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. kosciuszko
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    To begin, no game should receive anything over 4/10 if after two days of release, the creators have to say that a patch is being put together. If its buggy and not working correctly, do not release it! Simple! For this reason alone you should steer clear of the critical reviews of this game, I am truly amazed that it has scored as well as it has.
    Why?
    Because a game is intended to    To begin, no game should receive anything over 4/10 if after two days of release, the creators have to say that a patch is being put together. If its buggy and not working correctly, do not release it! Simple! For this reason alone you should steer clear of the critical reviews of this game, I am truly amazed that it has scored as well as it has.
    Why?
    Because a game is intended to entertain you, this just bores you, terribly.
    But lets begin on a positive note.
    The map looks superb, while the cities no longer assume the square box on a map look, but expand as the city grows.
    The armies look great and respond much better than previous offerings, especially the cavalry, who actually attack the enemy this time. It is refreshing to be able to hire mercenaries within the city too, and the range on offer is greater than before.
    The diplomacy, initially at least, gives a greater depth to the campaign as you interact with your neighbours without having to create and send a diplomat to do the job, especially if they are within earshot anyway.
    And, errr, that's about it.
    It becomes evident rather quickly that Sega have finally trodden the well beaten path of other gaming companies by pouring their resources into impressive eye candy and gimmicks, rather than stick to their niche of well rounded offerings, where graphics are sacrificed to the god of war in the quest for gameplay.
    To begin looking at the negative (and the list is larger than the empire Rome built), the UI for city management is truly horrendous. I tell a lie, its not even that good.
    It looks like it has been created for our PS and XBox friends to quickly flick through, so that they can hurry on to something else without taxing their thumbs too much. It is a series of poorly detailed and visualised boxes, with a dumbed down 'technology' link that again, looks like it was made for either small children to access or the console clan to enjoy.
    The two do not link well at all either; with the result being turn after frustrating turn of not building anything within your city, whilst you look on with envy as your allies and enemies create the second Rome.
    Apparantly people did not like the Medieval-esq approach to city management, though I have as yet to meet these 'people'. It worked well, was tidy, and more importantly, was easy to understand.
    Given that you may not even move your army and/or spy at all during a turn, and given that you are not building anywhere near often enough either, leads to abject frustrating and repeated 'end turn' clicking.
    Which leads to the 80's return of the king. The waiting for the 'end turn' fiasco.
    I have this installed on an SSD with an i7 kicking it along, and it still takes around a minute for the AI to take their turn. Add to this the fact that for large swathes of the time you are doing precisely nothing, and you can see how quickly boredom creeps in on a grand Total War scale.
    It is not that you can not build an army to create havoc, you can, but you are extremely limited in maintaining and upgrading it because your cities do not produce enough cash, whilst your neighbours garrisoned armies are far more numerous than yours.
    Added is the fact that nine battles out of ten are sieges. I did not in encounter an enemy with a decent army in the field at all in the three days I played it, leading to bus stop tours of city sieges, nothing more, which again, becomes boring faster than Usain Bolt on steroids.
    The dreadful AI during battles too verges on the insane; one instance amongst many I came across had the enemy simply scarper from their city whilst my two divisions of slingers (no dragons, tanks or F15 strike eagles in tow before you ask) walked straight into central city complex and held it, without an ounce of blood being spilled. The main bulk of my army was sitting around outside, enjoying the sea views and sipping tea.
    It is also in the small detail where this game fails to deliver on an epic scale too.
    You can now talk to your neighbours via the diplomacy button without having to physically move an object their, but you can not start trade in the same way for instance. Why not? So I can talk to my immediate neighbours night and day, but can not trade? Makes perfect sense that.
    Also, the idea of using family members and 'ordinary' folk to lead your forces is a nice touch; apparently the idea is that the more gravitas a general receives, the better his chances of taking over.
    But this just does not deliver excitement on any level, and ends up being just another useless side note in the long list of failures that Sega have collected up and dished out under the 'Rome II' tag.
    I could continue, but the word count is dangerously close to the 5000 max.
    To summarise, go back to earlier offerings folks, and wait until either the community either mod this shambles, or Sega bring out the much anticipated patches.    … Expand
  2. chicharito86
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    Don't waste your money on this trash. It's boring as hell, full of bugs, graphics suck, UI is terrible, AI is terrible and it feels like it's unfinished, like there is a lot of stuff missing.
  3. SirFondlebottom
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    I think a bullet point list best summarizes my problems with this dumbed down excrement. In no particular order:

    -No Guard button. I mean... what? -No ships needed. Your army will summon ships out of thin air to move over water, removing the natural obstacle that is water. -No seasons, everything is done by year. It takes a year to march through that small valley. -Agents block    I think a bullet point list best summarizes my problems with this dumbed down excrement. In no particular order:

    -No Guard button. I mean... what?

    -No ships needed. Your army will summon ships out of thin air to move over water, removing the natural obstacle that is water.

    -No seasons, everything is done by year. It takes a year to march through that small valley.

    -Agents block army movement. That invisible Spy you have? Yep, he just blocked a 3000 man army from moving through that pass.

    -About 150+ factions that lead to pointless mini wars dragging out the turns way worse than any preceding Total War instalment. You can turn off Show AI Turns, and it will still take up a good portion of your time and make you miss important movement, to boot!

    -Capture points, on open field battles. Apparently made to balance ship landings. Well you just killed the whole terrain factor of the open field battles, I think that far outweighs what little you actually, truthfully gained by creating the ship landings feature to begin with. This is so aggravating that it validates removing ships altogether from the game, including the sea battles.

    -The AI cannot handle ship landings to begin with. Whenever it receives reinforcements in form of ships it will fail miserably to utilize them, giving you a free victory.

    -Playing on Very Hard, this game has a difficulty comparable to Shogun 2 Normal, possibly less. The AI is incredibly timid and will simply not exploit your weakness. It will leave your undefended villages without walls be. It will ignore your open flanks and go for the capture flag like a retard and lose because of it. For what it's worth I've completed Shogun 2 on Legendary several times, I expected SOMETHING from the AI in this one. At least an attack? Try damnit?

    -Diplomacy is worthless: It may be because I'm playing on Very Hard and am getting demodifiers, but who knows, not like the AI ever agreed to anything even if it clearly was in it's best interest to do so. Pile up gold and riches, have long standing relations, it will not help. They will still pester you and demand payment tribute even though you have vast armies compared to their little village. Did I mention there's 150+ of the tards?

    -No family tree. No leader. I mean this literally, you have no family tree and you recruit generals willy nilly out of thin air.

    -Complex politics promised. I've yet to see any kind of politics. I mean there's not even a family tree as mentioned above, how am I supposed to have complex politics?

    -Unbalanced army traits. You can customize and grab the obvious good trait line, or go with the options for flair I guess.

    -Army MUST HAVE general. You cannot hunt down that 160man band of rebels without a general. Your general recruits out of thin air. You cannot recruit units and have them walk from your town to the general, they themselves must have a general to move. You can't train extra garrison. No logistics. You cannot intercept enemy reinforcements from a city.

    -Problems in your little village? Well it affects your whole province. Want to exempt from tax? Done for the whole province, let alone finding the button to do so is a quest in itself. Only Province capital can have walls, so only one in 3 villages will have walls and you can't pick which. Since you need Population to build improvements, you therefore have the choice to improve behind safe walls, or let all your important stuff be in the better located but worse defended village, since population is by province.

    -Can't garrison vs. Public Order problems, the effect is extremely small, not to mention doing that garrison requires a general of which you have a limited amount able to be had.

    -Worst UI in the Total War series, everything requires several button clicks instead of say right clicking once on that village.

    -Tech tree UI is 100% worthless. What was one perfectly perspicuous tree on one popup page, you now have 4 buttons that switch between 4 branches of a tree that is smaller than the predecessors.

    -Everything, and I do mean everything, needs to be inspected in the encyclopaedia. What you can build in a city depends on faction and actual city, meaning you visit the encyclopaedia each time to look at your options. Don't forget that it is browser based and seems to be requiring an internet connection, I have load times on the pages.

    -Want that advanced popup that will actually tell you what the damned thing does? Better wait for that fade-in and delay-to-show in the first place.

    -I cannot stress enough how useless the UI is. General gained a trait? How neat! Now which one is it? Is it this army? No wait it's not showing me when having the army selected. How about hovering the general unit? Ah no it simply shows the general unit type. If I press this detail button? Oh no that was the army detail page, which does not show general name either, how weird! Oh it was the third button!

    -Coop MP broken. Constant desynchs and longer AI turn time    … Expand
  4. matthiasgaming
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    Total War is the only series I buy every game at (or near) full price. I am disappointed that this game randomly crashes within 30 minutes of play. This is on a newer laptop with a fresh install the OS. The game is slow and clunky. I hope a big patch comes soon. It's also noteworthy the difference between the user score and the critic score. What game are they playing? It's not theTotal War is the only series I buy every game at (or near) full price. I am disappointed that this game randomly crashes within 30 minutes of play. This is on a newer laptop with a fresh install the OS. The game is slow and clunky. I hope a big patch comes soon. It's also noteworthy the difference between the user score and the critic score. What game are they playing? It's not the same one I'm playing.… Expand
  5. Ezio91
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    last week I was convinced of having the best total war and strategic game ever, but all I find is a game full of bugs, when setting down the details of mid low with a dual core 3ghz, 4gb ram GTX460 1GB and I do not reach even 20 fps on average it's absolutely unplayable. I refuse to play. I hope within 10 days the situation better or will be the last total war that I have purchased
  6. Kolombus
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    Ok, where to start... bought the game and well, disappointing is the first word that comes to mind. It feels unfinished, almost rushed. The ingredients of a great game are there, but it just doesn't deliver on any level as previous TW titles did.
  7. BurningTemplar
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    First, I have to explain the difference between an alpha game and a beta game.
    -Alpha: The game is not finished at all and full, bugs, poorly optimized, messed IA and also not balanced.
    -Beta: The game works pretty well, there are some bugs, the IA is at last playable, optimization is ok and the same for the balancing. Rome 2: Total War, is in a pre-alpha stage. -There is no fu***ng    First, I have to explain the difference between an alpha game and a beta game.
    -Alpha: The game is not finished at all and full, bugs, poorly optimized, messed IA and also not balanced.
    -Beta: The game works pretty well, there are some bugs, the IA is at last playable, optimization is ok and the same for the balancing.
    Rome 2: Total War, is in a pre-alpha stage.
    -There is no fu***ng AI, I can defeat 10 armies with few men. -In a battle, 1200 vs 5000 I won losing 300 guys. Also they don't know how to siege and how to defend settlements. The campaign AI is a little better but still crap.
    -The bugs are thousands, watch lastest Angry Joe videos and you will notice dat.
    -Who designed campaign UI? Rly, why didn't they fired this guy and the AI one?
    -They paid critics to make good reviews.
    -Balance? What is balance? R2TW does not know what that thing is.
    In the end, R2TW is in worst stage than R1TW when it came out, and R1TW was in a rly, rly bad state.    … Expand
  8. mody
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    Its a must not buy game...broken,full of bugs, awfull performance and a dull A.I...13 hours of gameplay and the only thing i can say its that C.A has tottaly failed its a shame for the company... the patch haven't changed anything significant...very dissapointing and a waste of hard earned money...
  9. SgtSmith95
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    game looks great.
    In its trailers. Be assured this is A BETA game. with a huge proportion of players suffering from vomit inducing graphical errors to heartbreaking comparability problems.
    CA are now starting to make amends but their updates have cause some problems whilst fixing others. Now onto the gameplay. If you like previous Total War games then this is not for you. The devs in    game looks great.
    In its trailers. Be assured this is A BETA game. with a huge proportion of players suffering from vomit inducing graphical errors to heartbreaking comparability problems.
    CA are now starting to make amends but their updates have cause some problems whilst fixing others.

    Now onto the gameplay.
    If you like previous Total War games then this is not for you. The devs in their urine soaked underwear were obviously held hostage by SEGA to release the game prematurely and to change so many tried and tested great points about the series and turn it into an arcadic casual gamer version of an RTS. With all battles now having CTF in it throwing away the reason to use ambushes and terrain to your advantage. They removed a beautiful and intuitive UI with a hideous number crunching interfave that to be honest make me fell like i am playing Europa Universals (which uis a good game but should not be in a TW series game)

    Units route within 5 minutes of combat. That is however if you are ever lucky in the campaign to enter combat the AI is passive and runs away or is just plain broken at times and that is on the hardest difficulty Legendary. On normal it will ZERG rush you and that is because on the higher difficulty it analyses dangerous situation and never wants to enter a fight because it may loose. The siege battle are worst instead ogf having great epic battles with ladders and towers the AI will only try to burn your gates or naval assault which was cool the first few times but is just annoying as the AI demands to land as far away from you as possible.
    Testudo is usless against arrows hoplites and phalanxes no longer hold back enemies they just broke all unit capabilities but instead gave you magical powers to give them small buffs here and there at certain points wich is just lazy.

    The sound
    It is simply brilliant the soundtrack gives pacing and the voices of troops banter when you zoom close is very amusing at times with 300 references everywhere. Example of such i i had 1 unit of spartans attacked by a full stack of Parthians when in the battle i heard a spartan say "There are so many sir"
    then another say in response "THIS IS MADNESS"

    Graphics
    i was lucky enough to have a very powerful rig which meant that i was stricken with all the biggest graphical glitches ever. Yep that's right this game worked better for worse computers. I eventually managed to fix my game thanks to some trickery in script files and task manager and just simple fiddling with options in the game.
    For instance to help me i had to run in windowed mode. disabled alpha vegetation, disabled SSAIO and distortion effects. turn shadows down to low. and tick unlimited virtual memory. Then disable in task manager set Rome 2 to high prioity. There are a few more steps but they get pretty lengthy so to summarize this section after these steps i got the game running on extreme settings at 35-53fps which is decent but i should be pulling at least 70fps with crossfire on my eyefinity setup.
    (Oh btw install the latest beta drivers AMD is 13.10 that lets me use crossfire on rome 2 if you dont get it your crossfire will cause massive drops in fps due to bad optimization.)

    To summaries in all now. As a veteran of the series (Shogun 1 for those of you wanting to know) i am truly disappointed in this game m it was the same case for empire but empire was a new field of warfare and a new engine. This game just feels like it is broken and i can only give it those 3 marks due to it having spartans and for CA being ther with 24 hour support with theit devs working day and night on massive future patches which give me hope for this game as shogun 2 did not work properly for mw at first until a patch came in i was first gen FX cpu back then and TW games hate multi threading in AMD's architecture but thankfully patches and beta Bios later all was fixed. so i still hold out hope and may re-review this game in a month or so after patching and extensive multiplayer testing (multiplayer completely broke as in not even working for me right now) but some people are loving it)

    This is just a simple case of a big company pulling strings and rushing it out before the more mainstream games come out. They needed more time and should have released an actual open beta so they could get tens of thousands of rigs tested for comparability issues. and could have responded to fans and our constructive criticism like in shogun 2.    … Expand
  10. Baldos
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    I have owned and played every TW game since the original Shogun. I have played each game for hundreds of hours. However I am VERY disappointed with Rome 2. I have no bugs and the game runs very well on My new PC (i5-3570K, GTX 770, SSD ungraded to play Rome 2). BUT the game is DUMBED DOWN. The IA is worse than Empire, cities can only build 4-6 buildings, the faction/ internal politics isI have owned and played every TW game since the original Shogun. I have played each game for hundreds of hours. However I am VERY disappointed with Rome 2. I have no bugs and the game runs very well on My new PC (i5-3570K, GTX 770, SSD ungraded to play Rome 2). BUT the game is DUMBED DOWN. The IA is worse than Empire, cities can only build 4-6 buildings, the faction/ internal politics is senseless, the documentation is useless. I don't even know what I can build in the future. The aux barracks show every unit in the game as available when that is not the case.....just dumb;(… Expand
  11. 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
  12. Yougotowned
    Sep 7, 2013
    3
    Worst UI made by CA
    - Horrible and ugly looking unit cards
    - Graphical issues all over the place - The Turn in campaign takes forever (2 min, even with decent Hardware) - Poorly optimized engine - Graphics is`nt so good as supposed to be - Rushed release of the game - Land-battles are too fast no strategy at all ) -Even my grandma can command better than this trash AI - AI     Worst UI made by CA
    - Horrible and ugly looking unit cards
    - Graphical issues all over the place
    - The Turn in campaign takes forever (2 min, even with decent Hardware)
    - Poorly optimized engine
    - Graphics is`nt so good as supposed to be
    - Rushed release of the game
    - Land-battles are too fast no strategy at all )
    -Even my grandma can command better than this trash AI
    - AI Path-finding is insane
    - 1-day DLC

    Outcome Biggest over-hyped game of 2013. Cant believe my eyes this game made out of beta.
    Worst total war even made by CA.    … Expand
  13. Jgarza2754
    Sep 7, 2013
    3
    Started the total war series with Shogun long ago. Have bought every game and watched the progression. This game was a disappointment for me. It is playable to a degree but the AI is seriously the worst I have seen yet. I spent the last 30 minutes in fast forward while a huge enemy army ran in a circle blob thing outside of my city. The naval combat is meh. The graphics are relatively okStarted the total war series with Shogun long ago. Have bought every game and watched the progression. This game was a disappointment for me. It is playable to a degree but the AI is seriously the worst I have seen yet. I spent the last 30 minutes in fast forward while a huge enemy army ran in a circle blob thing outside of my city. The naval combat is meh. The graphics are relatively ok but the optimization is horrible. Even with a kick ass gaming comp, it is going to be clunky for you. The UI is invasive, but at least you have the option to turn it off. Sadly this game is a perfect example of what is wrong with the game industry nowadays. Even the critics push games for the dollar sign. The metascore for this game is an 81 and the user score is 4.2 Really goes to show you. The solution to the problem is this: Don't buy anymore of these games, and don't buy this one. This company is no longer focused on making excellent games, this company is focused on making more money, and form a game designers standpoint, there is not a whole lot that was done to the game. Certainly not enough to take as long as it did to come out. EA and CA can officially suck it from here on out....… Expand
  14. Signatus
    Sep 8, 2013
    3
    Rome 1 was one of my favourite games. I should have just stayed with it and install a HD mod. Unfortunately I bought Rome 2 instead. I don't have the performance problems other people experience although I'm running it on a quite aged system. The game looks really beautiful and they had some good ideas like the province or diplomacy system. This game has a lot of potential. But I thinkRome 1 was one of my favourite games. I should have just stayed with it and install a HD mod. Unfortunately I bought Rome 2 instead. I don't have the performance problems other people experience although I'm running it on a quite aged system. The game looks really beautiful and they had some good ideas like the province or diplomacy system. This game has a lot of potential. But I think gameplay is just completely broken. CA's promises about the AI are just a joke right now. AI on the campaign map is far to passive or attacking with way to small armies, in battles sometimes just brain dead, not even pathfinding is working properly. Battles are way far to fast, consisting of big melee blobs because units can't hold their formations (no guard mode). Not even charging down routing foes with cavalry works. Units have fancy arcady special abilities, what has happened to the realism approach? Features are just missing like the family tree, generals basically just pop randomly up and die after a few rounds, since seasons are gone and one turn now lasts a whole year. Maybe the family tree was colliding with the new "feature" that each army must be lead by a general and number of armies is limited. Building navys is atm pointless, each army can just march into the sea and instantly free magical transport ships will appear which will suffice to beat most "real" naval units. Of course this makes strategical blocking of regions just impossible. I also don't understand why you can only play campaign factions in custom battles.
    This game just feels unfinished. I think CA will eventually fix performance bugs and improve AI behaviour, but salvaging the core of the game with getting rid of ridiculous new "features" will be left to the mods. I can't recommend this game to anybody at this point, wait at least a few months to see if CA/modders can salvage this train wreck.    … Expand
  15. Klofi
    Sep 8, 2013
    3
    This was supposed to be the best PC game of 2013. Unfortunately it is very far from that. Even after first patch the game keeps crashing, is EXTREMELY slow during AI turns in campaign map, drops FPS randomly, etc. And I am playing it on a very high-end PC. Pre-ordering this expensive game was a big mistake. Should have waited...
  16. Syferot
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    list of disadvantages:
    1) terrible optimization.
    2 )awkward interface. 3) lack of strategy and tactics in battle because of the speed of units (cavalry barely escapes from slingers) 4) faceless generals and lack of family tree: ( 5) Commanders are dying like flies! 6) You can burn torches forged gate cities! 7) terribly stupid AI. 8) transport ships from the air (why do we need a    list of disadvantages:
    1) terrible optimization.
    2 )awkward interface.
    3) lack of strategy and tactics in battle because of the speed of units (cavalry barely escapes from slingers)
    4) faceless generals and lack of family tree: (
    5) Commanders are dying like flies!
    6) You can burn torches forged gate cities!
    7) terribly stupid AI.
    8) transport ships from the air (why do we need a fleet?)
    9) animation of the battle between the units into a landfill just dying soldiers. (in-game animation SHOGUN 2 fights between units was excellent, both for strategic games)
    10) even at the highest level of complexity can not think several moves ahead, it is enough to have a strong army...    … Expand
  17. Kexxar
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    Unfortunately a huge disappointment for me.
    The graphics are good, but not great. At least, not what I expected.
    Poor optimization. Long loading times and waiting for your next turn really takes all the fun out of this game. And on top of all that, the game even has a few annoying bugs. I really hope that all this will get fixed with a few patches, and maybe an expansion, but until    Unfortunately a huge disappointment for me.
    The graphics are good, but not great. At least, not what I expected.
    Poor optimization. Long loading times and waiting for your next turn really takes all the fun out of this game.
    And on top of all that, the game even has a few annoying bugs.
    I really hope that all this will get fixed with a few patches, and maybe an expansion, but until then, I'll just stick to Shogun 2.    … Expand
  18. daboke
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    I've paid to be a beta tester with no voice.
    This 'game' is very VERY disappointing. It seems as though they have completely restructured their development team, bringing in a lot of youngsters with 'ideas' on how to 'improve' things... and I'm thinking their intent is to move towards console gaming. Total Shambles.
    1. Slow with no affinity to whoever you choose to be (i think my leader    I've paid to be a beta tester with no voice.
    This 'game' is very VERY disappointing. It seems as though they have completely restructured their development team, bringing in a lot of youngsters with 'ideas' on how to 'improve' things... and I'm thinking their intent is to move towards console gaming. Total Shambles.
    1. Slow with no affinity to whoever you choose to be (i think my leader died the only interesting thing that happened was one wife got kidnapped... don't even know her name. meh.)
    2. AI stupid no common sense and just awkward. (4 slingers took out 15 groups of tribesmen without taking a hit; they don't want to trade even though it's good for everyone; they WILL trade but only if you give them 80% of your money, bartering can bring this down to 70% but not worth it. Trying to get military access just so you can walk through a tiny part of their land to take over someone else is pointless. Best off just making war with them too.
    3. Tech tree is boring, time consuming (split across 6 pointless pages) and doesn't really have much affect.
    4. Battles are so easy even on Legendary. No excitement at all. Less said about naval battles the better.
    5. General limitations, household is slightly interesting but they're all drowning in a pool.,
    6. No more micromanaging towns everything is dumped together. Try sorting out dissatisfaction...? forget it.
    Lots more... not even started with bugs.....

    I paid money to be a tester and didn't get any dlc. I will not be purchasing anything else from CA until I get a personal apology but I bet they would screw that up.    … Expand
  19. ArcDeus
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    Every thing's broken :
    - Performance
    - AI
    - UI
    - Economy
    - Battle
    - History
    - Soul

    This is both a failure in terms of development, a marketing lies and betrayal of values ​​and spirit.

    No interest.

    **** treason.
  20. LairdEJM
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    The critics must be watching trailers on this one!! The biggest problem for me right now is the ever present lag, even on my very capable gaming rig. It detracts from a game which I long to delve into, and frustrates me after short amounts of play. This along with the graphical bugs, such as popping and texture streaming make this game look very shoddy for the AAA title it so keenly clingsThe critics must be watching trailers on this one!! The biggest problem for me right now is the ever present lag, even on my very capable gaming rig. It detracts from a game which I long to delve into, and frustrates me after short amounts of play. This along with the graphical bugs, such as popping and texture streaming make this game look very shoddy for the AAA title it so keenly clings to. Mopping these issues up is ESSENTIAL for me to ever boost my score.

    Smaller irritations that I have noticed, albeit not game breaking for me personally are:
    The complete lack of managing to retain a formation during battle; troops just kind of smush together in a big conglomeration which sends the whole "tactics" bit out of the window.
    All units seem to route extremely easily and rapidly, meaning that battles are very very short.
    The bizarre interface which is counter-intuitive and makes me spend ages figuring out what a certain button actually builds, and what the construct actually does.
    Troops seem to run extremely quickly...as though they are all wearing roller blades.
    Diplomacy seems utterly pointless, (at least at my stage of play.) The same can be said of politics.
    I don't understand the household pool thing at all.

    These are the problems which spring to mind right now, although they keep on flooding in as I rethink.

    I give this game, perhaps confusingly to those who have read this, a 3. I believe (hope) that were the lag issues to be sorted, I could perhaps try and live with the other problems and irritations. And also, I honestly believe, that somewhere amongst this mess is a very good game with huge potential. Unfortunately however, in its present form, it is nowhere near the quality I would expect for my £30.

    Roll on the miracle patches.    … Expand
  21. Deathmarch
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    Everything good in Shogun2 was ripped out of Rome2
    NO family trees, political part makes no sense and has little impact on the game
    They should rename it Total Siege War, because you'll never be attack by ai in field 99% of your battle will be defending a city or sieging one. gone are agent videos and agent diversity is gone apart form a few trait they do that same thing Generals    Everything good in Shogun2 was ripped out of Rome2
    NO family trees, political part makes no sense and has little impact on the game
    They should rename it Total Siege War, because you'll never be attack by ai in field
    99% of your battle will be defending a city or sieging one.
    gone are agent videos and agent diversity is gone apart form a few trait they do that same thing
    Generals are generic you'll careless if they die cause the game will generate a new one for you.
    ALL the battlefield feature have been gutted units don't hold formation, no guard mode, cant toggle skirmish for melee units with javelin. AI routes with in minutes if the ai allows them to engage in combat at all ,they will usually just stand there taking arrows to the face, OH yea Loose formation is gone too.
    Dumbed Down Too far    … Expand
  22. AznaktaX
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    The game is broken, with glitches, graphical issues, and a horrendous AI.

    In its current state, I can't possibly buy this or even recommend it to anyone else. The only reason I don't give it a lower score than 3/10 is because it does have potential but it is totally overshadowed by its flaws. As for Sega....how dare you? How dare you abuse the fans' trust and bring out this    The game is broken, with glitches, graphical issues, and a horrendous AI.

    In its current state, I can't possibly buy this or even recommend it to anyone else.

    The only reason I don't give it a lower score than 3/10 is because it does have potential but it is totally overshadowed by its flaws.

    As for Sega....how dare you?

    How dare you abuse the fans' trust and bring out this game in its current extremely buggy state?

    I'm very disappointed!!

    Do not buy this!!

    Not at least until they fix the bugs.    … Expand
  23. HelterSkelter
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Quote:"Rome II is a testament to all that is great about PC gaming and should be a must buy for all its followers"

    Thoughts:" NO THAT IS A FREAKIN LIE!!!"

    I just cant understand what this game has done to all my hopes and expectations maybe it was hyped too much but still Rome 2 goes back 2 steps in the franchise where Shogun was 2 steps ahead.

    I cannot believe the professional review score ..still it might be a good/ok game it DOES NOT deserve a    … Expand
  24. 4rdi
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    This game ruined the franchise! There are so many bugs (a good part of those re-occurring and resulting crash to the desktop) that it is not even possible to list the here. Graphics looks nothing like in the trailer. User-interface is complicated. Game-play changes, particularly, duplicating abilities of all agents, makes the game boring and less strategic. There is no way to describe howThis game ruined the franchise! There are so many bugs (a good part of those re-occurring and resulting crash to the desktop) that it is not even possible to list the here. Graphics looks nothing like in the trailer. User-interface is complicated. Game-play changes, particularly, duplicating abilities of all agents, makes the game boring and less strategic. There is no way to describe how bad the battle AI is! People playing the game first time should look forward to beat the battle AI while 2-to-1 outnumbered. Experienced players can sometimes beat the odds of 4-to-1! Campaign AI throws many small armies, sometimes consisting of only one "suicide" unit, against you instead of using high stacks armies that actually have fighting power. Campaign AI is also very peaceful and passive altogether. Altogether, this game highly disappointing experience for any fan of the series.… Expand
  25. curtisimo
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    This game is nowhere near ready for release. I'm sick of pre-ordering supposed AAA games just to be given a beta stage product on release day.
    The stripped out features, enumerable graphics glitches, dumber than dirt AI and unplayable multiplayer make me forget any of the good aspects of this game.
  26. FanaticGamer89
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    In 2004 Rome Total War was released. It was the first 3D game in the Total War series. I loved that game and still do. When I play Rome Total War I am taken to the classical era. For its time the graphics were fantastic, the UI was great and the AI was okay. Even though most effort was put into Rome, each culture felt unique and had their own variation of the UI, their own soundtracks andIn 2004 Rome Total War was released. It was the first 3D game in the Total War series. I loved that game and still do. When I play Rome Total War I am taken to the classical era. For its time the graphics were fantastic, the UI was great and the AI was okay. Even though most effort was put into Rome, each culture felt unique and had their own variation of the UI, their own soundtracks and their own strategies.

    Fast forward 9 years and Rome 2 has just been released, but how does it compare to its predecessor?

    Here is my honest opinion of Rome 2 with the good, the bad and the ugly. I honestly think Rome 2 could be the best game they made and I wanted to love it. Unfortunately, there are too many issues in the game currently.

    The Good

    - Rome 2 is pretty. Very pretty. The battlefields are more alive than ever and the cities look great even at medium high settings The units look better than some FPS games. Yes there are sometimes missing textures (will get to that soon) but it still looks fantastic.
    - Custom battles are fun. I love custom battles where I can play against another army. Yes the battles are shorter than in Rome 1 but I still thoroughly enjoy them.

    The Bad
    Things such as bugs, can be easily fixed.

    - The game is buggy. This is expected for a first day release, but there are lots of bugs. Missing textures, massive frame rate drops, unkillable admirals and dumb AI makes the game seem almost complete but not quite.
    - Campaign battles are boring. Remember I said custom battles are fun? Well the same isn’t for campaign battles. The AI seems to love spamming Mobs and Skirmishers both of which are easily disposed of. I’m finding myself winning every land battle with almost no losses. The campaign battles are more of a cat and mouse game than a battle.
    - Sea battles are confusing. I thought we could initiate boarding at sea, but all we can do is ram ships like a bunch of dodgem cars. Having two lines of ships individually ram each other is repetitive to say the least.
    - Friendly fire. Yes I understand friendly fire isn’t a bad thing, but it kills more of my own men than theirs. Like any good general I position my archers and skirmishers behind my lines, but they seem to kill more of my own men than theirs.
    - AI seems far too passive. They don’t attack with big armies, only tiny ones which always get repelled.

    The Ugly
    Game mechanics, cannot be easily taken out or fixed.

    - The UI is too modern. Rome 1’s UI made me feel like I was playing in the era, Rome 2’s UI is too modern and confusing. Icons are oddly placed and are too small and unit cards are too big.
    - Transport ships. Units can run into the water and make transport ships. While the idea is okay, transport ships are just too overpowered. Why make an expensive navy when you can make an army of militia and march them into the water? I remember in the original Rome an invasion from sea took a lot of planning, in Rome 2 that planning is non-existent as you can just march your army across the water, literally.
    - City management. In Rome 1 I loved managing cities. When I selected a city I was taken into that city, could see information about it clearly and had to choose carefully what to build. Rome 2’s city management is simple, too simple. You don’t even have to select a city to manage it, just a region. I don’t find myself getting attached to cities or caring much about them.
    - No family tree. I loved the family tree in Rome 1, it made me feel attached to my generals as they were family to me (literally). Rome 2 has done away with the family tree and I can raise an army under a general whenever I want. Because of this, I don’t care too much for my generals well being.
    - No seasons. Each turn is a year, which is very quick and seasons no longer exist. The campaign map doesn’t seem as alive anymore as the only thing changing is the size of cities. If they wanted the game to have less turns in it then why make the campaign map so big? I would rather a smaller map with seasons as opposed to a big map with yearly turns. Generals and agents also age and die too quickly now.
    - I don't like the use of the horse as a movement token. It seems too arcade like to me. I loved seeing the armies move across the land in Rome 1, but in Rome 2 they seem less threatening moving around as a guy on a horse.

    So there is my opinion of Rome 2 thus far. I understand that the bugs will be fixed with patches and the game will improve in time, but I can’t shake the feeling that there are too many disjointed game mechanics, which unlike bugs will remain in the game. Patching those mechanics will be like putting a band-aid on a broken arm. I wanted to love this game, I really did but it is currently too disjointed.

    Take your copy of Rome 1. Boot it up and remind yourselves of what made Rome Total War so great.    … Expand
  27. 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
  28. outrider23
    Sep 11, 2013
    3
    Poor to say the least. If the glitches and frame rate issues were resolved it would be a good game for sure. However even if these issues were resolved Total War is dumbing itself down to become more "mainstream" just look at the campaign and the limited choices you can make. This game in its current state with glitches and slow frame rate is unplayable. Very disappointing would be how IPoor to say the least. If the glitches and frame rate issues were resolved it would be a good game for sure. However even if these issues were resolved Total War is dumbing itself down to become more "mainstream" just look at the campaign and the limited choices you can make. This game in its current state with glitches and slow frame rate is unplayable. Very disappointing would be how I would describe this game. I recommend to go and purchase Saints Row 4 to get over this shocking game.… Expand
  29. Sogin
    Sep 11, 2013
    3
    BS to all of the critic reviews.

    The game is disappointing and not finished. CA rushed the game and its still basically a beta. The AI and UI are terrible, which makes no sense because TA games are all pretty similar in their battle mechanics so why would the battle AI be worse... The load times and graphics are also worse then any other TA game. Good things are, the map is huge and the    BS to all of the critic reviews.

    The game is disappointing and not finished. CA rushed the game and its still basically a beta. The AI and UI are terrible, which makes no sense because TA games are all pretty similar in their battle mechanics so why would the battle AI be worse... The load times and graphics are also worse then any other TA game. Good things are, the map is huge and the campaign UI is good. I like how you raise troops in the army instead of a town and I like the province system.

    DO NOT BUY until they finish the game.

    If you want a good and true review please watch Angry Joe's review.    … Expand
  30. SoakerCity
    Sep 11, 2013
    3
    Dismal.

    Lets assume that this game should have gotten a 10, being of top pedigree and probably the most anticipated game of 2013. Rome 1 was perfect. This game should have been a graphical update with a few new features, a handful of more daring gameplay innovations, and a better narrative, AI tweaks, and more varied units and factions. Instead, we have a game released that lags    Dismal.

    Lets assume that this game should have gotten a 10, being of top pedigree and probably the most anticipated game of 2013. Rome 1 was perfect. This game should have been a graphical update with a few new features, a handful of more daring gameplay innovations, and a better narrative, AI tweaks, and more varied units and factions.

    Instead, we have a game released that lags even three thousand dollar computers, and is unplayable by mid range rigs. This makes no sense, since its predecessors, notably Shogun, ran beautifully. Subtract two points for being unfinished and poor graphics management that leaves the target audience unable to play the game.

    Next, the AI is not fun to play, realistic or challenging. Another strike.

    The new innovations; A system of management by generals which has nothing to do with any previous Total War game, and thus unfamiliar and cumbersome. Same can be said for the regional management. Every previous Total War game was easy to both manage and find information. In short, the old way gave excellent control. These two new abominations alienate the Total War loyals and are just plain awkward. Not fun. That's four strikes.

    Next we move to Naval combat. You have to play it to believe it. I simply couldn't figure out what was going on until I read other people explain on forums, just exactly how they butchered this. Awful. Another strike.

    And we will throw in one more strike for adding capture points that appear after you set up your men and form a strategy, as well as the blob rush that has replaced the old strategic combat. Things get particularly gruesome around the gates of a city, where fancy graphics such as the burning gates, the gigantic war banners, and the overload of nice graphics in general turn my computer into a slide projector. I'm running an I5 with a GT640 BTW.

    Finally, to bring this game the dismal score of 3/10, I'd like to address the overall lack of warmth, homogeneous characters and lack of control over them. The portraits of the generals all look the same. Their abilities are hard to find because of the UI (shouldn't I just be able to click on the General's portrait??) and the new system where new followers supplant a random old one, all of which happens behind the scenes, suck.

    I was horribly disappointed with this game, quit playing after 16 hours, and I won't be back for months to see if the updates make it at least playable. I believe that the flaws are too fundamental, however. People should be fired for this.

    The biggest disappointment of 2013 in any meta-category.    … 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]
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