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. tbird1979
    Sep 7, 2013
    3
    Rome 2 Total Mess. This is the first game that I ever pre-purchased; it is now the last game that I will ever pre-purchase.

    To the Creative Assembly, I will say this; gamers know a poor game when they see it. The average score on metacritic and other review sites is going to continue to plummet, until you sort out the substance of this game. How could you forget that substance    Rome 2 Total Mess. This is the first game that I ever pre-purchased; it is now the last game that I will ever pre-purchase.

    To the Creative Assembly, I will say this; gamers know a poor game when they see it. The average score on metacritic and other review sites is going to continue to plummet, until you sort out the substance of this game. How could you forget that substance always beats style? I am off to play Napoleon or Shogun 2 once I've written this. Remember them? Two games which, although they certainly look good, both manage to place the emphasis on substance and usability for the gamer above style. Consequently, they manage to beat seven bells out of this badly put-together, un-enjoyable, cynical, money-gouge of a game.

    To anyone reading this who is considering buying Rome 2, I would strongly advise you not to, at least until the Creative Assembly fix it properly. Even then, exercise caution. The feel of this game is nothing like previous entries in the Total War series. If you didn't enjoy them, then you may be the kind of person who would like this. If like the rest of us, you thought the first Rome, Empire/Napoleon and Shogun 2 were masterpieces, then don't do it to yourself don't buy this game!    … Expand
  2. 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
  3. Andrey1111
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    Very bad.

    with these mods as Europa Barbarorum and Roma Surrectum releasing game similar to Rome-2 should just be ashamed of.

    0 points for Historicism
    0 points for the strategy
    0 points for tactics
    and 11 points for advertising, but the advertising we do not play.
  4. xSw4gL0rd_420x
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    The swag level in this game is too damn low. I mean, just look at those soldiers, what the Where is the swag? I honestly don't know what the developers were thinking not implementing the appropriate amount of swag to cater for SwagLords like myself.

    -xSw4gL0rd_420x
  5. hr00kjw1
    Oct 8, 2013
    0
    bad bad bad worst total war game ever CA must see that AI is stupid as same graphic as shogun2 but very bad optimized where is the 40% budget gone bad bad bad bad bad whole game is unpolished and it looks like even more bad compared with alpah testing vid that they showed to us
  6. TM4
    Sep 11, 2013
    0
    This game is the biggest disappointment ever!!

    I am 35 and i have been playing the total war series since shogun1,back in 2000. Every game was better than the previous. It seemed that the team was becoming better with each release,learning from its mistakes. Ok,there were some issues with empire,but compared to rome2,vanilla empire seems like a perfect game! This game is such a    This game is the biggest disappointment ever!!

    I am 35 and i have been playing the total war series since shogun1,back in 2000.
    Every game was better than the previous.
    It seemed that the team was becoming better with each release,learning from its mistakes.

    Ok,there were some issues with empire,but compared to rome2,vanilla empire seems like a perfect game!

    This game is such a mess!!Bugs to the point that you can say that is a pre beta release!
    Gameplay?AI?The I in AI stands for intelligence?!?No...not in this game!

    Shogun1 had a better Ai than this game!
    Unbelievable,but it is true!

    How did this happen??How?After the near perfection of shogun2??
    Did they fire everybody from shogun2?

    Incredible...They released a broken game..

    To all those lucky ones who didnt buy the game(I as a fool fan preordered it) dont buy it!!

    Wait,and maybe after 100 hundred patches,around Christmas,we will have a playable game,and something remotely close to what we where promised!    … Expand
  7. 2484Stryker
    Sep 11, 2013
    6
    Rome 2 is essentially a shadow & husk of its predecessor, albeit with a few more technical glitches and questionable design changes. While some added features such as the provincial system were interesting, what CA took away effectively hindered my ability to enjoy the game as a whole. Rome 2 feels too streamlined, too simplified, too poorly polished. From the campaign map UI interfaceRome 2 is essentially a shadow & husk of its predecessor, albeit with a few more technical glitches and questionable design changes. While some added features such as the provincial system were interesting, what CA took away effectively hindered my ability to enjoy the game as a whole. Rome 2 feels too streamlined, too simplified, too poorly polished. From the campaign map UI interface to the unit stack icons during real-time battles, it feels like CA treated them almost as an afterthought. Furthermore, some features that were added either made very little sense, or were so poorly implemented that they ultimately were self-defeating.

    In the final analysis, Rome 2 is not a horrible game; it's an above-average yet quite buggy game that should have been better designed, beta-tested more thoroughly, then given deeper polish. And while it might not be a failure compared to the plethora of other games released these days, I do consider it a Total War series disappointment.    … Expand
  8. gamertens
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    Core 2 Duo E7500@2.93 GHZ, 3 GB RAM, ATI HD RADEON 6570 GDDR5. Good enough to run the game on high settings at 1366*768 as mentioned in official pc requirements. Tried latest drivers both non beta and beta.
    Well I received quite a shock when I tried all my might and couldn't get the fps to rise above 10-11 fps even on the lowest settings. Seeing that people with much better rigs are    Core 2 Duo E7500@2.93 GHZ, 3 GB RAM, ATI HD RADEON 6570 GDDR5. Good enough to run the game on high settings at 1366*768 as mentioned in official pc requirements. Tried latest drivers both non beta and beta.
    Well I received quite a shock when I tried all my might and couldn't get the fps to rise above 10-11 fps even on the lowest settings. Seeing that people with much better rigs are having same problem so the least I can say about it is its unplayable and a terribly optimized game. Waste of time and money for me. Waiting for the proper patches to be released which could take a few weeks. Though they released one patch today but it didn't work. Still waiting for a solution and hoping they sort it out.
    Right now its unplayable. If you haven't bought it yet, don't buy it right now. Wait for xmas when it has been optimized and its price reduced. Dunno how they get away with it.    … Expand
  9. Yoh-lo
    Sep 16, 2013
    0
    AI ability is the heart & guts of a RTS game, on this occasion CA promised great things and failed to deliver even the most basic elements. Thankfully I was able to get an exchange on the game. Software failures happen, what doesn't make sense however is CA pretending in their community campaign that the AI was anyway worthwhile.
  10. Pikko79
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    One of the biggest fails in gaming industry this year. I preordered this game and was hoping to enjoy it. However, this game doens't play as good as Medieval and Shogun. CA removed many things such as city management and family tree. I loved these features and now the are gone. Interface looks not so good indeed. I will continue to play because I paid money, but I really dislike this game,
  11. limonata
    Sep 7, 2013
    4
    There are too many problems right now for this game to be considered playable.
    - The AI is absolutely terrible, every battle they simply bunch up together in the middle of your army. The siege AI is broken entirely and they often don't even move.
    - Naval battles are terrible. Ships become unresponsive and ignore orders, the boarding/ramming mechanism is bugged and often decides to do the    There are too many problems right now for this game to be considered playable.
    - The AI is absolutely terrible, every battle they simply bunch up together in the middle of your army. The siege AI is broken entirely and they often don't even move.
    - Naval battles are terrible. Ships become unresponsive and ignore orders, the boarding/ramming mechanism is bugged and often decides to do the wrong thing.
    - Ships become stuck and continue to attempt to row forward (they cannot row backwards), units become stuck walking into trees.
    - Capture points in the middle of field battles eliminate a lot of tactics and make it impossible to win with an inferior force.
    - Game is so badly optimized it makes me wonder if they even tested it on more than one computer, nVidia have even stated that they can do little with a new driver release and that the problems come from the terrible optimization.
    - Removal of the family tree it's not the end of the world but it is missed by a lot of people and it makes me wonder why they bothered to take it out? It means I have no attachment to my generals and means I don't care when they die.
    - Politics system is a complete waste of time, no one I know who plays the game even bothers to check the politics screen.
    - End turn time is abysmal and on a coop campaign it is much worse and has stopped all my friends from playing them.
    - Unit cards are terrible and the building cards are even worse what is wrong with a simple picture of the unit, like in every other total war game?
    - The UI is terrible and needs some serious work.

    If all they had done was take the first Rome and improve the graphics it would have been far better than what we have in Rome II. There are some good things about the game but they are overshadowed by everything that is wrong. It's possible that patches could save this game but it will be months and even then there is so much to be fixed I think it is doubtful.    … Expand
  12. KunsM
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    First off, I am a HUGE fan of the Total War franchise. The first Rome was my overall favorite game for several years when it came out. I cannot say the same for Rome 2.

    Game is huge failure. I can't really think of anything good about this game, so I'll focus on the bad. Features that existed in previous games are gone. They removed family tree and made city management very simply.    First off, I am a HUGE fan of the Total War franchise. The first Rome was my overall favorite game for several years when it came out. I cannot say the same for Rome 2.

    Game is huge failure. I can't really think of anything good about this game, so I'll focus on the bad. Features that existed in previous games are gone. They removed family tree and made city management very simply. Units now have ridiculous magical abilities. Map look huge but empty. Graphics way to cartonish. UI is awful.

    I am very disappointed.    … Expand
  13. Nathanshawn
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    Worst Total War release yet. How can you possibly give this a 81/100? The AI is completely retarded. Optimization is horrible. The only good things that have improved over previous Total War games in the combined naval and land battles, and even that is wrecked by the glitches that happen.
  14. Aspirinix
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    As a Total War veteran i urge those who haven't buy this game to wait, maybe a month, or 6 months, or a year, or better until they announce release of a new Total War game, so then you can buy Rome 2 on sale, otherwise you will be just wasting your money.

    Maybe next Total War game will be much, much, much better, provided that Creative Assembly survives this disaster.

    Shameful display CA
  15. mav3003
    Sep 10, 2013
    1
    The core concept of the game is there but too many optimization and bug issues sit high above this game...in fact they are crushing Rome2 it deserves a poor rateing..the AI seems like its been programmed by a rabbit too many promises never delivered...if you havn't figured out yet what is wrong with this game then your not much of a fan...Hopefully with patches this game may rise but iThe core concept of the game is there but too many optimization and bug issues sit high above this game...in fact they are crushing Rome2 it deserves a poor rateing..the AI seems like its been programmed by a rabbit too many promises never delivered...if you havn't figured out yet what is wrong with this game then your not much of a fan...Hopefully with patches this game may rise but i have my doubts maybe a DLC adding some new stuff with some fixes may change its value...they have a lot of work in front of them..lets hope they are up to it.… Expand
  16. NattyDread
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    3/10
    By far the weakest Total War game we have been delivered.
    - Graphics are jerky and buggy and at the same time the game performs much worse than Shogun II - Dumbed down UI (no more graphs, much less information etc.) - Victory Points in land battles (seriously, just WTF?!?!?!) those were by far the MOST idiotic battles I've ever been playing in a TW game - The lack of units.    3/10
    By far the weakest Total War game we have been delivered.
    - Graphics are jerky and buggy and at the same time the game performs much worse than Shogun II
    - Dumbed down UI (no more graphs, much less information etc.)
    - Victory Points in land battles (seriously, just WTF?!?!?!) those were by far the MOST idiotic battles I've ever been playing in a TW game
    - The lack of units. Haven't been counting them exactly, but from what i remember Rome II has far less units than Rome I.(Oh right, i forgot.....CA still needs to make more money and will sell us some fancy, over-priced dlc-units)
    - I've been playing the game for like 50 hours now and even on legendary difficulty battles are ridiculously easy, due to a very crappy AI that isn't able to build armies consisting of anything else but 20% levies and 80% skirmishers
    - When you play as a minor faction (like barbarians), so-called "major-factions" like Rome are being overrun by celtic tribes within the first 100 turns. So the expected "big war" against rome won't happen for me in my legendary arverni-campaign, which kind of spoils the complete campaign and i'm already bored to death with it, because there is absolutely no challenge.
    - Even on Legendary battles are extremely short lived. Pretty much everything's decided after one big clash. Due to this fact battles become very chaotic, too. There is no battle-line, no flanks, no order, nothing... There is no need to keep reserves in a battle for example. Just throw in everything you have at once and you'll win, because the enemy ranks immidiatelly start to crumble within a few SECONDS. Yes, whole enemy armies will route within only a few seconds into battle, because they haven't learned how to defend themselves and keep on dying like flies.
    - 1 Year turns: Add to the dumbing down of the game. You can only attack in one season, which is apparently winter. So you can't avoid attrition by summer campaigning. DERP
    Oh....I still could add dozens of points about this game, that I don't like at all.
    To me this is NOT Rome II: Total War. This is Beta II: Total Fail.
    All my hopes lie in Europa Barbarorum II, which will hopefully be coming soon for Medieval II (which in my opinion is the best TW game in the Series.)    … Expand
  17. Thatweirdguy
    Sep 11, 2013
    7
    Totally horrible stupid A.I and graphics buy even with my high end PC and flag points on the battlefield totally ruined it .Horrible campaign matches that serge battle depend on a stupid flag point
  18. Batman6794
    Sep 14, 2013
    0
    Even as a stable working game (which it isn't for most people) it still sucks! All of the trade off decisions that made the game interesting and deep are gone in favor of stupid arcade simplicity.

    Old total war: Roads are EXPENSIVE and take a LONG time to build, but they will grow your economy and help your troops move faster. Invest in building them too earlier and your small military    Even as a stable working game (which it isn't for most people) it still sucks! All of the trade off decisions that made the game interesting and deep are gone in favor of stupid arcade simplicity.

    Old total war: Roads are EXPENSIVE and take a LONG time to build, but they will grow your economy and help your troops move faster. Invest in building them too earlier and your small military will be starved of needed funds. Invest too late and you fall behind in the economic race.

    Rome II:Roads build themselves automatically. You have zero control.

    Old total war:Navies are very expensive and take a long time to build. A small one can protect your ports from pirates but is vulnerable to enemy navies, a larger one (HUGE investment) can protect your shores from invasion, and a massive one can project your power throughout the world with a relatively small army. Should you invest in a fleet now, or will one of your enemies land some large armies on your shores while the boats are being built and your army is not in condition to repel them?

    Rome II: If your army walks to the ocean, transport ships magically appear and they can go anywhere. Put them on double time so they can reach a safe landing zone each turn and you'll never need to build a navy to move your troops. Also, your enemies get free magic transports too, so no point in investing in a Navy to hunt down and destroy theirs. Its just not possible. Just don't worry about it.

    Old Total War:Units have lots of abilities that increase one aspect but sacrifice something else. (Increased defense, decreased movement rate.)

    Rome II:Those abilities are still there, but the vast majority of abilities are new ones that can only be described as "magic". They are all benefit and no downside. (For example, increased rate of fire for missile units, generals can select an tired friendly units and restore them to "fresh" instantly). What archer wouldn't fire as fast as he could just because you hadn't told him too yet? His life is on the line! He's gonna kill as many of the enemy as he can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Worst of all, these super magic bonuses are time limited, but there is no limit to the number of times you use them. So instead of picking the critical moment of battle to use your brief increase in abilities, you have to constantly micro-manage the abilities, waiting for the clock to run out so you can instantly re-enable it. The new SUPER fast pace of the battles also means that managing these abilities well can have a greater impact than actual maneuvering! Winning battles is no longer about good positioning and timing the critical charge, instead its about how fast can you click magic buttons that are associated with different units. Game ruining feature.

    Old Total War: Deploying for battle? The defender can use a large hill or cliff to make a stand, or use woods to conceal units for a small but critical surprise attack. The attacker must read the terrain and try to anticipate how the defender will choose to use it.

    Rome II:Introduced a new battle realism option that limits your view of enemy to the line of sight of your troops. This enables you to use terrain to mask the movements of your army, makes hills more strategic because they reveal more of the battlefield, makes scouting units actually useful on the battlefield, and adds the excellent tension of "Where are they?!?!?" This is all awesome and a change everyone should be excited about.
    Too bad its entirely undercut by the fact that randomly generated flags determine the outcome of the battle. Capture the flag, win the battle. Doesn't matter if you have the larger army. Doesn't matter if you're holding the best hill ever. If the enemy stands on a stupid flag on the other side of the battlefield, you lose and your army is forced to retreat. That hill/forest/ravine perfect for deploying your army and controlling the outcome is now meaningless unless it happens to be near the flag the just kinda pops up out of nowhere for no reason. Worst feature of any strategy game EVER.    … Expand
  19. Badajoz95
    Sep 15, 2013
    0
    And I promised never to pre-purchase again... and this is exactly why. Great game history. I've bought every Total War previously but Total War: Rome 2 has SO many faults it is basically unplayable for a rewarding experience. Worst is the fact that the AI is completely broken for battles, so broken that the game is essentially completely broken.
  20. Hunter555888
    Sep 15, 2013
    0
    Horrible everything. Its another Empire total war, but dont get me wrong I love the total war series (excluding now Rome 2 and empire.) It has horrible amount of bugs and horrible Ai. This is just a mini review, watch videos on youtube for more indepth review of Rome 2. Youtube: Total War: Rome II Angry Review by AngryShowJoe, really depicts the worst of Rome 2.
  21. Vorlon66
    Sep 16, 2013
    0
    This is a disgracefully incomplete & flawed game incomplete, bugged, poorly designed & broken. The list of faults with this game are so long a review cannot begin to enumerate them. Effectively you are being asked to pay to Alpha Test a game that is, at best, 6 to 7 months away from being release ready.

    However I doubt even modders will be able to salvage this game and even after bug    This is a disgracefully incomplete & flawed game incomplete, bugged, poorly designed & broken. The list of faults with this game are so long a review cannot begin to enumerate them. Effectively you are being asked to pay to Alpha Test a game that is, at best, 6 to 7 months away from being release ready.

    However I doubt even modders will be able to salvage this game and even after bug fixes and AI tweaks it is hard to see how this will ever be more than a below average game. A major disappointment and a salutary warning to all consumers not to pre-order PC/Console games and facilitate the industries appalling recent record on incomplete releases (and don’t even get me started on DLCs).

    In its present state it is the equivalent of buying a book with attractive covers, a contents page, an introduction with a missing end paragraph, a few incomplete chapters & the rest of the content completely missing.

    The Specifics as a veteran of thousands of hours for all of the Total War Games and having logged 20 painful & frustrating hours on this game quite simple Rome II is incomplete and broken. The issues have been identified on many of the reviews but here are a few of the lowlights:

    1. Performance Issues well documented. Fortunately I have a high end gaming spec so these graphics & loading problems have not been an issue for me. However, even with AI moves turned off it takes a very long time to process a turn (even early on in a campaign you have time to get up & put the kettle on). Naturally it gets longer to process as more goes on in the game leading to excessive waiting time.

    2. The Campaign AI is too passive even at the highest difficulty level it will sit as you set up and then pulverize their faction, perversely, it will launch suicide attacks against city garrisons it can never hope to win. Coupled with some game design changes (naval moves, recruitment changes, extended range of armies, limits on armies available, tech development, & construction) it makes the strategic level shallow, boring and far too predictable.

    3. The Battle AI (again at highest difficulty level) is not only too passive it is also broken. In one AI initiated joint Land & Naval attack after I had defeated the land force (in about 3 minutes) the Naval based reinforcements (although greatly outnumbering me by nearly 3 to 1) stayed on their ships refusing to move. I had to fast forward the game to end it and claim the victory (time to actually make the cup of tea!). The AI will send troops forward and then withdraw them in endless loops while being showered by missiles and destroyed. It will mindlessly attack choke points (such as encampment entrances), allow itself to be surrounded and charged in the flanks even when it has a 3 to 1 numerical superiority.

    4. Naval battles totally broken Transport ships too powerful, AI is stupid, interface buttons often don’t work

    5. Diplomacy hopeless. AI makes unrealistic & stupid demands and will not accept even the most rational of offers. Diplomacy has always been tricky in Strategy games but diplomacy in Rome II is a major backwards step. You won’t achieve the requisite goals for a Cultural/Diplomatic/Economic victory so don’t bother trying.

    6. Battles There are numerous graphic glitches, cohesive battles formations are non existent as soon as contact is made, troops move too fast, skirmishing & missile fire is ineffective due to unit speeds, and the (questionable & frankly arcade-like) special unit abilities are almost never useable as battles usually take no more than 5 minutes (longest battle was 10 minutes with roughly 30-35 units per side).

    7. User Interface inconsistent application of the interface, buttons & toggles often don’t work (record of 7 presses to make one “in battle” button work), standard interface tools (closing boxes, highlighting selected options, hyperlinks) are often absent or non-existent. The Encyclopedia is poorly designed and lacking indexing and cross referencing.

    Very soon after the campaign starts you will be auto-resolving everything as the battles & sieges are completely pointless, characterless & lack any tactical challenge. This leaves you with a non existence real –time battle component & a slightly below average strategy game. For every good design choice made in this game (there are a few minor ones) there are probably 2 or 3 bad ones.

    Buyers should be demanding money back (I will be) & suppliers like Amazon asking for compensation from the publisher for providing a defective product.    … Expand
  22. Gruenzone
    Sep 18, 2013
    2
    As a strategic game it fails on many points:
    chaoticc user interface.
    Non intuitive user menus
    Many glitches
    The advisor looks useful but the feel of the game is that one does not know what is happening or what you are at.
    What is the point of this game?
  23. fosso94
    Dec 25, 2013
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Although many problems have been addressed and fixed the game is still a complete mess, and is flawed down to the bones. A game that could have been the flag ship of the total war games is probably the worst ever made.… Expand
  24. Dark_Awakening
    Sep 11, 2013
    0
    I was blindfolded by the hype and good experiences of former Total War titles to buy this.

    Don't make the same mistake! I'm a huge fan of the series but this game is such a horrendous fail, it feels like a scam!
  25. motaclown
    Sep 11, 2013
    0
    CA is in denial.
    They posted an "I'm sorry" letter today claiming that only 2% of users are experiencing any problems.
    The problem is, EVERYONE is having problems with this game. They keep trying to make everyone who hasn't yet bought the game that they have a 98% chance of success but the sad truth is that you will be among the 100% of us who have already been there and done that.    CA is in denial.
    They posted an "I'm sorry" letter today claiming that only 2% of users are experiencing any problems.

    The problem is, EVERYONE is having problems with this game. They keep trying to make everyone who hasn't yet bought the game that they have a 98% chance of success but the sad truth is that you will be among the 100% of us who have already been there and done that.

    The bottom line is...

    No matter how lucky you get as to which graphical problems you get (campaign mode or battle mode) you are still stuck with the stupidest computer AI seen in any game since Dos based games.

    You will have problems with this game. CA can say only 2% but the bottom line is100% of people are having some sort of problem.

    Save your money. Buy a proven game that gets good reviews.    … Expand
  26. bombrero
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    Oh dear, here we go:

    System specs: i7 3770 3.4 GHz (3.9 GHz when auto-clock triggers) nVidia GTX 660 2 Gb video memory (up to 4 Gb dedicated when the ram sync is prompted) 16 Gb ram Its certainly not a god-like computer (really far from it), but its still a performance beast. All the new games run maxed at a perfect 60 Fps rate. In fact, it doubles the the performance rate that    Oh dear, here we go:

    System specs:
    i7 3770 3.4 GHz (3.9 GHz when auto-clock triggers)
    nVidia GTX 660 2 Gb video memory (up to 4 Gb dedicated when the ram sync is prompted)
    16 Gb ram
    Its certainly not a god-like computer (really far from it), but its still a performance beast. All the new games run maxed at a perfect 60 Fps rate. In fact, it doubles the the performance rate that recommended settings ask for. Then:

    Why does this game run at 30 Fps average at minimum settings?

    That, folks its the million dollar question. Me, and a seemingly huge amount of costumers couldnt answer this by ourselves, so we went to CA support to let the "masterminds" answer that for us. The answer: the game seems to have some compatibility issues whit most of the graphic cards out there, but dont worry, nVidia and ATI will soon release new drivers that will solve the problems.

    So, naturally I go to the nVidia support forum to find the info about that magical driver, and we are told that even though nVidia technicians are working on said driver, it will barely improve performance since said issues are caused by a horrible game coding (zero optimization).

    So, back to the forums of CA, the million dollar question is answered: they admit the game was not optimized neither for nVidia nor ATI GPUs, and that they dont even had nVidia nor ATI official support until now.

    So, I have a million dollar question for CA people: if the game is not optimized nor supported by neither of the main GPU marks of the market... WHY IN HELL DO YOU RELEASE IT???

    As far as the gameplay goes, I cannot tell anything because on top of the ridiculous performance issues that makes hard to keep playing, the game crashed 4 times when I was trying to get past the first impressions of it, so... that sums it up

    I will give it a 0 because its an UNPLAYABLE product for me, its as if I had never bought it, which I remember doing.    … Expand
  27. Quatra
    Sep 4, 2013
    3
    This game is such a step back from every Total War predecessor... Every last one. The AI is the dumbest I have ever combated, the map is limited and linear. Unit cards can take up half of your screen with 20 units, and there is no option to adjust size or remove them.
    Units all look the same, and are difficult to distinguish, even with the 3x larger unit cards. The building and general    This game is such a step back from every Total War predecessor... Every last one. The AI is the dumbest I have ever combated, the map is limited and linear. Unit cards can take up half of your screen with 20 units, and there is no option to adjust size or remove them.
    Units all look the same, and are difficult to distinguish, even with the 3x larger unit cards. The building and general tabs are hidden, confusing, and not even easy to see. Technology is set to two linear paths. You can choose military or civillian and its just one path from there essentially.
    Definately not worth the 3 year wait since Shogun 2, and even less added than shogun did.    … Expand
  28. metem51
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    Probably the worst total war I ever played (I play TW games since the first shogun!)

    Graphically the game is ugly (shogun 2 was far better) I don't like to eat pixels that much especially when I play in 1080p. The color choice is at best very inappropriate and depressing. There are too many factions (it takes forever between each turn) and the game performs very poorly despite my    Probably the worst total war I ever played (I play TW games since the first shogun!)

    Graphically the game is ugly (shogun 2 was far better) I don't like to eat pixels that much especially when I play in 1080p. The color choice is at best very inappropriate and depressing.

    There are too many factions (it takes forever between each turn) and the game performs very poorly despite my configuration (GTX 680 4go, etc.).

    The game is not fun, not difficult, not good at all. I'm disgusted. Last TW I buy.    … Expand
  29. pallepumpgun
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    Well, where to start. This game is as big a disappointment as inviting a bunch of orphans for my birthday; it sounded like a great idea on paper, but ended up taking all my resources and the payoff was pathetic.

    I'm a vet of this genre. I'm a critical one, but I am; I've taken over feudal Japan twice in both Shogun I and II, likewise with Europe in MEI and II, the same goes for Rome I    Well, where to start. This game is as big a disappointment as inviting a bunch of orphans for my birthday; it sounded like a great idea on paper, but ended up taking all my resources and the payoff was pathetic.

    I'm a vet of this genre. I'm a critical one, but I am; I've taken over feudal Japan twice in both Shogun I and II, likewise with Europe in MEI and II, the same goes for Rome I and Empire and NTW; all with all applicable expansions. I know this genre, and I know how there is a dangerous precedence where CA has buggy launches. But that, bugs are one thing, gameplay's another. Especially when it's missing. After playing a 10 hour campaign with Sparta so far, I've come to the following conclusions:

    Even on very high quality, the textures look like a spastic three year old with a crossdiagnosis of Parkinson's went nuts in Paint, it's a detail compared to gameplay.
    The battles are predictable and repetitive: The A.I. will just ****ing stand there. When charging a full stack-defended settlement, line your army up in front of the enemy, then take your general's unit to the side of the enemy: The A.I. will completely disregard it. I got 1300 kills with my general alone by plowing through everything from the flank. Every battle is like this. Or move artillery or missile units in position and blast away till the enemy is routed. They do nothing. Also, I haven't had a single field battle yet; the lack of armies sees to that. No minor faction or other empire will have more than two armies at any given time, and these are always defending settlements. So you'll get boring sieges and that's that. Hurray.
    Also, due to the lack of armies, you'll never get attacked. Sure, there are enemy agents to harass you, but since Generals are a dime a dozen and have no uniqueness to them and die off after a couple of turns (seems like it, anyway), you won't mind getting a couple assassinated.
    Despite "unit variety" with a couple hundred differently named units, they're all just reskins, and they play the same.
    There's no diplomacy. People either love you or hate you. If they don't love you, just give up on ever trading or getting peace. But hey, being at war with everyone; they're not going to attack you anyway, so why would you care?
    Technology is tiresome and seems a chore to do rather than an accomplishment to get done.
    The same goes for province management as well as the partial goals under your objective-page; seriously, total war games are supposed to be open ended. There shouldn't be rewards for fixed objectives forcing your gameplay.
    Turn times are excessive. Even on a decent rig. Who the figured 144 factions was a good idea? Just call 'em rebels and be done with it.
    The UI is without charm or personality and takes up too much space as well. As for agents: What are all those ****ing attributes? I don't mind that they're there, just ****ing explain them. At last there's a bit of complexity to this dumbed-down cluster**** of a botched up release, and then you won't tell us about it? Ingenious, CA. Plain ingenious.

    Ultimately, I don't feel for this game. It runs slow, it's ugly to look at (compared to what we were promised), it's dumbed down and most actions seem pointless. There's no action; it's a Total WAR game, for ****s sake: Someone attack me already! Even with numerous fixes and patches, this game won't be a 10 or even an 8. It might be a 6, but currently it's a 3,5. I'm still giving it a 0, though. Primarily for wasting my time and my money, but mostly because CA said you, man," and I intend to back. If, in the process, I counter the equally meaningless 10's, I won't feel bad, because they will prompt people to do as I and countless others and waste money on this steaming pile of ****

    Cheers everybody!    … Expand
  30. Affiliatorz
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    bro this game sucks BIG TIME BRO. u all got scammed. GG

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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.
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  2. PCGamesN
    Nov 6, 2013
    70
    And here’s the rub: every addition, every sub-system, every mechanic is subservient to War. War is what Total War is really about. Everything else not directly related to conflict comes across as ancillary. Rome II is a game for warmongers, on both the campaign map and, obviously, on the battlefield. When peace is happening, nothing is happening. When war is happening, Rome comes alive.
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  3. PC PowerPlay
    Oct 28, 2013
    40
    If you will play literally anything featuring Total War and Rome in the same title and don't value your time, this is for you. [Nov 2013, p.80]
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