fun, even if i got a bit sad in the end there, starting with NTW and ETW. Good luck on your expansion into the console market and i hope your new costumer base is as faithful, forgiving and naive as the old one.    … Expand
  11. 3HeadedMonkey
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    Total Casual War: Rome Beta 2

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

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

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

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

    If your a hardcore Total War fan, do not be fooled by all the positive reviews.    … Expand
  12. Blacklyche
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    What a disappointment! From the initial laggy play and jerky graphics, through to just out and out bugs and missing features this game feels like a cut-down unfinished update to previous total war titles.
    The problem with trying to review a game that plays/feels like this is that it's very difficult to give it a fair rating. Sure.. there is potential here, when everything is ironed out I    What a disappointment! From the initial laggy play and jerky graphics, through to just out and out bugs and missing features this game feels like a cut-down unfinished update to previous total war titles.
    The problem with trying to review a game that plays/feels like this is that it's very difficult to give it a fair rating. Sure.. there is potential here, when everything is ironed out I may be giving this game a 7 or even an 8. Somehow I don't think the city management will change for the better nor will the annoying absence of the family tree.
    At the moment its difficult to see past the performance issues. The bugs include help windows that don't render.. units getting stuck or refusing to move, an accelerated time mode that just seems to turn the sound off and didn't actually accelerate anything.. the list goes on..

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

    Buggy, Laggy, Unfinished.

    Worth buying maybe in 4 months time. I wish I'd waited.    … Expand
  13. kosciuszko
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    To begin, no game should receive anything over 4/10 if after two days of release, the creators have to say that a patch is being put together. If its buggy and not working correctly, do not release it! Simple! For this reason alone you should steer clear of the critical reviews of this game, I am truly amazed that it has scored as well as it has.
    Why?
    Because a game is intended to    To begin, no game should receive anything over 4/10 if after two days of release, the creators have to say that a patch is being put together. If its buggy and not working correctly, do not release it! Simple! For this reason alone you should steer clear of the critical reviews of this game, I am truly amazed that it has scored as well as it has.
    Why?
    Because a game is intended to entertain you, this just bores you, terribly.
    But lets begin on a positive note.
    The map looks superb, while the cities no longer assume the square box on a map look, but expand as the city grows.
    The armies look great and respond much better than previous offerings, especially the cavalry, who actually attack the enemy this time. It is refreshing to be able to hire mercenaries within the city too, and the range on offer is greater than before.
    The diplomacy, initially at least, gives a greater depth to the campaign as you interact with your neighbours without having to create and send a diplomat to do the job, especially if they are within earshot anyway.
    And, errr, that's about it.
    It becomes evident rather quickly that Sega have finally trodden the well beaten path of other gaming companies by pouring their resources into impressive eye candy and gimmicks, rather than stick to their niche of well rounded offerings, where graphics are sacrificed to the god of war in the quest for gameplay.
    To begin looking at the negative (and the list is larger than the empire Rome built), the UI for city management is truly horrendous. I tell a lie, its not even that good.
    It looks like it has been created for our PS and XBox friends to quickly flick through, so that they can hurry on to something else without taxing their thumbs too much. It is a series of poorly detailed and visualised boxes, with a dumbed down 'technology' link that again, looks like it was made for either small children to access or the console clan to enjoy.
    The two do not link well at all either; with the result being turn after frustrating turn of not building anything within your city, whilst you look on with envy as your allies and enemies create the second Rome.
    Apparantly people did not like the Medieval-esq approach to city management, though I have as yet to meet these 'people'. It worked well, was tidy, and more importantly, was easy to understand.
    Given that you may not even move your army and/or spy at all during a turn, and given that you are not building anywhere near often enough either, leads to abject frustrating and repeated 'end turn' clicking.
    Which leads to the 80's return of the king. The waiting for the 'end turn' fiasco.
    I have this installed on an SSD with an i7 kicking it along, and it still takes around a minute for the AI to take their turn. Add to this the fact that for large swathes of the time you are doing precisely nothing, and you can see how quickly boredom creeps in on a grand Total War scale.
    It is not that you can not build an army to create havoc, you can, but you are extremely limited in maintaining and upgrading it because your cities do not produce enough cash, whilst your neighbours garrisoned armies are far more numerous than yours.
    Added is the fact that nine battles out of ten are sieges. I did not in encounter an enemy with a decent army in the field at all in the three days I played it, leading to bus stop tours of city sieges, nothing more, which again, becomes boring faster than Usain Bolt on steroids.
    The dreadful AI during battles too verges on the insane; one instance amongst many I came across had the enemy simply scarper from their city whilst my two divisions of slingers (no dragons, tanks or F15 strike eagles in tow before you ask) walked straight into central city complex and held it, without an ounce of blood being spilled. The main bulk of my army was sitting around outside, enjoying the sea views and sipping tea.
    It is also in the small detail where this game fails to deliver on an epic scale too.
    You can now talk to your neighbours via the diplomacy button without having to physically move an object their, but you can not start trade in the same way for instance. Why not? So I can talk to my immediate neighbours night and day, but can not trade? Makes perfect sense that.
    Also, the idea of using family members and 'ordinary' folk to lead your forces is a nice touch; apparently the idea is that the more gravitas a general receives, the better his chances of taking over.
    But this just does not deliver excitement on any level, and ends up being just another useless side note in the long list of failures that Sega have collected up and dished out under the 'Rome II' tag.
    I could continue, but the word count is dangerously close to the 5000 max.
    To summarise, go back to earlier offerings folks, and wait until either the community either mod this shambles, or Sega bring out the much anticipated patches.    … Expand
  14. SuperfluousG
    Sep 6, 2013
    10
    Excellent game all round. Graphically sound, solid gameplay, completely absorbed all my free time since release. Sure, could do with a few AI tweaks and turn time was a until I moved to SSD, but most of the complaints are more down to a person's rig than the game itself (handles fine this end).
  15. Gunteraz
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    This is the biggest game launch failure i have ever seen. The game is not even in beta stage at the moment and should have not been launched at least until 6 more months of development. Paying 60 euros for this garbage has convinced me to never again buy one of Creative Assembly games again. Ever.
  16. Mangeduvet
    Sep 6, 2013
    4
    There are just too many issues with this game on release to give it a higher score.
    - Low fps
    - Performance issues - Multiple fixes needed to even get the textures right Further on. - A.I is so bad in battles and the campaign map that it's laughable - No guard mode (stand ground) - No fire at will mode for melee infantry using javelin, only works when charging You cannot    There are just too many issues with this game on release to give it a higher score.
    - Low fps
    - Performance issues
    - Multiple fixes needed to even get the textures right

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

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

    For everyone thinking about buying this game, WAIT until it's on sales or something because it's not worth the money they are currently selling it for, and definitely not your time. The game has some serious potential but as of right now it's not close to what it could be. I'm probably forgetting some of the issues I've encountered playing.    … Expand
  17. Googleness
    Sep 6, 2013
    4
    Total war is long term game so you are expected to do a campaign for about a week or two if you play casual.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    "IT WILL GET A PATCH YOU FOOL!" fact: i finished campaign on all of the total war games WITHOUT patches. on Rome II I cannot finish a campaign cause the end turn takes 2 years to finish cycle 30000000000000000000 factions.
    rig: 8 Gb ram i5 2500K GTX 550Ti OC edition Win 7    … Expand
  18. nguyenhoainam
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    When I first played Shogun: Total War, I thought "Damn! How is this game possible?" Shogun was well ahead of its time in terms of ideas, scale, quality... every aspects! It was just GREAT!!! So great you just cant believe it...

    I became a fan, played every games in the series... I think Rome is truly the pinnacle of them! Cant remember how much time I spent in that game, but I'm sure it    When I first played Shogun: Total War, I thought "Damn! How is this game possible?" Shogun was well ahead of its time in terms of ideas, scale, quality... every aspects! It was just GREAT!!! So great you just cant believe it...

    I became a fan, played every games in the series... I think Rome is truly the pinnacle of them! Cant remember how much time I spent in that game, but I'm sure it was plenty...

    Then came Medieval II, which I thought was great too. I just wasnt captivated by that era as much as by Rome's.

    Napoleon disappointed me, but I still believe that CA will come back with another masterpiece to revive the franchise!

    When they released Shogun II, I thought to myself Well, back to Japan is not half bad, though I would appreciate a new place to wage war though"

    And now, Rome II... Ok, I loved the first game and that era, just improve the graphics, the gameplay and I will spend countless time again in this game.

    But what have they done???

    - AI sucks
    - Graphics bugs
    - Gameplay lacks depth and options
    - Music and sounds is many steps backward
    - Multiplayer gone to (I play Steam version and let me remind you that Steam is argue-ably the best multiplay-experience provider out there, but it still sucks big time!)

    To sum it up, let me quote a comment some guy here said "CA put crap in a box and we spent 60$ for it"

    THAT'S HOW THEY TREATED US, LOYAL FANS OF THE FRANCHISE!

    **** YOU CA!!!    … Expand
  19. clairbear_ski
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    This is without a doubt the worst Total war game to date
    It allows you to have only 3 armies and 2 navies while the enemies have unlimited troops
    You troops desert while you enemy does not For the first time you cannot merge depleted units Graphics are not as advertised it is a major step backwards from it's predecessors Playability on maps is weak You armies cannot move while    This is without a doubt the worst Total war game to date
    It allows you to have only 3 armies and 2 navies while the enemies have unlimited troops
    You troops desert while you enemy does not
    For the first time you cannot merge depleted units
    Graphics are not as advertised it is a major step backwards from it's predecessors
    Playability on maps is weak
    You armies cannot move while "mustering" new troops and only generals or admirals can recruit
    It was a waste of 60 bucks
    You want a Total war game stick with Shogun 2, Empire, Medievil 2 or other earlier games in the series
    Even the original Rome was vastly better    … Expand
  20. WillensKraft
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    The AI is still not able to attack or defend a Town properly, even on 'Legendary'.
    - AI pathfinding is still up.
    - The optimization is horrible, it looks worse than Shogun2 but the framerate is unacceptable, even on high end rigs that play BF3/Metro 2033/Crysis3/ArmA3 on ultra with mostly over 60 frames. - Day 1 DLC. That is always a negative thing. - Texture bug, selecting "Extreme"    The AI is still not able to attack or defend a Town properly, even on 'Legendary'.
    - AI pathfinding is still up.
    - The optimization is horrible, it looks worse than Shogun2 but the framerate is unacceptable, even on high end rigs that play BF3/Metro 2033/Crysis3/ArmA3 on ultra with mostly over 60 frames.
    - Day 1 DLC. That is always a negative thing.
    - Texture bug, selecting "Extreme" settings does nothing although I have 3GB Vram and yes, I enabled "unlimited Vram" in the settings. Doesn't do ****
    - Round endings/CPU calculations for the AI factions: >2.5min in the mid/late game, this is a problem from Empire TW and hasn't been fixed since then (Empire, Napoleon, Shogun2, FotS). It only gets worse because they increased the factions.
    - No SLI/CFX support.
    - Day 1 patch, releasing unfinished software.
    (-) possible DLCs in the feature.
    - UI is just a massive joke. Is this ment to be played with a Gamepad?! Shogun 2 was good. Don't change what ain't broken CA.
    -Unit cards look as if they hired cavemen to draw them. They look terrible and they are useless if want to know how each unit looks like.
    - Battles take less than 5 minutes, enemys rout after less than a minute after they started fighting.
    - For some reason the Roman Legions turn into massive blobs upon contact although that's what made the Roman army special and superior unlike the barbarian factions.
    -They removed alot of features such as lose or tight formations, hold ground etc
    - Random flag in a ground battle as defender. Who had this brilliant idea?! Imagine You are outnumbered 3:1..what would you do? Go on a Hill and defend it? Oh you can't because there is a ****ing flag randomly spawning, mostly on open ground that changes this great tactical franchise into a capture the flag blob war with no strategy what so ****ing ever.
    - Testudo formation is broken, you take less casulties charging towards the enemy.
    - The campaign AI is just ridiculous, I'm 130 turns in and not a single time someone declared war on me and I don't even bothered building fortifications on my borders. This game is called Total War. Also the trade AI will refuse to accept win-win offers.
    - alot of people who pre-ordered this on amazon don't got their free DLC code. SEGA says it's the retailers fault, they say SEGA never gave them codes.
    - MP is completly broken, desync errors everywhere. We already had this error in Empire.. but it was rare..
    - COOP campaign is unplayable, for some unknown reason the AI turns take almost 3 times longer than in the SP.
    - the free transport ships from the Campaign map are OP compared to expansive Navy ships from your harbour. Just head-on ram them with your transporter and they break!
    - Naval combat in general is unbalanced and bugged.

    As a "true" fan of Rome 1 with over 1500h playtime I am more than disappointed. This is a step backwards from Shogun 2 and even worse than Empire TWs release.

    Sadly I joined the hype and waisted 55€ (~80 USD).    … Expand
  21. BruceWayne
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    Mechanics dumbed down, battles are too arcade-ish, performance is BAD, FPS on campaign map take a hit from 40/50 to 15 whenever UI appears on screen i.e selecting units, cities, agents. I have pretty capable gaming PC that was able to play Shogun II with a stable frame-rate. If you wonder that game is for you, hold your horses for at least 3 or 4 months. At the moment this game is inMechanics dumbed down, battles are too arcade-ish, performance is BAD, FPS on campaign map take a hit from 40/50 to 15 whenever UI appears on screen i.e selecting units, cities, agents. I have pretty capable gaming PC that was able to play Shogun II with a stable frame-rate. If you wonder that game is for you, hold your horses for at least 3 or 4 months. At the moment this game is in "unofficial beta stage" publisher and CA lied it's not finished yet.… Expand
  22. RingoPrime
    Sep 6, 2013
    4
    I was so excited about this game and it is my first big disappointment of 2013. I have a GTX 690 with 4gb VRAM yet the game only detects 2gb as it has no multi GPU support! A PC game in 2013! Really?! Add my 32gb RAM and i7 3770k quad core running at 4.3ghz to the mix and you would think this game would run fast on all the max settings? Wrong, benchmarking puts it at around 30fps! I setI was so excited about this game and it is my first big disappointment of 2013. I have a GTX 690 with 4gb VRAM yet the game only detects 2gb as it has no multi GPU support! A PC game in 2013! Really?! Add my 32gb RAM and i7 3770k quad core running at 4.3ghz to the mix and you would think this game would run fast on all the max settings? Wrong, benchmarking puts it at around 30fps! I set all the graphics to low and the fps appears to be locked at 66....why? Turns take forever, random graphics glitches, terrible AI that makes the game boring, stupid capture the flag in land battles that essentially throws any terrain based tactics out the window, did I mention the AI? Oh yes, but it's that bad it needs mentioning twice! Creative Assembly needs to fix this broken game....and quickly, the first Beta patch has made no improvements and if anything my fps dropped by 1-2! Patches are supposed to make things better, not worse!!! CA need to get their whole development team and probably a very good external QA team to fix the following:

    - Hardware optimization (especially multi GPU and cards with large VRAM)
    - AI
    - Campaign turn times
    - Remove capture the flag from land battles, it is not welcome and has ruined the primary attraction of the TW franchise.....you know....the war part.
    - Improve unit textures, Shogun 2's were better
    - Overhaul character avatars.....they look....terrible, seriously just replace them with concept art, CA's art department are the only ones who come out of this launch with their reputations intact!

    There are probably many other things that need addressing, but CA need to accept that the game is broken and needs fixing quickly.....I would also like to see some kind of special offer for people like myself who pre-ordered this game in the hope CA had learned from previous mistakes. I certainly won't be buying another TW game at launch, that is for sure.    … Expand
  23. Joker407
    Sep 6, 2013
    10
    A lot of good details. MUST HAVE for strategy lovers.=3 UI not ideal in battle adn diplomatic part not so progressive. BUT! it very beauty and UI rather nice. 60 too many for this, but i would pay 45 for this. 10/10
  24. themrchook
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    Very poor optimisation, AI is poor and siege AI is just non-functioning with issues like enemy units just standing there or even more bizarrely wandering off in random directions until they just run into archer fire and die, simplified mechanics and game functionality when compared to Total War: Rome (seems to be the trend, would have like to have seen it broken for this game) but thisVery poor optimisation, AI is poor and siege AI is just non-functioning with issues like enemy units just standing there or even more bizarrely wandering off in random directions until they just run into archer fire and die, simplified mechanics and game functionality when compared to Total War: Rome (seems to be the trend, would have like to have seen it broken for this game) but this does not make the game more fun, punchy or exciting. Slightly updated graphics but nowhere near what I expected. I can forgive releasing with a few bugs and issues as this is normal but there are just such a large amount of them. This is why people pirate games, you don't deserve my money for this and you won't be getting it ever again.… Expand
  25. rvm33
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    A well orchestrated PR campaign (congratulations on that CA!) and promises of a game well made and an incentive of 1 additional free DLC and people buy the game. Then, fans (me) complain it is different and broken, so some patches and a ton of paid DLC's later CA is far more income sturdier than just issuing a game upfront properly.

    CA is completely capable of making their games    A well orchestrated PR campaign (congratulations on that CA!) and promises of a game well made and an incentive of 1 additional free DLC and people buy the game. Then, fans (me) complain it is different and broken, so some patches and a ton of paid DLC's later CA is far more income sturdier than just issuing a game upfront properly.

    CA is completely capable of making their games playable, modders like dartvader proved they can do it on their own but it is not a good business proposition. There is no development to be done anymore. And development means income and jobs. Tell me again, why do it properly and then be out of a years to come long business?! Unfortunately for me, only now I fully realized this.

    Turning now on the PR campaign we have been promised graphics outstanding with soldiers faces showing horror as enemies attack. This is not the case. Will be though ...a DLC later. We have been expecting some blood and wear and tear of armor and weapons after the battle as seen in the pictures of their PR campaign and as we read in reviews. Again, it is not yet the case, but will be... a DLC later.
    Right now a soldier looks the same before and after the battle.
    We know Romans had archers but there are no archer units in Rome 2 rooster. We all want them as it is stupid to fight with stone slingers in a fiercesome war machine ...a DLC later.

    Got the point?

    For this reason CA bolstered that Rome2 is a huge platform with unlimited potential for the future. And it is truly a cash making machine as long there are fans. I'm gone.

    Believe it or not, the people actually programming the game are not fans of the series. They do not understand the subtleties of the game and this is proven by the fact that they invested in graphics a lot more while "simplifying" the game play and micromanagement, making thus the game dull. To them it seems normal an unmanned tower is raining arrows on the attacking force?! Realism?
    They did not see the point of the defensive position in the unit's orders and just took it out. Why? Because the programmer who did this in the previous series isn't working or in charge of that particular development and the new guy did not see the point anymore. Or, maybe it is pointless for consoles.

    We have to take into account that CA evolved in the last 10 years also. Many new people came and old ones went. This team is not the one who launched Medieval 2 and the previous games. It was visible from the launch of Empire where the bugs started piling up, to this date. It seems they do not play the games they are programming.

    Now, back to us, the fans. We have also evolved. Many of us are fans of the series since Rome 1 or Shogun 1. This was say back in 2004 and we were then 18. That makes us 28 years old now. We don’t play games like then.
    We like to think, use strategy and want to see realism and feel it. We don't like fast and easy battles won. We like positions and tactics and planning an empire right. We like BAI and CAI that is challenging, diplomacy that makes sense, we like to develop our regions, muster armies (as many as we like and afford) and to be challenged. We need for that an immersive game in both strategy and game play.
    Here lies the subtlety that CA did not grasp.

    We also like stunning graphics and can afford top notch PC's. We can spend money if we feel we get what we want.

    But right now, I don't. I feel tricked by a PR campaign promising everything there was in the series and more and delivering... a different and broken thing.
    Deceiving your customers is generally bad bussiness practice, may work here and now but not on the long run.

    Looking at the above, my feel is that CA cannot deliver the game play we want anymore. They can create a platform but that's it. For that reason modders like darthvader appeared and made from a jerky, fort lagging and stupid humpty dumpty style Empire a nice playable game. Same goes for Napoleon and Shogun 2. The crowning achievement of the modding community is Shogun 2 darthmod. From here, looking down on Rome 2 seems a huge step back.

    There are so many issues to be addressed speaking about the game from a game play perspective like armies cannot be split up, armies embarking on nonexistent ships transports, reduced tech tree, UI non intuitive, melees extremely fast, units routing extremely quick one has no time to zoom in to see the fight, not holding formations etc. that it makes no sense to write all here. Just read the posts on Metacritic or Steam.
    Forget the technical problems, they will be fixed eventually but concept issues will not.

    This game will be playable for us maybe in 1-2 years from now when modding people like darthvader and the many others will have corrected some of the game play issues if they will exist for this game.

    From my perspective I am truly sorry to have bought this game now, because I supported this strategy CA is implementing and I destroyed my hopes of a great game. A dumbed down game it is.    … Expand
  26. jedi72it
    Sep 6, 2013
    1
    As a long time follower and enthusiast of Total War serie, i must admit that this is the worst "thing" i have ever seen.

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

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

    Cons:

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

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

    - 3 minutes battles???????

    - Capture the flag???????

    - Brain Dead AI???????

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

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

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

    I fear this is my last Total War.    … Expand
  27. ZOLTAN
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    If you are expecting Total War Rome 2 having played the first one then you will be disappointed. This is some new game based in the same era without the complexity or depth of play of the old one.

    The information you require to make your decisions is hard to find thanks to a bad UI but that's OK as there are no real bad decisions in this game. During battle you can and you can spend    If you are expecting Total War Rome 2 having played the first one then you will be disappointed. This is some new game based in the same era without the complexity or depth of play of the old one.

    The information you require to make your decisions is hard to find thanks to a bad UI but that's OK as there are no real bad decisions in this game. During battle you can and you can spend your time watching the game play rather than worrying about playing it and use your magic abilities like fast reload for your missile troops with infinite ammo.

    They have taken away a lot of the realism and management completely and introduced pretty graphics.    … Expand
  28. wjf83
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    No Family tree, yet the faction panel has limited marriage options as long as its not your family getting married
    No more portrait art
    No more thumbnail art for buildings, uses stupid tiles the encyclopedia looks like it was copy and past from windows note pad and no art work a lot of cities are missing battles end way too fast its like CA took total war and tried to repackage it as    No Family tree, yet the faction panel has limited marriage options as long as its not your family getting married
    No more portrait art
    No more thumbnail art for buildings, uses stupid tiles
    the encyclopedia looks like it was copy and past from windows note pad and no art work
    a lot of cities are missing
    battles end way too fast
    its like CA took total war and tried to repackage it as a game for casual gamers.
    general and family member progression is just lame, rome 1 formula was better people change as they age and from there experiences and the way rome did it reflected that this game does not
    how dare they try and pass this off total war.
    I don't have the words...    … Expand
  29. ChosunOne
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    For all the experience you would think the CA team has, you would think that Rome 2 would have expanded upon features from its previous titles. Almost every aspect this game has either backtracked from Shogun 2 (UI, AI, battles, units) or been completely removed (family trees). There are really no ways this game is any better than Shogun and it feels less like a Strategy game and moreFor all the experience you would think the CA team has, you would think that Rome 2 would have expanded upon features from its previous titles. Almost every aspect this game has either backtracked from Shogun 2 (UI, AI, battles, units) or been completely removed (family trees). There are really no ways this game is any better than Shogun and it feels less like a Strategy game and more like a "lets just tell units to attack and watch them win" kind of game. Sieges are mind-numbingly easy (ai stands in a courtyard and doesn't budge, even under the torrential rain of flaming arrows), and on battles in open fields it camps its start area. I tried to reenact the battle of thermopylae and only had about 350 units versus about 7000 and they just stood there. I slowly creeped up to their line to try to draw them out, but the ai just started repositioning units along the line indefinitely. I even took out about 1500 of their units and routed half the army mostly because they would not even attack my units when they would walk into them while trying to reposition. You also can't siege cities that are under naval blockades, so my campaign against epirus as sparta ground to a halt when a tattered roman ship was sitting outside the harbor, and my army of 9000 spartans could not siege the city. This game needs a major overhaul to live up to the reputation of any other total war title.… Expand
  30. Abspara
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    Horrible AI

    Sluggish graphics

    Poorly optimized

    Lacks any of the soul of other Total War games.

    An abysmal launch that is characteristic of Creative Assembly.

    Paid reviewers got paid to give this game high marks. The average joe who had to spend $60.00 on this got taken advantage of. Avoid at all costs!
  31. PerfectJayDread
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    I am heart broken, I have been playing for 13 hours and it just keeps getting worse and worse... horribly imbalanced. NO optimization of any kind, interface. Everything we knew and loved about Total War has been stripped away and dumbed down. The battles are dreadful, the AI would be better if it wasn't even there to begin with and the balance, OH THE BALANCE. There is none in essence.I am heart broken, I have been playing for 13 hours and it just keeps getting worse and worse... horribly imbalanced. NO optimization of any kind, interface. Everything we knew and loved about Total War has been stripped away and dumbed down. The battles are dreadful, the AI would be better if it wasn't even there to begin with and the balance, OH THE BALANCE. There is none in essence. Blobs, spam, broken units... thats how far CA went for Rome 2.… Expand
  32. zer0sum
    Sep 5, 2013
    5
    I have been a big fan of everything CA for years. I really enjoyed empire and shogun, thinking that they basically did everything correctly in those games. I find Rome II to be disappointing. It's hard to put my finger on why, exactly. I think a major part of the problem is the long wait between turns. It breaks immersion and it is not fun to sit there for a minute while the enemy crunchesI have been a big fan of everything CA for years. I really enjoyed empire and shogun, thinking that they basically did everything correctly in those games. I find Rome II to be disappointing. It's hard to put my finger on why, exactly. I think a major part of the problem is the long wait between turns. It breaks immersion and it is not fun to sit there for a minute while the enemy crunches numbers. This is actually my chief complaint. If the game loaded faster and crunched turns faster, then I would probably be enjoying this game a lot more.… Expand
  33. Woody0
    Sep 5, 2013
    6
    I had some graphic and FR problems but was expecting the game to be buggy at release as the other TW games. To save time for some of you I would not buy this game until 2014 when more patches are released and the modders get a chance to polish this game. Overall I found myself spending most my time hitting the end turn button. This game seems to have a tremendous amount of potential ofI had some graphic and FR problems but was expecting the game to be buggy at release as the other TW games. To save time for some of you I would not buy this game until 2014 when more patches are released and the modders get a chance to polish this game. Overall I found myself spending most my time hitting the end turn button. This game seems to have a tremendous amount of potential of being the best TW title yet. I'll go back to playing the older titles and check back 6 months down the road to see if the game becomes more challenging and fun to play.

    Likes:
    Graphics

    Dislikes:
    Battles:
    -Victory points in open battles( Flags you have to hold placed in non strategic points) makes strategic placement of forces, hiding and ambushing pointless.
    -BAI not defending walls but the victory point in middle of city
    - Too fast paced battles, the one full stack vs full stack battle I had lasted under 10 minutes, no time to maneuver or check out the awesome graphics, before my cav flanked battle was pretty much over, so no epic 30+ minute battles.
    -Super fast movement speeds for infantry and other foot troops, makes any tactical error easily fixed
    -Units have magic powers(easily fixed by just not using them, the AI needs all the help it can get)
    -Ran into path finding issues both AI and my units in several battles
    -AI blindly heading for victory points regardless of what is in the way
    -Lack of open field battles, AI seems to wait for me to attack a city, many times the AI moves there army away leaving only garrison forces and is content to do it even at their last city.
    CAI:
    -AI seems to prefer small stacks instead of combining into large army, I have seen 4 large armies in 10 hours of playing, only one of which was used against me
    -AI attacks multiple times with small stacks against overwhelming odds
    -Seems more passive against player and more active against non-player factions
    -I have not figured out how to get other factions to trade with me, the diplomacy they do with me is them making unreasonable demands
    -The whole family/political thing does not seem to effect game play, maybe playing longer it will make more of a difference
    -The one turn a year is back, Don't get attached to your generals, they are dead before you can do anything worth while with them. It seems you have about ten turns or less to use them.
    -I do miss the generals' speeches, family tree
    -I am not a big fan of the changes in the UI but did not factor it in with my rating.

    There are of course the bugs here and there but CA has a pretty good track record of patching their games as mentioned before I'll go back to the other TW titles and give CA and the modding community a chance to make this into the best Total War yet.    … Expand
  34. bombrero
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    Oh dear, here we go:

    System specs: i7 3770 3.4 GHz (3.9 GHz when auto-clock triggers) nVidia GTX 660 2 Gb video memory (up to 4 Gb dedicated when the ram sync is prompted) 16 Gb ram Its certainly not a god-like computer (really far from it), but its still a performance beast. All the new games run maxed at a perfect 60 Fps rate. In fact, it doubles the the performance rate that    Oh dear, here we go:

    System specs:
    i7 3770 3.4 GHz (3.9 GHz when auto-clock triggers)
    nVidia GTX 660 2 Gb video memory (up to 4 Gb dedicated when the ram sync is prompted)
    16 Gb ram
    Its certainly not a god-like computer (really far from it), but its still a performance beast. All the new games run maxed at a perfect 60 Fps rate. In fact, it doubles the the performance rate that recommended settings ask for. Then:

    Why does this game run at 30 Fps average at minimum settings?

    That, folks its the million dollar question. Me, and a seemingly huge amount of costumers couldnt answer this by ourselves, so we went to CA support to let the "masterminds" answer that for us. The answer: the game seems to have some compatibility issues whit most of the graphic cards out there, but dont worry, nVidia and ATI will soon release new drivers that will solve the problems.

    So, naturally I go to the nVidia support forum to find the info about that magical driver, and we are told that even though nVidia technicians are working on said driver, it will barely improve performance since said issues are caused by a horrible game coding (zero optimization).

    So, back to the forums of CA, the million dollar question is answered: they admit the game was not optimized neither for nVidia nor ATI GPUs, and that they dont even had nVidia nor ATI official support until now.

    So, I have a million dollar question for CA people: if the game is not optimized nor supported by neither of the main GPU marks of the market... WHY IN HELL DO YOU RELEASE IT???

    As far as the gameplay goes, I cannot tell anything because on top of the ridiculous performance issues that makes hard to keep playing, the game crashed 4 times when I was trying to get past the first impressions of it, so... that sums it up

    I will give it a 0 because its an UNPLAYABLE product for me, its as if I had never bought it, which I remember doing.    … Expand
  35. MaxiWilliam
    Sep 5, 2013
    4
    Its a good game but why so many soldier and other fraction have same armor or classe combat Grec have Roman armor Sparta have German armor what the its this Where the real Grec armor or Sparta armor I want cry Im still in Shogun 2 Still better of Rome II for now....
  36. hedgeknight86
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    Total War is my favorite games series. Not just strategy games, but in all of gaming. However, with the release of Rome 2 I realized I paid $60 for a game that isn't finished. This is just unacceptable.
  37. Coeurdacier
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    What a fail....
    The battle are too fast, the graphism are like cartoons, my generals die always after three or two turn.
    The troops are all Usain bolt, they run very very fast.
    This game is not finish.
  38. dogboy907
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    The graphical issues and AI issues, as noted by other users, are indeed atrocious and indeed present.

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

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

    Overall this game is a total failure. They aimed too high trying to put in a bunch of features no one really needed or wanted, took out a lot of the core elements fans of the series loved in order to make it more appealing to the masses, and failed spectacularly to even provide a functional game at launch. This game should still be in Alpha it needs a total overhaul.    … Expand
  39. Rethmeier
    Sep 5, 2013
    5
    I'm a longtime fan of the Total War series and have been with them since the first Medieval Game. However, Rome 2 left me disappointed. The wait time in between turns and loading screens is prohibitive to game play and I often find myself leaving the room in between turns. This has the effect of ruining immersion and leaving me dreading the next time I have to press "end turn".

    The    I'm a longtime fan of the Total War series and have been with them since the first Medieval Game. However, Rome 2 left me disappointed. The wait time in between turns and loading screens is prohibitive to game play and I often find myself leaving the room in between turns. This has the effect of ruining immersion and leaving me dreading the next time I have to press "end turn".

    The AI leaves a lot to be desired and while I love the replacement of the old style Rebel faction with independent 1-2 province factions, I do not agree with Creative Assembly's choice to level the playing field between all factions. I look forward to facing Macedon, Carthage, Rome, and Parthia in the future and it is upsetting to find Carthage has fallen to an unknown Celtic tribe 10 turns into the game (This has occurred in all three games I've played so far).

    Much of the game has been streamlined/simplified to the point where most of the things that I loved about the previous Total War Titles has been removed. On top of this, the online encyclopedia is both difficult to maneuver and tedious to try and use, leaving me to trial and error when it comes to new game mechanics. At this point, while I actually like several changes made to the game, like the provincial system, the information and explanation necessary to enjoy these mechanics is either absent or too difficult to find. The political factions and intrigue are a nice touch, but the 1 year 1 turn and lack of a family tree make it hard to understand and hard to get involved with. By the time I've figured out who is who and attempt to increase the level of my characters they're dying of old age.

    The battles have also been changed and not for the better. It is now rare to experience a battle over 10 minutes long, which might seem nice, but in reality it's frustrating. Units rout/ are decimated at such a rate that flanking maneuvers, ambushes, and other prolonged tactics become impossible to execute. Additionally, unit behavior in battle is frustrating as melee quickly devolves into a large blob until one army routs 20 seconds later. Other changes such as the removal of the guard button, fire at will for non-skirmishers, and the tendency for units not to pursue broken enemies makes battles less entertaining than in other Total War Games. Add in the immense amount of time spent in loading screens and I find myself auto-deciding battles much more frequently than I have in the past.

    Overall, while Rome 2 is not a "bad game", it has lost many of the aspects of previous Total War games which made them entertaining. I found mods for the first Rome: Total War (like Rome Total Realism) to be more enjoyable and would wait to buy Rome 2 until it's on sale. It is bound to be more enjoyable after CA makes some game play tweaks and modders have a chance to overhaul it.    … Expand
  40. hype7
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    As most have said, it's clunky, slow load times, AI is dreadful, UI is confusing for some things, and quite buggy throughout various parts of the game. It is certainly playable but minus the additional features graphics in the game, Rome 1 was actually better.
  41. dmz82
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    What a piece of garbage. There are no words to express how much I regret buying this game. It's probably the most unstable piece of software I've ever owned, and regularly crashes in between turns. If that wasn't bad enough, it absolutely slogs on a GTX 680 x2 SLI, 4.5ghz i7 machine. We're talking framerates in the high 20's on the world map. Yes, you read that correctly; even the worldWhat a piece of garbage. There are no words to express how much I regret buying this game. It's probably the most unstable piece of software I've ever owned, and regularly crashes in between turns. If that wasn't bad enough, it absolutely slogs on a GTX 680 x2 SLI, 4.5ghz i7 machine. We're talking framerates in the high 20's on the world map. Yes, you read that correctly; even the world map has a crappy framerate. I would have returned this game for a refund already, but I foolishly purchased it through Steam, who like Creative Assembly, has no respect for their customers and has instituted an unconscionable rule against ever giving refunds. Lesson well learned on my end.… Expand
  42. tarq
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    Terrible release, full of bugs and incredibly questionable game mechanic decisions..Diplomacy and battles AI are broken, game code in unoptimized. they removed several features from previous games and dumbed it down for no apparent reason.Some stuff will be fixed by community and/or CA but other things (like flag points in battles are not possible to remove and they are killing the game.Terrible release, full of bugs and incredibly questionable game mechanic decisions..Diplomacy and battles AI are broken, game code in unoptimized. they removed several features from previous games and dumbed it down for no apparent reason.Some stuff will be fixed by community and/or CA but other things (like flag points in battles are not possible to remove and they are killing the game.

    Wait till it's fixed and in bargain bin, not worth full price att    … Expand
  43. Ethridon
    Sep 5, 2013
    10
    People need to realize that this game is amazing, it isn't a game that you can run on any ordinary machine though and therefore makes some players think that it is an optimization issue when it may be there computers. I installed the game on the release date, and there was already an update for it in which I installed. When I actually got into the game, it was amazing, no performancePeople need to realize that this game is amazing, it isn't a game that you can run on any ordinary machine though and therefore makes some players think that it is an optimization issue when it may be there computers. I installed the game on the release date, and there was already an update for it in which I installed. When I actually got into the game, it was amazing, no performance issues, the AI were a little rusty but still better than Rome I. I have been reading that people complain that their game crashes and that there is a massive issue with not being able to play due to it, I have played if for over 5 hours and I can't seem to find any problems with crashing. I know that some people may be having problems with it, but I believe that this game deserves the score I am giving it.… Expand
  44. Joker85
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    This game is simply a disaster. Words don't describe what an utter and complete disappointment and failure Rome 2 is. Throughout the process CA has obfuscated, dissembled, and outright lied in order to conceal this trainwreck.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Oh by the way, the game shipped with no anti-aliasing and no SLI/CF support. That's right. In 2013 an AAA released with no true AA and no multiple GPU support. That's the level of care and concern that went into the development of this farce.    … Expand
  45. MorkSal
    Sep 5, 2013
    7
    Don't listen to the people who rate this game at the bottom or at the very top.

    The game is fun, it has been stable for me. I'm playing on ultra/extreme settings with little lag (except occasionally during big battles in cities) For people complaining about lackluster AI. This is a total war game. In the history of total war games there has never been stellar AI opponents. *There    Don't listen to the people who rate this game at the bottom or at the very top.

    The game is fun, it has been stable for me. I'm playing on ultra/extreme settings with little lag (except occasionally during big battles in cities)

    For people complaining about lackluster AI. This is a total war game. In the history of total war games there has never been stellar AI opponents.

    *There are problems right now (at the top of the list for me is that there are no drivers optimized for the game). I would recommend waiting a month before getting the game. I imagine most of the bugs will be ironed out by then and I expect drivers for the game at any time that will improve performance.    … Expand
  46. jimjamesjim
    Sep 5, 2013
    5
    I have loved this game from the start, but as I played (completed a campaign now) I took note of many problems.

    First, prologue campaign is bugged. I beat it and it stayed "locked" on chapter 3. Had to replay the final siege again to get it to finally work. A guy from work had the same problem so it isn't just my system. There are a lot of problems with the tactical battles. The    I have loved this game from the start, but as I played (completed a campaign now) I took note of many problems.

    First, prologue campaign is bugged. I beat it and it stayed "locked" on chapter 3. Had to replay the final siege again to get it to finally work. A guy from work had the same problem so it isn't just my system.

    There are a lot of problems with the tactical battles. The flag system is garbage. I didn't mind it at first but have grown to hate it. It takes away the use of terrain for defensive battles as you have to defend the flag.

    Battle speed is also far to fast. The longest battle I have had was 7 minutes, and that was because I was seiging a city and my naval artillery would not fire on the walls/towers (a huge bug, tried in a few battles and it doesn't work for me), on average my battles are about 3 min tops, making it too fast to enjoy the visuals of the battle.

    It took awhile for me to start getting into naval battles, and was disappointed in them. Ships would get stuck in open water at times.

    Diplomacy isn't as good as they advertised, but not as bad as most non-critic reviews I have read. To get anything you have to bribe them with money usually. I have even been asked to join a war and they demanded I pay them to join their war.

    There are a bunch more bugs that I know they will eventually fix. But I hope they re work some of the game mechanics in the future as well. I am having fun but the game could be much better, and should be. It feels like they wanted to reach a bigger crowd so added in "popular" game mechanics from other games. Which just don't really fit in a Total War games (like the flag capturing and the micro abilities of units).    … Expand
  47. HaZZarD88
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    waited years and paid lot of bucks for what a F**kin BETA ????

    the other sad thing is that the worst total war ever made is also the one in my favorite era ....

    thanks CA and SEGA

    you really deserve my ZERO
  48. whuu
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    AI is horrible. A huge amount of bugs. I hope there wil be hope with future patches and modding or else i will probably be done with that company. they should have invested in beta testing because this is like alpha version.
  49. MoonCheese
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    Compared to previous TW games this is a huge step in the wrong direction. Plus it barely runs and I have higher than recommended specs--so they lied to me. Even if you can run it, the gameplay is pretty bad. Can't believe I paid $60 bucks for this. Don't buy this game, Creative Assembly needs to learn its lesson and start to actually listen to its customers and given them what they want.Compared to previous TW games this is a huge step in the wrong direction. Plus it barely runs and I have higher than recommended specs--so they lied to me. Even if you can run it, the gameplay is pretty bad. Can't believe I paid $60 bucks for this. Don't buy this game, Creative Assembly needs to learn its lesson and start to actually listen to its customers and given them what they want. Also would it have hurt them to properly beta test. For the sake of future Total War games please don't buy this game...

    A long list of complaints (a little unformatted--sorry):
    • Serious performance issues
    o needs to run faster
    o worst of any TW games I have played in terms of performance
    o one would need a supercomputer to run this at extreme settings
    o can barely zoom in on cities, units, or trees without stuttering
    o when opening diplomacy map, strategic map, and tactical map stuttering occurs
    • Sometimes black squares appear in the ground on both the campaign map and battle map
    o I think turning on veg alpha improves this issue
    • Ground when moving around on the campaign map the ground takes time to load
    o not everyone has a solid state drive, most people don't
    • Draw distance needs to be greatly improved
    o can't tell whether a unit is in phalanx or not without zooming in to check
    • The AI is just ****ing retarded
    o I don't know where to begin on this one but I know the AI can't handle these capture points--get rid of the ****ing capture points
    o also, while the line of sight is good on multiplayer, I don't think the AI can handle it so the AI shouldn't need line of sight
    • What happened to building roads/highways?
    • There are barely any pitched battles on the map
    o Next time the AI should be deployed OUTSIDE the settlement at startup
    • Too much of my screen is taken up with panels
    o unit panel, map panel, advice panel are all too big and need to be made smaller
    • Unit sizes are too small
    o I would rather have huge armies with the unit detail of Rome 1 than tiny armies with realistic details (my computer agrees with me on this)
    o I don't need to see ****ing facial expressions--its a strategy game!
    • There is hardly any need for unit formation and 'strategy' because it's just bash and smash
    • Character portraits are ****ing ugly for anyone running on anything other than extreme (and even then they are ugly)
    o drawings would have been better than computer generated images
    • The music is boring, repetitive, and I swear some of the music is recycled from Empire
    • The UI is cluttered, confusing, and isn't centralized around any particular buttons
    • Ram/board button is broken for navel battles    … Expand
  50. BlackJackTomato
    Sep 5, 2013
    9
    Best TW ever. Period
    TW are always a game about create a giant army and fight against giant armies. Rome II was the first step to be less TOTAL WAR and litte more Grand Strategy, and I love it.
    The game have bugs, yes, but my PC runs the game well, the IA is bad, like all TW. "OH THE GAME IS A CRAP BAD OPTIMIZATION, BAD GAME, CA IS THE WORST COMPANY EVER" CA is fixing it, and you    Best TW ever. Period
    TW are always a game about create a giant army and fight against giant armies. Rome II was the first step to be less TOTAL WAR and litte more Grand Strategy, and I love it.

    The game have bugs, yes, but my PC runs the game well, the IA is bad, like all TW.

    "OH THE GAME IS A CRAP BAD OPTIMIZATION, BAD GAME, CA IS THE WORST COMPANY EVER"
    CA is fixing it, and you play Rome II in December and say, Oh, the game is... cool.

    Rome II patches 10/10

    Contragulations CA!    … Expand
  51. Doctor-J
    Sep 5, 2013
    4
    The AI is completely broken, the battles in a city have no strategy at all, there are f0ck1ng special powers in the mid of the battle, i feel like i'm playing a MOBA, and I HATE MOBAs!!! I really miss the General Speech, it was one the favorite features in Rome TW. I'm really disappointed with this game, specially because they probably won't add the speeches back so soon, or maybe not atThe AI is completely broken, the battles in a city have no strategy at all, there are f0ck1ng special powers in the mid of the battle, i feel like i'm playing a MOBA, and I HATE MOBAs!!! I really miss the General Speech, it was one the favorite features in Rome TW. I'm really disappointed with this game, specially because they probably won't add the speeches back so soon, or maybe not at all. The reason i like Total War games is because they're games about history and realistic battles, not some goddamn MOBAs that have no strategy at all! This Game needs a ENORMOUS patch...… Expand
  52. HectorofTroy
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    Very disappointed. Diplomacy is still terrible, political affairs are nonexistent, CAI is brain dead, BAI can be atrocious at times, naval warfare is broken, units and stats are very unbalanced, there are bugs, capture point battles are laughable...What else can I say?

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

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

    Once again, let' see what modders will be able to come up with to make up for CA's incompetence.    … Expand
  53. SethP2343
    Sep 5, 2013
    6
    I have to say that if you are giving this game a rating of 4 or below, you obviously have never played other games such as Citadels or Space Marines...be fair in your reviews and don't rate 0 just because you are bitter.

    I am, however, containing a little bit of my own resentment towards Rome II. THE BAD: The game just feels clunky, as a summary. The AI is very unsophisticated and    I have to say that if you are giving this game a rating of 4 or below, you obviously have never played other games such as Citadels or Space Marines...be fair in your reviews and don't rate 0 just because you are bitter.

    I am, however, containing a little bit of my own resentment towards Rome II.
    THE BAD: The game just feels clunky, as a summary. The AI is very unsophisticated and predictable, in both the campaign map and the battlefield. The city management UI is bothersome, as it doesn't allow one to micromanage his own cities individually in order to react to regional dynamics. Being unable to move units around freely without a general is annoying while being able to recruit soldiers into an army from pretty much anywhere is unrealistic. The amount of time it takes for each turn to being is MUCH too long, as the game cycles through every single nation instead of just the ones in your immediate vicinity. A few historical inaccuracies as well, such as the Iceni were located in Northern Britain until they revolted to Roman rule, with Boudicca's forces driving the empire all the way to southern Britain until their final defeat in what was to be the last battle for the English Isles.

    The Good: The graphics are quite beautiful on stronger PCs. The progression and upgrading ability of experienced armies, as well as the ability to name individual armies is pretty badass. The sheer span of the cities on the campaign map as well as the stances your army can have while moving or defending is pretty awesome as well. Some units are pretty darn interesting as well, such as War Dogs. The ability to promote your generals and statesmen was also a cool idea.

    Summary: Though there are some cool new aspects to the game, most of them are overshadowed by serious drawbacks. I look forward to patches being released as well as what the modding community has to offer to the table.    … Expand
  54. wud9
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    1. The game is way too simplified, only fun for dumb youths.
    2. My 6 months old chihuahua is 9 billion times smarter than the AI.
    3. The battles are just mini-games with fancy graphics. 3 things that make up for a real Total War game. 3 most important things that the dev should have focused on. 3 most disappointing things from this game. I'm a fan of this series. I've been    1. The game is way too simplified, only fun for dumb youths.
    2. My 6 months old chihuahua is 9 billion times smarter than the AI.
    3. The battles are just mini-games with fancy graphics.

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

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

    Thanks. But no thanks.

    PS.. CA may have made cash with this one. But remember CA, that not many customers get fooled twice or three times or four times or another time. Hahahahaha.    … Expand
  55. Mourning
    Sep 5, 2013
    10
    This game has been in my cross hairs since I heard about release and I am not disappointed. I have read complaints of bad frame rates or lag though I don't seem to have any of these issues on my PC. The AI can be a little lacking the former letter of the name (namely the intelligence) but I think it still does a very good job of keeping you entertained.

    As value for money goes I see    This game has been in my cross hairs since I heard about release and I am not disappointed. I have read complaints of bad frame rates or lag though I don't seem to have any of these issues on my PC. The AI can be a little lacking the former letter of the name (namely the intelligence) but I think it still does a very good job of keeping you entertained.

    As value for money goes I see myself investing a lot of time in this game making it great value!

    Normally I would only rate at 7 or 8 but my love for the total war series bulks it up to a full 10    … Expand
  56. baojin
    Sep 5, 2013
    8
    This game is quite good even if there have been a lot of changes compared to every other total war. They might be confusing at first but might prove interesting in the long run.

    Graphics are good except the characters (generals, agents...) portraits in the campaign map which look low quality somehow. Battles are very dynamic and interesting, much deadlier than before which reflects the    This game is quite good even if there have been a lot of changes compared to every other total war. They might be confusing at first but might prove interesting in the long run.

    Graphics are good except the characters (generals, agents...) portraits in the campaign map which look low quality somehow. Battles are very dynamic and interesting, much deadlier than before which reflects the savage times.

    The sea+land battles aren't really great but maybe it gets better with higher technology tier.

    The AI is still more or less the same, a darthmod will probably make the game much better... but so far it's quite good.

    Performance wise, i guess people who complain got hamster-powered PCs, everything's on extreme here and i just have an i5 3570k a GTX 660 TI and it's smooth like hell so a decent rig but nowhere near high end. Just some textures look kinda bad sometimes, i guess some DLC will fix it. Also, loading times are much, much, much better than shogun II which took aeons to load.

    The only thing that still didn't change and still doesn't make one bit of a sense is that if u defeat a faction, along with ur allies and that u turn this faction as ur "client state", your allies are still at war with it. It's absurd. It was the same in Shogun...

    I don't know about all the crying on the family tree. U guys played 2 minutes or what Or u don't understand the whole new concept they created for senate control It's not about a dynasty anymore, it's about a whole family that has to rule Rome.

    Idem for generals, they are generals a set number of years, then they change job, so you have to renew them.

    Stop crying everytime someone is innovating or go develop yourself a total war game.    … Expand
  57. Yoshi1
    Sep 5, 2013
    2
    This game feels unfinished and very buggy. This is my first total war game and I expected a whole lot better then this. The overall graphics are not great even on the highest setting. I saw many graphical glitches and awful textures especial for the landscape looks like it was made in 2005. The A.I. Is pretty awful and the battles between enemies is almost hard to watch its so bad. ManyThis game feels unfinished and very buggy. This is my first total war game and I expected a whole lot better then this. The overall graphics are not great even on the highest setting. I saw many graphical glitches and awful textures especial for the landscape looks like it was made in 2005. The A.I. Is pretty awful and the battles between enemies is almost hard to watch its so bad. Many A.I that are not on the front line will just stand there and wait until the soldier in front has died instead of actually fighting. The tutorial is awful and doesn't really teach the player how to play correctly. The U.I. is poorly executed and the game doesn't give the player a sense of accomplishment or reward for good strategies and tactics, The game play is sub par and after completing a tutorial it doesn't tell you what you could have corrected or what kinds of mistakes you made. Overall the game still feels like its in alpha or beta and really has some potential but its very poorly executed.… Expand
  58. njsfc
    Sep 5, 2013
    2
    This is not a TOTAL WAR GAME
    this is a crap arcade console game released in the PC market just to make profit
    from people expectations.

    After this release any company could sell poison on refresh bottles and simple say
    "this is our vision of a proper refresh" drink and die.
  59. XxMetalMartyrxX
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    What a broken game this is! I'm packing an ATI Radeon 7970 3GB and the game pre-selects "Extreme" for the graphics settings, and I get around 10fps on the campaign map. WHAT A JOKE! Oh, might I also add that the Roman legions are RIDICULOUSLY OP. I can defend an entire city with 200 Legionaries against thousands and I'll walk out with maybe 5 of my own dead. I know the Romans were tough,What a broken game this is! I'm packing an ATI Radeon 7970 3GB and the game pre-selects "Extreme" for the graphics settings, and I get around 10fps on the campaign map. WHAT A JOKE! Oh, might I also add that the Roman legions are RIDICULOUSLY OP. I can defend an entire city with 200 Legionaries against thousands and I'll walk out with maybe 5 of my own dead. I know the Romans were tough, but heck they weren't THAT TOUGH.

    Regardless, what a rip off this was. Next time delay your game if it's still in pre-alpha...    … Expand
  60. Ookame
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    Great potential..... few nice changes... that were TOTALLY anihilated by bugs, AI and the lack of features that were present in previous TW titles. Examples: no way to defend cities no walls, and no you can't build them no guard mode, javelins thrown only at charge, way to fast battles, land armies that can defeat fleets CAPTURE POINTS and most of the time very retarded AI.

    C' mon    Great potential..... few nice changes... that were TOTALLY anihilated by bugs, AI and the lack of features that were present in previous TW titles. Examples: no way to defend cities no walls, and no you can't build them no guard mode, javelins thrown only at charge, way to fast battles, land armies that can defeat fleets CAPTURE POINTS and most of the time very retarded AI.

    C' mon CA you can do better than that. Big warning from me, it's a shame i have been your client from first shogun and rome 2 was last product that i bought with pre order.    … Expand
  61. MDLion
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    we all know the issue by now. the game is a stripped down console version and total war is dead. the critic reviews are total garbage and flat out lies.

    how can you mark a game so highly when its literally a broken game that's unfinished as well as missing all of the series features.

    shame on you all for that. shame on you.
  62. stevengamer
    Sep 5, 2013
    8
    i love this game and know that what ever bugs there are they will fix like the ai, and ai have played for 40 hours so far and still love it but they need ti fix the public order thing
  63. Jexiah8bit
    Sep 5, 2013
    4
    As someone said, publishers have used the digital age to turn us all into suckers who beta test their "finished games" only after paying full price. Total War: Rome 2 is the penultimate example of this. If you do not believe me, youtube the glitches and bugs in the AI and game design. You will be astounded. For my experience, I can only say that this is a new low and I am deeply troubledAs someone said, publishers have used the digital age to turn us all into suckers who beta test their "finished games" only after paying full price. Total War: Rome 2 is the penultimate example of this. If you do not believe me, youtube the glitches and bugs in the AI and game design. You will be astounded. For my experience, I can only say that this is a new low and I am deeply troubled by the scores most "professional" game sites are giving this game.… Expand
  64. Praetorian_bgx
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    As someone that is following TW franchise from first release, i was unpleasantly surprised with RTW2. Past experience with Warscape engine sent clear warning many times. I guess i believed that they can't let their biggest title fail in such a horrible way. Rome Total war was a game that allowed them to expand and experiment with rest of sequels. MTW2 followed that line on great level andAs someone that is following TW franchise from first release, i was unpleasantly surprised with RTW2. Past experience with Warscape engine sent clear warning many times. I guess i believed that they can't let their biggest title fail in such a horrible way. Rome Total war was a game that allowed them to expand and experiment with rest of sequels. MTW2 followed that line on great level and combined with mods its one of the best games ever.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Rating 1 Just because campaign map still looks beautiful    … Expand
  65. pedosupreme
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    Are you FUKIN kidding me? this is a absolutely disgraceful game, this is daylight robbery. why? well...

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

    1) no refund, have fun with that.

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

    3) Bad performance period. (in all aspects)

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

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

    6) Day 1 DLC (red flags)

    7) completely ignored the fans.

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

    9) 60$

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

    Biggest over hyped game of 2013

    final) do not buy this, if you own it, try to get a refund if you can immediately.    … Expand
  66. Fhear
    Sep 5, 2013
    4
    I will do it in a summit:
    Positive points:
    + Campaign Map is BIG, detailed and good designed for the gameplay + Many Factions with mostly individual units(no more hundreds of rebellion cities) + Provinces are a good idea + Diplomacy: Even if it's kinda buggy right now, and your diplomacy partners s.t. do illogical things, THEY actually join you in fights! Negative Points: - the    I will do it in a summit:
    Positive points:
    + Campaign Map is BIG, detailed and good designed for the gameplay
    + Many Factions with mostly individual units(no more hundreds of rebellion cities)
    + Provinces are a good idea
    + Diplomacy: Even if it's kinda buggy right now, and your diplomacy partners s.t. do illogical things, THEY actually join you in fights!

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

    Maybe they will patch it back to life    … Expand
  67. Ukgamer
    Sep 5, 2013
    7
    The game is great but a lot of bugs and lag at the min that's the reason for a 7 maybe ill give it a 9 or 10 when they sort the game out i don't see why all the hate is on the game i think is not too bad the way it is now
  68. leeroybrown151
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    Well where do I begin? Its hard to put my utter dissapointment into words here really! Have been playing the TW Series since Shogun all those moons ago and have been playing games much to my wifes disgust since 86. I LOVE my games! And nowadays consider myself to be more picky about where I spend my money, so RTW2 was seen by myself as an essential purchase, more fool me, shame on me to beWell where do I begin? Its hard to put my utter dissapointment into words here really! Have been playing the TW Series since Shogun all those moons ago and have been playing games much to my wifes disgust since 86. I LOVE my games! And nowadays consider myself to be more picky about where I spend my money, so RTW2 was seen by myself as an essential purchase, more fool me, shame on me to be honest!

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

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

    DO NOT BUY NOW! Wait if you eventually must line their pockets till at least December when modders who wont see a penny of your cash help you potentially love this game.    … Expand
  69. Selcer
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    I want to start out with: This game works fine on my system. The sad fact is they took my favorite title in the franchise and turned it into a shambling patchwork abomination of bad ideas. They have added nothing to the original franchise. They have only stripped everything great about a total war series game and replaced it with a game that looks like it could be played on facebook inI want to start out with: This game works fine on my system. The sad fact is they took my favorite title in the franchise and turned it into a shambling patchwork abomination of bad ideas. They have added nothing to the original franchise. They have only stripped everything great about a total war series game and replaced it with a game that looks like it could be played on facebook in flash or a web browser.

    Without going into major detail the game has been simplified into basically a really bad RTS game. No longer will you weight the consequences of capturing a settlement with a lacking economy or raiding outlying buildings of your neighbor. Everything has been lumped together and simplified without any thought to the imbalances between factions this could cause. The battles themselves (which is all you'll be doing) end up as a blob of troops fighting where the opposition breaks and runs early regardless of odds. And like running your enemies down for xp afterwards? Hope you enjoy scanning the map for each individual troop because there is no mini map. I could go on and on but I will sum it up as this:

    Even when this game works flawlessly (which it doesnt for many), it is still an incredibly simple and boring game lacking all the details that makes a total war game unique.

    This game is a crime against nature only to be enjoyed by 12 year olds on their parents ipads.    … Expand
  70. Minderrx
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    his game failed its Total War predecessors. It is too fast paced, it´s hard to actually "feel" the game and immerse in to it, because of the new campaign, in which you just don´t give a what happens next. Diplomacy is ok but could stil use improvement (especially the trade agreements).
    But the battles! Oh my god, they suck balls. Even with high tier units, the battles tend to last at ma…    his game failed its Total War predecessors. It is too fast paced, it´s hard to actually "feel" the game and immerse in to it, because of the new campaign, in which you just don´t give a what happens next. Diplomacy is ok but could stil use improvement (especially the trade agreements).
    But the battles! Oh my god, they suck balls. Even with high tier units, the battles tend to last at ma… Expand
    Helpful? 18 of 23 users said Yes. All this user's reviews
    Necromonger Sep 4, 2013 0 Extremely disapointed and i see revieuws of this game scoring 9 and 9.5 Do game revieuwers get payed these days This game isnt even in Beta stage, seriously what an abomination... I got a beast of a system and it runs crap, crashes, textures bugs, politics what politics insane wait times per turn... I wait a few months to the modders can fix this game as the originel is jus… Expand    … Expand
  71. MorganShlorgan
    Sep 5, 2013
    10
    As a devoted TW fan, I have been waiting for this for almost 10 years, and it does not disappoint. Every aspect has been improved upon and by god is it addicting. It may suffer from a few bugs here and there, but that doesn't take away from the fact that it is an extremely entertaining and well crafted game. All TW games are massive, and therefore it takes a few patches to fix the stuffAs a devoted TW fan, I have been waiting for this for almost 10 years, and it does not disappoint. Every aspect has been improved upon and by god is it addicting. It may suffer from a few bugs here and there, but that doesn't take away from the fact that it is an extremely entertaining and well crafted game. All TW games are massive, and therefore it takes a few patches to fix the stuff that's broken. But this is already a great experience. Thank you, CA, thank you for a great game.

    And hopefully the idiots that plague this page will get some common sense and realize that making games is difficult, and that their doesn't help.    … Expand
  72. razmachaz_69
    Sep 5, 2013
    2
    So disappointed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Adios CA. Rome 2 was a waste of 10 years ''work''    … Expand
  73. andre_nqml
    Sep 5, 2013
    9
    This game is basically CA lying to us players during all development stage. First of all, they released the "pre-alpha" gameplay footage and said the game would look even better than that. First lie. The game doesn't look like that not even on the strongest PCs. They also kept emphasizing the entire video that they were going for a darker feel of war. What we get is almost a capture theThis game is basically CA lying to us players during all development stage. First of all, they released the "pre-alpha" gameplay footage and said the game would look even better than that. First lie. The game doesn't look like that not even on the strongest PCs. They also kept emphasizing the entire video that they were going for a darker feel of war. What we get is almost a capture the flag, and a bunch of special abilities (known as magical abilities). More of an arcade feel of war.

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

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

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

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

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

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

    I'll stop here, but those are not the only bad things about the game. It's still pretty much a beta version, and I don't think that many of the bad things about the game are patchable. They can patch the AI, the graphics, the animations, but for the content, I guess we'll have to wait for mods. They said over and over again that it was going to be the best total war game ever. They created a huge hype over it. They set our expectations extremely high. I bought it on pre-sale, and it wasn't cheap. I feel really disrespected.    … Expand
  74. Infernius
    Sep 5, 2013
    10
    Truly an amazing game with endless opportunity. Sure the AI isn't the greatest but it doesn't take away from this great game. Many people re complaining of graphical problems but he developers stated they are fixing that and also adding new updates every week. Also for me personally my laptop isn' all that great and it can run the game on the setting extreme or ultra or whatever. OtherwiseTruly an amazing game with endless opportunity. Sure the AI isn't the greatest but it doesn't take away from this great game. Many people re complaining of graphical problems but he developers stated they are fixing that and also adding new updates every week. Also for me personally my laptop isn' all that great and it can run the game on the setting extreme or ultra or whatever. Otherwise the UI and interface take awhile to get used to but overall is a great step forward. The campaign map is huge and the province system is definitely a fun new take. The units are varied and will give a great immersion into it and you care about your armies when they have all those good traits and have won many a battle for you. MY only complaint is really the hoplites who were a bit strange but otherwise an amazing game that any TW fan will appreciate. Also people forget all TW games have bad launches it's expected that people will have issues but everyone always forgets this. Still overall runs great for me and I'm enjoying the challenge of crushing my enemies in the long awaited new Rome 2. And of course there's gonna be mods which can make this great game even greater. My advice is this game is well worth the price and you should definitely pick it up.… Expand
  75. Leving
    Sep 5, 2013
    2
    Perhaps the worst game in the Total War series. Poor graphical optimization combined with weak, campaign mechanics and real time battles signal a major step back for Total War.
  76. p0rtus
    Sep 5, 2013
    2
    Though I love Total War games and believe that they are among the greatest games of any genre ever made, I can't say that I was impressed. The battle graphics are horrible, especially when you zoom out, and the diplomacy is also terrible. The custom battle maps are also very bad, with the fact that there are barely any buildings, and the AI players are absolutely horrible! Quality of theThough I love Total War games and believe that they are among the greatest games of any genre ever made, I can't say that I was impressed. The battle graphics are horrible, especially when you zoom out, and the diplomacy is also terrible. The custom battle maps are also very bad, with the fact that there are barely any buildings, and the AI players are absolutely horrible! Quality of the game is very low.… Expand
  77. Kante
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    Quake 2 like graphics due to untweakable bugs, dummy AI, strange stuttering? (Benny hill sensation).
    Seems a bit rushed to release but it could have good potential if improved. Lot of tweaking/optimization needed.
    Maybe it will be fixed someday, i'd suggest waiting on buy, you could have a better experience at a lower price.
  78. iopuge
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    i would love this game if only the price would be 5 dollars. No way I will pay 80 bucks for this glitchy crap.

    This horrible game has serious problems:

    - AI is not working properly

    - UI is retarded

    - Optimization was lost somewhere in CA office

    -Only 4 historic battles. WTF? Lazy developers!

    -Graphics are awful

    WANT MY MONEY BACK!!
  79. Robert_Capu
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    Honestly this game deserves 4 out of 10 but I will give it a solid zero. Why? Because I am tired being CA beta tester which pays 60 euros for unfinished product. I am tired that developers from CA make each new TW more simple and casual than old games. I am tired of terrible AI which is absolute embarrassment. SEGA and CA are big fat liers!
  80. sleven06
    Sep 5, 2013
    10
    People who have issues in this game ALL have dated pc or they just too stupid to update they drivers...Whit over 27hrs of gameplay, I did NOT encounter ANY bugs.Once they gonna had the blood pack, its gonna be a SOLID 10.A FYI, IA DOES suprise you when play on legendary, the one who mention that he can beat 3 armies whit one is clearly bull*****.Best TW so far, don't listen to dumb peoplePeople who have issues in this game ALL have dated pc or they just too stupid to update they drivers...Whit over 27hrs of gameplay, I did NOT encounter ANY bugs.Once they gonna had the blood pack, its gonna be a SOLID 10.A FYI, IA DOES suprise you when play on legendary, the one who mention that he can beat 3 armies whit one is clearly bull*****.Best TW so far, don't listen to dumb people who don't know how to build a gaming pc.… Expand
  81. Maiser
    Sep 5, 2013
    7
    This is not a rage review, i can play it without any lag. I will omit all rage critics because of crashes(even tough they are several atm), because i expect they will solve it. I will just review it as a "non-poluted" game.

    -Worse graphics than shogun 2 total war. -AI, as bad as always. -Commerce destroyed. You can only commerce from your capital, if you have not sea near(or even    This is not a rage review, i can play it without any lag. I will omit all rage critics because of crashes(even tough they are several atm), because i expect they will solve it. I will just review it as a "non-poluted" game.

    -Worse graphics than shogun 2 total war.

    -AI, as bad as always.

    -Commerce destroyed. You can only commerce from your capital, if you have not sea near(or even if you have it and can not build a port for god´s know why) forget it.

    -City improvement system destroyed. How is this that the avarage of buildings for a city are 4 fully improved and can never be more? Ridiculous.

    -Battle system destroyed. The longes battle you will play will last 10 minutes. Units just route in about 20 seconds at most. No blood or nothing, you do not realise if units have fought or not. Also the "epicness" of cities you expected, forget it.

    You are paying for "the popularity" of the franchise, not for the game itself. Did not expect this from CA taking in account it has been the most financed game of all the franchise. They must have spend it in publicity or something, as otherwhise i do not understand how did they got up with this.

    Neither the UI neither the battles makes you feel like "yes, finally i managed to capture this! It is just so arcade and feeling less.

    To sum up i would say a mediocre-good game, but a bad game to be from total war saga. Entertaining but without getting you enthusiastic on it.

    P.D: I have played all total war games since rome total war.    … Expand
  82. Runeweld
    Sep 5, 2013
    8
    This game was exactly what I was expecting, sure it's no Game of the Year, but it hit all the right spots. For the people who complain about the AI, try turning up the difficulty until it suits your experience. I have played many Total War games and this one has by far the best AI. The UI is fine, there is absolutely nothing to complain about, and it is not a "strong" argument to why thisThis game was exactly what I was expecting, sure it's no Game of the Year, but it hit all the right spots. For the people who complain about the AI, try turning up the difficulty until it suits your experience. I have played many Total War games and this one has by far the best AI. The UI is fine, there is absolutely nothing to complain about, and it is not a "strong" argument to why this game has a low score. Cinematics are crap, but I do not think that the Total War team had a cinematic crew so I give slack on that. Obviously a brand new game is going to have some bugs! So stop complaining and let them patch the big problems before you give it a low score! Also this game, WITH all the normal release bugs that many games have, does not deserve a 0 out of 10. I dont think many people realize it, but a 0 out of 10 would imply it is one of the worst games of all time, which is far from correct. If people with nice computers are trying to run this game at Ultra then DONT, the technology is ahead of its time and unlike some games where nice computers can go to the MAX setting, this game has ALOT to load. This game is much different from Shogun 2, in both good and bad ways. Personally i see them as two different styles of Total War. The multiplayer is obviously going to have some problems, multiplayer is NOT something easily tested in Beta and they need their 1.0 be a dry run WITH actual players. So don't jump the gun on this game yet, because giving it a low score for the ENTIRE game just because it needs a few patches is just sad. All in all, yeah it NEEDS a few patches, but besides that its a damn good Total War game. Everyone is jumping the gun here, so instead of raging at the internet try to write some REAL reviews for this game.… Expand
  83. gilly93
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    The games should never have been released in its current state for the following reasons:
    - Poorly optimized
    - Removal of popular features for no good reason e.g fire at will for infantry, guard mode, tight/loose and no family tree. - CA have simplified the game for the masses in terms of game play and UI, it looks like they have consoles in mind e.g tech trees and less facts and    The games should never have been released in its current state for the following reasons:
    - Poorly optimized
    - Removal of popular features for no good reason e.g fire at will for infantry, guard mode, tight/loose and no family tree.
    - CA have simplified the game for the masses in terms of game play and UI, it looks like they have consoles in mind e.g tech trees and less facts and figures
    - AI is useless, armies made up of skirmishers and the AI has tactical awareness above rushing the flag or standing still
    - Game play is arcadey in terms of 2 minute battles because of game speed, also stupid magical abilities and the units lose all tactical cohesion breaking formation and forming a large blob
    -Worst idea is the frustrating capture points which remove any strategy in battles as I'm forced to defend an open field and can lose a battle despite having 20units left to the AI's 1, IMO this addition is just a cheap way of simplifying the AI path finding as it forces both armies to a single spot
    - Many many glitches on both campaign and battle maps
    - Most annoying aspect is many of the problems are clear to gamers within a few hours of playing so this shows CA are either completely inept and haven't tested their game or consulted their core fan base or they knew of the problems and released the game regardless either way next time I wont be buying the game on day one or per-ordering as I'm not interested in paying CA to be their game tester.    … Expand
  84. AlexWizz
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    I would like to get my money back because of false advertising. Shogun 2 was a great game, but this one is crappy mess. So many things are missing: family trees, walls in minor cities, old building system and population numbers. UI is terrible! Worst game of 2013!
  85. Dzeus
    Sep 5, 2013
    10
    In response to the most user negative reviews, is that the game does not suck, YOU SUCK. Wanna know why?

    Because the staff that made the game are human, and have a limited budget, (sorry for all the self-entitled folks who had outer space expectations) No, the new unit cards are not ugly, they are refreshing and antique like Campaign looks cool not to mention the new system they    In response to the most user negative reviews, is that the game does not suck, YOU SUCK. Wanna know why?

    Because the staff that made the game are human, and have a limited budget, (sorry for all the self-entitled folks who had outer space expectations)

    No, the new unit cards are not ugly, they are refreshing and antique like

    Campaign looks cool not to mention the new system they implemented,, and the battles are great too

    Having a general in your army is logical, after all the general is the head of the army... Meaning, anyone who thinks this is stupid should go back playing GTA.

    While the game is great, it still has some weak parts:

    1. Graphic problems for a lot of PC's
    2. Low FPS

    I am hoping the upcoming patches show that this game is still a diamond in the rough...    … Expand
  86. EchelonEffect
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    Shame on everyone involved in the production of this game, and shame on the publications that were obviously paid handsomely by Sega to give it positive reviews. Charging 60 dollars for what amounts to a game that could barely be considered to be in its beta stage, and THEN throwing in day 1 DLC on top of it is absolutely reprehensible. A GTX Titan, which will run you 1,000 dollars, isShame on everyone involved in the production of this game, and shame on the publications that were obviously paid handsomely by Sega to give it positive reviews. Charging 60 dollars for what amounts to a game that could barely be considered to be in its beta stage, and THEN throwing in day 1 DLC on top of it is absolutely reprehensible. A GTX Titan, which will run you 1,000 dollars, is barely capable of running this game. Unless you've got a NASA supercomputer, avoid this pile of trash like the plague.… Expand
  87. KontraKommando
    Sep 5, 2013
    8
    Rome II: Total War has potential to be a better game; I hope the development team pays close attention to their community. First off, give us the option to disable capture the flag on open field battles. It really is unrealistic, and nonsensical. I had a clearly superior force, up against a virtually defeated enemy, and I had lost the battle just because they had one unit in the flag zoneRome II: Total War has potential to be a better game; I hope the development team pays close attention to their community. First off, give us the option to disable capture the flag on open field battles. It really is unrealistic, and nonsensical. I had a clearly superior force, up against a virtually defeated enemy, and I had lost the battle just because they had one unit in the flag zone for 50 seconds. At first I was very confused at what had happened, and thought to myself, the game must have made some kind of mistake. As for bugs, I haven’t noticed many, but my rig is fairly powerful. Had an issue with the graphics, but have not really gotten around to making the fix CA had recommend. This is something they really should have worked out, beforehand. The user-interface is not as helpful as past Total War games; important information needs to be displayed more clearly. Moreover, the art-style for buttons and symbols are very confusing, and take some time to get accustomed to. It becomes a chore to right-click on each ability, unit, and promotion, just to see what effect it has. Naval combat is currently broken, therefore I just auto-resolve with each battle. The voice acting is done well; it reminds me of the countless British historical movies and productions based on ancient Rome. The cinematic feature is enjoyable as well; as you look on to see your troops fighting for their lives. The game is pretty immersive, as troops look individual from one another. Occasionally, you’ll hear them say something humorous, followed by a scolding from their commanding officers. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the faction system, but honestly, I felt that they should have expanded more on the way it was implemented in the first Rome: Total War. Again, the horrendous interface serves to detach you from the individual units, as it makes upgrading, and simply viewing one of your generals a chore.
    The verdict:
    Rome II: Total war has the potential to be a very good game, but this will take time. To anyone thinking of buying this game, I would recommend waiting a bit, for patches, as well as a discount on Steam. I will grant R2: TW an 8, even though it really deserves a 7 or even a 6, for its initial flaws. But I will give it an 8, because nowadays, most games are sold unfinished, Rome II is no exception. After all, Civilization 5 was initial a piece of garbage, today, it is a game worthy of the series after extensive patches and DLC.    … Expand
  88. NL-Woody
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    First Aliens
    Then Company of Heroes
    and now Total war.

    Its time for SEGA to go bankrupt, all they care about is quick money grab. They are ruining my 2 favourite franchises Coh and TW. you SEGA piece of
  89. Damascus
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    This 0/10 is for the price of Rome II and for exploiting the DLC-concept far beyond the point of shame. At this point it doesn't even matter what the game has to offer.
  90. Person012345
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    To summarize but a few faults of the game: Awful UI, confusing campaign map that leaves me wondering "why?", broken mechanics (such as overpowered transports), huge turn times and worst of all unengaging tactical battles that leave little room for tactics. It has a bunch of technical issues as well but those might get solved. The game has sacrificed the TW soul and I don't feel compelledTo summarize but a few faults of the game: Awful UI, confusing campaign map that leaves me wondering "why?", broken mechanics (such as overpowered transports), huge turn times and worst of all unengaging tactical battles that leave little room for tactics. It has a bunch of technical issues as well but those might get solved. The game has sacrificed the TW soul and I don't feel compelled to play it. Playing it for any period of time leaves me feeling empty.

    I wouldn't say that it was a "bad" game per se. Maybe those who are new to the series or not expecting greatness may enjoy it. But it doesn't -feel- like a total war game and I can't recommend it to anyone who is looking for a true successor to Rome.    … Expand
  91. skorostrel
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    Do not buy this product. It is unfinished, and is simply a re-skinning of a game that launched many, many years ago. The bugs and issues with the old game (Rome 1) have not been fixed some of them have actually gotten worse!

    This was an over-hyped product that was never finished, properly tested, or suitable for release. Perhaps a year from now it might be worth looking at again.
  92. BrianU
    Sep 5, 2013
    7
    Overall, a rare misstep from the Total War team. I've been a Total War fan since the first Shogun, and I can't help but feel slightly disappointed. That said, there are a number of plusses, too.

    Pros: Lots of factions to explore, tons of replayability as per usual. Naval battles are streamlined (thank God), plus the addition of naval vessels disgorging troops into the land battles is    Overall, a rare misstep from the Total War team. I've been a Total War fan since the first Shogun, and I can't help but feel slightly disappointed. That said, there are a number of plusses, too.

    Pros: Lots of factions to explore, tons of replayability as per usual. Naval battles are streamlined (thank God), plus the addition of naval vessels disgorging troops into the land battles is awesome. Everything looks great (if somewhat brown). The strategic (that is, big map) AI is much better than before: you won't have weak one-city factions suicidally declaring war on your enormous empire anymore, a major problem I've had for a while. The perma-Legion system is cool, though I'd like to name them myself. The province UI system, while taking some getting used to, is actually not that bad after a while.

    Cons: I have no idea how to work the politics part of the game. The new strategic UI is confusing at first, even for a veteran player like myself. Tutorial is lackluster and poor at acclimating the player to the UI. Tactical AI remains poor, actually a step back from Shogun 2, *especially* when they are attacking or defending a town; enemy missile troops will as often run straight into your cohorts as throw their javelins at you. AI is still bad at creating balanced armies, making most of the battles pushovers if you have a balanced force. Occasional lag. Rather long end-turn sequence, 2+ minutes at worst (there's a lot of factions, so this may be unavoidable. Still, I've found myself alt-tabbing to do something else after I hit the "End Turn" button). When you take the last town of a faction, what remains of their armies will bash themselves repeatedly against whatever towns you have near them, chicken-with-its-head-cut-off style, until they run out of troops.

    I think this game needed a bit more polish, and feels rushed in places. I'm going to blame this one on the publisher, unless someone informs me otherwise. I don't regret my purchase and will continue to play, but I can't help feel let down, and look forward to some patches at the very least.    … Expand
  93. beltrazZ
    Sep 5, 2013
    5
    After 16 hours played, I suddenly realise during my Iceni campaign on legendary difficulty, that i´m not enjoying the new game in my favorite game franchise. The AI is so defensive it´s ridiculous. Usually a single region state just sits with 2 full armies at their capital and does nothing. Trying to get trade agreements with any other nation is a nightmare. The AI remains the main problemAfter 16 hours played, I suddenly realise during my Iceni campaign on legendary difficulty, that i´m not enjoying the new game in my favorite game franchise. The AI is so defensive it´s ridiculous. Usually a single region state just sits with 2 full armies at their capital and does nothing. Trying to get trade agreements with any other nation is a nightmare. The AI remains the main problem of the franchise. In Shogun 2 it was actually pretty good in my opinion but this is such a downgrade. The flagpoints in the battles are broken. There is no strategy when the flagpoints are active. And don´t even get me started on the naval battles. The ramming and boarding button is broken to me and my units simply don´t follow my orders. And the FPS is always low in the campaign map for some reason. It´s fine in the battles (mostly) but in the campaign map it just isn´t smooth. I really, really hope that they will release some big patches and gameplay tweaks. Please Creative Assembly, fix this mess of a game that you have just released. Make it as good or better then the first rome.… Expand
  94. Lex_Luger
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    This game has a massive cpu bottleneck. No cpu at stock speed is fast enough to run this game, espeically siege battles involving capitol cities.

    From what i hear this game only uses 4 threads. Hyperthreaded 4 core cpu's run faster with hyperthreading turned off. If the game is bottlenecking on fast 4 core cpu's, dont even think about trying to run this game with 2 core cpu. Also, since    This game has a massive cpu bottleneck. No cpu at stock speed is fast enough to run this game, espeically siege battles involving capitol cities.

    From what i hear this game only uses 4 threads. Hyperthreaded 4 core cpu's run faster with hyperthreading turned off. If the game is bottlenecking on fast 4 core cpu's, dont even think about trying to run this game with 2 core cpu. Also, since game can only use 4 threads, AMD 8000 series FX cpu's dont stand a chance unless overclocked to the moon.

    To put it into perspective, my intel 2500k processor at 4.8 had a bottleneck on the main cpu thread. It was running at 100 percent, with other 3 cores running at about 60 percent. So a intel 2500k at 4.8 isnt fast enough to run siege battle properly in this game.

    What I think happened is the game was compiled with SSE 2.0 instuction set in order to ensure max compatibility. Problem is SSE 4 has been out since 2008 and no cpu that isnt a quad has any business trying to run this game. I think if game was recompilied using the most modern instruction set like AVX, people with high end cpu's should be fine. Of course I could be wrong and game is already using latest cpu instructions, but I doubt it.

    Also Creative Assembly has already come out and blamed AMD and Nvidia for poor graphics drivers, which I believe is completly untrue. Yes, you need new drivers for crossfire and SLI, but single cards wont be seeing massive performance increase from new driver alone. CA has done this many times in the past. Medieval 2 had a problem with blob shadows on Nvidia dx10 hardware. CA came out and blamed nvidia for over a year until finally THEY FIXED the problem with the medieval 2 expansion kingdoms. (and never patched fix into main game)

    It wouldnt be the first game to include a AVX exec, as GRID 2 already has one, and it runs fine.    … Expand
  95. KingBuzzo15
    Sep 5, 2013
    8
    Don`t believe the critics. This game is outstanding, my only reservation was that some people do need it patching because of stability with certain system setups. I have been playing the series since Shogun 1 and they get better every time. Cant get enough of it
  96. Archebius
    Sep 5, 2013
    8
    I didn't want to write a review. I stay out of things like this. But in this case, I just can't the fact that everyone is all, "Oh, man, this aspect sucks! 0/10!" is just dumb. It might not have been what you were expecting, but there are very, very few games worth a 0/10 Superman 64 being an exception. Even that I'd give at least a 1 for the laughs. And the very few middle-groundI didn't want to write a review. I stay out of things like this. But in this case, I just can't the fact that everyone is all, "Oh, man, this aspect sucks! 0/10!" is just dumb. It might not have been what you were expecting, but there are very, very few games worth a 0/10 Superman 64 being an exception. Even that I'd give at least a 1 for the laughs. And the very few middle-ground reviews tells me that most people are just angry, and not actually reviewing the game fairly.

    Hence. My review.

    Let me begin by saying that it is not what I expected. It is extremely different from Rome. It's even different from Shogun II. If you champion Rome as the height of RTS brilliance, then you're going to hate this game, because it isn't that. It's not even close. The developers were aiming for a more realistic, historical game, and I think they achieved that.

    So what did they do to achieve this?

    1st they made the game slower. And I mean in almost every way. I just played through a campaign of both Rome and Medieval II, so I have a good comparison. Whereas on normal, as the Julii or Byzantines, you could conquer an entire subcontinent before stopping to take serious stock of your surroundings, here you move at a crawl. I'm on turn 70 or so, and I've just started moving into Gaul, after taking and securing Sicily and the three other Western Mediterranean Islands.

    2nd They adjusted city management, forcing you to differentiate cities, instead of having every city capable of everything.

    3rd They cleaned up the UI, at times making information much more frustrating to get to, at other times leaving it much more streamlined.

    4th They increased the rate of *time*. Whereas before you had seasons, now you just have the summer. This has the adverse effect of killing off your agents and generals much quicker.

    5th They attempted to make politics a bigger deal, instead of just having your family do everything. However, this attempt largely failed.

    Here's what I like and don't like:

    Like Expanding takes forever. Empires, not counting freaks of nature like Alexander, are not built at the speed that they are accomplished in Rome and Medieval and even, to an extent, Shogun and Empire. Right now, my homeland is the Italian Peninsula; I depend on that for well-trained and equipped soldiers. In no previous game have I ever had to consider that. I just took what I needed, and it was ready to be used when I got there, so I expanded out as a single wave. This is more like the tide rising.

    Like Diversified cities. I have trade cities, and I'm careful where I place them. Not every city does every thing.

    Like Limited generals. It forces you to pick and choose where to apply forces. Rome did not have people simultaneously conquering everything. Romans did not generally allow a single family to simply make all of its male children generals and statesmen and they certainly didn't have whole armies of offspring riding around on heavy cavalry, smashing through everything.

    Neutral on The AI. Somewhat better, somewhat worse. I was defeated during a siege because my victim's allies marched to his defense, just to aid in repelling my siege I have never had that happen in a TW game before. Additionally, in the open field, the AI makes better choices. The cities are cramped and crowded and the AI clearly has issues there. But, in Medieval, I halted the entire Timurid invasion with a couple cities of half-flags of basic units. Hard to say that the AI is worse, from what I've experienced.

    Neutral on the new UI. A lot of information is presented more cleanly than it ever was before. However, there are times that it falls flat. Seeing what the building trees are is very inconvenient, but not worse than in Shogun II.

    Don't like the lack of a family. I loved the family management side, marrying daughters, choosing which sons I wanted for what tasks. This is more realistic, but it is less fun.

    Don't like The poorly implemented politics system. So far, it hasn't had much impact on anything.

    Don't like The speed of the battles. Sometimes they last a while, but on the whole I'm reminded of Mechwarrior rounds with inexperienced players ten minutes jockeying for positions, and then everyone throws themselves screaming into the fray.

    Dumbest comments I've heard so far -
    "The slings have greater range than arrows lol FAIL" look up the wikipedia article on slings.
    "The unit cards took away all the information!" no, health is on the card, and if you hover over the unit, it shows you their moral, weariness, hard numbers, etc.
    "You just have to guess what the buildings are gonna do!" no, it shows you to the left, and in the encyclopedia. I've never been surprised by how much/little food I have.

    Summary it's a good game. It's not as good as I was hoping for, and the bugs are dismaying, but it's still solid and worth a little more than it's getting from TW "fans."    … Expand
  97. Kellax
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    First, I love the Total War series. TW is a testament to the endurance of the RTS genre, and to the loyal fan base. With that being said, this game is terrible.

    I started having issues with TW: Shogun 2 (CTD) for no apparent reason, and it's still unplayable due to the seemingly unfixable CTD problems. Rome: 2 is starting down this same path. I haven't been able to play it more than 15    First, I love the Total War series. TW is a testament to the endurance of the RTS genre, and to the loyal fan base. With that being said, this game is terrible.

    I started having issues with TW: Shogun 2 (CTD) for no apparent reason, and it's still unplayable due to the seemingly unfixable CTD problems. Rome: 2 is starting down this same path. I haven't been able to play it more than 15 minutes without it crashing, so I'm putting it down until that's fixed.

    The game isn't too confusing, however, the UI is poorly designed; I think the devs forgot they were making the game for other people. And they forgot that not everyone has the ability to purchase a top of the line Alienware PC.

    Maybe all of these negative comments will have an impact on CAs approach to this game, but I seriously doubt it.    … Expand
  98. Tyer032392
    Sep 5, 2013
    5
    I will not beat around the bush, this game has several major problems. There are plenty of bugs, glitches, graphics issues, and a horrible AI with UI. I can honestly see where CA was trying to go with this game, but they either did not have the time, or just ran out of budget; my money is on the time. If one can get through the problematic bugs and glitches, horrid AI and UI, you can findI will not beat around the bush, this game has several major problems. There are plenty of bugs, glitches, graphics issues, and a horrible AI with UI. I can honestly see where CA was trying to go with this game, but they either did not have the time, or just ran out of budget; my money is on the time. If one can get through the problematic bugs and glitches, horrid AI and UI, you can find a fairly enjoyable game, if it was better optimized. This game is not optimized and is to be frank, a horrid addition to the series as it currently stands. With all this aside, the design changes has some pretty interesting changes, ranging from more personalized armies on the campaign, to the provincial management. There are also less battles than there use to be, and the AI is still acting like it can create army after army and is to passive for my liking as I can literally siege a city and they won't do a thing about it.… Expand
  99. Zippygeorge
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    For people giving it good reviews and say 'oh it's fine, they'll fix it'. YOU ARE A JOKE. You should review as you get it now, not how you think it'll be in 12 months time after several patches.
    At this moment in time the game is completely broken, AI is terrible and graphics are even worse. I've played all total wars since the first shogun and this is by far the worse.
  100. Renzi_IS_Fonzie
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    Well, the game was very promising, until...
    The very moment you start a battle and experience heavy lag, pathfinding glitches, missing core features (guard mode, fire at will on "Hastati" and units which don't follow routing enemies...), random crashes...
    The game is really poorly optimized and it will lag in medium size battles regardless of your system because it happens to use only    Well, the game was very promising, until...
    The very moment you start a battle and experience heavy lag, pathfinding glitches, missing core features (guard mode, fire at will on "Hastati" and units which don't follow routing enemies...), random crashes...
    The game is really poorly optimized and it will lag in medium size battles regardless of your system because it happens to use only about half the power of powerful GPUs like GTX Titan, it has poor multi-core support and worse graphics than it's predecessor.
    The campaign turns are just unbearable, they last 4 minutes full of nothing to do, you can't move units between settlements unless you have a general to drive them, garrisons are composed of random units depending on which military buildings you have in the city and armies can travel on seas generating their own ships in no time (the transport ships they have are almost as good as real navies and cost nothing...).
    The game feels greatly dumbed down in features, most concerning is the really bad AI in campaign which is not able to stand up to players unless with cheats and often attacks with poor units your huge armies, getting defeated in 5 minutes.
    Also, battle speed is absurd, most fights last less than 10 minutes including the initial march.
    UI is TERRIBLE an covers half the screen!
    I would say this game is not worth 50 bucks, not even 20 in it's current state.
    But i see much potential in here when it will be fixed, so for now it's only 3, but it could possibly raise up if the issues are resolved in decent times.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 71 Critic Reviews

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