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. Hamishduncan
    Sep 6, 2013
    5
    I have a middle of the range computer like most of you will and this game just doesn't run as well as the rest of the series,i love total war and have all of them but this beta of a game is a let down,the game lacks substance and the draw in factor of other titles,its sad and hopefully they will fix it but i have no trust in the game any more you can see me playing Rome 1 or empire overI have a middle of the range computer like most of you will and this game just doesn't run as well as the rest of the series,i love total war and have all of them but this beta of a game is a let down,the game lacks substance and the draw in factor of other titles,its sad and hopefully they will fix it but i have no trust in the game any more you can see me playing Rome 1 or empire over this until its fixed… Expand
  2. Jaguar_Paw91
    Sep 6, 2013
    1
    In past times, when you buy game, that is that. You know what you get for your money. Today, every game must release patch in 2 week period. What that tell us? They build games for profit now, not for the gamers. They all have sweet advertising, buy our game it is the best. This game just sucks. I have monster pc, but i cant play it on high, frps drops everywhere, even on campaign map, theIn past times, when you buy game, that is that. You know what you get for your money. Today, every game must release patch in 2 week period. What that tell us? They build games for profit now, not for the gamers. They all have sweet advertising, buy our game it is the best. This game just sucks. I have monster pc, but i cant play it on high, frps drops everywhere, even on campaign map, the longest battle was 6 min, that is just funny and not good. You cant have trade agreement with no one, even if you are "same blood" people. Maybe some people dont have problems with graphics, but everyone have problems with in-game setup. People who say this is good game simply lie, maybe they are paid from SEGA to talk such lies, but core of the problem is simply this game isnt FINISH… Expand
  3. rcmunro22
    Sep 6, 2013
    10
    I am 25 years old now, I grew up on Total War. Straight from Shogun 2 (and those 2d Samurai) straight to Rome 2.

    I have 100's of Hours invested into each and every Title. This is by far the best Vanilla release of any Total War to date. The game is brilliant and quite honestly I can't comprehend why people are giving negative feedback. I have 40 Hours in so far and honest I    I am 25 years old now, I grew up on Total War. Straight from Shogun 2 (and those 2d Samurai) straight to Rome 2.

    I have 100's of Hours invested into each and every Title.

    This is by far the best Vanilla release of any Total War to date.

    The game is brilliant and quite honestly I can't comprehend why people are giving negative feedback.

    I have 40 Hours in so far and honest I would write more on this but I want to get back to playing. So I am going to!    … Expand
  4. KickingMo
    Sep 6, 2013
    5
    Horrible. Gameplay is extremely dumbed down, lack of family tree in campaign is obvious mistake and the greatest disapointment is the lack of online modes. Also, removing walls from cities is a horrible idea.
  5. ErnieGMB
    Sep 6, 2013
    8
    The graphics are beautiful and I have experienced few problems. It has taken a couple of days to learn the new features but I now have a good Roman faction game going. On the negative side, it takes enormous patience to wait for turns to complete and I'm not fond of the unit cards. I know that It will be my favorite game for several years and I look forward to enhancement from CA orThe graphics are beautiful and I have experienced few problems. It has taken a couple of days to learn the new features but I now have a good Roman faction game going. On the negative side, it takes enormous patience to wait for turns to complete and I'm not fond of the unit cards. I know that It will be my favorite game for several years and I look forward to enhancement from CA or modding community.… Expand
  6. chicharito86
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    Don't waste your money on this trash. It's boring as hell, full of bugs, graphics suck, UI is terrible, AI is terrible and it feels like it's unfinished, like there is a lot of stuff missing.
  7. Isaristh
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    This game is full of bugs (zombie faces), errors (Egyptian obelisk in Greek town), and the AI is absolutely atrocious. You can literally capture cities without any resistance just by having your armies stare at each other while you run cavalry around the back to the "capture point".

    Don't buy this game. Your money is better elsewhere, supporting companies that actually release a    This game is full of bugs (zombie faces), errors (Egyptian obelisk in Greek town), and the AI is absolutely atrocious. You can literally capture cities without any resistance just by having your armies stare at each other while you run cavalry around the back to the "capture point".

    Don't buy this game. Your money is better elsewhere, supporting companies that actually release a finished product.    … Expand
  8. elietu
    Sep 6, 2013
    10
    Creative Assembly sets a new standard for RTS games.
    I'm not the one to usually buy into what is called "hype" but Total War: Rome II has not only met my expectations, they exceeded them. The real time battles in this game is so intense that I actually feel like Julius Caesar himself commanding an army to expand my Roman Empire. The battles are so real, that I get so immersed and find    Creative Assembly sets a new standard for RTS games.
    I'm not the one to usually buy into what is called "hype" but Total War: Rome II has not only met my expectations, they exceeded them. The real time battles in this game is so intense that I actually feel like Julius Caesar himself commanding an army to expand my Roman Empire. The battles are so real, that I get so immersed and find that hours just seem to go away as I play this masterpiece that CA has created. I could go on and on about how great the campaign is. The multiplayer CoOp is truly amazing. CA has truly outdone themselves. Fans of Total War will be playing this game for the next decade I suspect, just like its Rome I predecessor. Enough typing for now, I'm going to go play some more Rome II total war, and so should you.    … Expand
  9. Viva_Fanta
    Sep 6, 2013
    5
    Looks Good. Plays Bad. New province system is rubbish, absense of walls makes city defence ridiculous, unit cards are example of poor game design.

    This game has potential and probably after 2 years of patching it will be great game. Unfortunately at this moment this game is awful beta with poor optimization, retarded AI.
  10. Clownageddon
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    I have bought and played all TW game including expansions except the Alexander one. I have tested most mods for MTWII and RTW and a few for the other ones.

    I have a mediocre gaming rig, but the game runs perfectly on ultra for me. 15 hours of play logged. Not one hickup. Its beautiful, with good framerate and lodsa eyecandy, even if i HATE the BIG! user interface and the UGGLY BIG unit    I have bought and played all TW game including expansions except the Alexander one. I have tested most mods for MTWII and RTW and a few for the other ones.

    I have a mediocre gaming rig, but the game runs perfectly on ultra for me. 15 hours of play logged. Not one hickup. Its beautiful, with good framerate and lodsa eyecandy, even if i HATE the BIG! user interface and the UGGLY BIG unit cards. So this rewiev is not biased by technical performance on my system.

    The game sucks. A huge leap backwards. Instead of writing the same thing over and over again, read the other 0 score reviews out there to se why. But to sum up:

    Its a dumbed down, arcadey, eye candy wrapped console port with way better marketing budget than the testing and development budget put together. Calling this a strategy game is just laughable.

    I am now done with this series. The good times of playing TW will not come back. TY CA. In total, you have provided me with countless hours of great fun, even if i got a bit sad in the end there, starting with NTW and ETW. Good luck on your expansion into the console market and i hope your new costumer base is as faithful, forgiving and naive as the old one.    … Expand
  11. 3HeadedMonkey
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    Total Casual War: Rome Beta 2

    Graphics poorly optimized for my high end rig with an AMD card. Running absolutely terribly when it should not be. User interface is terrible. Battlefield AI is a huge step back beyond Shogun 2, how is this possible? The battlefield AI developer should be politely be asked to take his coat and find another job. Capture points on a battlefield?! Why    Total Casual War: Rome Beta 2

    Graphics poorly optimized for my high end rig with an AMD card. Running absolutely terribly when it should not be.
    User interface is terrible.
    Battlefield AI is a huge step back beyond Shogun 2, how is this possible? The battlefield AI developer should be politely be asked to take his coat and find another job.
    Capture points on a battlefield?! Why should we care about an innocuous bit of dirt on the ground?
    Removal of family tree. This was the BEST part of the RPG element of total war. Why would you remove this?!
    Addition of far too many "special" abilities. Come on. This is total war, not Skyrim.
    Naval battles are completely broken. Buttons don't work, units don't do what they are told to do. Glitchy crap.
    Cities and sieges are completely underwhelming; I understand the point for having less regularity with sieges, but why no great big city in the background, or a small settlement outside of the main city with a fantastic city in the background? Where is the scope and imagination?!
    Unit control is now beyond awful. I never used to have to make hotkeys in order to control my army, now I feel I have to because the control element is terrible.
    Skirmishing units still can't skirmish. How many years have we waited for this to be fixed?
    Phalanxes, oh look they are not working again.
    Ridiculous load times on the campaign map, I don't really want to have to make a sandwich and cup of tea after every turn thank you.
    The loss of seasons and one year per turn. Less atmosphere, less RPG element with characters, no tactical planning around when the right time is to fight. The campaign map just looks the same ALL the time. Where is the variety?
    Tech tree is broken in its current form. Technology should take a LONG time to acquire, to make it more interesting when you actually get it. Right now, getting legionnaires by 250 BC is frankly, ridiculous.
    Battle speed, most battles are over within 2 or 3 minutes! Where is the strategy? Where is the tactics? Another point which proves CA are now targeting the casual gamer who are the completely wrong target audience for these types of games.
    No zoom button on the campaign map?
    The units are interchangeable pieces, with different skins. Some of which are pretty, some of which are distinctly uninspiring.
    Less of the wardogs, flaming pigs, flying elephants, and scuba camels. Can we just get a game that works pretty please?
    The lethality of units is so high everyone just dies within 30 seconds. Was this even tested?
    The audio is boring and lacklustre. Where is Jeff Van Dyck?! The horrendous monotone voices make me want to disable my audio. I've never had this in any total war game.

    The terrible thing is, I could go on! There are so many issues with this game.

    I was going to give this a four of ten if the first patch actually fixed some of the issues above, HOWEVER..the first patch does nothing to fix anything I have raised. Therefore a buggy, unpolished, uninspiring, boring, beta game which should never have been released this early gets a two out of ten. Its just an unplayable ball of frustration and mess. What a disappointment and HUGE step back in the series after the fantastic Shogun 2.

    If your a hardcore Total War fan, do not be fooled by all the positive reviews.    … Expand
  12. Blacklyche
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    What a disappointment! From the initial laggy play and jerky graphics, through to just out and out bugs and missing features this game feels like a cut-down unfinished update to previous total war titles.
    The problem with trying to review a game that plays/feels like this is that it's very difficult to give it a fair rating. Sure.. there is potential here, when everything is ironed out I    What a disappointment! From the initial laggy play and jerky graphics, through to just out and out bugs and missing features this game feels like a cut-down unfinished update to previous total war titles.
    The problem with trying to review a game that plays/feels like this is that it's very difficult to give it a fair rating. Sure.. there is potential here, when everything is ironed out I may be giving this game a 7 or even an 8. Somehow I don't think the city management will change for the better nor will the annoying absence of the family tree.
    At the moment its difficult to see past the performance issues. The bugs include help windows that don't render.. units getting stuck or refusing to move, an accelerated time mode that just seems to turn the sound off and didn't actually accelerate anything.. the list goes on..

    Okay, so CA have reacted by announcing patches/updates to follow. Not good enough I'm afraid. The growing tendency to release unfinished games has finally hit the Total War franchise.

    Buggy, Laggy, Unfinished.

    Worth buying maybe in 4 months time. I wish I'd waited.    … Expand
  13. kosciuszko
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    To begin, no game should receive anything over 4/10 if after two days of release, the creators have to say that a patch is being put together. If its buggy and not working correctly, do not release it! Simple! For this reason alone you should steer clear of the critical reviews of this game, I am truly amazed that it has scored as well as it has.
    Why?
    Because a game is intended to    To begin, no game should receive anything over 4/10 if after two days of release, the creators have to say that a patch is being put together. If its buggy and not working correctly, do not release it! Simple! For this reason alone you should steer clear of the critical reviews of this game, I am truly amazed that it has scored as well as it has.
    Why?
    Because a game is intended to entertain you, this just bores you, terribly.
    But lets begin on a positive note.
    The map looks superb, while the cities no longer assume the square box on a map look, but expand as the city grows.
    The armies look great and respond much better than previous offerings, especially the cavalry, who actually attack the enemy this time. It is refreshing to be able to hire mercenaries within the city too, and the range on offer is greater than before.
    The diplomacy, initially at least, gives a greater depth to the campaign as you interact with your neighbours without having to create and send a diplomat to do the job, especially if they are within earshot anyway.
    And, errr, that's about it.
    It becomes evident rather quickly that Sega have finally trodden the well beaten path of other gaming companies by pouring their resources into impressive eye candy and gimmicks, rather than stick to their niche of well rounded offerings, where graphics are sacrificed to the god of war in the quest for gameplay.
    To begin looking at the negative (and the list is larger than the empire Rome built), the UI for city management is truly horrendous. I tell a lie, its not even that good.
    It looks like it has been created for our PS and XBox friends to quickly flick through, so that they can hurry on to something else without taxing their thumbs too much. It is a series of poorly detailed and visualised boxes, with a dumbed down 'technology' link that again, looks like it was made for either small children to access or the console clan to enjoy.
    The two do not link well at all either; with the result being turn after frustrating turn of not building anything within your city, whilst you look on with envy as your allies and enemies create the second Rome.
    Apparantly people did not like the Medieval-esq approach to city management, though I have as yet to meet these 'people'. It worked well, was tidy, and more importantly, was easy to understand.
    Given that you may not even move your army and/or spy at all during a turn, and given that you are not building anywhere near often enough either, leads to abject frustrating and repeated 'end turn' clicking.
    Which leads to the 80's return of the king. The waiting for the 'end turn' fiasco.
    I have this installed on an SSD with an i7 kicking it along, and it still takes around a minute for the AI to take their turn. Add to this the fact that for large swathes of the time you are doing precisely nothing, and you can see how quickly boredom creeps in on a grand Total War scale.
    It is not that you can not build an army to create havoc, you can, but you are extremely limited in maintaining and upgrading it because your cities do not produce enough cash, whilst your neighbours garrisoned armies are far more numerous than yours.
    Added is the fact that nine battles out of ten are sieges. I did not in encounter an enemy with a decent army in the field at all in the three days I played it, leading to bus stop tours of city sieges, nothing more, which again, becomes boring faster than Usain Bolt on steroids.
    The dreadful AI during battles too verges on the insane; one instance amongst many I came across had the enemy simply scarper from their city whilst my two divisions of slingers (no dragons, tanks or F15 strike eagles in tow before you ask) walked straight into central city complex and held it, without an ounce of blood being spilled. The main bulk of my army was sitting around outside, enjoying the sea views and sipping tea.
    It is also in the small detail where this game fails to deliver on an epic scale too.
    You can now talk to your neighbours via the diplomacy button without having to physically move an object their, but you can not start trade in the same way for instance. Why not? So I can talk to my immediate neighbours night and day, but can not trade? Makes perfect sense that.
    Also, the idea of using family members and 'ordinary' folk to lead your forces is a nice touch; apparently the idea is that the more gravitas a general receives, the better his chances of taking over.
    But this just does not deliver excitement on any level, and ends up being just another useless side note in the long list of failures that Sega have collected up and dished out under the 'Rome II' tag.
    I could continue, but the word count is dangerously close to the 5000 max.
    To summarise, go back to earlier offerings folks, and wait until either the community either mod this shambles, or Sega bring out the much anticipated patches.    … Expand
  14. SuperfluousG
    Sep 6, 2013
    10
    Excellent game all round. Graphically sound, solid gameplay, completely absorbed all my free time since release. Sure, could do with a few AI tweaks and turn time was a until I moved to SSD, but most of the complaints are more down to a person's rig than the game itself (handles fine this end).
  15. Gunteraz
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    This is the biggest game launch failure i have ever seen. The game is not even in beta stage at the moment and should have not been launched at least until 6 more months of development. Paying 60 euros for this garbage has convinced me to never again buy one of Creative Assembly games again. Ever.
  16. Mangeduvet
    Sep 6, 2013
    4
    There are just too many issues with this game on release to give it a higher score.
    - Low fps
    - Performance issues - Multiple fixes needed to even get the textures right Further on. - A.I is so bad in battles and the campaign map that it's laughable - No guard mode (stand ground) - No fire at will mode for melee infantry using javelin, only works when charging You cannot    There are just too many issues with this game on release to give it a higher score.
    - Low fps
    - Performance issues
    - Multiple fixes needed to even get the textures right

    Further on.
    - A.I is so bad in battles and the campaign map that it's laughable
    - No guard mode (stand ground)
    - No fire at will mode for melee infantry using javelin, only works when charging

    You cannot release a game in this state! You simply can't, It's exactly like paying 60 euros to play a BETA. I'll probably never pre order a game CA makes ever again, first thing you need to do is look in forums and sites like these and be sure that there are no game breaking problems that you don't want to pay FULL price for...

    For everyone thinking about buying this game, WAIT until it's on sales or something because it's not worth the money they are currently selling it for, and definitely not your time. The game has some serious potential but as of right now it's not close to what it could be. I'm probably forgetting some of the issues I've encountered playing.    … Expand
  17. Googleness
    Sep 6, 2013
    4
    Total war is long term game so you are expected to do a campaign for about a week or two if you play casual.

    50 turns into Rome II -> 1. End turn 2. Alt Tab 3. Have babies, get them married. 4. Get grandchildrens 5. have your new grand kids to come and see the historic moment. 6. clean pc from dust. 7. Alt tab 8. wait few more minutes 9. turn 51! yay! grand pa 'his c'wap is    Total war is long term game so you are expected to do a campaign for about a week or two if you play casual.

    50 turns into Rome II ->
    1. End turn
    2. Alt Tab
    3. Have babies, get them married.
    4. Get grandchildrens
    5. have your new grand kids to come and see the historic moment.
    6. clean pc from dust.
    7. Alt tab
    8. wait few more minutes
    9. turn 51! yay! grand pa 'his c'wap is cool!

    in more serious note,
    1. graphics the game gave me automatic Extreme settings which runs kinda well but game looks bad.

    2. gameplay this is NOT total war. total war is about using agents on the strategic map with wise and smart province management combined with small specialize inferior forces to outmaneuver and outmatch your opponents and conquer the world. here we got world map which is basicly LAME version of civilization with no sense what so ever. a battle mode in which there is no strategy only blob wars over victory points in which slingers will annihilate everything (try it... full slinger army will destroy anything in the game lol). In fact game so bad they added "Economic" and "cultural" victory so you don't need to conquer anything! just use diplomacy and ofc enhanced auto-resolve which tells you now not only if you win but how many troops you get left with!

    3. Navies are so crap now they deserve their own section, you take and unit and drive them into the see they turn into a fleet. the get a ramming ship! and they can board. no need to build navies just get 20 mobs send them into the sea and you got doomstack navy. Also because land units can now easily turn free into NAVAL units some weird stuff happens like minor barbaric tribe from north Europe invade into Arabia!!!! wtf is that crap.

    4. Politics, no more senate floor... no more family tree.... now you get weird list of generals which shows who got most power... once in few turns you get some weird event which cause little problem until you resolve it.. how? pick a button.. that's it. no politics what so ever!

    5. diplomacy... hmmp... well... faction so stupid they will stay with 1 province, no armies, under siege and refuse peace treaty 5000 gold that stupid. in previous games you could set trade agreements and do stuff here it's dumbed down diplomacy as most options like switch cities, stop wars, exchange map information, BRIBE are removed from the game.
    then when you finnaly manage to get trade agreement some weird stuff happens like your new buddy wants to help you in your war so he sends 1 ship to navy blockade a port of the enemy last city for OVER 20 turns and so you can't kill them... bah.

    6. limited number of armies, navies and agents.
    on previous games you could recruit some units then have a captain with them which if he was successful could be adopted and become a general but here you need to "Raise" force as general or admiral then recruit straight to him the forces and most of the game start you can have no more then 4-6 armies! it's pathetic. as militant player I did lots of conquest and combat on this series with smart small forces and wise tactics but here I'm limited to 3 armies! on game start so basicly if you got bad luck and enemy got allies or 2 factions declares war o you suddenly 4-5 doomstacks vs your 1 little stack as you can't divide it to ambush them or use one small force to lure them while your main force gank their cities sun-tzu style... nope.

    7. city development is utter stupid. no point at all you reach to a point where you got income like 10k per turn while city is mostly level 2-3 buildings. no need to build anything! the population remains the same when it's growing you actually get more building slots to get more money from buildings. actually building more advanced stuff in cities gets you ton of squalor and shortage in food which do not benefits enough income wise (extra 1000 per turn for empire wise upgrade) to actually do it so build 2-3 military building rest is farmings and agricalture boosting buildings tehn get ton of money and spam slinger armies of doom :X fail.

    this is fail game from design to execution. shogun 2 is superior and more pretty, Rome 1 is a better game and much better game with mods. Medieval 2 was one of the best game in the series.. add medieval 2 with a mod which exteneds the map so you can do grand campaign on HUGE map which contain the vanilla all the Kingdoms campaigns at same time for utter victory.
    Empire was decent as casual total war and had good points as it did gunpowder decently but overall Rome 2 is step backward.

    "IT WILL GET A PATCH YOU FOOL!" fact: i finished campaign on all of the total war games WITHOUT patches. on Rome II I cannot finish a campaign cause the end turn takes 2 years to finish cycle 30000000000000000000 factions.
    rig: 8 Gb ram i5 2500K GTX 550Ti OC edition Win 7    … Expand
  18. nguyenhoainam
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    When I first played Shogun: Total War, I thought "Damn! How is this game possible?" Shogun was well ahead of its time in terms of ideas, scale, quality... every aspects! It was just GREAT!!! So great you just cant believe it...

    I became a fan, played every games in the series... I think Rome is truly the pinnacle of them! Cant remember how much time I spent in that game, but I'm sure it    When I first played Shogun: Total War, I thought "Damn! How is this game possible?" Shogun was well ahead of its time in terms of ideas, scale, quality... every aspects! It was just GREAT!!! So great you just cant believe it...

    I became a fan, played every games in the series... I think Rome is truly the pinnacle of them! Cant remember how much time I spent in that game, but I'm sure it was plenty...

    Then came Medieval II, which I thought was great too. I just wasnt captivated by that era as much as by Rome's.

    Napoleon disappointed me, but I still believe that CA will come back with another masterpiece to revive the franchise!

    When they released Shogun II, I thought to myself Well, back to Japan is not half bad, though I would appreciate a new place to wage war though"

    And now, Rome II... Ok, I loved the first game and that era, just improve the graphics, the gameplay and I will spend countless time again in this game.

    But what have they done???

    - AI sucks
    - Graphics bugs
    - Gameplay lacks depth and options
    - Music and sounds is many steps backward
    - Multiplayer gone to (I play Steam version and let me remind you that Steam is argue-ably the best multiplay-experience provider out there, but it still sucks big time!)

    To sum it up, let me quote a comment some guy here said "CA put crap in a box and we spent 60$ for it"

    THAT'S HOW THEY TREATED US, LOYAL FANS OF THE FRANCHISE!

    **** YOU CA!!!    … Expand
  19. clairbear_ski
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    This is without a doubt the worst Total war game to date
    It allows you to have only 3 armies and 2 navies while the enemies have unlimited troops
    You troops desert while you enemy does not For the first time you cannot merge depleted units Graphics are not as advertised it is a major step backwards from it's predecessors Playability on maps is weak You armies cannot move while    This is without a doubt the worst Total war game to date
    It allows you to have only 3 armies and 2 navies while the enemies have unlimited troops
    You troops desert while you enemy does not
    For the first time you cannot merge depleted units
    Graphics are not as advertised it is a major step backwards from it's predecessors
    Playability on maps is weak
    You armies cannot move while "mustering" new troops and only generals or admirals can recruit
    It was a waste of 60 bucks
    You want a Total war game stick with Shogun 2, Empire, Medievil 2 or other earlier games in the series
    Even the original Rome was vastly better    … Expand
  20. WillensKraft
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    The AI is still not able to attack or defend a Town properly, even on 'Legendary'.
    - AI pathfinding is still up.
    - The optimization is horrible, it looks worse than Shogun2 but the framerate is unacceptable, even on high end rigs that play BF3/Metro 2033/Crysis3/ArmA3 on ultra with mostly over 60 frames. - Day 1 DLC. That is always a negative thing. - Texture bug, selecting "Extreme"    The AI is still not able to attack or defend a Town properly, even on 'Legendary'.
    - AI pathfinding is still up.
    - The optimization is horrible, it looks worse than Shogun2 but the framerate is unacceptable, even on high end rigs that play BF3/Metro 2033/Crysis3/ArmA3 on ultra with mostly over 60 frames.
    - Day 1 DLC. That is always a negative thing.
    - Texture bug, selecting "Extreme" settings does nothing although I have 3GB Vram and yes, I enabled "unlimited Vram" in the settings. Doesn't do ****
    - Round endings/CPU calculations for the AI factions: >2.5min in the mid/late game, this is a problem from Empire TW and hasn't been fixed since then (Empire, Napoleon, Shogun2, FotS). It only gets worse because they increased the factions.
    - No SLI/CFX support.
    - Day 1 patch, releasing unfinished software.
    (-) possible DLCs in the feature.
    - UI is just a massive joke. Is this ment to be played with a Gamepad?! Shogun 2 was good. Don't change what ain't broken CA.
    -Unit cards look as if they hired cavemen to draw them. They look terrible and they are useless if want to know how each unit looks like.
    - Battles take less than 5 minutes, enemys rout after less than a minute after they started fighting.
    - For some reason the Roman Legions turn into massive blobs upon contact although that's what made the Roman army special and superior unlike the barbarian factions.
    -They removed alot of features such as lose or tight formations, hold ground etc
    - Random flag in a ground battle as defender. Who had this brilliant idea?! Imagine You are outnumbered 3:1..what would you do? Go on a Hill and defend it? Oh you can't because there is a ****ing flag randomly spawning, mostly on open ground that changes this great tactical franchise into a capture the flag blob war with no strategy what so ****ing ever.
    - Testudo formation is broken, you take less casulties charging towards the enemy.
    - The campaign AI is just ridiculous, I'm 130 turns in and not a single time someone declared war on me and I don't even bothered building fortifications on my borders. This game is called Total War. Also the trade AI will refuse to accept win-win offers.
    - alot of people who pre-ordered this on amazon don't got their free DLC code. SEGA says it's the retailers fault, they say SEGA never gave them codes.
    - MP is completly broken, desync errors everywhere. We already had this error in Empire.. but it was rare..
    - COOP campaign is unplayable, for some unknown reason the AI turns take almost 3 times longer than in the SP.
    - the free transport ships from the Campaign map are OP compared to expansive Navy ships from your harbour. Just head-on ram them with your transporter and they break!
    - Naval combat in general is unbalanced and bugged.

    As a "true" fan of Rome 1 with over 1500h playtime I am more than disappointed. This is a step backwards from Shogun 2 and even worse than Empire TWs release.

    Sadly I joined the hype and waisted 55€ (~80 USD).    … Expand
  21. BruceWayne
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    Mechanics dumbed down, battles are too arcade-ish, performance is BAD, FPS on campaign map take a hit from 40/50 to 15 whenever UI appears on screen i.e selecting units, cities, agents. I have pretty capable gaming PC that was able to play Shogun II with a stable frame-rate. If you wonder that game is for you, hold your horses for at least 3 or 4 months. At the moment this game is inMechanics dumbed down, battles are too arcade-ish, performance is BAD, FPS on campaign map take a hit from 40/50 to 15 whenever UI appears on screen i.e selecting units, cities, agents. I have pretty capable gaming PC that was able to play Shogun II with a stable frame-rate. If you wonder that game is for you, hold your horses for at least 3 or 4 months. At the moment this game is in "unofficial beta stage" publisher and CA lied it's not finished yet.… Expand
  22. RingoPrime
    Sep 6, 2013
    4
    I was so excited about this game and it is my first big disappointment of 2013. I have a GTX 690 with 4gb VRAM yet the game only detects 2gb as it has no multi GPU support! A PC game in 2013! Really?! Add my 32gb RAM and i7 3770k quad core running at 4.3ghz to the mix and you would think this game would run fast on all the max settings? Wrong, benchmarking puts it at around 30fps! I setI was so excited about this game and it is my first big disappointment of 2013. I have a GTX 690 with 4gb VRAM yet the game only detects 2gb as it has no multi GPU support! A PC game in 2013! Really?! Add my 32gb RAM and i7 3770k quad core running at 4.3ghz to the mix and you would think this game would run fast on all the max settings? Wrong, benchmarking puts it at around 30fps! I set all the graphics to low and the fps appears to be locked at 66....why? Turns take forever, random graphics glitches, terrible AI that makes the game boring, stupid capture the flag in land battles that essentially throws any terrain based tactics out the window, did I mention the AI? Oh yes, but it's that bad it needs mentioning twice! Creative Assembly needs to fix this broken game....and quickly, the first Beta patch has made no improvements and if anything my fps dropped by 1-2! Patches are supposed to make things better, not worse!!! CA need to get their whole development team and probably a very good external QA team to fix the following:

    - Hardware optimization (especially multi GPU and cards with large VRAM)
    - AI
    - Campaign turn times
    - Remove capture the flag from land battles, it is not welcome and has ruined the primary attraction of the TW franchise.....you know....the war part.
    - Improve unit textures, Shogun 2's were better
    - Overhaul character avatars.....they look....terrible, seriously just replace them with concept art, CA's art department are the only ones who come out of this launch with their reputations intact!

    There are probably many other things that need addressing, but CA need to accept that the game is broken and needs fixing quickly.....I would also like to see some kind of special offer for people like myself who pre-ordered this game in the hope CA had learned from previous mistakes. I certainly won't be buying another TW game at launch, that is for sure.    … Expand
  23. Joker407
    Sep 6, 2013
    10
    A lot of good details. MUST HAVE for strategy lovers.=3 UI not ideal in battle adn diplomatic part not so progressive. BUT! it very beauty and UI rather nice. 60 too many for this, but i would pay 45 for this. 10/10
  24. themrchook
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    Very poor optimisation, AI is poor and siege AI is just non-functioning with issues like enemy units just standing there or even more bizarrely wandering off in random directions until they just run into archer fire and die, simplified mechanics and game functionality when compared to Total War: Rome (seems to be the trend, would have like to have seen it broken for this game) but thisVery poor optimisation, AI is poor and siege AI is just non-functioning with issues like enemy units just standing there or even more bizarrely wandering off in random directions until they just run into archer fire and die, simplified mechanics and game functionality when compared to Total War: Rome (seems to be the trend, would have like to have seen it broken for this game) but this does not make the game more fun, punchy or exciting. Slightly updated graphics but nowhere near what I expected. I can forgive releasing with a few bugs and issues as this is normal but there are just such a large amount of them. This is why people pirate games, you don't deserve my money for this and you won't be getting it ever again.… Expand
  25. rvm33
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    A well orchestrated PR campaign (congratulations on that CA!) and promises of a game well made and an incentive of 1 additional free DLC and people buy the game. Then, fans (me) complain it is different and broken, so some patches and a ton of paid DLC's later CA is far more income sturdier than just issuing a game upfront properly.

    CA is completely capable of making their games    A well orchestrated PR campaign (congratulations on that CA!) and promises of a game well made and an incentive of 1 additional free DLC and people buy the game. Then, fans (me) complain it is different and broken, so some patches and a ton of paid DLC's later CA is far more income sturdier than just issuing a game upfront properly.

    CA is completely capable of making their games playable, modders like dartvader proved they can do it on their own but it is not a good business proposition. There is no development to be done anymore. And development means income and jobs. Tell me again, why do it properly and then be out of a years to come long business?! Unfortunately for me, only now I fully realized this.

    Turning now on the PR campaign we have been promised graphics outstanding with soldiers faces showing horror as enemies attack. This is not the case. Will be though ...a DLC later. We have been expecting some blood and wear and tear of armor and weapons after the battle as seen in the pictures of their PR campaign and as we read in reviews. Again, it is not yet the case, but will be... a DLC later.
    Right now a soldier looks the same before and after the battle.
    We know Romans had archers but there are no archer units in Rome 2 rooster. We all want them as it is stupid to fight with stone slingers in a fiercesome war machine ...a DLC later.

    Got the point?

    For this reason CA bolstered that Rome2 is a huge platform with unlimited potential for the future. And it is truly a cash making machine as long there are fans. I'm gone.

    Believe it or not, the people actually programming the game are not fans of the series. They do not understand the subtleties of the game and this is proven by the fact that they invested in graphics a lot more while "simplifying" the game play and micromanagement, making thus the game dull. To them it seems normal an unmanned tower is raining arrows on the attacking force?! Realism?
    They did not see the point of the defensive position in the unit's orders and just took it out. Why? Because the programmer who did this in the previous series isn't working or in charge of that particular development and the new guy did not see the point anymore. Or, maybe it is pointless for consoles.

    We have to take into account that CA evolved in the last 10 years also. Many new people came and old ones went. This team is not the one who launched Medieval 2 and the previous games. It was visible from the launch of Empire where the bugs started piling up, to this date. It seems they do not play the games they are programming.

    Now, back to us, the fans. We have also evolved. Many of us are fans of the series since Rome 1 or Shogun 1. This was say back in 2004 and we were then 18. That makes us 28 years old now. We don’t play games like then.
    We like to think, use strategy and want to see realism and feel it. We don't like fast and easy battles won. We like positions and tactics and planning an empire right. We like BAI and CAI that is challenging, diplomacy that makes sense, we like to develop our regions, muster armies (as many as we like and afford) and to be challenged. We need for that an immersive game in both strategy and game play.
    Here lies the subtlety that CA did not grasp.

    We also like stunning graphics and can afford top notch PC's. We can spend money if we feel we get what we want.

    But right now, I don't. I feel tricked by a PR campaign promising everything there was in the series and more and delivering... a different and broken thing.
    Deceiving your customers is generally bad bussiness practice, may work here and now but not on the long run.

    Looking at the above, my feel is that CA cannot deliver the game play we want anymore. They can create a platform but that's it. For that reason modders like darthvader appeared and made from a jerky, fort lagging and stupid humpty dumpty style Empire a nice playable game. Same goes for Napoleon and Shogun 2. The crowning achievement of the modding community is Shogun 2 darthmod. From here, looking down on Rome 2 seems a huge step back.

    There are so many issues to be addressed speaking about the game from a game play perspective like armies cannot be split up, armies embarking on nonexistent ships transports, reduced tech tree, UI non intuitive, melees extremely fast, units routing extremely quick one has no time to zoom in to see the fight, not holding formations etc. that it makes no sense to write all here. Just read the posts on Metacritic or Steam.
    Forget the technical problems, they will be fixed eventually but concept issues will not.

    This game will be playable for us maybe in 1-2 years from now when modding people like darthvader and the many others will have corrected some of the game play issues if they will exist for this game.

    From my perspective I am truly sorry to have bought this game now, because I supported this strategy CA is implementing and I destroyed my hopes of a great game. A dumbed down game it is.    … Expand
  26. jedi72it
    Sep 6, 2013
    1
    As a long time follower and enthusiast of Total War serie, i must admit that this is the worst "thing" i have ever seen.

    The devs had a splendid opportunity to make ROME 1 better....they instead were only able to destroy its glory. Cons: - Sci-fi UI, without ANY sort of differences between cultures (No Immersion, it's all like controlling from your speaceship...), and way too many    As a long time follower and enthusiast of Total War serie, i must admit that this is the worst "thing" i have ever seen.

    The devs had a splendid opportunity to make ROME 1 better....they instead were only able to destroy its glory.

    Cons:

    - Sci-fi UI, without ANY sort of differences between cultures (No Immersion, it's all like controlling from your speaceship...), and way too many abstract subslidingmenus.

    - No Family tree, no story to create, and in the end all armies will be the same.

    - 3 minutes battles???????

    - Capture the flag???????

    - Brain Dead AI???????

    - i don't enumerate all the technical bugs and glitches...there are too many and in every aspect of the game.....

    - this game lacks any "spirit" and any real challenge, you can actually see online casual players burning through Legendary difficulty like hot knife in butter.......

    CONGRATS CA AND SEGA, you were able to utterly destroy and annihilate one of the Glories in PC gaming history.

    I fear this is my last Total War.    … Expand
  27. ZOLTAN
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    If you are expecting Total War Rome 2 having played the first one then you will be disappointed. This is some new game based in the same era without the complexity or depth of play of the old one.

    The information you require to make your decisions is hard to find thanks to a bad UI but that's OK as there are no real bad decisions in this game. During battle you can and you can spend    If you are expecting Total War Rome 2 having played the first one then you will be disappointed. This is some new game based in the same era without the complexity or depth of play of the old one.

    The information you require to make your decisions is hard to find thanks to a bad UI but that's OK as there are no real bad decisions in this game. During battle you can and you can spend your time watching the game play rather than worrying about playing it and use your magic abilities like fast reload for your missile troops with infinite ammo.

    They have taken away a lot of the realism and management completely and introduced pretty graphics.    … Expand
  28. wjf83
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    No Family tree, yet the faction panel has limited marriage options as long as its not your family getting married
    No more portrait art
    No more thumbnail art for buildings, uses stupid tiles the encyclopedia looks like it was copy and past from windows note pad and no art work a lot of cities are missing battles end way too fast its like CA took total war and tried to repackage it as    No Family tree, yet the faction panel has limited marriage options as long as its not your family getting married
    No more portrait art
    No more thumbnail art for buildings, uses stupid tiles
    the encyclopedia looks like it was copy and past from windows note pad and no art work
    a lot of cities are missing
    battles end way too fast
    its like CA took total war and tried to repackage it as a game for casual gamers.
    general and family member progression is just lame, rome 1 formula was better people change as they age and from there experiences and the way rome did it reflected that this game does not
    how dare they try and pass this off total war.
    I don't have the words...    … Expand
  29. ChosunOne
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    For all the experience you would think the CA team has, you would think that Rome 2 would have expanded upon features from its previous titles. Almost every aspect this game has either backtracked from Shogun 2 (UI, AI, battles, units) or been completely removed (family trees). There are really no ways this game is any better than Shogun and it feels less like a Strategy game and moreFor all the experience you would think the CA team has, you would think that Rome 2 would have expanded upon features from its previous titles. Almost every aspect this game has either backtracked from Shogun 2 (UI, AI, battles, units) or been completely removed (family trees). There are really no ways this game is any better than Shogun and it feels less like a Strategy game and more like a "lets just tell units to attack and watch them win" kind of game. Sieges are mind-numbingly easy (ai stands in a courtyard and doesn't budge, even under the torrential rain of flaming arrows), and on battles in open fields it camps its start area. I tried to reenact the battle of thermopylae and only had about 350 units versus about 7000 and they just stood there. I slowly creeped up to their line to try to draw them out, but the ai just started repositioning units along the line indefinitely. I even took out about 1500 of their units and routed half the army mostly because they would not even attack my units when they would walk into them while trying to reposition. You also can't siege cities that are under naval blockades, so my campaign against epirus as sparta ground to a halt when a tattered roman ship was sitting outside the harbor, and my army of 9000 spartans could not siege the city. This game needs a major overhaul to live up to the reputation of any other total war title.… Expand
  30. Abspara
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    Horrible AI

    Sluggish graphics

    Poorly optimized

    Lacks any of the soul of other Total War games.

    An abysmal launch that is characteristic of Creative Assembly.

    Paid reviewers got paid to give this game high marks. The average joe who had to spend $60.00 on this got taken advantage of. Avoid at all costs!
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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.
    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]
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