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. fployd
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    This is not really a playable game at release. It is a bug ridden, mess which Creative Assembly (the developers) expect you to pay a premium price to be a beta tester. Shame on you CA, SEGA, and Steam for not allowing refunds for people who were scammed into buying this, by CA's fake game-play footage and marketing hype
  2. danrose93
    Sep 10, 2013
    1
    First of all, cannot really run the game, downloaded patches but still terrible animations and FPS quality.
    Also the features in the game are poor, like squalor levels that really ruin your game play experience. also flaming torches that make rams and ladders pointless. Not a fun game, until future patches sort things out.
  3. rafaeldevoght
    Sep 10, 2013
    10
    I understand that for many players is certainly a very difficult game if it is not available in your language.
    Very detailed game! It is very well organized. Game runs very smoothly for me.
    Maybe little long wait after the "END TURN. Yet super realistic! Really well done.
  4. echo_whiskey
    Sep 10, 2013
    8
    20130910 I really don't understand the negative reviews at all. I've played the game daily since it was released and I'm still enjoying the heck out of it. I played STW, MTW, RTW, MTWII, ETW, NTW, STW2. This game really isn't any different from those games, just updated.

    I notice that people keep whining about the lack of a family tree; frankly I don't need a family full of halfwit    20130910 I really don't understand the negative reviews at all. I've played the game daily since it was released and I'm still enjoying the heck out of it. I played STW, MTW, RTW, MTWII, ETW, NTW, STW2. This game really isn't any different from those games, just updated.

    I notice that people keep whining about the lack of a family tree; frankly I don't need a family full of halfwit generals that get shunted to backwater posts where they can accumulate even more negative traits and breed an even larger army of halfwit children. Other people gripe about a lack of guard mode learn the controls, you can assign an AI behavior to duplicate that.

    The only gameplay thing that really bothers me is that a blockade by some other faction on a port city will keep me from invading the port city with my army. I read somewhere that this will be fixed, so I'm not terribly worried about it. Most of my actual complaints are so minor that I can't even think of them right now.

    All that said, you do need a pretty awesome computer to play this with a lot of maxed out eye-candy. I'm running an amd fx4 with 8gb and a gtx 470 and I'm playing with most features on low. I'm upgrading to an hd 7950 this week so I'll see if a little more video card grunt helps significantly or not and will see about updating my review with that information.

    One thing I hate about the internet is the expansion of the entitlement mentality regarding trivial stuff like games. It's difficult to believe that so many people are whining so loudly about this. Almost makes me wish that the internet could be rolled back.    … Expand
  5. Ekenbro
    Sep 10, 2013
    10
    This game is awesome, sure it has some bugs and some things needs to be fixed but overall it's very good. Most people who complain are people who don't know what the they are doing, I've seen people complaining they loose in battle and blame it on bugs.
  6. stu82r
    Sep 10, 2013
    5
    I love the epic historical battle experience provided by the Total War franchise, but as of now this one has seriously failed to deliver. After 15 game hours; the AI seems broken. It is neither challenging nor a threat on any difficulty. The graphics are not up to the standard that was displayed in development screenshots, and not what I expected from a 2013 TW release. There are some coolI love the epic historical battle experience provided by the Total War franchise, but as of now this one has seriously failed to deliver. After 15 game hours; the AI seems broken. It is neither challenging nor a threat on any difficulty. The graphics are not up to the standard that was displayed in development screenshots, and not what I expected from a 2013 TW release. There are some cool new features, the cinematic camera, the campaign map has improved, but nothing new that has drastically improved or expanded the series. Sure, previous Total War titles also had their own problems, but CA does not seem to be learning or improving from those problems, despite being aware of them. I expected a huge leap forward in all areas, instead it feels like a massive step backwards. What is left is a playable game that had potential, but it is filled with annoying bugs, poor design choices (the battles feel short and confusing, in part due to the horrible AI and a new capture the flag mechanic that makes no sense), and DLC that's simply a slap in the face. You want to play the Spartans as a faction? Please insert $8. The fans have once again paid the price, and it will once again be up to the fans and modders to rescue this mess. Did not pre-order, this is the last CA game I will buy. Not acceptable.
    If you want to buy it, wait a year and buy it with a DLC bundle on sale. Otherwise, get Shogan 2 as it is simply a better game.    … Expand
  7. Heimskringla91
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    Absolutely horrendous. AI is utterly stupid and the addition of "capture the flag" greatly decreases the challenge of battles. Naval battles are disgustingly impossible due to glitches, they are a required auto-resolve. Pay an additional $8 in order to play This game is just completely broken. As an avid Total War since the first Shogun Total War, I am disgusted. I really hope I canAbsolutely horrendous. AI is utterly stupid and the addition of "capture the flag" greatly decreases the challenge of battles. Naval battles are disgustingly impossible due to glitches, they are a required auto-resolve. Pay an additional $8 in order to play This game is just completely broken. As an avid Total War since the first Shogun Total War, I am disgusted. I really hope I can get my money back for this. I'm pissed at the positive reviews this is receiving from critics. Quite the travesty.… Expand
  8. hazel1393
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    What the hell... How could you sell a game like this and feel good about it? This game isn't ready to play at all. If you want to pay to play a pre Alpha... go ahead.
  9. petterb
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    Waited a long time for this game and havent been this dissapointed since Orion 3. The strategic part of the game is way too simple. Technology is too simple. Diplomacy is too simple. AI is far from good enough. Too bad i didnt read the reviews before actually buying the game. Im a huge fan of the Total War series, but this is the series low.
  10. 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
  11. Yazilliclick
    Sep 10, 2013
    5
    Has a lot of potential but falls completely flat due to bugs, poor AI and questionable UI decisions. It's amazing that a developer would go backwards on so many items in a series that they've worked on for over a decade. Shogun 2 had pretty good UI for presenting information in a lot of cases, not perfect but OK; Rome 2 goes backwards with battle UI not presenting proper information, notHas a lot of potential but falls completely flat due to bugs, poor AI and questionable UI decisions. It's amazing that a developer would go backwards on so many items in a series that they've worked on for over a decade. Shogun 2 had pretty good UI for presenting information in a lot of cases, not perfect but OK; Rome 2 goes backwards with battle UI not presenting proper information, not showing skill trees, settlement details about order and such being hidden in mouse over popups etc... The AI is probably amongst the worst in past several games which is incomprehensible how they can go backwards. Performance is poor, turn wait times are very very long even on decent hardware. They've sped up combat both by making units run faster and making units die and break morale sooner which takes away the ability to really feel like your in command of the battle and turns it more into an arcade action game of trying to control units.

    Ultimately there's potential here for a decent game if they can patch this stuff out but at this point the developer deserves no respect for handing the game out in it's current state. These are all common and very apparent issues which would not have been missed in Q&A and thus were deliberately shipped with the game.    … Expand
  12. Victory
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    It's fun but right now it's easily the worst total war game in the series. Absolutely horrendous optimisation, horrendous ai problems, horrendous ship combat.

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

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

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

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

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

    I wish I hadn't bothered, the sad thing is I expected this from the developers but I anticipated it would actually be an improvement over shogun 2 which is excellent..    … Expand
  13. gunnergoz
    Sep 10, 2013
    5
    CA's Rome 2 is a disappointing step down from what we were led to expect. It has the feel of an unfinished product released months too soon. TW Shogun 2 was better thought out and reflected some passion for the subject matter. This game gives the impression of a harried design team that was impacted more by budgetary constraints and corporate micro-management than by it's own creativityCA's Rome 2 is a disappointing step down from what we were led to expect. It has the feel of an unfinished product released months too soon. TW Shogun 2 was better thought out and reflected some passion for the subject matter. This game gives the impression of a harried design team that was impacted more by budgetary constraints and corporate micro-management than by it's own creativity and passion for the subject matter. Too much was sacrificed for too little gain, and what gain there is supposedly in tactical graphics is flawed in execution by poor optimization. The strategic map is so large as to make simulating the actual Roman Empire all but impossible, given the rates of movement on the strategic map. I was very much looking forward to this but now have serious doubts about the future of the TW franchise, given how it was handled with this opportunity.… Expand
  14. R3DSOXN4TION
    Sep 10, 2013
    5
    This game is only half made. Before the patch the glitches were game breaking. There is no unit balance elephants for the win if the A.I. even sends more the one or two army units to attack you at all. The A.I. is incompetent doing nothing even if your troops are standing right out in front of them. The game stripped many features and had many half baked features this game was clearlyThis game is only half made. Before the patch the glitches were game breaking. There is no unit balance elephants for the win if the A.I. even sends more the one or two army units to attack you at all. The A.I. is incompetent doing nothing even if your troops are standing right out in front of them. The game stripped many features and had many half baked features this game was clearly rushed. Even after all of that its still a Total War game and it is still enjoyable, but not $60 enjoyable. Either buy Shogun 2, a far superior Total War game, or wait until a Steam sale to get this. Or skip it all together you wouldn't miss much except for a broken game.… Expand
  15. blasb
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    Very bad game compared to the other total war titles. Ai is Junk, UI is junk, Graphics are horrible and the campaign is just plain bad and isn't even needed since it doesn't bring anything to the game except bad experiences. The game runs slow and even my friend with the latest specs only get 15 fps. I think its time for CA to sit down and really re-evaluate how to make games... CustomersVery bad game compared to the other total war titles. Ai is Junk, UI is junk, Graphics are horrible and the campaign is just plain bad and isn't even needed since it doesn't bring anything to the game except bad experiences. The game runs slow and even my friend with the latest specs only get 15 fps. I think its time for CA to sit down and really re-evaluate how to make games... Customers wont pay you 50 euros for the next total war title if u make a joke of us like u did with this game, promising us a great experience(worst total war game ever).… Expand
  16. Hammerheart
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    Is this beta or some kind of joke? Or maybe this game is targeted for 7yo console players?

    I am a huge fan of Total War since Shogun, but Rome 2 is a different game, much worse.

    We want strategy! We want tactics! We want well expanded economy, well expanded diplomacy,
    we want realistic battlefield.

    And what we get? Bugged, casual, arcade game for lots of money.

    DON'T BUY IT!
  17. zethar
    Sep 10, 2013
    5
    STOP trying to make it a casual game its a battle A LONG BATTLE GAME not a casual Rome 1 was better (111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111) just to fill the rest of the characters
  18. Stolas
    Sep 10, 2013
    4
    Feel that I paid £30 for an Alpha build, I saw better graphics, better AI and a different game entirely to what I'd bought in comparison to what I'd been shown on Rally Point and the Creative Assembly's many media releases.

    A solid concept and game has been crushed by some arcade features, a lack of a family tree, lack of optimization, lack of guard buttons, I could go on, really! The    Feel that I paid £30 for an Alpha build, I saw better graphics, better AI and a different game entirely to what I'd bought in comparison to what I'd been shown on Rally Point and the Creative Assembly's many media releases.

    A solid concept and game has been crushed by some arcade features, a lack of a family tree, lack of optimization, lack of guard buttons, I could go on, really! The AI is just laughable, I constantly get my fleets stuck in ports, I HAVE PLAYED FOR 22+ HOURS AND NOT YET EVEN BEEN DECLARED WAR ON!

    This game gets a 4/10 from someone who owns each Total war game, aside from Shogun 1. I'm unwilling to change my vote, as I believe that Creative Assembly have entirely let down their audience, despite promising to make weekly patches that isn't enough, we were sold a game that we were told was fully released, that promised so many things but didn't. (Just watch the Carthage Siege video, look at the screenshots of the units, etc)

    This game reminds me of the War Z entirely, yet a lot more dramatic. CA have an age old and loyal audience, and lied through their teeth all the way to release. So dissapointed.

    Also dissapointed in how the Critics have reviewed it, makes it awfully clear they play the game for about a half hour when not even knowing the franchise's history!    … Expand
  19. MetaAwesome
    Sep 10, 2013
    4
    The latest addition to the Total War series demonstrates some interesting new features, however the core gameplay takes a leap backwards.

    GOOD: Let's start with the positive. The campaign map is huge, there are many interesting units to recruit and there are a number of ways to customise provinces to suit your economic and military needs. The encyclopaedia includes short videos to    The latest addition to the Total War series demonstrates some interesting new features, however the core gameplay takes a leap backwards.

    GOOD:
    Let's start with the positive. The campaign map is huge, there are many interesting units to recruit and there are a number of ways to customise provinces to suit your economic and military needs. The encyclopaedia includes short videos to illustrate explanations, and the game is certainly more accessible to newer players of the series. The ability to set ambushes is improved upon, as the player now has the choice of building traps and reigning down fiery contraptions upon unsuspecting enemy troops.

    MIDDLE:
    With all this said, these features are merely the 'side order' of what Total War fans have come to love and enjoy. The 'meat' of Total War has always been the massively epic land battles, which unfortunately brings me to:

    BAD:
    After 20 hours playing as Carthage, Roman armies are attacking cities in what could only be described as a continuous stream of kamikaze warfare. Nearly all Roman armies and fleets encountered on the campaign map are made up of just one unit (not a very robust display of force for Rome, one of the world's first superpowers). This leads to the endless autoresolving of battles against an AI that is beyond idiotic, thus negating any sense of challenge and immersion.
    The battle AI is poor, particularly in siege battles where troops will stand motionless and capture the flag mechanics can be exploited. Considering that Creative Assembly have been developing Total War games for over a decade, one would expect an improvement rather than a marked disappointment.

    CONCLUSION:
    Total War Rome II feels like a city builder in which the concept of armies fighting one another was an afterthought that was 'thrown in' at the last moment. Large, epic battles should have been the strength of Rome II, not it's weakness.

    This review has not touched on any of the bugs encountered by players. There are loads of them.    … Expand
  20. 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.
  21. Rexxig
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    Unoptimized even a high end PC cant run it more that 15 fps...
    **** AI.
    Buggy as hell.
    Alot of missing features....They should of not released it at this stage its a kick in the balls to all TW FANS
  22. thedawn
    Sep 10, 2013
    1
    Low fps, texture issues( black spots, and texture popping on the campaign map and battle map), bad AI way to passive one the campaign map, and just poorly coded, poor optimazation (shogun 2 was way better optimized), battles last like 2 or 3 minutes, they turn in huge blobs with no strategy needed, bad path finding, now for some reason routing enemys canot be runed down and be killed,Low fps, texture issues( black spots, and texture popping on the campaign map and battle map), bad AI way to passive one the campaign map, and just poorly coded, poor optimazation (shogun 2 was way better optimized), battles last like 2 or 3 minutes, they turn in huge blobs with no strategy needed, bad path finding, now for some reason routing enemys canot be runed down and be killed, there is no family tree, the different houses for Rome and Chartage make no inpackt on gameplay, the internal politicks system makes absolutely no inpackt on gameply i completely ignored it in my campagne, and nothing happened, in terms of some penalties or riots, i thought it will come to a civil war or something. Turns now last a year, making genearls die like flys, coop does not work, and crashes..............and much more what has been said here, and on the forums.

    The pre pre pre-alpha of the Cartage siege looks supperior to this!    … Expand
  23. Tinnesa
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    If a game is unplayable, it's not even a game. It's a pile of ****.

    >Terrible UI that takes up 50% of my screen
    >THE FLAG!!! REMOVE IT
    >Broken naval battles
    >Navies now worthless
    >Terrible senate system
    >No family tree
    >Terrible skill upgrade system
    >A.I. worse than rome 1 total war.

    0/10. Entire franchise ruined. Good damn job.
  24. ge0s
    Sep 10, 2013
    4
    Its fairly easy to say Rome 2 may be the worst Total War game in the series as it stands right after release, but damn does it hurt. Even Empire didn't feel this bad for me and it's likely due to Empire's problems having to do more with AI and smaller technical details than the blatant problems appearing in Rome 2. Unfortunately most the TW fans have taken the PreOrder Free DLC hook lineIts fairly easy to say Rome 2 may be the worst Total War game in the series as it stands right after release, but damn does it hurt. Even Empire didn't feel this bad for me and it's likely due to Empire's problems having to do more with AI and smaller technical details than the blatant problems appearing in Rome 2. Unfortunately most the TW fans have taken the PreOrder Free DLC hook line and sinker, but now its our job to try and warn other gamers about this game as it stands. It's easy for gamers not familiar with the problems plaguing CA's AI flaws to buy the game out of nostalgia for the Rome:TW brand, which is easily the most famous and most know game in the TW series.

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

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

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

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

    Multiplayer is a huge step backwards however, as the great campaign style fight for territory multiplayer is completely gone, leaving only custom battles. The ability to also call on jump-in multiplayer battles while in campaign, first introduced in Napoleon:TW is also no where to be seen. A feature that could save the poor AI.    … Expand
  25. 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
  26. A7ibaba
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    Game A.I is completely broken and i really don't see a point of playing Rome 2. You can conquer whole game in 3 hours because A.I don't react and it's like playing a chess with mentally retarded person who never played chess in whole life. Not to mention technical problems with units going through walls and ships running through land and missing or mixed texture on battlefield map.
  27. Roger77777
    Sep 10, 2013
    4
    Total War: Rome II has potential, but to use that it would have needed 1 or 2 month more development time. Sadly, at the moment (Patch 1) the game is not playable. It crashes ever ~5th turn, calculating the next turn takes 2 to 5 minutes and the game has really poor graphics (where Total War: Shogun 2 was running fine). And then there is the horrendous AI...
  28. Jazios
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    Much like other fans I am disappointed in what should have been an amazing game based on what we experienced in Shogun 2.

    What we got is little more than an unfinished, streamlined mess that needs serious work before it can be considered worthy of the average players time and money. For the best experience with this game I highly recommend looking for fan mods that have already    Much like other fans I am disappointed in what should have been an amazing game based on what we experienced in Shogun 2.

    What we got is little more than an unfinished, streamlined mess that needs serious work before it can be considered worthy of the average players time and money.

    For the best experience with this game I highly recommend looking for fan mods that have already addressed the serious problems with the games AI and balancing. Said mods are the only reason I am giving this game a 2.    … Expand
  29. saladfork
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    This game has no soul. I wanted to love this game. It could have so easily gotten a score of 10 from me with the littlest bit of effort. The game obviously has a lot of technical glitches that are disappointing and frustrating, but that is not the core problem. Although, some of the problems such as the A.I. should have been identified in the most basic levels of testing.

    The real    This game has no soul. I wanted to love this game. It could have so easily gotten a score of 10 from me with the littlest bit of effort. The game obviously has a lot of technical glitches that are disappointing and frustrating, but that is not the core problem. Although, some of the problems such as the A.I. should have been identified in the most basic levels of testing.

    The real problems are that Rome 2 is a step back in many directions. The land battles and naval battles are awful. The land battles problems are vast. They are way too quick, soldiers run way too fast, soldiers flee way too fast and the whole thing is a damn mess. Soldiers do not even attempt to stay in any kind of formation, even in the beginning. They just form a mosh pit immediately after contact, even if its only 2 units. You cannot even see the combat animations as the soldiers float around and die randomly. Also, soldiers from the enemy can just run straight through your formations, which looks ridiculous. Naval battles are a joke, as land armies are more powerful than naval armies. What is the point of having weak naval ships when I can have land units that double as superior naval vessels.

    The campaign A.I. is so goofy that I cannot tell you if the campaign map works. I could talk forever about how much the battles suck, the campaign sucks, the music sucks, the design decisions suck, but I'm getting too depressed writing this review. I was so excited for this game!!! I bought a new monitor and video card just for this game! CA really misrepresented this game in the previews such as the battle for Carthage. They had the biggest budget for any total war game, but where the hell did it go? Many of us pre-ordered based on the belief that this game would be an improvement, not a de-evolution of the franchise. We also pre-ordered based on what CA told us the game would be, which it is not.

    I am 31 and married with 2 kids. The Total War series are some of the few games I still play due to time constraints. I am not asking for much, but they could not even provide me with a game that is just as good as the previous one (Shogun 2), instead they went way backwards.    … Expand
  30. Ioannis
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    I cannot believe the critics that give this game a great score. This game is absolutely broken, you spend more time waiting for the next turn than actually playing, the A.I. in battles is the worst i have ever seen, naval battles don't even work and the game has been completely streamlined (aka stupified) which makes it super easy giving anyone who plays it no challenge whatsoever.
    The    I cannot believe the critics that give this game a great score. This game is absolutely broken, you spend more time waiting for the next turn than actually playing, the A.I. in battles is the worst i have ever seen, naval battles don't even work and the game has been completely streamlined (aka stupified) which makes it super easy giving anyone who plays it no challenge whatsoever.
    The critics that give this game a high score have obviously not played the game at all, and should really think about a career change, because they are a cancer to people who actually read reviews before buying a game.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

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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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