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. FightingSlug
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    I give this a zero because right now this game is unplayable for me. I Have 3 HD 7970's and an I5-4670K processor and my frame rates are in the 20's with huge drops and there are major graphics issues. I have spent several hours trying different fixes and no success. I will update once the game becomes playable.
  2. sonnet
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    Hugely disappointed: other than the various bugs and poor performance, what's really disarming is the AI.
    Worst AI ever seen in a TW game. I can hardly imagine CA fixing that.
    Money totally wasted
  3. Hector
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    The game won't even launch on PCs. A huge step down from the first game Total War: Rome regarding user-interface, computer A.I., campaign length and graphics even!!!
  4. El_ZardoZ
    Sep 4, 2013
    3
    This is beta!!! Don't pay for being a beta-tester for CA Anyway if you are real fan of Total War series I seriously doubt that you will enjoy it even after debugging.
  5. thenewking
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    I was so exited to play this game for ages and its a serious let down for me.
    The visuals and graphics are very nice but that's about it.
    I hate the whole new campaign system its simply horrible and not enjoyable, it feels like your not apart of the game. Everything i love about the whole building your empire is gone, you cant see the buildings in the menu as they have been changed to    I was so exited to play this game for ages and its a serious let down for me.
    The visuals and graphics are very nice but that's about it.

    I hate the whole new campaign system its simply horrible and not enjoyable, it feels like your not apart of the game.
    Everything i love about the whole building your empire is gone, you cant see the buildings in the menu as they have been changed to awful avatars/icon cards along with the troops. Why make a massive change like this when it was perfect? was it because CA couldn't be bothered to create detailed buildings and unit cards.

    Battles are just way to fast its like playing c&c you can not even enjoy a battle and watch your men fight like the good old days as its just to fast paced.

    Overall of a game i was expecting to brilliant and Rome 2 compared to the other Total War games.

    if its not broke do not change it!
    This is by far the worst Total War game to date!    … Expand
  6. qurkad
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    A real step backwards in gameplay compared to Shogun 2. The new features do not compensate for what was lost from the old game. It seems that CA wanted to sell this game to casual public.

    Whats with all the bugs? i loaded everything, downloaded the steam account like it said, downloaded all of the necessary updates. I have all of the system requirements, but game lags and crashes.    A real step backwards in gameplay compared to Shogun 2. The new features do not compensate for what was lost from the old game. It seems that CA wanted to sell this game to casual public.

    Whats with all the bugs? i loaded everything, downloaded the steam account like it said, downloaded all of the necessary updates. I have all of the system requirements, but game lags and crashes.

    Biggest disappointment of 2013 for me. Total Mess    … Expand
  7. vodafak
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    Terrible performance issues, looks worse then Rise/Fall of the Samurai, crashes, quite a lot of bugs. Land battles are too fast, almost pointless, while naval battles are terrible. AI is terrible, even user interface is one of the worst I've ever seen. Waiting for AI turn to finish takes forever. There are bunch of balance issues as well...etc.
    I don't think they got one thing right with    Terrible performance issues, looks worse then Rise/Fall of the Samurai, crashes, quite a lot of bugs. Land battles are too fast, almost pointless, while naval battles are terrible. AI is terrible, even user interface is one of the worst I've ever seen. Waiting for AI turn to finish takes forever. There are bunch of balance issues as well...etc.
    I don't think they got one thing right with this game. It's a failure of epic proportions.
    Worst of all, CA clearly lied about the performance requirements and I can't even get a refund on Steam.    … Expand
  8. pepevlad
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Yeah not very good. Missing the best part of online from shogun 2 and its very buggy/boring. The battles also last little over 5 minutes due to the AI doing nothing but rushing in a mob or sitting there waiting to die.
  9. kytsata
    Sep 15, 2013
    0
    Sadly this game was a failure. Do not buy until it gets patched in a year. Ya it's really bad. Do not buy. Don't buy it becaues it's really bad. I hate it.
  10. jhonjoyojnohjn
    Sep 4, 2013
    2
    I'm a huge fan of the whole series and this is an inexplicably dismal entry. My rating is relative to Shogun 2, which for me is one of the best games I've played: polished, balanced, stylish, engaging on several levels, huge without being bloated and these are all qualities which appear to have been entirely gutted from the latest instalment. I'd be willing to forgive a large number ofI'm a huge fan of the whole series and this is an inexplicably dismal entry. My rating is relative to Shogun 2, which for me is one of the best games I've played: polished, balanced, stylish, engaging on several levels, huge without being bloated and these are all qualities which appear to have been entirely gutted from the latest instalment. I'd be willing to forgive a large number of bugs, but clearly, there have also been some very bad design decisions in there. Really awful, confusing UI in places; woeful AI (maybe that's not entirely new); player decisions just don't seem important on the strategic map; un-tactical, boring battles. Maybe these things are exacerbated by each other and could be improved individually, but my overall impression is that it's just fundamentally uninteresting and unbalanced on top of being an extremely sloppy release. As a new game out of the blue, maybe this would pass for a 5 or 6, but the benchmark has been set high and this falls very short of it. Very disappointing.… Expand
  11. JohnDeer
    Sep 7, 2013
    1
    I played this game for almost 25 hours so far. I could not play longer. This game has many issues. I am not talking about performance issues, surprisingly I did not have many. I am talking about flowed gameplay issues terrible AI, Victory Points which kill all tactics in the battle, lack of family tree, 3-5 minutes waiting for turns etc. i don't know if this can be fixed in futureI played this game for almost 25 hours so far. I could not play longer. This game has many issues. I am not talking about performance issues, surprisingly I did not have many. I am talking about flowed gameplay issues terrible AI, Victory Points which kill all tactics in the battle, lack of family tree, 3-5 minutes waiting for turns etc. i don't know if this can be fixed in future patches, I hope so, but for now this game will go to shelf for a few months.… Expand
  12. Classical
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Claps to the devs you just made a abomination thats called Rome 2
    now you can go walk hand in hand with EA and such
    hope you like the money you got from it
    and thanks for letting down True Total War Fans
  13. IgnasPrzybylski
    Sep 9, 2013
    6
    My first impression was great gameplay and awful optimalisation. I ran Shogun 2 on very high settings without a problem and it was really pretty, while in Rome 2 my good old 448-bit GTX 260 had terrible issues because it cannot support dx 11. I was shocked, first TW games looked way better than what I saw. Got a rather cheap new GTX and the performance is good, I have no more problems withMy first impression was great gameplay and awful optimalisation. I ran Shogun 2 on very high settings without a problem and it was really pretty, while in Rome 2 my good old 448-bit GTX 260 had terrible issues because it cannot support dx 11. I was shocked, first TW games looked way better than what I saw. Got a rather cheap new GTX and the performance is good, I have no more problems with it. The poor AI doesn't really bother me that much, I got used to it and sometimes it's cool that I can hold them off with small armies just because they're dumb. Simplified city management... I like it, to me it's much better than management from the previous releases. Simplifying armies wasn't a very good idea though. Recruiting right on the general anywhere in the province is comfortable, but limit of armies sucks, I mean, economy should be the only thing that stops me from having a lot of troops. What I don't like about it is that I can't just split whenever I want. I can't leave some additional units to help city's garrison, they can't stay anywhere without a general now. This is imo the worst thing in the gameplay itself. But ok, it doesn't really make the game bad, garrisons are pretty strong now, at least I don't have to pay all those guards I usually kept in my cities. The most annoying thing would be ending your turn. There's so many minor factions it takes ages to wait for your next turn and it takes even longer when I alt-tab, not to mention that stuff happens, AI may attack me or some diplomatic proposal may appear. Personally I just play piano or write SMS in the meantime. If you don't have anything to do while waiting for your turn you will spend most of the time looking at the silly AI running around several times longer than in previous games. Of course, it's nice that there is a big variety of factions instead of just anonymous rebels like in, say, Medieval 2, but sometimes it's just scary to press "end turn". I thought it took long in Shogun 2, I don't anymore. Technical issues will probably be fixed, but even though my rig is rather mediocre (i3, gtx650ti boost, 12gb ram) it works and looks decently on high settings now. Lack of a nice multiplayer like the one in Shogun 2 disappoints, that's a huge step backwards. I loved almost everything about Shogun 2, except the fact it's set in Japan, which I dislike. I wanted a new TW game with S2's awesomeness set in Europe, but I feel a downgrade. It's still a fun game to play though, the only thing I really want fixed now is BLOOD. I don't care I have to pay for that anymore, I just want it released SOON, not year after I stopped playing the game. I like watching them fight, but without blood it's really dull. At least the "kill captives" and "raze city" options have returned.

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

    Cons:
    - awful technical issues right after release, bad performance
    - no more depth in multiplayer
    - long wait between turns
    - still no blood    … Expand
  14. dizzel679
    Sep 17, 2013
    0
    I am a huge fan of total war series and I pre-ordered this game as soon as it became possible. What can I say after I've tried it? It's horrible! I've payed 54 euros to participate in a beta-test and developers don't even admit that there's something wrong with the game. The AI is not just stupid and not even absent-minded, it's glitchy, buggy, call it whatever you like! Bugs follow meI am a huge fan of total war series and I pre-ordered this game as soon as it became possible. What can I say after I've tried it? It's horrible! I've payed 54 euros to participate in a beta-test and developers don't even admit that there's something wrong with the game. The AI is not just stupid and not even absent-minded, it's glitchy, buggy, call it whatever you like! Bugs follow me everywhere, performance is just poor on a machine which runs Shogun 2 Ultra with around 20 FPS(with antialising and all other stuff maxed out). And while that's going to be patched eventually, the ugly interface and retarded gameplay will remain forever. Very, very dissapointing.… Expand
  15. pansarskott
    Oct 17, 2013
    0
    Yes I will give this game 0 out off 10. Why? This is not a totalwar game, this is a farse...

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

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

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

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

    My summery is that I will never again pre-order a Totalwar titel, and the risk is that I never buy another of their games if they continue down this path.    … Expand
  16. Tiggers
    Nov 24, 2013
    0
    I'm updating my previous rating.

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

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

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

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

    I have also decided *not* to risk buying their brand new Total War Arena... Fool me once. I suggest you consider the same.    … Expand
  17. frestor94
    Feb 4, 2014
    0
    Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,HorribleHorrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible Horrible,Horrible,Horrible,Horrible !!!!!!!!!!!!!… Expand
  18. Goekhan
    Oct 23, 2013
    3
    In short, I call this game a failure in the series, simply because the changes over the previous titles, and the new additions are poorly implemented, and they are not fleshed out enough to make a difference. What I don't understand is, even though they had a bigger budget, and "experience" from the previous titles, accomplishments and mistakes, how have they come up with such a disaster.In short, I call this game a failure in the series, simply because the changes over the previous titles, and the new additions are poorly implemented, and they are not fleshed out enough to make a difference. What I don't understand is, even though they had a bigger budget, and "experience" from the previous titles, accomplishments and mistakes, how have they come up with such a disaster.

    Longer version, the battles play way more faster than any previous title in the series, and mostly it becomes a blob-fest where your orders doesn't matter. This is where you'll notice that nearly all units have an ability, maybe more than one, and this is another example to the bad implementation. You win battles by using to these abilities, rather than a careful planning and execution of the strategy. Which is a shame, as I think many people play this game for its epic battles. Not to mention that the AI is still troubled, and most of the time do stupid stuff.

    Among the new features, now you pick a stance for an army. Why? It felt natural before; if you have slow moving units, your army movement was bound to those units. To move fast, you had to use cavalry-only forces to hit and run, or catch an enemy. To ambush, you had to set up "camp" in forests, and alike. It felt natural, you didn't have to click on anything to "toggle" those stuff. Also, the way the recruitment is done in this game is just retarded. Why change the old ways? Recruit from any city/town, group them up, send them to the general. While it seems logical in Rome; that your general has to stand still, it is not. Game tries to "emulate" the process for you, but it makes so in a stupid way. Shogun II's system was better, recruit at general, and recruits move to general, also can get intercepted. Recruit in towns, group them up and send them to general yourself. Etc...

    Naval combat... I don't like it. The best naval combat was naturally in Empire Napoleon. There, you can execute some strategy. Any other game, where cannons are not involved, it generally ends up in an orgy on some ship, and all other ships around it. Still, combining naval combat with land combat, that's a very good step. However, that thing is bugged aswell, I am unaware if it is fixed but, there are just a few landing points, and when all of them are occupied, all your ships can just watch the rest of the battle.

    City management also suffers. You cannot get a clear picture of what is what that easily, and this IS a big problem. UI has always been one of the weakest points in Total War games in my opinion. Instead of expanding on and improving what they had, they just skimmed the UI heavily, and buried the essentials even deeper. Introduction of bread, and changes to growth, while sounds sensible, takes away a part of the game; town/city development. In Shogun II, if you captured a well developed city that belonged to your enemy, you'd be keeping it intact, because any sacking/razing done would affect the accumulated growth aswell. Now, there is no point, a city is always the same, razing or sacking doesn't change a thing.

    Among other new things, the political system is rudimentary, non-essential at best. It involves a few buttons that are totally unnecessary, and takes up hard-disk space in short. Also, (for Rome and Carthage at least), political system sort-of gets disabled after the major rebellions. As I've said, poorly implemented and not fleshed out fully.

    The performance of the game is on the floor. While I can play Shogun II on extreme, and even Rome II offered me Extreme, it turns out, I can only play it at low-medium. Just unbelievable.

    I can go on. But among this many negative reviews, I think you get the point already.    … Expand
  19. athropos
    Sep 4, 2013
    5
    Horrendous performance problems on high end systems plague an otherwise average total war game.

    Running this game on:
    i7-3770k
    GTX 680 SLI
    16 gigs of ram

    There is no SLI support as of yet and performance is abysmal. There might be a good game under there but in it's current excessively rushed state this game cannot get anything over a 6/10.
  20. IICRASHII
    Sep 4, 2013
    5
    crash crash crash all what i get i have coreI7 2700K 3.5GHz stock 16GB rams, Radeon HD6870 1GB and i run everything on medium and high no antialiasing no ssao and game crash alot in campaign
  21. PublicEnemy
    Sep 4, 2013
    5
    Needs a lot of bug fixing and graphical performance improvements. All CA releases are shaky, and that is fine, but after so many titles CA did not learn from their mistakes.
  22. lesith006
    Nov 19, 2013
    3
    No cut-scenes ,
    no family tree or a working politic system ,
    too modern UI feel more like supreme commander than Rome total war ), battle too arcade like just take a group of the best units and right clicks like if you were playing diablo WIN ), stupid BAI and CAI with many path-finding problems both on the campaign map and in battles, even the music is not appealing and not    No cut-scenes ,
    no family tree or a working politic system ,
    too modern UI feel more like supreme commander than Rome total war ),
    battle too arcade like just take a group of the best units and right clicks like if you were playing diablo WIN ),
    stupid BAI and CAI with many path-finding problems both on the campaign map and in battles,
    even the music is not appealing and not culture specific rome as the same music as the averni or parthia )
    Generals pop up from no where and you have difficulties to recognize them as the portraits diversity is really poor !

    Well, to sum up still a Total failure patch 7     … Expand
  23. fishplease
    Sep 14, 2013
    1
    Granted, large PC releases usually have a "breaking in" period where the teething troubles are ironed out it's difficult to test every aspect of a game this large without delaying the release by a year and some launch issues are always to be expected. This, however, is too much. To release a game which is at best unoptimised, at worst unplayable and in all cases unfinished to pre-orderingGranted, large PC releases usually have a "breaking in" period where the teething troubles are ironed out it's difficult to test every aspect of a game this large without delaying the release by a year and some launch issues are always to be expected. This, however, is too much. To release a game which is at best unoptimised, at worst unplayable and in all cases unfinished to pre-ordering customers (the franchise's most loyal fans) is disgraceful, especially considering that the finished article will be available at knock-down price in a few months. You could fool me into thinking that this is a beta version intended to work out all the bugs in preparation for a more lucrative console version of the game.

    Even disregarding the game's complete unplayability for all but a handful of users, Rome II feels dumbed-down in comparison to previous releases and is obviously intended for a console port at a later date. Land battles often take longer to load than they do to fight, and the implementation of "victory points" (capture the flag) in field battles is a monumental which ruins what should be the best part of the game. Unit special abilities, originally limited to the general's ability to rally his troops, have now been extended to the point that every unit has two or three the micromanagement of abilities in battle is nigh-impossible and their very inclusion adds to the impression that the game is being groomed for a console release. Infantry moves too fast and even the most disciplined units (legionnaires, hoplites etc.) break formation as soon as contact with the enemy is made. The guard mode button has been removed, meaning that units will chase after any enemy they rout regardless of the tactical situation. I can't comment on siege battles as the game freezes every time I attempt one. The unit cards deserve a special mention they all look like Roman frescoes, which adds a bit of authenticity but falls flat on its face when you realise that they all look the same. Confusing your levy spearmen with your crack assault troops in the (brief) heat of battle is not an infrequent occurrence.

    Naval battles are woeful. Armies can now move over the sea, spawning transports when they do so. These transports are stronger than most dedicated naval vessels (since they hold about three times as many troops each) making the maintenance of large fleets futile. Even when two large fleets meet there is little by way of tactical finesse involved simply point each ship in the direction of an enemy and hope for the best. Ships seem to randomly rout regardless of their circumstances, and naval combat is over as quickly as land combat.

    The campaign has moved backward. Character attributes are never explained (except by looking them up in the clunky in-game encyclopaedia). The politics system is never explained in tutorials. Agents all seem to do the same thing. The character development system, which was pretty good in Shogun 2, is redundant now that generals' life expectancies are typically 20-30 turns. Limiting factions to a certain number of armies depending on their size prevents the strategic distribution of forces on the campaign map you can't, for example, take a settlement with a full army and leave a few units behind to defend it while you move on to the next one. Once you capture a settlement, constructing buildings of any type is difficult when every building seems to reduce public order. "The peasants are revolting because you've built a new shield-maker!" Seriously?

    I won't go in to how bad the campaign AI is, but suffice it to say that I played through an entire campaign and was not attacked once. Not once.

    All that said, my biggest irritation with RTWII is not the game itself but the reviews. It is abundantly clear that none of the critics giving this game 80%+ have actually played it. "Plays smooth" really? Have these critics been paid off? Is that where CA's testing budget went? Only a couple (notably the Guardian here in the UK) have had the bottle to tell it like it is. I hope this debacle gives CA a bloody nose and makes them reconsider making their foray into the dumbed-down console market at the expense of the loyal players who got them where they are in the first place.

    The graphics are very pretty though.    … Expand
  24. wzhou34
    Sep 21, 2013
    0
    Confusing building tree
    Confusing tech tree
    Long AI turns
    Poor optimization

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

    Uninstalled after 5 hours
  25. Ccoreli
    Sep 21, 2013
    0
    I was extremely excited for this game. Literally hundreds of hours on Rome Total War. Thing i loved most about RTW was that cavalry could actually be used as SHOCK troops. Their charge could smash light infantry aside and seriously hurt heavy infantry. In RTW 2, cavalry are next to useless. They stop on contact, don't smash through units, and have no moral effects. If 900 horseman areI was extremely excited for this game. Literally hundreds of hours on Rome Total War. Thing i loved most about RTW was that cavalry could actually be used as SHOCK troops. Their charge could smash light infantry aside and seriously hurt heavy infantry. In RTW 2, cavalry are next to useless. They stop on contact, don't smash through units, and have no moral effects. If 900 horseman are charging at a line of infantry, something other than a huge blob of crappy melee units attacking good melee units should happen. Also, cavalry are made even more useless by the fact that i have yet to engage an enemy army in the field (38 turns in). Every single fight is when I'm besieging an enemy city. And these assassins? Two assassins and a champion can reduce a defending force of 3000 down to 1200. How is that at all in any way fair or possible?
    Broken AI
    Broken combat
    Broken UI
    Broken campaign map
    Horrible problems with the fps
    2 minute wait between each turn
    awful diplomacy
    No history
    Awful character design
    Generic units from faction to faction
    3 armies? Are ya sh*tting me?
    Awful naval combat and design
    Building a city is obsolete. Four or six structures at the most.    … Expand
  26. johnbrandon1981
    Sep 23, 2013
    0
    I'm re-posting my amazon review here in the hopes a gamer might be saved while CA and Sega might be duly punished for this atrocity:
    Listen now to the tale of a fool who pre-ordered this game because of the love he had for the magnificent original that debuted 8 long years ago. This game is a travesty and a bitter surprise, a betrayal by Creative Assembly and Sega of a loyal PAYING    I'm re-posting my amazon review here in the hopes a gamer might be saved while CA and Sega might be duly punished for this atrocity:
    Listen now to the tale of a fool who pre-ordered this game because of the love he had for the magnificent original that debuted 8 long years ago. This game is a travesty and a bitter surprise, a betrayal by Creative Assembly and Sega of a loyal PAYING customer. Calling this buggy, half-baked, ill-contrived, ill-conceived, dumbed-down, feature-stripped pile of amateur code a beta would be charitable.The ONLY thing CA improved upon is graphics, but considering the LONG years between sequels how could the graphics NOT be improved. I am morally entitled to a refund though I know no such thing will be forthcoming out the Somewhat Creative Assembly of Incompetents and their corporate masters, Sega(means thief in Japanese). I can only hope for some poetic justice, like Sega in its entirety going the way of their console business and those responsible for this mess at CA falling on their swords Roman style for this failure. I'm out $60 and I'm uninstalling this from my HDD. I tried hard to play this game, I WANTED TO ENJOY IT. Do you know what I did when I gave up playing? I WENT OUTSIDE AND MOWED MY YARD. The game I have waited near 10 years for inspired me TO GET UP, GO OUTSIDE, AND DO MUNDANE YARD WORK. The developers are as guilty of stealing as the pirates. The only intelligent way to support games makers is to pirate first and then pay later, or bring back demos. Even if I had pirated this game it would have been a of waste bandwidth and HDD space. After this I just don't know where to expect anything good from the games industry anymore and maybe nothing good can be expected.    … Expand
  27. rossburlz
    Oct 10, 2013
    0
    I preordered this game. (What a mistake that was!) First day couldn't even play more than 5 minutes at a time due to constant crashing. 4 patches later the game is still crashing. Just look at the size of the patch notes. This game was released in an alpha state and now the proud owners of this &*^@ game have to spend our time testing bugs for free... well not free we already paid for thisI preordered this game. (What a mistake that was!) First day couldn't even play more than 5 minutes at a time due to constant crashing. 4 patches later the game is still crashing. Just look at the size of the patch notes. This game was released in an alpha state and now the proud owners of this &*^@ game have to spend our time testing bugs for free... well not free we already paid for this game. CA had a 40% higher budget than shogun and all that seems to have been spent on some actor casted promo videos and videos of all these amazing features that are cut from the game before it is released. This game should be avoided like a plague in the state it is in. AI is a joke. Interface is a joke. Such a shame this game could have been so great yet it has fallen so low… Expand
  28. kalimah
    Nov 6, 2013
    1
    Was it the CEO that apologized for all the bugs in the game when it was released? He knew all along this was going to happen. If he didn't know, he should be fired. POS game..
  29. btemp
    Oct 4, 2013
    0
    I absolutely LOVE the total war games. Aside from bugs, they are everything I'd ever want from a game.

    Unfortunately, RTW2 is just buggy as hell. Major game imbalances, and while I've been able to play it my two friends haven't out of the box. We still can't get multiplayer campaign to work.

    So wait a while (still) before you buy. Game needs to be ironed out... a ton.
  30. Kcin14
    Nov 2, 2013
    0
    Terrible AI, Game-breaking bugs, confusing UI, and terrible battles. This game clearly was not ready for release and everyone who bought it paid $60 for Alpha testing. Huge Disappointment.
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 71 Critic Reviews

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