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. handicapper911
    Sep 27, 2013
    0
    This could have been a great game, but as usual, CA had to release a broken game. Usually one can handle the glitches etc, but this time its too much.
    -The gameplay, naval warfare, besieging settlements etc, though glitchy and sluggish, was manageable and still fun.
    -When waiting for the turn scale to rotate, it freezes. This makes the game unplayable as I physically cannot progress    This could have been a great game, but as usual, CA had to release a broken game. Usually one can handle the glitches etc, but this time its too much.
    -The gameplay, naval warfare, besieging settlements etc, though glitchy and sluggish, was manageable and still fun.
    -When waiting for the turn scale to rotate, it freezes. This makes the game unplayable as I physically cannot progress further.
    -The CTDs during campaigning and in battle make the game unplayable, cant continue or do anything without being sent straight back to my desktop.
    In conclusion, though this could have been a great game, it is ultimately unplayable, its CTDs and freezes make it literally impossible to progress through the game. That being said, since I cannot play the game, I will have to mark it a fat zero.    … Expand
  2. ipeople
    Sep 27, 2013
    1
    If you are a fan of the total war series you will want to avoid this game.

    It was released fours weeks ago and still has problems with loads of bugs.

    The game has been simplified and a lot of content has been removed.

    The game is boring and lacking in any strategy. Seriously, there is so little to playing this game, if you have a pulse you can play this game.

    Don't buy this game.
  3. Gulskjegg
    Oct 3, 2013
    0
    As a previous reviewer had commented, the current commercialized review system is very much like the American political system. The average persons desires perspective is completely ignored as big money interests call the shots. The end user is simply not represented in any real way. I have been playing the Total War series since Shogun 1, and my personal favorite of the entire series isAs a previous reviewer had commented, the current commercialized review system is very much like the American political system. The average persons desires perspective is completely ignored as big money interests call the shots. The end user is simply not represented in any real way. I have been playing the Total War series since Shogun 1, and my personal favorite of the entire series is Medieval War 1, which I still play regularly. Creative Assembly lost the plot with Empire, but somewhat corrected course with Shogun 2. However, Rome 2 is completely and utterly broken in every possible way. Glitchy graphics, abysmal AI, boring battles, and the strategic aspects of the game are incomprehensible as well as counter-intuitive. Even after a patch or two, the game remains frustrating and unplayable. This is, officially, the last TW product I will ever buy from CA. The most depressing thing about this whole matter is the fact that CA could have taken the exact, precise gameplay, interface, and engine of Rome 1, updated the graphics and cutscenes a bit, and had themselves a real winner. As an aside, the conventional review sites, Metacritic not included due to this peer review option, are making enemies among the gaming community faster than they might realize. Just as the internet is crushing the "main stream media" dinosaurs, the big name sites might find themselves obsolete if they do not clean up their act. Same goes for CA, too.… Expand
  4. vardano
    Oct 8, 2013
    2
    Biggest failure of beloved game. What a shame. They cut from game best features and instead it's full of bugs and terrible design decisions. Pre-launch marketing were lies and this is disgraceful.
  5. sablesoilwork
    Nov 1, 2013
    0
    Huge fan of the series stunned they could go so far backwards in AI, UI, battles and campaign mode.

    Game doesn't deserve the current rating of 76 on metacritic and it's disgusting to see so many review sites posted positive reviews at release. Never trust paid critics folks.
  6. RobbieJones85
    Mar 5, 2014
    0
    Absolute Garbage. Purchased on Steam, can't play as it keeps randomly crashing. I wish I'd read all the reviews about bugs before buying. Can't get any sense from the support, the support forums are useless, and can't speak to anyone about a refund. CA have literally stolen my £30. I used to love Total War. I will never again give CA or the total war series my money. Unbelievable.
  7. Raskol
    Mar 26, 2014
    0
    I bought this game at launch worked till decemeber, since then doesent work, keep getting the sam CTD. So I recommend wait 2-3 years for the modders to fix it, this is just a store platform for CA to sell buggy crap. I even made a complaint to my local consumer protectio agency as this people are scammers.
  8. nidza
    Sep 5, 2013
    5
    The game is made a for a high end PC and an SSD is a must have if you don't want to clean your house while waiting for your turn.

    The battles are criminally easy. The campaign is slightly harder but still too easy. The battles are slower than in shogun which suits my playstyle. The game is very pretty the graphics are amazing and I like the art style. I like this game more than    The game is made a for a high end PC and an SSD is a must have if you don't want to clean your house while waiting for your turn.

    The battles are criminally easy.
    The campaign is slightly harder but still too easy.
    The battles are slower than in shogun which suits my playstyle.
    The game is very pretty the graphics are amazing and I like the art style.
    I like this game more than shogun 2 but I do see shogun 2 as a better game which makes this a step back.
    It could be optimized better and have SLI support but it's a rush job.

    I wouldn't pay them 83$ which is the European price for the game but the 30$ the Russian price seemed ok enough for me to try this...for the rest I would recommend piracy as it's not a cashgrab per se but day one DLC makes me angry.    … Expand
  9. Liteit
    Nov 17, 2013
    4
    Great franchise which i liked since the first Rome. But this game is terrible. they just made out a raw game, which is practically unplayable with its poor optimization and crashes. Obviously they would fix everything but the first impression is ruined. Hope next time they won't treat their fans like that.
  10. Deavon
    Sep 8, 2013
    5
    Apart from the bugs there are some serious game breakers for me; not in the least the capture points during battles. Don't too be tempted by the critic reviews, most of them aren't TW players anyway.
    Wait before you purchase.
  11. JackDDibs
    Oct 2, 2013
    2
    What a joke, the internet is kidding itself Just look to the left and bow down for the might of the.. (wait for it)... "Critics"!! #gotpaidmuch!?
  12. Add1cted
    Sep 25, 2013
    3
    It's difficult to rate this game properly due to the hype surrounding the launch. My review is based on expectations vs reality.

    Frankly, I was hoping for something which progressed the series, added depth and flavour to campaigns, and celebrated the return to the era where I began my Total War experience all those years ago. Frankly, what we got was a buggy, average game with little    It's difficult to rate this game properly due to the hype surrounding the launch. My review is based on expectations vs reality.

    Frankly, I was hoping for something which progressed the series, added depth and flavour to campaigns, and celebrated the return to the era where I began my Total War experience all those years ago. Frankly, what we got was a buggy, average game with little depth and poorly planned/lacking features.

    Diplomacy is shallow, faction politics are confusing and the AI seems timid and makes awful decisions both on the campaign map and the battle maps.

    Personally I pre-ordered, which was an error.

    Sure, the game is beautiful and has some interesting aspects such as the new province system. However these features are hamstrung by decisions such as to remove the ability to trade regions, leaving the province system as just another reason to wage war against someone you'd rather not.

    As a game, it's alright. As a Total War, it's the biggest let down to date.    … Expand
  13. norwaydude
    Sep 26, 2013
    5
    The first Rome game was good; people accepted the bugs and had fun with it despite the meaningless gameplay in campaign mode and the oddities of the battles. It was the graphics, the epicness and grand scale of the game that made us look past its uglier sides. Now, 9 years and 4 Total War games later, it becomes hard to be so forgiving, especially when the uglier side of the Total WarThe first Rome game was good; people accepted the bugs and had fun with it despite the meaningless gameplay in campaign mode and the oddities of the battles. It was the graphics, the epicness and grand scale of the game that made us look past its uglier sides. Now, 9 years and 4 Total War games later, it becomes hard to be so forgiving, especially when the uglier side of the Total War series have become more pronounced with time.

    For instance, the campaign map gameplay still consists of the same endless micro choosing of options that by themselves have only a minimal effect and that do not matter much in the long run. There is no real gameplay behind all the superficial and seemingly rich set of options to choose from it's just the same flummery and fluff over and over again.

    And likewise with the battles. Here we still have the odd AI behaviour of shifting formations every 15 seconds or so without any real reaction to what you are doing, making it easy to rain death on them with skirmishers without losing a single man. I remember this exact same, annoying and thoroughly stupid behaviour from when I played Rome.

    All in all, there hasn't been much progress in the Total War series. Sure, there are new cool features, like units now being able to raise their shields to protect themselves from missiles and some really cool amphibious assaults, but you cannot build a game on cool features alone. It has to have a fundamentally good core to it, and this is where Rome 2 fails. In addition to all the bugs, unfinished features and lack of polish we are used to with games from the Creative Assembly, of course.    … Expand
  14. Upshot
    Oct 3, 2013
    3
    I'm really enjoying this review stuff!

    Right. I played Shogun, then the follow ons, and I remember spending HUNDREDS of hours playing Rome 1; Rome 1 to me personally was a very enjoyable experience which I immersed myself fully into and really felt like I was having 'fun'. Medieval was also a game I put a lot of time into, and that's only because I downloaded numerous mods to    I'm really enjoying this review stuff!

    Right.

    I played Shogun, then the follow ons, and I remember spending HUNDREDS of hours playing Rome 1; Rome 1 to me personally was a very enjoyable experience which I immersed myself fully into and really felt like I was having 'fun'. Medieval was also a game I put a lot of time into, and that's only because I downloaded numerous mods to increase the game, however I couldn't help but always feel the AI was broken.

    To the point;

    Rome 2 Could be an amazing game, it has so many features that feel unfinished like they scrapped them half way through. I will keep this incredibly short in the following sentences;

    A strategy game requires AI, in battle & on the campaign map if one exists. This game does not have AI.

    They will suicide General Units to attack your cities, alone.

    They will sit anywhere in their city in the open field, and allow your archers to fully finish all their ammo. Oh, do they have archers?... Buy Artillery Units, they will allow you to destroy their entire force of 2000 with a few artillery units, and they will do NOTHING but take it. Oh, what if they buy Artillery?.. They won't.

    I have won battles with 100 troops vs 2000 troops when defending. Not through skill. I have won open field battles with 5 artillery units against THOUSANDS of enemy troops.

    They suicide, they do nothing, they don't think, no strategy is involved in any of these games aside from exploiting that fact. It's almost as if the aim of this game is to figure out HOW to play the battles in a way that will actually make the AI respond/react in a challenging way.

    Campaign map is dead. They have no intelligence, they have no diplomacy. Wipe a faction out? Take their last town? Make them your slaves!!... See them declare war with no army and suicide a turn later. Whatever.

    I've been awake far too long and my brain is melting, but for real if you're a total war fan and you HAVE enjoyed some of their titles do not sour your taste with what you 'expect' from this.    … Expand
  15. troj2002
    Nov 3, 2013
    4
    Sadly the game is broken in many ways, was rushed out and is disappointing after all the anticipation.
    Battle Ai is broken still to date especially in sieges, where they suicidally rush your lines towards the ''holy'' capture point, an entire army disintegrating and rushing to their death just to reach the siege capture point.
    Not worth buying your money is better spent on purchasing    Sadly the game is broken in many ways, was rushed out and is disappointing after all the anticipation.
    Battle Ai is broken still to date especially in sieges, where they suicidally rush your lines towards the ''holy'' capture point, an entire army disintegrating and rushing to their death just to reach the siege capture point.
    Not worth buying your money is better spent on purchasing previous iterations of the franchise    … Expand
  16. Smissen
    Jan 28, 2014
    0
    I'm / I was a loyal Total war fan. I played it since Medieval total war and throughout the years I got a certain feeling while playing a total war game and to my surprise this feeling got bombed away when I first played Rome 2. Besides the horrible UI, confusing unit cards, ****** poor diplomatics, poorly optimised graphics.... where was I ?, Yes. I don't recognise Total War in this game.I'm / I was a loyal Total war fan. I played it since Medieval total war and throughout the years I got a certain feeling while playing a total war game and to my surprise this feeling got bombed away when I first played Rome 2. Besides the horrible UI, confusing unit cards, ****** poor diplomatics, poorly optimised graphics.... where was I ?, Yes. I don't recognise Total War in this game. The camera angle differs compared with Empire/Nap/Shogun 2 total war, where I could easily watch over the battlefield and could look close to my units. Now I can't look at the battlefield nor my units for a nice overview. There are also too much details on both the campaign map as the battlefield. I can't even overview I battle because I can't even see what's what or where's where. The 'colour' under the units blend in with the ground so I can't oversee the unit's strength as in previous total ware games. As on the campaign map. I like details and Napoleon and Shogun 2 Total war are excellent examples of it. But in Rome 2 there are so much details that I can't even concentrate on what I'm doing anymore. I also can't move army properly. Once my army was besieging a neighbouring city but too badly a small army passed through my lines and sieged my city. My city had a decent garrison but could use some extra units to defend it. I can't even move 2 units from my army to my city because it needs a goddamn general to do anything. In previous total war games I could easily recruit some extra units and I could quickly move them. Now it isn't possible any more. This games is too much different compared with previous titles.....

    I can even write I book about what I dislike about Rome 2 and I really hate to say but CA really disappointed me and tricked me into buying this piece 'o **** If the next total war game is also going to be this way, then Rome 2 total war is the last game total war I bought.    … Expand
  17. Maniacmajic
    Feb 16, 2014
    6
    Despite the fixing of several bugs this game rapidly turns into a serious grind to even reach an ending... graphical errors still plague gameplay as does severe slowdown during siege battles...
    Taking away the family tree just further removes the player from being immersed in the game. Battle speeches and videos are tacked on afterthoughts..
    Final verdict.. get it cheap if you have    Despite the fixing of several bugs this game rapidly turns into a serious grind to even reach an ending... graphical errors still plague gameplay as does severe slowdown during siege battles...
    Taking away the family tree just further removes the player from being immersed in the game. Battle speeches and videos are tacked on afterthoughts..
    Final verdict.. get it cheap if you have hours and days to spend... oh and bring a book..    … Expand
  18. ben14edwards
    Mar 23, 2014
    1
    Unfortunately, this game is dreadfully oversimplified. I suspect that the developer is attempting to replace its longtime fanbase with a new breed of teenage gamers. That is to say, this game will be extremely fun if you have never played a Total War game before, and overwhelmingly disappointing if you are familiar with these games.

    Rome II, despite being visually impressive, takes a    Unfortunately, this game is dreadfully oversimplified. I suspect that the developer is attempting to replace its longtime fanbase with a new breed of teenage gamers. That is to say, this game will be extremely fun if you have never played a Total War game before, and overwhelmingly disappointing if you are familiar with these games.

    Rome II, despite being visually impressive, takes a step down from its predecessors in terms of game mechanics. Everything that you loved about empire-building, city construction, dangerous wars, and important decisions are replaced with redundant, repetitive gameplay. The AI is a tremendous failure and poses no challenge, even on legendary difficulty. The only thing that higher difficulties do is increase the number of enemies (so that each miniature little tribe is unrealistically hosting two thousand armed men).

    Strategy is non-existent, so look elsewhere. This game only has repetitive sieges that mean nothing. If you lose your army due to a bad mistake, you can simply recreate it in one turn. Therefor, the game does not punish the player for mistakes like it should.    … Expand
  19. Canicula
    Jun 19, 2014
    2
    I've sat and watched the slow, grinding destruction of what was a fine, interesting and absorbing game model into this, this tablet worthy mulch that is barely worthy of being allied to the Total War name. It's still got enough little bits that make you remember what CA used to produce, but the bulk of the game is simplified, dumbed down, rationalised. It's not a good strategy gameI've sat and watched the slow, grinding destruction of what was a fine, interesting and absorbing game model into this, this tablet worthy mulch that is barely worthy of being allied to the Total War name. It's still got enough little bits that make you remember what CA used to produce, but the bulk of the game is simplified, dumbed down, rationalised. It's not a good strategy game anymore. It's got big bits missing that have to be added with mods, which while always the case with CA games, thinking of Medieval 2 and the dire coding that contained, but the basis of the game was worthy, it inspired people to mod it because they wanted to get to the back of the game and have what they could see it would match up to.

    This is a mirage of a game, it's literally made to be played on tablets, it's one step up from the pretty flash game.    … Expand
  20. mikos
    Jul 25, 2014
    0
    È quasi passato un anno ma questo titolo dopo ben 14 patch, fa veramente cacare, uno schifo totale. Città come Siracusa senza mura, unità stupide e banali come catapulte di nidi d'ape o scorpioni, flotte inutili perché gli eserciti vanno via mare senza bisogno di imbarcarsi, localizzazione mezza italiana e mezza inglese "soldati romani che parlano in inglese" at your order, immaginate,È quasi passato un anno ma questo titolo dopo ben 14 patch, fa veramente cacare, uno schifo totale. Città come Siracusa senza mura, unità stupide e banali come catapulte di nidi d'ape o scorpioni, flotte inutili perché gli eserciti vanno via mare senza bisogno di imbarcarsi, localizzazione mezza italiana e mezza inglese "soldati romani che parlano in inglese" at your order, immaginate, soldi buttati. Un aborto completo proprio. schifo schifo schifo… Expand
  21. Lucelin
    Aug 22, 2014
    4
    So Rome 2, Worse than i had hoped for, pretty much sums it up. But I suppose i should add more. My first experience was an all night download update after the initial install, followed by another 6 hour download, followed by another one.

    Then i couldn't load the game because the steam "auto start" screen wouldn't open to the correct size. Once i finally got to play it, it was weird. I    So Rome 2, Worse than i had hoped for, pretty much sums it up. But I suppose i should add more. My first experience was an all night download update after the initial install, followed by another 6 hour download, followed by another one.

    Then i couldn't load the game because the steam "auto start" screen wouldn't open to the correct size. Once i finally got to play it, it was weird. I have played and own all the total war games, and i was confused. Took me a couple of solid days of play to get my head around the city building.

    The combat mechanics are nothing we haven't seen before. The AI is nothing we haven't seen before. The gazillion factions make turn ending take forever. The graphics use massive resources(again nothing new there) but load times are acceptable.

    Naval combat is just impossible to enjoy and I have just resorted to auto resolve. A real step backwards Creative Assembly.

    Attacking siege battles are also incredibly difficult as the auto build siege equipment just doesn't really do anything except let your troops get killed. Again I have resorted to auto resolve and again a step backwards Creative Assembly.

    What's with all the army formations that no one uses, just learn from your mistakes from Shogun 2, don't repeat them.

    Diplomacy again nothing we haven't seen before

    Did the developers at Creative Assembly have a stroke?

    Anyone notice the massive sore difference between the critic score and the user score. Clearly the critics enjoy getting payed and not playing computer games.

    Most people believe that you can't polish a turd, but Creative Assembly have sure done a mighty fine job of polishing this one.    … Expand
  22. wvjoeball
    Sep 1, 2014
    1
    so let me get this straight. you have a slave revolt in a small town early in the game and a rebel army resulting has 7 full calvary units and 18 fully armed and trained units. where did they get the horses? the city didnt even have a stable. thats retarded. wouldnt a slave revolt be composed of disorganized but highly motivated mobs not a fully functioning well armed and trainedso let me get this straight. you have a slave revolt in a small town early in the game and a rebel army resulting has 7 full calvary units and 18 fully armed and trained units. where did they get the horses? the city didnt even have a stable. thats retarded. wouldnt a slave revolt be composed of disorganized but highly motivated mobs not a fully functioning well armed and trained army. loved tw1. this is beyond awful… Expand
  23. metalmania96
    Sep 30, 2014
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I do not know how the game has been improved since i played it on September 2013, but the first time I played it was the worst game I ever played, not even TW series. The first impression I had made me never play this "game" never again.… Expand
  24. remzi
    Feb 17, 2015
    0
    It's more like Total Fail, than Total War. No in depth diplomatic systems, no in depth political system, just random actions.

    My god, this was the worse Total War game I ever played, I really don't understand what's going with CA, Shogun 2 was really amazing and I thought I could only get better, but I didn't knew how creedy SEGA was, the ruined everything.
  25. Dabisha
    Mar 8, 2015
    0
    After more then 300 hours of frustrating, today I remove this garbage from my PC. When I thought that Creative Assembly touch the bottom with Shogun 2 TW, they sunk more deeper with Rome 2. RTS game? if in Rome 2 exist any strategy then pinball is strategic game too. AI is retarded, diplomacy does not exist at all, behave of AI faction in game is insane, when you control almost 3/4 of mapAfter more then 300 hours of frustrating, today I remove this garbage from my PC. When I thought that Creative Assembly touch the bottom with Shogun 2 TW, they sunk more deeper with Rome 2. RTS game? if in Rome 2 exist any strategy then pinball is strategic game too. AI is retarded, diplomacy does not exist at all, behave of AI faction in game is insane, when you control almost 3/4 of map "powerful" nation which holding one and only settlement offering you non aggression pact and ask money from you, every 2-3 turns, 2-3 small factions declare war on you, AI factions jumping over map and control one province in Asia minor and second in northern Europe, enemy units jumping over 5-6 territories to attack you, to get trade agreement you need a miracle, every turn is disrupt with some idiotic proposal and I could counting bad things until tomorrow. Grand campaign is insane too, objectives which you must fulfill are enormously, you need six month to finish single player grand campaign. They transform once great RTS game in some kind of shooting game.… Expand
  26. Devout_Buddhist
    Oct 3, 2018
    0
    One of my pet peeves are games that bill themselves as being historically accurate but then make very deliberate decisions to be demonstrably inaccurate. If that annoys you, too, then stay away from this game.
  27. BaDTarget
    Sep 29, 2018
    0
    Tolerance that violates any common sense!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  28. bargun
    Sep 29, 2018
    0
    У создателей игры стоит поучиться тому, как можно уничтожить сразу и игру и своих фанатов. Может для кого то одно обновление это не показатель плохой игры, но для меня это показатель отвратительного отношения к комьюнити, что в свою очередь показывает, что игра создается не для игроков, а для чего то другого.У создателей игры стоит поучиться тому, как можно уничтожить сразу и игру и своих фанатов. Может для кого то одно обновление это не показатель плохой игры, но для меня это показатель отвратительного отношения к комьюнити, что в свою очередь показывает, что игра создается не для игроков, а для чего то другого.
  29. Yddraiggoch
    Sep 7, 2013
    3
    Poorly optimized GFX and AI
    UI reminiscent of a console game feels really dumbed down.
    Too many factions takes too long to process AI's turn.

    It's against my princples, but really wished I'd pirated this rather than pre-ordered....
  30. oliver1h
    Sep 7, 2013
    3
    I expected a lot from the famous "Total War: Rome" title, but unfortunately my expectations were not met (by a good roman mile...)! The AI is average at best. This has a negative effect on everything. They way they move, fight, form alliances, negotiate with your fraction (For example if you have a lot of money, they will demand some from you for everything. Do you want to trade? PAY! DoI expected a lot from the famous "Total War: Rome" title, but unfortunately my expectations were not met (by a good roman mile...)! The AI is average at best. This has a negative effect on everything. They way they move, fight, form alliances, negotiate with your fraction (For example if you have a lot of money, they will demand some from you for everything. Do you want to trade? PAY! Do you want an alliance? SHARE YOUR MONEY!). The strategy part of the game is rather simple too. There are a few types of building, and research. The most "difficult" things is to keep in mind the balance of 'public order', 'food' etc. Other than that you need to build armies and conquer land. "Paradox Game" titles, which are made by 1/100 of the budget used on "Rome 2" can do much better strategy game. I was expecting more. Not recommended!… Expand
  31. Willowbean
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    Maybe this game is really 85 out of 100 but how you are supposed to see it through the damn lags and unoptimisation. Creative Assembly just doing the same game every couple of years and still can't optimize it.
  32. legoras
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    One big disappointment, AI stiupid like donkey I attack 3 enemy units [2x spears geneal], first they wait when I will shoot some ot them them by pillums?, then I attack this two spear units [general do nothing 10? meters near], after kill this two spear units, general [10 meter near] still waiting]. Wtf? Optimization does not exist.. I good remember when CA LIES about "great OptimizationOne big disappointment, AI stiupid like donkey I attack 3 enemy units [2x spears geneal], first they wait when I will shoot some ot them them by pillums?, then I attack this two spear units [general do nothing 10? meters near], after kill this two spear units, general [10 meter near] still waiting]. Wtf? Optimization does not exist.. I good remember when CA LIES about "great Optimization for Rome 2".. Army morale.. units flee like chicken (just like in FOTS..) Horrible UI.
    Horrendously confusing unit cards. One big disappointment.    … Expand
  33. mlampa
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    The foundation for a great game is there. But the state of the game as of today is just horrible. There is lots of bugs and it runs really bad even on very good computer setups. I guess it will be a good game after some patches and some community mods.
  34. WALTY
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    I am absolutely not happy with all gameplay changes CA implemented. Capture points are awful. Lack of siegable cities on campaign map and simplified economic/building system make gaming experience quite boring. UI is wow horrible design. Shogun 2 was better game in almost all spects.
  35. Eptesicus
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    To release a game that doesnt run properly on an i5 2500k at 4.4GHZ and two GTX 670's in SLI is ridiculous. The game is unplayable due to the awful GPU usage and terrible framerate when you have more than about 10 units in the battle.

    I havent even played the rest of the game as there is no point if the battles are unplayable.

    Poor show.
  36. claptrap
    Sep 4, 2013
    3
    Well there is one you can say for sure: That release was quite a mess, when the forums are flooded with bug reports and complaints, you know something went wrong and that unfortenately is what happened to this game.

    I was looking forward to it so much, hadnt any download or installation issues in steam, everything went fine. I also want to admit, that my PC is quite good, not state of    Well there is one you can say for sure: That release was quite a mess, when the forums are flooded with bug reports and complaints, you know something went wrong and that unfortenately is what happened to this game.

    I was looking forward to it so much, hadnt any download or installation issues in steam, everything went fine. I also want to admit, that my PC is quite good, not state of the art high end but good enough:

    Phenom 955 Quadcore
    HD 7970 3GB
    8GB DDR2

    Every new game runs perfect on the highest settings. I didnt expect this in Rome 2 however since TW games were always poorly optimized so set my settings to Medium- High. Started the prologue at first and damn...what a lag fest. During the cutscenes my framerate was like 7-12 FPS and during battle maybe 22 FPS. However, in any other battle it definitely runs smoother. But the beautiful campaing map is a lagfest again, barely playable. Changing the settings to the lowest possible makes hardly any difference other than a game which will look like a PS2 game.

    This problem alone prevends me to enjoy this game.
    Now lets look at the AI, they seem to make their job quite well but in siege battles....oh my godness, they literaly just stand there and think "hmm, what do you think guys? should we attack if they throw javelins at us?" "i dont know dude...wheres our general btw."
    Also they are very retarted in moving their armies, they leave their cities at the borders without a real garrison and move further into their lands, maybe for a picnic, who knows....who cares

    The game also feels so unfinished in every aspect. Yeah sure, there will be patches, I know. But paying 40€ for such a mess, I cant believe I trusted so much into CA. It literally was a waste of money and I'm mad because of that, you know, not everyone of us has a donkey which can money.

    The game also went trought a lot of changes, some of the quite good but others...well they are really unecessary like armies that now only can be lead by a general. Quite a mess when it comes to managing your armies. This also leads to the problem, that you wont have any garrisons in your cities unless you place a general inside which, in my opinion, is a total waste.

    But this game has also some good stuff to offer, so a 0 would be unfair.
    The campain map, dear god, it is freakin huge and playing your campaing, you really feel like you're a small part of an epic game. You look at it and wonder "will I ever conquer?"
    There is also a lot of detail on it, the cities look more authentic and there are more choke points.
    Also there are over 100 civilizations that are controlled by the AI. Of course, ending the turn and letting the AI do their stuff can take quite a bit until you can play again.
    Some of them will be defeated quite early, some other will rise and can get your worst enemies.

    So the campaing after all, is quite epic.

    But there is a long road to Rome, and CA stands at the begining of this road. It will take endless patches until this game will be fully enjoyable and until then, I will rather enjoy other great games like GTAV     … Expand
  37. aRussian
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    I see many giving 10's saying this is "normal" for CA. It's time to demand more because this is horrifying. I won't make excuses for CA even though Rome 1 brought me on board and I enjoyed most of the other games in the series.

    This was a gigantic PR campaign just to rustle up some dough for a largely disgusting product. Like, I feel like I stuck my hand in a toilet from just handling    I see many giving 10's saying this is "normal" for CA. It's time to demand more because this is horrifying. I won't make excuses for CA even though Rome 1 brought me on board and I enjoyed most of the other games in the series.

    This was a gigantic PR campaign just to rustle up some dough for a largely disgusting product. Like, I feel like I stuck my hand in a toilet from just handling it and being part of it. They got that much right.

    As for the game:

    This is one of those "click master" games. The battles are so terribly fast that it's a big step back from ANY game in the series. Some complained Shogun 2 was fast but I felt that it wasn't too terribly bad in sieges and with skirmishes prior to clashes. Rome 2... There is no point in moving around the field maintaining formation. As soon as the armies clash, you get the same thing. A big blob. No maintaining ranks like the good old Rome. And worse, the units will automatically go running after whatever unit they are attacking when they rout after a hundred men fall in half a second. It's a glorified matching game of rock-paper-scissors. You click the rock unit to go attack the scissors unit while avoiding the paper unit. That's all. Hitting rock on scissors will blow the unit up near instantaneously. Where are my fire at will, loose formation, and guard buttons??? And what is will all these stupid "abilities" that makes everything seem so arcade? There is an ability for everything! Generals have multiple and units have their own. So it's a key-smashing endeavor of rock-paper-scissors... Not total war.

    I expected there to be factions more powerful than others, but you've got balance issues with some "super factions" popping up. I did expect this as I do in most games so won't complain so readily here.
    The diverse units claim is probably an utter sham as some units look rather familiar and like a copy-past-smear job. The only thing that differs are the names for some. While I expected it somewhat given that there probably wouldn't be the number of unique units they claimed, it was saddening to see that you have barbarian units, hellenic units, roman units, and eastern units that only "diverge" on name. I haven't seen nearly all but it seems to me that you have 4 set types of units with different names.

    And the AI everyone is so fond of... I'm not even sure I want to discuss it because even after cranking the difficulty ALL the way up, I still found myself easily being able to dispatch armies I had NO business dispatching. The enemy will not defend walls and is preoccupied with amassing giant blobs on capture points within the city. Walk into city meeting little resistance other than those magical unmanned arrow firing towers (step backwards from Medieval 2 and Shogun 2) and having to order your blob to attack their blob and wait an entire 5 minutes for several thousand troops to be dead. I think only a giant microwave could kill that many so quickly...
    The "reactive AI" they love to show off really doesn't vary much. It goes with that rock-paper-scissors approach and a rock unit will chase a scissors unit waaaaayyyy out of place until you can throw a paper unit at their rock unit with no problem. No matter the difficulty. It's like the AI has tunnel vision and just zooms in on one unit it wants to take out with this unit of its and chases it to the moon.

    I was lucky in that I don't seem to be experiencing the crashes as often as most. The diplomacy, however, is just freaking frustrating. I know the original Rome was a bit lax in trade acceptance. Ceasefire and then offer trade. Deal. Bit too easy. This game it is an absolute chore to procure trade relations. Like, learn how to do handstands, juggle, and sing all at the same time. It's a joke. I just gave up for the most part and concentrated on my borders.

    Moving an army to water creates a super navy capable of murdering ACTUAL navies. So what is the point of trying to get naval superiority when a super navy can just march right off the land and into the water? Isn't naval superiority about denying forces the ability to land at X? I actually haven't had much battle time with navies so I'm afraid I don't have too much of a legitimate complaint other than those spontaneous super navies from an army deciding to grow sea legs.

    Since I'm approaching the max, I suppose I just have to thank people for actually reading if they did and am sorry I didn't get to positives. Graphics were good on mine, although faces looked... errrr, off. Please wait to buy, you are only supplying the monster and enabling this disgusting behaviour of releasing unfinished material because people will by it. Demand better. Save yourself the despair until they fix it. If you were looking for Rome II, you'll be disappointed. this product is more like Rome RTS. It's a sad day after so much excitement...    … Expand
  38. asc_one
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Even though CA had a 40% bigger budget than shogun 2 they proved their incompetence the last time for me. I won't fall for their garbage ever again. And that says a Total War Veteran since Rome 1 I bought every game of their franchise.

    And every time to release there were problems but this time those are unmatched. This game is broken and a total failure from my perspective.Nothing that    Even though CA had a 40% bigger budget than shogun 2 they proved their incompetence the last time for me. I won't fall for their garbage ever again. And that says a Total War Veteran since Rome 1 I bought every game of their franchise.

    And every time to release there were problems but this time those are unmatched. This game is broken and a total failure from my perspective.Nothing that is important works really. The Battle AI is completely broken it's worse than the AI of any TW game i've seen yet. The campaign AI is also a catastrophe diplomacy doesn't work at all and the ai keeps attacking with armies that are obviously inferior.
    The UI looks consolized,I HATE IT. You cannot have unlimited armies anymore nor can you have smaller units without a general. The family tree is GONE When a general dies you don't care a Guard button is missing ,loose formation is missing instead you have magic buttons like "whip" that buff your unit for a short time. Phalanx does not work, units just can't hold their goddamn formation you can say that to pretty much every formation in the game.

    I could go on ...

    I mean I have waited for a sequel for about 10 years to see this pile of This really has broken my heart Maybe it's a C&C 4 moment for the series. Anyway with a 40% bigger budget and CA just can't ´make a functioning game. I MEAN THEY DID IT 10 YEARS AGO BETTER WTF!
    And all of you apologists that say they can fix the game with patches i mean come on even you don't believe what you are talking about!And after all we paid already!

    THIS GAME IS CASUALIZED/STREAMLINED ****!

    I will never preorder a CA game ever They messed up hard and my confidence in this company is gone.    … Expand
  39. Captain_Solo
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Ok let's rate this game At first about game graphics AWFUL Game looks like 6 year old (even more). Absolutely dumb AI and ugly small menus. It's not fun there's no gameplay Even On maximum graphics still the same sh*t Don't waste your money There are too much good games to play. Yeah there is music but they can't hold you longer
  40. D4v1d
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    This is the most horrible game i have ever played in my life. How can they sell this garbage for 60 dlls?
    Horrible AI
    Horrible UI
    Horrible Gameplay
    Horrible Graphics
    Horrible Optimization
    Horrible Support
    Horrible Presentation.
  41. koolaid0101
    Sep 14, 2013
    0
    I have been waiting for this game for several years, since the Empire TW.

    I played for a total of 4 hours? I have not played again or have any desire to play again any time soon. They made to game look pretty. They ruined the games internals and made it so that this game will be broken for years to come. The turn waiting is way to much, over 5 minutes in some cases. They    I have been waiting for this game for several years, since the Empire TW.

    I played for a total of 4 hours?

    I have not played again or have any desire to play again any time soon.

    They made to game look pretty.

    They ruined the games internals and made it so that this game will be broken for years to come. The turn waiting is way to much, over 5 minutes in some cases.

    They really killed the game, between:

    1. Turn waiting
    2. AI is broken Which causes the battles to be broken and boring.
    3. Battles are broken and boring.
    4. Easy to raise armies and go on a capturing spree.
    5. Building structures is boring and purposeless.    … Expand
  42. VideogamesIlike
    Sep 4, 2013
    6
    Rome 2 is certinally a disappointment, though hardly the worst game ever as many user reviews state. It does, however, more than earn it's mixed reviews.

    On one hand the game is beautiful on higher end systems like my own, giving a gravity and scale to the conflict unseen in any Total war game before. It brings cultural diversity that Shogun 2 sorely lacked also. However, in many    Rome 2 is certinally a disappointment, though hardly the worst game ever as many user reviews state. It does, however, more than earn it's mixed reviews.

    On one hand the game is beautiful on higher end systems like my own, giving a gravity and scale to the conflict unseen in any Total war game before. It brings cultural diversity that Shogun 2 sorely lacked also.

    However, in many ways it is broken. Good ideas like internal politics are not at all explained, and are poorly executed at best. The player seems to have far more limited control over their cities, with the new interface robbing cities of much of their infomation. I often find myself at very low public order with little ability to work out why, or what I can do about it. Though the new army system is cool in theory, and it's nice to give armies some personality, it robs the game of some tactics, especially the- who should I hold back to garrison, who should I advance- question. Though their are many cultures, and a great deal more diversity than Shogun, there is a startling lack of unique troops, and the large number of filler factions with one or two provinces only seems to rob the primary factions of any unit individuality. Battles are far too fast paced, with combat taking mere seconds, gone are the epic scrums, now battles rarely take longer than five minutes at best. Mist of which is moving your armies. The AI hasn't improved much at all, and all the challenge in hard simply comes from relentless numbers, rather than genuine, fair tactics. Multiplayer has been massively stripped down from a Shogun high point, with all progression and army individuality dropped to return to a comparatively stale no stakes battle. Rome is a strong game on it's own terms, but very weak for a total war game. I have come away more disappointed with Rome than any TW game to date. A sad mistep for the successor to my favorite total war game. It lacks the depth of paradox, and the responsive war-based fun of the older games. The worst of both worlds.    … Expand
  43. 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
  44. Johntylerkerlin
    Sep 15, 2013
    3
    This is not the ROME II Total war that was advertised. It is more like a dumbed down version of shogun II without all the things that make Total war unique. The family tree is butchered as well as the line of succession which would allow you to actually care about your generals. When I need a new general I just press a red button and one pops out. I have never been so disappointed with aThis is not the ROME II Total war that was advertised. It is more like a dumbed down version of shogun II without all the things that make Total war unique. The family tree is butchered as well as the line of succession which would allow you to actually care about your generals. When I need a new general I just press a red button and one pops out. I have never been so disappointed with a Total war than I am now. Rome I was not improved upon. ROME II is a piece of what ROME I was.… Expand
  45. BloodRaven199
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    I have a gtx 660 ti 2gb), i5 3450, 8 gb ram and I thought this would be enough to play the game on high settings. I was wrong...~20 fps on the campain map...that's ridiculous!! When I zoom in during a battle the fps drops down to 15 or less. So I have to play it on low/medium settings. And even then the fps aren't stable. I waited for the patch, which released on Friday, but it changedI have a gtx 660 ti 2gb), i5 3450, 8 gb ram and I thought this would be enough to play the game on high settings. I was wrong...~20 fps on the campain map...that's ridiculous!! When I zoom in during a battle the fps drops down to 15 or less. So I have to play it on low/medium settings. And even then the fps aren't stable. I waited for the patch, which released on Friday, but it changed nothing...
    The AI is just as as the performance. It happens very often, that one unit (sometimes even hurt) want to occupy one of my cities, which are well defended. On the battlefield the AI is a disappointment, too! 5 hours of playing and i have concluded...there is no fun playing this!    … Expand
  46. DodoE
    Sep 15, 2013
    0
    I paid 60$ for a early acces game??? currently the game is on beta stage,so many bugs,i regret buying this.
    at least CA should reward us for testing her awful game.
  47. lxgiwylgta
    Sep 15, 2013
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I purchased Rome 2 Total War 2 days after release because I just couldn't bare the wait anymore. But how foolish of me by not bothering to check the reviews before I took action. Then again, I had complete faith and trust in CA so i didn't even think twice. Now its safe to say that I am completely disappointed by CA's performance and release of Rome 2 Total War. The never ending list of bugs and other complaints by other fellow reviewers is already enough to express my frustration and disappointment. To sum it up, I am experiencing almost the same problems these fellow gamers are experiencing. The single player AI wants nothing but gold, they also make ridiculous offers at times. They let you conquer their cities without a struggle, like what Angry Joe said in his review, the enemy army would sometime run in circles for no reason and does not attack at all. After you conquer their settlement they often "retaliate" with only ONE unit and will repeat until they perish. Another annoying thing that I found was during naval battles my ships does not follow my orders, the odds of winning was in my favor, but instead, my ships sit idle while getting rammed by enemy ships until they sink. Battles last 4 mins tops for me, and the enemy army routs so easily and it gives me no challenge at all. And what's with the stupid flags placed in maps now? There's practically a flag in every type of battle now, and you can't even focus on deploying strategy into the field, instead you have to put units to actually guard or seize the stupid flags. And the enemy AI does NOT care about fighting your army in siege battles. They'll try to break through your line (or die trying) to get to the flag. I mean who came up with the bright idea of putting capture points in every type of battle scenario? I guess for siege battles its acceptable, but for every battle?! Its just plain stupid and it ruins the authenticity of the Total War game. During singleplayer campaign if you don't uncheck the box that says "Show AI moves" then you're basically going to sit watching the AI move for lets say 30 minutes? And I'm not even exaggerating. From past total war gaming experience, I've always turned off that feature to save time. But even with that feature off it still takes up to 5 minutes for it to be your turn again. And when you destroy a faction, THEY WILL SOMEHOW COME BACK LATER. I was hoping by destroying factions maybe the turns will end much quicker, but nope. The destroyed factions somehow "emerge from the chaos of a war" a few turns later. The crashes has been pretty annoying as well. I've experienced 5 crashes now and I'm about 160 turns in the game. And now I'd have to save everytime I make a major move or the game might crash and I'd have to end up redoing everything. The family trees are very vague and boring. They don't show the complexity of families and the marriages like in Medieval 2, instead it only shows your Generals and when they die, they just get replaced by another general that spawns out of nowhere. The armies are so hard to manage now since you're limited to have a certain amount of armies, but I guess this gives people a challenge. However you can now only recruit units when you have a general present in the unit, and you cannot split armies either, they have to stay where the general is; so you can't send a unit to a city or another army. And now the armies can instantly travel by sea without building navies to transport them. They come with their own transport ships! How lame is that. It makes the standard navy completely obsolete because armies at sea can easily defeat standard navies now. I can go on and on about these things, but I don't feel the need to because they're also listed in other reviews. And I know that most of us are on the same page here. Let this be a clear message to CA and we're letting them know that public order in the Total war community is extremely low, and we are about to go into a rebellion if they don't do much about this soon. I hope they use their resources and time to make a rewarding DLC for us in the future so we can atleast still consider to forgive CA for their wrongdoings. But until then, we'll just have to wait for results. All of this is coming from a loyal Total War fan since Rome 1. And we all hope CA will never pull this stunt again to their loyal customers, because we are the main reason why they're still alive today.… Expand
  48. udarshen
    Sep 15, 2013
    1
    Worst AI i have ever seen from any strategy game. I guess CA used all its bigger budget to bribe critical reviewers. Don't buy this game now. You have been warned. It is unplayable. Even if you can play it, the game mechanics is uninteresting. It is also overpriced. It should be listed $6 instead of $60. I have wasted the money. I just treat the loss as I accidentally dropped the money inWorst AI i have ever seen from any strategy game. I guess CA used all its bigger budget to bribe critical reviewers. Don't buy this game now. You have been warned. It is unplayable. Even if you can play it, the game mechanics is uninteresting. It is also overpriced. It should be listed $6 instead of $60. I have wasted the money. I just treat the loss as I accidentally dropped the money in to the toilet… Expand
  49. Dcruize
    Sep 15, 2013
    1
    A step backward for TW arcadey and simplistic combat, ugly graphics and a really weak campaign mode. I dislike the 3D portraits and found the unit cards to be be too hard to distinguish between at a glance. So glad I was able to try it before I wasted money on it, I'll go back to playing MTW2, RTW or even ETW.
  50. Just_The_Tip
    Sep 19, 2013
    0
    GIVE 59 HOMELESS PEOPLE A DOLLAR TO PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE! instead of spending that money on this game, it would be more enjoyable.

    A re-skinned version of the older version would have been OK, but they actually destroyed the merits of the older version as well it almost like they took their inspiration from the "Producer's" and were trying to make the worst possible game in existence    GIVE 59 HOMELESS PEOPLE A DOLLAR TO PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE! instead of spending that money on this game, it would be more enjoyable.

    A re-skinned version of the older version would have been OK, but they actually destroyed the merits of the older version as well it almost like they took their inspiration from the "Producer's" and were trying to make the worst possible game in existence to see if it would be a hit. Congratulations team CA you did it, and I hope you all get fired for it.    … Expand
  51. alex_dragon
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    very disapointment, stone throwers have more range than arhcers, just fail lol.

    i expect there will be a avatar conquest (This is the main reason why i bought this game)

    oh well, you CA
  52. Beowulf1066
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    I've been a huge fan of the entire Total War series since 2003 and understand that most of their games are released a little too early and often have some medium to serious bugs to be fixed.
    Having said that, I feel like I deserve a refund for this game. I understand they wanted to go a different route with the campaign side (politics, no family trees, building armies with generals (not    I've been a huge fan of the entire Total War series since 2003 and understand that most of their games are released a little too early and often have some medium to serious bugs to be fixed.
    Having said that, I feel like I deserve a refund for this game. I understand they wanted to go a different route with the campaign side (politics, no family trees, building armies with generals (not cities), revamped tech screen, and the use of regions) but the changes they made were not improvements. I find them distracting and unnecessary. I would also like to take the time to go into how horrible it was to implement one year per turn, not having a family tree, diplomacy horribly bugged, etc... but I want to focus more on the core of any Total War game COMBAT.
    Combat is Rome II: Total War is too fast and chaotic. Tactics don't have much of a roll to play anymore. Units will only engage one another for a minute or two before routing. That gives you no time to set up flanking and ambushing maneuvers. The enemy will now send their entire force (which is 70% slingers in my Suebi game for some reason) into a mass brawl in the center of the map. Battles are no longer won by tactical skill, no, they're won by bringing tougher units with higher morale and having them go one-on-one with another enemy unit until they route. Don't even get me started about capture points!
    I want to write more, but it would just make me even sadder. This game is horrible and has tainted my love of the previous Total War games. The original Rome was in my top 5 games of all time and this horrible excuse of a game (Rome II) isn't even a shadow of its predecessor. I'm so very disappointed in Creative Arts, SEGA and the entire Total War team. I won't be duped again.    … Expand
  53. GamerGaz
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    Possibly the worst AI in the series, and a buggy,laggy unplayable mess. Also filled with horrible design choices, a boring campaign and in incomprehensible UI.
  54. hastati
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    Probably one day in the future after tons of patches and mods this game will be great. However at current states this game is one big disaster.

    Five reasons why I will give it a zero score: 1) Very bad optimization and many bugs. Game lags on top configs. 2) Notable lack of content. No Avatar mode. Only 4 historical battles! 3) Many important features from previous TW games are    Probably one day in the future after tons of patches and mods this game will be great. However at current states this game is one big disaster.

    Five reasons why I will give it a zero score:

    1) Very bad optimization and many bugs. Game lags on top configs.

    2) Notable lack of content. No Avatar mode. Only 4 historical battles!

    3) Many important features from previous TW games are missing.

    4) Interface is ugly and dull. Unit cards are terrible and battle UI is not informative

    5) Fantasy unit rosters and historical inaccuracy. Testudo looks like terrible crap    … Expand
  55. Goldeus
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    After 10 hours of game play, I am very dispappointed with the game. First of all the optimization. What a shame that my computer can't run the game well with a 7970 Vapor-X 3Go, i5-3570k @4,3Ghz, 16Gb RAM. There's also a problem of CTDs, at any moment of the game (campaign map, battle map, changing options...). And I am not the only one with those problems. Didn't they test their gameAfter 10 hours of game play, I am very dispappointed with the game. First of all the optimization. What a shame that my computer can't run the game well with a 7970 Vapor-X 3Go, i5-3570k @4,3Ghz, 16Gb RAM. There's also a problem of CTDs, at any moment of the game (campaign map, battle map, changing options...). And I am not the only one with those problems. Didn't they test their game with differents configurations before releasing it Apparently not. And that's why, mostly, the 0 stands for. And it's unaccetpable for me.

    After that, some points of immersion are missing such as cutscenes of speeches (even if the general still say something if we look at him at the beginning of a battle), spie's and assassin's videos... Next, AI is not as brilliant as the developpers are saying. Particulary during sieges and still (like others TW) with diplomacy. I also feel (maybe improperly) that the campaign is too easy. I'll have to try with harder modes. Finally, the graphics are not that beautifull. A bit more than Shogun 2, but it's faaaar from the screenshots of CA during the development.

    Sorry for my imperfect english, but I wanted to express my frustration with a game that I was waiting for since years... In need of a patch or some drivers updates, and fast     … Expand
  56. LazerLuke
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    I can rant and rave for days about how terrible and disappointing this game was, but i'd rather sum it up in one sentence. I made a meta critic account for the first time in my life just to rate this game a ZERO.
  57. Grindtoof
    Sep 21, 2013
    4
    I found a site selling digital copies for 50 bucks, pre-order. Even 50 bucks was too much for this game in it's current state.
    Where to begin:
    The first thing I noticed was that the game's graphics, controls, and flow felt more like a console game than any previous Total War title- WTF? The best way I could equivocate it was the difference between Dragon Age I and Dragon Age II, whereas    I found a site selling digital copies for 50 bucks, pre-order. Even 50 bucks was too much for this game in it's current state.
    Where to begin:
    The first thing I noticed was that the game's graphics, controls, and flow felt more like a console game than any previous Total War title- WTF? The best way I could equivocate it was the difference between Dragon Age I and Dragon Age II, whereas DA1 felt like it was meant for a computer, DA2 seemed watered down and felt like a console port on the computer.
    Back on topic: Graphics on overhead map or laggy and choppy- probably something to do with the animated clouds and random birds...dumb. Playing as a Roman the whole family/ruler/faction experience is askew and there is no explanation provided: You can't marry your leader and generals to produce offspring- in fact offspring do not come of age and join your ranks- just random dudes that become available. I had to start 'adopting' opposing faction members because my House Julia died out. A really disappointing aspect to an otherwise fun minigame.
    Diplomacy could have been great, but, has missed the mark. You may or may not like how conveniently a faction's opinion of you is broken down into a numeric roster- its kind of neat to know that the AI tracks all of the stuff you do representing your faction, but, I don't need a spreadsheet to explain why a neighbor doesn't like me. Something else that really iritates me about Diplomacy: You can only give a percentage of the money in your coffers (so you have 5,000 talons, you can only give gifts in increments of 500- wtf?)
    Battles in single-player are really, really buggy. First, I really like the new, true line of sight feature in R:TW2. I also like the combination of naval and land battles on some maps- the potential is really, really cool. Too bad all of that potential is eclipsed by stupid objective markers that earn/bleed victory points. So, strategy and tactics become very one-dimensional, and every battle becomes a matter of holding these artificial objectives- dumb. The game suffers bad AI: command a unit to attack another unit, and they stop mid-attack- you have to repeatedly order the unit to attack. Enemy units will run up to your line, or your unit, stop, and then run away (all the while getting whittled down by ranged units). When units break- they break in a straight line and are very difficult- almost impossible to eradicate. Unit stats are incorrectly represented at times- to the detriment of your plans. What happened to the complexity of battle found in Shogun? Geez. Btw, don't expect those great, unique General speeches at the onset of every battle- they're gone! The General says something inconsequential (and barely audible) at the beginning of each battle- you have to physically zoom in just to hear it...Lame.
    Missions are non-existent in my game: I received a couple in the first twenty turns, and not one since: I'm almost to 200 turns in my campaign, mind you.
    Agents have real potential to be cool- too bad all three types do roughly the same thing: sabotage and assassinate. I mean, don't get me wrong, each of the three types are supposed to do specific things, but, those things really aren't explained.

    In closing there are a lot of cool ideas poorly implemented in R:TW2. Do yourself a favor and save your sixty bucks- don't pay for this beta in it's current state!    … Expand
  58. PittLord
    Feb 18, 2014
    3
    After playing this game and trying desperately to like it, I find myself with only one thought --- what the hell happened? How did a company that's put out a whole string of games that upped the bar for the Strategy genre time and time again, with each incarnation finding a way to improve over the last, put out something this appallingly bad. Appalling. I have never used that before toAfter playing this game and trying desperately to like it, I find myself with only one thought --- what the hell happened? How did a company that's put out a whole string of games that upped the bar for the Strategy genre time and time again, with each incarnation finding a way to improve over the last, put out something this appallingly bad. Appalling. I have never used that before to describe the shape of a video game because I have never encountered a game that was so profoundly inept and utterly disappointing. Let alone a game named as a sequel to one of the most well received strategy games of all time.

    Don't get me wrong, there are games that are worse than this, much , much worse, but none so utterly in-congruent with its name sake. If I didn't no better I would think that this game was an outsourced abomination and not a product of the same developer who crafted all other games bearing the Total War banner.

    The AI is awful, the difficulty erratic and unfair, the graphics somehow don't seem as good as the last couple iterations. Why this is, I do not know, it may be that they are technically better, but optimized so poorly that even the most advanced of systems will inexplicably encounter performance issues. The loading times are....well let's just say I hope you have a nice chair to doze off in. I'm just at a loss to explain why so many things just don't work, are bug ridden, and/or only work sometimes.

    The worst of it all is how they have decided to make the game more difficult. You may remember the concept of spies/assassin's/saboteurs/etc from previous incarnations, where there seemed like there was some kind of formula allowing a result based on factors that felt at least some way fair. Well that is no more. Your "agents", as they are called in Rome II, are a collection of the dumbest individuals of all time who have about as good of chance of succeeding on a mission as a bull has to going through a china shop without causing damage. The CPU however, has the opposite problem. They can send ONE, ONE agent who can singlehandedly cripple your city in such a way that it is utterly decimated for 20-30 years...yes I said years. And this one agent can roll up to your largest, most experienced army, lead by your best general and kill him literally 19 out of 25 times. Your chances with identical circumstance --- 4 our of 25.. Those are the numbers I got. I know its not an scientific result and I don't have any proof to post it, but when I had an experienced general with a full army assaulted by a singular agent, then reloaded it to see how it would play out again. I did the same thing when I faced a fully stacked enemy army with a leader of comparable level and an agent with the same novice level abilities that the CPU agent had. I give it a 3 because sometimes it is genuinely fun, but honestly its not fun enough to elevate it above the level of "fun" that comes along when you are super drunk and you throw up after which you feel a little better.

    Thats' all I've got to say. Caveat Emptor my friends, caveat emptor.    … Expand
  59. Saratosa75
    Jan 18, 2014
    4
    So, after numerous patches and Steam offering 50% off, I decided to get it.
    I've read user reviews so I kept my distance until now.
    So here is what I think after some crucial patches: Perhaps the first 30 turns are enjoyable and the it gets very boring. Almost like a job with no paycheck . First, the turns. Clicking the turn button is when you could go and Get yourself a sandwich or    So, after numerous patches and Steam offering 50% off, I decided to get it.
    I've read user reviews so I kept my distance until now.
    So here is what I think after some crucial patches:
    Perhaps the first 30 turns are enjoyable and the it gets very boring.
    Almost like a job with no paycheck .
    First, the turns. Clicking the turn button is when you could go and
    Get yourself a sandwich or take care of other things at home.
    Since you probably have uncovered almost the whole map, you gonna have
    To wait a lot for the AI do it's turn.
    Once you clicked turn , you gonna spend an hour just to be sure
    That your provinces aren't rebeling or nobody sent some agents to your territory.
    This is what is going to be 80% of your "gaming".
    The battles will get boring, especially sieges, since they are still have bugs.
    You gonna try to auto solve both the sieges and the naval battles, because they are just simply awful.
    The game still looks nothing like they advertised it.
    It runs slow and you gonna hear your computer fans spinning up,
    While graphics wise, the game just don't look to good.
    If you have to turn down the graphics, it looks like a game
    10 years ago.
    The AI is bad, probably worse than the first rome total war.
    So you may play 30-40 turns and then you gonna forget about it.
    It's not worth a full retail price, that's for sure.
    As a bargain bin title, it may be worth about 15 dollars.    … Expand
  60. kersal
    Sep 5, 2013
    5
    Actually the game lack on his most important goal: the challenge. The AI, even at legendary mode, is terrible, especially on campaign map. No challenge means not fun. Now is like playing Sim City and not TW!
  61. jaunetajabe
    Jan 6, 2014
    2
    Thousands of minor bugs that makes this game unplayable, every map every turn are lots of things that are not cleary defined and makes the game boring and untactical.
    After 9 patches all is a big mess, nobody knows if politics works or how it works!
  62. zethar
    Sep 10, 2013
    5
    STOP trying to make it a casual game its a battle A LONG BATTLE GAME not a casual Rome 1 was better (111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111) just to fill the rest of the characters
  63. comradenash
    Sep 19, 2013
    4
    This game suffers from a malady that only occurs when extremely high expectations clash with sub-par performance. The kind of storm that elicits thousands of "0" reviews on sites like this. This was not a 0 experience, but I'll have to admit that it was obvious while playing that the developers played it safe and played their deep recurring fan-base for fools.

    -Gameplay is only pretty    This game suffers from a malady that only occurs when extremely high expectations clash with sub-par performance. The kind of storm that elicits thousands of "0" reviews on sites like this. This was not a 0 experience, but I'll have to admit that it was obvious while playing that the developers played it safe and played their deep recurring fan-base for fools.

    -Gameplay is only pretty skin-deep. Further play reveals a disappointing regurgitation of mechanics that were aged in Empire Total War and have not evolved since.

    -Immersion is non-existent beyond playing as Rome. My brief foray into the celtic tribes showed me repetitive map design, the same soundtrack, and ridiculous caricatures for unit sounds. Would it have been so difficult to create a soundtrack for each culture?

    -Frame drops are frequent and render the game unplayable. I was able to move the camera freely throughout the battle map without issue, but the units were moving at what appeared to be less than 10 FPS.

    Overall, a really sad offering from a team that could have done far better. The really unfortunate thing is that these are all issues that are extremely unlikely to be patched, as they seem like design decisions or corner cutting during the creative process.    … Expand
  64. angel123
    Sep 25, 2013
    0
    Broken down game..if you like to be a paid beta tester go ahead..if you like to teach those CA failers a leson w8 2-3 mouths before they patch the game to be playble and then buy it.
  65. Vineor
    Sep 25, 2013
    0
    Rome 2 is the most obvious milking of a fan-base i sadly had to see, taking something so promising and completely and utterly destroying it like this erases any form of hope CA maybe tried to actually accomplish something respectable and propably got pressured by Sega. The reason this can happen is because gaming doesnt get the respect it deserves and the fact we let Sega aswell as CARome 2 is the most obvious milking of a fan-base i sadly had to see, taking something so promising and completely and utterly destroying it like this erases any form of hope CA maybe tried to actually accomplish something respectable and propably got pressured by Sega. The reason this can happen is because gaming doesnt get the respect it deserves and the fact we let Sega aswell as CA getting away with this and they did, week 1 sales got more then diablo 3 wich is propably the most horrific thing ever happend to gaming.… Expand
  66. RenderUtama
    Sep 25, 2013
    0
    Bought the game the day after it came out. Did not get the discount but the game looked amazing and the critic reviews were great. Was excited, then found because I did not per-order the Greek culture states (DLC), i have to pay 8$ to get it. DLC the day it comes out? Great start, worst was yet to come.
    THIS GAME IS UNPLAYABLE, no i'm not talking about the crappy battle flag system    Bought the game the day after it came out. Did not get the discount but the game looked amazing and the critic reviews were great. Was excited, then found because I did not per-order the Greek culture states (DLC), i have to pay 8$ to get it. DLC the day it comes out? Great start, worst was yet to come.
    THIS GAME IS UNPLAYABLE, no i'm not talking about the crappy battle flag system (youtube it), the glitchy animations, or glitches in general. I'm talking about not ever being able to PLAY THE GAME, iIcan't launch this game. Updated BIOS/VIDEO/SOUND/WINDOWS drivers and others, re-installed and installed. Nothing, game doesn't work, make a post under CA tech support website. NOTHING. Been over a week now and I have gotten 0 support. Save yourself 60$ and don't buy this game. You might be around the 10% who can't play, or you get to deal with this crappy game that had absolutely zero QA. If you seriously want to buy this game, wait till it goes on sale for 10$ at the next steam sale. I have lost respect for CA, and will not purchase further products from them. Do whatever you want, yet heed my advice.

    For those of you curious, I am on update 3 from CA, still not able to launch the game.    … Expand
  67. Yarsk
    Sep 26, 2013
    3
    9 is what this game should have got regarding graphics and gameplay, taking into account some good new features and the thinking ahead about previous opus flaws.

    And 8 is what it should have got at initial release. But -1 for awful UI. -1 for abandoned previous good features and some oversimplified new features built for advertising. -1 for non-challenging and bugged campaign AI. -1    9 is what this game should have got regarding graphics and gameplay, taking into account some good new features and the thinking ahead about previous opus flaws.

    And 8 is what it should have got at initial release.

    But -1 for awful UI. -1 for abandoned previous good features and some oversimplified new features built for advertising. -1 for non-challenging and bugged campaign AI. -1 for non-challenging and bugged battle AI

    /2 because it is unacceptable to pay so much for a beta test

    +1 because CA seems to patch what players point out

    = 3 over bugged, non-challenging and non-immersing game
    = release disaster    … Expand
  68. Inkhand
    Sep 26, 2013
    4
    After the awesome that was Shogun 2, I expected the brilliance that was the original Rome to be brought up to date in a stunningly successful manner. Instead, I got Rome 2. Had this game's problems been limited to design decisions I would have rated it higher, but core design flaws mixed with crippling beta quality bugs drags the rating down to a 4.

    Rome 2 automatically selects the    After the awesome that was Shogun 2, I expected the brilliance that was the original Rome to be brought up to date in a stunningly successful manner. Instead, I got Rome 2. Had this game's problems been limited to design decisions I would have rated it higher, but core design flaws mixed with crippling beta quality bugs drags the rating down to a 4.

    Rome 2 automatically selects the graphics quality settings best suited to your configuration. Unfortunately, it seems to do this with unrestrained naive enthusiasm. I would describe my system as upper-mid range, yet the game unabashedly set my graphics to "extreme". The result was an extremely slow and jumpy game. After dialing back my settings until I was getting worse graphical quality than I did on Shogun 2 (which I could run at fairly high detail settings), I realized the issue was much deeper than mere quality settings. The game has not been optimized at all, as near as I can tell.

    Even when I was playing on extreme (slow though it was) the game's graphics didn't look anything like what we'd been promised during promo videos. The battle of Carthage promo had developers promise that the finished game would look even better, yet we're left with something arguably worse.

    During battles, I've seen ships sail through land. I've seen enemy units get stuck in some sort of strange time warp where they move at a fraction of the speed as my own or even their fellow units. I've seen towers captured by my own forces continue to fire on my men, as if I'd never taken them. I've seen individual men get stuck and dance around in place for no apparent reason.

    Naval battles are so unbelievably broken. An army can apparently take to the sea by magically conjuring a fleet of transports, a design concept I could buy into if they forced the army to take a turn to actually construct boats. Even then, these magic transports can outright obliterate a navy composed of supposedly dedicated warships. There is no balance here.

    Capture point battles are the most insipid design decision in a game that prizes strategy and outmaneuvering an enemy army. The AI rushes through you lines to grab the flag, and in a matter of moments your army still fighting desperately on the field is lost. Now, this has been fixed to a certain extent by the latest patches. But still, who thought bringing capture the flag to open field battles was a good idea? I can buy into it during siege battles, but nowhere else.

    And, speaking of siege battles, that's all this game has turned into. The game was supposedly designed to allow for more epic battles more often, but a combination of limiting the number of armies and poor AI, it turns into constant besieging (which is, quite often, so bugged you don't even want to play them).

    The much lauded political system is terribly, incredibly shallow. Generals die quickly, and you don't really care if they do because their bonuses are minuscule and poorly presented. There is no tech tree for you to look at, you have to read the encyclopedia to see where an ability will lead. There is no family tree, and while you supposedly have a family faction that you belong to... really, who cares? All they do is gather influence (in the form of senators that you can SPEND to do things?), do something with gravitas, and then you get a civil war. Big whoop. There are no strategic marriages, no continuing blood lines. Your faction leader dies, they pull the next guy off the street and put him in charge. It's boring.

    In fact, the entire game is boring. The nuance that was present in previous games (and especially Rome the first) is gone. No longer can you upgrade roads or add defenses to settlements. No longer are there contextual general speeches that play off of traits or who you're fighting, they don't even pan the camera across your troops. They are an afterthought, if that. No longer are there agent movies, which were an awesome part of Shogun 2 and Empire (and even Medieval 2, I think). Even the original Rome had some limited in game movies!

    CA claims that they had a 40% larger budget for this game. Where did it go? Live action teaser trailers and a marketing blitz aimed to get as many people as possible to preorder the game before we realized what a disaster it was?

    To be fair, CA is working hard to patch these issues. But really, a studio with their reputation and with such a purportedly large budget should never have released a game that is, essentially, beta test quality with bare bones features in place of the robust systems we expected.    … Expand
  69. Wiseus
    Sep 27, 2013
    3
    There is 10 max. points, but my score is 3 of 10, so there is 3 pluses and 7 minuses in this game.

    Let's start it bellow. Total War is my favorite game series, so I awaited many form the newest and the most expensive game of franchise. Creative Assambly have promised us a revolution, but there's non of it, and here's why: Pluses: + Great graphic. + Sea-land battles and landing    There is 10 max. points, but my score is 3 of 10, so there is 3 pluses and 7 minuses in this game.

    Let's start it bellow. Total War is my favorite game series, so I awaited many form the newest and the most expensive game of franchise. Creative Assambly have promised us a revolution, but there's non of it, and here's why:

    Pluses:

    + Great graphic.
    + Sea-land battles and landing operations.
    + Citys and campain map.

    Minuses:

    - NO huge gameplay improvments.
    - NO retreat(not running out) button and behavior stance(agressive, defensive and so on).
    - NO exiting, or even a bit verisimilar naval combat (oars don't break, no wind, etc.)
    - NO multiplayer features.(co-op campain for one faction, avatar map etc.)
    - NO optimisation.
    - NO product realise quality.
    - NO proper AI( stupid at battle, moderate at campain map, week Carthage.)

    Сonclusion: Rome II should and would be a greate game, when CA'll filed off it's product and moders will improve it.

    But, for now it's just an other new game of Total War serias, like new DLC for Shogun 2, with new setting.

    3 of 10.    … Expand
  70. kavinh
    Sep 27, 2013
    0
    ai is mentally handicapped and turn rotations take forever those damn "critics" have clearly never played more then a few hours of a game or don't realize that you need enemies in a total war game not brainless ai that don't bother to attack.
  71. smogaz
    Oct 25, 2013
    0
    -----------Vote this game down----------

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

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

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

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

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

    +1    … Expand
  72. kaput
    Oct 29, 2013
    2
    Rome 2 is boring over hyped overpriced game!!!!
    CA plan and simple lied to its fans, i would rather not see them put out another game than something like piece crap!!!
    Sad that got all that money for something so broken.
  73. CommonConsumer
    Oct 30, 2013
    0
    I loved the first Rome total war, I enjoyed it so much and put upwards of +100 hours into it.
    So as you can imagine when i heard Rome 2 was coming out i was very very very and very excited.
    You know when you buy a game and you think, well this can only go 2 ways, Good or Bad" well thats not the case here, The creators have taken pre order and new purchase of games to a whole new    I loved the first Rome total war, I enjoyed it so much and put upwards of +100 hours into it.
    So as you can imagine when i heard Rome 2 was coming out i was very very very and very excited.

    You know when you buy a game and you think, well this can only go 2 ways, Good or Bad" well thats not the case here, The creators have taken pre order and new purchase of games to a whole new level.
    This game was neither good nor bad, Instead it was BUTCHERED. It has the potential of becoming a 10/10 in my opinion. But its clear to me that the creators were on a mission to, instead of creating a fan oriented game, try something different. It's that different that has destroyed this game. The game is unplayable, the graphics, lagging, and glitches make it UNPLAYABLE, the AI, Diplomacy, Battles make it UNBEARABLE, The fact that some of the best features in ROME 1 have been removed is a testimony of how little the people behind this game listen to their fans.

    Whats the worst part? I WANT TO PLAY IT! Its has so much potential! there are so many improvements and new features that compliment the game in so many ways. Sure at first you might be thinking "well it's not so bad" but after playing for a few hours you will be ripping your hair out and slamming your coputer against the wall. What am I talking about? well here, look at this:

    Your at war with a another faction, You have taken all cities but one, all of its armies destroyed, it's even in debt, yet it still will not make peace or become your client state. NO LOGIC.

    Brokering a Trade Agreement which benefits both sides is non existent. I had an empire with some 20 provinces(Over 30 cities) with 0, count em ZERO trade partners.

    Civil war erupts at random, My nation at one point had several angry cities, and my family had very little influence NO WAR, After i become successful in military campaigns, made my cities happy, and my family prominent, along with good relations with EVERYONE all around CIVIL WAR, WTF!?

    NAVIES ARE OBSOLETE AS YOUR ARMY CAN TRAVEL ON WATER AND IS STRONGER THAN TRAINED NAVAL VESSELS.

    you have 3 agents that you can hire, all of which are pretty much the same with minor differences.

    The game is too easy, no i don't mean the settings, or I'm super good, I mean your enemy will go suicide on you and will attack you constantly with tiny forces until they have no military strength (good luck with diplomacy, its like an upset 2 year old)

    Battle, Seriously? Formations break on impact, nearly all battles last less than 10 minutes, there are "capture points', basically if you have a weak force, attack your enemy and even if your forces will be crushed, send 1 unit to capture that point (it works every time) and you win. the AI does this to you constantly, it just goes for the capture point and ignores your forces.

    Overall, the Cons out weigh the Pros ridiculously.... I want to play this game, because i really like it.... buts its unplayable. hopefully, after they release the patches, and maybe someone creates a mod for it, it will have a better score.    … Expand
  74. Lumo999
    Nov 2, 2013
    0
    Five patches later still a mess, Have played total war since the original Shogun, but no more after this mess. IF you accidentally hit the auto resolve battle even if the sides are 50-50, and you loss you army gets wiped out no survivors. The game is still full of bugs, I spent 3 hours attacking a city when the max time was meant to be 20 minutes, the game was stuck in mega slow motionFive patches later still a mess, Have played total war since the original Shogun, but no more after this mess. IF you accidentally hit the auto resolve battle even if the sides are 50-50, and you loss you army gets wiped out no survivors. The game is still full of bugs, I spent 3 hours attacking a city when the max time was meant to be 20 minutes, the game was stuck in mega slow motion even though it was in fast forward. The number of crashes is still real bad, this was the worse game I have every purchased by far.… Expand
  75. SovietWomble
    Jan 16, 2014
    2
    Very disappointed. If you enjoyed Shogun 2, avoid this title. Lots of little issues drown this game.

    - The AI provides next to no challenge. In battle, the AI will be massacred by a simple outflank. Once you reach a certain size you're more or less unstoppable on the campaign map. - Unstable with constant crashes, frame rate drops and unacceptable loading times even on an SSD. -    Very disappointed. If you enjoyed Shogun 2, avoid this title. Lots of little issues drown this game.

    - The AI provides next to no challenge. In battle, the AI will be massacred by a simple outflank. Once you reach a certain size you're more or less unstoppable on the campaign map.

    - Unstable with constant crashes, frame rate drops and unacceptable loading times even on an SSD.

    - Awful UI design. The tech tree is compartmentalized and unclear. Building things in provinces is unnecessarily complex and unrewarding, and you keep having to look at the encyclopedia to get basic information on future builds. And the status of units in battle is difficult to determine using the unit cards. It's simply bad UI design. And a clear step backwards from Shogun 2.

    Frustrating mechanics changes:

    - Navies are a waste of time. Since any land army automatically turns into a fleet on touching the water. Investing in a powerful navy does not protect your coast, or allow you to move units around faster than on land, since ships move at the same pace as land armies.

    - City militia forces now engage in battles far from the city itself, in a large zone of control around the city. Meaning a 1000 on 1000 battle in the hills, will be reinforced by another 1000 militia forces from a town miles away. It's a frustrating mechanic that handicaps you in the opening few turns, as these basic militia units can be a challenge for your starting infantry.

    - Armies are now entirely centered around generals. So reinforcing armies requires you to move the entire army to the recruitment province, rather than send reinforcements to the distant front. Gone are the days where you could fragment forces into smaller groups like a real army.

    For the first time in the franchise history, I'm going to be cautious before buying something from Creative Assembly again.    … Expand
  76. Advocatus
    Feb 19, 2014
    2
    I am very disappointed. I followed the development of this game eagerly, as I've purchased every Total War title. This is the most disappointing of the lot. The AI is terrible, the interface is frustrating and counter-intuitive, the addition of "capture points" makes any sort of coherent strategy impossible, naval combat makes no sense whatsoever (transports steamroll naval ships) and theI am very disappointed. I followed the development of this game eagerly, as I've purchased every Total War title. This is the most disappointing of the lot. The AI is terrible, the interface is frustrating and counter-intuitive, the addition of "capture points" makes any sort of coherent strategy impossible, naval combat makes no sense whatsoever (transports steamroll naval ships) and the units lose cohesion at the first sight of the enemy. There are many other problems, but I need no more words than these - I will think very carefully before buying another Total War title, and I will never buy one pre-launch again.… Expand
  77. teh_reverend
    Feb 28, 2014
    0
    It's sad that one is not able to give a negative score, this game totally deserved a score on the negative side. I am a huge fan of the TW series. I have spent more hours in TW than I have playing any other game. And Rome has been my favorite of the lot. However I should have known where the series was going after Shogun 2, compared to any of the earlier releases Shogun 2 was for me aIt's sad that one is not able to give a negative score, this game totally deserved a score on the negative side. I am a huge fan of the TW series. I have spent more hours in TW than I have playing any other game. And Rome has been my favorite of the lot. However I should have known where the series was going after Shogun 2, compared to any of the earlier releases Shogun 2 was for me a disappointment.

    But when they announced a second Rome I was hoping for today's graphics with yesterdays gameplay, a perfect combination. Upon release I bought it on steam, I installed it and found it horrendous - hence Uninstall was the next step.

    Around Christmas with days of work I decided to give it another go. Not my cup of tea yet, but still the devs had done something. I was hoping for the best, so I uninstalled it again deciding to have another go a couple of months later. A couple of days ago I decided to try again. No way. This is not TW, the only thing TW about this game is the name, and it stops there. This game is so flawed and even 9 patches later, I would boldly say that even first release of Windows 95 seemed more stable and a more complete product.

    My recommendation to the public pondering about buying this game or not, don't bother, there is a slim chance that you might like it, but chances are bigger that you will hate it.    … Expand
  78. toni_li
    Mar 4, 2014
    3
    Esta nota se la doy tirando por lo alto, por que me da vergüenza que un juego que lo ponen por las nubes y lo lanzan en pre venta por 55 euros y los cuatro primeros meses el juego practicamente sea injugable no lo veo normal, cuando ademas utiliza la base de todos los Total War ¿alguien me puede decir que han hecho durante todo este tiempo? ¿en que han gastado el dinero? simplementeEsta nota se la doy tirando por lo alto, por que me da vergüenza que un juego que lo ponen por las nubes y lo lanzan en pre venta por 55 euros y los cuatro primeros meses el juego practicamente sea injugable no lo veo normal, cuando ademas utiliza la base de todos los Total War ¿alguien me puede decir que han hecho durante todo este tiempo? ¿en que han gastado el dinero? simplemente decepcionante y probablemente para mi el fin de la saga.… Expand
  79. Reamus1205
    Mar 4, 2014
    1
    There is no way I am pre-ordering any Creative Assembly game again, and apparently I can't rely on reviewing organizations to weed out the bad seeds for me. This game has been a failure in almost every way; it looks terrible, the music is boring, the battles are boring, the campaign is boring and stripped down, and ultimately it is a game full of undelivered promises. It's developers alsoThere is no way I am pre-ordering any Creative Assembly game again, and apparently I can't rely on reviewing organizations to weed out the bad seeds for me. This game has been a failure in almost every way; it looks terrible, the music is boring, the battles are boring, the campaign is boring and stripped down, and ultimately it is a game full of undelivered promises. It's developers also seem more interested in trying to milk DLC rather than address the very real issues plaguing the game.… Expand
  80. Leapchild
    Mar 14, 2014
    0
    Features in Rome II:
    - horrible performance optimization and blurry graphics
    - every infantry unit can use torches to destroy walls, crippling attrition when besieging, no battering rams or siege towers until researched, no tunneling under walls (sapping). - very few build options and always limited by research, town management reduced to nothing, no option to build walls or roads, no    Features in Rome II:
    - horrible performance optimization and blurry graphics
    - every infantry unit can use torches to destroy walls, crippling attrition when besieging, no battering rams or siege towers until researched, no tunneling under walls (sapping).
    - very few build options and always limited by research, town management reduced to nothing, no option to build walls or roads, no built buildings visible in battle,
    - no easily accessible build trees or unit trees or ability trees, useless, slow and inaccessible encyclopedia that doesn't support mods
    - no fire at will for all units with missiles, cannot use pilums or javelins defensively
    - no guard mode and loose formation for units, units cannot hold formation
    - one year turn and no seasons, causing generals and agents to die of old age
    - no family tree and an unfinished and useless system for internal politics and completely random civil wars that are not fought against other families but generic "senate loyalists"
    - no restrictions on high tier units, meaning low tier units become useless in lategame
    - slave system that's barely manageable with very few options
    - useless diplomatic AI, useless battle AI, useless siege AI, the AI battle AI has never been strong in Total War but at least it wasn't completely useless and broken, you'd think after 10 years they would be improving the AI, not make it worse, at least the multiplayer campaign is playable
    - limits on how many armies you can use on the campaign map, require a general to move a small force
    - unhistorical naval battles that always ends with ramming and boarding and no option to board a ship with more than one of your own ships
    - no historical events or historically timed natural disasters
    - no ability to manually reinforce or merge damaged units and no unit experience loss when reinforcing with fresh recruits
    - no engaging or immersing music, just generic music that give no feel to the game whatsoever, should have hired Jeff van Dyck to rehash the Rome 1 music
    - parts of the game cut out and added pay to play DLC on day 1 even though the game was 80 dollars at start for an incomplete mess of a game
    - automatic transports meaning that regular navies are less useful
    - pikemen have no visible pikes until they use them, so you can never know what to expect until they pull out a 5 meter spear right in front of your troops
    - abilities give magical stat boosts instead of actual formations and attacks
    - no beta testing and after several months of patches little has been remedy all the problems or add any of the missing features, instead only DLC mongering, demanding money for DLC even when the game is unfinished and doesn't have half as many features as Rome 1 is appalling, to call it a sequel is a joke

    Making the game accessible and removing nearly all of the total war features are two completely different things. Performance and AI worse than any other Total War game. 10 years after Rome 1 and the first game is still far superior. A sequel should be adding and improving features, not removing and reducing them.    … Expand
  81. Ezio91
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    last week I was convinced of having the best total war and strategic game ever, but all I find is a game full of bugs, when setting down the details of mid low with a dual core 3ghz, 4gb ram GTX460 1GB and I do not reach even 20 fps on average it's absolutely unplayable. I refuse to play. I hope within 10 days the situation better or will be the last total war that I have purchased
  82. Crowstorm
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Horrible UI
    Horrible unit cards
    Horrible fpses
    Horrible world map
    I dont know about AI because i quit after doing tutorial and starting campaign.
    Stay away from this piece of garbage
  83. MAXOH
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    I played 8 hours so far and I think this game is mess. Awful performance, lack of gameplay features, boring economic system, broken AI.

    I paid 60 dollars for this game and I feel scammed. SEGA marketing department just robbed me.
  84. manchesterrocks
    Sep 4, 2013
    3
    Game is garbage. Many bugs and strange UI. What is the point of making these HUGE UGLY icons and buttons? Shogun 2 had pretty good interface. Why change everything so bad?

    AI is just freakin ridiculous.

    Also dear developers completely removed family tree and made army cap. What a lame decision!

    Paid 30 pounds for this casual parody of Total War games.
  85. 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
  86. agapito37
    Dec 30, 2013
    0
    I have just played this game and its extremely bad. Nothing is properly done. Diplomacy is useless as nobody accepts any trade no matter what. AI is exactly the same as in medieval total war, more stupid than a donkey. Difficulty in campaign is based on giving factions ridiculous amounts of money to waste it. Battle AI is based con ridiculous stats buffs to enemies. Capturing settlementsI have just played this game and its extremely bad. Nothing is properly done. Diplomacy is useless as nobody accepts any trade no matter what. AI is exactly the same as in medieval total war, more stupid than a donkey. Difficulty in campaign is based on giving factions ridiculous amounts of money to waste it. Battle AI is based con ridiculous stats buffs to enemies. Capturing settlements is a pain in the ass due to ridiculous mechanics that do not work properly, attacking a city and slaughtering all enemies do not lead to capturing the city WTF. Also during battle units are unresponsive no matter what you do and performance is extremely bad even in low graphics with an extremely powerful computer. This is unacceptable for a saga with so many years.

    DLC leeching for normal features and units that should be in-game.

    And the worst thing is that we don't have DarthVader anymore to fix CA games. I really hope he makes a new saga of games that makes CA go bankrupt.    … Expand
  87. ComicBookGuy
    Sep 13, 2013
    4
    A good game soured by a rushed release and unfinished content. The alpha screens and videos showed something much better than was delivered, a real shame really. I did enjoy the game until I started to crash in battles with more than two armies present, co-op is shamefully incomplete, and worst of all the fixes will be paid DLC.

    Really that is what you can sum up Rome 2 as, a shame. A    A good game soured by a rushed release and unfinished content. The alpha screens and videos showed something much better than was delivered, a real shame really. I did enjoy the game until I started to crash in battles with more than two armies present, co-op is shamefully incomplete, and worst of all the fixes will be paid DLC.

    Really that is what you can sum up Rome 2 as, a shame. A real shame.

    Who do we blame? Publisher or Developer. My bet is both.    … Expand
  88. TWAddict
    Sep 7, 2013
    4
    4 is probably a little unfair for the work that has gone into this game, as with previous TW games the history and research is very good HOWEVER the disappointment and genuine horror I am currently feeling at this moment makes me score this game so poorly. This coming from someone who has played over 900 hours on Empire, 800 hours on Napoleon and prior to steam probably 3 to 4 thousand4 is probably a little unfair for the work that has gone into this game, as with previous TW games the history and research is very good HOWEVER the disappointment and genuine horror I am currently feeling at this moment makes me score this game so poorly. This coming from someone who has played over 900 hours on Empire, 800 hours on Napoleon and prior to steam probably 3 to 4 thousand hours on Shogun1, Rome, Medieval 1 and 2 (plus all the add ons and many custom TW games). I should have waited, you see my playing time on Shogun 2 is only 44hrs, I tried to like it but grew to hate it. Unfortunately Rome 2 has some of the same stupid faults and traits, Shogun2 had warrior nuns, now we have Iceni onager ships please Hate the cartoony interface like shogun2, and the real time battle engine is just like shogun 2, far too fast to relish and enjoy like the set piece battles of its predecessors. Why spend all that time on detail and effects when your obviously pitching to the pre-adult txt-a-holic Michal Bay watching console playing demographic! What next Transformers Total War Wait let me plug three mice in and 2 keybards and I can click and smash them all together while watching the a whirling vortex of Ongager pirates and warrior nun spear laser cavalry.
    As for the AI, well AI has always been contentious in the TW series but at least in the older games such as Rome 1 and Medieval 2 while the AI sometimes sucked they were at least enjoyable and infinitely more playable. CA seem to be breaking what didn't need touching and making the bad bits even worse. Will have another crack at it soon now the patch seems to be out, although not today though, no not today, maybe tomorrow or next weekend, someday, anyway back to Napoleon or maybe Sid Meiers Gettysberg or Antietam, Xcom possibly, just something that doesn't make me feel like a moron.    … Expand
  89. bhndshades
    Sep 17, 2013
    2
    Rome 2: Total Waste Of My Time.
    I am a huge fan of the series so I was utterly disappointed with this game. Everything about the looks are better in this game compared to its predecessors The problem is in the game mechanics. The loading time after each turn just takes away all of the fun. Developers, you must have understood that this would create a huge negative response from the    Rome 2: Total Waste Of My Time.
    I am a huge fan of the series so I was utterly disappointed with this game. Everything about the looks are better in this game compared to its predecessors The problem is in the game mechanics. The loading time after each turn just takes away all of the fun. Developers, you must have understood that this would create a huge negative response from the gamers. Was it too late to change??? What is the point of having an extremely big Campaign World and loads of factions and neat graphics if the whole thing does not work???
    I get very annoyed reading any reviews that gives this game over 5. I am Confident that they have not played a full Campaign.
    The rest of my comments are more about details. I do not like that the only way to split an army is to having to hire a new general and transfer soldiers from one army to the other. I dont like the graphics of the unit cards in the "army bar". I would prefer miniature pictures of the units rather than the stylized contemporary art pictures.    … Expand
  90. Bad_Andy
    Sep 17, 2013
    3
    The game is cool but it crashes all the time and as others have said the AI is bad so, not very good unfortunately, sad because it has a lot of potential.
  91. druout1944
    Sep 21, 2013
    0
    Diplomacy is horribly broken. Every Rome campaign I've started results in the entire map going to war with me sooner rather than later (attacked by 9-12 countries with your new army cap is not fun, especially when making allies is impossible 99% of the time) Trade is broken, it only works if they ask you or you pay them a ton of money. Battle engine glitches, game stutters on campaign mapDiplomacy is horribly broken. Every Rome campaign I've started results in the entire map going to war with me sooner rather than later (attacked by 9-12 countries with your new army cap is not fun, especially when making allies is impossible 99% of the time) Trade is broken, it only works if they ask you or you pay them a ton of money. Battle engine glitches, game stutters on campaign map and siege maps (AI pathing incompetence still crushing computers since Empire), even after upgrading from GTX 260 1.792 GB to GTX 660 3GB. Transports the equal of warships, fail. Routing units are almost impossible to kill. There is no possible way that CA tested this without knowing how messed up the game was, too bad they can't be sued for false advertisement. The game is aggravating instead of fun, first time for me since the original Medieval (which I loved). I literally hate playing this game, the last burst of patches did not fix the AI in any noticeable way. $60 is better spent on anything but this. And the fanboy answer of 'it's always like this, so it's ok 'cause the modders and patches will make it better" is a bunch of BS as far as I'm concerned. If someone sold me a rifle that jammed, I wouldn't think, well that's alright I'll just fix it myself or have someone else fix it. Hell no, you advertise and sell a finished product if you care about customer loyalty, well CA lost mine, never buying JS from them ever again.… Expand
  92. Chiurito
    Oct 10, 2013
    0
    Total disaster. Idiot AI, confused unit card and UI, no family tree, poor diplomacy, siege battles with flame torches (:facepalm:), one year per turn, no season, no cinematic videos...

    Really, really, really disappointed.
  93. Exfan
    Sep 14, 2013
    1
    I had high hopes for this game considering how finished product Shogun 2 was. Sadly same problems that plagued Empire:total war are in this game too. Seems like they just copied same engine from Empire:total war. Game has same kind of fps problems in late game, large battles. It becomes dia show and haven't got anything to do with graphics options. Game is poorly optimized and terriblyI had high hopes for this game considering how finished product Shogun 2 was. Sadly same problems that plagued Empire:total war are in this game too. Seems like they just copied same engine from Empire:total war. Game has same kind of fps problems in late game, large battles. It becomes dia show and haven't got anything to do with graphics options. Game is poorly optimized and terribly slow paced because waiting for all AI turns in game (turning of show AI movement won't help anyway). Considering that they are atm beta testing patch it seems rushed product.… Expand
  94. socialperson1
    Sep 14, 2013
    1
    Well Rome II will need some heavy patching if not mods to make it playable for me. This game will need another year people, so give it some time and save your money, for now, you aren't really missing anything.
  95. ekatonpl
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Disappointing stupid AI, horrible UI, disgusting and confusing unit cards, no optimalazion, lots of bugs this game is surely unfinished, propably also cut a lot to get money on new DLCs. It's a shame that CA published something like this and also kind of an insult.

    Paid way too much to be a beta tester now.
  96. ashmurphy89
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Just started to play this game this morning and the first thing that came to mind was the graphics. I thought they must have been on low but no, they were set to very high and they looked terrible. Path finding is grim. AI is poor and the optimisation is rubbish. As a software developer it's hardly surprising such a bodge-it-and-scarper job was even released as this seems to be a trend inJust started to play this game this morning and the first thing that came to mind was the graphics. I thought they must have been on low but no, they were set to very high and they looked terrible. Path finding is grim. AI is poor and the optimisation is rubbish. As a software developer it's hardly surprising such a bodge-it-and-scarper job was even released as this seems to be a trend in the dev world. Hopefully this game will be patched and the devs will listen to the fans complaints.

    All in all a massive disappointment, I don't often pre order games and this is the final straw. Back to playing a finished game like Tomb Raider until patch number 15.    … Expand
  97. Mr_Stark
    Sep 7, 2013
    2
    Wow, I can't believe I preordered this...
    This game fails on so many counts. The 5 year engine is poorly optimized and graphics look terrible. The basic TW gameplay is dumbed down for casual audience. UI looks bad and very confusing. Disappointment.
  98. Shazbat68
    Sep 7, 2013
    2
    I could not even play thru the first campaign before feeling like I wasted my money. I have 2X 680 and SLI is not supported. The game really needs to be optimized. That aside my biggest gripe is that if you fail any part of the campaign you have to start all over. What a pain. Also the UI is NOT intuitive.
  99. Furious28289
    Sep 4, 2013
    6
    Played for a day but got bored of it real quick unfortunately. Ill try to give an honest assessment.

    CONS - Battles become a giant blob of units mess - One year per turn has destroyed the attachment and reward you get from slowly training up your generals and agents, they just keep dying which brings up the "noble death" cinematic over and OVER again. Agents are also VERY expensive -    Played for a day but got bored of it real quick unfortunately. Ill try to give an honest assessment.

    CONS
    - Battles become a giant blob of units mess
    - One year per turn has destroyed the attachment and reward you get from slowly training up your generals and agents, they just keep dying which brings up the "noble death" cinematic over and OVER again. Agents are also VERY expensive
    - Concept of one year per turn is so stupid, it is adhered to for "historical accuracy" in some areas of the game (to its detriment) yet ignored in others. Just trash the whole idea, and do it like rome 1
    - AI is extremely inept
    - Naval landings against cities is FUNDAMENTALLY broken, as the defending side just clogs the limited landing spots with their own ships
    - Huge performance issues, even on high end rigs
    - Diplomacy has taken a step back from Shogun 2 (the whole game has taken a step back, but this specifically. Diplomacy quite bugged/not working
    - MASSIVE turn times, all those chores u have been wanting to do but cbf doing will be done while u wait for this epic turn time lol
    - As it was called out on the forums, the testudo formation is a useless JOKE, and in itself a true indication of CA's collapse of common sense
    - UI has also taken a step backwards: it is much harder to get a grasp of relations, who owns what on the map, finances, public order etc. NOT because i want it to be dumbed down, but because there are too many uneccessary UI obstacles to getting this information, or it simply isnt there
    - Battles full of bugs, units getting stuck, refusing to obey orders etc.
    - Much more difficult to effectively control your army in battle, couple that with the very fast pace of battles and you have a cluster turd of a situation.
    - Many bugs in all aspect of the game
    - Siege times are too short (CA trying to cling to the ridiculous notion of 1 year per turn again)
    - Sense of satisfaction on creating an empire/playing campaign map is missing, still trying to pin it down but it probably a combination of the above and the one year per turn nonsense inhibiting/destroying all the aspects of previous total war titles that we all loved.

    PROS
    - Has potential, like in a years time when (if) copious amounts of patching has rectified many of the above issues. Wait for steam special folks, in 2 years time. In the meantime go back to Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai which is actually a much better game.
    - Campaign map looks nice, just need those performace issues addressed
    - Army stances seem nice, although i see limited use for defensive stance
    - I believe the battle speed MAY not be an issue if they can enhance the unit controls more. Mosh pit mob effect must be fixed though, roman legionaries fought with much more cohesion in rome 1.
    - City building is kinda cool    … Expand
  100. Thijsor
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    Never been this disapointed in a game in my life. Been a fan of the series for 8 years but this is just a slap in the face. I don't even think it is fixable, at least not for me.
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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]
See all critic reviews »