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
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. GeneralBohr
    Oct 28, 2013
    1
    First the good things:
    By the looks it is of the CD cover and graphics it is good looking. There is a big campaign map which gives you the ability to conquer the lands from Asia to northern Europe.
    Multiplayer campaign map where you can play with a friend either as enemies or allies. Many factions. Rolling balls and other traps in the battles. The diplomacy has been improved. Bad    First the good things:
    By the looks it is of the CD cover and graphics it is good looking. There is a big campaign map which gives you the ability to conquer the lands from Asia to northern Europe.
    Multiplayer campaign map where you can play with a friend either as enemies or allies.
    Many factions.
    Rolling balls and other traps in the battles.
    The diplomacy has been improved.

    Bad things:
    It runs slow!
    The campaign map is slow and you have to watch these horrible slow-motion battles on the campaign map after you have played a battle. The movement of troops on campaign map is slow. The battles is slow because you have to wait 5 minutes before the enemy approaches your army even when you choose the fastest speed.

    Stupid AI!
    The siege AI is stupid it throws torches at your wall and only tries to get into one of your gates! You can defeat the AI's greatest army without any troops. Your walls will kill them and with burning oil and some troops based at the gates you get easy win.
    The campaign AI doesn't do much except a few nations.

    Unrealistic!
    In the game you can throw burning torches at a steel gate and get it to burn. In a region you can only have walls in the "capital" in that region.

    Features removed from the original game.
    Building of walls. The family tree is removed which gives you no relationship with your generals and you really don't care if they die or live, because they die so quickly. Population is removed and now you can recruit unlimited troops and build all the buildings you want. The turns is now one turn=one year, and seasons has been removed. There is a limit for elite units in this game.

    Spam in messages.
    You get a lot of messages about agents sabotaging your armies or cities expect around ten of these messages each turn. Slave revolt and some politics you really don't care about and choose a random option.

    Maybe the game will be fixed about one year to 1½ but I will not get my hopes up. But it is a beautiful game and therefore the score 1. But I don't play games for graphics alone so I would prefer the Rome I game instead of this at the moment.    … Expand
  2. God_Legend
    Oct 28, 2013
    10
    I am writing a review to say that after 5 patches and 8 free factions alongside the original ones available, that the game has improved immensely. AI could still use more work (getting there), but a lot of the technical and performance issues are becoming non-existent with 5 patches and AMD and Nvidia releasing dedicated drivers. The game received way too many bad reviews at the start,I am writing a review to say that after 5 patches and 8 free factions alongside the original ones available, that the game has improved immensely. AI could still use more work (getting there), but a lot of the technical and performance issues are becoming non-existent with 5 patches and AMD and Nvidia releasing dedicated drivers. The game received way too many bad reviews at the start, everything was there, they just needed to patch things up, which is not the fault of Creative Assembly. Sega is the publisher and tells CA when it is to be released, no matter how incomplete it is. I would look into updated reviews from major review sites or other metacritic users to get an idea of the games state as of now, because it is amazing. Also remember that this game is moddable and takes advantage of steam workshop, mods are easy to find and install and can improve your experience tremendously.… Expand
  3. Arctarus
    Oct 28, 2013
    0
    Alas RTW2 suffers the same fate as its predecessors, and what's been said of its weaknesses are indeed, true. At first glance, it feels much more a of a game than a beta while playing the prologue, but past that one realizes that RTW2 is much less than what the little positive and so called "reviews" it's been getting. Sadly, the naval battles are more similar to say TW Empire, and noAlas RTW2 suffers the same fate as its predecessors, and what's been said of its weaknesses are indeed, true. At first glance, it feels much more a of a game than a beta while playing the prologue, but past that one realizes that RTW2 is much less than what the little positive and so called "reviews" it's been getting. Sadly, the naval battles are more similar to say TW Empire, and no attempts has been made to revamp it for a more solid naval battle option. The diplomacy makes no sense either; give me gold for a non aggression pact even though you could take my gold, wife, and land for free. There is no AI guard command this ship or this unit either. In the end, RTW2 resembles more of a previous RTW with its problems and bundled together with some "improved" graphics and little new gameplay and rushed for "preorder". Some Pre-order marketing ploy, more a consumer trap than anything else. Just like air in your ice cream for the price of a 100% ice cream. 0 for duping the consumer, 0 for making us buy such trash. F- for failing at making "new" games. Did you cheat on your IQ test?… Expand
  4. Bertzilla
    Oct 28, 2013
    8
    Finally purchased Rome II this past weekend after Patch 5 was released. I will state now that I am an old time Total War fan and I have quite a high end system. Having said that I have had no frame rate problems even with all the settings cranked up. Also, I have been reading all about how long it takes for the AI to run through its turn; no issues here, takes about 10 seconds. NowFinally purchased Rome II this past weekend after Patch 5 was released. I will state now that I am an old time Total War fan and I have quite a high end system. Having said that I have had no frame rate problems even with all the settings cranked up. Also, I have been reading all about how long it takes for the AI to run through its turn; no issues here, takes about 10 seconds. Now granted, I have only just started playing and I am sure I will run into some glitches soon enough but so far I am impressed, but can only imagine how rough it must have been to play this game before all the patches were released. Although CA and Sega really screwed up the launch of Rome II, it seems like they are committed to making it the epic strategy that we all know it can be and I even think it can easily surpass Shogun II, although there is still work needed to be done especially on the AI. Keep at it folks.… Expand
  5. tveevers
    Oct 28, 2013
    2
    When I first started playing this game I thought it was pretty good but the further I got into it I have just been left feeling bored and uninterested and consequently after about 20-30 hours of playing time I have finished with it. I have played most of the total war games in the past and enjoyed them all but this one is very poor in comparison. I even went back to the original RomeWhen I first started playing this game I thought it was pretty good but the further I got into it I have just been left feeling bored and uninterested and consequently after about 20-30 hours of playing time I have finished with it. I have played most of the total war games in the past and enjoyed them all but this one is very poor in comparison. I even went back to the original Rome game and found this far more enjoyable in comparison.

    Winning battles are way too easy and I gave up fighting them on the battlefield because after winning every battle with only the loss of about 100 men at a time I just got bored. My worst experience with this was the one and only time that one of my un-garrisoned cities was attacked by a far greater force. I decided to fight the battle to see if I could turn the odds and rather than attack me the AI simply sat on the outskirts of the city and did nothing for the 1 hour time allocation. I actually put it on very fast mode and left it to go and have some food only to find that when I returned I had won and nothing had happened!! Another consequence here is that because fighting is so easy you just don't need to bother with advanced melee units and I have found that having legionaries and a few praetorians is enough even for civil war. Oh yes that reminds me, does anyone actually know the reason(s) why civil war takes place because I don't?

    I like the way they have linked cities together as provinces as this makes managing them much easier but I really don't like the fact that you are limited to the amount of things that you can build in them once all of your plot allocations have been filled. I have some provinces that have stopped growing with no plot allocations left and I have just forgotten about these settlements.

    The use of agents is also a waste of time mainly down to the fact that it is so difficult to actually be able to assassinate/manipulate anyone so I have found that their best use is for military training, military intelligence and administration. My other issue here is that you can only have 2 of each agent to begin with and even by the time I owned 30 cities I still could only have 3 of each!? I just don't get the point of restricting these.

    As for the politics bit of the game it just seems completely detached from the game itself and seems to have no bearing on the potential final outcome. It is hard to see the point of things like gravitas, bribery, assassination and marriage with no apparent benefit to any of them. The loss of the family tree here is also a problem because it is impossible to see how you can make your party/family grow. In fact I don't even think this happens anyway which is just bizarre! Surely in reality, each party would have up and coming family members who are all jostling for power and from a gaming point of view you want to be able to develop these characters to greatness??

    At least I had the sense to wait before buying the game as most of the bugs have been removed and I bought it for less than the original asking price. Having said that if I could, I would take my money back in exchange for the game! Very disappointing!    … Expand
  6. vertibird
    Oct 28, 2013
    0
    Compared to previous total war titles, Rome Total War 2 has:
    1- Serious performance and technial issues. Campaign turn times are also significiantly long. You are waiting more than playing. There are occasional crashes and BSODS. FPS drops to a crawl in game even if you have great rig.
    2- Non-existant AI. Yes the Artificial intelligence is beyond help in this game. This ruins the fun for    Compared to previous total war titles, Rome Total War 2 has:
    1- Serious performance and technial issues. Campaign turn times are also significiantly long. You are waiting more than playing. There are occasional crashes and BSODS. FPS drops to a crawl in game even if you have great rig.
    2- Non-existant AI. Yes the Artificial intelligence is beyond help in this game. This ruins the fun for campaign and battles because you dont have real challenge because there is no AI here.
    3- Cut out content. Best features of previous titles cut out from the game.
    4- Lack of RPG elements. No family tree, no story etc...
    5- 1 turn per year system. Your generals, agents age really fast and die before you can develop them properly.
    6- Lack of inspiration, political system doesnt work.
    7- Magical torches, no siege AI. There is no need for siege weapons in this game because you can just burn the gates down with torches.
    8-Balance issues, bugs etc. Formations are bugged, some units like chariots and elephants dont work properly.
    9- Lack of Creative Assembly's support. They have a thread in total war forums that they dont intend to fix most of the issues they mean ''they are working as intended'' like magical torches...
    10- Naval battles seriously bugged and inbalanced, transport ships are stronger than real naval ships...    … Expand
  7. xNuahs
    Oct 28, 2013
    2
    Quite easily the most uninspired game of Total War. Never mind that the game launched with a beta versions worth of game-breaking problems My game worked perfectly from day one and only revealed to me as a long-time total war fan the worst Total War game I've ever played.

    CA firstly managed to fool everyone with their advertising. They talked the big talk and hyped all their new    Quite easily the most uninspired game of Total War. Never mind that the game launched with a beta versions worth of game-breaking problems My game worked perfectly from day one and only revealed to me as a long-time total war fan the worst Total War game I've ever played.

    CA firstly managed to fool everyone with their advertising. They talked the big talk and hyped all their new features. I'm in no doubt as to where the extra budget went as it never materialized in the game.

    These new features have been implemented without any thought or consideration, some of these new features are OK and Rome 2 has a few extensive improvements such as in diplomacy. But most features are so badly thought out that they killed what made past Total War games great.

    I played this game on max settings on a top rig PC.

    For example, the new mass mechanic sounded fantastic when they talked it up before release but the only thing it adds to the game is that you can force move heavier units through lighter units rather than fight. This new addition had far too steep a price/sacrifice because the mass mechanic is singularly responsible for the games tendency to devolve into 'mob combat' with individual soldiers practically on top of each other. The result of which ruins all of their claimed extensive combat animations (which I can't confirm is extensive because I can't see any of them). In past iterations of total war zooming in and watching the individual combat was one of the highlights of the game for me and Rome 2 was so bad I had to stop myself from puking.

    Similarly, a combination of the new tech paths (for higher tech units) and the way that the new army system work makes the unit pool feel very shallow. While the amount and variation of different cultures and extent of the campaign map is to be applauded you only have to spawn a few armies out of nowhere choosing from a small unit pool a few times before you realise that the extent of variation is a lie. Every cultures unit pool is essentially the same but with units that look different. One looks greek and the other look gallic but those two swordsmen units can't be told apart otherwise. It doesn't help then that the unit pool is copy-pasted for every other faction with the same culture and that unlocking every unit can be done quite early in the campaign. Seriously, play any hellenic faction and you'll get sick of Thorax Swordsmen and Royal Peltasts pretty quickly.

    While CA have proved that they can make really cool battlegrounds to fight on, they really struggle at actually getting you to have a FIGHT on those battlegrounds which use it to its full potential. Siege battles have deteriorated since Total War: Empire (although it seems like they were fixing it in Shogun) and frankly being able to sack Rome in Rome 2 by throwing torches at the gate is ridiculous. Factor in that you can only build 1 piece of siege equipment per turn (1 ladder or 1 siege tower) while taking attrition and torches become the primary method of sacking a city with giant stone walls. It might be fun to have a really big siege battle but the AI ruins attacking you with paltry forces 80% of the time, retreated from their last walled city and letting you take it 100% of the time and attempted to push through all your units after destroying the gates with torches to get to the capture points (which results in them being slaughtered) 100% of the time unless they bug out and simple stand outside the walls and don't move.

    In fact the AI is so atrociously bad in Rome 2 that the game on legendary difficulty is on par with easy difficulty in Shogun.

    CA have been hard at work patching their beta release to fix all the bugs and glitches so actually everyone who bought the game can play it. This would be great but they've f*cked up the core mechanics of the game so badly that you'd wish you were never able to run it and it would just be bugged forever.
    Unfortunately they aren't going to be fixing their core-game anytime soon (or ever really).

    If you're a total war fan avoid and go back to shogun or even the original Rome (which is way better than Rome 2 even now).

    But if you're the kind of gamer who is entertained by any game and appreciate games being dumbed down for you then you'd probably still enjoy Rome 2.    … Expand
  8. theCID
    Oct 27, 2013
    3
    To put it plainly Rome II has certainly made it clear to all Total War fans that there was no real intention of making this game better even after so many years. Rome I is far superior to this dreadful nightmare. This is most evidently seen in the AI. Holy sh&I?THE AI. Well, I know this statement is seen in almost every review, but I just do not believe this single fact can beTo put it plainly Rome II has certainly made it clear to all Total War fans that there was no real intention of making this game better even after so many years. Rome I is far superior to this dreadful nightmare. This is most evidently seen in the AI. Holy sh&I?THE AI. Well, I know this statement is seen in almost every review, but I just do not believe this single fact can be overemphasized. After more than 15 hrs put in this game I realized for one the campaign gameplay would never get better, as it continuously becomes so dull that it becomes aggravating, and second, the ridiculous time it takes for each turn to end. Sigh. This game is a shame and a mockery to all of us who were sucked in to believing that yes indeed this game would be better than its predecessor.… Expand
  9. AMysteryUser
    Oct 27, 2013
    8
    I just picked this game up and frankly Its exactly what I wanted from a total war game that being said it has some fps issues and I had to install a couple of mods to tune the traits and character ageing which were both unwisely setup to say the least (the traits were boring and everyone drops dead of old age way to fast by default). But hey its total war and the AI got patched and can nowI just picked this game up and frankly Its exactly what I wanted from a total war game that being said it has some fps issues and I had to install a couple of mods to tune the traits and character ageing which were both unwisely setup to say the least (the traits were boring and everyone drops dead of old age way to fast by default). But hey its total war and the AI got patched and can now fight back!… Expand
  10. deadhunter22
    Oct 27, 2013
    0
    Created a metacritic account just to rate this game. I have been a long time player of Total War series, ever since Shogun I. I am very disappointed in the new game. The economy portion of the game was pretty much wiped out and has made the game extremely boring. Also, you feel very limited on who you can/should attack. Since the economy was removed, you are forced to attack with veryCreated a metacritic account just to rate this game. I have been a long time player of Total War series, ever since Shogun I. I am very disappointed in the new game. The economy portion of the game was pretty much wiped out and has made the game extremely boring. Also, you feel very limited on who you can/should attack. Since the economy was removed, you are forced to attack with very small armies as well which is frustrating.… Expand
  11. ozi
    Oct 27, 2013
    0
    When I first heard about this release, I was so excited, TW is my favourite game series. I'm not a fan of pre-ordering, but I did, as CA used a blackmail technique (if you don't pre-order, we will charge you extra for DLC.) Knowing this would probably be my favourite game ever, I took the risk.

    Biggest mistake ever. There is so much wrong I can't list it all here. But here are the    When I first heard about this release, I was so excited, TW is my favourite game series. I'm not a fan of pre-ordering, but I did, as CA used a blackmail technique (if you don't pre-order, we will charge you extra for DLC.) Knowing this would probably be my favourite game ever, I took the risk.

    Biggest mistake ever. There is so much wrong I can't list it all here. But here are the game-breakers that still haven't been fixed:

    Optimisation- CA believes "running" a game is getting 20 fps in the benchmark. However, the benchmark does not represent the game. If you get 20fps then, then when you have say 4000 on the battlefield, you will get a slideshow.

    AI- I'm sure you've heard the AI is bad. There have been some improvements, open field battle can be interesting, but the siege AI is worse than Rome 1 (no exaggeration, AI can't use engines, doesn't react when fired upon from 10 ft away, always puts skirmishers on walls even if you are using ladders with heavy infantry.)

    Immersion- The game is boring, I remember the amount of time I put into other TWs, in this game I can't get past turn 50 without getting bored of the game. The really is so little to do on the campaign map. If you're like me, and you like to play the economy/diplomacy game, you will find it fun for the first hour, then you will have nothing to do.

    In summary, don't expect it to be even close to any other TW game. Good for a few hours of play if you can get into it, buy it when it goes on sale, I'd say this title is worth spending no more than 10 bucks on.

    Also did the 40% extra budget go on bribing critics or what?    … Expand
  12. Albano
    Oct 27, 2013
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Shame, the worst game in the series total war, incomplete, without translation into Spanish and Italian.
    Full of bugs, devoid of content, 54.99 A FRAUD!!!.

    resort to modders for the game does well,,

    to shame.    … Expand
  13. headhunterU23
    Oct 27, 2013
    1
    You dream to bring Rome out of the darkness? Face the Carthaginian threat? Invade the uncharted barbarian lands? Honor the gods and your family? Et caetera. Well, install Rome Total War I (one). Don't waste your time or disk space installing Rome Total War II (Two), after playing the tutorial you will find yourself wondering what's going on. The answer is: nothing, Rome Total War 2 is justYou dream to bring Rome out of the darkness? Face the Carthaginian threat? Invade the uncharted barbarian lands? Honor the gods and your family? Et caetera. Well, install Rome Total War I (one). Don't waste your time or disk space installing Rome Total War II (Two), after playing the tutorial you will find yourself wondering what's going on. The answer is: nothing, Rome Total War 2 is just an empty shell. Golden empty shell, but empty nevertheless. I won't waste my time and yours writing about what's not good about this game, the only thing I have to say is: I wouldn't install this game even if this was a freeware. Ah yes, I have something more to say: DO NOT BUY THIS GAME.… Expand
  14. Jonathan117
    Oct 27, 2013
    1
    Rome 2 was supposed to be the best TW game as of yet... this is sadly far from the truth, the game is broken in every way possible, even worse than Empire Total war. I can't stress this enough; DON'T SPEND YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY ON THIS PIECE OF SH*T!
  15. mickeymorris626
    Oct 26, 2013
    10
    Do i wish this game came out as it is right now (late October), all patched up and tidy? yes! am i going to hold it against Creative? NO! every gamer should understand the relationship between the game devs and the publishers! Sega says the games going to be ready by a specific date, and that's final. I'm sure the developers would have loved to polish this game to its current shiny state.Do i wish this game came out as it is right now (late October), all patched up and tidy? yes! am i going to hold it against Creative? NO! every gamer should understand the relationship between the game devs and the publishers! Sega says the games going to be ready by a specific date, and that's final. I'm sure the developers would have loved to polish this game to its current shiny state.

    In short, all the haters should give it a go now that the developers had their extra time to work on it, its a marvelous addition to the Total War series, dare i say the second best (after Rome I)    … Expand
  16. BigMac849
    Oct 26, 2013
    8
    After the patches CA has been rolling out, I must say this is my favourite of the series. If we continue to get these great patches, I can see this game becoming a solid 9.
  17. pmatt147
    Oct 26, 2013
    0
    I'm left to wonder: did they even try with this game? Very buggy, box art is impractical and annoying, meters instead of of units...etc. Most facets of the game are unnecessary or buggy. In actuality, the game plays like a 6 but it's clear to me that they just don't care with making Total War games anymore.
  18. J4MESOX4D
    Oct 26, 2013
    4
    It's not very often a series declines game after game but the Total War titles seem to be on a downward spiral to nothingness and Rome 2 highlights the sheer drop in quality from the excellence of the original.

    The ambition of the game seems to be overriding the quality of the finished product. It's a half baked game that is woefully presented, cumbersome AI and a very bland interface    It's not very often a series declines game after game but the Total War titles seem to be on a downward spiral to nothingness and Rome 2 highlights the sheer drop in quality from the excellence of the original.

    The ambition of the game seems to be overriding the quality of the finished product. It's a half baked game that is woefully presented, cumbersome AI and a very bland interface with management options lacking and a dreadfully simplistic challenge which you'll find exceedingly tedious over a session. The shockingly poor technical side adds to disappointment with considerable framerate problems and sloppy realtime battles. As you progress. the end of turn system becomes intolerable with turns taking in excess of minutes as the AI plays catch-up. This boils down to the seemingly dated engine and leaves you waiting without control for an unacceptable amount of time. This kills the flow and adds to the overall dismay.

    CA either need to go back to the games' roots or sell the licence because this series is dwindling to oblivion. If you want a fine strategy game of the Roman era; you'd be better off re-installing the original. It may be over 10 years older but it's streets ahead of today's messy attempt at rejuvenating the Total War collapse.    … Expand
  19. deadmeat2k
    Oct 26, 2013
    4
    This review is based on the game, as it currently is (patch 5). I have played for about 25-30 hours. I fancy the new region based system, which makes it so much easier to manage cities compared to earlier TW games. The graphics are really great and run pretty well with the latest patch applied. However a number of things, seriously spoils the game: The agent system, screws up the gameThis review is based on the game, as it currently is (patch 5). I have played for about 25-30 hours. I fancy the new region based system, which makes it so much easier to manage cities compared to earlier TW games. The graphics are really great and run pretty well with the latest patch applied. However a number of things, seriously spoils the game: The agent system, screws up the game completely, being way too dominant, the civil war system is impossible to understand, and is really just an annoyance and the diplomatic and trade systems are fundamentally flawed simply doesnt work in their current state. The battles are some fun, but often feel too chaotic and arcade style. All together the game is a dissapointment. Would have wished for a Darthmod for this TW game too, to fix all these things, but that will unfortunately not happen.… Expand
  20. Iconoklast
    Oct 26, 2013
    2
    As a professional developer and huge fan of this series I am unable to comprehend the degree to which this franchise has degenerated. It clear that the design team from the previous games, especially the Shogun 2 people who made an excellent, cristaline perfect strategic wargame, where not invovled in the development of this one. How a team can unlearn so many good lessons in design canAs a professional developer and huge fan of this series I am unable to comprehend the degree to which this franchise has degenerated. It clear that the design team from the previous games, especially the Shogun 2 people who made an excellent, cristaline perfect strategic wargame, where not invovled in the development of this one. How a team can unlearn so many good lessons in design can only be explained by Sega's corporate shortsightedness and CA internal politics.

    Whatever the cause for the sudden case of stupid at CA, the results are in and here is my professional assessment of the title's failures:

    Battle:
    The most important element of the game, tactical battles, has been gutted of any meaningful gameplay in exchange for pretty 3D models and animations. The Camera has been moved so far back and the fov change means that you can't really tell what is going on. Just a bunch of pretty animations that I can never afford to see unless I want to see my entire flank collapse in 2 seconds. Cinematic mode indeed, it feels like an Art Director was designing the game.
    - Unless you zoom way in you cant even you can't tell what is infantry, cavalary, etc...The high level LODs are so poor at a glance you have no clue what is where in your battle line, the icons are of no assistance and the flags now give no information at all thanks to their minimalist and unclear labels.
    - The art direction for the icons is baffling and obscure, not to mention ugly. How they decided to go for this abstract look instead of functional icons and labels is beyond stupid for a strategy game, where information has to be clear and available at a glance (real time people, dont want to hover over a button to get the menu)
    - The changes to grouping and orders for battles are beyond frustrating. Why would you gut the previous system and replace it with this baffling set of useless instructions? The super powers for various units are unrealistic and incomprehinsible, they are just a confusing mess of buttons with unclear functionality and effects, and labelled with even more baffling icons that bear no resemblance to whatever it is they are supposed to indicate. Who ever changed the battle system should file for mental incompetence and go live in a care home.
    - Tactics? What tactics, the worse part of the battle system is as glossy and uselessly slick it may look, there are no tactics to speak of. Units have to be told what to do all the time, its like an RTS, and the speed of some units is baffling. There is no clear relationship between cavalry, missile troops, and infantry. Battles turn into a chaotic blurr of incomprehensible pop ups, you cant maintain a line, you cant hold flanks, there are no charges or any of the elements you expect from ancient warfare. A catastrophe. This has marketing written all over it.

    The Strategic Game

    -- More baffling icons, hidden information in pop up menus, illogical menu logic, the art direction for the UI sucks to high heaven.
    - Getting rid of transport fleets was stupid, oceans are now super highways for large armies. I guess Hannibal forgot he could have sailed straight to Rome instead of crossing the Alps for a year. What a retarded decision this was, and would shure like to know who on that team came up with that dusie.
    - Hate the research tree, dull and overly simplistic. Compare it to Shogun 2 for the extent of the fail that this tree represents.
    - Diplomacy, annoying flaws that make it a chore. The menu is a chore. The sound effect for a turned down offer gets so grating after the 20th time, play test your own game for sake.
    - Character development, boring. Its so simplistic and repetitive it became a chore. No real sense of achievement in growing personalities. All the characters look like they have the same ugly face. Stupid to animate these ugly facial models, if you are going to make them all uniformly dull and ugly ditch the animation.
    - Politics are incomprehensible, I appreciate the attempt to add some more subtlety to the political dimention but the result is a non interactive, baffling and ultimately irrelevant system to the game. Gravitas? Who came up with that? How about Political Power? Or Popularity? or Influence? just a few suggestions to making the labelling more meaningful.
    - No seasons Not even two? Winter Summer? Too much art work? Cheap bastards. You can't have a cool feature in your franchise and then expect no one to notice when you ditch it for your follow up. How about spending the budget on animating the stupid looking ugly characters on seasonal terrain art? Or even the Cinematic Mode budget? The way features were prioritized in this game suggests that you were being told what to do by a console publisher. Oh wait.........

    The greatest tragedy is that this represents the end of Creative Assembly as a powerhouse of Strategy Game development. This is a tremendous blow to gaming, and the dev team should be ashamed of themselves.    … Expand
  21. Ankhthiel
    Oct 26, 2013
    1
    The game was simply not ready for release. Its a crime they took our money for it. 1600 negative reviews and the critics loved it no it dosent look like they were payed for their opinion no it dosent look like gaming journalism is a joke in general. /end sarcasm
  22. Canopus
    Oct 25, 2013
    3
    The flags remove any strategy in city and fort battles when the AI attacks because the AI rushes the flag and ignores your units. Units glob together in great balled-up blobs that eliminate any reason to use the cinematic camera. Battle times are 3 to 5 minutes, which is barely enough time to watch the battle. The game becomes a tedious grind to conquer the map with battles that feelThe flags remove any strategy in city and fort battles when the AI attacks because the AI rushes the flag and ignores your units. Units glob together in great balled-up blobs that eliminate any reason to use the cinematic camera. Battle times are 3 to 5 minutes, which is barely enough time to watch the battle. The game becomes a tedious grind to conquer the map with battles that feel repetitive. There is a clear lack of immersion to keep the player interested before the player approaches mid game.… Expand
  23. Phsic
    Oct 25, 2013
    8
    What was once bug ridden and simplistic, is now a challenging successor to the legendary series Creative Assembly. Unfortunately, the player base continues to be ignorant of the updates and continues their bashing of a perfectly polished successor.
  24. ElPortoChris
    Oct 25, 2013
    4
    Horrible game, great marketing campaign. They started the hype early on this one. We are all suckers. I want my money back. Oh wait, it's already gone in that huge marketing budget.
  25. smogaz
    Oct 25, 2013
    0
    -----------Vote this game down----------

    If you have ever been a fan of this series it is your obligation to vote this game down so CA understands that we are no longer going to put up with --consistently-- broken products that take upwards of 6 months to fix. -And the AI still sucks? 10+ years later? Hundreds of millions in revenue later? You still cant hire someone competent enough    -----------Vote this game down----------

    If you have ever been a fan of this series it is your obligation to vote this game down so CA understands that we are no longer going to put up with --consistently-- broken products that take upwards of 6 months to fix.

    -And the AI still sucks? 10+ years later? Hundreds of millions in revenue later? You still cant hire someone competent enough to make a game more challenging than pong? Modders can do it but your entire development team cannot?

    -It only takes 30 seconds to create an account through your email but the damage you can do to CA's sales will last a lifetime. Make them think twice before they try to pull this ONCE AGAIN. A game that has any flaws does not deserve a 10/10! Not one bug!
    -Take a stand against this kind of robbery
    You can drastically impact CAs revenue by voting games down on metacritic.

    -----Vote this down!-----

    +1    … Expand
  26. z12g32
    Oct 25, 2013
    0
    without a doubt the worst game of all time CA.
    Lacking content, boring, poorly optimized, and soulless.

    DO NOT BUY IF YOU DO NOT want to be ripped

    not dubbed in Spanish or Italian
  27. ThunderHawk
    Oct 25, 2013
    2
    Nothing good came from this game.

    Good things : - Better graphics (of course!) - Naval combat. The naval combat itself is fun enough. But the AI is useless. - Naval and ground combat in one map. Great concept, lackluster execution. Bad things : - Bad campaign, takes hours just to go to next turn. - Troops has really stupid AI. Enemy troops will charge at you, and break off at    Nothing good came from this game.

    Good things :
    - Better graphics (of course!)
    - Naval combat. The naval combat itself is fun enough. But the AI is useless.
    - Naval and ground combat in one map. Great concept, lackluster execution.

    Bad things :
    - Bad campaign, takes hours just to go to next turn.
    - Troops has really stupid AI. Enemy troops will charge at you, and break off at the last moment, and keep repeating it, while taking a lot of fire from your archers. Even though the enemy unit is superior, they don't want to charge you.
    - Stupid flags. Nobody wants to capture flags in the middle of the war.
    - Campaign map LOOKS great, but too bad, the campaign AI sucks.

    This game is an example of a game that put graphics above game play experience. The game has a lot of interesting new concepts, but the AI of the game (which should be a focus of a strategy game) is really really lacking. Nobody wants to look at fancy graphics and fancy ships, we want enemy AI that (at least) give a convincing fight.    … Expand
  28. afro_natisch
    Oct 25, 2013
    0
    simply unacceptable. no comment!!!....................................................................................................................
  29. Garloz911
    Oct 24, 2013
    5
    I really like the art. It's pretty. Sadly that is just about it for this game. The battlefield AI was recently made slightly more intelligent which is always nice. However the world map AI is garbage. I really wish we the players were given as good a copy as the "professional" critics. They seem to have gotten a good working version.
  30. LordFancypants
    Oct 24, 2013
    0
    Where do I begin? I can't run this game on the lowest setting without getting major lag on the main map. Even Empire Total War, which arguably was the worst of the series so far didn't lag there, and it had three maps, Europe, Asia and The New World. The AI is atrocious, the units are imbalanced, like the Pikemen who camp in a corner, eat all the catapult rounds and then wipe out yourWhere do I begin? I can't run this game on the lowest setting without getting major lag on the main map. Even Empire Total War, which arguably was the worst of the series so far didn't lag there, and it had three maps, Europe, Asia and The New World. The AI is atrocious, the units are imbalanced, like the Pikemen who camp in a corner, eat all the catapult rounds and then wipe out your elite swordsmen. The waiting times for turns are so long, I can fit a nap, fix dinner and watch the Godfather trilogy before its done.
    0/10- Absolutely broken    … Expand
Page:

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 »