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. bioburn
    Sep 19, 2013
    2
    This game is a culmination of lack of testing by real gamers, if this was an INDIE game I would prob. give it 5/10 for effort, but this IS a AAA title!!!
    pro
    >legionary system that is introduced >province management system bad: >performance sucks, it is heavily underoptimized for all chipsets >campaign map graphics suck and aren't a necessity >ai sucks they are dumber than the    This game is a culmination of lack of testing by real gamers, if this was an INDIE game I would prob. give it 5/10 for effort, but this IS a AAA title!!!
    pro
    >legionary system that is introduced
    >province management system

    bad:
    >performance sucks, it is heavily underoptimized for all chipsets
    >campaign map graphics suck and aren't a necessity
    >ai sucks they are dumber than the first Rome's AI
    >1 turn per year very cheap method
    >limited general lifespan they die in a couple of turns
    >lack of in game videos there are so few I fall asleep

    all in all, don't buy this game,
    just get Rome I with mods, it's a much better option    … Expand
  2. themrchook
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    Very poor optimisation, AI is poor and siege AI is just non-functioning with issues like enemy units just standing there or even more bizarrely wandering off in random directions until they just run into archer fire and die, simplified mechanics and game functionality when compared to Total War: Rome (seems to be the trend, would have like to have seen it broken for this game) but thisVery poor optimisation, AI is poor and siege AI is just non-functioning with issues like enemy units just standing there or even more bizarrely wandering off in random directions until they just run into archer fire and die, simplified mechanics and game functionality when compared to Total War: Rome (seems to be the trend, would have like to have seen it broken for this game) but this does not make the game more fun, punchy or exciting. Slightly updated graphics but nowhere near what I expected. I can forgive releasing with a few bugs and issues as this is normal but there are just such a large amount of them. This is why people pirate games, you don't deserve my money for this and you won't be getting it ever again.… Expand
  3. Iconoklast
    Oct 26, 2013
    2
    As a professional developer and huge fan of this series I am unable to comprehend the degree to which this franchise has degenerated. It clear that the design team from the previous games, especially the Shogun 2 people who made an excellent, cristaline perfect strategic wargame, where not invovled in the development of this one. How a team can unlearn so many good lessons in design canAs a professional developer and huge fan of this series I am unable to comprehend the degree to which this franchise has degenerated. It clear that the design team from the previous games, especially the Shogun 2 people who made an excellent, cristaline perfect strategic wargame, where not invovled in the development of this one. How a team can unlearn so many good lessons in design can only be explained by Sega's corporate shortsightedness and CA internal politics.

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

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

    The Strategic Game

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

    The greatest tragedy is that this represents the end of Creative Assembly as a powerhouse of Strategy Game development. This is a tremendous blow to gaming, and the dev team should be ashamed of themselves.    … Expand
  4. Fumes
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    I have been a fan of the Total War series since the original Shogun. Every game have had its share of problems (AI problems being at the forefront) at launch, but they were salvageable through patching and modding. Rome II however is such a huge step-back on pretty much everything except scale and graphics that I have little hope of seeing this game ever measuring up to any of the previousI have been a fan of the Total War series since the original Shogun. Every game have had its share of problems (AI problems being at the forefront) at launch, but they were salvageable through patching and modding. Rome II however is such a huge step-back on pretty much everything except scale and graphics that I have little hope of seeing this game ever measuring up to any of the previous titles. In fact I would prefer to play the original modded Rome. The game is essentially a beta to the shame of CA and Sega. I will not be buying any more Total War games on release.… Expand
  5. Dexyt
    Sep 5, 2013
    2
    Beware, the game is a flop. I tried to like it, but I just can't. There's nothing in it that makes it worth playing. The UI is inefficient, awkward and provides too little information. The turn times are extremely long. The AI is dumb. The tech tree, unit upgrades and the like offer no real advancements, just tiny increments, like +3%, to some attribute which makes them feel pointless. TheBeware, the game is a flop. I tried to like it, but I just can't. There's nothing in it that makes it worth playing. The UI is inefficient, awkward and provides too little information. The turn times are extremely long. The AI is dumb. The tech tree, unit upgrades and the like offer no real advancements, just tiny increments, like +3%, to some attribute which makes them feel pointless. The strategic layer is shallow, almost primitive. Battles tend to revolve around capture points which eliminates any strategic freedom. Indeed, battles is what the game should be about, and they simply aren't fun nor interesting. The game feels like a Frankenstein game in which different game elements are haphazardly sewn together. I could go, but I've made the point sufficiently clear: somehow this game turned out really bad.… Expand
  6. malekithau
    Sep 4, 2013
    2
    Starting playing with Total War games with the original Shogun. Played them all. This one is by far the most disappointing. I am very sad to say that it fails to meet expectations on so many levels. The strategic side of the game is pretty decent though not so good that it can make up for the main issue which is the tactical games. They are a joke. Blob versus blob not like an ancientStarting playing with Total War games with the original Shogun. Played them all. This one is by far the most disappointing. I am very sad to say that it fails to meet expectations on so many levels. The strategic side of the game is pretty decent though not so good that it can make up for the main issue which is the tactical games. They are a joke. Blob versus blob not like an ancient battle at all. The speed is comical. Usain Bolt would struggle to keep up with these guys lugging around 4 meter pikes and wearing full armour. Formations don't really exist. On contact your units just fall into an unformed blob. Units turn on a dime. There are plenty of other issues but I can't bring myself to play another minute of this game as is. I'd rather be at work................… Expand
  7. Maggotfist
    Sep 15, 2013
    2
    Beautiful game with so much potential. Game breaking crash bug at turn 57 on Suebi campaign. AI is almost non-existent. Poorly optimized graphics. Aside from the bugs and crashes VERY fun.
    It's a game of magnificent scope and ambition, but is CLEARLY in beta phase. I am very much looking forward to the final version after some patches.
  8. MrPedantic
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    Cons: Game-breaking bugs. AI terrible. UI unintuitive & weird. Battles supremely disappointing. Alt-tab seizure-inducing.
    Pros: Graphics better. Prologue decent
    DO NOT BUY. The game gets worse the more you play it. The Prologue is a nice start. I liked the way it walks you through most of what you need to know for the Campaign. However, even here there were glimpses of    Cons: Game-breaking bugs. AI terrible. UI unintuitive & weird. Battles supremely disappointing. Alt-tab seizure-inducing.
    Pros: Graphics better. Prologue decent

    DO NOT BUY.

    The game gets worse the more you play it. The Prologue is a nice start. I liked the way it walks you through most of what you need to know for the Campaign. However, even here there were glimpses of trouble. I gave up after bugs prevented me from finishing the Prologue 2 times. The thing with the Prologue is that you can't finish a turn unless you finish the objective they identify, and sometimes a bug prevents you from fulfilling the objective until the next turn...yeah.

    Then you get to the Campaign, and the bugs just multiply like, well...bugs. Even the proper "features" that were supposed to be newly-added into the game are terrible, almost to a fault. Battle objectives suck, and are totally irrelevant to any kind of strategy and yet can still decide the outcome of battles. Agents are arbitrarily grouped into 3 for no real reason that I can comprehend. The game's encyclopaedia is slow, not really informative, and if the game had been done properly, almost entirely unnecessary anyway. I could keep going, about the AI, the UI, the performance issues, the interaction between armies and navies, the interaction between embarked armies and the coastline, the graphical glitches, the collision errors, and so on. Turns take several minutes (due to 117 in-game factions), random frame hangs will occur for no apparent reason, and

    One particular category of failure that should be mentioned is with regard to cinematics. The intro movie is low-res, low-texture, low-polygon, and feels like low-setting gameplay rather than a beautiful, inspiring pre-rendered piece of art designed as a fitting intro to a wonderful game. Though I guess in its current state it sort of fits. In-game, cinematics are almost completely lacking. As opposed to the original RTW, where cinematics were in every construction card, and Shogun 2, where agents got beautiful, varied cinematics depicting their actions, the only cinematics I have seen thus far have been for family deaths. Even here, it is hugely disappointing. The cinematic is a short clip, maybe 10 seconds long, with no sound and having almost no meaningful content whatsoever.

    I'm giving this a 2/10 because despite its flaws, it has SOME redeeming qualities. The graphics are decent (not spectacular, but decent), the campaign map is far more reflective of reality, the cinematic view, so far as I've used it, seems a welcome and interesting addition, and at least it has few of the bugs in the original Rome: Total War. Unfortunately, they seem to have been replaced with a completely different, much more debilitating set of new bugs.    … Expand
  9. Bethrezen
    Sep 8, 2013
    2
    After playing for 44 hours, here are my conclusions:
    (-) Very poorly optimized (low FPS and mini-freezes in-battles and on campaign map, especially after hitting End Turn);
    (+) Relatively good loading times; (-) Relatively average intro cinematic in terms of epicness and actual showing game mechanics and battle, at least when comparing it to the Rome TW intro (or BI intro); (-) Long    After playing for 44 hours, here are my conclusions:
    (-) Very poorly optimized (low FPS and mini-freezes in-battles and on campaign map, especially after hitting End Turn);
    (+) Relatively good loading times;
    (-) Relatively average intro cinematic in terms of epicness and actual showing game mechanics and battle, at least when comparing it to the Rome TW intro (or BI intro);
    (-) Long time waiting for other factions, after hitting End Turn (4-5 minutes);
    (-) Horrible UI and menu design you can actually take these menus and put them in any other game, they don't have anything special or related to a Total War game; they don't contribute in any way to the atmosphere;
    (+/-) The unit cards are neither bad nor good, in my opinion; it's just a matter of taste;
    (-) Creating fleets is useless since your troops "transform" into fleets anyway (very bad design here);
    (-) Totally unesthetic and unsuggestive building card images; absolutely NOT contributing to any kind of atmosphere;
    (-) Lots of bugs everywhere: graphical corruptions outside of the world map, provinces that don't show they are conquered (happened with Baktria), units which stop after you send them to attack or pursue the enemy, units blocked in buildings, etc. etc.;
    (-) Core gameplay design flaws: battles lasting 10 minutes at most, really bad AI, no Guard stance, no Fire at Will option especially for melee troops with pilum/javelins, overpowered fire missiles, overpowered cavalry charge, broken phalanx, illogical unit abilities, useless siege equipment (since you can just burn the gate much easier and faster), javelins on fire used by all factions, wrong testudo formation etc. etc.
    (-) Researching just about everything and seeing all units long before actually winning the game (at least while playing with other factions other than Rome);
    (-) Passive campaign AI with no diplomacy improvement from the previous titles;
    (-) Stupid Steam achievements (play for an hour? fight a battle without auto-resolve?);
    (+) More historical accurate factions and units;
    (+) Pretty good sound effects;
    (-) Not working coop multiplayer due to very long turns and desynchronizing;
    (-) No avatar campaign, just a really boring versus multiplayer (a return to RTW and a downgrade from Shogun 2);
    (-) Incoming DLC fest
    (-) Asking for buyers to test all incoming patches.

    I will rate the game accordingly.    … Expand
  10. Jay8329
    Sep 27, 2013
    2
    Update: The 3 released patches fixed a few things. The really long turns have gotten some what faster, "some" balancing has been done, and units hold their formations slightly longer than before. The most hilarious fix I read in the patch list was a fix for misspelled words..I could give a crap about that there are more pressing matters to focus on CA. With that being said, the 3 patchesUpdate: The 3 released patches fixed a few things. The really long turns have gotten some what faster, "some" balancing has been done, and units hold their formations slightly longer than before. The most hilarious fix I read in the patch list was a fix for misspelled words..I could give a crap about that there are more pressing matters to focus on CA. With that being said, the 3 patches still don't do it for me, but I'll bring my score up for the effort, but not by much. Still many missing features, no family tree. still buggy land and naval battles, still arcade like battles that end in 10mins now instead of 5 so I guess it's an improvement, Ai is still retarded and does the jig while getting slaughter by missle units and they still fail to engage 80% of the time, and we still have that ridiculous army limit!! Geez that is a crappy decision., etc, etc, ect, ect..
    Also, I got to love the sudden flood of naive brainless individuals giving this game 9-10s in an attempt to boost the rating and the user complaining about a 0 score. I gave this a 0 because it's BS I friggin paid $70 for a game in Alpha stage. It's like buying a computer only to find out the I have a really pretty monitor and tower but no guts. So to all those ppl "Go kick rocks!

    Rome II the Arcade game...or something!??? WTF is this garbage.
    0.) This takes the cake, half the total war fan base can't even play this junk because it fails to work. Many CTDs and freezes....worthless...someone should be fired and kicked square in the a$$ on the way out the door.
    1.) Your Units are set to run by default...so they are running all over the place like idiots every time you order a move.
    2.)No Family Tree- wtf, I thought this was Rome, a family tree is a pretty important part of the game...or maybe not, hell I don't know...retarded CA.
    3.) Has more bugs than Empires Total War ever did, and that's seriously saying something!
    4.) Serious limitation to recruitment- Now you can only recruit units through a General and only a General. No more recruiting units in your cities, which pretty much hamstrings your ability to recruit a garrison army that you feel is just right to hold that city on the border of your enemy. Now you have a preset "Generic Garrison". I guess I don't need more than 4 archer units to hold miles of walls...oh yeah that leads me to my next point.
    5.) You no longer have the option to build walls...yep that's right, no option to build walls in your smaller villages or towns. Walls are reserved for your "More important" capital cities. Well that's great and grand and all, but I guess my other towns are worthless and F***ed. I suppose my generic garrison army can handle it..... or not.
    6.) You are no longer allowed to detach any units from your Army unless you have another General right next to that particular Army/General you wish to exchange units with. So I guess CA figured it was wise to keep me from detaching half my army to garrison a city I just captured so that I can send my General on his marry little way to do something useful. Instead I have to park his a$$ in the city for 10 flippin turns (Which Equals 10 yrs btw) until the public order stabilizes...awesome!
    7.) Battles last a WHOPPING 3-5mins! No time for tactical maneuvers, not that it matters with this AI, it's over too fast. You just send all your guys into this blob of troops just like you would if you were playing good old Command and Conquer.
    8.) No fire at will options for your Legionaries. Instead your Legionaries throw their pilums every time you order them to engage then enemy, which is absolutely AWESOME when you send a unit to support another unit already engaged with the enemy and your Legionaries throw that SWEET volley of Pilums right into the backs of your own troops..Brilliant move!
    9.) No loose and tight formation options-guess we didn't need them
    10.) We got magic abilities just like Warhammer. (Remove all fatigue, better accuracy for archers, reload faster, and many more fun abilities from Middle Earth) Every single unit has some retarded special ability that you need to use as much as possible..so it turns into a classic click fest.
    11.) You can only trade out of one port, which is probably one of the many bugs, while your others just sit and be useless.
    12.) Countless other bugs, from Red skies to enemy units doing the jig while you pepper them with arrows all day, to the classic suicide generals getting impaled on spears.

    All of these issues and retarded features, among a ton of other issues I really don't feel like listing because it would take 2-3 days, makes Rome II the worse game of the series so far and probably the death of the total war franchise. I sure do hope CA really enjoys this piece of crap, dumbed down, casual, console geared, kiddie game they have created. As for me, there is nothing Creative about this and it's gone into my coaster collection of sh!t games to be used to set my beverages on. At least I'll get some use out of my stolen    … Expand
  11. 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
  12. Atr0s
    Jan 22, 2015
    2
    Every problem was brought up unchanged from the previous game and added up with new ones thanks for many half-tested features. While some of these problems have been fixed, like the complete absence of AI to deal with specific but regular situations (like sieges) the problems intrinsic to the engine still stand. All big fights devolve into 1v1 duels like in Shogun II (no single unit can beEvery problem was brought up unchanged from the previous game and added up with new ones thanks for many half-tested features. While some of these problems have been fixed, like the complete absence of AI to deal with specific but regular situations (like sieges) the problems intrinsic to the engine still stand. All big fights devolve into 1v1 duels like in Shogun II (no single unit can be attacked by more than one unit), making melee battles last than it reasonably should (even if it's one elite survivor against a whole mob). The battle mechanics also changed unreasonably from the previous Rome title, turning pikemen in phalanx from the previous unpassable wall to a murder machine to anything that dares a frontal assault and making some hybrid units only able to use ammunition when charging. The siege machines also have an absurd degree of precision for its time, particularly when using first-person mode (you can actually point the general location you want your projectile to land, unlike Shogun II on which you had to guess its trajectory based on angle and distance). The naval battles, the first big "improvement" to the series (marines, for the first time, can disembark and help in land battles), also suffer from the same problems as land battles during boarding (1v1 duels), boarding can't be disengaged under any circumstance and several glitches still plague it (jumping marines for example, on which your tripulation jumped off ship as a boarding action, only to inexplicably fly high and drown by landing on the sea). If it wasn't enough, the ONLY thing worthwhile about voice acting in this game is Mark Strong as the narrator as they didn't bother with the factions languages (not even making a fake eastern/greek/latin/celtic-esque accent) unlike the previous titles.

    All in all, it's a poor Total War game. Stick to the previous titles as they didn't have as many killjoy bugs as this one. CA is offering here a bad product as the graphics will be nowhere as good as trailers show (tons of videos on Youtube to show what this game really looks like on Ultra, with often hilarious results when zooming in the individual units) and most official reviews were done by people paid to put up a good word for the game or too lazy to actually research the previous titles and evaluate the overall improvement (or lack of).    … Expand
  13. velvetpetanimal
    Sep 3, 2013
    2
    Horrible UI.
    Horrendously confusing unit cards.
    Poorly optimized.
    Fix the triremes.
    Where is my guard button.
    Make a unit card that covers half my screen.

    2/10 for releasing.

    Glad I paid 60$ for beta testing.
  14. Sarrix
    Nov 8, 2013
    2
    Hahaha the people have spoken and I could not agree more. This is the biggest failure I have seen in a while. I WAS a devoted Total War fan until CA decided to bring out this husk of a game to slap me in the face. I really do not understand what was going through their heads... Do they actually play their own games? They dumbed this game down so much I felt like C&C had more strategyHahaha the people have spoken and I could not agree more. This is the biggest failure I have seen in a while. I WAS a devoted Total War fan until CA decided to bring out this husk of a game to slap me in the face. I really do not understand what was going through their heads... Do they actually play their own games? They dumbed this game down so much I felt like C&C had more strategy involved in it.

    Also have a look at the critics im sure they can be bought out for a high score any day by the looks of it. Good work all on the HONEST reviews. With the exception of the dim wits giving it 10 out 10. Most likely work for CA or just have no idea.    … Expand
  15. Kherny
    Sep 30, 2013
    2
    Jesus H Christ... uninstalled today, just cant take it anymore. 3 patches in and its easy to see this needs a hell of a lot more work and to be honest right now just don't bother after seeing the progress in a month of patching, give it a year. The AI is simply atrocious. The UI is unwieldy. The turn times are awful although I have managed an entire ebook between turn times. play time ofJesus H Christ... uninstalled today, just cant take it anymore. 3 patches in and its easy to see this needs a hell of a lot more work and to be honest right now just don't bother after seeing the progress in a month of patching, give it a year. The AI is simply atrocious. The UI is unwieldy. The turn times are awful although I have managed an entire ebook between turn times. play time of 75 hours on first campaign, it feels like half of that is on turn times alone on my high end gaming system) Poor fps campaign map performance. There are a hell of a lot of generic looking troops cross faction( I don't mean type of troop but the look, copy and pasted). The politics system is basic and mystifying in its point of even being there. The speed of the game in battles on land and naval has been sped up to arcade levels. (consoled) This makes naval battles pointless thus rendering half the tech tree pointless as its naval based. The unit blobbing (look up rome 2 blobbing makes any unit formations pointless. The interviews and trailers painted a completely unrealistic view of the released game. Overall such a huge letdown and I have not touched on all its problems. One in a series of huge letdowns lately for PC releases in general.

    Never preorder in general but now add Creative Assembly who are known for buggy released games to the list of "delayed purchase" depending upon user reviews 6 months down the line.

    For a more in depth review try the Angry Joe review on youtube. He pretty much nails it. Also, Totalbiscuit has slated the attitude of Creative Assembly for a recent interview in which the head states he aims for a 90% metacritic review before anything else, cutting features if they dont add to that goal. (search for content patch sept 24th 2013 7.24 in) How about trying to make a good game primarily, for a good score? What a novel thought.

    "Rome 2 Total War" should now be renamed "Rome 2 Total rethink needed"

    On a positive note, I enjoyed using the unit camera. But the blobbing of units and lack of fight animations took the fun out of that after a short while. Dear me, hard to be positive. The general speeches before battle were enjoyable when they worked and did not cut out.

    Reinstalling Empire/Napoleon as we speak.

    /sigh    … Expand
  16. heime2003
    Nov 16, 2014
    2
    i didnt think creative assembly could messed it up cuz they are good develpers and has good record
    but it was slap to fans face. everything in this game is steps back from rome 1
    not to mention huge framemate problems, every moments u have to fight glitches, non responsiveness and bugs instead of units. even high end computers cant run this game on high setting without lag or    i didnt think creative assembly could messed it up cuz they are good develpers and has good record
    but it was slap to fans face. everything in this game is steps back from rome 1
    not to mention huge framemate problems, every moments u have to fight glitches, non responsiveness and bugs instead of units.
    even high end computers cant run this game on high setting without lag or stuttering. thinking the game looks not better than rome1 i wonder dev leave programming of the game to their interns
    biggest let down. luckily i didnt upgrade my com to play this which saved me $$$ and bitter disappointment    … Expand
  17. KnownOperative
    Oct 8, 2013
    2
    Releasing a unfinished Tech demo product into the market, At that price, which seems to have been untested seems to tell us, that companies nowadays think you can get away with it, with Fans and players paying the Company to Test their game. Back in the day, people use to get Finished tested products. Not this... mess.

    Its a great game Rome total war II. But i didnt intend to buy    Releasing a unfinished Tech demo product into the market, At that price, which seems to have been untested seems to tell us, that companies nowadays think you can get away with it, with Fans and players paying the Company to Test their game. Back in the day, people use to get Finished tested products. Not this... mess.

    Its a great game Rome total war II. But i didnt intend to buy something unfinished, then Pay the company to finish it. Im quite angry.

    Also, i see less, or nothing new regarding features, from Rome total war, to Rome Total war II.
    Other than the improved graphics, and minor changes.

    It seems, one of the Childhood features i used to play around with "viewing a city" as it developed a magnifying glass icon" was removed or not implemented.    … Expand
  18. TheUnbeholden
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    Total War Shogun 2 was such a massive improvement... and now this? This is a disgrace to the Total War series... it's got strip away features, it's buggy to hell and back, AI are the most retarded they have ever been before, the map AI will almost never attack you.. and even when they do they only throw tiny groups of enemies at you. Never a big group. Enemies in game will stand there andTotal War Shogun 2 was such a massive improvement... and now this? This is a disgrace to the Total War series... it's got strip away features, it's buggy to hell and back, AI are the most retarded they have ever been before, the map AI will almost never attack you.. and even when they do they only throw tiny groups of enemies at you. Never a big group. Enemies in game will stand there and stare at you... without making any movements. Those god damn flags.. the god damn flags in a open field.. Oh man The UI in game is a terrible (except for the map screen). The graphics are glitchy and very average.
    Looks like a 2005 game. The videos showing how good the game look? Fake. Nobody has been able to get the game to look as good as some of the trailer showcased video footage of this game. Somebody up big time. This looks like a Alpha! They are selling a bloody alpha version for lots of money? Who the hell was in charge of this? It's a travesty. Long time fans are royally pissed off with good reason.

    +Cinematic cam
    +tooltips help you focus on the gameplay rather than being lost clicking stuff.
    +World Map
    +Province have capitals
    -Apart from tooltips, the UI is very limited.
    -AI are totally broken.
    -No challenge.
    -Graphics are bland.
    **** multiplayer, it's barebones 2 player gameplay. Nothing else.
    -Family trees have been stripped away, diplomacy, religion/politics & skill trees are worse than before.
    -Naval battles are plain screwed. The game automatically spawns ships when you send units to the sea, which are more powerful than actual naval ships. No fire at will or guard mode, no formations.
    -Your units refuse to go down walls
    -Most cinematics are gone.
    -No context sensitive battle speeches.    … Expand
  19. Nikk27
    Sep 7, 2013
    2
    This game in the current state is seriously overrated, it's a beta release at best, the ai is terrible, whatever settings i try it lags, i can run every other game but this refuses properly to work with my pc and to add insult to injury i get wise guy remarks by sega programmers saying that only 2% of gamers have problems....... well you know what? screw you sega! just screw you!
  20. Morzan
    Sep 3, 2013
    2
    I've waited so long for this game and the hype has been immense. When i opened the game and entered my first battle i almost felt like slamming my head into the wall. Never have I been so disappointed with a game on release. The list of dissappointments range from strange and frustrating graphics issues to completely ludacris waiting times in the campaign. Even with AI movements toggledI've waited so long for this game and the hype has been immense. When i opened the game and entered my first battle i almost felt like slamming my head into the wall. Never have I been so disappointed with a game on release. The list of dissappointments range from strange and frustrating graphics issues to completely ludacris waiting times in the campaign. Even with AI movements toggled off it's unacceptable. We had the exact same issue in shogun 2 but this is far worse. Sad and dissappointing launch. I want to love this game but I this is undenieably an unfinished product that I don't want to spend my time on with the current state of the game.… Expand
  21. Radox0
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    I've enjoyed the Total War series immensely through the years: I even enjoyed Empire at release as I didn't really encounter any of the crashes others did, and the bugs that were there were play through-able Rome 2 on the other hand, is a half finished game; I hope they realise their mistakes and patch it relentlessly to get it up to scratch as I want this game to be a success but rightI've enjoyed the Total War series immensely through the years: I even enjoyed Empire at release as I didn't really encounter any of the crashes others did, and the bugs that were there were play through-able Rome 2 on the other hand, is a half finished game; I hope they realise their mistakes and patch it relentlessly to get it up to scratch as I want this game to be a success but right now, as it is, it's not even deserving of a 5/10 average score… Expand
  22. Alex692
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    Couldnt play the game at first, it shouldve stayed that way. The game didnt even live up to an inch of my expectations. Ridiculous AI, very poorly polished and the game lagged like a mf at many points throughout the game. Still, this is ironically enough one of the best strategy titles out there, the only reason it doesnt get a 1...
  23. Datek
    Sep 11, 2013
    2
    This has the potential to be a great game someday. In it's current state, it is and disgraceful embarassment. This game is unplayable, and how it is possible to receive such high ratings from 'respectable' gaming review sites is beyond comprehension. No wonder the barbarians are up in arms. Watch the Angry Joe review on youtube if you are in any way considering buying this game.
  24. Southern_Hunter
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    CA have produced a compelling and interesting strategic game, with a completely broken tactical battle engine. Until modders are given the tools to do the work that CA should have done to produce a workable battle system, this is best avoided.
  25. Yoshi1
    Sep 5, 2013
    2
    This game feels unfinished and very buggy. This is my first total war game and I expected a whole lot better then this. The overall graphics are not great even on the highest setting. I saw many graphical glitches and awful textures especial for the landscape looks like it was made in 2005. The A.I. Is pretty awful and the battles between enemies is almost hard to watch its so bad. ManyThis game feels unfinished and very buggy. This is my first total war game and I expected a whole lot better then this. The overall graphics are not great even on the highest setting. I saw many graphical glitches and awful textures especial for the landscape looks like it was made in 2005. The A.I. Is pretty awful and the battles between enemies is almost hard to watch its so bad. Many A.I that are not on the front line will just stand there and wait until the soldier in front has died instead of actually fighting. The tutorial is awful and doesn't really teach the player how to play correctly. The U.I. is poorly executed and the game doesn't give the player a sense of accomplishment or reward for good strategies and tactics, The game play is sub par and after completing a tutorial it doesn't tell you what you could have corrected or what kinds of mistakes you made. Overall the game still feels like its in alpha or beta and really has some potential but its very poorly executed.… Expand
  26. Sigma77
    Sep 26, 2013
    2
    Again we all got tricked into paying full price for a beta. I don't really think I need to tell you from all of the other posts that you shouldn't buy this game until they fix everything. It's too bad too because it is a great game, it's just not complete and full of bugs and crashes for most people. The game actually runs okay for me but three of my other friends who also paid the steepAgain we all got tricked into paying full price for a beta. I don't really think I need to tell you from all of the other posts that you shouldn't buy this game until they fix everything. It's too bad too because it is a great game, it's just not complete and full of bugs and crashes for most people. The game actually runs okay for me but three of my other friends who also paid the steep $70 price at launch can't even play the game three weeks after launch.… Expand
  27. nebulousfury
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    It is VERY disturbing that the critics on metacric rated this game so favorable. There was undoubtedly some payoffs going there and I would highly recommend nobody take them seriously anymore. All credibility lost. With that out the way.... Rome II is a broken, senseless, and much downgraded version of what once was a great franchise. Even after you get past all the obvious faults... justIt is VERY disturbing that the critics on metacric rated this game so favorable. There was undoubtedly some payoffs going there and I would highly recommend nobody take them seriously anymore. All credibility lost. With that out the way.... Rome II is a broken, senseless, and much downgraded version of what once was a great franchise. Even after you get past all the obvious faults... just as you are starting to find a groove what happens? Well either the terrible AI won't make its move and you are forced to just sit there like an idiot or your soldiers get stuck on even the most negotiable obstacles and you are forced to restart because you can't do anything until every last member of a unit tries to navigate seemingly blindly around and through and over different obstacles of the map. The AI is just totally broken. It's not just how the computer unit AI is broken, but also the overall strategy of the computers themselves is broken. Graphically there is many glitches, and after 17 horrid hours of playing Rome II the longest it has been before I've seen a graphical bug is about 3 minutes... NO JOKE. Even the sound is a major downgrade from prior releases from this series. This game can't even be considered worthy of being called an Alpha. This is definitely a pre-alpha released as a FULL RETAIL GAME. What was Sega thinking? I'm sure that is what the majority who plays this game will be saying. Even after all the bugs are fixed, there is still major issues with gameplay and business practices. For example you need to pay almost 10 bucks just to be the Spartans. I'd recommend just pass of Rome II and forget it ever existed. It won't even be worth buying once the bugs are fixed. The entire design is flawed and that is a problem that can't be fixed with just a bunch of patches or even an expansion.… Expand
  28. Angry_Tomano
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    Sadly a disappointment. Poor performance, Poor AI, Late game turns take 5+ minutes waiting for the AI to finish their turns, Naval battles are a failure. AI does not know how to attack, i have seen indie games that are more polished and entertaining than this, Overall a poor effort for a AAA title, QA should feel bad, because they are bad.
  29. Rumblefish
    Nov 27, 2013
    2
    First things first, this is a truly awful game. It's probably the most disappointing game release of all time and not because CA have tried to innovate, but because they have dumbed down what was a great series, lost sight of what made the TW games good in the first place, removed the majority of the good features of previous games whilst adding half-finished and poorly designed aspects.First things first, this is a truly awful game. It's probably the most disappointing game release of all time and not because CA have tried to innovate, but because they have dumbed down what was a great series, lost sight of what made the TW games good in the first place, removed the majority of the good features of previous games whilst adding half-finished and poorly designed aspects. This game represents a betrayal of Total War, the fans and the reputation of CA itself.

    Where to start with just what is wrong with Rome 2? Well I could talk of blatant bugs, of homogenised unit rosters, a total lack of optimisation and performance, AI that is just utterly unintelligent, the awful obfuscating province system, the capture points in open field battles, transport ships being able to sink navies, Iron gates being burnt down with torches, massive and opaque unit cards, confusing unexplained game mechanics, the incredible stupidity of 1 year per turn, the terrible terrible animated character portraits, automatic garrisons, magic abilities, the battles where two armies simply converge in a mass blob, the battlefield engine which is simply not fit for purpose and is far inferior to the engine of the original Rome, every battle lasting five minutes, the non-functioning diplomacy system, the utterly pointless politics system this is the tip of the iceberg, I could go on all day.

    So, did they get anything right at all? Well, the music and sound is nice if limited in variety. The new ethos of 1 general 1 army is interesting and changes things up. I can understand it too as by limiting the number of armies (albeit artificially) means the player and AI have to be more selective in where they deploy the armies they do have. The classical civilisation aesthetic is nice. Also, the new agents are a good idea but are simply terribly implemented. Army naming and traditions is a nice idea, although could have been fleshed out a lot more. And that's about it for the positives.

    The most damming aspect of Rome 2 is the fact that above all it is utterly boring. The game is amazingly easy even on Legendary mode and you will spend most of your time simply pressing end turn without having done anything since the last one. There is no strategy here, there are no choices, no real options; everything is streamlined and watered down. The campaign map is contains set channels for armies to march down and set landing sites for navies to disembark their troops, and this means the "biggest ever campaign map" we were promised is actually the smallest and most restrictive.

    Rome 2 is a colossal failure and no amount of patches will change that. Three months after release, the game is still an unpalatable mixture of boring and non-working game mechanics.

    What can we learn from this? CA are pretty much done, they've lost their way and look like they've given up. I doubt there's a real gamer still at the company. How anyone could be happy putting their name to this travesty I will never know. Perhaps more importantly we have yet again learnt about some of the biggest review sites out there. It is amazing that some have given this a score of 9 or 10 (as they did with Diablo 3 and the Madden franchise for years). These reviewers are either utterly corrupt or completely inept. In more ways than one, Rome 2 has shown us who we can trust.    … Expand
  30. Olafsson
    Sep 15, 2013
    2
    Let's play Rome Total War 2, shall we ?

    ZZZZzzzzZZZZZzzzzzZZZZ That sums it up I think. This game is just boring, there is no challenge whatsoever and most of the time is made of... waiting. There is no rythm or ambiance that would keep the player interested quite a failure when you think it should involves Rome, huge battles, acts of heroism, conquest, politics, treasons, and the    Let's play Rome Total War 2, shall we ?

    ZZZZzzzzZZZZZzzzzzZZZZ

    That sums it up I think. This game is just boring, there is no challenge whatsoever and most of the time is made of... waiting. There is no rythm or ambiance that would keep the player interested quite a failure when you think it should involves Rome, huge battles, acts of heroism, conquest, politics, treasons, and the such. But here, nope, it's just plain boring.

    Congratulations for that Creative Assembly, it is really quite an achievement.

    Also, false marketing, false promises, we're getting used to it, but it's always totally unacceptable. Lying to customers is very very low. Watch Angry Joe review on youtube, listen to the people in charge of the AI and laugh your ass off comparing it to the reality. Shame, shame on you. Stop spending money on marketing and overhype, and use more in actual work on important things like AI.

    And of course everything else... UI is bad, especially for nowadays standards. Naval units are useless. Performances issues. Units balancing messed up. Loading times...

    Well pretty much everything is off.

    This game is maybe worth 3/10 and 10 bucks, but am gonna lower it to a 2/10 because of the false reviews. Guys, it really starts to show that you are bought and that is unacceptable.    … 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.
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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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