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. 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
  2. ibuyonlyquality
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    Launching Second Shortcoming of the Year. Retarded UI, poor optimization, no SLI. Yes, I was talking about CoH2. Applies to this title also. Support better game developers, there are a few.
  3. Kadaeux
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    Thank god I played this at a friends rather than buy it right away. tedious to the point of boredom mid-late game. 30 60 second turns followed by 5 minute AI turns. AI is terrible in every way. CA hit the nail on the head with the provincial and building system, but EVERYTHING else is just wrong. The 'faction' system for the Romans is something you can nearly ignore completely and itThank god I played this at a friends rather than buy it right away. tedious to the point of boredom mid-late game. 30 60 second turns followed by 5 minute AI turns. AI is terrible in every way. CA hit the nail on the head with the provincial and building system, but EVERYTHING else is just wrong. The 'faction' system for the Romans is something you can nearly ignore completely and it won't affect your game in the slightest. There was no point where I had to do anything with the diplomacy system other than declare war on small neighbors, rinse and repeat. There were no big enemy alliances to stunt my growth. It was a slow, boring, monotonous game. A long wait for this game, and a large disappointment.… Expand
  4. Roller_101
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    This game is a disaster. A lof of technical issues (no AA, no SLI support, very bad framerate considering how ugly it is, etc), very confusing and awful menus (tech tree menu and unit cards are just super nasty, etc), strange design decisions (NO FAMILY TREE, idotic skills for armie casual simplified province thing, etc and VERY imbalanced. Currently this game plays like unplayable beta.This game is a disaster. A lof of technical issues (no AA, no SLI support, very bad framerate considering how ugly it is, etc), very confusing and awful menus (tech tree menu and unit cards are just super nasty, etc), strange design decisions (NO FAMILY TREE, idotic skills for armie casual simplified province thing, etc and VERY imbalanced. Currently this game plays like unplayable beta. AVOID AT ALL COST!… Expand
  5. ecapone1
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    I WAS a big fan of the total war series (played every game since the first one), but unfortunately although I'm not an expert, I have to admit this game is really bad. AI is no AI at all, multiplayer simply doesn't work, coop campaign neither. CA has released this game far too early. I would have waited another year to get a good game, but THIS game is just UNACCEPTABLE. Goodbye CA.
  6. setr_zero
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    Poorly optimized,. The AI is STILL worse than the AI the TW mod community put out. Gameplay is dumbed down and without nuance.

    Creative assembly, stop outsourcing your god damned games to the modders, or at least pay them for fixing your games.
  7. bbnj
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    Words cannot express how broken this game is, beyond performance problems making computer turns easily last 10 minutes. 6 turns where you just wanted to do some reasearch? One hour! But that could be magically fixed sooo:

    So the UI design is on par with the rest of the game. One of the keywords here is 'streamline', if you know what I mean. In other TW games you could plan your    Words cannot express how broken this game is, beyond performance problems making computer turns easily last 10 minutes. 6 turns where you just wanted to do some reasearch? One hour! But that could be magically fixed sooo:

    So the UI design is on par with the rest of the game. One of the keywords here is 'streamline', if you know what I mean.

    In other TW games you could plan your economy. In this one you get a black box number representing various territories which tells you almost nothing. But that's ok, because generals have been 'streamlined' too so now they are mostly anonymous, replaceable, disposable units. Gone are family trees. Gotta streamline. Which is probably for the best because seasons have been 'streamlined' too, and now a turn is one year instead of a season. Guess how long generals live. Trained uinits on the other hand are immortal.

    Do you like naval battles? TWR has naval battles! In fact you can grab any unit, move it to sea and it instantly spawns a battle capable transport. For free.

    Did I mention trained units? Its fun' you can as usual kill stuff and they get xp and level up and improve their skills. This has been 'streamlined' too. Before if a high xp unit got nailed down to a man, reinforcements would bring down the xp of the unit (since they would start with 0). Now they don't. As long as a man survives, reinforcements are as skilled up as that man. Gotta streamline.

    Streamlined too was the guard button. Who cares if their archers decide to leave their defensive positions and chase that unit all over the map. Indeed, who cares? The speed of the units is so fast most battles are over in 5 minutes.

    Which is telling, movement speed. By default clicking on an enemy unit makes yours charge. Which has the nasty habit of breaking formation. I'll repeat this so it sinks in: the default action breaks unit formation and "tires" the unit. This should have easily been Total War: Blob.

    Then we have lovely "features" like capture the flag points, general magic "spells/skills", totally broken AI, even worse AI at sieges, drooling moron AI levels at the campaign map even when it "cheats"...

    I wish I could like this game. Or even tolerate it. Unfortunately I don't see how they could manage to salvage this through patches. Not sure what happened through the development, but it ended up in an unmitigated disaster. It's sad that the company that gave us Shogun more than 10 years ago ended up doing this piece of excrement.    … Expand
  8. CRC
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    Countless glitches and technical issues like buttons not working.
    AWFUL A.I. (Even for a TW game.) You could probably win by just randomly banging your head against your keyboard. I wish I was joking.
    Very slow load times. Laaaaaaaag. Control Points in open-field battles almost completely throw strategy out the window. Graphics are "meh" even on max settings. Nothing like what we had    Countless glitches and technical issues like buttons not working.
    AWFUL A.I. (Even for a TW game.) You could probably win by just randomly banging your head against your keyboard. I wish I was joking.
    Very slow load times.
    Laaaaaaaag.
    Control Points in open-field battles almost completely throw strategy out the window.
    Graphics are "meh" even on max settings. Nothing like what we had been shown.
    Unit cards can end up taking up half the screen.
    Since 1 turn 1 year now, your generals start dropping like flies after only a few dozen turns.
    No family tree.
    No guard mode.

    I'm probably missing some things, but those are my major issues with this game. It has great potential, but in the state that it's in, it isn't worth anywhere near $60, and it certainly doesn't deserve the critical acclaim that it's getting. My advice is to wait until some patches and/or mods come out that fix it. Until then, steer clear of this buggy mess.    … Expand
  9. LazerLuke
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    I can rant and rave for days about how terrible and disappointing this game was, but i'd rather sum it up in one sentence. I made a meta critic account for the first time in my life just to rate this game a ZERO.
  10. 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.
  11. Maximus44
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Over 25 hours played.

    The game is total junk and should have not ever been released in its current state. Like others had said terrible UI, same units for all factions besides Rome and Egypt, same music over and over again, lack of artwork even for the loading screens. Terrible avatar type graphics. Lack of wonders. Do they have any effects by the way as we were promised? No    Over 25 hours played.

    The game is total junk and should have not ever been released in its current state. Like others had said terrible UI, same units for all factions besides Rome and Egypt, same music over and over again, lack of artwork even for the loading screens. Terrible avatar type graphics. Lack of wonders. Do they have any effects by the way as we were promised? No notification as was shown by CA when you take a region that has a wonder. Generals with ships that are better than full navies. Longer than usual turn times. No seasons. One turn per year. Each faction feels the same. No sense of accomplishment. Generals die too quickly. I won't even mention the terrible AI. Diplomacy is still not right. This is an obvious cash cow for SEGA. Wait for an expansion maybe that actually works instead of buying this mess. Oh and the sound. Could you not include more than just a few songs? Rome 1 had many more beautiful songs. One could write for hours on the flaws of the game.

    Some positives such as the edicts, army traditions, large map, and the province system, but everything else brings the score down.    … Expand
  12. Rolby
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    this game doesnt even look a little bit like the Carthage or Teutoburg gameplay trailer. it is full of bugs and glitches and all characters look like they have some face disease. this game is just horrible compared to shogun 2. they went downhill, and not even a little bit. there is almost no technology anymore and u all the technology u have, u discover in 1 turn. it feels like a pre-betathis game doesnt even look a little bit like the Carthage or Teutoburg gameplay trailer. it is full of bugs and glitches and all characters look like they have some face disease. this game is just horrible compared to shogun 2. they went downhill, and not even a little bit. there is almost no technology anymore and u all the technology u have, u discover in 1 turn. it feels like a pre-beta game, it's just that bad. they made stuff simpler so dumb people could play it too, but they took away all the good stuff by doing that. i hope they will decide that it was a bad fault to release rome 2 yet, give us our money back, and work on it for another year to make it a GOOD game. like the first rome.… Expand
  13. rikasan
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    They actually killed the series for its simplifications for youngsters and casual players. Want to play real Total War? Play Shogun 2, Medieval 2, Rome 1.

    This game is a huge fail. Capture points and lack of family tree are worst decisions possible. UI is very dull. I feel disapointed.
  14. asc_one
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Even though CA had a 40% bigger budget than shogun 2 they proved their incompetence the last time for me. I won't fall for their garbage ever again. And that says a Total War Veteran since Rome 1 I bought every game of their franchise.

    And every time to release there were problems but this time those are unmatched. This game is broken and a total failure from my perspective.Nothing that    Even though CA had a 40% bigger budget than shogun 2 they proved their incompetence the last time for me. I won't fall for their garbage ever again. And that says a Total War Veteran since Rome 1 I bought every game of their franchise.

    And every time to release there were problems but this time those are unmatched. This game is broken and a total failure from my perspective.Nothing that is important works really. The Battle AI is completely broken it's worse than the AI of any TW game i've seen yet. The campaign AI is also a catastrophe diplomacy doesn't work at all and the ai keeps attacking with armies that are obviously inferior.
    The UI looks consolized,I HATE IT. You cannot have unlimited armies anymore nor can you have smaller units without a general. The family tree is GONE When a general dies you don't care a Guard button is missing ,loose formation is missing instead you have magic buttons like "whip" that buff your unit for a short time. Phalanx does not work, units just can't hold their goddamn formation you can say that to pretty much every formation in the game.

    I could go on ...

    I mean I have waited for a sequel for about 10 years to see this pile of This really has broken my heart Maybe it's a C&C 4 moment for the series. Anyway with a 40% bigger budget and CA just can't ´make a functioning game. I MEAN THEY DID IT 10 YEARS AGO BETTER WTF!
    And all of you apologists that say they can fix the game with patches i mean come on even you don't believe what you are talking about!And after all we paid already!

    THIS GAME IS CASUALIZED/STREAMLINED ****!

    I will never preorder a CA game ever They messed up hard and my confidence in this company is gone.    … Expand
  15. Captain_Solo
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Ok let's rate this game At first about game graphics AWFUL Game looks like 6 year old (even more). Absolutely dumb AI and ugly small menus. It's not fun there's no gameplay Even On maximum graphics still the same sh*t Don't waste your money There are too much good games to play. Yeah there is music but they can't hold you longer
  16. ekatonpl
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Disappointing stupid AI, horrible UI, disgusting and confusing unit cards, no optimalazion, lots of bugs this game is surely unfinished, propably also cut a lot to get money on new DLCs. It's a shame that CA published something like this and also kind of an insult.

    Paid way too much to be a beta tester now.
  17. ashmurphy89
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Just started to play this game this morning and the first thing that came to mind was the graphics. I thought they must have been on low but no, they were set to very high and they looked terrible. Path finding is grim. AI is poor and the optimisation is rubbish. As a software developer it's hardly surprising such a bodge-it-and-scarper job was even released as this seems to be a trend inJust started to play this game this morning and the first thing that came to mind was the graphics. I thought they must have been on low but no, they were set to very high and they looked terrible. Path finding is grim. AI is poor and the optimisation is rubbish. As a software developer it's hardly surprising such a bodge-it-and-scarper job was even released as this seems to be a trend in the dev world. Hopefully this game will be patched and the devs will listen to the fans complaints.

    All in all a massive disappointment, I don't often pre order games and this is the final straw. Back to playing a finished game like Tomb Raider until patch number 15.    … Expand
  18. D4v1d
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    This is the most horrible game i have ever played in my life. How can they sell this garbage for 60 dlls?
    Horrible AI
    Horrible UI
    Horrible Gameplay
    Horrible Graphics
    Horrible Optimization
    Horrible Support
    Horrible Presentation.
  19. BloodRaven199
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    I have a gtx 660 ti 2gb), i5 3450, 8 gb ram and I thought this would be enough to play the game on high settings. I was wrong...~20 fps on the campain map...that's ridiculous!! When I zoom in during a battle the fps drops down to 15 or less. So I have to play it on low/medium settings. And even then the fps aren't stable. I waited for the patch, which released on Friday, but it changedI have a gtx 660 ti 2gb), i5 3450, 8 gb ram and I thought this would be enough to play the game on high settings. I was wrong...~20 fps on the campain map...that's ridiculous!! When I zoom in during a battle the fps drops down to 15 or less. So I have to play it on low/medium settings. And even then the fps aren't stable. I waited for the patch, which released on Friday, but it changed nothing...
    The AI is just as as the performance. It happens very often, that one unit (sometimes even hurt) want to occupy one of my cities, which are well defended. On the battlefield the AI is a disappointment, too! 5 hours of playing and i have concluded...there is no fun playing this!    … Expand
  20. tux
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    worst game in the Total War series. nothing alive and warm remains of the first part. wacky icons, no clips, unrealistic morality, bad management, and more more
  21. ADABUD
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Wow, looking at the critics reviews you would think they were playing a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT version of Rome, meaning that there version has had a years worth of updates ahead of the present time, Why do you with us CA SEGA?, Why do I have a BETA/DEMO version of Rome 2, I PAID for the FINAL Release, i'd like to see my moneys worth delivered when I pay for it, NOT after a years time
  22. Foerster44
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Game with decent potential, but the once epic TW battles devolved to incoherent, chaotic blobs where the victor is determined in ca. 30 seconds by a total routing of the opponent without any TW atmosphere being created (great idea to insert brilliantly detailled battles when you never have the time to actually watch them), game lags where it shouldn't, 1 turn per year in a slow-pacedGame with decent potential, but the once epic TW battles devolved to incoherent, chaotic blobs where the victor is determined in ca. 30 seconds by a total routing of the opponent without any TW atmosphere being created (great idea to insert brilliantly detailled battles when you never have the time to actually watch them), game lags where it shouldn't, 1 turn per year in a slow-paced campaign, no family tree, poor soundtracks, problematic unit cards, professional navys being screwn against transport navys, programmatic errors running havok in your RAM causing the whole system to freeze without any remarkable reason, the capture points on open-field battles that ruin any sense of tactical or strategical deployment all this just ruins it and makes the game unenjoyable for now, so to balance out the undeserved top ratings, I'm giving this a 2. Although if CA fixes most of the current crucial game breakes, I will come back to correct my rating, but for now, the awkwardness of Rome 2 is unacceptable.… Expand
  23. Electric123
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    If you have to pay 60 bucks which is more than average for new titles, and as it turns out you got the ability to take the occupation of a beta tester...not that big of a deal.
  24. Pike22
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    They released it without even testing it properly, assuming no one would notice the uncomplete features, mechanics and even graphics engine which is poorly optimized. The reason I give this a 0 is so that they would stop living on pre-orders and on big expectations which are created by ads, but don't deliver.
  25. peadora
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    It is simple, I pay full price for the game, the game crash everyturn and is not playable at all.
    A game that is not playable worth nothing 0
    Whoever lucky enough to be able to play the game without crash, well lucky you, please rate it base on your own gaming experience. But in my case, my gaming experience is 0. I would forgive them if they release this as a Beta, I would    It is simple, I pay full price for the game, the game crash everyturn and is not playable at all.
    A game that is not playable worth nothing 0

    Whoever lucky enough to be able to play the game without crash, well lucky you, please rate it base on your own gaming experience. But in my case, my gaming experience is 0.

    I would forgive them if they release this as a Beta, I would forgive them if my machine/system do not fit their spec, I would forgive them if those bugs is isolated and only happens to me. But no, the game is not ready and clearly they have not properly tested it before release. This is bad management and CA is trashing their name.    … Expand
  26. Kratocokkos
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Horrible don't bother to buy it, bad optimisation bad graphics and ridiculous UI, i could run shogun 2 on max settings at high fps, this doesn't work on all low
  27. Werg
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    A sad day for all TW fans. CA had rough releases before, but this tops it all. Their questionable design decisions threaten the very core that was TW.
  28. BillyJ
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    I bought this game, with all promise, hope that it would be good I loved the original. I should of known as soon as i loaded the main CGI i started to drop frames that i would be disappointed. I played the game maybe for 30 minutes with frames dropping to 5-10 per second on the worst graphics settings. At that point i took the copy i bought from best buy and smashed it with a hammer. DoI bought this game, with all promise, hope that it would be good I loved the original. I should of known as soon as i loaded the main CGI i started to drop frames that i would be disappointed. I played the game maybe for 30 minutes with frames dropping to 5-10 per second on the worst graphics settings. At that point i took the copy i bought from best buy and smashed it with a hammer. Do not buy this game.… Expand
  29. Yoke
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Total War fan since shogun. Loved Rome and Medieval2, was TWs prime time. Been downhill since ,and this launch is just a fiasco. Soooo much content missing I just feel so let down and missed chances with this game. Been wanting it for months
  30. Mortmal
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    As many i preordered as the city state dlc come with it, everyones want to try sparta...Sadly i am too impatient, should have wait for users reviews, as i cant find anything positive to say aboutt he game.

    From the unoptimized graphic engine, lagging strategic map, unintuitive UI, abysmal AI nothing is done right, its an alpha test or its similar to those steam indies early access,    As many i preordered as the city state dlc come with it, everyones want to try sparta...Sadly i am too impatient, should have wait for users reviews, as i cant find anything positive to say aboutt he game.

    From the unoptimized graphic engine, lagging strategic map, unintuitive UI, abysmal AI nothing is done right, its an alpha test or its similar to those steam indies early access, clearly not worth full retail price.

    Everything is a step backward compared to shogun 2 and 4-5 min inactivity after pressing end turn doesnt lighten the mood.
    Theres nothing working, its sounds like theres part of the code missing, the AI never declares war to you wonder why its called total war.
    Sometimes throwing small armies to their doom without any hope to success, sometimes jsut standing there completely frozen One thing i noticed is its never ever doing well in any city battle. You probalby seen the "genious AI" gameplay videos those are completely true alas.

    Maybe after intensive patching and heavy modding it will be great but as of right now a,void avoid avoid!    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

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 »