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. Jonathan117
    Oct 27, 2013
    1
    Rome 2 was supposed to be the best TW game as of yet... this is sadly far from the truth, the game is broken in every way possible, even worse than Empire Total war. I can't stress this enough; DON'T SPEND YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY ON THIS PIECE OF SH*T!
  2. Hseeker25
    Sep 11, 2013
    1
    Nice for a beta test, but when do we actualy get the full working game, with all the normal features that we got in previous titles?
    Im unsure how this game got released in such a state, I remember having them more funding then normaly, did they spend it on booze? idk what the hell happend.

    Also most 10 user score are newly made acounts that only reviewed this game, very fishy.
  3. Demagogue
    Sep 11, 2013
    1
    1000s of hours playing total war games from shogun 1. This has topped the disgrace of empire total war release by a hundred fold. AI so poor, buggy and crashed, unoptimised performance. No chance for a refund this is an alpha build scam Buy in 6 months to a year and dont be scammed.
  4. omonrise
    Jan 13, 2014
    1
    first, it is just offensive that in 10+ years of the franchise, the game mechanics hardly advanced at all. look at europa series - each new game, TONS of new stuff. here? not so much
    second, those gushing "professional" reviews make me sick. it just shows that there is no independent gaming press. seriously "I had difficulties in [insert here]" and then a 88 score?
    third, the game itself    first, it is just offensive that in 10+ years of the franchise, the game mechanics hardly advanced at all. look at europa series - each new game, TONS of new stuff. here? not so much
    second, those gushing "professional" reviews make me sick. it just shows that there is no independent gaming press. seriously "I had difficulties in [insert here]" and then a 88 score?
    third, the game itself is a beta, but even when it's patched, it will be a dumbed down version of shogun2, which was imho a dumbed down version of medieval 2.    … Expand
  5. dup
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    This is not Total War this is Total Failure.
    To start with the most obvious: turn time takes FOREVER. You make your turn in 20 seconds and then have to wait for almost a minute until you can play again. And during the wait time you can just do nothing. You can not check you settlements or fill production queues. And my PC is well equipped and plays almost every game perfectly. The next    This is not Total War this is Total Failure.
    To start with the most obvious: turn time takes FOREVER. You make your turn in 20 seconds and then have to wait for almost a minute until you can play again. And during the wait time you can just do nothing. You can not check you settlements or fill production queues. And my PC is well equipped and plays almost every game perfectly. The next big thing is the AI. It is not just total stupid, but simply non-existing. Both on the world map, but foremost in the battles. Horse archers dismounting their horses and charging you walls equipped with bowmen?? This is too bad to be just stupid. Another thing is the lack of immersion. You do not get the feeling that any of your choices matters in some way. Somehow things are not well stitched together. More related things are: bad user interface, totally mis-formatted in-game help, and a general lack of polishing.
    Related to the previous games this is not a step backwards, but it is just an incomplete game full of bugs which totally misses the point of grand strategy. Rather play Empire, Shogun 2 or Rome 1 you will actually have fun with theses game.
    Without the bugs and playable game turns I would give it a 6/10 but like this the game is almost junk.    … Expand
  6. janki
    Sep 6, 2013
    1
    A game sold in beta-state. Optimization is awfull. In battle units move waaaaay to fast. AI is dumb. A lots of good features that made the TW series good were removed. Where the hell is my family tree?
  7. evancv2011
    Dec 31, 2013
    1
    Wow. Kudos on this one CA.....this is the reason I choose not to pre-order games anymore. Even with the "patches" I wont be able to play it, leaves too much of a bad after taste.
  8. maksfighter
    Sep 3, 2013
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I am very upset!!!! .Horrible optimization and miserable graphics first Rome looks better if this guano. Millions of bugs.Ai is very stupid.Developers cheated players.… Expand
  9. Xenophage
    Sep 3, 2013
    1
    I'm a big fan of the Total War series, but Rome 2 is a big step backwards. Like, 15 years backwards. Honestly, Medieval 2 had better graphics. Actually, I think they may have re-used the same graphical engine from the original Rome: Total War. It looks about like that, with the big difference of only running at 8 frames per second on my actually-not-that-bad Radeon 6870. Maybe thisI'm a big fan of the Total War series, but Rome 2 is a big step backwards. Like, 15 years backwards. Honestly, Medieval 2 had better graphics. Actually, I think they may have re-used the same graphical engine from the original Rome: Total War. It looks about like that, with the big difference of only running at 8 frames per second on my actually-not-that-bad Radeon 6870. Maybe this game has some neat stuff in it, but you can't see it through all the pixels. In any case, the historical accuracy is awesome, like other Total War games, and I did learn a few things before I punched my fist through my computer screen and pissed all over the motherboard. For instance, I had no idea Roman soldiers wore puke from head to toe before they went into battle. It probably would have been effective at avoiding confrontation, if their enemies weren't all non-descript pink naked blobs wielding what appear to be gray foam tubes, with the intelligence of lemmings. Yeah, the graphics make it difficult to view very much of the game, but I can at least see that the A.I. is more retarded than the pong game I programmed when I was 13. Seriously. I hate this game, and this game hates me, and will hate you if you buy it. Just do yourself a favor and go play Tetris on a web page or something.… Expand
  10. okizel
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    I was waiting this game for years. I bought pre-order after watching commercials and reading developers interviews. Now I am feeling robbed and scammed. This game is nothing as it was promised by developers and actually it is much worse than previous TW games. Tons of bugs, simplified campaign map, many features removed, graphics are glitchy. Total disaster.
  11. Imod85
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    NEG: Too low morale, too fast unit movements & batttle speed, cluster-building, not keeping formations, 1-2 minutes waiting time after every turn, stupid AI. Battles hardly last longer than 4 minutes, it's a joke.

    POS: Province system, graphics, factions

    Summary: 2 points. Very disappointing
  12. Petar
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    I feel scammed there's no other way to say it.
    The minimum and recommended requirements are a lie. The game is unplayable. After applying community-prorposed fixes, I can now actually barely play at 10-12 FPS. Won't comment on the many disappointments which other players report battle mechanics, removed gameplay features like family trees and so on.. but I have to say this is the    I feel scammed there's no other way to say it.
    The minimum and recommended requirements are a lie. The game is unplayable. After applying community-prorposed fixes, I can now actually barely play at 10-12 FPS. Won't comment on the many disappointments which other players report battle mechanics, removed gameplay features like family trees and so on.. but I have to say this is the biggest let down I have ever experienced from an entertainment product! Such a shame!    … Expand
  13. VRoll
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This one should be called Rome II or Rome II casual war doing a cap limit and do not even let the player have the number of army he want just drop down the total war mention I do not experienced any graphical issues but doing this game for being more realistic Just moving an army into water and poping it into a boat that sound not realistic at any point just a bunch of worst thinking that casual will have a great time of non thinking anything and enjoing a Star craft II from CA.Was quite impressed by shogun 2 total war battles fast with energy with a good feel on what your armies is doing, there is nothing, men full of bronze equipement run faster than ninja and kill so fast you hadn't any time to appreciate it seriously I really hope for a mod that retunr some point of this game to a rome 1 total war i didn't paid a game to play the way developper want to, i paid a game to play it and enjoy it the way i want Seeing 10/10 make me feel they havn't never played a total war game before or they not yet found the cap limit haha More people must come here to claim their dissatisfaction spending 60 bucks in this open beta game … Expand
  14. Fargo56
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    This game is horrible and total disrespect to customers. Amount of bugs is terrific, graphics look much worse than Shogun 2(released in 2011 Many gameplay features were removed. Oh god.. this game look very bad even comparing with Rome 1. Shame on you Creative Assembley!
  15. Swissrock86
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    I am very disappointed. It seems they removed many things from the game:

    - missing wonderful Avatar mode from Shogun 2

    - economic system very simplified and lacksdepth

    - testudo also missing, it was in Rome 1

    - no family tree means no atmospheric roleplay

    in addtion to this: tons of bugs, poor optimization, really bad AI, very poor unintuitive UI.

    Not worth $60. Poor game.
  16. Georgissimo
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    This game failed its Total War predecessors. It is too fast paced, it´s hard to actually "feel" the game and immerse in to it, because of the new campaign, in which you just don´t give a what happens next. Diplomacy is ok but could stil use improvement (especially the trade agreements).
    But the battles! Oh my god, they suck balls. Even with high tier units, the battles tend to last at    This game failed its Total War predecessors. It is too fast paced, it´s hard to actually "feel" the game and immerse in to it, because of the new campaign, in which you just don´t give a what happens next. Diplomacy is ok but could stil use improvement (especially the trade agreements).
    But the battles! Oh my god, they suck balls. Even with high tier units, the battles tend to last at max like 5 minutes, and I am talking about 4000 against 4000 men battles. Every battle, be it an ambush, siege, or whatever, just ends in a Giant Big Blob. And the AI in siege battles, which was supposed to be really good, is freaking horrible! All the AI does is just rushes towards the Central Point. All hail the Central Point! All hail the worst game in the series! But seriously, let´s just pray for a patch. Unfortunately I believe, that there are just too many problems, that it will either take a year to be repaired, or won´t ever see the improvement.    … Expand
  17. lysm
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    This game is a HUGE letdown.
    The game was many performance issues, since crashes, freezes, low fps on pc's above the requirements and even on some med/high end machines.
    Even without counting the performance issues, the game is a residual of the other total war games. The battle system is awful, you have a capture the flag system and you run straight into it and let the armies fight    This game is a HUGE letdown.
    The game was many performance issues, since crashes, freezes, low fps on pc's above the requirements and even on some med/high end machines.

    Even without counting the performance issues, the game is a residual of the other total war games. The battle system is awful, you have a capture the flag system and you run straight into it and let the armies fight you don't even need to care about tactics they will just pile up anyway and form a big chunk off units that appear to be deaf. The units moving on battle seem that they are running all the time and the cavalry seems like cars moving. AI is plentiful bad in battles and outside.
    There are some good points that I like, diplomacy is one of them.

    In conclusion, this game is not worth the money and seems unfinished. What is unacceptable since CA overhyped this so much, I personally feel rip off and regret completely from buying it.    … Expand
  18. neigenoire
    Jan 29, 2015
    1
    I disliked the game because of the combat mostly. It just feels so weird and fake compared to the older titles (Medieval 2, Rome I). I can't really put my finger on it, but the battles just feel bad, the blobbing, the collisions, nothing feels or looks good... In M2 when your cav charged into the flanks of the enemy army, it felt impactful and snappy. In this game it looks very week andI disliked the game because of the combat mostly. It just feels so weird and fake compared to the older titles (Medieval 2, Rome I). I can't really put my finger on it, but the battles just feel bad, the blobbing, the collisions, nothing feels or looks good... In M2 when your cav charged into the flanks of the enemy army, it felt impactful and snappy. In this game it looks very week and not epic in any way whatsoever. Also, the AI acts very weirdly sometimes and generally feels like no progress has been done in that regard. All in all, not feeling this installation of TW.… Expand
  19. VladimirRus
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    This game is one big false marketing. After watching all commercial videos, I was hoping to see Rome 2 at least as good as Shogun 2. However, developers just lied to us. Optimization and visual part of the game is bad. Gameplay doesn't feel like TW game.

    Rome 2: Total War is big disappointment for me. I want my money back!
  20. TomasB
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    I used to play Rome Total War 1 a lot and it's an excellent game. Rome 2 however is terrible. Game looks like dirty beta or alpha because it is very buggy The game design is too plain simple and boring compared to Rome 1. UI just looks ugly. Campaign map is very casual with many things removed.

    I would like to get a refund.
  21. madstockman
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    After playing every single Total War game since its release i am incredibly disappointed with this release. There are many positives (scope, graphics, traditions, unit types, increased diplomacy) yet somehow by importing these features in the developers have lost so much of the Total War basics that it is actually massively shocking. The PR for this game was excellent and we were told thatAfter playing every single Total War game since its release i am incredibly disappointed with this release. There are many positives (scope, graphics, traditions, unit types, increased diplomacy) yet somehow by importing these features in the developers have lost so much of the Total War basics that it is actually massively shocking. The PR for this game was excellent and we were told that the developers had the biggest budget ever for a Total War game. With that in mind the fact that your 'epic battles' can be over in a couple of minutes due to poor testing of the combat system and units formations crumble when they meet an opposing force and battle lines turn into blobs is ridiculous. Also the campaign map, as beautiful as it is it has been dumbed down, no longer do you build farms and see farms appear upgraded on the map (Shogun 2) but you do see your cities get bigger. So big in fact that they take up a stupid amount of space. I appreciate as a Total War fanatic i could come across snobby, the mechanics of this game are really good. The game itself though has been released unfinished and unworthy of the epic reviews it has been given by the press. My thoughts are that they probably are not Total War fans and not played the previous titles. Playing the game for the first time id imagine it might appear pretty amazing but believe me, its not. This will need sorting out by the amazing Total War modding community and they don't even get paid for it. Thanks CA, i can only presume your next title will be even worse after this.… Expand
  22. VIET
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    Rome Total War II!
    You dissapointed me greatly. I am a big fan of the total war series and I have longed for you since God-knows-when. But yesterday, you let me down greatly. Unlike what CA showed and promised in their huge campaign, you are a mess of lots of semmingly good things. Because I love the previous total war games so much, let me leave you some comment on the 4 hours I    Rome Total War II!
    You dissapointed me greatly. I am a big fan of the total war series and I have longed for you since God-knows-when. But yesterday, you let me down greatly. Unlike what CA showed and promised in their huge campaign, you are a mess of lots of semmingly good things. Because I love the previous total war games so much, let me leave you some comment on the 4 hours I spent on you yesterday:
    - Too many unnecessary changes about the managing tabs. The back ground of the tabs is dark and unattractive. The tech tree is broken and inconvenient to use. The city management is confusing and un-focusing. If in the previous games, I know precisely what I can get from getting up a certain building and therefore can plan my strategy for each province, now I know no longer, every thing I build, I have no idea what use would it be for my strategy.
    - The management of generals is dreadful. If in shogun, your generals add a huge value to your strategy and the managing tabs look so classical for shogun, here in Rome 2, because the game pace is so damn slow and the time past so fast, no general can survive more than 40 turns which is really not a lot considering the size of the map and the number of turns it would take to conquering just 1/4 of it. This all make general insignificant and just a sad unnecessary feature plus the managing tabs looks awful.
    - Recruitment is too goddam easy and fast and it makes the game boring.
    - the agents despite the interesting marketing story made up by CA, seem insignificant.
    - The strategy side of the game is slow, energy lacking and boring,
    - the tactic side has a lot of bugs and it does not show the unique characters of each nation army. though I ve just tried rome and sparta, both of which by the way are famous for their high military disciplines, in battle they just run into enemy army like mob. my phalanx keeps un-phalanxing every sec and just charge straight ahead with their swords without even a care of keeping formation. If in Shogun II, flanking, attacking from behind and timing are so crucial to defeat the enemy and the suspense atmosphere you have in battle and the victorious feeling after defeating a legendary-army, all of which makes total war games so enjoyable, in rome II you dont have any of those feeling and brainy features anymore.
    AND THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IS THAT I FEEL NO CONNECTION WITH MY GAME, NOT AT ALL. CA PAYS TOO MUCH ATTENTION ON MAKING THIS GAME LOOK NICE BUT CLEARLY THEY PAY LEAST ATTENTION ON MAKING THEM NICE.
    A LOT ON MARKETING AND SHOWING OFF BUT THE REAL CONTENT IS UNDER-DEVELOPED AND CARELESSLY MADE.

    A huge let-down in general    … Expand
  23. Ozil
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    Genuinely awful game. I only gave it 1 because I suppose they've done some work on graphics but clearly nothing else. The website/magazine reviews have been bought and paid for again so ignore completely. Any user giving this 5 or higher is an idiot/child/idiot child and should be ignored completely.

    This game has absolutely zero depth. The AI is rubbish of the highest order, yet you    Genuinely awful game. I only gave it 1 because I suppose they've done some work on graphics but clearly nothing else. The website/magazine reviews have been bought and paid for again so ignore completely. Any user giving this 5 or higher is an idiot/child/idiot child and should be ignored completely.

    This game has absolutely zero depth. The AI is rubbish of the highest order, yet you will still spend most of your time waiting for the game to take the AI turns, even on decent rigs. The UI is horrendous and displays info in a painful fashion. Each turn is a pointless exercise in building things that create food and reduce order, then building things that raise order and reduce food. The "tactical" aspect is laughable and battles rarely last more than 5-8 minutes and consist of a series of insta-routs. Defensive battles now have a capture point rendering all tactical thinking irrelevant.

    Total War games (and I've played them all) have never been what you would call strategy masterpieces, but CA have somehow managed to remove every single aspect of decision making and choice from this. If you enjoy strategy can I suggest you play chess or Europa Universalis IV because Rome II is crap of the highest order.

    If I can help stop even 100 people from buying this then I'll be happy. TBH, this game wouldn't even be worth pirating.    … Expand
  24. SmokeScreen
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    I tried liking this game but I just don't, and it looks like I'm not the only one who feels let down by Rome II.

    The graphics look amazing on the highest setting, but for some odd reason my GTX 660 can't handle more than medium graphics which makes the game look A LOT worse than Shogun 2, Napoleon and even Empire. Which doesn't make sense right?? I have no idea why that is, but it    I tried liking this game but I just don't, and it looks like I'm not the only one who feels let down by Rome II.

    The graphics look amazing on the highest setting, but for some odd reason my GTX 660 can't handle more than medium graphics which makes the game look A LOT worse than Shogun 2, Napoleon and even Empire. Which doesn't make sense right?? I have no idea why that is, but it really takes away from the whole experience.

    Biggest issue I have with the game though is the battles. In sieges no matter if you are attacking or defending the AI doesn't move, or if they do they just run around in circles...plane and simple, yet again the AI is beyond stupid.

    I don't like where CA took the Total War series with Shogun 2, it was just too arcadish for my taste. CA promised this wouldn't be the case with Rome II, but here we are...most of my battles are over in 4 minutes and it's like watching Usain Bolt when the units are running.

    This game is big disappointment.    … Expand
  25. abramacabro
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    Unplayable. Simple waste of time and money.it just crashes 5 times every hour. Incredibly bad AI and battle interface. Not to mention the multiplayer side of the game is even worse.

    I strongly recommend to avoid this game.
  26. Derfel
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    I am a big fan of Total War series, I bought every single game&dlc up to date. But I will never buy anything from CA. Rome II is a real disappointment. It's developed for 12 years old retarded CoD players.

    - Combat is too fast paced. Thousand of men die in a few minutes and even the most crowded battles are over in 3-4 minutes. (No I am serious) No tactics, no flanking, no retreating    I am a big fan of Total War series, I bought every single game&dlc up to date. But I will never buy anything from CA. Rome II is a real disappointment. It's developed for 12 years old retarded CoD players.

    - Combat is too fast paced. Thousand of men die in a few minutes and even the most crowded battles are over in 3-4 minutes. (No I am serious) No tactics, no flanking, no retreating etc...
    - It's rushed. CA didn't even try to optimize it. Textures are like crap and it's laggy. It looks nothing like trailers.
    - They promised to support low end computers and laptops but it's not even working on high end PC's.
    - Navies are pointless. Your armies can just march into the sea and 20 ships will magically appear to transport them. They can easily destroy most of the warships.
    - They have removed a lot of useful features from past games.
    - It's an over-simplistic arcade-like game. Special abilities are terrible.
    - Day one dlc.
    - İncredibly stupid AI
    - Stupid UI made for consoles. (feel free to not believe this, you will see.)
    - No family tree, no veteran units, nothing we know from good old Total War games.

    I can expand this list but I am bored of this game. Sorry for grammar mistakes, I am not a native speaker    … Expand
  27. GERULA666
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    DONT BUY THIS GAME!!!

    The most anticipated game for 10 years now... I have played this series since 2004 and i am shocked this game is so bad. Horrible optimization and miserable graphics, first Rome looks better if this . Graphics are nothing like the Siege of Carthage video even on max settings, millions of bugs, Ai is very stupid, the multiplayer experience has been entirely    DONT BUY THIS GAME!!!

    The most anticipated game for 10 years now...

    I have played this series since 2004 and i am shocked this game is so bad.
    Horrible optimization and miserable graphics, first Rome looks better if this .
    Graphics are nothing like the Siege of Carthage video even on max settings, millions of bugs, Ai is very stupid, the multiplayer experience has been entirely ruined in this latest offering from Creative Assembly. They removed the Avatars, the veteran units and vet progression, the leaderboards, the clan battles, and much else.

    Was quite impressed by shogun 2 total war battles fast with energy with a good feel on what your armies is doing, there is nothing, men full of bronze equipement run faster than ninja and kill so fast you hadn't any time to appreciate it seriously.It is essentially a reskinned Rome1 that manages to run worse,look worse and feel worse even when they had a massive amount of money which seems to have went on PR and false reviews.
    Developers cheated players, it's basically a cash-grabbing rehash. Also, pre-order DLC? Really? I can't imagine the amount of pointless DLC they will add in the future...

    Rome 2 is a big step backwards. Like, 10 years backwards. Honestly, Medieval 2 had better graphics. Actually, I think they may have re-used the same graphical engine from the original Rome: Total War. It looks about like that!
    I'm done Creative Assembly you guys have pulled this crap too many times, finish your damn games, this game 4me is a waste of hard disk space and you just lost a customer!    … Expand
  28. Nymero
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    Well the developers sure pulled the wool over my eyes. I wish they would of put all that money from advertising into the actual game! This game should be labeled as a "beta". The sad thing being, that it is beyond repair. It will take years of patches, and community mods to make this game worth playing.
  29. cyclopus
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    Yesterday I spent damn five hours trying to finish prologue. It crashed like 30 times. This game is one huge bug.

    Don't buy it people. It is not worth current price.
  30. Devian
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    Unplayable game too bad, because I was looking forward to it. My game crashed every hour, get black screens when i was in a battles, could not play through the prologue because it was unplayable, sound issues, framerate out of the roof... a real bummer this game. avoid it until it gets better
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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.
    Read full review
  2. PCGamesN
    Nov 6, 2013
    70
    And here’s the rub: every addition, every sub-system, every mechanic is subservient to War. War is what Total War is really about. Everything else not directly related to conflict comes across as ancillary. Rome II is a game for warmongers, on both the campaign map and, obviously, on the battlefield. When peace is happening, nothing is happening. When war is happening, Rome comes alive.
    Read full review
  3. PC PowerPlay
    Oct 28, 2013
    40
    If you will play literally anything featuring Total War and Rome in the same title and don't value your time, this is for you. [Nov 2013, p.80]
See all critic reviews »