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. ibuyonlyquality
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    Launching Second Shortcoming of the Year. Retarded UI, poor optimization, no SLI. Yes, I was talking about CoH2. Applies to this title also. Support better game developers, there are a few.
  2. Brosman
    Sep 10, 2013
    1
    I know its not a real review. But just warning to people wanting to buy this game, Im pretty sure 90% of the critics on the left side there have been paid off. 100/100, really?
  3. Studpuffin
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    This game is only slightly better than Empire Total War, in that it is actually playable. That doesn't mean you'll actually want to play it, though. The game is full of annoyances: graphical bugs, bad computer AI that will literally run in circles around the battlefield and use almost nothing but slingers in battle, constant crashing during siege battles, and an bad unit cards that areThis game is only slightly better than Empire Total War, in that it is actually playable. That doesn't mean you'll actually want to play it, though. The game is full of annoyances: graphical bugs, bad computer AI that will literally run in circles around the battlefield and use almost nothing but slingers in battle, constant crashing during siege battles, and an bad unit cards that are hard to tell apart from other unit cards. At the beginning of the game the time it takes to load a new turn is maybe a minute for me. After about 50 turns, I'll be lucky to have the end turn cycle done by the time I cook and eat dinner and enjoy some time with my family (you know, if the AI doesn't interrupt the end turn sequence with constant begging for money).

    On the plus side, it is pretty compared to the graphics of previous games. However, this doesn't make up for the atrocious game play. All in all, I would suggest that if you have to purchase a total war game, don't make it this one. Go back and buy the original Rome Total War or Medieval 2 (I can't vouch for Shogun 2, because I never played it).

    To sum up, this game was a disappointment. I regret buying it.    … Expand
  4. hedgeknight86
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    Total War is my favorite games series. Not just strategy games, but in all of gaming. However, with the release of Rome 2 I realized I paid $60 for a game that isn't finished. This is just unacceptable.
  5. EckSi
    Sep 10, 2013
    1
    I am fan of the TW series at heart. For my credentials as a critic, I currently have over 100 hours in game, have beaten a campaign, and am one of the top of the leaderboards in multiplayers (Xtreme Chaos).

    Rome 2 feels entirely dumbed down when compared to the previous title, Shogun 2. The terrible campaign&battle AI, the lack of unit customization, the lack of general customization,    I am fan of the TW series at heart. For my credentials as a critic, I currently have over 100 hours in game, have beaten a campaign, and am one of the top of the leaderboards in multiplayers (Xtreme Chaos).

    Rome 2 feels entirely dumbed down when compared to the previous title, Shogun 2. The terrible campaign&battle AI, the lack of unit customization, the lack of general customization, banners, etc.

    Shogun 2 took the series two steps forward. Then Rome 2 came and took three steps back. While the graphics may have improved visually, there are still many many bugs and graphics related issues like water floating a battlefield etc. that it makes the game feel unfinished and untested.

    I would have been more than happy to volunteer my time and test this game for free so that the game could be passable on release, but CA and SEGA didn't feel like quality took a priority to advertising.

    Lastly, the moderating on their online forums are terrible. They cherrypick what threads do or do not stay, they keep horrendous and troll praisers yet they delete and ban valid criticisms. I'm looking at you, Sasu.    … Expand
  6. jojo1983
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    I don't know why people give good reviews. There is no depth in gaming experience. After a couple hours of playing its bored. My views are:

    Good: - nice campaign map, many factions - province system is better - good music Negatives: - Terrible campaign and battle AI, but that is fixable - no family tree and seasons; characters are quiekly dead (after 30 turns) and you have no    I don't know why people give good reviews. There is no depth in gaming experience. After a couple hours of playing its bored. My views are:

    Good:
    - nice campaign map, many factions
    - province system is better
    - good music

    Negatives:
    - Terrible campaign and battle AI, but that is fixable
    - no family tree and seasons; characters are quiekly dead (after 30 turns) and you have no feeling with a person, there are not enough marriages. When I play with pontus Mithridates is soon dead and there is no heir, strange in the Mithridates dynasty Is the same with other dynasties. The gravitas is not a additional value but a step backwards.
    - the army system, when a army is demolised you can recruit the same army again included the positive traits and good troops. It's more spamming of armys then a good gaming experience
    - the flags in open battles, but that it's fixable
    - the fast battles, avergae 5 minutes 1 minute active battles and 4 minutes when the troops met each other

    I hope that Sega or CA listen to this views, its also on the forums. Roma total war 2 has potentialin the future but in this form its boring to play.    … Expand
  7. Thunderlion59
    Sep 10, 2013
    1
    Look, It's time for gamers to realize that some companys are trying to fu## us. I'm tired of it, 40% bigger budget my A##. Crappy AI, and a total downgrade to the past entrys in the franchise. I really am wondering if the critics actually tested the game or watched a trailer. This game has so much potential, but this is completely unacceptable. I actually gave this game a 1/10 because ILook, It's time for gamers to realize that some companys are trying to fu## us. I'm tired of it, 40% bigger budget my A##. Crappy AI, and a total downgrade to the past entrys in the franchise. I really am wondering if the critics actually tested the game or watched a trailer. This game has so much potential, but this is completely unacceptable. I actually gave this game a 1/10 because I remember the good days that made this my favorite strategy franchise. Please. stand up for gamers. Don't buy this game it is stripped down and not worth it.… Expand
  8. leeroybrown151
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    Well where do I begin? Its hard to put my utter dissapointment into words here really! Have been playing the TW Series since Shogun all those moons ago and have been playing games much to my wifes disgust since 86. I LOVE my games! And nowadays consider myself to be more picky about where I spend my money, so RTW2 was seen by myself as an essential purchase, more fool me, shame on me to beWell where do I begin? Its hard to put my utter dissapointment into words here really! Have been playing the TW Series since Shogun all those moons ago and have been playing games much to my wifes disgust since 86. I LOVE my games! And nowadays consider myself to be more picky about where I spend my money, so RTW2 was seen by myself as an essential purchase, more fool me, shame on me to be honest!

    The game is very good looking yes and unlike many I have no issues running it, it LOOKS good! But its sooo shallow, like a swan on water it looks graceful and beautiful but under the water is paddling away like mad and far from graceful!! I like strategy games, the campaign is NEVER going to deliver depth, that I know and have come to expect from a Total War game (I play a Paradox game for that great experience!!), I play a Total War game for the battles and here lies the issue, after years you would think they would improve the AI with every release not make it worse??? But this is just a mess! Capture Flags? No use of the battlefield? No Tactics? Blobs? Mechanized infantry (30 mph I reckon!)? Suicidal AI? WHO was testing this? Seriously, WHO? It defies belief!!! I am or was a CA fan! No longer.

    I await mods which I pray salvages my spent pennies, but no longer am I to be fooled again, once a mistake, twice just makes me stupid! I drive past their HQ most days on the way to work, I would love to have a constructive conversation (dreaming! lol!) about just what happened here! Can only think that the original CA team has changed over the years, its a damn, damn shame and gutting! But the sad part is that the money will be made and therefore deemed a success, money is what talks, pure undeniable fact, so all the "noise" will be unfortunately lost in the wind of the money blowing past to SEGA and CA's doors.

    DO NOT BUY NOW! Wait if you eventually must line their pockets till at least December when modders who wont see a penny of your cash help you potentially love this game.    … Expand
  9. Stellen
    Sep 8, 2013
    1
    Truly dreadful game, it's as if no-one ever play-tested it. It plays like game written by some third rate company, trying to make a Total War clone, but running out of money half way through and just dumping it on the market unfinished.
  10. saviwise
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A complete and utter disappointment after 35 hours play (i.e. the equivalent of a working week)

    The good: Interesting province idea, big map, many factions, the new stance system works ok.

    The not so good: Awful AI, boring graphics (not like the trailers), unit types play the same, family tree removed and marriage options not properly implemented, over-powered free transport ships, flawed and limited tech and build trees, implementation of the province vs city idea is abysmal (you can build a maximum of five buildings in Rome), battles resemble the WWE Royal Rumbles but with more garish costumes, different agent action types pointless, generals die after 20 turns, no seasons or winter weather, random attrition travelling on the map, no roads, no buildable walls or defenses in towns, HORRIBLE UI, units have magic powers that can be spammed indefinitely (but can't they stay in formation), formation movement buttons removed from battle map, Varus give me back my guard button, legionary fire at will button and defensive pilum removed, testudo doesn't work, phalanx formation for the Greeks doesn't work, units run at 40mph, battles over in 4 minutes (big ones), few videos in game those that appear are random, random politics and events outside of the player's influence, co-op campaign doesn't work, diplomacy doesn't work, single player campaign doesn't work no one will attack you even on hard very hard, over simplified and boring economic system, slow-opening encyclopedia (web pages load faster), poorly implemented mouse over information, poorly implemented general system reduces you to few big armies but the AI pointlessly throws a multitude of tiny armies at your cities, horrible massive unit cards, unattractive icons and unit card images, lacks the historic polish and informational depth of the previous games .

    Apparently many people are also experiencing technical issues. Doesn't support SLI (or Crossfire so I've read) either.

    I could go on. I really wish I hadn't pre-ordered this game. I know people who took time off work to play this this week. Creative Labs, EA, Sega Shame on you.    … Expand
  11. MERC123
    Sep 11, 2013
    0
    I've been playing Total War games for about 8 years. I've spent over 1,000 hours playing Medieval 2, Empire, and Shogun 2. Rome 2 is a massive disappointment in comparison to the incredible previous games. Now I know that Empire was extremely buggy when it was released, but it was a completely revamped and expanded game. CA didn't bother to add anything new to Rome 2. They actuallyI've been playing Total War games for about 8 years. I've spent over 1,000 hours playing Medieval 2, Empire, and Shogun 2. Rome 2 is a massive disappointment in comparison to the incredible previous games. Now I know that Empire was extremely buggy when it was released, but it was a completely revamped and expanded game. CA didn't bother to add anything new to Rome 2. They actually simplified and dumbed everything down. You know what this reminds me of? SimCity. EA promised all sorts of amazing new features and gameplay. Then they released an unplayable, broken game without delivering on anything they'd promised. CA has done the exact same thing with Rome 2. Horrible AI, graphical glitches galore, and unplayable multiplayer are just a few things I'll take the time to mention. And the sad thing is that the professional reviewers don't even punish CA for all these gamebreaking problems. The same exact thing happened when SimCity came out. I've lost all faith in the mainstream game review companies. They're clearly working with the corporations and not the consumers in mind. CA should be publicly shamed and protested for releasing such a painfully disappointing product.… Expand
  12. Huber
    Sep 10, 2013
    1
    Huge step back =(

    Played this game 10 hours looking for the promised experience, but it lacks strategy, depth and is bugged as hell. Here the things that bothers me the most: - family trees removed no connection to my nation - passive campaign AI - too easy, too fast and too acardish battles with lack of strategy - UI is horrible (why didn´t they just copy the perfect Shogun    Huge step back =(

    Played this game 10 hours looking for the promised experience, but it lacks strategy, depth and is bugged as hell.

    Here the things that bothers me the most:

    - family trees removed no connection to my nation
    - passive campaign AI
    - too easy, too fast and too acardish battles with lack of strategy
    - UI is horrible (why didn´t they just copy the perfect Shogun II ???)
    - the sound is boring compared to the other TW Games
    - bugs everywhere

    This game really feels like a beta!!!

    I do like the campaign graphic and it´s maybe the best TW game to start with, if you are new to the series, but TW veterans will be disappointed.    … Expand
  13. 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
  14. astralheights
    Sep 6, 2013
    5
    On first impulse, I was going to give this game a 0. But, after some thought, I decided to give the game a 5. Why? Because it is an average RTS game. As a Total War game it deserves an even lower score.

    Read other reviews for the host of problems. I'm sure the graphical issues will be resolved. Many other issues will be resolved. But, how do you fix the fact that the battles aren't    On first impulse, I was going to give this game a 0. But, after some thought, I decided to give the game a 5. Why? Because it is an average RTS game. As a Total War game it deserves an even lower score.

    Read other reviews for the host of problems. I'm sure the graphical issues will be resolved. Many other issues will be resolved.

    But, how do you fix the fact that the battles aren't tactical? I buy Rome: Total War so that I can set up the Roman war machine and put my enemies through the meat grinder! I want every one of my legionaries to thrust their gladius into the stomachs of the enemy! How can I do this without legendary Roman organization and discipline? When is that going to be fixed. How will that ever be fixed? Answer to the former: Don't know that it ever will be. To the latter: I don't know that it can be. But, if only this issue were fixed, I could play the game, and happily too. As it stands, I can't. If I wanted a turn-based game without tactics I could have played Civ or a Paradox game.

    Will never again pre-order a Total War game.    … Expand
  15. gilly93
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    The games should never have been released in its current state for the following reasons:
    - Poorly optimized
    - Removal of popular features for no good reason e.g fire at will for infantry, guard mode, tight/loose and no family tree. - CA have simplified the game for the masses in terms of game play and UI, it looks like they have consoles in mind e.g tech trees and less facts and    The games should never have been released in its current state for the following reasons:
    - Poorly optimized
    - Removal of popular features for no good reason e.g fire at will for infantry, guard mode, tight/loose and no family tree.
    - CA have simplified the game for the masses in terms of game play and UI, it looks like they have consoles in mind e.g tech trees and less facts and figures
    - AI is useless, armies made up of skirmishers and the AI has tactical awareness above rushing the flag or standing still
    - Game play is arcadey in terms of 2 minute battles because of game speed, also stupid magical abilities and the units lose all tactical cohesion breaking formation and forming a large blob
    -Worst idea is the frustrating capture points which remove any strategy in battles as I'm forced to defend an open field and can lose a battle despite having 20units left to the AI's 1, IMO this addition is just a cheap way of simplifying the AI path finding as it forces both armies to a single spot
    - Many many glitches on both campaign and battle maps
    - Most annoying aspect is many of the problems are clear to gamers within a few hours of playing so this shows CA are either completely inept and haven't tested their game or consulted their core fan base or they knew of the problems and released the game regardless either way next time I wont be buying the game on day one or per-ordering as I'm not interested in paying CA to be their game tester.    … Expand
  16. 3HeadedMonkey
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    Total Casual War: Rome Beta 2

    Graphics poorly optimized for my high end rig with an AMD card. Running absolutely terribly when it should not be. User interface is terrible. Battlefield AI is a huge step back beyond Shogun 2, how is this possible? The battlefield AI developer should be politely be asked to take his coat and find another job. Capture points on a battlefield?! Why    Total Casual War: Rome Beta 2

    Graphics poorly optimized for my high end rig with an AMD card. Running absolutely terribly when it should not be.
    User interface is terrible.
    Battlefield AI is a huge step back beyond Shogun 2, how is this possible? The battlefield AI developer should be politely be asked to take his coat and find another job.
    Capture points on a battlefield?! Why should we care about an innocuous bit of dirt on the ground?
    Removal of family tree. This was the BEST part of the RPG element of total war. Why would you remove this?!
    Addition of far too many "special" abilities. Come on. This is total war, not Skyrim.
    Naval battles are completely broken. Buttons don't work, units don't do what they are told to do. Glitchy crap.
    Cities and sieges are completely underwhelming; I understand the point for having less regularity with sieges, but why no great big city in the background, or a small settlement outside of the main city with a fantastic city in the background? Where is the scope and imagination?!
    Unit control is now beyond awful. I never used to have to make hotkeys in order to control my army, now I feel I have to because the control element is terrible.
    Skirmishing units still can't skirmish. How many years have we waited for this to be fixed?
    Phalanxes, oh look they are not working again.
    Ridiculous load times on the campaign map, I don't really want to have to make a sandwich and cup of tea after every turn thank you.
    The loss of seasons and one year per turn. Less atmosphere, less RPG element with characters, no tactical planning around when the right time is to fight. The campaign map just looks the same ALL the time. Where is the variety?
    Tech tree is broken in its current form. Technology should take a LONG time to acquire, to make it more interesting when you actually get it. Right now, getting legionnaires by 250 BC is frankly, ridiculous.
    Battle speed, most battles are over within 2 or 3 minutes! Where is the strategy? Where is the tactics? Another point which proves CA are now targeting the casual gamer who are the completely wrong target audience for these types of games.
    No zoom button on the campaign map?
    The units are interchangeable pieces, with different skins. Some of which are pretty, some of which are distinctly uninspiring.
    Less of the wardogs, flaming pigs, flying elephants, and scuba camels. Can we just get a game that works pretty please?
    The lethality of units is so high everyone just dies within 30 seconds. Was this even tested?
    The audio is boring and lacklustre. Where is Jeff Van Dyck?! The horrendous monotone voices make me want to disable my audio. I've never had this in any total war game.

    The terrible thing is, I could go on! There are so many issues with this game.

    I was going to give this a four of ten if the first patch actually fixed some of the issues above, HOWEVER..the first patch does nothing to fix anything I have raised. Therefore a buggy, unpolished, uninspiring, boring, beta game which should never have been released this early gets a two out of ten. Its just an unplayable ball of frustration and mess. What a disappointment and HUGE step back in the series after the fantastic Shogun 2.

    If your a hardcore Total War fan, do not be fooled by all the positive reviews.    … Expand
  17. croninsdisease
    Sep 9, 2013
    2
    A completely watered down, stupified version of a classic series. This game has gone wrong in so many places for me personally. Nearly every aspect of Total War that I love is absent from this title. With patches it will be "playable" i'm sure, but it will never be a true total war game, stop trying to say otherwise. No functioning diplomacy. No family tree. Every turn is a year. AI isA completely watered down, stupified version of a classic series. This game has gone wrong in so many places for me personally. Nearly every aspect of Total War that I love is absent from this title. With patches it will be "playable" i'm sure, but it will never be a true total war game, stop trying to say otherwise. No functioning diplomacy. No family tree. Every turn is a year. AI is somehow more dumb than in previous titles, including Rome 1. The provincial system is atrocious and lacks explanation, tell what what these new "features" are without making us go through the obnoxious encyclopedia full of useless information. I could go on, if you're looking for a game that feels like total war, and looks good, get Shogun 2 if you haven't already. Otherwise, ignore this title for now ,at least until it's priced accordingly to the quality of the game. Thoroughly disappointed in the Creative Assembly. Thanks for making this title for people who don't play the series....… Expand
  18. Zukku
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    Everything is horrible about this game.
    I LOOOVED Shogun 2, and i had so many dreams and high hopes for Rome 2 (Even though i did not expect it to be better)
    I just wanted Shogun 2 but with Rome.. But no. It feels so different and many things you know from Shogun they have removed. My score is low, and some may say that it is too low. But I have horrible FPS especially during anything    Everything is horrible about this game.
    I LOOOVED Shogun 2, and i had so many dreams and high hopes for Rome 2 (Even though i did not expect it to be better)
    I just wanted Shogun 2 but with Rome.. But no.
    It feels so different and many things you know from Shogun they have removed. My score is low, and some may say that it is too low. But I have horrible FPS especially during anything with water eventhough i have a good build, with low to none problems in any other game. Ran Metro Last light on highest with no problems.. In Rome 2 it's nearly impossible for me to play.
    AI is... Not even worth mentioning. I have no idea how they thought that it was an improvement from the others. Damn.

    You dropped the ball on this one.    … Expand
  19. TJarnold92
    Sep 11, 2013
    3
    The game is basically unplayable. I have a Nvidia GTX 760 and 8 GB of RAM, and can run A.R.M.A. III and Metro: LL on MAX settings and get 50 FPS, yet this game on the LOWEST SETTINGS pushes 20 FPS at the most.

    I have no idea what systems the professional reviewers have, the game runs horribly and almost everybody else has this issue. It's just unoptimized.
  20. Coeurdacier
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    What a fail....
    The battle are too fast, the graphism are like cartoons, my generals die always after three or two turn.
    The troops are all Usain bolt, they run very very fast.
    This game is not finish.
  21. lordpain
    Nov 25, 2013
    0
    It's a bad game, over hyped crap. The AI is retarded, UI looks like agents do the same thing so no point in having 3 different types, no point in besieging a city you can attack right away and have your soldiers burn down the huge metal gates with magical torches that they keep up their ass during battles, naval combat is broken, load of bugs and so on... Do not buy
  22. 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
  23. 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.
  24. mrchinchin25
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    This game is good when it works. However the bugs and gfx issues are crippling, and its a step back from the rich strategy tapesty of history and battle I expect from the Total War series.

    Biggest issues for me? Battles are too fast to really enjoy. I want to feel like I'm in the thick of it, not having to panic zoom in and out to micro-manage my units. Also day 1 DLC so -2 points    This game is good when it works. However the bugs and gfx issues are crippling, and its a step back from the rich strategy tapesty of history and battle I expect from the Total War series.

    Biggest issues for me? Battles are too fast to really enjoy. I want to feel like I'm in the thick of it, not having to panic zoom in and out to micro-manage my units.

    Also day 1 DLC so -2 points automatically.    … Expand
  25. Foerster44
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Game with decent potential, but the once epic TW battles devolved to incoherent, chaotic blobs where the victor is determined in ca. 30 seconds by a total routing of the opponent without any TW atmosphere being created (great idea to insert brilliantly detailled battles when you never have the time to actually watch them), game lags where it shouldn't, 1 turn per year in a slow-pacedGame with decent potential, but the once epic TW battles devolved to incoherent, chaotic blobs where the victor is determined in ca. 30 seconds by a total routing of the opponent without any TW atmosphere being created (great idea to insert brilliantly detailled battles when you never have the time to actually watch them), game lags where it shouldn't, 1 turn per year in a slow-paced campaign, no family tree, poor soundtracks, problematic unit cards, professional navys being screwn against transport navys, programmatic errors running havok in your RAM causing the whole system to freeze without any remarkable reason, the capture points on open-field battles that ruin any sense of tactical or strategical deployment all this just ruins it and makes the game unenjoyable for now, so to balance out the undeserved top ratings, I'm giving this a 2. Although if CA fixes most of the current crucial game breakes, I will come back to correct my rating, but for now, the awkwardness of Rome 2 is unacceptable.… Expand
  26. Gunteraz
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    This is the biggest game launch failure i have ever seen. The game is not even in beta stage at the moment and should have not been launched at least until 6 more months of development. Paying 60 euros for this garbage has convinced me to never again buy one of Creative Assembly games again. Ever.
  27. clairbear_ski
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    This is without a doubt the worst Total war game to date
    It allows you to have only 3 armies and 2 navies while the enemies have unlimited troops
    You troops desert while you enemy does not For the first time you cannot merge depleted units Graphics are not as advertised it is a major step backwards from it's predecessors Playability on maps is weak You armies cannot move while    This is without a doubt the worst Total war game to date
    It allows you to have only 3 armies and 2 navies while the enemies have unlimited troops
    You troops desert while you enemy does not
    For the first time you cannot merge depleted units
    Graphics are not as advertised it is a major step backwards from it's predecessors
    Playability on maps is weak
    You armies cannot move while "mustering" new troops and only generals or admirals can recruit
    It was a waste of 60 bucks
    You want a Total war game stick with Shogun 2, Empire, Medievil 2 or other earlier games in the series
    Even the original Rome was vastly better    … Expand
  28. Googleness
    Sep 6, 2013
    4
    Total war is long term game so you are expected to do a campaign for about a week or two if you play casual.

    50 turns into Rome II -> 1. End turn 2. Alt Tab 3. Have babies, get them married. 4. Get grandchildrens 5. have your new grand kids to come and see the historic moment. 6. clean pc from dust. 7. Alt tab 8. wait few more minutes 9. turn 51! yay! grand pa 'his c'wap is    Total war is long term game so you are expected to do a campaign for about a week or two if you play casual.

    50 turns into Rome II ->
    1. End turn
    2. Alt Tab
    3. Have babies, get them married.
    4. Get grandchildrens
    5. have your new grand kids to come and see the historic moment.
    6. clean pc from dust.
    7. Alt tab
    8. wait few more minutes
    9. turn 51! yay! grand pa 'his c'wap is cool!

    in more serious note,
    1. graphics the game gave me automatic Extreme settings which runs kinda well but game looks bad.

    2. gameplay this is NOT total war. total war is about using agents on the strategic map with wise and smart province management combined with small specialize inferior forces to outmaneuver and outmatch your opponents and conquer the world. here we got world map which is basicly LAME version of civilization with no sense what so ever. a battle mode in which there is no strategy only blob wars over victory points in which slingers will annihilate everything (try it... full slinger army will destroy anything in the game lol). In fact game so bad they added "Economic" and "cultural" victory so you don't need to conquer anything! just use diplomacy and ofc enhanced auto-resolve which tells you now not only if you win but how many troops you get left with!

    3. Navies are so crap now they deserve their own section, you take and unit and drive them into the see they turn into a fleet. the get a ramming ship! and they can board. no need to build navies just get 20 mobs send them into the sea and you got doomstack navy. Also because land units can now easily turn free into NAVAL units some weird stuff happens like minor barbaric tribe from north Europe invade into Arabia!!!! wtf is that crap.

    4. Politics, no more senate floor... no more family tree.... now you get weird list of generals which shows who got most power... once in few turns you get some weird event which cause little problem until you resolve it.. how? pick a button.. that's it. no politics what so ever!

    5. diplomacy... hmmp... well... faction so stupid they will stay with 1 province, no armies, under siege and refuse peace treaty 5000 gold that stupid. in previous games you could set trade agreements and do stuff here it's dumbed down diplomacy as most options like switch cities, stop wars, exchange map information, BRIBE are removed from the game.
    then when you finnaly manage to get trade agreement some weird stuff happens like your new buddy wants to help you in your war so he sends 1 ship to navy blockade a port of the enemy last city for OVER 20 turns and so you can't kill them... bah.

    6. limited number of armies, navies and agents.
    on previous games you could recruit some units then have a captain with them which if he was successful could be adopted and become a general but here you need to "Raise" force as general or admiral then recruit straight to him the forces and most of the game start you can have no more then 4-6 armies! it's pathetic. as militant player I did lots of conquest and combat on this series with smart small forces and wise tactics but here I'm limited to 3 armies! on game start so basicly if you got bad luck and enemy got allies or 2 factions declares war o you suddenly 4-5 doomstacks vs your 1 little stack as you can't divide it to ambush them or use one small force to lure them while your main force gank their cities sun-tzu style... nope.

    7. city development is utter stupid. no point at all you reach to a point where you got income like 10k per turn while city is mostly level 2-3 buildings. no need to build anything! the population remains the same when it's growing you actually get more building slots to get more money from buildings. actually building more advanced stuff in cities gets you ton of squalor and shortage in food which do not benefits enough income wise (extra 1000 per turn for empire wise upgrade) to actually do it so build 2-3 military building rest is farmings and agricalture boosting buildings tehn get ton of money and spam slinger armies of doom :X fail.

    this is fail game from design to execution. shogun 2 is superior and more pretty, Rome 1 is a better game and much better game with mods. Medieval 2 was one of the best game in the series.. add medieval 2 with a mod which exteneds the map so you can do grand campaign on HUGE map which contain the vanilla all the Kingdoms campaigns at same time for utter victory.
    Empire was decent as casual total war and had good points as it did gunpowder decently but overall Rome 2 is step backward.

    "IT WILL GET A PATCH YOU FOOL!" fact: i finished campaign on all of the total war games WITHOUT patches. on Rome II I cannot finish a campaign cause the end turn takes 2 years to finish cycle 30000000000000000000 factions.
    rig: 8 Gb ram i5 2500K GTX 550Ti OC edition Win 7    … Expand
  29. 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.
  30. Ryansmithee
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    A poor excuse for a game which I'm frankly shocked by. after playing 30 hours of this broken, incomplete game I'm surprised that they where able to charge money for this mess.

    -The AI in total war games has always been lacking but never to the point where factions will not engage you on the campaign map and will walk right up to your formations on the battle map and then run away    A poor excuse for a game which I'm frankly shocked by. after playing 30 hours of this broken, incomplete game I'm surprised that they where able to charge money for this mess.

    -The AI in total war games has always been lacking but never to the point where factions will not engage you on the campaign map and will walk right up to your formations on the battle map and then run away without any reason.

    -WARNING- do not even attempt a naval battle they are completely bugged (My Gran could code better AI) the ships will randomly chose to ram or to board depending on how the game is feeling.

    -WTF decision to add capture point on land battles which removes all tactics making you rush for the flag making it feel like a game of domination from COD

    -The game will rape your PC even on the lower settings. The lowest graphical setting look worse than the original total war which is shocking.

    -The game does not run smoothly at all, just panning the camera will look like a power point presentation

    -THE MAIN POINT why on Earth was there no public demo or beta to iron out these bugs in the first place, personally I feel as though CA and SEGA (SEGA (SCUM)) should have paid the 'per-orderors' of this game instead of us paying them.

    Also the lack of pre-launch content e.g. videos, previews and next to no details on the multiplayer which is by the way completely F*****.

    To concluded I have lost all faith in the total franchise which in my opinion was day light robbery of the fans money, shame on you for this shambles of a game.

    A FINAL MESSAGE TO THE DEVS-

    What where you thinking you fools!

    One does not simply release a game in this state!    … 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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