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
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. shadowstealer
    Sep 12, 2013
    0
    I was really looking forward to this game. I've been a Total War fan since Shogun and this was sounding as though it had the potential to surpass the fantastic Shogun 2. Unfortunately this has not been the case. I don't know what game half the games 'journalists' played but it was not the one the general public were promised.

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

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

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

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

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

    Oh yeah and no family tree. Or special agent animations. Or real depth or attachment. Hollow and bland. Urgh.    … Expand
  2. zz77
    Sep 12, 2013
    0
    This is the worst title in Total War series. It's bugged to unplayable level. Both campaign and battle AI is dumb as stone. Developers didn't add any really great and innovative features, but completely wiped out many great features of previous titles. UI is very poorly organized, its modern appearance is just immerse-breaking. Even graphics looks like downgrade of previous Shogun 2 game.This is the worst title in Total War series. It's bugged to unplayable level. Both campaign and battle AI is dumb as stone. Developers didn't add any really great and innovative features, but completely wiped out many great features of previous titles. UI is very poorly organized, its modern appearance is just immerse-breaking. Even graphics looks like downgrade of previous Shogun 2 game. Don't waste your money and time on this crap!… Expand
  3. pierrem
    Sep 25, 2014
    0
    This game is mostly made of frustration. Frustration of having a game that could have been great, but made terribly bad by stupid new features. Frustration of having paid full price for a beta version, that was solded -50% before it was even reasonably working.
    To sum up:
    - limitation in armies number; therefore you can't leave a garrison, and this is made worse by the fact that armies    This game is mostly made of frustration. Frustration of having a game that could have been great, but made terribly bad by stupid new features. Frustration of having paid full price for a beta version, that was solded -50% before it was even reasonably working.
    To sum up:
    - limitation in armies number; therefore you can't leave a garrison, and this is made worse by the fact that armies walk a huge distance in a single turn, by the possibility the AI has to always refuse battles, by the possibility of taking a city within the turn. You simply chase flies (5 units armies) with hammers (full stacks), for the hammers cannot be splitted, the flies fly too fast to be hit, but can still take one of your cities; which you'll retake next turn while another city falls. So you get humbled by ridiculously bad armies because you can't fight them.
    - My elephants replenish within a few turns if I'm in Britain. The local elephants are known worldwide.
    - Navies are useless (so the joint battles feature has no use)
    - Battles are boring (but at least as of 09/2014, UI is correct, was not reasonnable before)
    - Politics are stupid & useless
    - "decisive event" : the worst ever. You get a rebellion... Like 12+ full stacks of high level veterans of the best units you can recruit (even if it was unlocked last turn and you don't possess any) appear out of thin air, while you possess 3 full stacks. Well the AI is so bad you can win if they did not appear in your capital, but... so ridiculous!
    - Bad AI, not nearly as good as the Shogun 2 AI
    Try Shogun2, especially FOTS instead. or Rome TW!    … Expand
  4. lastrambo
    Sep 12, 2013
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. HUGE bugs that can be fixed with patches but some key features like the random capture point on the battlefield or the stupid long wait in coop campaign make it barely enjoyable. As someone who played all the total war games and has spent about 2000 hours playing these games i fell like this game is the worst of them.

    I cant even enjoy the battles because of the brain dead AI and the steamroll strategy which consist in making all your units charge and winning instantly even at legendary difficulty because there is no unit collision and they all stack and attack at the same time.

    The diplomacy is broken right now because the AI will never take into consideration your military power when negotiating with you for some reason. The navy is useless cause you don't need it cause your armies can fight in the water like if it was a fleet and 80% of the battles are siege battles WHEN THEY SAID IT WAS A WEAK POINT IN SHOGUN AND THEY WERE GOING TO CORRECT IT FOR R2TW. Seriously i don't know what kind of illegal substances they took when they made the game.    … Expand
  5. R80
    Sep 13, 2013
    0
    I played all main Total War titles and some, though not all expansions. And I expected this game to be if not better, than at least equal to the previous Total War games. I was wrong.

    This game is Rome: TOTAL FAILURE. I don't even know how to start writing about what's wrong with this game, because I the truth is: almost EVERYTHING. - the AI is horrible- not just stupid, but    I played all main Total War titles and some, though not all expansions. And I expected this game to be if not better, than at least equal to the previous Total War games. I was wrong.

    This game is Rome: TOTAL FAILURE.

    I don't even know how to start writing about what's wrong with this game, because I the truth is: almost EVERYTHING.

    - the AI is horrible- not just stupid, but actually malfunctioning. Armies sometimes stand motionlessly under missile fire, untill they get routed due to casualties.

    - the UI and graphics feel heavy and unpleasant simply looking at them feels bad somehow

    - framerate is strangely low, compared to the framerate on the same computer for shogun 2. But the graphics do not look better, they actually look worse.

    - overall, this game simply lack PLAYABILITY. I mean the factor that made previous Total War games pleasurable to play. Rome Total War 2 doesn't have it "playing it feels like a job, like a burden.    … Expand
  6. BadWolf1991
    Sep 13, 2013
    0
    Disappointing. Paid full price for a Beta. They saw record pre-orders. Can be sure I won't be one of those next time. Every promise that was made pre-launch was a lie. That just about sums it up.
  7. bracesco
    Sep 13, 2013
    0
    Dont buy this, it´s a alpha. The game it´s broken, the AI it´s broken, the fps sucks. Im a fan of the Total War saga and this game its just Total Crap. CA you broke my heart.
  8. Terrbear
    Sep 13, 2013
    0
    Awful, CA lied about so much that they were implementing, iv played every total war and this one just doesn't have any feeling in it, its been totally streamlined and it doesn't play any different playing as rome, or carthage etc as they all have massively similar units, no unique events or intro movie and even though there are so many factions they all have the same units!!! I don't careAwful, CA lied about so much that they were implementing, iv played every total war and this one just doesn't have any feeling in it, its been totally streamlined and it doesn't play any different playing as rome, or carthage etc as they all have massively similar units, no unique events or intro movie and even though there are so many factions they all have the same units!!! I don't care if theirs say 30 different greek factions if they all have almost identical troops and don't act or strategise differently! and lets face it the ai doesn't strategise AT ALL, im into the late game as carthage, HOPING the game would improve as it has gone on but honestly it just doesn't, no particular part of this game is fun, I waited along time to play this game as so many did. All those CA videos are lies, like the Macedonian skirmish one: showing how 'good' the new ai was! its obvious now that it was a person playing as the romans in the video because there Is no chance that is the ai!!! Also I feel its sick that the critics reviews are so wrong, there is clearly something wrong when most critics are saying this game is amazing etc when clearly... CLEARLY its not. we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed that this can be salvaged somehow...… Expand
  9. Spartan_swe
    Sep 14, 2013
    0
    This is a game in the same meaning a car is a car with a very good looking chassis, but nothing in it.
    This game is a product of marketing and profit making.
    Maybe in a year, this will be a finished product and worth buying, but as of this time, buy Total War Rome 1, a game that came out in 2004 and still have better gameplay, immersion and strategy. I have a hard time rating this    This is a game in the same meaning a car is a car with a very good looking chassis, but nothing in it.
    This game is a product of marketing and profit making.
    Maybe in a year, this will be a finished product and worth buying, but as of this time, buy Total War Rome 1, a game that came out in 2004 and still have better gameplay, immersion and strategy.

    I have a hard time rating this "product" because it feels like the same way it would feel rating a film sitting in the editing room watching the first rough cut, without sound, cgi and music.

    Absolute garbage!    … Expand
  10. Batman6794
    Sep 14, 2013
    0
    Even as a stable working game (which it isn't for most people) it still sucks! All of the trade off decisions that made the game interesting and deep are gone in favor of stupid arcade simplicity.

    Old total war: Roads are EXPENSIVE and take a LONG time to build, but they will grow your economy and help your troops move faster. Invest in building them too earlier and your small military    Even as a stable working game (which it isn't for most people) it still sucks! All of the trade off decisions that made the game interesting and deep are gone in favor of stupid arcade simplicity.

    Old total war: Roads are EXPENSIVE and take a LONG time to build, but they will grow your economy and help your troops move faster. Invest in building them too earlier and your small military will be starved of needed funds. Invest too late and you fall behind in the economic race.

    Rome II:Roads build themselves automatically. You have zero control.

    Old total war:Navies are very expensive and take a long time to build. A small one can protect your ports from pirates but is vulnerable to enemy navies, a larger one (HUGE investment) can protect your shores from invasion, and a massive one can project your power throughout the world with a relatively small army. Should you invest in a fleet now, or will one of your enemies land some large armies on your shores while the boats are being built and your army is not in condition to repel them?

    Rome II: If your army walks to the ocean, transport ships magically appear and they can go anywhere. Put them on double time so they can reach a safe landing zone each turn and you'll never need to build a navy to move your troops. Also, your enemies get free magic transports too, so no point in investing in a Navy to hunt down and destroy theirs. Its just not possible. Just don't worry about it.

    Old Total War:Units have lots of abilities that increase one aspect but sacrifice something else. (Increased defense, decreased movement rate.)

    Rome II:Those abilities are still there, but the vast majority of abilities are new ones that can only be described as "magic". They are all benefit and no downside. (For example, increased rate of fire for missile units, generals can select an tired friendly units and restore them to "fresh" instantly). What archer wouldn't fire as fast as he could just because you hadn't told him too yet? His life is on the line! He's gonna kill as many of the enemy as he can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Worst of all, these super magic bonuses are time limited, but there is no limit to the number of times you use them. So instead of picking the critical moment of battle to use your brief increase in abilities, you have to constantly micro-manage the abilities, waiting for the clock to run out so you can instantly re-enable it. The new SUPER fast pace of the battles also means that managing these abilities well can have a greater impact than actual maneuvering! Winning battles is no longer about good positioning and timing the critical charge, instead its about how fast can you click magic buttons that are associated with different units. Game ruining feature.

    Old Total War: Deploying for battle? The defender can use a large hill or cliff to make a stand, or use woods to conceal units for a small but critical surprise attack. The attacker must read the terrain and try to anticipate how the defender will choose to use it.

    Rome II:Introduced a new battle realism option that limits your view of enemy to the line of sight of your troops. This enables you to use terrain to mask the movements of your army, makes hills more strategic because they reveal more of the battlefield, makes scouting units actually useful on the battlefield, and adds the excellent tension of "Where are they?!?!?" This is all awesome and a change everyone should be excited about.
    Too bad its entirely undercut by the fact that randomly generated flags determine the outcome of the battle. Capture the flag, win the battle. Doesn't matter if you have the larger army. Doesn't matter if you're holding the best hill ever. If the enemy stands on a stupid flag on the other side of the battlefield, you lose and your army is forced to retreat. That hill/forest/ravine perfect for deploying your army and controlling the outcome is now meaningless unless it happens to be near the flag the just kinda pops up out of nowhere for no reason. Worst feature of any strategy game EVER.    … Expand
  11. msamitas
    Sep 14, 2013
    0
    All 100 & 10 points are nonsense.
    AI is terrific and there are so many graphical issues. AI armies are not fighting just hanging around.
    Play Shogun II or Civ 5 instead.
  12. Skipnipper
    Sep 15, 2013
    0
    So so angry & so disappointed. This has to be the worst game in the franchise by quite some way. Useless AI coupled with terrible design and game play choices make this a complete waste of not only your time, but also your hard earned money. I can sincerely say with hand on heart that the company's involved in creating this turd deserve to go bankrupt. I cannot put into words the utterSo so angry & so disappointed. This has to be the worst game in the franchise by quite some way. Useless AI coupled with terrible design and game play choices make this a complete waste of not only your time, but also your hard earned money. I can sincerely say with hand on heart that the company's involved in creating this turd deserve to go bankrupt. I cannot put into words the utter contempt I feel for them right now. PLEASE ignore ANY positive reviews, as they are obviously from paid shills.… Expand
  13. Alekseyev79
    Sep 15, 2013
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Wow, this Game is such a failure compared to previous titles. I had such High hopes and this game broke my wallet and my heart. No refunds for opened pc games. not even when they are garbage. I could say heaps, but bad AI, Bad UI, Bad Management. etc. Game has been destroyed in every way. The Great looking soldiers are not enough.… Expand
  14. Badajoz95
    Sep 15, 2013
    0
    And I promised never to pre-purchase again... and this is exactly why. Great game history. I've bought every Total War previously but Total War: Rome 2 has SO many faults it is basically unplayable for a rewarding experience. Worst is the fact that the AI is completely broken for battles, so broken that the game is essentially completely broken.
  15. Hunter555888
    Sep 15, 2013
    0
    Horrible everything. Its another Empire total war, but dont get me wrong I love the total war series (excluding now Rome 2 and empire.) It has horrible amount of bugs and horrible Ai. This is just a mini review, watch videos on youtube for more indepth review of Rome 2. Youtube: Total War: Rome II Angry Review by AngryShowJoe, really depicts the worst of Rome 2.
  16. cleavland
    Sep 15, 2013
    0
    They copied the AI, lack of collision physics, and monotonous city-building from Empire and tacked it onto this mess. SAVE YOUR 60-70 BUCKS! The troubles start when the game crashes for no good reason and the how user interface became downgraded to the point of being patronizing. NO MORE CUSTOM FORMATIONS!?. Massive lag on the campaign map with 100+ factions together taking 1+ minute on anThey copied the AI, lack of collision physics, and monotonous city-building from Empire and tacked it onto this mess. SAVE YOUR 60-70 BUCKS! The troubles start when the game crashes for no good reason and the how user interface became downgraded to the point of being patronizing. NO MORE CUSTOM FORMATIONS!?. Massive lag on the campaign map with 100+ factions together taking 1+ minute on an optimum gaming computer to finish the turn, then there's the battle lag... This game was pushed to release and I have a feeling that the talent who actually make the game did not have a say in the matter as no self-respecting programmer should accept money for selling such a broken and falsely-advertised product. The punch-line being that some empty-greedy suit decided to do some DLC whoring by announcing DLC BEFORE the game was released. If money is no object, buy the first Rome Total War and this one, play them both and you will find a perfect example of what has gone wrong with gaming within the past 10 years.… Expand
  17. Vorlon66
    Sep 16, 2013
    0
    This is a disgracefully incomplete & flawed game incomplete, bugged, poorly designed & broken. The list of faults with this game are so long a review cannot begin to enumerate them. Effectively you are being asked to pay to Alpha Test a game that is, at best, 6 to 7 months away from being release ready.

    However I doubt even modders will be able to salvage this game and even after bug    This is a disgracefully incomplete & flawed game incomplete, bugged, poorly designed & broken. The list of faults with this game are so long a review cannot begin to enumerate them. Effectively you are being asked to pay to Alpha Test a game that is, at best, 6 to 7 months away from being release ready.

    However I doubt even modders will be able to salvage this game and even after bug fixes and AI tweaks it is hard to see how this will ever be more than a below average game. A major disappointment and a salutary warning to all consumers not to pre-order PC/Console games and facilitate the industries appalling recent record on incomplete releases (and don’t even get me started on DLCs).

    In its present state it is the equivalent of buying a book with attractive covers, a contents page, an introduction with a missing end paragraph, a few incomplete chapters & the rest of the content completely missing.

    The Specifics as a veteran of thousands of hours for all of the Total War Games and having logged 20 painful & frustrating hours on this game quite simple Rome II is incomplete and broken. The issues have been identified on many of the reviews but here are a few of the lowlights:

    1. Performance Issues well documented. Fortunately I have a high end gaming spec so these graphics & loading problems have not been an issue for me. However, even with AI moves turned off it takes a very long time to process a turn (even early on in a campaign you have time to get up & put the kettle on). Naturally it gets longer to process as more goes on in the game leading to excessive waiting time.

    2. The Campaign AI is too passive even at the highest difficulty level it will sit as you set up and then pulverize their faction, perversely, it will launch suicide attacks against city garrisons it can never hope to win. Coupled with some game design changes (naval moves, recruitment changes, extended range of armies, limits on armies available, tech development, & construction) it makes the strategic level shallow, boring and far too predictable.

    3. The Battle AI (again at highest difficulty level) is not only too passive it is also broken. In one AI initiated joint Land & Naval attack after I had defeated the land force (in about 3 minutes) the Naval based reinforcements (although greatly outnumbering me by nearly 3 to 1) stayed on their ships refusing to move. I had to fast forward the game to end it and claim the victory (time to actually make the cup of tea!). The AI will send troops forward and then withdraw them in endless loops while being showered by missiles and destroyed. It will mindlessly attack choke points (such as encampment entrances), allow itself to be surrounded and charged in the flanks even when it has a 3 to 1 numerical superiority.

    4. Naval battles totally broken Transport ships too powerful, AI is stupid, interface buttons often don’t work

    5. Diplomacy hopeless. AI makes unrealistic & stupid demands and will not accept even the most rational of offers. Diplomacy has always been tricky in Strategy games but diplomacy in Rome II is a major backwards step. You won’t achieve the requisite goals for a Cultural/Diplomatic/Economic victory so don’t bother trying.

    6. Battles There are numerous graphic glitches, cohesive battles formations are non existent as soon as contact is made, troops move too fast, skirmishing & missile fire is ineffective due to unit speeds, and the (questionable & frankly arcade-like) special unit abilities are almost never useable as battles usually take no more than 5 minutes (longest battle was 10 minutes with roughly 30-35 units per side).

    7. User Interface inconsistent application of the interface, buttons & toggles often don’t work (record of 7 presses to make one “in battle” button work), standard interface tools (closing boxes, highlighting selected options, hyperlinks) are often absent or non-existent. The Encyclopedia is poorly designed and lacking indexing and cross referencing.

    Very soon after the campaign starts you will be auto-resolving everything as the battles & sieges are completely pointless, characterless & lack any tactical challenge. This leaves you with a non existence real –time battle component & a slightly below average strategy game. For every good design choice made in this game (there are a few minor ones) there are probably 2 or 3 bad ones.

    Buyers should be demanding money back (I will be) & suppliers like Amazon asking for compensation from the publisher for providing a defective product.    … Expand
  18. klungo
    Sep 16, 2013
    0
    This is not a total war game. This is basically just starcraft with roman legions. Battles end within a few minutes and nearly every unit has some stupid arcade like "special ability" that gives them some magical damage boost or faster running speed. Units run and perform actions like throwing javelins way too fast and you can have your men run extremely long distances without gettingThis is not a total war game. This is basically just starcraft with roman legions. Battles end within a few minutes and nearly every unit has some stupid arcade like "special ability" that gives them some magical damage boost or faster running speed. Units run and perform actions like throwing javelins way too fast and you can have your men run extremely long distances without getting tired.

    The game also places a hug emphasis on capture the flag battles now. Open land battles consist of rushing magical flags to win instead of using your brain to rout the enemy and run them down. Units also dissolve into mindless mosh pits as soon as they reach the enemy. The guard mode is gone so good luck trying to keep your men in formation to set up proper battle lines. Family trees(one of the best features in any total war game) is also gone and replaced with some shallow "internal politics" system that has no impact on the game whatsoever since the game will just fart out generals endlessly for you to use no matter what.

    0/10
    Worst total war game ever.
    This makes empire look like a masterpiece and I will never buy another total war game again until CA gets their together. If you want a real total war game then go play classic Rome or Medieval 2.

    P.S. WTF were you thinking CA by hiring Richard Beddow instead of Jeff van Dyck? The empire and napoleon soundtracks composed by Beddow were boring as and it clearly shows in Rome 2 with it's generic monotone music that doesn't build up to anything. Jeff's music is what brings life to the total war series and the game feels dead without it, no matter how good the game is in other regards.    … Expand
  19. mehican
    Sep 16, 2013
    0
    I was very excited for this game, and expected the very best from CA, however what I got was a bad, unfinished and dumbed down game. The main issue I found during the first couple of days was how horrible the AI is, and being a primarily single player game I had expected a more appropriate AI skill, besides the fact that my fairly new upgraded pc had some performance issues.There are justI was very excited for this game, and expected the very best from CA, however what I got was a bad, unfinished and dumbed down game. The main issue I found during the first couple of days was how horrible the AI is, and being a primarily single player game I had expected a more appropriate AI skill, besides the fact that my fairly new upgraded pc had some performance issues.There are just far too many issues and I highly recommend you wait or simply not buy this.… Expand
  20. marcelklein88
    Sep 17, 2013
    0
    I am so angry about this game.
    Instead of finishing the development and THEN releasing it, the just throw it at the people and say "ok we will give you a 5GB Update every week from now on"-until it' s finished in 2045.
    And I won't comment on the 100GB Steam donwload you need to do first. And how big my hate against Steam is. I have sent the game back although I registered the key.    I am so angry about this game.
    Instead of finishing the development and THEN releasing it, the just throw it at the people and say "ok we will give you a 5GB Update every week from now on"-until it' s finished in 2045.

    And I won't comment on the 100GB Steam donwload you need to do first.
    And how big my hate against Steam is.

    I have sent the game back although I registered the key. If they try to prosecute me, I will fight to death.
    I am so angry about this crap.

    I was happy when they released it but NOOOO it's unplayable and makes my PC go nuts.    … Expand
  21. dizzel679
    Sep 17, 2013
    0
    I am a huge fan of total war series and I pre-ordered this game as soon as it became possible. What can I say after I've tried it? It's horrible! I've payed 54 euros to participate in a beta-test and developers don't even admit that there's something wrong with the game. The AI is not just stupid and not even absent-minded, it's glitchy, buggy, call it whatever you like! Bugs follow meI am a huge fan of total war series and I pre-ordered this game as soon as it became possible. What can I say after I've tried it? It's horrible! I've payed 54 euros to participate in a beta-test and developers don't even admit that there's something wrong with the game. The AI is not just stupid and not even absent-minded, it's glitchy, buggy, call it whatever you like! Bugs follow me everywhere, performance is just poor on a machine which runs Shogun 2 Ultra with around 20 FPS(with antialising and all other stuff maxed out). And while that's going to be patched eventually, the ugly interface and retarded gameplay will remain forever. Very, very dissapointing.… Expand
  22. Joye15
    Sep 17, 2013
    0
    The biggest problem with this game (beside all bugs, and that it feels more like an alpha) is that it is not a strategy game any more!

    This is beyond patching! This game plays exactly like an arcade, you just click your units to attack and after few minutes you will win. Without any tactics! Even on the very hard legendary difficulty! Campaign has likewise too arcade feeling. You    The biggest problem with this game (beside all bugs, and that it feels more like an alpha) is that it is not a strategy game any more!

    This is beyond patching!

    This game plays exactly like an arcade, you just click your units to attack and after few minutes you will win. Without any tactics! Even on the very hard legendary difficulty!

    Campaign has likewise too arcade feeling. You will conquer settlement after settlement until you will get finally bored, even playing on the highest difficulties, without any strategic planning whatsoever!

    Moreover because you will always win this game has zero re-playability even though it has sandbox campaign.

    Even if you are total war fan you will enjoy this game only till you will win it once for every faction which, considering how arcadish this game is will be very very quickly.

    However on the other hand this is beautiful game which could be so good if it would offer challenging game-play.

    The reason why I am giving it 0 is that this game is supposed to be strategy but it simply isn't. Anyone who wants to play strategy should either find another game or get back to previous total war titles.

    Thus this game gets 0 as a strategy.

    But if you are looking for an arcade i give it 7.5/10. Players who care only about graphic and arcade like battles will enjoy this game.    … Expand
  23. Bovara
    Sep 17, 2013
    0
    This game invested heavily in marketing and advertising and made well documented highly hyped promises. It has massively under delivered on those promises. Graphics, AI and game play are well below what they promised, leaving many fans very disappointed. Yes it looks great, if you aren't suffering the numerous bugs and technical issues, which suggests it should have been more thoroughlyThis game invested heavily in marketing and advertising and made well documented highly hyped promises. It has massively under delivered on those promises. Graphics, AI and game play are well below what they promised, leaving many fans very disappointed. Yes it looks great, if you aren't suffering the numerous bugs and technical issues, which suggests it should have been more thoroughly tested. The AI at release is awful units brake formation the minute the engage in combat and it turns in to a mob. Battles take 6 minutes for me on average and that is hardly any time at all for any strategy, or enjoyment. There are no family trees and worse one or two line pre battle speeches. Both of which rip much of the character and depth out of the game. What shocked me was the ability to make post Marian units after one building upgrade over a hundred years before it occured. They have really stripped the game down and made it very fast and simplistic. Things I would expect in an action console game. Sadly this is more flash than substance. For a strategy game and total war title it will disappoint those who have played previous title from the catalogue. We can only hope they learn from the mistakes on this game and return to the elements that have made them so popular in the next game. Unfortunately that is likely to be 3 or 4 years away. I have to agree with other reviewers this scores a zero for me not just because it fails to live up to expectation or advertising, that is nothing new. It is as others have said hardly a strategy game atall.… Expand
  24. dasjefe
    Sep 18, 2013
    0
    Sega and CA are at it again. Wait a year and buy R2 for 20 bucks. It might be fixed by then, but it probably still won't be as good as previous Total War titles. The franchise is going the wrong direction. Things are getting dumbed down and the hardware, stability, and AI issues are worse than ever.
  25. Sky-Moondrift
    Sep 18, 2013
    0
    As a massive fan of TW games I can honestly say this is the worst one by far. The UI is counter-intuitive, looks and feels sluggish and horrible. Much of the options and technical depth has been stripped away in favor of the more casual and/or brain dead gamer. Accessing important information involves you clicking on a bunch of crappy looking icons that all look the same, only to find outAs a massive fan of TW games I can honestly say this is the worst one by far. The UI is counter-intuitive, looks and feels sluggish and horrible. Much of the options and technical depth has been stripped away in favor of the more casual and/or brain dead gamer. Accessing important information involves you clicking on a bunch of crappy looking icons that all look the same, only to find out there is no information there anyway.

    The graphics, mainly on the campaign map, look muddy and with little detail where its needed and lots of detail where it's not. The cities look like they're made out of Play-doh both in battle and on the campaign map. Even on the highest settings troops blur into each other like someone stuck 3,000 men with swords into a blender.

    Performance is bad, and the game is not optimized well at all, the load times are long, And it often lags out for no apparent reason.

    The whole game over emphasizes on just the Romans,factions and troops all look and sound the same as the Romans, as well as sharing the same painful UI. The forced Flag system is just silly and a major annoyance. There are also hardly any open battles, it all just revolves around siege battles that all look and feel the same.

    The AI is incredibly dumb, predictable and glitchy, both in battle and on the campaign map. Also you have to set the game to maximum difficulty to get any real challenge, even then it doesn't make the AI smarter, it just changes unit stats in favor of the AI.

    It's a mass-marketed console orientated, dumbed-down, over-priced, half-finished mess, And whats more they release this game with a pre-release DLC which gives you (core) factions that should have already been included in the base game.    … Expand
  26. DAVstep
    Sep 19, 2013
    0
    Three weeks has gone and it's still unplayable. I am not even talking about the AI now, no the fps is so low that even on low graphics it still is on 15/10 fps. The graphics are also horrible, even on ultra. The god damn textures are so bad that it doesn't matter if I zoom in on the battlefield or out, I can never see anything because of the flickering mess. The trees doesn't even lookThree weeks has gone and it's still unplayable. I am not even talking about the AI now, no the fps is so low that even on low graphics it still is on 15/10 fps. The graphics are also horrible, even on ultra. The god damn textures are so bad that it doesn't matter if I zoom in on the battlefield or out, I can never see anything because of the flickering mess. The trees doesn't even look like trees but just an orgy of ugly lines.

    The price was already very high in my opinion, and I can't even play it, this was the biggest waste of money I have ever put on a video-game.    … Expand
  27. Just_The_Tip
    Sep 19, 2013
    0
    GIVE 59 HOMELESS PEOPLE A DOLLAR TO PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE! instead of spending that money on this game, it would be more enjoyable.

    A re-skinned version of the older version would have been OK, but they actually destroyed the merits of the older version as well it almost like they took their inspiration from the "Producer's" and were trying to make the worst possible game in existence    GIVE 59 HOMELESS PEOPLE A DOLLAR TO PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE! instead of spending that money on this game, it would be more enjoyable.

    A re-skinned version of the older version would have been OK, but they actually destroyed the merits of the older version as well it almost like they took their inspiration from the "Producer's" and were trying to make the worst possible game in existence to see if it would be a hit. Congratulations team CA you did it, and I hope you all get fired for it.    … Expand
  28. Numinex
    Sep 21, 2013
    0
    A travesty. Shame on you CA. Learn from Stardock and do something to compensate the people who pre-purchased this grossly sub-standard product. This has done much damage to a well-respected franchise.
  29. druout1944
    Sep 21, 2013
    0
    Diplomacy is horribly broken. Every Rome campaign I've started results in the entire map going to war with me sooner rather than later (attacked by 9-12 countries with your new army cap is not fun, especially when making allies is impossible 99% of the time) Trade is broken, it only works if they ask you or you pay them a ton of money. Battle engine glitches, game stutters on campaign mapDiplomacy is horribly broken. Every Rome campaign I've started results in the entire map going to war with me sooner rather than later (attacked by 9-12 countries with your new army cap is not fun, especially when making allies is impossible 99% of the time) Trade is broken, it only works if they ask you or you pay them a ton of money. Battle engine glitches, game stutters on campaign map and siege maps (AI pathing incompetence still crushing computers since Empire), even after upgrading from GTX 260 1.792 GB to GTX 660 3GB. Transports the equal of warships, fail. Routing units are almost impossible to kill. There is no possible way that CA tested this without knowing how messed up the game was, too bad they can't be sued for false advertisement. The game is aggravating instead of fun, first time for me since the original Medieval (which I loved). I literally hate playing this game, the last burst of patches did not fix the AI in any noticeable way. $60 is better spent on anything but this. And the fanboy answer of 'it's always like this, so it's ok 'cause the modders and patches will make it better" is a bunch of BS as far as I'm concerned. If someone sold me a rifle that jammed, I wouldn't think, well that's alright I'll just fix it myself or have someone else fix it. Hell no, you advertise and sell a finished product if you care about customer loyalty, well CA lost mine, never buying JS from them ever again.… Expand
  30. wzhou34
    Sep 21, 2013
    0
    Confusing building tree
    Confusing tech tree
    Long AI turns
    Poor optimization

    Worst thing is, armies auto build ships when they touch water. It is absurdly easy to attack a city over water, defeating all strategy about choke points and such. The Mediterranean is blue land!

    Uninstalled after 5 hours
  31. Ccoreli
    Sep 21, 2013
    0
    I was extremely excited for this game. Literally hundreds of hours on Rome Total War. Thing i loved most about RTW was that cavalry could actually be used as SHOCK troops. Their charge could smash light infantry aside and seriously hurt heavy infantry. In RTW 2, cavalry are next to useless. They stop on contact, don't smash through units, and have no moral effects. If 900 horseman areI was extremely excited for this game. Literally hundreds of hours on Rome Total War. Thing i loved most about RTW was that cavalry could actually be used as SHOCK troops. Their charge could smash light infantry aside and seriously hurt heavy infantry. In RTW 2, cavalry are next to useless. They stop on contact, don't smash through units, and have no moral effects. If 900 horseman are charging at a line of infantry, something other than a huge blob of crappy melee units attacking good melee units should happen. Also, cavalry are made even more useless by the fact that i have yet to engage an enemy army in the field (38 turns in). Every single fight is when I'm besieging an enemy city. And these assassins? Two assassins and a champion can reduce a defending force of 3000 down to 1200. How is that at all in any way fair or possible?
    Broken AI
    Broken combat
    Broken UI
    Broken campaign map
    Horrible problems with the fps
    2 minute wait between each turn
    awful diplomacy
    No history
    Awful character design
    Generic units from faction to faction
    3 armies? Are ya sh*tting me?
    Awful naval combat and design
    Building a city is obsolete. Four or six structures at the most.    … Expand
  32. paulmarine
    Sep 22, 2013
    0
    CA have released a game that is not even ready for alpha testing it is a disgrace they should be ashamed of this underhand deal literally stealing from consumers! the game is not even compatible with AMD's switchable graphics found in any decent gaming laptop. there previous games have been a triumph and have run well on my high end machine but this game averages around 5 FPS with blotchyCA have released a game that is not even ready for alpha testing it is a disgrace they should be ashamed of this underhand deal literally stealing from consumers! the game is not even compatible with AMD's switchable graphics found in any decent gaming laptop. there previous games have been a triumph and have run well on my high end machine but this game averages around 5 FPS with blotchy textures this game was not ready for release and has not been tested on a variety of platforms and CA are making little to no effort to communicate with a large portion of the community who are still unable to play a game they have paid for! stay away from this title and future release from creative assembly!… Expand
  33. Nanoflux
    Sep 22, 2013
    0
    There's just so much wrong with this game.

    They are but not limited to; poor fps; poor AI; poor battle UI; badly designed unit cards; bad colouring on campaign map; unrealistic looking water; not enough trading ships (historically inaccurate); no ability to improve roads; unrealistic diplomacy (also incredibly limited); no ability to create a personalised city; no guard button; no fire    There's just so much wrong with this game.

    They are but not limited to; poor fps; poor AI; poor battle UI; badly designed unit cards; bad colouring on campaign map; unrealistic looking water; not enough trading ships (historically inaccurate); no ability to improve roads; unrealistic diplomacy (also incredibly limited); no ability to create a personalised city; no guard button; no fire at will button; unnecessarily complicated ship controls; poor animations regarding triremes; slingers sling lightning; city sniping; poor diplomacy; protectorates fail to declare war; fog of war is completely unrealistic; trade centres only on the capital; no intercity trade via land; no intercity trade via water (except the capital); huge territories; not enough cities; poor technology tree; clunky campaign UI; bad textures; limitation of the number of armies; the inability to separate armies; no ports; no recruitment tab; no construction tab; no easily accessible finance info; family structures make no sense; no internal politics; hoplite incorrectly use spears; historically inaccurate units; 'heroes' wtf; turns last 1 year (which is ridiculous given how far units travel; magic powers; historically inaccurate states; AI is worse than Rome 1.

    Save yourself some money and get Rome 1 and mod it.

    Loved the opportunity to spend £30 to alpha test this bull.    … Expand
  34. johnbrandon1981
    Sep 23, 2013
    0
    I'm re-posting my amazon review here in the hopes a gamer might be saved while CA and Sega might be duly punished for this atrocity:
    Listen now to the tale of a fool who pre-ordered this game because of the love he had for the magnificent original that debuted 8 long years ago. This game is a travesty and a bitter surprise, a betrayal by Creative Assembly and Sega of a loyal PAYING    I'm re-posting my amazon review here in the hopes a gamer might be saved while CA and Sega might be duly punished for this atrocity:
    Listen now to the tale of a fool who pre-ordered this game because of the love he had for the magnificent original that debuted 8 long years ago. This game is a travesty and a bitter surprise, a betrayal by Creative Assembly and Sega of a loyal PAYING customer. Calling this buggy, half-baked, ill-contrived, ill-conceived, dumbed-down, feature-stripped pile of amateur code a beta would be charitable.The ONLY thing CA improved upon is graphics, but considering the LONG years between sequels how could the graphics NOT be improved. I am morally entitled to a refund though I know no such thing will be forthcoming out the Somewhat Creative Assembly of Incompetents and their corporate masters, Sega(means thief in Japanese). I can only hope for some poetic justice, like Sega in its entirety going the way of their console business and those responsible for this mess at CA falling on their swords Roman style for this failure. I'm out $60 and I'm uninstalling this from my HDD. I tried hard to play this game, I WANTED TO ENJOY IT. Do you know what I did when I gave up playing? I WENT OUTSIDE AND MOWED MY YARD. The game I have waited near 10 years for inspired me TO GET UP, GO OUTSIDE, AND DO MUNDANE YARD WORK. The developers are as guilty of stealing as the pirates. The only intelligent way to support games makers is to pirate first and then pay later, or bring back demos. Even if I had pirated this game it would have been a of waste bandwidth and HDD space. After this I just don't know where to expect anything good from the games industry anymore and maybe nothing good can be expected.    … Expand
  35. Kristian
    Sep 24, 2013
    0
    lack of many important features present in previous titles
    - terrible UI
    - incompetent AI
    - poor unit balancing
    - lots of bugs

    In short: The worst TW game to date.
  36. apacheanthunder
    Sep 24, 2013
    0
    I will do a donation twice as the R2TW's price to anyone who take Rome TW and mod it to the graphics of Rome II; same units; same administration mode; same factions; i mean, if i actually want to learn the true history of Rome, there are a lot of history books, internet sources, or even to watch to history Channel
  37. Frej524
    Sep 24, 2013
    0
    This is sadly the worst game in the series.
    The unit cards are confusing.
    no family tree
    no skill tree
    Horrible release, too many performance and optimization bugs, greatest disappointment of the year.
  38. Ratspike
    Sep 25, 2013
    0
    I wish i could give this game less than a 0.

    Forget the broken game, the quality of previous total war games that gave hope to an ever better Total War this time around. The marketing for this game was so dishonest, so under-handed, so criminal. To say the AI is "better then ever before" is a grin of a lie, they knew it was broken yet they still said how amazing the game was. They    I wish i could give this game less than a 0.

    Forget the broken game, the quality of previous total war games that gave hope to an ever better Total War this time around.

    The marketing for this game was so dishonest, so under-handed, so criminal. To say the AI is "better then ever before" is a grin of a lie, they knew it was broken yet they still said how amazing the game was. They released pictures of mesmerizing soldiers and landscapes. THE GAME LOOKS NOTHING LIKE THE PROMOTIONAL PHOTOS.

    This company deserves to fall to its pieces and every liar within to be out of a job, this is what is wrong with video games today, and getting a 0 on a metacritic review is the absolute least CA deserves.    … Expand
  39. angel123
    Sep 25, 2013
    0
    Broken down game..if you like to be a paid beta tester go ahead..if you like to teach those CA failers a leson w8 2-3 mouths before they patch the game to be playble and then buy it.
  40. Vineor
    Sep 25, 2013
    0
    Rome 2 is the most obvious milking of a fan-base i sadly had to see, taking something so promising and completely and utterly destroying it like this erases any form of hope CA maybe tried to actually accomplish something respectable and propably got pressured by Sega. The reason this can happen is because gaming doesnt get the respect it deserves and the fact we let Sega aswell as CARome 2 is the most obvious milking of a fan-base i sadly had to see, taking something so promising and completely and utterly destroying it like this erases any form of hope CA maybe tried to actually accomplish something respectable and propably got pressured by Sega. The reason this can happen is because gaming doesnt get the respect it deserves and the fact we let Sega aswell as CA getting away with this and they did, week 1 sales got more then diablo 3 wich is propably the most horrific thing ever happend to gaming.… Expand
  41. silkjc
    Sep 25, 2013
    0
    Perfect definition of a pre-order scam, over 120 million dollars in pre-order sales for a boring game.
    Excellent marketing department... I do not know how the CA developers sleep at night with the outright lies they spun before hitting the release button.
    This game is a shadow of any other Total War title. Missing features or design decisions that make little sense are rampant, once    Perfect definition of a pre-order scam, over 120 million dollars in pre-order sales for a boring game.
    Excellent marketing department... I do not know how the CA developers sleep at night with the outright lies they spun before hitting the release button.

    This game is a shadow of any other Total War title. Missing features or design decisions that make little sense are rampant, once you overlook the hoards of bugs and terrible AI. Assuming you can open the game.    … Expand
  42. Street_Ace
    Sep 25, 2013
    0
    The AI is worse then any Total war game released, Critics must have played 1 hour and slapped a rating on it and then f*** off, CA lied about how great the game AI is and the game-play,
    1.FREE Ships
    2.AI performance sucks
    3.No family tree
    4.No senate
    5.no city viewer
    6. 1 year turns
    7. final product filled with bugs
    8.still in beta
    9. Battle lagg
    10. Creative Assembly lied
  43. theoander
    Sep 25, 2013
    0
    This game was clearly unfinished for release. A huge number of players were/are having technical issues regardless of computer specs. Many of the best pc's out there, with the biggest most expensive graphics cards are experiencing horrendous, unplayable fps problems. The AI is broken, many features do not work correctly, multiplayer has consistent game breaking problems (desync) ect. ThisThis game was clearly unfinished for release. A huge number of players were/are having technical issues regardless of computer specs. Many of the best pc's out there, with the biggest most expensive graphics cards are experiencing horrendous, unplayable fps problems. The AI is broken, many features do not work correctly, multiplayer has consistent game breaking problems (desync) ect. This was a terrible release.

    Eventually those things may get fixed.

    Equally problematic is the design approach taken. The game developer was qouted as saying his goal was to achieve a score of 90+ on metacritic, and that features were removed if they didnt meet that benchmark. So what we have, is a game designed to get good reviews within 10-20 hours of play. Not a game designed for the fans, the people who actually purchase the game.

    This is another dud in the TW series, reminiscent of Empire on its release.

    Do not buy!    … Expand
  44. RenderUtama
    Sep 25, 2013
    0
    Bought the game the day after it came out. Did not get the discount but the game looked amazing and the critic reviews were great. Was excited, then found because I did not per-order the Greek culture states (DLC), i have to pay 8$ to get it. DLC the day it comes out? Great start, worst was yet to come.
    THIS GAME IS UNPLAYABLE, no i'm not talking about the crappy battle flag system    Bought the game the day after it came out. Did not get the discount but the game looked amazing and the critic reviews were great. Was excited, then found because I did not per-order the Greek culture states (DLC), i have to pay 8$ to get it. DLC the day it comes out? Great start, worst was yet to come.
    THIS GAME IS UNPLAYABLE, no i'm not talking about the crappy battle flag system (youtube it), the glitchy animations, or glitches in general. I'm talking about not ever being able to PLAY THE GAME, iIcan't launch this game. Updated BIOS/VIDEO/SOUND/WINDOWS drivers and others, re-installed and installed. Nothing, game doesn't work, make a post under CA tech support website. NOTHING. Been over a week now and I have gotten 0 support. Save yourself 60$ and don't buy this game. You might be around the 10% who can't play, or you get to deal with this crappy game that had absolutely zero QA. If you seriously want to buy this game, wait till it goes on sale for 10$ at the next steam sale. I have lost respect for CA, and will not purchase further products from them. Do whatever you want, yet heed my advice.

    For those of you curious, I am on update 3 from CA, still not able to launch the game.    … Expand
  45. bappy29
    Sep 26, 2013
    0
    Like most others have stated, this is an extremely sad release of an expensive long-awaited game. I have a 3rd generation, i7 PC system, and the game still lags and otherwise feels unfinished. The AI can be frustratingly stupid and irritating, while the game mechanic is unbelievably and poorly executed.. This game is Not worthy of being called a Total War title!!!

    Sega and Creative    Like most others have stated, this is an extremely sad release of an expensive long-awaited game. I have a 3rd generation, i7 PC system, and the game still lags and otherwise feels unfinished. The AI can be frustratingly stupid and irritating, while the game mechanic is unbelievably and poorly executed.. This game is Not worthy of being called a Total War title!!!

    Sega and Creative Assembly should have work on this game another 2 or 3 months and release it over Christmas holiday, instead of rush-launching in September, and letting the current purchasers be beta-testing the game. for them. For those who have yet to buy the game: wait for it to go half-price and purchase it after Christmas 2013. This game is not yet playable (and definitely not enjoyable) in its current state.    … Expand
  46. handicapper911
    Sep 27, 2013
    0
    This could have been a great game, but as usual, CA had to release a broken game. Usually one can handle the glitches etc, but this time its too much.
    -The gameplay, naval warfare, besieging settlements etc, though glitchy and sluggish, was manageable and still fun.
    -When waiting for the turn scale to rotate, it freezes. This makes the game unplayable as I physically cannot progress    This could have been a great game, but as usual, CA had to release a broken game. Usually one can handle the glitches etc, but this time its too much.
    -The gameplay, naval warfare, besieging settlements etc, though glitchy and sluggish, was manageable and still fun.
    -When waiting for the turn scale to rotate, it freezes. This makes the game unplayable as I physically cannot progress further.
    -The CTDs during campaigning and in battle make the game unplayable, cant continue or do anything without being sent straight back to my desktop.
    In conclusion, though this could have been a great game, it is ultimately unplayable, its CTDs and freezes make it literally impossible to progress through the game. That being said, since I cannot play the game, I will have to mark it a fat zero.    … Expand
  47. veganox
    Sep 27, 2013
    0
    Have played over 200 hours on every other Total War game, and over 800 combined hours on Medieval and it's expansion. I've loved every minute of all of the other games. But as a result of the TERRIBLE AI in this game, I honestly have to say it would be more fun if they just turned off the AI and let you slaughter them all without fighting back. Battles are so boring I found myselfHave played over 200 hours on every other Total War game, and over 800 combined hours on Medieval and it's expansion. I've loved every minute of all of the other games. But as a result of the TERRIBLE AI in this game, I honestly have to say it would be more fun if they just turned off the AI and let you slaughter them all without fighting back. Battles are so boring I found myself autoresolving EVERY battle because the battles were soOOooOO boring. The AI plays worse than a blind person with no arms would.… Expand
  48. kavinh
    Sep 27, 2013
    0
    ai is mentally handicapped and turn rotations take forever those damn "critics" have clearly never played more then a few hours of a game or don't realize that you need enemies in a total war game not brainless ai that don't bother to attack.
  49. MarcusAntonius
    Sep 28, 2013
    0
    Sega And CA released this game too early. It shows it is a mess and the A.I. is dreadful. Whats worse though is all the blatant lies CA shoved down our throats, this will be the last CA game i will ever buy.
  50. mrdeceptive
    Sep 29, 2013
    0
    Do not buy this game!

    This game is in shambles. A complete piece of garbage with no redeeming factors at all.

    This is not a total war game. It feels like i am beta testing this broken, half put together mess.
  51. mattgn
    Sep 29, 2013
    0
    This score is based on the following:
    Pay to Beta test the game, as CA are clearly incapable.
    If you buy this game, you will become the proud owner of Dreadful AI, battles that last 5-10 minutes, mosh pit style battles.
    AND as a SPECIAL bonus, you get to pay EXTRA for additional factions.

    All this can be yours !
    Buy now !
    Regret later
  52. Hardcharge
    Sep 29, 2013
    0
    This game gets a 0 out of 10 for being the most shallow, and uninspiring release in the total war series. It's a dumbed down arcade version of Napoleon and Shogun 2 with little immersion, and dozens of features cut out and replaced with gimmicky stuff like magic unit abilities that you must repeatedly click in order to win battles (as opposed to understanding your troops, the terrain, andThis game gets a 0 out of 10 for being the most shallow, and uninspiring release in the total war series. It's a dumbed down arcade version of Napoleon and Shogun 2 with little immersion, and dozens of features cut out and replaced with gimmicky stuff like magic unit abilities that you must repeatedly click in order to win battles (as opposed to understanding your troops, the terrain, and formations), glowing shiny effects all over the place, "streamlined" stupid Ipad OS looking User Interface where you can barely even see nevertheless read about the units and buildings and technologies you're getting, and a map that is basically a giant maze of pathways as opposed to an open world sandbox.

    Combine this with the fact that the AI is so inept and broken that legendary difficulty can't even offer a challenge, and you've got a game that falls well below the Total War Standard due to cut features and rushed/careless production.

    We should have seen this coming, since studio direct Tim Heaton bragged in 2012 about designing games specifically in order to get a high metacritic score and cutting features that they decided wouldn't contribute to that. For this reason this game gets a 0 from me, and hopefully that dude either gets his head screwed on straight or gets canned and replaced by a director that makes games for the players and longtime fans, not reviewers who will sit down with it for 10-20 hours and then never touch it again.    … Expand
  53. FATBOYONADIET
    Sep 29, 2013
    0
    I love TW games but this game is at best described as "hollow". It is a shell of a game which no right thinking person should waste their money on. Simply put, don't buy it.
  54. fruitloopeater
    Sep 30, 2013
    0
    I have played since the original Rome Total War. I have many problems with this game. It had a ton of potential, it still has some. I am going to use bullet points so you can read this easy. I think CA made a serious error and will not ever pay for a Total War game again. This is a pump-and-dump game made by vulture capitalists stealing your money.

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

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

    Main Problems:
    Campaign

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

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

    Battles:

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

    Multiplayer Issues

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

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

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

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

    They have dropped everything you would associate with total war and cut corners to the extent where the events in-game stop a quarter way through the game, conveniently just when the reviewers demo ends, they cut corners on purpose and sold a broken game to all of us.
  56. Irishtotalwar
    Sep 30, 2013
    0
    First of all I am (was) a Huge fan of the total war series Especially Rome 1. However This newest edition to the franchise is a huge disappointment it feels much like a civilisation game and the winning elements of a Total War game are now gone.It has been stripped bare to the point where the list is too long to mention.Performance problems are possibly the worst part. I wonder is anyoneFirst of all I am (was) a Huge fan of the total war series Especially Rome 1. However This newest edition to the franchise is a huge disappointment it feels much like a civilisation game and the winning elements of a Total War game are now gone.It has been stripped bare to the point where the list is too long to mention.Performance problems are possibly the worst part. I wonder is anyone from the original Rome 1 Team still works there because it certainly doesn't feel like their work. This has been a step back for the total war series,Patches or no patches… Expand
  57. YouLiedToUs
    Sep 30, 2013
    0
    Campaign AI is extremely passive. Battle AI is simply broken. It doesn't work. It ignores your troops and just suicides into you. Its easily possible to win with 100 man against 5000. No joke.
    With far lower settings than Shogun 2 I get not even half the FPS.
    With the latest patch siege battles crash making it impossible to continue my current campaign. At least I don't have to look at    Campaign AI is extremely passive. Battle AI is simply broken. It doesn't work. It ignores your troops and just suicides into you. Its easily possible to win with 100 man against 5000. No joke.
    With far lower settings than Shogun 2 I get not even half the FPS.

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

    I hope there will be an Achievement for participating in the Beta.    … Expand
  58. AFKeying
    Oct 1, 2013
    0
    Horribly buggy, and completely unplayable. I have never seen a more incompetent company than CA for releasing such a broken game. I love the games when I can actually play them but I see now that they are just lining their pockets without putting much of any effort into creating a good game.

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

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

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

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

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

    I suck at strategy, but I have not lost a single battle regardless of odds in 3 campaigns, not because i'm some sort of epic general as said, I suck but because the AI is THAT dumb. I will never purchase another CA game again.    … Expand
  60. YGrognard
    May 29, 2014
    0
    It's the worst Total War game over the entire Total War series I've ever payed, and I have played them all since the original Shogun more than 10 years ago.

    Being a hardcore Total War fan, it was the biggest disappointment in all my years of gaming.
  61. Snorren
    Oct 1, 2013
    0
    DON'T BUY THIS GAME!

    This must be one of the most broken games ever. I have played through two campaigns and was on my third when they released a patch that totally rebalanced all the buildings for the faction I was playing resulting in -264 food and my current 40 hours campaign going to waste. With the number of patches they are pushing out and the magnitude of fundamental    DON'T BUY THIS GAME!

    This must be one of the most broken games ever.

    I have played through two campaigns and was on my third when they released a patch that totally rebalanced all the buildings for the faction I was playing resulting in -264 food and my current 40 hours campaign going to waste.

    With the number of patches they are pushing out and the magnitude of fundamental changes this game isn't close to being finished, why the did they release it in this state?

    The battle AI is really a joke and the only reason to play battles with walled cities was to be amazed how it will up EVERY easy assault.

    The retarded political system that only has one purpose a civil war.

    If this game ever will be enjoyable no one will care about it any longer.

    How can this game get a 79% rating, do they even play?    … Expand
  62. crimy_x
    Oct 2, 2013
    0
    NO FREAKING SLI SUPPORT! NOT FOR ROME 2 NOT FOR COMPANY OF HEROES 2!!! On top of that the last two game you put out have been buggy, broken low qual games. I am never gonna buy another one of your games.
  63. SammyHauguth
    Dec 25, 2017
    0
    Worthless, just like metacritic with all the ads...
    I reloaded an old save and poff I got -1400 in food...
    When I had 1400+ in november!
    Good work CA, last time I buy a game from these idiots!
  64. katzenkrimis
    Oct 2, 2013
    0
    It deserved 2/10 on release day.

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

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

    When you play this game, you can actually smell the cattle farms. It's amazing.
  65. Gulskjegg
    Oct 3, 2013
    0
    As a previous reviewer had commented, the current commercialized review system is very much like the American political system. The average persons desires perspective is completely ignored as big money interests call the shots. The end user is simply not represented in any real way. I have been playing the Total War series since Shogun 1, and my personal favorite of the entire series isAs a previous reviewer had commented, the current commercialized review system is very much like the American political system. The average persons desires perspective is completely ignored as big money interests call the shots. The end user is simply not represented in any real way. I have been playing the Total War series since Shogun 1, and my personal favorite of the entire series is Medieval War 1, which I still play regularly. Creative Assembly lost the plot with Empire, but somewhat corrected course with Shogun 2. However, Rome 2 is completely and utterly broken in every possible way. Glitchy graphics, abysmal AI, boring battles, and the strategic aspects of the game are incomprehensible as well as counter-intuitive. Even after a patch or two, the game remains frustrating and unplayable. This is, officially, the last TW product I will ever buy from CA. The most depressing thing about this whole matter is the fact that CA could have taken the exact, precise gameplay, interface, and engine of Rome 1, updated the graphics and cutscenes a bit, and had themselves a real winner. As an aside, the conventional review sites, Metacritic not included due to this peer review option, are making enemies among the gaming community faster than they might realize. Just as the internet is crushing the "main stream media" dinosaurs, the big name sites might find themselves obsolete if they do not clean up their act. Same goes for CA, too.… Expand
  66. BrentLauer
    Oct 3, 2013
    0
    Creative Assembly i am disappoint.

    As a long-term customer of TW games i wasn't expecting them to deliver a *perfect* game, but the state of Rome2 surprised even me. The game is in fact worse than beta-status A.I. is as incompetent as hell, the UI is really bad, the Textures are plain ugly and bugs, bugs literally everywhere. And what makes me angry the most is that CA is again relying    Creative Assembly i am disappoint.

    As a long-term customer of TW games i wasn't expecting them to deliver a *perfect* game, but the state of Rome2 surprised even me. The game is in fact worse than beta-status A.I. is as incompetent as hell, the UI is really bad, the Textures are plain ugly and bugs, bugs literally everywhere. And what makes me angry the most is that CA is again relying on the community to fix their broken game.

    Personally i think some kind of lawsuit would help to improve the inbearable way of CA doing buisness. Hyping up the community with flashy videos and promises about some kind of "revolutionary new A.I." when the finished game doesn't look anything like that and has a utterly crappy A.I. is basically screaming "FRAUD" and "FALSE ADVERTISING".    … Expand
  67. Alberto_impact
    Oct 4, 2013
    0
    DON'T BUY THIS ONE.
    This is the worst game I pre-ordered this year.
    Cappy AI and UI, Awful performance optimization, and bunch of bugs to make you angry.
    Give me my money back, you SEGA and CA.
  68. Iakesm
    Oct 5, 2013
    0
    City management is pathetic. Nothing to do!
    Technology development is for a 2 year old to manage.
    Increase food creates more squalor??? One year per turn and only one season. The enemy is tame as they did not grow and I conquered all of Northern and Easter Europe with 3 armies??? If there is a civil war early on, when one can have only six armies, where does the competitor get 12 full    City management is pathetic. Nothing to do!
    Technology development is for a 2 year old to manage.
    Increase food creates more squalor???
    One year per turn and only one season.
    The enemy is tame as they did not grow and I conquered all of Northern and Easter Europe with 3 armies???
    If there is a civil war early on, when one can have only six armies, where does the competitor get 12 full armies from???
    Then strange things where armies can sail seas without fleets and destroying fleets? What is the use of having fleets???

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

    Complete and utter rubbish.    … Expand
  69. Ukiro88
    Oct 6, 2013
    0
    Rome 2 is epic fail
    Damn retards do this holy Shi***
    Damn is all around thic crapy games
    Ai is stupid
    100500+ lag lag
    you don t need ram in city siege
    and mach more
  70. Pannon
    Jan 2, 2014
    0
    Gamers please, do not listen to paid off "reviewers!"
    Notice the latest trend of "big name" reviewers (gamespot, gamefront,pcgamer,IGN etc) are LYING right into your face with their bought and paid game reviews. They are corrupt and they are not telling the truth. It seem to become a trend now, forcing thousands off their websites who doesn't agree and keep lying! They are paid off by    Gamers please, do not listen to paid off "reviewers!"
    Notice the latest trend of "big name" reviewers (gamespot, gamefront,pcgamer,IGN etc) are LYING right into your face with their bought and paid game reviews. They are corrupt and they are not telling the truth. It seem to become a trend now, forcing thousands off their websites who doesn't agree and keep lying! They are paid off by the companies, who release a mess of codes and call it a game! You are buying trash! You are buying unplayable trash! It's time to punish these companies and their paid off reviewers by not going to their sites and not buying the games! One of the sites just about the name Rome Total War Rome 2 as "Game of the Year" while 4 patches ahead, the game is still unplayable!    … Expand
  71. solitarybeam
    Oct 7, 2013
    0
    Purchased this game on the 23rd of September and still having major issues with the game. 4 patches in and I feel like Creative ASSemblies should be paying me for beta testing for them and reporting bug after bug.

    I CONTACTED STEAM FOR A REFUND. HIGHLY ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO DO THE SAME.
  72. losten
    Oct 7, 2013
    0
    Buggy and not finished. Gameplay is made much more simple which in these series is a shortcoming.
    I believe the next instalment will be playable on consoles. Battles are a mess. Either dont work or there is an orgy in armour. Everyone is mixing with each other. Dont buy or wait for some crucial patches. But as we all know, crucial patch maybe will come with the expansion and you will be    Buggy and not finished. Gameplay is made much more simple which in these series is a shortcoming.
    I believe the next instalment will be playable on consoles. Battles are a mess. Either dont work or there is an orgy in armour. Everyone is mixing with each other. Dont buy or wait for some crucial patches. But as we all know, crucial patch maybe will come with the expansion and you will be forced to pay extra money for game which may be at last finished.    … Expand
  73. YunDog
    Oct 7, 2013
    0
    there is no AI, ergo there is no game
    your save games will become corrupted
    pancreatitis was more fun than this 'game'
    whatever you do do not waste your money like I did on this game

    this company has gotten away with screwing its fans for far too long as gamers we need to show them this stops here
  74. eric77
    Oct 8, 2013
    0
    I could give the game a 4 or 5 out of 10 but because of the false advertising in Rally Point it gets a 0 from me.
    These are Rome 2 main problems, even after 1 month and nearly 4 patches i only see really small improvements, So;
    -horrible battle AI, almost not existing -laughable campaign AI -visual downgrade to Shogun 2 (even on Extreme) -no family tree -greek states dlc -rubbish    I could give the game a 4 or 5 out of 10 but because of the false advertising in Rally Point it gets a 0 from me.
    These are Rome 2 main problems, even after 1 month and nearly 4 patches i only see really small improvements, So;

    -horrible battle AI, almost not existing
    -laughable campaign AI
    -visual downgrade to Shogun 2 (even on Extreme)
    -no family tree
    -greek states dlc
    -rubbish politics system
    -unit rosters of nations like epirus are a bad joke
    -horrible UI, unit cards are ugly and too big. they dont even have unit numbers
    -generals arent important at all because they die really fast
    -1 turn per year.... WTF ?!
    the list goes on and on. NEVER preorder a CA game again. (Julian McKinlay, Will Overgard, Craig i hope you guys get fired, you useless     … Expand
  75. TheMagicHobo
    Oct 9, 2013
    0
    Rome 2 Total War. What can I say about this wonderful, magnificent, glorious alpha stage console RTS? Well, first of all, I pre-ordered it for $60, I waited an entire night and half a day to download it, and I eagerly drank up the first four hours. What happened after the first four hours you ask? I'd seen the whole game. In a day's worth of play I transformed Rome from a minor state onRome 2 Total War. What can I say about this wonderful, magnificent, glorious alpha stage console RTS? Well, first of all, I pre-ordered it for $60, I waited an entire night and half a day to download it, and I eagerly drank up the first four hours. What happened after the first four hours you ask? I'd seen the whole game. In a day's worth of play I transformed Rome from a minor state on the Italian peninsula to the eminent power of the Mediterranean. I accomplished this amazing feat by waiting through two minute average wait times after turns, watching the greatest soldiers of the ancient world charge at skirmishers only to run away after seeing my infantry then get shot in the back rinse-repeat, and auto-resolving naval battles because ACTUAL combat ships only make a difference in auto-resolves.

    The game has so many flaws, SO many flaws.

    Let me elucidate. Here is the summary of an actual amphibious assault I launched against Athens, the city. My massive army of Legionaries, Velites, and Artillery landed outside the city (since apparently we can't actually invade through the actual port that has no defenses). I then found out that artillery can't take part in naval assaults. I don't mean they don't spawn, I don't mean they can't use their weapons, I mean you land them and then they do nothing. Their artillery pieces are nowhere to be seen (even scorpions which could easily fit on the deck), and not only that but they won't do anything. The twenty some odd guys just sit on the deck and take no commands.
    Anyway, back to the battle.
    So yeah, at that point I was thinking, "Well damn, how in the name of Jupiter am I gonna get over this wall? Maybe I can go through the space between the wall and the sea that twenty men could fit between? Nope won't let me? Maybe I could stand threateningly in front of the gate until the enemy army charges out? Nope they're nowhere to be seen. Well what can I d-huh? I can do WHAT?" That's right. Your REGULAR UNITS can use their magically spawning flaming spear/molotovs to BURN DOWN A METAL GATE. So I did that and it worked.
    Now of course I'm expecting the entire Athenian army to be behind the gate, ready to defend their home from the ravaging Ro-uh? Hello? Anyone home? Well I'll just march my Legionaries in if everyone's okay with that? Cool? Okay.
    I wonder where the-OH I SEE. There they are, they're around my sides obviously preparing to spring an ambush and crush my arrogant forces. Any second now. Annnnnnnnnnnnny seconnnnnndddd. Ah screw it men just charge.
    So at this point I just ordered my entire army to rush the first victory point. And, lo and behold, there's the enemy army standing there. Waiting for me. Ready to die for their really stiff flag that never moves.
    -30 seconds later-
    Whew, that was a tough one. For a second there I thought I might actually lose. Lose the battle? HAHAHAHA, no way I would have to have my guys completely disrobe and disarm and charge into an army of hoplites to have ANY chance at losing. I thought I might lose a unit of Legionnaires.
    Anywho, battle over. Now I'm going to go set up my army for a cool picture while I wait the several minutes it takes the enemy to get off the battlefield.

    So yes. If you like winning and feeling cool for doing absolutely nothing except clicking your mouse and sitting for minutes on end, then Rectum 2: Total is the game for you.
    And I didn't even touch upon the Strategy map, or the graphics, or the turn times, or the diplomacy, or the unbalanced units, or the rest of the game really.    … Expand
  76. Chiurito
    Oct 10, 2013
    0
    Total disaster. Idiot AI, confused unit card and UI, no family tree, poor diplomacy, siege battles with flame torches (:facepalm:), one year per turn, no season, no cinematic videos...

    Really, really, really disappointed.
  77. rossburlz
    Oct 10, 2013
    0
    I preordered this game. (What a mistake that was!) First day couldn't even play more than 5 minutes at a time due to constant crashing. 4 patches later the game is still crashing. Just look at the size of the patch notes. This game was released in an alpha state and now the proud owners of this &*^@ game have to spend our time testing bugs for free... well not free we already paid for thisI preordered this game. (What a mistake that was!) First day couldn't even play more than 5 minutes at a time due to constant crashing. 4 patches later the game is still crashing. Just look at the size of the patch notes. This game was released in an alpha state and now the proud owners of this &*^@ game have to spend our time testing bugs for free... well not free we already paid for this game. CA had a 40% higher budget than shogun and all that seems to have been spent on some actor casted promo videos and videos of all these amazing features that are cut from the game before it is released. This game should be avoided like a plague in the state it is in. AI is a joke. Interface is a joke. Such a shame this game could have been so great yet it has fallen so low… Expand
  78. Aerth
    Oct 12, 2013
    0
    A total let down, A shame of a game: unfinished, boring, Total War turned to Total Waste. A clear catering for the casual crowds as if such things existed for this kind of games. You play a Roman family but you do not care about it, you senatorial get stronger or weaker but you do not care about it; you have ships but you do not care about them, and enemies? Yes you got them but they areA total let down, A shame of a game: unfinished, boring, Total War turned to Total Waste. A clear catering for the casual crowds as if such things existed for this kind of games. You play a Roman family but you do not care about it, you senatorial get stronger or weaker but you do not care about it; you have ships but you do not care about them, and enemies? Yes you got them but they are so stupid you care even less than the rest.
    Let's hope than the modding community can come with something else all is lost.    … Expand
  79. k-dub
    Oct 13, 2013
    0
    I registered just so I could highlight my digust for this effort by CA. First and foremost, I am a fan of the Total War series starting with the first Shogun. This game is unfinished, pure and simple. If the game was play-tested, you can hardly tell. It is so obvious it was rushed out before it was ready. Commercial decisions came at the expense of the consumer.

    Shame on you CA, I will    I registered just so I could highlight my digust for this effort by CA. First and foremost, I am a fan of the Total War series starting with the first Shogun. This game is unfinished, pure and simple. If the game was play-tested, you can hardly tell. It is so obvious it was rushed out before it was ready. Commercial decisions came at the expense of the consumer.

    Shame on you CA, I will never pre-order anything from you again. I am placing you right because EA on my naughty list.

    And shame on all magazine reviewers who gave this more than 5.0. Either your reviews are shoddily researched or you have no journalistic integrity. Or maybe both.    … Expand
  80. Yarev
    Oct 13, 2013
    0
    Terrible, shallow, waste of money. Even if CA fix all the bugs (which is very unlikely) it still going to be the worst TW game. The only hope are mods.
  81. LordFancypants
    Oct 24, 2013
    0
    Where do I begin? I can't run this game on the lowest setting without getting major lag on the main map. Even Empire Total War, which arguably was the worst of the series so far didn't lag there, and it had three maps, Europe, Asia and The New World. The AI is atrocious, the units are imbalanced, like the Pikemen who camp in a corner, eat all the catapult rounds and then wipe out yourWhere do I begin? I can't run this game on the lowest setting without getting major lag on the main map. Even Empire Total War, which arguably was the worst of the series so far didn't lag there, and it had three maps, Europe, Asia and The New World. The AI is atrocious, the units are imbalanced, like the Pikemen who camp in a corner, eat all the catapult rounds and then wipe out your elite swordsmen. The waiting times for turns are so long, I can fit a nap, fix dinner and watch the Godfather trilogy before its done.
    0/10- Absolutely broken    … Expand
  82. BrainStain
    Oct 15, 2013
    0
    The intro alone tells you how hurried the game feels.

    With a horrible UI, disgusting avatars and misleading difficulty settings, it won't take you long before you just quit the game in a bizarre reverse-frustration (you want the game to match the others, you want a challenge!) There are no challenges. You can beat the game on legendary without much effort. I really feel let down by CA.    The intro alone tells you how hurried the game feels.

    With a horrible UI, disgusting avatars and misleading difficulty settings, it won't take you long before you just quit the game in a bizarre reverse-frustration (you want the game to match the others, you want a challenge!) There are no challenges. You can beat the game on legendary without much effort. I really feel let down by CA.

    Little things like the missile fire symbol which is now a crosshair instead of a bow and arrow just get to me. The unit cards are not very helpful, they all look too similar and break the game's atmosphere. Well. What little atmosphere it had. There is even a map called: ARSE! For god's sake! Errors like this just shouldn't happen.

    It's a massive steaming pile. And I'm a fan of their other games!    … Expand
  83. pansarskott
    Oct 17, 2013
    0
    Yes I will give this game 0 out off 10. Why? This is not a totalwar game, this is a farse...

    I have been playing this franchise seince the beginning and loved it. Yes there have been some ruffspots like the AI and such but the games has allways been playeble and some with patches and the right mods have been fantastic (Rage of Dark Gods) and I'm still playing most Totalwar titels from    Yes I will give this game 0 out off 10. Why? This is not a totalwar game, this is a farse...

    I have been playing this franchise seince the beginning and loved it. Yes there have been some ruffspots like the AI and such but the games has allways been playeble and some with patches and the right mods have been fantastic (Rage of Dark Gods) and I'm still playing most Totalwar titels from time to time.

    Whats different with RTW2 is the false advertising, the stripping of features, the dumbning-down and streamligning, the arcade elements, the hundreds of bugs. The game is still, after 4 patches, unplayeble becuse you get fail-fatige from all the problems this game has.

    Patches is another thing I find disturbing. I have never seen a game getting this many patches so quikly after realese and NEVER a Totalwar game. CA states that: "The game had a troubled realese" Troubled? The game wasent finished!! It would need another six moths atleast.

    My summery is that I will never again pre-order a Totalwar titel, and the risk is that I never buy another of their games if they continue down this path.    … Expand
  84. abieber
    Oct 20, 2013
    0
    By far the worst game for installation EVER!!!! DO NOT BUY. What they don't tell you is that you do not just download and play you first download an installer, that instals the downloader which then installs steam. Then you have to wait (now going on 2 days) for them to send and activation code. Then go into steam and put in the code to then finally download the game. Worst Install ever,By far the worst game for installation EVER!!!! DO NOT BUY. What they don't tell you is that you do not just download and play you first download an installer, that instals the downloader which then installs steam. Then you have to wait (now going on 2 days) for them to send and activation code. Then go into steam and put in the code to then finally download the game. Worst Install ever, disrespectful and backwards. I keep asking myself why would i pay 60 dollars for a game then have to wait 3 days to get a simple activation code. ONCE AGAIN DO NOT BUY TOTAL WAR IS A TOTAL WASTE OF YOUR TIME EVEN BEFORE YOU CAN PLAY THE GAME.… Expand
  85. Wademan
    Oct 20, 2013
    0
    This is a very disappointing release from TW. There are a lot of bugs and the AI is not at all challenging even on high difficulty levels. Sieges are ruined by besieging units being able to destroy gates quickly with magic burning torches rending the need for siege engines pointless. Battles are over too rapidly because one side or the other will rout. within minutes. Overall the game hasThis is a very disappointing release from TW. There are a lot of bugs and the AI is not at all challenging even on high difficulty levels. Sieges are ruined by besieging units being able to destroy gates quickly with magic burning torches rending the need for siege engines pointless. Battles are over too rapidly because one side or the other will rout. within minutes. Overall the game has been dumbed down and simplified for a casual audience.… Expand
  86. lewisjoel
    Oct 21, 2013
    0
    Rome: Total War 2.

    For me, RTW 2 was one of, if not my most eagerly anticipated game of the year, as were the rest of the games in this once magnificent strategy series. I'd played and enjoyed every game in the series since the first Shogun title and I expected this release to be another successful game in the series, especially as it was the sequel to what many would consider to be the    Rome: Total War 2.

    For me, RTW 2 was one of, if not my most eagerly anticipated game of the year, as were the rest of the games in this once magnificent strategy series. I'd played and enjoyed every game in the series since the first Shogun title and I expected this release to be another successful game in the series, especially as it was the sequel to what many would consider to be the best game in the series Rome: Total War. Unfortunately I was wrong...

    Firstly, I'm hearing from other gamers and reviewers that this is a game that can be fixed and the early bugs can be ironed out. I'm afraid they are wrong as this game is flawed from top to bottom and its problems lie much deeper than just amateur development and testing and I will list why.

    User Interface (UI) The Creative Assembly have ditched previous features from UI such as functionality and historical relevance in favour of some dull, boring and what I must assume they think is a 'trendy' minimalist interface. Unless CA has intentions of patching the UI the game will remain an unmitigated disaster of a strategy game. The minimalist UI has resulted in the removal of a decent settlement information panel which contained both interesting and useful information that would aid any strategy gamer in their campaign as well as providing the gamer with a more immersive and unique experience. The technology ‘tree’ or line as I would rather refer to it as has been simplified, as have the construction and recruitment options. All strategic aspects of the game in which the gamer in past titles would have made decisions are gone. Instead everything is laid out in advance with player just clicking to confirm their destiny.

    Strategy Aspects Gone. Rome: Total War 2 is now on par with Dicewars for strategy and immersion but fear not, RTW 2 can justify the fact it cost me £29.99 more to play that Dicewars due to the fact it has impressive graphics that may one day work when the bugs are finally ironed out. I may even get to experience them first hand if for some reason, I make the horrible mistake of trying to play the game again. For me the majority of the strategy has been victim to the ‘super-cool’ IOS-esque UI.
    However some parts have been maliciously ironed out intentionally. For example naval units, who needs naval units when land-based militia units can be recruited and sent off the cliffs and transform into ships? Who needs a Spanish Armada or a Royal Navy when you’ve got shape shifting peasants?
    Troops can also use magical special abilities and cities are won and lost through giant games of capture the flag.

    In-Game Characters Generals, agents, politicians and family members? What’s the point? All of them are highly susceptible to random deaths and rapid ageing so investing any kind of time in them is generally pointless and/or highly frustrating.
    The final thing that really kicks you when you are down is the time between turns. I actually congratulate CA on replacing rebel settlement with real historically based factions but the extra turn-time that’s resulted from it just destroys any tiny bit of immersion or desire to play the game that remains with you.

    If you enjoyed the Total War series or strategy games in general this is not a game for you.

    lewisjoel    … Expand
  87. Tiggers
    Nov 24, 2013
    0
    I'm updating my previous rating.

    After 7 patches in about 11 weeks and 357 hours of play-time, I think I have been patient and understanding. Rome 2 is still *basically* garbage in a single player campaign (I'm referring to the mechanics, not the pretty map), multiplayer is such a HUGE step backwards from Shogun2. (I have played competitively in multiplayer tournaments since Empire,    I'm updating my previous rating.

    After 7 patches in about 11 weeks and 357 hours of play-time, I think I have been patient and understanding.

    Rome 2 is still *basically* garbage in a single player campaign (I'm referring to the mechanics, not the pretty map), multiplayer is such a HUGE step backwards from Shogun2. (I have played competitively in multiplayer tournaments since Empire, so I feel that I can judge this about 60% of my game time has been multiplayer).

    I am actually going to the extreme of deleting this game. I will now have Rome 1, Shogun 1, Medieval, Empire, Napoleon, Shogun 2 on my pc. Rome 2 is off.

    I have also decided *not* to risk buying their brand new Total War Arena... Fool me once. I suggest you consider the same.    … Expand
  88. z12g32
    Oct 25, 2013
    0
    without a doubt the worst game of all time CA.
    Lacking content, boring, poorly optimized, and soulless.

    DO NOT BUY IF YOU DO NOT want to be ripped

    not dubbed in Spanish or Italian
  89. BlackFox81
    May 22, 2014
    0
    This game came out almost 10 months ago with 12 patches and boat load of DLC that is mostly more crap on top of a broken game....And guess what this game still sucks and really there is no difference from release too 12 patches later....Rome 2 is is total Garbage if you love total war games you will hate this unless you are brain dead. And anyone who gives this game a 7-10 is either slowThis game came out almost 10 months ago with 12 patches and boat load of DLC that is mostly more crap on top of a broken game....And guess what this game still sucks and really there is no difference from release too 12 patches later....Rome 2 is is total Garbage if you love total war games you will hate this unless you are brain dead. And anyone who gives this game a 7-10 is either slow or still in denial that CA could make such a terrible money whoring game to an otherwise great series
    I give it a 0 because when a i buy a total war game i expect a good to great game not a big pile of dog crap that i paid 5o dollars for    … Expand
  90. Hcosa
    Nov 6, 2013
    0
    I rate 0 just to counterbalance the people who rating 10 this is not a 10 game but neither 0, he has a score around 5 to 6, is still a bad game when compared to shogun
  91. afro_natisch
    Oct 25, 2013
    0
    simply unacceptable. no comment!!!....................................................................................................................
  92. smogaz
    Oct 25, 2013
    0
    -----------Vote this game down----------

    If you have ever been a fan of this series it is your obligation to vote this game down so CA understands that we are no longer going to put up with --consistently-- broken products that take upwards of 6 months to fix. -And the AI still sucks? 10+ years later? Hundreds of millions in revenue later? You still cant hire someone competent enough    -----------Vote this game down----------

    If you have ever been a fan of this series it is your obligation to vote this game down so CA understands that we are no longer going to put up with --consistently-- broken products that take upwards of 6 months to fix.

    -And the AI still sucks? 10+ years later? Hundreds of millions in revenue later? You still cant hire someone competent enough to make a game more challenging than pong? Modders can do it but your entire development team cannot?

    -It only takes 30 seconds to create an account through your email but the damage you can do to CA's sales will last a lifetime. Make them think twice before they try to pull this ONCE AGAIN. A game that has any flaws does not deserve a 10/10! Not one bug!
    -Take a stand against this kind of robbery
    You can drastically impact CAs revenue by voting games down on metacritic.

    -----Vote this down!-----

    +1    … Expand
  93. pmatt147
    Oct 26, 2013
    0
    I'm left to wonder: did they even try with this game? Very buggy, box art is impractical and annoying, meters instead of of units...etc. Most facets of the game are unnecessary or buggy. In actuality, the game plays like a 6 but it's clear to me that they just don't care with making Total War games anymore.
  94. ozi
    Oct 27, 2013
    0
    When I first heard about this release, I was so excited, TW is my favourite game series. I'm not a fan of pre-ordering, but I did, as CA used a blackmail technique (if you don't pre-order, we will charge you extra for DLC.) Knowing this would probably be my favourite game ever, I took the risk.

    Biggest mistake ever. There is so much wrong I can't list it all here. But here are the    When I first heard about this release, I was so excited, TW is my favourite game series. I'm not a fan of pre-ordering, but I did, as CA used a blackmail technique (if you don't pre-order, we will charge you extra for DLC.) Knowing this would probably be my favourite game ever, I took the risk.

    Biggest mistake ever. There is so much wrong I can't list it all here. But here are the game-breakers that still haven't been fixed:

    Optimisation- CA believes "running" a game is getting 20 fps in the benchmark. However, the benchmark does not represent the game. If you get 20fps then, then when you have say 4000 on the battlefield, you will get a slideshow.

    AI- I'm sure you've heard the AI is bad. There have been some improvements, open field battle can be interesting, but the siege AI is worse than Rome 1 (no exaggeration, AI can't use engines, doesn't react when fired upon from 10 ft away, always puts skirmishers on walls even if you are using ladders with heavy infantry.)

    Immersion- The game is boring, I remember the amount of time I put into other TWs, in this game I can't get past turn 50 without getting bored of the game. The really is so little to do on the campaign map. If you're like me, and you like to play the economy/diplomacy game, you will find it fun for the first hour, then you will have nothing to do.

    In summary, don't expect it to be even close to any other TW game. Good for a few hours of play if you can get into it, buy it when it goes on sale, I'd say this title is worth spending no more than 10 bucks on.

    Also did the 40% extra budget go on bribing critics or what?    … Expand
  95. deadhunter22
    Oct 27, 2013
    0
    Created a metacritic account just to rate this game. I have been a long time player of Total War series, ever since Shogun I. I am very disappointed in the new game. The economy portion of the game was pretty much wiped out and has made the game extremely boring. Also, you feel very limited on who you can/should attack. Since the economy was removed, you are forced to attack with veryCreated a metacritic account just to rate this game. I have been a long time player of Total War series, ever since Shogun I. I am very disappointed in the new game. The economy portion of the game was pretty much wiped out and has made the game extremely boring. Also, you feel very limited on who you can/should attack. Since the economy was removed, you are forced to attack with very small armies as well which is frustrating.… Expand
  96. vertibird
    Oct 28, 2013
    0
    Compared to previous total war titles, Rome Total War 2 has:
    1- Serious performance and technial issues. Campaign turn times are also significiantly long. You are waiting more than playing. There are occasional crashes and BSODS. FPS drops to a crawl in game even if you have great rig.
    2- Non-existant AI. Yes the Artificial intelligence is beyond help in this game. This ruins the fun for    Compared to previous total war titles, Rome Total War 2 has:
    1- Serious performance and technial issues. Campaign turn times are also significiantly long. You are waiting more than playing. There are occasional crashes and BSODS. FPS drops to a crawl in game even if you have great rig.
    2- Non-existant AI. Yes the Artificial intelligence is beyond help in this game. This ruins the fun for campaign and battles because you dont have real challenge because there is no AI here.
    3- Cut out content. Best features of previous titles cut out from the game.
    4- Lack of RPG elements. No family tree, no story etc...
    5- 1 turn per year system. Your generals, agents age really fast and die before you can develop them properly.
    6- Lack of inspiration, political system doesnt work.
    7- Magical torches, no siege AI. There is no need for siege weapons in this game because you can just burn the gates down with torches.
    8-Balance issues, bugs etc. Formations are bugged, some units like chariots and elephants dont work properly.
    9- Lack of Creative Assembly's support. They have a thread in total war forums that they dont intend to fix most of the issues they mean ''they are working as intended'' like magical torches...
    10- Naval battles seriously bugged and inbalanced, transport ships are stronger than real naval ships...    … Expand
  97. Duczek
    Oct 30, 2013
    0
    Preordering this game was one of my biggest mistakes in my life. Right now I feel naive and cheated.
    The Ai is terrible, plain stupid and broken, every previous game had a better one even the Rome1. It feels as it's scripted to charge from the front and push cav from the flanks and that's all. Every single battle... But camparing to siege Ai it is great as siege Ai is completely broken, I    Preordering this game was one of my biggest mistakes in my life. Right now I feel naive and cheated.
    The Ai is terrible, plain stupid and broken, every previous game had a better one even the Rome1. It feels as it's scripted to charge from the front and push cav from the flanks and that's all. Every single battle... But camparing to siege Ai it is great as siege Ai is completely broken, I don't even understand how it is possible to fail so badly, they aren't even able to use the machines they have...
    The unit cards are ugly and confusing. The campaign Ai is stoopid and useless.

    Multiplayer in Shogun 2 was a major step forward, that is why I have no idea what were they thinking leaving this well built formula and creating this Quick battles which were fun in Shogun are terrible here, you can;t choose whether to play siege or a normal battle.

    I feel cheated or even robed. Sega should refund money to all the people and after a year release a normal product, but I doubt it will happen :/
    This isn't a game, this is a Beta Version and I don't remember buying early acces... I wanted a complete product.
    I am really ashamed as I respected CA and Sega and right now I am sure that I won't buy their games in preorder and I will think twice on buying them.

    With regards, cheated customer.    … Expand
  98. CommonConsumer
    Oct 30, 2013
    0
    I loved the first Rome total war, I enjoyed it so much and put upwards of +100 hours into it.
    So as you can imagine when i heard Rome 2 was coming out i was very very very and very excited.
    You know when you buy a game and you think, well this can only go 2 ways, Good or Bad" well thats not the case here, The creators have taken pre order and new purchase of games to a whole new    I loved the first Rome total war, I enjoyed it so much and put upwards of +100 hours into it.
    So as you can imagine when i heard Rome 2 was coming out i was very very very and very excited.

    You know when you buy a game and you think, well this can only go 2 ways, Good or Bad" well thats not the case here, The creators have taken pre order and new purchase of games to a whole new level.
    This game was neither good nor bad, Instead it was BUTCHERED. It has the potential of becoming a 10/10 in my opinion. But its clear to me that the creators were on a mission to, instead of creating a fan oriented game, try something different. It's that different that has destroyed this game. The game is unplayable, the graphics, lagging, and glitches make it UNPLAYABLE, the AI, Diplomacy, Battles make it UNBEARABLE, The fact that some of the best features in ROME 1 have been removed is a testimony of how little the people behind this game listen to their fans.

    Whats the worst part? I WANT TO PLAY IT! Its has so much potential! there are so many improvements and new features that compliment the game in so many ways. Sure at first you might be thinking "well it's not so bad" but after playing for a few hours you will be ripping your hair out and slamming your coputer against the wall. What am I talking about? well here, look at this:

    Your at war with a another faction, You have taken all cities but one, all of its armies destroyed, it's even in debt, yet it still will not make peace or become your client state. NO LOGIC.

    Brokering a Trade Agreement which benefits both sides is non existent. I had an empire with some 20 provinces(Over 30 cities) with 0, count em ZERO trade partners.

    Civil war erupts at random, My nation at one point had several angry cities, and my family had very little influence NO WAR, After i become successful in military campaigns, made my cities happy, and my family prominent, along with good relations with EVERYONE all around CIVIL WAR, WTF!?

    NAVIES ARE OBSOLETE AS YOUR ARMY CAN TRAVEL ON WATER AND IS STRONGER THAN TRAINED NAVAL VESSELS.

    you have 3 agents that you can hire, all of which are pretty much the same with minor differences.

    The game is too easy, no i don't mean the settings, or I'm super good, I mean your enemy will go suicide on you and will attack you constantly with tiny forces until they have no military strength (good luck with diplomacy, its like an upset 2 year old)

    Battle, Seriously? Formations break on impact, nearly all battles last less than 10 minutes, there are "capture points', basically if you have a weak force, attack your enemy and even if your forces will be crushed, send 1 unit to capture that point (it works every time) and you win. the AI does this to you constantly, it just goes for the capture point and ignores your forces.

    Overall, the Cons out weigh the Pros ridiculously.... I want to play this game, because i really like it.... buts its unplayable. hopefully, after they release the patches, and maybe someone creates a mod for it, it will have a better score.    … Expand
  99. sablesoilwork
    Nov 1, 2013
    0
    Huge fan of the series stunned they could go so far backwards in AI, UI, battles and campaign mode.

    Game doesn't deserve the current rating of 76 on metacritic and it's disgusting to see so many review sites posted positive reviews at release. Never trust paid critics folks.
  100. Lumo999
    Nov 2, 2013
    0
    Five patches later still a mess, Have played total war since the original Shogun, but no more after this mess. IF you accidentally hit the auto resolve battle even if the sides are 50-50, and you loss you army gets wiped out no survivors. The game is still full of bugs, I spent 3 hours attacking a city when the max time was meant to be 20 minutes, the game was stuck in mega slow motionFive patches later still a mess, Have played total war since the original Shogun, but no more after this mess. IF you accidentally hit the auto resolve battle even if the sides are 50-50, and you loss you army gets wiped out no survivors. The game is still full of bugs, I spent 3 hours attacking a city when the max time was meant to be 20 minutes, the game was stuck in mega slow motion even though it was in fast forward. The number of crashes is still real bad, this was the worse game I have every purchased by far.… Expand
Page:

Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 71 Critic Reviews

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