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. wolverine101
    Sep 3, 2013
    1
    It could have been better much better. All the crashing is terrible just terrible. I hope they patch it soon as these many issues just won't do nor these lying scores it's dejavue all over again with the origional RTW the game does not rate 100 or 90's and that's all these jerks can give just to be like the other lemmings or smurfs. Quit lying and give it the score it deserves because ofIt could have been better much better. All the crashing is terrible just terrible. I hope they patch it soon as these many issues just won't do nor these lying scores it's dejavue all over again with the origional RTW the game does not rate 100 or 90's and that's all these jerks can give just to be like the other lemmings or smurfs. Quit lying and give it the score it deserves because of performance and gameplay.… Expand
  2. Xenophon
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    Horrible UI.
    Horrendously confusing unit cards.
    Poorly optimized.
    Fix the triremes.
    Where is my guard button.
    Make a unit card that covers half my screen.
  3. N1kke
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    I have been waiting this game for a while but what i get Broken game, i have super rig and my FPS is 15-25-fps i luv total war series but why release buggy game i don't wanna play low settings or medium because i know my rig can do better than that and EVEN medium settings lag is terrible..
  4. Kagemaru
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    I'll start out by saying this game will most likely disappoint the majority of people who play it whether old fans or new. Beyond that, I'll just stick directly to the point when stating SOME of the problems. Key word being "SOME."

    No MSAA compatibility anymore despite having it for ages in Total War series. Terrible graphics options. No DX11 options found in Shogun 2. No SLI/Crossfire    I'll start out by saying this game will most likely disappoint the majority of people who play it whether old fans or new. Beyond that, I'll just stick directly to the point when stating SOME of the problems. Key word being "SOME."

    No MSAA compatibility anymore despite having it for ages in Total War series. Terrible graphics options. No DX11 options found in Shogun 2. No SLI/Crossfire support for you PC enthusiasts out there. AI is more mentally handicapped than they were in Shogun 2 without mods. Units do not hold formation pretty much ever once they clash with an enemy. Just try the Spartan Phalanx. It's a joke unworthy of the name Phalanx. I imagine the Roman one doesn't fare much better.

    All the unit cards are terribly close to identical in appearance and name. Most of the stats for said units are too close, making you wonder if they just ran out of ideas or were lazy and simply duped units, slightly changed stats and then changed the suffix to their unit name. The new lighting effects are a joke and glitchy as all hell. I've seen children in the comfort of their homes make better lighting effects for existing games with post processing effects. Creative Assembly is pitiful.

    Back to the problems though Crazy broken bugs like ships sailing right onto land, skating across the landscape and running over your troops. That last one might actually be hilariously entertaining, but it won't distract you from the fact this game runs anywhere from 50% to 30% of the frames of Shogun 2 despite having 20%-25% the graphics quality of Shogun 2 in DX11. It's pitiful that this is the best they could do 2 years later. It literally resembles more so Empire or Napoleon graphics. in some cases Napoleon looks better than this game when it comes to texture work.

    If you think you can have a high-end PC, buy the game, and have it look like it does in the trailers, your optimism will quickly be crushed by the reality of it all. The only way to get this game to look that way is to lower certain settings in the game, or turn them off completely, downsample a higher resolution than the game supports like 1440p/1620p (Good luck keeping fluid frames with 1 GPU there) and then tweaking a SweetFX setup for it on top of that to get some better HDR/Bloom/AA/and shading overall. Even then you'll still find jaggies riddling everything, and inferior graphics quality for what is a game released in 2013. TLDR? "Shameful display." That's all you need to take from this.    … Expand
  5. pleox
    Sep 3, 2013
    0
    Don't even bother to buy the game right now, there is a high change you will have tons of problems, since low fps, crashes, etc; even with high end rigs. You can check lots of foruns to see whats going on. There is no way a game that expensive could get out like this. Shame
  6. 3THO
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    So after I played over 10 hours, I will adjust my 10/10 to a 4/10. The AI is just too stupid, a donkey i a compliment to them! I can defeat 3 armys with 1 on legendery! The AI is killing the game.. Also, i have lag... while I can run all other newest games on ultra settings! I have to tune down alot of the settings to have 20+ fps.... stupid framerate! If they fix all of this, i willSo after I played over 10 hours, I will adjust my 10/10 to a 4/10. The AI is just too stupid, a donkey i a compliment to them! I can defeat 3 armys with 1 on legendery! The AI is killing the game.. Also, i have lag... while I can run all other newest games on ultra settings! I have to tune down alot of the settings to have 20+ fps.... stupid framerate! If they fix all of this, i will change again to a 8/10! I am very sad about this....… Expand
  7. Apapin
    Sep 3, 2013
    0
    I expected wayyy more. I hate the way the soldier look on the bottom tab. Also it lags a lot with wayyyyy toooo long loading screens. My computer is suposed to run this game very well but the game thinks otherwise.
  8. leet8845
    Sep 3, 2013
    0
    This game is not finished. They released it with no driver support. No crossfire, no SLI. Terrible! Official word is blaming AMD and Nividia. What a joke. Make a game that don't work and blame others.
  9. mendocious
    Sep 3, 2013
    0
    Shame on reviewers for giving this game a free ride. As of release day, Creative Assembly is selling a totally defective, half-finished game that beyond its half-baked design innovations is unplayable by roughly a third of modern gaming computers. Don't buy this game until it's Steam saled for $10 or less, and only if they've patched it up.
  10. nebz
    Sep 3, 2013
    0
    Biggest over hyped game of 2013 no doubt. Poorly optimized and buggy. Loading times are ridiculously slow.

    UI is clunky and not very streamline. I am a big fan of the Total war series so it saddens me to admit this is nothing but a disappointment. Before the zealous fanboys scream ''your pc is I have an ultra end gaming computer and can run arma 3, and metro 2033 at over 50fps on ultra.
  11. hailey
    Sep 3, 2013
    0
    The worst Total War game since Empire. They took every bit of progress they made with Shogun 2 and threw it out the window. What we have instead is an uglier, worse game on the same engine.
  12. missey100
    Sep 3, 2013
    0
    I have been waiting about 8 years for this game, stayed up all last night for the 8am launch.
    And well its utter utter at the moment unplayable lag, graphics look at all settings, my pc can play any game on the market at ultra settings! so its a top on the line gaming pc .
    i didn't pay £30 for a beta game
  13. 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
  14. Mike1986
    Sep 3, 2013
    0
    Sadly a disappointment. Poor performance, AI still charges into your spears with its general, multiplayer adds nothing to the original Rome 1 concept.
  15. femmefatal
    Sep 3, 2013
    1
    to counter the silly 10's being thrown around out the wrongfully I had to give this game a 1. It's not worthy of a 10 and everyone knows itl It's not worthy of a 1 but we have to even things out. Right now it has some intuitive issues and crash issues and diplomacy issues and I saw them. Figuring out how to build took about 3 turns and having to have a plat form before one builds is justto counter the silly 10's being thrown around out the wrongfully I had to give this game a 1. It's not worthy of a 10 and everyone knows itl It's not worthy of a 1 but we have to even things out. Right now it has some intuitive issues and crash issues and diplomacy issues and I saw them. Figuring out how to build took about 3 turns and having to have a plat form before one builds is just more micromangement the game doesn't need. Diplomacy is silly in that no one wants a simple trade agreememt or non aggression pact. Crashing is a big issue with me because I rarely have them but this game crashed on the very first battle. a bad one too reset my whole computer and did a hard reboot. I'm sure there will be more issues like the AI is pretty easy too but hopefully that is because of these early factions I've encountered if it gets better without mods I'll up my score until then it gets a 1… Expand
  16. sonofdiablo48
    Sep 3, 2013
    1
    Needs work it has a lot of issues right now. crashing, diplomacy, AI, intuitive gameplay. Graphics are good though I wouldn't give it a 10 but we have to be fair about this 7.5 is closer to home it shouldn't get a 10 just because it's CA and RTW2
  17. bill-evans
    Sep 3, 2013
    0
    Worst strategy game i've ever seen.
    It's not a game, it's trash, it's not Rome, it is repainted Shogun2. The game is so poorly done absolutely everything fighting, strategy map, interface, diplomacy, AI, facial animation which is hard to believe that these same people who made the last game of the series. I withdrew my pre-order from Steam two months ago, but support did not want to see    Worst strategy game i've ever seen.
    It's not a game, it's trash, it's not Rome, it is repainted Shogun2. The game is so poorly done absolutely everything fighting, strategy map, interface, diplomacy, AI, facial animation which is hard to believe that these same people who made the last game of the series. I withdrew my pre-order from Steam two months ago, but support did not want to see the two letters that i send. So i got proof that i was right, and the game 60-bucks full of crap. In the CA thought of me as well as the buyer, but it is not thought as a player. This game a lack of respect for fans of the series. I will not even more buy a game of CA until the demo.    … Expand
  18. bills6693
    Sep 3, 2013
    5
    Not at all compelling campaign map play. Battles have very little tactics. New UI is not useful and much information is obscured. Disappointed in new mechanics. Still a TW game but lost that 'one more turn' addictive quality and in an attempt to simplify it, they have made it much worse.
  19. JaM1977
    Sep 3, 2013
    7
    Worst game of the series.. Battle Combat lacks any tactics, its just about making all units to fight in one huge blob. strategy part is no better. Its dumbed down to any "fast Clicking" RTS level..
  20. dbyron87
    Sep 4, 2013
    5
    I'm starting this review by saying that this could have been an amazing game. Truly, it could, but in the state that it is now, it just isn't. The worst part about everything is that some of the problems, i don't even think willl be addressed.

    Let's start with the good, shall we? + I love the campaign map, it is big, awesome and epic, the scope is enormous, and i like that, i also    I'm starting this review by saying that this could have been an amazing game. Truly, it could, but in the state that it is now, it just isn't. The worst part about everything is that some of the problems, i don't even think willl be addressed.

    Let's start with the good, shall we?

    + I love the campaign map, it is big, awesome and epic, the scope is enormous, and i like that, i also like how we can expand our cities and the new way they're developed, make some cities really strategic.

    + The visuals are good, i didn't have the problems, some people had with the graphics, so i could enjoy them, and they're very pretty.

    + The soundtrack, it is...Good. I mean, the original Rome soundtrack was better, the Shogun 2, as well, but it is a good soundtrack.

    Now the things that have a problem, but, may become amazing later:

    +- The diplomacy as it stands is...Insane. The AI tries to negotiate at least, but it's way too stubborn for it's own good, not making deals that would save it, etc...Needs some tweaking, but, it would be nice if some factions continue to be stubborn for the rest of the game.

    +- The political system. Ok, no more families, no problem about that. But as it stands is too artificial, too little control, it's just not fun. With some tweaking, it would be quite cool, but may take some work.

    Now, the bad.

    - The battles. The units move way too fast, not only the light cavalry, that is supposed to be fast, but the heavy infantry is really fast! I like the Hoplites skill that makes them run fast, it reminds me of Marathon, but every heavy infantry moving like skirmishers is bad. Then there is the combat speed, that is fast as well, really fast. I understand when Cavalry Vs. Missile is fast, i understand when Heavy Infantry Vs. Cavalry is fast, but in this game, the combat resolution is way too fast. You coudn't pull a Cannae or Gaugamela in this engine, because there is just no room to manouver. The best way is just too click the units in the enemy and wait, the enemy don't try to maintain cohesion and a battle line, so, no worries. The units don't mantain their formations as well, so your legionaries will be fighting like a bunch of Gauls.

    Conclusion, there is more good than bad, but...The selling point of the TW series is the cinematic and tactical combat, and as it is, that's not in the game. The battle is shallow and unfun, they need to fix those, or the game is lost.    … Expand
  21. ElBasque
    Sep 3, 2013
    6
    If it wasn't rushed out it had the potential to be a 10/10 RTS.

    As it was rushed out, as it stands, its around a 6. The AI is still a bit derpy but that's not really a negative point, especially as I'm not the best player. But the speed of the battles is much too fast, frequently if ordering a three unit attack, after ordering the last to attack, the first unit has already massacred    If it wasn't rushed out it had the potential to be a 10/10 RTS.

    As it was rushed out, as it stands, its around a 6.

    The AI is still a bit derpy but that's not really a negative point, especially as I'm not the best player. But the speed of the battles is much too fast, frequently if ordering a three unit attack, after ordering the last to attack, the first unit has already massacred everyone and is idling around waiting for new orders. Its a race to get all the directions made before you're needed again. It renders the battles simply a chore. I don't know why there's a cinematic button as you need to see all the battlefield at all times with unit on unit fights lasting 10 seconds at best. Playing on "slow-mo" is where the default pace should be.

    Graphically is not optimised in the slightest, and I'm sure the devs know this and are working on it. Its not a big issue for me personally but the downright lying through screenshots months ago is a bit gaul-ing.

    Strategically speaking the shedding of much of the micromanagement smacks of dumbing down. Paraphrasing dev quotes about how you don't now have to have 1-2 unit armies marching across the map to reach the main force is true; but when was any of that ever an issue? In a game that prides itself on realism why is spawning a unit of fully-equipped cavalrymen in the middle of a Germanic forest the preferred option?

    Also ive ran into a peculiar problem that no-one else seems to have had. After winning an engagement in the prologue, clicking "end battle" when prompted, it took me back to the main menu, and upon clicking resume prologue it took me back to the pre-battle strategy map. I had to fight every prologue battle twice to move to the next stage. I doubt that was how it was meant to be.

    Its obviously not a 9 or 10, those written by hype-influenced CA/TW fanboys. Neither is it a 0 or 1, those written by elitist zealots expecting perfection or something to show off their latest Nvidia Titan graphics card. It is, at the moment, a solid RTS let down by untuned graphics and stupid niggles that should appear in a mediocre title.

    Reading this after October 2013? I'd expect it to be an 8 by then, I hope I'm not disappointed.    … Expand
  22. luc1kjke
    Sep 3, 2013
    4
    So I've selected "Very High" graphics just to make sure game runs smoothly and hoping to increase it later but I was incredibly surprised seeing graphics equality of Rome I with lags. My specs are: X4 955/6950 2gb/8gb ram. I'll wait for a patches but for now this isn't how surprise fans Creative Assembly!
  23. SensualPro
    Sep 3, 2013
    5
    Very dissapointing the multiplayer I wanted a interesting multiplayer that when you play you can upgrade your units and your general like Shogun2 but this is very boring and repetitive.
  24. CaptainThom
    Sep 4, 2013
    5
    Initially i gave this game a 9/10 based on my experience in the prologue which i really enjoyed and i would like to apologise for that beacuse that was far from true, since starting the campaign there are a number of glaring issues which has left me dissapointed and annoyed at how broken gameplay is.

    Politics Politics is a new feature in a total war game which makes it all the more    Initially i gave this game a 9/10 based on my experience in the prologue which i really enjoyed and i would like to apologise for that beacuse that was far from true, since starting the campaign there are a number of glaring issues which has left me dissapointed and annoyed at how broken gameplay is.

    Politics
    Politics is a new feature in a total war game which makes it all the more surprising how its completely ignored in the tutorial. Characters have traits which are supposed to effect internal politics and their ability on the battlefield (Gravitas, ambition,cunning etc) However after 12 hours of game play i still have no idea what any of them do.

    Diplomacy
    During my campaign as the Iceni tribes have rejected trade agreements for no apparent reason and anything below high likeness has been rejected. Its almost impossible to get any other tribe to become an ally despite having extremely good relations with them.

    Sieges
    The Ai doesnt defend the walls instead massing all its units at the victory point. On the campaign map a town or city may seem poorly defended only for it to have a massive garrison of hidden units, its especially annoying when you have won an important battle to be confronted by such a large garrison and being forced to retreat from the region.

    Battles.
    When trying to attack the enemy with a phalanx the men all break from formation and charge. All units seem to have throwing weapons which they only use before charging you cant set them to fire at will. Theres pretty much no point in chasing enemy's down after a battle because even horsemen seem to walk along with them instead of attacking them.

    When defending against a larger force theres victory points in stupidly undefendable areas which can lead to you having to give up the high ground or wooded areas. The pace of combat has been massively increased so you have very little time to maneuver taking away a lot of the strategy from larger battles.

    Armies can now randomly walk across water with no cost which is stupid and if their larger than your navy they can properly beat your navy in battle.

    Sadly this is just a list of sum of the issues that i personally have seen and that have really hindered the experience so far for me, there's clearly a great game in there somewhere but it needs a lot of patching and probably a few mods to get it anywhere near the standard that we all hoped for.    … Expand
  25. Machiavelli
    Sep 4, 2013
    3
    My first impression of this game was a 9/10 however as I tried to delve deeper into the game I found that I simply could not, vast and very shallow a lake this is. City management has been simplified even further than Shogun 2. The immersive nature and detail of the cities in Rome 1 are gone replaced with prettier pictures but simpler mechanics. Perhaps this is the core of the issue, CAMy first impression of this game was a 9/10 however as I tried to delve deeper into the game I found that I simply could not, vast and very shallow a lake this is. City management has been simplified even further than Shogun 2. The immersive nature and detail of the cities in Rome 1 are gone replaced with prettier pictures but simpler mechanics. Perhaps this is the core of the issue, CA focused so heavily in making a gorgeous game (which it is, albeit unoptimized) that they forgot to reel the player in with detail management mechanics that while small are what ties and immerses the player in the game world in the first place. Each mechanic individually is indeed an 8 or 9 out of ten, However put it all together and try and immerse yopurself in the campaign and you find those little things that kept you playing 100 hours are no longer there. As a proper total war game it is a 3.

    This is the last time I preorder a TW game.    … Expand
  26. wisefool
    Sep 3, 2013
    0
    This game is one of the best strategy game I played but it's poorly optimized! Sadly, my core i3 and gtx 560ti can't run this on high settings. I just bought this game because of my total war collection
  27. hernethehunter
    Sep 9, 2013
    8
    Bugs and some game play issues aside at the moment this game will grow with patches. So that's why I gave it a genorous 8. Long time Total War fan since Shogun 1 but Rome 2 is more than just war and that might put some fans of previous titles off?
  28. Hner
    Sep 6, 2013
    4
    After more than 20 hours of playing I gotta change my initial rating. In its current state I'd give it a solid 4/10. Too many bad design decisions and on top of that a plethora of bugs and performance issues.

    In its core it's a dumbed down version of the original Rome TW with a pretty campaign map.
  29. Vivec
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    I'm changing my score, at some point game turned out be unplayable. I'm getting such a low fps' it's annoying. I played every game on ultra until now. Even at lowest settings game still manages to lag.

    Battles are impossible to play, your army loses it's formation the moment you give an order. Campaign is much more better than former titles but i can't think another game which is poorly    I'm changing my score, at some point game turned out be unplayable. I'm getting such a low fps' it's annoying. I played every game on ultra until now. Even at lowest settings game still manages to lag.

    Battles are impossible to play, your army loses it's formation the moment you give an order. Campaign is much more better than former titles but i can't think another game which is poorly optimised as this.

    A game needs to be playable first to even get a rating!    … Expand
  30. Malorix
    Sep 8, 2013
    5
    Earlier I gave a score of 8 for this game. I played for 40 plus hrs now and have to lower that score. This game is not finished. I was extremely excited for this game, but at this stage it is simply not fun to play.

    - Tame campaign AI I was not declared war a single time in my Rome campaign!! There is no challenge. Conquer factions one at a time. They're rarely allied with one another.    Earlier I gave a score of 8 for this game. I played for 40 plus hrs now and have to lower that score. This game is not finished. I was extremely excited for this game, but at this stage it is simply not fun to play.

    - Tame campaign AI I was not declared war a single time in my Rome campaign!! There is no challenge. Conquer factions one at a time. They're rarely allied with one another.
    - Battle speed is too high. All battles are over in under 10 minutes. There is no satisfaction because units move too fast and I have lost the familiar TW feeling of control.
    - Naval battles are disfunctional. Real pity.
    - Beaten rebels keep attacking you after being defeated (unlike in Shogun 2).

    There is much that I do like in the game (UI actually, recruitment at general only, limited amount of armies, diverse battles, naval/land battles, the idea of the political factions, etc.). But unfortunately they are prevented from shining because of gameplay flaws.

    I doubt whether CA can fix these issues they purportedly couldnt with Empire but I keep an open mind.    … 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 »