Total War: Rome II

 PC
  • Publisher: Sega
  • Release Date: Sep 2, 2013
User Score
4.4

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 3974 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,184 out of 3974
  2. Mixed: 613 out of 3974
  3. Negative: 2,177 out of 3974
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  1. kosciuszko
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    To begin, no game should receive anything over 4/10 if after two days of release, the creators have to say that a patch is being put together. If its buggy and not working correctly, do not release it! Simple! For this reason alone you should steer clear of the critical reviews of this game, I am truly amazed that it has scored as well as it has.
    Why?
    Because a game is intended to    To begin, no game should receive anything over 4/10 if after two days of release, the creators have to say that a patch is being put together. If its buggy and not working correctly, do not release it! Simple! For this reason alone you should steer clear of the critical reviews of this game, I am truly amazed that it has scored as well as it has.
    Why?
    Because a game is intended to entertain you, this just bores you, terribly.
    But lets begin on a positive note.
    The map looks superb, while the cities no longer assume the square box on a map look, but expand as the city grows.
    The armies look great and respond much better than previous offerings, especially the cavalry, who actually attack the enemy this time. It is refreshing to be able to hire mercenaries within the city too, and the range on offer is greater than before.
    The diplomacy, initially at least, gives a greater depth to the campaign as you interact with your neighbours without having to create and send a diplomat to do the job, especially if they are within earshot anyway.
    And, errr, that's about it.
    It becomes evident rather quickly that Sega have finally trodden the well beaten path of other gaming companies by pouring their resources into impressive eye candy and gimmicks, rather than stick to their niche of well rounded offerings, where graphics are sacrificed to the god of war in the quest for gameplay.
    To begin looking at the negative (and the list is larger than the empire Rome built), the UI for city management is truly horrendous. I tell a lie, its not even that good.
    It looks like it has been created for our PS and XBox friends to quickly flick through, so that they can hurry on to something else without taxing their thumbs too much. It is a series of poorly detailed and visualised boxes, with a dumbed down 'technology' link that again, looks like it was made for either small children to access or the console clan to enjoy.
    The two do not link well at all either; with the result being turn after frustrating turn of not building anything within your city, whilst you look on with envy as your allies and enemies create the second Rome.
    Apparantly people did not like the Medieval-esq approach to city management, though I have as yet to meet these 'people'. It worked well, was tidy, and more importantly, was easy to understand.
    Given that you may not even move your army and/or spy at all during a turn, and given that you are not building anywhere near often enough either, leads to abject frustrating and repeated 'end turn' clicking.
    Which leads to the 80's return of the king. The waiting for the 'end turn' fiasco.
    I have this installed on an SSD with an i7 kicking it along, and it still takes around a minute for the AI to take their turn. Add to this the fact that for large swathes of the time you are doing precisely nothing, and you can see how quickly boredom creeps in on a grand Total War scale.
    It is not that you can not build an army to create havoc, you can, but you are extremely limited in maintaining and upgrading it because your cities do not produce enough cash, whilst your neighbours garrisoned armies are far more numerous than yours.
    Added is the fact that nine battles out of ten are sieges. I did not in encounter an enemy with a decent army in the field at all in the three days I played it, leading to bus stop tours of city sieges, nothing more, which again, becomes boring faster than Usain Bolt on steroids.
    The dreadful AI during battles too verges on the insane; one instance amongst many I came across had the enemy simply scarper from their city whilst my two divisions of slingers (no dragons, tanks or F15 strike eagles in tow before you ask) walked straight into central city complex and held it, without an ounce of blood being spilled. The main bulk of my army was sitting around outside, enjoying the sea views and sipping tea.
    It is also in the small detail where this game fails to deliver on an epic scale too.
    You can now talk to your neighbours via the diplomacy button without having to physically move an object their, but you can not start trade in the same way for instance. Why not? So I can talk to my immediate neighbours night and day, but can not trade? Makes perfect sense that.
    Also, the idea of using family members and 'ordinary' folk to lead your forces is a nice touch; apparently the idea is that the more gravitas a general receives, the better his chances of taking over.
    But this just does not deliver excitement on any level, and ends up being just another useless side note in the long list of failures that Sega have collected up and dished out under the 'Rome II' tag.
    I could continue, but the word count is dangerously close to the 5000 max.
    To summarise, go back to earlier offerings folks, and wait until either the community either mod this shambles, or Sega bring out the much anticipated patches.    … Expand
  2. chicharito86
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    Don't waste your money on this trash. It's boring as hell, full of bugs, graphics suck, UI is terrible, AI is terrible and it feels like it's unfinished, like there is a lot of stuff missing.
  3. SirFondlebottom
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    I think a bullet point list best summarizes my problems with this dumbed down excrement. In no particular order:

    -No Guard button. I mean... what? -No ships needed. Your army will summon ships out of thin air to move over water, removing the natural obstacle that is water. -No seasons, everything is done by year. It takes a year to march through that small valley. -Agents block    I think a bullet point list best summarizes my problems with this dumbed down excrement. In no particular order:

    -No Guard button. I mean... what?

    -No ships needed. Your army will summon ships out of thin air to move over water, removing the natural obstacle that is water.

    -No seasons, everything is done by year. It takes a year to march through that small valley.

    -Agents block army movement. That invisible Spy you have? Yep, he just blocked a 3000 man army from moving through that pass.

    -About 150+ factions that lead to pointless mini wars dragging out the turns way worse than any preceding Total War instalment. You can turn off Show AI Turns, and it will still take up a good portion of your time and make you miss important movement, to boot!

    -Capture points, on open field battles. Apparently made to balance ship landings. Well you just killed the whole terrain factor of the open field battles, I think that far outweighs what little you actually, truthfully gained by creating the ship landings feature to begin with. This is so aggravating that it validates removing ships altogether from the game, including the sea battles.

    -The AI cannot handle ship landings to begin with. Whenever it receives reinforcements in form of ships it will fail miserably to utilize them, giving you a free victory.

    -Playing on Very Hard, this game has a difficulty comparable to Shogun 2 Normal, possibly less. The AI is incredibly timid and will simply not exploit your weakness. It will leave your undefended villages without walls be. It will ignore your open flanks and go for the capture flag like a retard and lose because of it. For what it's worth I've completed Shogun 2 on Legendary several times, I expected SOMETHING from the AI in this one. At least an attack? Try damnit?

    -Diplomacy is worthless: It may be because I'm playing on Very Hard and am getting demodifiers, but who knows, not like the AI ever agreed to anything even if it clearly was in it's best interest to do so. Pile up gold and riches, have long standing relations, it will not help. They will still pester you and demand payment tribute even though you have vast armies compared to their little village. Did I mention there's 150+ of the tards?

    -No family tree. No leader. I mean this literally, you have no family tree and you recruit generals willy nilly out of thin air.

    -Complex politics promised. I've yet to see any kind of politics. I mean there's not even a family tree as mentioned above, how am I supposed to have complex politics?

    -Unbalanced army traits. You can customize and grab the obvious good trait line, or go with the options for flair I guess.

    -Army MUST HAVE general. You cannot hunt down that 160man band of rebels without a general. Your general recruits out of thin air. You cannot recruit units and have them walk from your town to the general, they themselves must have a general to move. You can't train extra garrison. No logistics. You cannot intercept enemy reinforcements from a city.

    -Problems in your little village? Well it affects your whole province. Want to exempt from tax? Done for the whole province, let alone finding the button to do so is a quest in itself. Only Province capital can have walls, so only one in 3 villages will have walls and you can't pick which. Since you need Population to build improvements, you therefore have the choice to improve behind safe walls, or let all your important stuff be in the better located but worse defended village, since population is by province.

    -Can't garrison vs. Public Order problems, the effect is extremely small, not to mention doing that garrison requires a general of which you have a limited amount able to be had.

    -Worst UI in the Total War series, everything requires several button clicks instead of say right clicking once on that village.

    -Tech tree UI is 100% worthless. What was one perfectly perspicuous tree on one popup page, you now have 4 buttons that switch between 4 branches of a tree that is smaller than the predecessors.

    -Everything, and I do mean everything, needs to be inspected in the encyclopaedia. What you can build in a city depends on faction and actual city, meaning you visit the encyclopaedia each time to look at your options. Don't forget that it is browser based and seems to be requiring an internet connection, I have load times on the pages.

    -Want that advanced popup that will actually tell you what the damned thing does? Better wait for that fade-in and delay-to-show in the first place.

    -I cannot stress enough how useless the UI is. General gained a trait? How neat! Now which one is it? Is it this army? No wait it's not showing me when having the army selected. How about hovering the general unit? Ah no it simply shows the general unit type. If I press this detail button? Oh no that was the army detail page, which does not show general name either, how weird! Oh it was the third button!

    -Coop MP broken. Constant desynchs and longer AI turn time    … Expand
  4. matthiasgaming
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    Total War is the only series I buy every game at (or near) full price. I am disappointed that this game randomly crashes within 30 minutes of play. This is on a newer laptop with a fresh install the OS. The game is slow and clunky. I hope a big patch comes soon. It's also noteworthy the difference between the user score and the critic score. What game are they playing? It's not theTotal War is the only series I buy every game at (or near) full price. I am disappointed that this game randomly crashes within 30 minutes of play. This is on a newer laptop with a fresh install the OS. The game is slow and clunky. I hope a big patch comes soon. It's also noteworthy the difference between the user score and the critic score. What game are they playing? It's not the same one I'm playing.… Expand
  5. Ezio91
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    last week I was convinced of having the best total war and strategic game ever, but all I find is a game full of bugs, when setting down the details of mid low with a dual core 3ghz, 4gb ram GTX460 1GB and I do not reach even 20 fps on average it's absolutely unplayable. I refuse to play. I hope within 10 days the situation better or will be the last total war that I have purchased
  6. Kolombus
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    Ok, where to start... bought the game and well, disappointing is the first word that comes to mind. It feels unfinished, almost rushed. The ingredients of a great game are there, but it just doesn't deliver on any level as previous TW titles did.
  7. BurningTemplar
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    First, I have to explain the difference between an alpha game and a beta game.
    -Alpha: The game is not finished at all and full, bugs, poorly optimized, messed IA and also not balanced.
    -Beta: The game works pretty well, there are some bugs, the IA is at last playable, optimization is ok and the same for the balancing. Rome 2: Total War, is in a pre-alpha stage. -There is no fu***ng    First, I have to explain the difference between an alpha game and a beta game.
    -Alpha: The game is not finished at all and full, bugs, poorly optimized, messed IA and also not balanced.
    -Beta: The game works pretty well, there are some bugs, the IA is at last playable, optimization is ok and the same for the balancing.
    Rome 2: Total War, is in a pre-alpha stage.
    -There is no fu***ng AI, I can defeat 10 armies with few men. -In a battle, 1200 vs 5000 I won losing 300 guys. Also they don't know how to siege and how to defend settlements. The campaign AI is a little better but still crap.
    -The bugs are thousands, watch lastest Angry Joe videos and you will notice dat.
    -Who designed campaign UI? Rly, why didn't they fired this guy and the AI one?
    -They paid critics to make good reviews.
    -Balance? What is balance? R2TW does not know what that thing is.
    In the end, R2TW is in worst stage than R1TW when it came out, and R1TW was in a rly, rly bad state.    … Expand
  8. mody
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    Its a must not buy game...broken,full of bugs, awfull performance and a dull A.I...13 hours of gameplay and the only thing i can say its that C.A has tottaly failed its a shame for the company... the patch haven't changed anything significant...very dissapointing and a waste of hard earned money...
  9. SgtSmith95
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    game looks great.
    In its trailers. Be assured this is A BETA game. with a huge proportion of players suffering from vomit inducing graphical errors to heartbreaking comparability problems.
    CA are now starting to make amends but their updates have cause some problems whilst fixing others. Now onto the gameplay. If you like previous Total War games then this is not for you. The devs in    game looks great.
    In its trailers. Be assured this is A BETA game. with a huge proportion of players suffering from vomit inducing graphical errors to heartbreaking comparability problems.
    CA are now starting to make amends but their updates have cause some problems whilst fixing others.

    Now onto the gameplay.
    If you like previous Total War games then this is not for you. The devs in their urine soaked underwear were obviously held hostage by SEGA to release the game prematurely and to change so many tried and tested great points about the series and turn it into an arcadic casual gamer version of an RTS. With all battles now having CTF in it throwing away the reason to use ambushes and terrain to your advantage. They removed a beautiful and intuitive UI with a hideous number crunching interfave that to be honest make me fell like i am playing Europa Universals (which uis a good game but should not be in a TW series game)

    Units route within 5 minutes of combat. That is however if you are ever lucky in the campaign to enter combat the AI is passive and runs away or is just plain broken at times and that is on the hardest difficulty Legendary. On normal it will ZERG rush you and that is because on the higher difficulty it analyses dangerous situation and never wants to enter a fight because it may loose. The siege battle are worst instead ogf having great epic battles with ladders and towers the AI will only try to burn your gates or naval assault which was cool the first few times but is just annoying as the AI demands to land as far away from you as possible.
    Testudo is usless against arrows hoplites and phalanxes no longer hold back enemies they just broke all unit capabilities but instead gave you magical powers to give them small buffs here and there at certain points wich is just lazy.

    The sound
    It is simply brilliant the soundtrack gives pacing and the voices of troops banter when you zoom close is very amusing at times with 300 references everywhere. Example of such i i had 1 unit of spartans attacked by a full stack of Parthians when in the battle i heard a spartan say "There are so many sir"
    then another say in response "THIS IS MADNESS"

    Graphics
    i was lucky enough to have a very powerful rig which meant that i was stricken with all the biggest graphical glitches ever. Yep that's right this game worked better for worse computers. I eventually managed to fix my game thanks to some trickery in script files and task manager and just simple fiddling with options in the game.
    For instance to help me i had to run in windowed mode. disabled alpha vegetation, disabled SSAIO and distortion effects. turn shadows down to low. and tick unlimited virtual memory. Then disable in task manager set Rome 2 to high prioity. There are a few more steps but they get pretty lengthy so to summarize this section after these steps i got the game running on extreme settings at 35-53fps which is decent but i should be pulling at least 70fps with crossfire on my eyefinity setup.
    (Oh btw install the latest beta drivers AMD is 13.10 that lets me use crossfire on rome 2 if you dont get it your crossfire will cause massive drops in fps due to bad optimization.)

    To summaries in all now. As a veteran of the series (Shogun 1 for those of you wanting to know) i am truly disappointed in this game m it was the same case for empire but empire was a new field of warfare and a new engine. This game just feels like it is broken and i can only give it those 3 marks due to it having spartans and for CA being ther with 24 hour support with theit devs working day and night on massive future patches which give me hope for this game as shogun 2 did not work properly for mw at first until a patch came in i was first gen FX cpu back then and TW games hate multi threading in AMD's architecture but thankfully patches and beta Bios later all was fixed. so i still hold out hope and may re-review this game in a month or so after patching and extensive multiplayer testing (multiplayer completely broke as in not even working for me right now) but some people are loving it)

    This is just a simple case of a big company pulling strings and rushing it out before the more mainstream games come out. They needed more time and should have released an actual open beta so they could get tens of thousands of rigs tested for comparability issues. and could have responded to fans and our constructive criticism like in shogun 2.    … Expand
  10. Baldos
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    I have owned and played every TW game since the original Shogun. I have played each game for hundreds of hours. However I am VERY disappointed with Rome 2. I have no bugs and the game runs very well on My new PC (i5-3570K, GTX 770, SSD ungraded to play Rome 2). BUT the game is DUMBED DOWN. The IA is worse than Empire, cities can only build 4-6 buildings, the faction/ internal politics isI have owned and played every TW game since the original Shogun. I have played each game for hundreds of hours. However I am VERY disappointed with Rome 2. I have no bugs and the game runs very well on My new PC (i5-3570K, GTX 770, SSD ungraded to play Rome 2). BUT the game is DUMBED DOWN. The IA is worse than Empire, cities can only build 4-6 buildings, the faction/ internal politics is senseless, the documentation is useless. I don't even know what I can build in the future. The aux barracks show every unit in the game as available when that is not the case.....just dumb;(… Expand
  11. tbird1979
    Sep 7, 2013
    3
    Rome 2 Total Mess. This is the first game that I ever pre-purchased; it is now the last game that I will ever pre-purchase.

    To the Creative Assembly, I will say this; gamers know a poor game when they see it. The average score on metacritic and other review sites is going to continue to plummet, until you sort out the substance of this game. How could you forget that substance    Rome 2 Total Mess. This is the first game that I ever pre-purchased; it is now the last game that I will ever pre-purchase.

    To the Creative Assembly, I will say this; gamers know a poor game when they see it. The average score on metacritic and other review sites is going to continue to plummet, until you sort out the substance of this game. How could you forget that substance always beats style? I am off to play Napoleon or Shogun 2 once I've written this. Remember them? Two games which, although they certainly look good, both manage to place the emphasis on substance and usability for the gamer above style. Consequently, they manage to beat seven bells out of this badly put-together, un-enjoyable, cynical, money-gouge of a game.

    To anyone reading this who is considering buying Rome 2, I would strongly advise you not to, at least until the Creative Assembly fix it properly. Even then, exercise caution. The feel of this game is nothing like previous entries in the Total War series. If you didn't enjoy them, then you may be the kind of person who would like this. If like the rest of us, you thought the first Rome, Empire/Napoleon and Shogun 2 were masterpieces, then don't do it to yourself don't buy this game!    … Expand
  12. Yougotowned
    Sep 7, 2013
    3
    Worst UI made by CA
    - Horrible and ugly looking unit cards
    - Graphical issues all over the place - The Turn in campaign takes forever (2 min, even with decent Hardware) - Poorly optimized engine - Graphics is`nt so good as supposed to be - Rushed release of the game - Land-battles are too fast no strategy at all ) -Even my grandma can command better than this trash AI - AI     Worst UI made by CA
    - Horrible and ugly looking unit cards
    - Graphical issues all over the place
    - The Turn in campaign takes forever (2 min, even with decent Hardware)
    - Poorly optimized engine
    - Graphics is`nt so good as supposed to be
    - Rushed release of the game
    - Land-battles are too fast no strategy at all )
    -Even my grandma can command better than this trash AI
    - AI Path-finding is insane
    - 1-day DLC

    Outcome Biggest over-hyped game of 2013. Cant believe my eyes this game made out of beta.
    Worst total war even made by CA.    … Expand
  13. Jgarza2754
    Sep 7, 2013
    3
    Started the total war series with Shogun long ago. Have bought every game and watched the progression. This game was a disappointment for me. It is playable to a degree but the AI is seriously the worst I have seen yet. I spent the last 30 minutes in fast forward while a huge enemy army ran in a circle blob thing outside of my city. The naval combat is meh. The graphics are relatively okStarted the total war series with Shogun long ago. Have bought every game and watched the progression. This game was a disappointment for me. It is playable to a degree but the AI is seriously the worst I have seen yet. I spent the last 30 minutes in fast forward while a huge enemy army ran in a circle blob thing outside of my city. The naval combat is meh. The graphics are relatively ok but the optimization is horrible. Even with a kick ass gaming comp, it is going to be clunky for you. The UI is invasive, but at least you have the option to turn it off. Sadly this game is a perfect example of what is wrong with the game industry nowadays. Even the critics push games for the dollar sign. The metascore for this game is an 81 and the user score is 4.2 Really goes to show you. The solution to the problem is this: Don't buy anymore of these games, and don't buy this one. This company is no longer focused on making excellent games, this company is focused on making more money, and form a game designers standpoint, there is not a whole lot that was done to the game. Certainly not enough to take as long as it did to come out. EA and CA can officially suck it from here on out....… Expand
  14. Signatus
    Sep 8, 2013
    3
    Rome 1 was one of my favourite games. I should have just stayed with it and install a HD mod. Unfortunately I bought Rome 2 instead. I don't have the performance problems other people experience although I'm running it on a quite aged system. The game looks really beautiful and they had some good ideas like the province or diplomacy system. This game has a lot of potential. But I thinkRome 1 was one of my favourite games. I should have just stayed with it and install a HD mod. Unfortunately I bought Rome 2 instead. I don't have the performance problems other people experience although I'm running it on a quite aged system. The game looks really beautiful and they had some good ideas like the province or diplomacy system. This game has a lot of potential. But I think gameplay is just completely broken. CA's promises about the AI are just a joke right now. AI on the campaign map is far to passive or attacking with way to small armies, in battles sometimes just brain dead, not even pathfinding is working properly. Battles are way far to fast, consisting of big melee blobs because units can't hold their formations (no guard mode). Not even charging down routing foes with cavalry works. Units have fancy arcady special abilities, what has happened to the realism approach? Features are just missing like the family tree, generals basically just pop randomly up and die after a few rounds, since seasons are gone and one turn now lasts a whole year. Maybe the family tree was colliding with the new "feature" that each army must be lead by a general and number of armies is limited. Building navys is atm pointless, each army can just march into the sea and instantly free magical transport ships will appear which will suffice to beat most "real" naval units. Of course this makes strategical blocking of regions just impossible. I also don't understand why you can only play campaign factions in custom battles.
    This game just feels unfinished. I think CA will eventually fix performance bugs and improve AI behaviour, but salvaging the core of the game with getting rid of ridiculous new "features" will be left to the mods. I can't recommend this game to anybody at this point, wait at least a few months to see if CA/modders can salvage this train wreck.    … Expand
  15. Klofi
    Sep 8, 2013
    3
    This was supposed to be the best PC game of 2013. Unfortunately it is very far from that. Even after first patch the game keeps crashing, is EXTREMELY slow during AI turns in campaign map, drops FPS randomly, etc. And I am playing it on a very high-end PC. Pre-ordering this expensive game was a big mistake. Should have waited...
  16. Syferot
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    list of disadvantages:
    1) terrible optimization.
    2 )awkward interface. 3) lack of strategy and tactics in battle because of the speed of units (cavalry barely escapes from slingers) 4) faceless generals and lack of family tree: ( 5) Commanders are dying like flies! 6) You can burn torches forged gate cities! 7) terribly stupid AI. 8) transport ships from the air (why do we need a    list of disadvantages:
    1) terrible optimization.
    2 )awkward interface.
    3) lack of strategy and tactics in battle because of the speed of units (cavalry barely escapes from slingers)
    4) faceless generals and lack of family tree: (
    5) Commanders are dying like flies!
    6) You can burn torches forged gate cities!
    7) terribly stupid AI.
    8) transport ships from the air (why do we need a fleet?)
    9) animation of the battle between the units into a landfill just dying soldiers. (in-game animation SHOGUN 2 fights between units was excellent, both for strategic games)
    10) even at the highest level of complexity can not think several moves ahead, it is enough to have a strong army...    … Expand
  17. Kexxar
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    Unfortunately a huge disappointment for me.
    The graphics are good, but not great. At least, not what I expected.
    Poor optimization. Long loading times and waiting for your next turn really takes all the fun out of this game. And on top of all that, the game even has a few annoying bugs. I really hope that all this will get fixed with a few patches, and maybe an expansion, but until    Unfortunately a huge disappointment for me.
    The graphics are good, but not great. At least, not what I expected.
    Poor optimization. Long loading times and waiting for your next turn really takes all the fun out of this game.
    And on top of all that, the game even has a few annoying bugs.
    I really hope that all this will get fixed with a few patches, and maybe an expansion, but until then, I'll just stick to Shogun 2.    … Expand
  18. daboke
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    I've paid to be a beta tester with no voice.
    This 'game' is very VERY disappointing. It seems as though they have completely restructured their development team, bringing in a lot of youngsters with 'ideas' on how to 'improve' things... and I'm thinking their intent is to move towards console gaming. Total Shambles.
    1. Slow with no affinity to whoever you choose to be (i think my leader    I've paid to be a beta tester with no voice.
    This 'game' is very VERY disappointing. It seems as though they have completely restructured their development team, bringing in a lot of youngsters with 'ideas' on how to 'improve' things... and I'm thinking their intent is to move towards console gaming. Total Shambles.
    1. Slow with no affinity to whoever you choose to be (i think my leader died the only interesting thing that happened was one wife got kidnapped... don't even know her name. meh.)
    2. AI stupid no common sense and just awkward. (4 slingers took out 15 groups of tribesmen without taking a hit; they don't want to trade even though it's good for everyone; they WILL trade but only if you give them 80% of your money, bartering can bring this down to 70% but not worth it. Trying to get military access just so you can walk through a tiny part of their land to take over someone else is pointless. Best off just making war with them too.
    3. Tech tree is boring, time consuming (split across 6 pointless pages) and doesn't really have much affect.
    4. Battles are so easy even on Legendary. No excitement at all. Less said about naval battles the better.
    5. General limitations, household is slightly interesting but they're all drowning in a pool.,
    6. No more micromanaging towns everything is dumped together. Try sorting out dissatisfaction...? forget it.
    Lots more... not even started with bugs.....

    I paid money to be a tester and didn't get any dlc. I will not be purchasing anything else from CA until I get a personal apology but I bet they would screw that up.    … Expand
  19. ArcDeus
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    Every thing's broken :
    - Performance
    - AI
    - UI
    - Economy
    - Battle
    - History
    - Soul

    This is both a failure in terms of development, a marketing lies and betrayal of values ​​and spirit.

    No interest.

    **** treason.
  20. LairdEJM
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    The critics must be watching trailers on this one!! The biggest problem for me right now is the ever present lag, even on my very capable gaming rig. It detracts from a game which I long to delve into, and frustrates me after short amounts of play. This along with the graphical bugs, such as popping and texture streaming make this game look very shoddy for the AAA title it so keenly clingsThe critics must be watching trailers on this one!! The biggest problem for me right now is the ever present lag, even on my very capable gaming rig. It detracts from a game which I long to delve into, and frustrates me after short amounts of play. This along with the graphical bugs, such as popping and texture streaming make this game look very shoddy for the AAA title it so keenly clings to. Mopping these issues up is ESSENTIAL for me to ever boost my score.

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

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

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

    Roll on the miracle patches.    … Expand
  21. Deathmarch
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    Everything good in Shogun2 was ripped out of Rome2
    NO family trees, political part makes no sense and has little impact on the game
    They should rename it Total Siege War, because you'll never be attack by ai in field 99% of your battle will be defending a city or sieging one. gone are agent videos and agent diversity is gone apart form a few trait they do that same thing Generals    Everything good in Shogun2 was ripped out of Rome2
    NO family trees, political part makes no sense and has little impact on the game
    They should rename it Total Siege War, because you'll never be attack by ai in field
    99% of your battle will be defending a city or sieging one.
    gone are agent videos and agent diversity is gone apart form a few trait they do that same thing
    Generals are generic you'll careless if they die cause the game will generate a new one for you.
    ALL the battlefield feature have been gutted units don't hold formation, no guard mode, cant toggle skirmish for melee units with javelin. AI routes with in minutes if the ai allows them to engage in combat at all ,they will usually just stand there taking arrows to the face, OH yea Loose formation is gone too.
    Dumbed Down Too far    … Expand
  22. AznaktaX
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    The game is broken, with glitches, graphical issues, and a horrendous AI.

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

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

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

    As for Sega....how dare you?

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

    I'm very disappointed!!

    Do not buy this!!

    Not at least until they fix the bugs.    … Expand
  23. HelterSkelter
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Quote:"Rome II is a testament to all that is great about PC gaming and should be a must buy for all its followers"

    Thoughts:" NO THAT IS A FREAKIN LIE!!!"

    I just cant understand what this game has done to all my hopes and expectations maybe it was hyped too much but still Rome 2 goes back 2 steps in the franchise where Shogun was 2 steps ahead.

    I cannot believe the professional review score ..still it might be a good/ok game it DOES NOT deserve a    … Expand
  24. 4rdi
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    This game ruined the franchise! There are so many bugs (a good part of those re-occurring and resulting crash to the desktop) that it is not even possible to list the here. Graphics looks nothing like in the trailer. User-interface is complicated. Game-play changes, particularly, duplicating abilities of all agents, makes the game boring and less strategic. There is no way to describe howThis game ruined the franchise! There are so many bugs (a good part of those re-occurring and resulting crash to the desktop) that it is not even possible to list the here. Graphics looks nothing like in the trailer. User-interface is complicated. Game-play changes, particularly, duplicating abilities of all agents, makes the game boring and less strategic. There is no way to describe how bad the battle AI is! People playing the game first time should look forward to beat the battle AI while 2-to-1 outnumbered. Experienced players can sometimes beat the odds of 4-to-1! Campaign AI throws many small armies, sometimes consisting of only one "suicide" unit, against you instead of using high stacks armies that actually have fighting power. Campaign AI is also very peaceful and passive altogether. Altogether, this game highly disappointing experience for any fan of the series.… Expand
  25. curtisimo
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    This game is nowhere near ready for release. I'm sick of pre-ordering supposed AAA games just to be given a beta stage product on release day.
    The stripped out features, enumerable graphics glitches, dumber than dirt AI and unplayable multiplayer make me forget any of the good aspects of this game.
  26. FanaticGamer89
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    In 2004 Rome Total War was released. It was the first 3D game in the Total War series. I loved that game and still do. When I play Rome Total War I am taken to the classical era. For its time the graphics were fantastic, the UI was great and the AI was okay. Even though most effort was put into Rome, each culture felt unique and had their own variation of the UI, their own soundtracks andIn 2004 Rome Total War was released. It was the first 3D game in the Total War series. I loved that game and still do. When I play Rome Total War I am taken to the classical era. For its time the graphics were fantastic, the UI was great and the AI was okay. Even though most effort was put into Rome, each culture felt unique and had their own variation of the UI, their own soundtracks and their own strategies.

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

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

    The Good

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Take your copy of Rome 1. Boot it up and remind yourselves of what made Rome Total War so great.    … Expand
  27. NattyDread
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    3/10
    By far the weakest Total War game we have been delivered.
    - Graphics are jerky and buggy and at the same time the game performs much worse than Shogun II - Dumbed down UI (no more graphs, much less information etc.) - Victory Points in land battles (seriously, just WTF?!?!?!) those were by far the MOST idiotic battles I've ever been playing in a TW game - The lack of units.    3/10
    By far the weakest Total War game we have been delivered.
    - Graphics are jerky and buggy and at the same time the game performs much worse than Shogun II
    - Dumbed down UI (no more graphs, much less information etc.)
    - Victory Points in land battles (seriously, just WTF?!?!?!) those were by far the MOST idiotic battles I've ever been playing in a TW game
    - The lack of units. Haven't been counting them exactly, but from what i remember Rome II has far less units than Rome I.(Oh right, i forgot.....CA still needs to make more money and will sell us some fancy, over-priced dlc-units)
    - I've been playing the game for like 50 hours now and even on legendary difficulty battles are ridiculously easy, due to a very crappy AI that isn't able to build armies consisting of anything else but 20% levies and 80% skirmishers
    - When you play as a minor faction (like barbarians), so-called "major-factions" like Rome are being overrun by celtic tribes within the first 100 turns. So the expected "big war" against rome won't happen for me in my legendary arverni-campaign, which kind of spoils the complete campaign and i'm already bored to death with it, because there is absolutely no challenge.
    - Even on Legendary battles are extremely short lived. Pretty much everything's decided after one big clash. Due to this fact battles become very chaotic, too. There is no battle-line, no flanks, no order, nothing... There is no need to keep reserves in a battle for example. Just throw in everything you have at once and you'll win, because the enemy ranks immidiatelly start to crumble within a few SECONDS. Yes, whole enemy armies will route within only a few seconds into battle, because they haven't learned how to defend themselves and keep on dying like flies.
    - 1 Year turns: Add to the dumbing down of the game. You can only attack in one season, which is apparently winter. So you can't avoid attrition by summer campaigning. DERP
    Oh....I still could add dozens of points about this game, that I don't like at all.
    To me this is NOT Rome II: Total War. This is Beta II: Total Fail.
    All my hopes lie in Europa Barbarorum II, which will hopefully be coming soon for Medieval II (which in my opinion is the best TW game in the Series.)    … Expand
  28. outrider23
    Sep 11, 2013
    3
    Poor to say the least. If the glitches and frame rate issues were resolved it would be a good game for sure. However even if these issues were resolved Total War is dumbing itself down to become more "mainstream" just look at the campaign and the limited choices you can make. This game in its current state with glitches and slow frame rate is unplayable. Very disappointing would be how IPoor to say the least. If the glitches and frame rate issues were resolved it would be a good game for sure. However even if these issues were resolved Total War is dumbing itself down to become more "mainstream" just look at the campaign and the limited choices you can make. This game in its current state with glitches and slow frame rate is unplayable. Very disappointing would be how I would describe this game. I recommend to go and purchase Saints Row 4 to get over this shocking game.… Expand
  29. Sogin
    Sep 11, 2013
    3
    BS to all of the critic reviews.

    The game is disappointing and not finished. CA rushed the game and its still basically a beta. The AI and UI are terrible, which makes no sense because TA games are all pretty similar in their battle mechanics so why would the battle AI be worse... The load times and graphics are also worse then any other TA game. Good things are, the map is huge and the    BS to all of the critic reviews.

    The game is disappointing and not finished. CA rushed the game and its still basically a beta. The AI and UI are terrible, which makes no sense because TA games are all pretty similar in their battle mechanics so why would the battle AI be worse... The load times and graphics are also worse then any other TA game. Good things are, the map is huge and the campaign UI is good. I like how you raise troops in the army instead of a town and I like the province system.

    DO NOT BUY until they finish the game.

    If you want a good and true review please watch Angry Joe's review.    … Expand
  30. SoakerCity
    Sep 11, 2013
    3
    Dismal.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    The biggest disappointment of 2013 in any meta-category.    … Expand
  31. vanderown
    Sep 11, 2013
    3
    Long time fan of the series, thought Shogun 2 was great. Rome 2 is the only game that's every disappointed me enough to make a Metacritic account.

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

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

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

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

    Do note that I didn't even mention the performance issues, the atrocious AI (Battle and campaign) and de-sync issues for the still 2-player co-op campaign. Even if these (mostly launch-related) issues are fixed, the core mechanics of the game and the UI solidify Rome 2's position as a significant step back for the series. This game is spitting in the face of all of its fans. I will be highly skeptical of ordering another Total War title after this fiasco. I was certain this game would be great, but in the last 3 years, this is the game I most regret purchasing. Very disappointing. The only thing I feel has improved since previous titles is unit variety, but everything else is so much worse I don't find Total War: Rome 2 worth playing.    … Expand
  32. jamesphillip198
    Sep 12, 2013
    3
    This game, in this state, is a complete wreck. I mean I love Total War series, I've had more than +5000 hours of all TW games easily, specially Medieval 2 and Rome 1. But the game is just a wreck. The AI is NON-RESPONSIVE, the fights seem like huge heavy metal moshpits, units don't mantain formations, and I could go on and on and on. Many people seem to have performance issues (2%This game, in this state, is a complete wreck. I mean I love Total War series, I've had more than +5000 hours of all TW games easily, specially Medieval 2 and Rome 1. But the game is just a wreck. The AI is NON-RESPONSIVE, the fights seem like huge heavy metal moshpits, units don't mantain formations, and I could go on and on and on. Many people seem to have performance issues (2% according to CA.) The whole game just feels like a beta-test IMHO, and they overhyped the game way past proportion. The idea is good, I really love TW franchise, but it's hard to love the game as it is. I hope they fix this mess with upcoming patches (bajillion patches). I'll see you in 6 months, TWR2.… Expand
  33. Roma_19
    Sep 12, 2013
    3
    Rome 2 effectively punished its consumer base by releasing the game unfinished. Even if patches make the game perfect, I mean a completely reskinned Shogun 2 would have been so much better than Rome 2. SEGA and CA are lucky the "press" has given them a total pass, the biggest concern is the streamlining of the game, features that really made the original Rome the epic game we all came toRome 2 effectively punished its consumer base by releasing the game unfinished. Even if patches make the game perfect, I mean a completely reskinned Shogun 2 would have been so much better than Rome 2. SEGA and CA are lucky the "press" has given them a total pass, the biggest concern is the streamlining of the game, features that really made the original Rome the epic game we all came to love.are gone, to favor a more arcade approach... Epic fail CA/Sega… Expand
  34. vivi1
    Sep 12, 2013
    3
    They sell a beta game for full price. Clearly unfinished campaing ui, undeveloped features (politics), terrible ai in combat and campaing. They laugh at the spanish and italian customers.

    The game has a lot of good thigs but those mistakes make the be below of the acepptable.
  35. Slapshot
    Sep 15, 2013
    3
    After playing the game for over 20 hours I have come to the conclusion that this game obviously is suffering from a very poor release. I am not alone in my complaints of the many bugs, AI problems and graphics issues but my biggest problem is that I simply do not like or agree with many of the fundamental changes that have been made to the game itself.

    - Control points in battles. To me    After playing the game for over 20 hours I have come to the conclusion that this game obviously is suffering from a very poor release. I am not alone in my complaints of the many bugs, AI problems and graphics issues but my biggest problem is that I simply do not like or agree with many of the fundamental changes that have been made to the game itself.

    - Control points in battles. To me this was just an awful idea. In battle an objective should be an objective because it is important to secure victory on the map. What is important should be up to the general to decide. Not something the game holds your hand and tells you is important "just because". Not only are these points not usually placed in strategic areas but I can not justify why the control of them would win or loose a battle outside of a siege or open city fight. It is a tool that oversimplifies battles.

    - UI. I find the UI to be cumbersome and leaves mostly everything hidden away inside of the encyclopedia. It makes dealing with the changes to the campaign mode that much harder to figure out.

    - Characters. I honestly feel no connection to any of my generals. For one there is no coherent or dynamic way of viewing them. For the most part the family and political system is meaningless in it's current state and appears like it was never fully realized.

    - Lack of formations in battle. Units do not maintain any semblance of formation once they engage the enemy. It makes things confusing and is completely unrealistic to see certain units behave this way. At one point I felt compelled to play a barbarian faction just so it would feel somewhat realistic when my men abandoned any form of discipline and ran about hitting things. The good news is that you can usually win without much effort on your part anyway as I found myself coming out of battles victorious when at the ground level I had really lost any idea of what my confused ill disciplined troops were actually doing.    … Expand
  36. WalkinWoundd
    Sep 14, 2013
    3
    I loved the other Total War titles and was keen to play Rome 2. Unfortunately the game is a step backwards in almost every way. Within minutes of started a new campaign the game descends into 'click 'End turn', wait 3 minutes for the computer turn, move army, and then repeat the cycle until you die of boredom.

    The strategy and interesting world is gone. There are far to many factions to    I loved the other Total War titles and was keen to play Rome 2. Unfortunately the game is a step backwards in almost every way. Within minutes of started a new campaign the game descends into 'click 'End turn', wait 3 minutes for the computer turn, move army, and then repeat the cycle until you die of boredom.

    The strategy and interesting world is gone. There are far to many factions to care in anyway about any of them. I literally have NO idea what Creative Assembly have been doing for 2 and a half years making this game.

    So disappointed with it.    … Expand
  37. lxgiwylgta
    Sep 15, 2013
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I purchased Rome 2 Total War 2 days after release because I just couldn't bare the wait anymore. But how foolish of me by not bothering to check the reviews before I took action. Then again, I had complete faith and trust in CA so i didn't even think twice. Now its safe to say that I am completely disappointed by CA's performance and release of Rome 2 Total War. The never ending list of bugs and other complaints by other fellow reviewers is already enough to express my frustration and disappointment. To sum it up, I am experiencing almost the same problems these fellow gamers are experiencing. The single player AI wants nothing but gold, they also make ridiculous offers at times. They let you conquer their cities without a struggle, like what Angry Joe said in his review, the enemy army would sometime run in circles for no reason and does not attack at all. After you conquer their settlement they often "retaliate" with only ONE unit and will repeat until they perish. Another annoying thing that I found was during naval battles my ships does not follow my orders, the odds of winning was in my favor, but instead, my ships sit idle while getting rammed by enemy ships until they sink. Battles last 4 mins tops for me, and the enemy army routs so easily and it gives me no challenge at all. And what's with the stupid flags placed in maps now? There's practically a flag in every type of battle now, and you can't even focus on deploying strategy into the field, instead you have to put units to actually guard or seize the stupid flags. And the enemy AI does NOT care about fighting your army in siege battles. They'll try to break through your line (or die trying) to get to the flag. I mean who came up with the bright idea of putting capture points in every type of battle scenario? I guess for siege battles its acceptable, but for every battle?! Its just plain stupid and it ruins the authenticity of the Total War game. During singleplayer campaign if you don't uncheck the box that says "Show AI moves" then you're basically going to sit watching the AI move for lets say 30 minutes? And I'm not even exaggerating. From past total war gaming experience, I've always turned off that feature to save time. But even with that feature off it still takes up to 5 minutes for it to be your turn again. And when you destroy a faction, THEY WILL SOMEHOW COME BACK LATER. I was hoping by destroying factions maybe the turns will end much quicker, but nope. The destroyed factions somehow "emerge from the chaos of a war" a few turns later. The crashes has been pretty annoying as well. I've experienced 5 crashes now and I'm about 160 turns in the game. And now I'd have to save everytime I make a major move or the game might crash and I'd have to end up redoing everything. The family trees are very vague and boring. They don't show the complexity of families and the marriages like in Medieval 2, instead it only shows your Generals and when they die, they just get replaced by another general that spawns out of nowhere. The armies are so hard to manage now since you're limited to have a certain amount of armies, but I guess this gives people a challenge. However you can now only recruit units when you have a general present in the unit, and you cannot split armies either, they have to stay where the general is; so you can't send a unit to a city or another army. And now the armies can instantly travel by sea without building navies to transport them. They come with their own transport ships! How lame is that. It makes the standard navy completely obsolete because armies at sea can easily defeat standard navies now. I can go on and on about these things, but I don't feel the need to because they're also listed in other reviews. And I know that most of us are on the same page here. Let this be a clear message to CA and we're letting them know that public order in the Total war community is extremely low, and we are about to go into a rebellion if they don't do much about this soon. I hope they use their resources and time to make a rewarding DLC for us in the future so we can atleast still consider to forgive CA for their wrongdoings. But until then, we'll just have to wait for results. All of this is coming from a loyal Total War fan since Rome 1. And we all hope CA will never pull this stunt again to their loyal customers, because we are the main reason why they're still alive today.… Expand
  38. Lemonadrian
    Sep 15, 2013
    3
    Where did the 40% larger budget go? Marketing?

    At it's core, there is a good game in here, however it was so rushed and unpolished that it is left nigh unplayable. The developers were too ambitious in terms of scope and scale, yet attempted to streamline key aspects to meaninglessness. Yes the map is larger and there are now hundreds of factions and units, but what's the point when the    Where did the 40% larger budget go? Marketing?

    At it's core, there is a good game in here, however it was so rushed and unpolished that it is left nigh unplayable. The developers were too ambitious in terms of scope and scale, yet attempted to streamline key aspects to meaninglessness. Yes the map is larger and there are now hundreds of factions and units, but what's the point when the factions slow down the turn rate horrifically, the units are just renamed clones and the map is stuck on summer with a horrid yellow/red pissfilter. The battle interface is a clunky mess, a huge step back from every other game in the series, and the AI was dropped on it's head too many times in development. The entire game has an interface that would be more appropriate on a console, which is worrying. The frequent crashes, bugs and general design flaws are infuriating.

    Go play Shogun 2 for a few months til this stillbirth of a game is patched, modded and fixed into something resemble a true Total War game. Even then, I doubt CA and SEGA will learn from this.    … Expand
  39. Bad_Andy
    Sep 17, 2013
    3
    The game is cool but it crashes all the time and as others have said the AI is bad so, not very good unfortunately, sad because it has a lot of potential.
  40. jm007
    Sep 18, 2013
    3
    The game AI is awful. The numerous bugs and unfinished features are a real kick in the backside of people who expected more from this development team. Even worse are these people (so called gaming sites) giving the game high ratings. Do we really condone unfinished products like Rome 2? Don't reward them with high marks on what a game can be as opposed to what it should be?
  41. WastedEfforts
    Sep 19, 2013
    3
    Game is unfinished beta version. Whole budget went to PR. It's like they only spent 1 year on this game.
    Hopefully Rome 2 will be a playable game after a year of fixing and with the help of the mods.
    Pros: Big map Province and Regions system (ported from EU:Rome by Paradox) Cinematic camera Graphics and visuals {when they are working properly) Cons: Bad voice acting in ALL    Game is unfinished beta version. Whole budget went to PR. It's like they only spent 1 year on this game.
    Hopefully Rome 2 will be a playable game after a year of fixing and with the help of the mods.

    Pros:
    Big map
    Province and Regions system (ported from EU:Rome by Paradox)
    Cinematic camera
    Graphics and visuals {when they are working properly)

    Cons:
    Bad voice acting in ALL languages
    Bad battle UI
    Magic abilities for units
    Magic torches for melee units makes siege constructs like ladders waste of time and troops due attrition
    Automatic transports for your army when you want to cross the sea
    Dead AI
    Lack of formations and stances for units (Tight/loose, troops always in guard mode)
    Mediocre music
    No Family Tree
    No season changes
    Broken Diplomacy
    Useless trade system
    Government system not finished
    Cut content for future DLC
    No game optimization, tons of bugs and cut content.

    I will never pre-order future CA game again or buy their DLC. Only if it's on Steam Sale with 75% off.
    I urge you to do the same.    … Expand
  42. Man_o_War
    Sep 20, 2013
    3
    Awful Release.

    Dumbed down beyond recognition from other TW titles.
    Magic ships and magic abilities. An epic map that can be opened up in no time.
    No politics, no families, no seasons.

    No Good.
  43. rapman1986
    Sep 21, 2013
    3
    I feel like beta tester. This is the first time and LAST time I'm buying game from CA, next time, torrent only.
    The AI is stupid, the game-play is boring, graphic optimization is terrible (blinking maps, low fps, part of forces is invisible...). I want my money back and time that i spend to try to play this "game".
  44. carlocgc
    Sep 23, 2013
    3
    Bad points:
    Unit collision Battles become moss pits )
    Skill cards With these cards you have no idea how your unit will progress ) Campaign AI See every other review ) Multiplayer Pointless in effect a multiplayer custom battle mode no mmo progression at all ) Historical battles The most enjoyable part for me yet only 4 battles 4! ) General speeches Very short and    Bad points:
    Unit collision Battles become moss pits )
    Skill cards With these cards you have no idea how your unit will progress )
    Campaign AI See every other review )
    Multiplayer Pointless in effect a multiplayer custom battle mode no mmo progression at all )
    Historical battles The most enjoyable part for me yet only 4 battles 4! )
    General speeches Very short and impersonal )
    Campaign AI turn time Though improved somewhat with patches still way too long )
    Good Points:
    Cinematic Camera
    Epic siege battles even with all its flaws    … Expand
  45. Mackles
    Sep 24, 2013
    3
    Graphically impressive. Excellent combat animations and sound effects. Streamlined empire management. That's the good stuff.

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

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

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

    All in all, an extremely poor addition to the Total War series that suffers as much from bad design choices as it does from a lack of optimization and extensive technical issues.    … Expand
  46. uaronain
    Sep 24, 2013
    3
    After a massive build up after the classic rome total war, this one fails to deliver much more than some pretty graphics. The game just feels empty, voice acting is not much to rave about. Combat AI 75% of the time is horrible. The campaign is not a challenge and when you win it leaves you feeling like "thats it?"
  47. Rhazes
    Sep 24, 2013
    3
    This is by far the worst Total War game I have ever played and I own them all. I was so excited because Rome is my favorite of Total War games. This game is an Alpha build. This is what you deal with in closed beta testing. I don't even think it will be fixed. CA has never been a company that supports there games for long. They will drop down to a skeleton crew for support and DLC andThis is by far the worst Total War game I have ever played and I own them all. I was so excited because Rome is my favorite of Total War games. This game is an Alpha build. This is what you deal with in closed beta testing. I don't even think it will be fixed. CA has never been a company that supports there games for long. They will drop down to a skeleton crew for support and DLC and everyone else will be working on the Rome expansion.

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

    Avoid this game unless you like to waste money.    … Expand
  48. havoccau
    Sep 24, 2013
    3
    The game is on its third week and third patch since launch. It's immediate predecessor runs well on my computer, look gorgeous and has the deepest campaign map system (not the largest) of the Total War games to date.

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

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

    I would have loved this game if it was just a paint job on the original Rome: Total War. But it's nowhere near as fun as that one, and will need a lot of work before it lives up to its true potential.    … Expand
  49. sturmstorm
    Sep 25, 2013
    3
    OMG.... Big, Big Total War fan.....

    This game lacks Depth Lacks Strategy Lacks the feel of a Total War Franchise as they threw away the core of the game to make it more arcady. I like the region management and the graphics but that's as far as i go. The Campaigns are Boring, the diplomacy and 'in-house turmoil' doesn't effect the game or even matter. False Advertising and the fact    OMG.... Big, Big Total War fan.....

    This game lacks Depth
    Lacks Strategy
    Lacks the feel of a Total War Franchise as they threw away the core of the game to make it more arcady. I like the region management and the graphics but that's as far as i go. The Campaigns are Boring, the diplomacy and 'in-house turmoil' doesn't effect the game or even matter.

    False Advertising and the fact that i spent 60 Euros on a Beta version of the game CA can wave goodbye to this customer... even though i'm sure it has attracted the new group of fanboys along the way. This is my last ever buy of TW or CA games....

    At least when sim city had difficulties they actually gave money vouchers to buy a new game as an apology here CA said this is what is to be expected from now on "oh yeah and sorry for not warning you this was out strategy"     … Expand
  50. Add1cted
    Sep 25, 2013
    3
    It's difficult to rate this game properly due to the hype surrounding the launch. My review is based on expectations vs reality.

    Frankly, I was hoping for something which progressed the series, added depth and flavour to campaigns, and celebrated the return to the era where I began my Total War experience all those years ago. Frankly, what we got was a buggy, average game with little    It's difficult to rate this game properly due to the hype surrounding the launch. My review is based on expectations vs reality.

    Frankly, I was hoping for something which progressed the series, added depth and flavour to campaigns, and celebrated the return to the era where I began my Total War experience all those years ago. Frankly, what we got was a buggy, average game with little depth and poorly planned/lacking features.

    Diplomacy is shallow, faction politics are confusing and the AI seems timid and makes awful decisions both on the campaign map and the battle maps.

    Personally I pre-ordered, which was an error.

    Sure, the game is beautiful and has some interesting aspects such as the new province system. However these features are hamstrung by decisions such as to remove the ability to trade regions, leaving the province system as just another reason to wage war against someone you'd rather not.

    As a game, it's alright. As a Total War, it's the biggest let down to date.    … Expand
  51. scumbag
    Sep 25, 2013
    3
    A stripped back bare bones buggy game with terrible AI. Don't get me wrong I'll try and play it with the future patches but this has to be the worst launch of a game I've ever seen.
  52. Arthalion
    Sep 25, 2013
    3
    without talking about bad otpimisation, this game is not a good strategy game. Just for 1 reason, there is no IA, just few orders repeated in every situation. So no AI, no strategy, no game. Actually total war rome 2 is just a bugged graphical benchmark.
  53. tmajarov
    Sep 25, 2013
    3
    Rome II is missing many of the features that have made the previous Total War titles immersive strategy games. The game was released with a slew of minor bugs that should have easily identified and addressed in basic Beta testing. Really looks like CA forewent Beta testing to sell preorders and then have purchasers Beta test so they can work out bugs before christmas holiday sales.
  54. Hello12
    Sep 26, 2013
    3
    This game will only work great and best on the very best of home computers. CA implemented a graphic memory change for Rome 2. Napoleon and Shogun 2 you'd just pick your graphic settings, and off you go and play and have fun. With Rome2, you have this annoying feature that always checks if your overbudget on memory and if you are, the game downgrades you to a graphic setting the gameThis game will only work great and best on the very best of home computers. CA implemented a graphic memory change for Rome 2. Napoleon and Shogun 2 you'd just pick your graphic settings, and off you go and play and have fun. With Rome2, you have this annoying feature that always checks if your overbudget on memory and if you are, the game downgrades you to a graphic setting the game wants. The graphics after this process look bad. I think this new feature has caused more headaches than its worth. The Campaign map. Is well done. I like it. The Campaign AI has improved since Patch 3

    Campaign Battles. AI has no plan, but to engage your army in head on fight in a matter of minutes. Zooming in to units fighting. Rome drops frame rates like crazy. 2,000 soldiers isn't a big army. Frame rates should not be dropping to the extend they are, more so, as your graphics too have been downgraded to fight a battle. For me overall, Rome 2 is the worst total war of the series. I never stopped playing Empire because of the bugs and glitches. I still had fun with it. Rome 2, i can't do the same. Sega, seems to be at allowing games to be sold that are unfinished. I think gamers need to refuse to buy any game that Sega publishes from now on.    … Expand
  55. Yarsk
    Sep 26, 2013
    3
    9 is what this game should have got regarding graphics and gameplay, taking into account some good new features and the thinking ahead about previous opus flaws.

    And 8 is what it should have got at initial release. But -1 for awful UI. -1 for abandoned previous good features and some oversimplified new features built for advertising. -1 for non-challenging and bugged campaign AI. -1    9 is what this game should have got regarding graphics and gameplay, taking into account some good new features and the thinking ahead about previous opus flaws.

    And 8 is what it should have got at initial release.

    But -1 for awful UI. -1 for abandoned previous good features and some oversimplified new features built for advertising. -1 for non-challenging and bugged campaign AI. -1 for non-challenging and bugged battle AI

    /2 because it is unacceptable to pay so much for a beta test

    +1 because CA seems to patch what players point out

    = 3 over bugged, non-challenging and non-immersing game
    = release disaster    … Expand
  56. AbaDe
    Sep 27, 2013
    3
    GOOD
    Top Surveillance Mapping system nicely made (Aerial View Mode)
    Ability to now create generals on the way rather than a son to achieve 16 Generals decide battle decisions more decisively as a general can win you a impossible battle and also can lose you a favorable battle once dead I Liked it !!!! BAD Only 4 Historical Battles and those really does need much brains to resolve    GOOD
    Top Surveillance Mapping system nicely made (Aerial View Mode)
    Ability to now create generals on the way rather than a son to achieve 16
    Generals decide battle decisions more decisively as a general can win you a impossible battle and also can lose you a favorable battle once dead I Liked it !!!!

    BAD
    Only 4 Historical Battles and those really does need much brains to resolve
    Seasons system which was there in ROME- I has not been included
    Too many number of fractions means too much time more in the Later years one reload takes about 5 7 mins practically
    Long ranged units causes minimal damage to opponents even if taking direct hits
    Unit card displays really looks we are living in the "Black and White" Era
    Unit cards are too confusing if have multiple same unit
    No defense terrain bonus to units due to units lacking a guard or defensive stance mode Units either kills or gets killed This is not the way War used to happen.... Front takes the damage flanks used to remain strong with a reserve fresh unit to deploy.
    Rome Without a FAMILY TREE

    SO
    Worst game ever played LOST all my pocked money for this     … Expand
  57. Wiseus
    Sep 27, 2013
    3
    There is 10 max. points, but my score is 3 of 10, so there is 3 pluses and 7 minuses in this game.

    Let's start it bellow. Total War is my favorite game series, so I awaited many form the newest and the most expensive game of franchise. Creative Assambly have promised us a revolution, but there's non of it, and here's why: Pluses: + Great graphic. + Sea-land battles and landing    There is 10 max. points, but my score is 3 of 10, so there is 3 pluses and 7 minuses in this game.

    Let's start it bellow. Total War is my favorite game series, so I awaited many form the newest and the most expensive game of franchise. Creative Assambly have promised us a revolution, but there's non of it, and here's why:

    Pluses:

    + Great graphic.
    + Sea-land battles and landing operations.
    + Citys and campain map.

    Minuses:

    - NO huge gameplay improvments.
    - NO retreat(not running out) button and behavior stance(agressive, defensive and so on).
    - NO exiting, or even a bit verisimilar naval combat (oars don't break, no wind, etc.)
    - NO multiplayer features.(co-op campain for one faction, avatar map etc.)
    - NO optimisation.
    - NO product realise quality.
    - NO proper AI( stupid at battle, moderate at campain map, week Carthage.)

    Сonclusion: Rome II should and would be a greate game, when CA'll filed off it's product and moders will improve it.

    But, for now it's just an other new game of Total War serias, like new DLC for Shogun 2, with new setting.

    3 of 10.    … Expand
  58. Cloud7
    Oct 1, 2013
    3
    I'm surprised at all the dishonest critic reviews. Surely we didn't play the same game? "This is not an easy game and require a learning curve" What?! This is by FAR the easiest Total War game I've ever played and the only Total War game that is a complete walk in the park on legendary. It's a joke. Nothing but a rushed poorly optimized game at the moment. Depending on your hardware youI'm surprised at all the dishonest critic reviews. Surely we didn't play the same game? "This is not an easy game and require a learning curve" What?! This is by FAR the easiest Total War game I've ever played and the only Total War game that is a complete walk in the park on legendary. It's a joke. Nothing but a rushed poorly optimized game at the moment. Depending on your hardware you will get pretty much the same exact FPS whether you have all settings on very high or the lowest possible settings. I will be honest and say I do like the concept that they had here, with how the UI was designed and innovative from the past Total War games. But besides that this game has nothing to offer in it's current state. The campaign map is still unplayable for some players, someone would be lucky to average over 25 frames. The player will normally dread ending his/her turn because not being able to get over 15 frames when waiting for over 100 factions (although I do like competing with a large amount of factions) is just a terrible experience. I found myself ending my turn and physically leaving to go do something in the mean time, it was that bad. This is all after CA's patch 2.0 (patch 3 beta is just a broken mess from what I've heard). The naval battles are still broken. I experienced a battle where all of the enemies routed off map but one unit couldn't leave the map. It seemed as if an invisible force field wouldn't let the enemy off the map despite me using all 4 of my units left to ram the unit (which was invincible at this point by the way) to try and force it off the map or just destroy it. However after trying to do anything that would let me just win the battle the clock ran out and I LOST. That was honestly one of the worst gaming experiences I've ever had, I just couldn't believe it. Another issue I personally experienced is that the AI factions will almost NEVER declare war on you no matter what you do. They possibly might have agents commit actions on you but never more than that unless you declare war on them. If this game was to be properly patched and all of the issues fixed (that won't happen anytime soon) the most this game deserves is a 7/10 bottom line.… Expand
  59. Rayven
    Oct 1, 2013
    3
    1.) The UI is dumbed down
    2.) The game is poorly optimized
    3.) Numerous bugs
    4.) Loooong campaign load time
    5.) AI is stupid
    6.) Balance of power bar is inaccurate
  60. Upshot
    Oct 3, 2013
    3
    I'm really enjoying this review stuff!

    Right. I played Shogun, then the follow ons, and I remember spending HUNDREDS of hours playing Rome 1; Rome 1 to me personally was a very enjoyable experience which I immersed myself fully into and really felt like I was having 'fun'. Medieval was also a game I put a lot of time into, and that's only because I downloaded numerous mods to    I'm really enjoying this review stuff!

    Right.

    I played Shogun, then the follow ons, and I remember spending HUNDREDS of hours playing Rome 1; Rome 1 to me personally was a very enjoyable experience which I immersed myself fully into and really felt like I was having 'fun'. Medieval was also a game I put a lot of time into, and that's only because I downloaded numerous mods to increase the game, however I couldn't help but always feel the AI was broken.

    To the point;

    Rome 2 Could be an amazing game, it has so many features that feel unfinished like they scrapped them half way through. I will keep this incredibly short in the following sentences;

    A strategy game requires AI, in battle & on the campaign map if one exists. This game does not have AI.

    They will suicide General Units to attack your cities, alone.

    They will sit anywhere in their city in the open field, and allow your archers to fully finish all their ammo. Oh, do they have archers?... Buy Artillery Units, they will allow you to destroy their entire force of 2000 with a few artillery units, and they will do NOTHING but take it. Oh, what if they buy Artillery?.. They won't.

    I have won battles with 100 troops vs 2000 troops when defending. Not through skill. I have won open field battles with 5 artillery units against THOUSANDS of enemy troops.

    They suicide, they do nothing, they don't think, no strategy is involved in any of these games aside from exploiting that fact. It's almost as if the aim of this game is to figure out HOW to play the battles in a way that will actually make the AI respond/react in a challenging way.

    Campaign map is dead. They have no intelligence, they have no diplomacy. Wipe a faction out? Take their last town? Make them your slaves!!... See them declare war with no army and suicide a turn later. Whatever.

    I've been awake far too long and my brain is melting, but for real if you're a total war fan and you HAVE enjoyed some of their titles do not sour your taste with what you 'expect' from this.    … Expand
  61. PrettyMaid76
    Oct 24, 2013
    3
    A very buggy and unsatisfying experience! Given the high production value of their earliest titles I'm continually appalled to see what they deem worthy of a release. What I payed for felt as nothing but a rushed cash grab.
  62. Shu1984
    Oct 3, 2013
    3
    I would gladly give this game a good rating, but unfortunately I can not. It is my first TW series purchase and, being a strategy games' fan for a long time, I expected much more from this title, but so far I can not find a single reason why a seasoned strategy vet would recommend this one. And believe me, I have tried hard (100+ hours of play).

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

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

    Do not believe the hype (if you still think Santa is out there) and please think twice if you want to spend euro 55 (plus upcoming DLCs of course) on this one.    … Expand
  63. Samael87
    Oct 18, 2013
    3
    The game is a total failure. was sold as a full ita (written in the game box "completamente in italiano") but the audio is only partially translated. this is a scam! bugged, stupid AI, slow load, bad graphics and terribly heavy. The worst total war ever.
  64. emikke
    Oct 23, 2013
    3
    I don't mind that there are some crashes, or that there are some bugs. Auto-saves has made this a small issue compared to what is truly wrong with this game. It's really boring.

    They shouldn't have bothered with the Campaign, because that is what is the saddest part of the whole game, the battle system it is possible to fix with some new and interesting units and better AI. But the map    I don't mind that there are some crashes, or that there are some bugs. Auto-saves has made this a small issue compared to what is truly wrong with this game. It's really boring.

    They shouldn't have bothered with the Campaign, because that is what is the saddest part of the whole game, the battle system it is possible to fix with some new and interesting units and better AI. But the map strategy is really, really bad.    … Expand
  65. SethFaded
    Oct 28, 2013
    3
    This game is the downfall of TW series. Bad optimisation, low fps, nonexistent AI, extremely quick battles, AI doesn't use siege battles, there's nothing strategic in siege battles, broken formations, useless political system, op transport ships make the battle ships look useless, too many bugs and many more negative things.
    Positive things: Fancy graphics
    To anyone consider buying this    This game is the downfall of TW series. Bad optimisation, low fps, nonexistent AI, extremely quick battles, AI doesn't use siege battles, there's nothing strategic in siege battles, broken formations, useless political system, op transport ships make the battle ships look useless, too many bugs and many more negative things.
    Positive things: Fancy graphics
    To anyone consider buying this game, DON'T! It's so broken, that the current patches made little improvement. Better buy this game when it will be 75% discounted.    … Expand
  66. Canopus
    Oct 25, 2013
    3
    The flags remove any strategy in city and fort battles when the AI attacks because the AI rushes the flag and ignores your units. Units glob together in great balled-up blobs that eliminate any reason to use the cinematic camera. Battle times are 3 to 5 minutes, which is barely enough time to watch the battle. The game becomes a tedious grind to conquer the map with battles that feelThe flags remove any strategy in city and fort battles when the AI attacks because the AI rushes the flag and ignores your units. Units glob together in great balled-up blobs that eliminate any reason to use the cinematic camera. Battle times are 3 to 5 minutes, which is barely enough time to watch the battle. The game becomes a tedious grind to conquer the map with battles that feel repetitive. There is a clear lack of immersion to keep the player interested before the player approaches mid game.… Expand
  67. theCID
    Oct 27, 2013
    3
    To put it plainly Rome II has certainly made it clear to all Total War fans that there was no real intention of making this game better even after so many years. Rome I is far superior to this dreadful nightmare. This is most evidently seen in the AI. Holy sh&I?THE AI. Well, I know this statement is seen in almost every review, but I just do not believe this single fact can beTo put it plainly Rome II has certainly made it clear to all Total War fans that there was no real intention of making this game better even after so many years. Rome I is far superior to this dreadful nightmare. This is most evidently seen in the AI. Holy sh&I?THE AI. Well, I know this statement is seen in almost every review, but I just do not believe this single fact can be overemphasized. After more than 15 hrs put in this game I realized for one the campaign gameplay would never get better, as it continuously becomes so dull that it becomes aggravating, and second, the ridiculous time it takes for each turn to end. Sigh. This game is a shame and a mockery to all of us who were sucked in to believing that yes indeed this game would be better than its predecessor.… Expand
  68. JJJMMM1
    Oct 30, 2013
    3
    Unit AI and overall enemy AI in battles is worse than in Empire or Napoleon. Let that statement sink in before I say anything else.

    I've played the game for about 20 hours and I've had enough. I won't touch it again, even if a DarthMod is implemented. I'm saying this because the AI is beyond repair and there's no challenge. Enemy unit behavior in battles is consistently nonsensical and    Unit AI and overall enemy AI in battles is worse than in Empire or Napoleon. Let that statement sink in before I say anything else.

    I've played the game for about 20 hours and I've had enough. I won't touch it again, even if a DarthMod is implemented. I'm saying this because the AI is beyond repair and there's no challenge. Enemy unit behavior in battles is consistently nonsensical and there's never an illusion that the army is unified under one general.

    What happens when you lose a battle? I can't say, since I've never lost one. This is partly because the campaign AI feeds individual units to me one by one, but mostly because all of the battles are autowins. I've been up against armies twice as strong as mine many times, but never felt challenged in the least.

    I believe these are things that cannot be fixed by tweaking variable values or iterating on the current AI engine. The whole thing needs to be redesigned from scratch in a future TW game, using completely different principles.

    Units also move faster than ever which makes the game feel arcade-like. Battles quickly turn into zergling clashes instead of great historical battles which is lame. This change probably takes away the fun of multiplayer as well the one thing that is not by default ruined by the lack of AI.

    The game improves on just about nothing apart from the graphics, which are at this stage very buggy.    … Expand
  69. AncientAcid
    Nov 2, 2013
    3
    This game was broken. Features removed.. it's a gross over exaggeration of hype. The flag on the field of battles was worthless... no fortresses or detail put into the flag zone... just a flag in the field for nothing.
    The infantry units turned navy.. is pointless.. family trees removed... AI can't siege.. nor build siege towers or anything else. This game has been pretty much stripped of    This game was broken. Features removed.. it's a gross over exaggeration of hype. The flag on the field of battles was worthless... no fortresses or detail put into the flag zone... just a flag in the field for nothing.
    The infantry units turned navy.. is pointless.. family trees removed... AI can't siege.. nor build siege towers or anything else. This game has been pretty much stripped of most if not all of the best of Total War.

    They failed to improve upon the existing formula that has been in the game and put in some of the worst design decisions I've seen in years. Medieval Total War 2 was GOLD compared to this. Shogun2 is mind blowingly superior to most of the titles.. and this plain old FAILS to deliver on better and superior content than the old Rome Total War. On the plus side. There are a lot of factions in the game. Cities really don't look bad to me and are nicely detailed. I like a lot about the game.. but plain old stripping out what defined the previous titles in place of this clunky non intuitive GARBAGE UI makes the game TERRIBLE. This game was the most disappointing release of the DECADE,

    Been playing since Medieval total war and Shogun didn't have much to do with the latter. But man oh man was Shogun 2 worth all the wait. This is GARBAGE. It has literally fallen FLAT ON ITS FACE AT LAUNCH. The point is.. it's a reskinned Empire Total War you can see right through it. The most definitive review of this game is the Angry Joe Show's review.

    Everything that made Total War standout is in Rome Total War 1, Medieval Total War 1/2 & Shogun Total War 2 was the BEST in the entire series. Everything else is garbage. Creative Assembly is going to have a hell of a time picking up after this slop of a title. They simply refuse to keep improving what works.    … Expand
  70. SneezeJunky
    Nov 7, 2013
    3
    Sad to say that this is THE WORST Total War game i've ever played. Game is not optimized. Gameplay is dull and boring. Ai doesn't work properly.

    It really hurts giving it such a poor score. Since I really love total war series. But this game is a Complete joke.
  71. jsijason
    Nov 8, 2013
    3
    Graphics took a big step backwards since Shogun 2, the AI is unbelievably terrible, making terrible choices, it's pointless to have military allies and set combined points of attack. Which is a disappointing advantage to someone looking for a challenge: you can always count on the AI to screw up and give you the clear upper hand.

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

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

    I give it a 3/10, mainly on nostalgia for excellent predecessors.    … Expand
  72. Capshaw
    Nov 8, 2013
    3
    This game is wait and more wait. So much marching. Only did one mission and i was fed up. Great graphics, easy enough to play though. If you REALLY like strategy games, this probably is right up your ally. But for me it just became to boring.
  73. Dogtanian81
    Nov 9, 2013
    3
    Major dissapointment. Magic abilities, way too easy etc etc. No guard mode. You cant plan skills for your generals. UI is terrible. I could go on and. Campaign map is nice though.
  74. WebMonkeys
    Nov 10, 2013
    3
    I pretty much agree with everyone else that this game is I'm running AMD 6x CPU 3.4Ghz GTX 560 TI, 8GB Ram and SSD and the game still plays terrible. Now its not really the game play that bothers me that much it's the waiting for my turn that really pisses me off. And because of that i rate this game 3/10. For me to wait over 1:30 2 minutes maybe even more sometimes is unacceptable.I pretty much agree with everyone else that this game is I'm running AMD 6x CPU 3.4Ghz GTX 560 TI, 8GB Ram and SSD and the game still plays terrible. Now its not really the game play that bothers me that much it's the waiting for my turn that really pisses me off. And because of that i rate this game 3/10. For me to wait over 1:30 2 minutes maybe even more sometimes is unacceptable. Plus all the frame rate issues along with the MP having problems.

    Again i don't have much to say cause its all been said. but in simple terms fix your Don't release something that doesn't work. And iv'e downloaded the patches and i'm still having issues.    … Expand
  75. dcee
    Nov 10, 2013
    3
    This game is a MASSIVE let-down, i have played and mostly loved all of the total war games, my favourite being Medieval 2.
    Where to begin on what makes Rome 2 such a huge disappointment!,each installment in the franchise has been an improvement, until now!!! They had the opportunity to make one of the greatest games of all time, the hype, the adverts, the trailers, the anticipation,    This game is a MASSIVE let-down, i have played and mostly loved all of the total war games, my favourite being Medieval 2.
    Where to begin on what makes Rome 2 such a huge disappointment!,each installment in the franchise has been an improvement, until now!!! They had the opportunity to make one of the greatest games of all time, the hype, the adverts, the trailers, the anticipation, Cleopatra, allure, intrigue et al!
    I pre-ordered, and looked forward to playing the game at long last.
    What the hell happened????
    Ok, the battles work ok after the patches were installed, but the campaign gameplay?!!!!
    In order to sit through the machinations of every roman era tribe during the endturn phase, the hours spent developing provinces that facilitate the raising of elite armies, you need to be able to empathise with/have an interest in the characters in the game, ie generals. There is no family tree, this is too myopic for this genre of game! Oh and if you do manage to find a general young enough to build up, it is highly likely that your own side will assassinate him, for no good reason. This is due to the unexplained internal politics system, no matter what you do, eventually your internal position deteriorates!

    And then there is the online content, again what happened here? Totally stripped back, no ranking system, regressive!

    To hype a game with such vigour, showing RPG elements (ie Cleopatra) in the trails, and then deliver a game that has completely lost the balance between simulation and gameplay, is astonishing!

    This game is simply not enjoyable, the brief moments of battlefield brilliance, do not compensate for hours you will spend maintaining a dull campaign map that often transcends common sense.

    I can only hope that if they make Medieval 3, they follow this simple process :

    - Look at Medieval 2, well done, you made a great game

    - Make Medieval 3 just like 2, only with better graphics/engine    … Expand
  76. sungod
    Nov 29, 2013
    3
    After holding off playing Rome 2 for several weeks while it's been relentlessly patched, I finally started it up tonight and gave it a go, and here are my first impressions. Bear in mind I'm a HUGE Rome 1 fan and still play it. I've played Medieval II, Shogun 2, Empire, and Napoleon as well, so I'm quite familiar with CA titles.

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

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

    So, I'm sad to say that I've joined the chorus of other long-time CA and Rome 1 superfans that think CA really tanked it on Rome 2. Without question the most disappointing game release since the disastrous SimCity reboot by EA. I spent a good 6 hours playing XCom Enemy Within today and loved it. I just spent 60 minutes playing Rome 2 and could care less. So sad. Such a missed opportunity by CA, and a wasted $60 by me. I'm never pre-ordering a CA title ever again. Lesson learned.    … Expand
  77. hansoner
    Nov 19, 2013
    3
    Loved Rome 1. Rome 2 has too many glitches. Senate serves no purpose and just gets in the way. Game CONSTANTLY freezes (which is extra annoying after waiting 10 minutes for it to load). Fun when it works properly, but lately it has froze on more turns than it hasn't for me. Spend your money elsewhere. The frustration is not worth the cost.
  78. kiwisneverfly
    Nov 23, 2013
    3
    Not worth the price. I had a better time with Medieval 2, Empire and Napoleon then this game. It isn't well put together, with bugs and disappointing graphics. Hell I've played FTP games that look and play better than this one! I suggest getting a older and better total war game, like medieval 2, empire or shogun 2.
  79. Arabian_Knight
    Dec 1, 2013
    3
    An extreme disappointment-it really makes me wonder what version the critics were playing, because I would have liked to have tried it. The game's graphics are not optimized well at all, and it eats up video memory at a catastrophic rate. The graphic quality WILL be poor, it seems, no matter what you do.

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

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

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

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

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

    My personal recommendation is to wait if you are intent on buying this. The game's problems are too deep to fix with patches, other than maybe the graphical and lag issues. Since the later Total War games are not as conducive to modding as the earlier ones were, these gameplay problems are likely permanent. If you are intent on trying Rome II, wait until the price drops, or you will be kicking yourself for paying so much for this game. Its best positives come from the fact that it is a Total War game; unfortunately, it feels hastily put together and rushed. The best way to describe it, unfortunately, is haphazard. I personally was looking forward to playing this, but I was disappointed.    … Expand
  80. thelostson
    Dec 3, 2013
    3
    Yes, the user interface is the worst of the series yet. Beautiful graphics are one thing, making the game enjoyable another.

    Someone fell clearly in love with the unit cards, and wasn't slapped out of it by her or his colleagues. They make unit types unrecognizable, the army movement on the map is dodgy and so on. I don't even mention naval combat, maybe less would have been more?    Yes, the user interface is the worst of the series yet. Beautiful graphics are one thing, making the game enjoyable another.

    Someone fell clearly in love with the unit cards, and wasn't slapped out of it by her or his colleagues. They make unit types unrecognizable, the army movement on the map is dodgy and so on. I don't even mention naval combat, maybe less would have been more?

    Historicity is unfortunately important when I buy a game like Rome II I am pretty sure I saw Germanic ballistae. Maybe it's time to install Europa Barbarorum again.

    To summarize disappointing on.quite a few levels.    … Expand
  81. Vespa
    Jan 14, 2014
    3
    This game has so many bugs its unreal. But first we should mention that a gamer should have the right to expect a certain standard of a game, from responsive AI, acceptable graphic, Good UI, adaptive Diplomacy ect. well this game fails at all the above. The AI is left wanting its like playing a retro 80's game, AI doing the same stuff over and over, no aggression at all, unfair programmingThis game has so many bugs its unreal. But first we should mention that a gamer should have the right to expect a certain standard of a game, from responsive AI, acceptable graphic, Good UI, adaptive Diplomacy ect. well this game fails at all the above. The AI is left wanting its like playing a retro 80's game, AI doing the same stuff over and over, no aggression at all, unfair programming for minor and major nation (I mean its called Rome 2 Total war, you expect Rome to survive till at least the player meets them in battle but dont be surprised when u find them destroyed by northern Gallic tribes around turn 100, well its happened to me 6 out of 6 times when i was playing as the Iceni tribe). Moving on,The graphics well, one word "joke", I personally would have accepted Shogun 2 style graphics but instead you get blurry effects and poor visuals. The UI on the other hand took a step back from Shogun 2 and well, just sucked, you don't even get to see the trait chose tree like in shogun 2, so you can plan your levelling up of general ect, there is much more wrong with the UI I couldn't tell you all here. But the thing that pissed me off the most was the Diplomacy, nations would declare war on you when you were no where near them and they had no way of attack you, for example Seleucid empire declaring war on the Iceni tribe in Britain, (please Google the nations and see for yourself). Also nations would fight 5 or 6 wars at once leading to them being destroyed out right, know one would do something like that, but the AI would. in short the game is so bad they have to bring out patch after patch to fix the crap game they are on patch 8.1 out of a minimum of 9 patches more will probably need to come out, I wouldnt be surprised if they have to bring a total of 15 patches. But if you like easy to win AI then this game is for you, but if you want a challenge DON'T BUY!!!!!
    Personally I find it had what the critics ever saw in this game are they blind or just stupid and out of touch with the gaming community, or are they just pleasing creative assembly so they don't get fired (giving head more like it), on steam it says 76 meta score well its really 41 meta score from the gamers themselves. so YOU deicide who to believe.    … Expand
  82. mark4ca
    Jan 25, 2014
    3
    This game is a dilution of what other Total War titles established. The campaign game is quite confusing, with a User Interface that looks right out of the Civ III ... 10 years ago! ... Faction leaders keep their "faces" on the UI, similar to the Civ's ones - which is basically the same face no matter which of your own generals you pick. No character development, no family trees. Even theThis game is a dilution of what other Total War titles established. The campaign game is quite confusing, with a User Interface that looks right out of the Civ III ... 10 years ago! ... Faction leaders keep their "faces" on the UI, similar to the Civ's ones - which is basically the same face no matter which of your own generals you pick. No character development, no family trees. Even the voice acting was cheapened. Whereas Rome I has some epic discourses from the Roman Generals, now it's so ridiculous - a weak voice and lame lines - that you feel sorry for the pixelated soldiers waiting to enter battle. And battle ... lol ... what a joke it is! ... With a battle engine seemingly rehashed from Empire TW ... the most powerful units on the battlefield are the ranged units! ... You can destroy lines of hastati with javelin throwers, and because the range of the units are different ... the hastati just stand there under the sun ... awkwardly realigning their ranks. Troops movement are downright retarded ... with whole armies chasing a group of slingers throughout the city ... like a crazy police cruiser chasing a car in GTA. I was pissed ... because the game looks like nothing from the videos that had been shown before. Pretty pissed that I shelled fifty bucks for this game. Shame on CA and Sega ... :( .… Expand
  83. mmclaug
    Feb 14, 2014
    3
    I was really excited to get this game with all the hype (of course), but soon found it to be lacking a lot of the qualities that the former Total War series games had. I didn't like the campaign map graphics at all; in fact, even without all of the latest graphics, the former games had more of an appeal. The one good thing is the gameplay graphics and smoothness of it, but it's all theI was really excited to get this game with all the hype (of course), but soon found it to be lacking a lot of the qualities that the former Total War series games had. I didn't like the campaign map graphics at all; in fact, even without all of the latest graphics, the former games had more of an appeal. The one good thing is the gameplay graphics and smoothness of it, but it's all the small things that took away from what could have been a good game. The thing that bothered me the most was that you can't zoom out very far to see the campaign map -- this is a feature that just amazes me as to why it was removed. Players like to see their accomplishments, especially on the campaign map where one can zoom out and see all the lands under his/her control. Also, I miss the portraits of generals rather than the 3D full-body captures. Overall, I just wasn't at all excited about this game. Why is it that every game company, especially Creative Assembly, feels like they have to significantly change things that obviously gave them good ratings to begin with? Do yourself a favor next time and ask your consumers what THEY want to see in the game.… Expand
  84. toni_li
    Mar 4, 2014
    3
    Esta nota se la doy tirando por lo alto, por que me da vergüenza que un juego que lo ponen por las nubes y lo lanzan en pre venta por 55 euros y los cuatro primeros meses el juego practicamente sea injugable no lo veo normal, cuando ademas utiliza la base de todos los Total War ¿alguien me puede decir que han hecho durante todo este tiempo? ¿en que han gastado el dinero? simplementeEsta nota se la doy tirando por lo alto, por que me da vergüenza que un juego que lo ponen por las nubes y lo lanzan en pre venta por 55 euros y los cuatro primeros meses el juego practicamente sea injugable no lo veo normal, cuando ademas utiliza la base de todos los Total War ¿alguien me puede decir que han hecho durante todo este tiempo? ¿en que han gastado el dinero? simplemente decepcionante y probablemente para mi el fin de la saga.… Expand
  85. carsal
    May 14, 2014
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. After 12 patces and 6 dlcs the game is still unplayable. The worst of the whole series. Biggest fraud in video game industry that I ever see. There is no way to preorder a game of CA ever before… Expand
  86. notorious_pog
    Oct 12, 2014
    3
    The game's still not fixed a year after release, CA flat out lied about many features that either haven't been added, or don't work. The best part is they want to sell you an expansion for many of these fixes. Despicable.
  87. LaughingSam
    Jan 27, 2015
    3
    A very disappointing entry in the serious marginally improved by a years worth of patching. Sieges are still horrendous affairs, but not in the way we all hoped for, and naval battles are essentially unplayable. The political system may as well not exist for all the impact it has on your game, and why would you care about being emperor anyway when you've got no stinkin' family?!
  88. Agostinos
    Jul 1, 2014
    3
    After 13 patches and several mods tested, this game still sucks. It is flawed by design and working as intended!
    Dont you ever buy this if you want a strategy game. If you think of it as an app you might get if for some €€ at steam, install it, play it for some minutes, quit bored and annoyed and aswell deinstall that 20gb of massie failure.
    Unfortunately i paid the whole price and i    After 13 patches and several mods tested, this game still sucks. It is flawed by design and working as intended!
    Dont you ever buy this if you want a strategy game. If you think of it as an app you might get if for some €€ at steam, install it, play it for some minutes, quit bored and annoyed and aswell deinstall that 20gb of massie failure.
    Unfortunately i paid the whole price and i will never ever again play something from CA.    … Expand
  89. tillhopesdies
    Jul 20, 2014
    3
    low score is not the result of the battles , I think they are the best in terms of moral , how long a unit lasts is important for strategy and I think it was way to short in shogun 2 and the detail is beautiful. I think the thought gone into the fighting is really good. however . a game that is this buggy and lags this much in a siege makes the game unfinished. my score reflects this. morelow score is not the result of the battles , I think they are the best in terms of moral , how long a unit lasts is important for strategy and I think it was way to short in shogun 2 and the detail is beautiful. I think the thought gone into the fighting is really good. however . a game that is this buggy and lags this much in a siege makes the game unfinished. my score reflects this. more importantly however ! this game lacks all character. rome 1 has this simply by having different colours. seeing your towns buildings change in size (noticibly) in the (see town option with your civilans in it) and huge temples ,being able to choose your own king by the family tree. the game should be trying to preserve the children it captured bye making more character within the game like from Rome 1 by allowing and supporting our own story lines , being able to pretend that I was the son of a king who removed me from the throne and so i took my reputation and money and used it to buy and bribe an army of mercenaries , which I then invaded the gual making the empire twice as big. and then "pretending" I made my own civil was against my hated brother. this and the feel of power I had, but with out feeling like I was just easily rolling over everything , boring and unchallenging. rome 2 naval is by far the best I have seen , besides empire total war. I love ramming ships ! but after my 30 hours (enjoying about the first hour) and then it becoming a chore and thinking (if I wanted more fun and character, I would just go sleep and dream about it instead) I see ca thought we wanted better battles, I see there dedication to it. however , balancing issues and the complete lack of any reason to want you to care enough to keep playing to fight the battles. maybe im just getting old, maybe the younger audience , who I assume don't even play p.c any more , would like it better, maybe im loosing my imagination, or maybe ROME TOTAL WAR has failed to spark my imagination and from the negative reviews , ill assume its the later.… Expand
  90. Ostrovid
    Jul 27, 2014
    3
    Bad AI? YES / Worse than before? TRUE / What about seasons? BUY DLC / Sieging? STILL FRUSTRATING / Usable formations? WITH MOD / Nice units? DETAILED BUT UGLY / Worth buying? HELL NO
  91. DudeWithGun
    Aug 2, 2014
    3
    Still broken nearly a year later. I bought this game at launch, multiplayer was poor at best due to all the crashes and the game breaking bugs. Plus the campaign had unintelligent AI and ridiculous bugs, one of which made it so after I hit end turn around turn 90ish it didn't do anything, even if I went back to turn 60 and tried something else, it just ended once I got back to turn 90ish.Still broken nearly a year later. I bought this game at launch, multiplayer was poor at best due to all the crashes and the game breaking bugs. Plus the campaign had unintelligent AI and ridiculous bugs, one of which made it so after I hit end turn around turn 90ish it didn't do anything, even if I went back to turn 60 and tried something else, it just ended once I got back to turn 90ish. So I uninstalled and WAITED AN ENTIRE YEAR to try again. So I re-installed a few days ago and everything seemed great, campaign ran smoothly, hell even the AI kind of knew how to fight battles now. Which was a big plus since before they'd just derp around your walls like it was a kid wearing a chastity belt in a whore house. They still pile up during village battles like it was a big orgy and you weren't invited, but whatever.

    So I siege Carthage, which was under control of Syracuse (Good job making major factions still awful after a whole year CA, I always knew that generic faction that was wiped from history would make a comeback and rule the world someday) and look at that, 2 massive army stacks are protecting it, which is normal on hard+ difficulty. So I start the battle, and everything seems great for about 5 minutes, it's a huge battle, everyone is getting ready to die and then suddenly CRIPPLING unit lag sets in like my grandmothers alzheimer's and no one can remember how to even **** move. My FPS is still around 35fps and the camera is fine, it's the units that are moving at a snails pace and stuttering helplessly. So I pray to the Total War gods and turn my settings to Low, still doesn't work. I set it to max speed, no change, everyone just stutters about occasionally dying.

    You know for a game based on warfare with massive armies numbering in the tens of thousands, you'd think they'd figure out a way to have 3000 vs 3000 work. Also the DLC I bought - Blood and Gore, isn't working right now, apparently the last patch broke it. CA charged you for blood in a game solely about killing people in huge battles that don't work, and lookit that blood doesn't work either, no wonder everyone just stuttered about like zombies.

    /delete local content
    again.    … Expand
  92. Exwin0880
    May 14, 2015
    3
    A step backwards for the franchise.

    The Total War game series conjures images of great strategy games, like Rome, Medieval, Shogun, heck, I'll even throw Empire on that list (it had some moments), but Rome 2, it goes on a different list. Rome 2 earns its place beside some of gaming's largest disappointments. Combat feels... wrong, go youtube a video of the game play. It's tough to    A step backwards for the franchise.

    The Total War game series conjures images of great strategy games, like Rome, Medieval, Shogun, heck, I'll even throw Empire on that list (it had some moments), but Rome 2, it goes on a different list. Rome 2 earns its place beside some of gaming's largest disappointments.

    Combat feels... wrong, go youtube a video of the game play. It's tough to explain. Rome 1's game engine was great, Rome 2's just isn't.

    Diplomacy would make a squirrel on meth say "Calm it down spazz!" The same faction that attacks you in one turn, on the very next turn is offering you the world for peace. This isn't an every now and then thing, it's EVERY turn, you have to open the page every turn to keep track of who you are at war with.

    Pass this one up. It's just not a very good game.    … Expand
  93. InsaneCarduelis
    Oct 9, 2014
    3
    Bugs, too long time spent by wainting, too big promises, boring. UI is horibble. Where is good options like for example guard button. And it's not cheap game. The worst strategy I played.
  94. thetruth21
    Jun 3, 2015
    3
    to the people who rated this game at an extremely high score are paid out liars. I played the game for about 4 hours and the game isn't even that good. I hadn't the played the game for long time because it kept crashing. there are some good things about the game that i like, like when you finish a battle against an army you get to decide about the prisoners you captured by enslaving themto the people who rated this game at an extremely high score are paid out liars. I played the game for about 4 hours and the game isn't even that good. I hadn't the played the game for long time because it kept crashing. there are some good things about the game that i like, like when you finish a battle against an army you get to decide about the prisoners you captured by enslaving them to help build your cities more quickly but will have a downside. I think that the developers of creative assembly really want to perfect the game but they were rushed by the greedy CEO's just to make a quick buck off of the consumer. the crashes and updates that failed to fix the game proves that the company doesn't give a **** about the consumer only their greed and lies… Expand
  95. teedeedubya
    Jun 14, 2015
    3
    I'm late to the game on writing this review, but I just want to make sure no one wastes their money needlessly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Pretty disappointing game... I don't think people should buy this.    … Expand
  96. Legatus85
    Aug 11, 2015
    3
    I'm very disappointed with this game. For several reasons mainly the poor game mechanics and features.
    The worst by far is the building system which is an absolute catastrophe! What happened? There are 6 building slots for the region capitals and 3-4 for the minor towns. That's it??? There are a few different branches of construction like religious buildings, industrial buildings,    I'm very disappointed with this game. For several reasons mainly the poor game mechanics and features.
    The worst by far is the building system which is an absolute catastrophe! What happened? There are 6 building slots for the region capitals and 3-4 for the minor towns. That's it??? There are a few different branches of construction like religious buildings, industrial buildings, commercial buildings etc. Then you choose what kind of building in each branch you want to build. But you better choose carefully cause you only have a few slots to build on. This makes the building system extremely limited and boring! But the worst of all is the effects from the various buildings. You can upgrade buildings from level 1 to 4 (or sometimes 5). Up to level 2 it usually fine but as soon as you upgrade to level 3 or more the buildings bring negative effects as well as positive (only very few exceptions). Basically it either reduces public order due to squalor or it consumes food. It follows a system only based on building level and category since it makes no sense at all based on what the building actually is! The lack of effort is amazing, its like the made a system first with the effects from the buildings and then randomly filled in the empty spaces with a name of a building and a picture. Its so poorly designed that you are actually being punished for upgrading the buildings. Why????? To me this ruins the entire game and make it unplayable. Compare it to Rome 1 or Medieval 2 where you had more building in one city than i a whole region with 4 cities in Rome 2 and with no limitations. But I guess that's to complicated for the "wider audience".

    Another thing that's been dumbed down is the population system. Instead of showing the actual population and the percentage of growth based on different factors which made town development and planning interesting in Rome 1 and Medieval 2. It now shows the growth in plain numbers and the required accumulated growth to get a population surplus. When you have enough population surplus you expand the city with a new building slot (unless you already have the maximum number of 3-6 slots). I guess % and numbers above 500 is to complicated too.

    Next is the extremely simplified and boring traits and retinue system for generals. Its limited to 3 traits and 1 retinue per general. Plus 1 bonus you get to choose at each level up (which follows standard template for all characters). In Rome 1 your general received traits and retinue based on events in his life and with no limits to the number of traits. For example if he lost health in battle he would get the trait scarred which had some effect on his influence and popularity and so on. Which made it interesting to shape a character and follow him throughout his life. Traits could be inherited as well. In Rome 2 your generals lacks personality and get replaced automatically when they die, then you go through exact the same process of choosing upgrades for the new guy at level up. You just don't care about them. On the other hand the 10 year old's of the wider audience probably don't appreciate a sophisticated system of character traits.

    But if you are one of those who don't care about strategy and planning and challenge and so on, don't worry your armies will replenish themselves automatically (no retraining here) you can stop and kill almost an entire army with a couple of spies and then finish the job with a few units that's easier to manage.

    I wont say much about the graphics since its not that important to me personally but could the unit cards, building pictures (or rather lack of) etc be any more boring and same looking? They actually had to give buildings different color backgrounds to be able to distinguish them from other type of buildings

    The AI is too poor to mention, its not worth the attention.

    If the next game in the series continue on the same path as this it will be a point and click linear game with an advisor saying click on this enemy to kill it, well done! Click on this settlement to make it happy.

    The things i like about this game:
    I welcome the region system with a fortified capital and smaller towns with no walls.
    Useful garrison armies.
    Beautiful campaign map

    So this game is a huge step backwards for the franchise. Things don't make sense. Rome 1 was infinitely better. They betrayed the fans and stripped away everything that was good and unique to have a much much simpler game so that people who uses a computer for the first time in their life also can play and enjoy. They could have made a great game but they just didn't want to and didn't care.

    I give it a poor rating mostly because it's such a disappointment from previous games. A sequel should be better than the game before. It would score slightly better if this had been the first game in a franchise.    … Expand
  97. Wiebe
    Feb 26, 2020
    3
    Uninspiring installment. Total war has barely evolved over the years and the game concepts show their age, even when all the bugs are fixed.
  98. JXL
    Jan 17, 2016
    3
    I have been defending rome 2 since it came out against all the terrible reviews. That ends now. They have done a terrible job with the cooperative campaign. So many glitches. The final straw was the inability of my coop ally to reinforce me and vice versa, while still killing the troops that were supposed to reinforce. if you do not want to make coop viable...don't build it.
  99. Laer
    Mar 14, 2017
    3
    Creo que el principal problema de este juego es querer equilibrar tanto las civilizaciones, que deja a un lado el rigor histórico he iguala a todas las demás con Roma y Cartago, las dos grandes de su tiempo.

    Si lo que buscas son grandes batallas, y enfrentamientos multijugador, quizás no sea un mal juego, porque es en lo único que destaca, en eso y en los gráficos, que sin duda no se    Creo que el principal problema de este juego es querer equilibrar tanto las civilizaciones, que deja a un lado el rigor histórico he iguala a todas las demás con Roma y Cartago, las dos grandes de su tiempo.

    Si lo que buscas son grandes batallas, y enfrentamientos multijugador, quizás no sea un mal juego, porque es en lo único que destaca, en eso y en los gráficos, que sin duda no se queda corto para nada.

    Ahora bien, sin duda, para alguien que busque algo más, se queda bastante corto. Intentare exponerlo en diferentes puntos:

    1- Tiene muchas facciones a escoger. Y esto tendría sentido, si todas no se jugaran prácticamente igual, tanto en batallas campales, como en asedios y navales.

    2- Este punto va junto al primero, y es que al intentar igualarlo tanto, se han pasado la historia por los co^^nes, ya que las tribus no contaban con la disciplina y tecnología Romana, solo eran hordas de feroces guerreros que se arrojaban a su enemigo, pero en este juego en cambio...

    3- Roma y Cartago no se diferencian prácticamente de las demás civilizaciones, siendo incluso, que en gran parte de las campañas desaparecerán tan rápido, que seguramente no nos de tiempo ni a encontrarlas en el mapa.

    4- El mapa es demasiado grande. No suelo decir esto, ya que normalmente cuanto más grande mejor, pero en este caso no es así, ya que con prácticamente 1/3 del mapa conquistado, tienes asegurado que nadie te hará frente haya por donde vayas.

    5- No me molestaría un mapa grande, si los objetivos no fueran conquistar prácticamente una ciudad en cada punta de esté. Con esto quiero decir, que las condiciones de victorias son absurdas. ¿Por que querría un Galo conquistar Grecia o el norte de África?.

    6- Lo del multijugador lo digo más que nada porque la IA parece MR Bean intentando hacer algo bien. Apelotona unidades, enfrenta caballería contra lanceros, expone al general sin ningún tipo de sentido...

    Estos son algunos de los puntos que considero que flaquean en esta entrega, falta puntos, por supuesto, como por ejemplo decir que el juego aun vale 55 euros en Steam, y que cuenta con un abanico de dlcs que SUPERAN los 80 euros en su conjunto.    … Expand
  100. Securion
    Sep 24, 2013
    2
    Very buggy AI (Unit AI is so bad its destroying the game right now) and not much to do in the game. Got bored very fast.
    Also, VERY expensive DLC that gives you basicly nothing. Feels like a rip-off.
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 71 Critic Reviews

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