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. MrZanyGaming
    Nov 5, 2013
    4
    Not a bad game, but there was so much more they could have done, not to mention the marketing campaign that blatantly lied to all the fans of the series. It's dumbed down, so if you're a fan of simple games that make you feel smart, then buy it. If not, then I would advise you to avoid Rome 2.
  2. bastianravenx
    Jun 19, 2014
    2
    HUGE disappoint when you play total war shogun and switch to this game like angel from heaven going to hell UI like crap. I played almost 20 hours just to find myself how bad this game
    such a let down people
  3. Agostinos
    Jul 1, 2014
    3
    After 13 patches and several mods tested, this game still sucks. It is flawed by design and working as intended!
    Dont you ever buy this if you want a strategy game. If you think of it as an app you might get if for some €€ at steam, install it, play it for some minutes, quit bored and annoyed and aswell deinstall that 20gb of massie failure.
    Unfortunately i paid the whole price and i    After 13 patches and several mods tested, this game still sucks. It is flawed by design and working as intended!
    Dont you ever buy this if you want a strategy game. If you think of it as an app you might get if for some €€ at steam, install it, play it for some minutes, quit bored and annoyed and aswell deinstall that 20gb of massie failure.
    Unfortunately i paid the whole price and i will never ever again play something from CA.    … Expand
  4. Thunder5555
    Mar 13, 2016
    3
    I should've been getting the hint when people told me that I need mods to enjoy this game...
    Even total war games can fail at the times, and this one is it.
    Something is just off with this one and just trying to ignore it and keep playing is not worth it when there's good total wars available.
    Empire, Rome, Shogun.. take your pick and I can tell you get a better experience than with this one.
  5. Sencho
    Sep 9, 2014
    4
    The first Rome Total War is one of my all time favorite games. With eager anticipation I pre-ordered Rome 2 on Steam after many years of waiting. However, I immediately had trouble running the game after the release, not a unique experience of course. I consoled myself with the fact that my pc was old and that it was at fault that the game was nearly unplayable.

    Fast forward almost    The first Rome Total War is one of my all time favorite games. With eager anticipation I pre-ordered Rome 2 on Steam after many years of waiting. However, I immediately had trouble running the game after the release, not a unique experience of course. I consoled myself with the fact that my pc was old and that it was at fault that the game was nearly unplayable.

    Fast forward almost exactly a year later. After getting enough money together for a new gaming PC, I eagerly installed Rome 2 to finally have a real crack at the game. Sad to say, after 4 hours of play I find myself very disappointed. Even after a year of patches I find the campaign AI to be erratic and units in battle glitchy. The weird looking faces on the campaign map characters still happens and I generally feel that things are still a mess. I hope Creative Assembly learns from the mistakes it made with this game. It wasn't ready for release a year ago and, in view of the current state of the game, I think its still not at a place where it should be released had it been delayed until this year. Creative Assembly has been a company that has shown true vision over the years, I hope they haven't lost that.    … Expand
  6. sirxchrish
    Nov 15, 2013
    5
    The game isn't bad but it's not good either and it certainly can't hold a candle to it's predecessor Rome 1. So here are a couple of things I liked and didn't like. This is just my opinion, so it's all debatable.

    Thing's I didn't like- -Dumbest AI. (Self-Explanatory.) -Shallow Campaign and Questionable In-game Design. (No Family Tree, Bare-boned Political System, Meaningless    The game isn't bad but it's not good either and it certainly can't hold a candle to it's predecessor Rome 1. So here are a couple of things I liked and didn't like. This is just my opinion, so it's all debatable.

    Thing's I didn't like-

    -Dumbest AI. (Self-Explanatory.)

    -Shallow Campaign and Questionable In-game Design. (No Family Tree, Bare-boned Political System, Meaningless Objectives/Victory Conditions, No cut-scenes or unique transformations with agents, Too many unplayable factions make conquering the world a very tedious task, Bland User-Interface, Unnecessary limit on how many generals or agents you can have, No general's speeches, etc.)

    -Inferior Music Score. (It's predecessor, Rome 1 had a way better soundtrack.)

    -Horrendous Multi-player. (No avatar system, Constant Crashes and Desynchronizations.)

    Things I liked-

    -Custom Battles. (Gives me the option to fight where I want, with the units I want.)

    -The Blood and Gore DLC. (I'm sanguinary.)

    -Military Traditions/Edicts/Expanding Cities in Campaign. (I loved making each of my individual armies unique with it's own traditions which add bonuses to their fighting ability. I liked the edicts cause they saved my men from starving to death with the Bread and Games edict. I also loved that animation where the city changes in appearance before your very eyes while on the campaign map.)

    -The Modability. (The Best Part of Total War Games are the creations that it's fans come up with.)    … Expand
  7. reviewobsession
    Jan 21, 2015
    5
    First, I agree with negative reviewers because they are right to be angry as customers who had to wait about one year to get their expensive game fixed.

    If you're not a Total War fan, buy this game. Don't be afraid of bad user reviews, CA fixed the game with too many patches and it's playable now. If you're a Total War fan, there are two things you should consider; "arcade campaign    First, I agree with negative reviewers because they are right to be angry as customers who had to wait about one year to get their expensive game fixed.

    If you're not a Total War fan, buy this game. Don't be afraid of bad user reviews, CA fixed the game with too many patches and it's playable now.

    If you're a Total War fan, there are two things you should consider; "arcade campaign gameplay" and "succesful battle mechanics"(after many patches and tons of scripting). Arcade campaign is too easy because there is no time limit, logistic planning, senate politics and complex city management. I think it's not bad to try new mechanics as a game developer but they lost depth in these systems. On the other hand I have to say diplomacy is much better than older games in the series. Battle system works very good. Battle AI is better than old ROME. Campaign AI is broken so you have to install mods. Nothing to say about graphics and sound, they are great. But UI is still terrible and I'm afraid they won't change it. In spite of problems I'm sure you won't regret when you buy this game because of its epic battles (but don't except challenging campaign and get ready for strange frustrating bugs) Just wait for 70% discount    … Expand
  8. SchnitzelPoof
    Nov 4, 2015
    5
    After stubbornly giving the game another chance, I've decided to update my review.
    Even after all the patches up to the Emperor's Edition, many of the design decisions make little sense: the way armies or fleets move, how they engage (or rather don't, thanks to a ludicrous cat-and-mouse game that never ends); a single agent able to stop your entire army turn after turn after turn after    After stubbornly giving the game another chance, I've decided to update my review.
    Even after all the patches up to the Emperor's Edition, many of the design decisions make little sense: the way armies or fleets move, how they engage (or rather don't, thanks to a ludicrous cat-and-mouse game that never ends); a single agent able to stop your entire army turn after turn after turn after turn; a land army destroying an entire fleet because it happened to be inside a port city (without any option to withdraw); random diplomacy; endless back and forth wars, in which cities are easily captured (and recaptured), while armies "force march" out of your reach; and this really annoying thing, where different cultures cannot use any buildings of each other - even something as basic as a farm; so when you or an enemy take a city, everything must be razed / replaced. As a result, if a critical food producing city is taken by an AI that can move more than you, for just ONE turn, even when you retake it, you must rebuild from scratch, suffering many turns of starvation penalties.
    Most pre-battle screens show either you, or the AI, having overwhelming force superiority, so there's almost no point in playing the battles yourself. I've gone through almost my entire campaign clicking only on auto-match.
    As a result, the early game is nothing short of frustrating, instead of being an intense competition to break-out against capable rivals. Afterwards, when you become powerful, many of those design choices are mitigated, simply because you can afford losses. What follows is mostly a race to conquer as much of the map as possible, which, while interesting, isn't exactly the epic confrontation between civilizations you might expect.
    Bottom line, there is a lack of excitement in this installment of Total War, despite all the potential that exists in the covered period.    … Expand
  9. Ender1183
    Nov 13, 2013
    6
    I would figure I would finish a Campaign before I made a recommendation. I just didn't know it would take 80 hours to finish. If you a fan of the Total war series chances are you have already have this game and have either been blinded by your fandom or the hype that this would be the best TW to date. It didn't take me long to quickly realized this was a rushed game, put out several monthsI would figure I would finish a Campaign before I made a recommendation. I just didn't know it would take 80 hours to finish. If you a fan of the Total war series chances are you have already have this game and have either been blinded by your fandom or the hype that this would be the best TW to date. It didn't take me long to quickly realized this was a rushed game, put out several months before it was ready. I can only imagine that CA was forced by Sega to get the game out before some of the other big titles of the holiday season got out. There are several features that where in previous TW games such as the political and family system that where not even half as complete in past games. I completely didn’t care what happened to my family if someone was being bribed or shamed, I just didn't care. I was really happy when I won my civil war and could be an empire so I would not be bothered by the family bs.
    As for the campaign map you end up building the same 3 builds to have enough food and keep public order under control. This makes it almost impossible to upgrade your army or economy and very boring since you can't specialize a providence until late in the game. I'm sure if I started a new campaign I would have an easier time but since there is no building tree that is easy to compare buildings, even of the same type, there is a lot of trial and error before you can get the balance right. An other problem I ran into was that the auto resolve doesn’t seem to take into account the quality of your units. There where several battles where I would lose in the auto but crush the AI in a battle. The research is also out of balance even after 200 turns unless you focus on one tree you can't even upgrade to the best builds. Which is also impossible because you will have bad pubic order of lack of food because you ignored those trees. Over all I would say once you beat your civil war that is a good place to stop. After that it is a steam roll over the AI who is to passive or has so horribly manage there own providence they are starving to death. Its too bad there weren’t options to have a short campaign and start later so you could see some of the late builds and units when they would matter.
    It has been a common theme that the AI in the TW series has always been bad but this game takes it to a new level. Don't bother with sieges just auto resolve. The AI will run to there death when attacking or sit there and get pounded by your artillery until they are so softened up that sending in a few units in will make them rout. After been told that is was going to be the best AI yet it is actually worst then any other. There have been some improvements with the patches but it is still easy to beat the AI in a battle and on the campaign map... unless you play on a harder setting but all that does is buff there morale, armor and income.
    Tried a few MP battles but it seems that is has come down to who can macro the fastest and press a units special ability buff the most. There is no chance to sit back and watch the units fight it out or use much more of a strategy then rush your units in spamming the special ability and flanking your cav around to the back to make units rout. Well it was fun to play against friend and make your own rules you can't really do that against pubs.
    Overall I did enjoy the era and the workshop looks like it is starting to fill up with some interesting mods and tweaks. Hopefully CA can patch up this game but I have a feeling they will save any changes for the expiation pack. If you haven't played TW before I would look and see if you can pick up Empire up for cheap before getting this game. If you are a fan and just held off buying(good for you) I wouldn't pay more then 30 bucks. By then it maybe patched up enough to make it enjoyable and with the workshop there maybe a few decent mods to fill in the games.    … Expand
  10. Hellmut34
    Nov 8, 2013
    5
    Been a fan of TW games since the first Shogun came out. Although i have enjoyed this more than Empire TW i just can't justify giving the game a decent mark.
    So much about it is done badly and i can't for the life of me understand why the dev's would have ever have thought that it was the best direction for the game to go.
    I worry for the upcoming impending Warhammer Total War now. For me    Been a fan of TW games since the first Shogun came out. Although i have enjoyed this more than Empire TW i just can't justify giving the game a decent mark.
    So much about it is done badly and i can't for the life of me understand why the dev's would have ever have thought that it was the best direction for the game to go.
    I worry for the upcoming impending Warhammer Total War now. For me i play Shogun 2 again, its much much better than this.    … Expand
  11. Lopsang
    Nov 14, 2013
    5
    Rome 2 has an awesome concept and I've been a fan of the series for a long time. Unfortunately, SEGA wanted the devs to rollout the game maybe some 6 months to a year too early. As a result, the game is incredibly slow for no purpose, and bugs are rife. Buy this game during a sale.
  12. DatGamingCritic
    Nov 17, 2013
    5
    Rome II... A good game but first one is the better of the two. In this TW you can only choose I think it is 12 factions from what I remember. In the old one it was 24. However the graphics are stunning but the gameplay is lousy. It's just basically troops go there. They attack for 2 minuets. In the old one it's more Troops go there. Wait fall back! Because there are like 400 odd troops onRome II... A good game but first one is the better of the two. In this TW you can only choose I think it is 12 factions from what I remember. In the old one it was 24. However the graphics are stunning but the gameplay is lousy. It's just basically troops go there. They attack for 2 minuets. In the old one it's more Troops go there. Wait fall back! Because there are like 400 odd troops on the other side. I don't know. This one just seems a bit meh to me.

    Overall
    -Amazing Graphics
    -Not enough Factions
    -Easy gameplay
    Score 57/100    … Expand
  13. DarkMandalore
    Nov 18, 2013
    7
    After 90 hours I can say I like the game quite a bit although I'm somewhat disappointed in it. They made a bold move trying the new system's out but some have come out tedious or limiting by quite a bit. I miss that in the first Rome you could have as many troops as you could afford and split them into as many "armies" as you liked general or no general, the only limitations were did youAfter 90 hours I can say I like the game quite a bit although I'm somewhat disappointed in it. They made a bold move trying the new system's out but some have come out tedious or limiting by quite a bit. I miss that in the first Rome you could have as many troops as you could afford and split them into as many "armies" as you liked general or no general, the only limitations were did you have enough available population and do you have the income to sustain your armies. I also miss being able to fully develop cities and towns with all upgrades based on population rather than having 3-6 slots to work with total. In most towns you can't have any walls, not even a simple defensive palisade. There are definitely some nasty bugs, though the worst I've personally encountered is when the enemy is coming from the sea they tend to have at least one ship lock up where your forces cannot hit it without siege weaponry. Troops cannot board vessels on the shore to go and deal with them even if the ship in question is one they themselves came ashore on. The AI has been really tame in the world map and is purely driven by capture points in many battles. The AI will regularly try to run right through multiple phalanx formations to go right for the capture points making battles no longer about the fight so much as watching your troops murder hundreds of unthinking AI troops hell bent on taking that point regardless of what's in the way. The food and squalor system is somewhat obnoxious. You'll have entire town building sets dedicated to one or the other. There's a command console, but it doesn't do anything aside from closing the game when you type "quit". The AI has a nasty habit of demanding money from you for ALL diplomatic agreements, even for non-aggression treaties to keep you from attacking them, yes, that's right, they want YOU to pay THEM to keep you from attacking and conquering them. Auto-resolve can be quite inaccurate on occasion, some battles you'll walk up to say you would lose almost all your troops but then you fight it and lose almost none of your men while others put you in favor when the enemy actually has a notably superior force. That doesn't happen often but it does happen enough to be mentioned. There is no demand surrender button in battles for use when you've got a notable upper hand, only "Concede Defeat" meaning that if you have a bug like I mentioned earlier and no battle timer then you cannot hope to win courtesy of a stupid glitch.

    That all said there are a lot of positives. The graphics are great, especially if you get a mod to remove the grainy, always afternoonish effect. When there's no capture point combat seems to be MUCH better, the AI actually tries to fight instead of running right through your lines. The map looks great. I LOVE the new line of sight features. Even though, like I said, the AI is fairly tame to the player, you'll see the borders of nations change frequently, wars happen quite often and can be vicious often completely devouring entire nations. New nations rise and fall often. There's several ways to make your money and if you do it right you can run your nation tax free with the maximum in full flag armies. Cities look nice and are usually pretty well built. No nation is immune to defeat. HUGE world map. I'm really liking the spy agent capabilities, no campaign is complete without them really. It's pretty darn fun to play once you snag the right balance mods from such places as the steam workshop or TWCenter. There are many mods you can get and if you like you can mod it yourself for a custom balanced game tailored to your idea of a proper balance.

    If there was one major addition I'd like to see it would be something along the lines of a big continent expansion allowing you to play all of Africa and Asia as well as Europe complete with local factions of the time. I hope with the future they can fix the issues I've listed and put out some awesome expansion grade content at the same time. The game will take work to be perfect, but it's not bad. It's not a typical Total War game, but it's still one I'd recommend.    … Expand
  14. Onigun
    Oct 4, 2015
    4
    It's been 2 years, the final patch has been released and so much stuff is still broken. AI will clump it's units into groups and wait to die, the prologue has no objectives or tutorial teaching you the game outside of the initial battle. To make everything worse this is still a highly priced game with no complete edition and DLC still segmented off into expensive packs.
  15. Maslopup636
    Jan 9, 2014
    1
    Штурмов нет. Стратегической части нет. Морские бои мало того что унылы, они не имеют никакого отношения к античности. Интерфейс заслуживает отдельного слова, такого малоинформативного, страшного и запутанного убожества не видел уже давно Оценка 1.Штурмов нет. Стратегической части нет. Морские бои мало того что унылы, они не имеют никакого отношения к античности. Интерфейс заслуживает отдельного слова, такого малоинформативного, страшного и запутанного убожества не видел уже давно Оценка 1.
  16. Meglos
    Apr 26, 2014
    2
    As a long-term player of Rome Total War I was looking forward to this game, but it has disappointed me in the way that most strategy game sequels do. I would have been happy if they'd kept everything the same as the original game, but streamlined some of the management and made the AI less stupid in strategy, combat and diplomacy (anybody new to the franchise would probably have enjoyedAs a long-term player of Rome Total War I was looking forward to this game, but it has disappointed me in the way that most strategy game sequels do. I would have been happy if they'd kept everything the same as the original game, but streamlined some of the management and made the AI less stupid in strategy, combat and diplomacy (anybody new to the franchise would probably have enjoyed that too). Unfortunately the new game is everything that most sequel strategy games are: more pretty and more complicated. Not complicated in a puzzling, challenging sort of way, complicated in a "lots more dull things to deal with" sort of way. Hundreds of regions acand custom unit types, after the first rush of interest, are just a bore. I guess the sort of programming that requires adding lots and lots of "stuff" is easier to do than the sort that makes the computer think and act like a clever and crafty human.
    If you're the sort of person who likes auditing accounting spreadsheets, you'd probably like this game. If you actually want to have some fun, avoid it.    … Expand
  17. ninjamandela
    Apr 28, 2014
    2
    First of all I'm a fan of Total war series since the first Rome game. But this new game, although its pretty when it works most of the time its crashes because you need a high end gaming rig to play. Even then the game still is broken with lots of bugs. There are up to 12 big patches already released by CA to correct and fix their broken game but still have not iron it all out. I've paidFirst of all I'm a fan of Total war series since the first Rome game. But this new game, although its pretty when it works most of the time its crashes because you need a high end gaming rig to play. Even then the game still is broken with lots of bugs. There are up to 12 big patches already released by CA to correct and fix their broken game but still have not iron it all out. I've paid $74 when it came out and kinda regret it. I've lost 100 hrs or Rome Campaign too with one of those patches. Not being able to load it anymore. Plus all these DLC add-on that cost at least $3 should be free. I will not spend a single cent anymore on this game and any other CA release games.… Expand
  18. Mitzu
    May 1, 2014
    4
    Can't give this more than 4/10. Played all total war games since Rome 1. It feels weird when a game 10 or so years older has better AI and unit colission than it's much newer counterpart. I bought it when it came out and was able to play a game as Rome. Stopped playing for a while and started it up again and just fount it as sad as it was before. Can't play it anymore, I guess i'll justCan't give this more than 4/10. Played all total war games since Rome 1. It feels weird when a game 10 or so years older has better AI and unit colission than it's much newer counterpart. I bought it when it came out and was able to play a game as Rome. Stopped playing for a while and started it up again and just fount it as sad as it was before. Can't play it anymore, I guess i'll just install shogun 2 and medieval 2.… Expand
  19. pajomife
    May 20, 2014
    2
    The most disappointing game I ever played,sorry,i dont play it no more,The transport ships Spam to disguise the lack of CA competence to add proper naval invasion its the ultimate ultrage,
  20. tykeman3
    Aug 29, 2014
    1
    this game has destroyed my views of total war..... that is all you need

    BUT i need 150 words so don't buy this game all of the bugs at launch made it unplayable but even with all the patches i think it is number 12 now the core game play is just no where near as good as shogun 2 ..... and all the meta scores giving it an amazing reviews seem a little suspicious to me =/
  21. Maeglin
    Oct 17, 2014
    8
    To be honest my rating is based on Rome 2 as it is now. If I had written this review after it came out, or even half a year later it would have been much lower.

    Right now it is very enjoyable with a decent AI and the two player campaign is really great and good for hours of game-play. Did Sega screw up on this title and brought it out way to soon? Sure and they disappointed everyone    To be honest my rating is based on Rome 2 as it is now. If I had written this review after it came out, or even half a year later it would have been much lower.

    Right now it is very enjoyable with a decent AI and the two player campaign is really great and good for hours of game-play.

    Did Sega screw up on this title and brought it out way to soon? Sure and they disappointed everyone who loved Shogun or who started playing it for the first time. What I learned is that i will never, ever, buy any Total war game anymore within the first 3 months after it comes out. As with every title they need more patches to make it playable. And it are always the same bugs , AI, Siege battles and failing diplomacy.

    But if you are willing to wait that long and have the patience, I must say you are in for a treat. There are so many factions to play with in Rome and no game is or feels the same. The AI, even after all the updates, is still a bit to passive but they will surprise you and inconvenience you when you least expect it. The graphics are stunning and the battles are very challenging. It provides more diversity beween factions then Shogun and has a more surprising diplomacy system. The world is huge and finally there are a lot more options on and around the sea which adds to the atmosphere of conquering.

    Despite all it's flaws it is becomming the most addictive Total war game for me, after having spend hundreds of hours on Shogun 2 and all the games before it so that is why the high rating.    … Expand
  22. Goby
    Jun 3, 2016
    4
    I got this game way after the ordeals experienced by many at release. I have to mention that when I compare the two versions (the initial release and Emperor Edition) side by side, the improvements are definitely noticeable. My problem, though, is the fact that after three years since release some very obvious mistakes are still in the game. Some of them can be fixed or improved with mods,I got this game way after the ordeals experienced by many at release. I have to mention that when I compare the two versions (the initial release and Emperor Edition) side by side, the improvements are definitely noticeable. My problem, though, is the fact that after three years since release some very obvious mistakes are still in the game. Some of them can be fixed or improved with mods, but in the end they are still gamebreaking.

    First off: The campaign victory conditions are utterly ridiculous and will take ages to achieve (100-200 hours to finish one campaign, depending on your resolve). Sooner rather than later you will find that the game has slowed down to a grind, whatever faction you play. The Steam global achievements for this game tell me that not a lot of people finish their campaigns on harder difficulties - and the reason is not because it's too difficult to handle. In previous games there were short and long campaign modes, but this one has neither - it has just one and it should be labelled "eternal mode". Therefore playing several campaigns to experience the different factions is pretty much out of the question.

    Autoresolving is overpowered. I understand that the developers want to limit the time spent on campaign battles by having us choose to skip some where the outcome is fairly certain. This system is TOO EASY to abuse. THE MORE MEN YOU USE TO OUTNUMBER AN ENEMY, THE LESS CASUALTIES YOU SUSTAIN. And that's another gamebreaker, because once your empire is large enough, it's easy to outnumber the enemy in battles, especially if you're using Radious mod to overcome the other problems with the game (thankfully, Radious can be implemented in parts and you don't have to install the campaign mod that does this). Two changes in the code would've fixed this easy: 1 - attacking walled settlements or villages with high defensive ratings should cause you more casualties; 2 - replenishing your armies in recently conquered territories should be drastically lowered. At the current state you can just blitzkrieg your way through enemy regions once you have a few armies to spare for an offensive. The only mechanic stopping you is local unrest, most of which decays the next turn. Autoresolving is why you probably won't finish the game. At one point the battles requiring your presence will be bygones and you are tempted to just autoresolve all the way through - not the Total War I know.

    Marketing. Unfortunately SEGA has gone down the route of several other corporations in the video game industry. Now you don't even get the complete game upon purchase. Guess what, most of the interesting factions you'll have to buy separately. I should mention that the factions are already in the game, but you'll have to dish out more $ just to be allowed to play them. In fact, the whole DLC collection costs more than the game itself, while adding very little content, or content that should be in the main game.

    Not enough unit variation. Uncle Radious will help you out here, just download his unit packs in the Workshop.

    Lack of settlement models. Considering the fact that the game is expecting millions of players to finish the campaigns, they should have added way more settlement types in the game. I've been playing barbarian factions and I've been through all of the barbarian territories - every single one of them chooses between four or five different models. FOUR OR FIVE models for more than 40 barbarian regions? Excuse me for **** but learning strategies by heart and replaying them in different scenarios at different locations is not how I've come to love TW.

    4TPY mod is a must. Without this your generals and agents are highly unlikely to become specialized in anything and will die of old age very fast - agents in particular are absolutely essential and in higher difficulties in vanilla they will stress you out very, very bad. They don't add a challenging aspect to the game, they are just a bigtime annoyance that have the power to stop entire armies turn after turn and wither away all your men. If you don't have skilled agents, good luck doing... anything!

    There are more bad features, but there are features to credit as well.

    Despite some bugs like javelinmen not throwing their spears when they should, battles are a lot of fun with the Blood & Gore installed. It's proper madness in every aspect. Ballistas projecting massive rocks through enemy ranks, knocking them back in either direction; Arrows and thrown spears pierce the enemy in a very visual way - lots of gore; the individual fights between men in combat are detailed and visual. When you got the time to observe how it all goes down on ground level, it's one of the better features in this game.

    Campaign map looks aesthetic, so do the interactions between characters. Although for some reason they often move Sonic-style fast and you can't slow that down. The new province system is great - much less micromanagement and way more comprehensive    … Expand
  23. Legatus85
    Aug 11, 2015
    3
    I'm very disappointed with this game. For several reasons mainly the poor game mechanics and features.
    The worst by far is the building system which is an absolute catastrophe! What happened? There are 6 building slots for the region capitals and 3-4 for the minor towns. That's it??? There are a few different branches of construction like religious buildings, industrial buildings,    I'm very disappointed with this game. For several reasons mainly the poor game mechanics and features.
    The worst by far is the building system which is an absolute catastrophe! What happened? There are 6 building slots for the region capitals and 3-4 for the minor towns. That's it??? There are a few different branches of construction like religious buildings, industrial buildings, commercial buildings etc. Then you choose what kind of building in each branch you want to build. But you better choose carefully cause you only have a few slots to build on. This makes the building system extremely limited and boring! But the worst of all is the effects from the various buildings. You can upgrade buildings from level 1 to 4 (or sometimes 5). Up to level 2 it usually fine but as soon as you upgrade to level 3 or more the buildings bring negative effects as well as positive (only very few exceptions). Basically it either reduces public order due to squalor or it consumes food. It follows a system only based on building level and category since it makes no sense at all based on what the building actually is! The lack of effort is amazing, its like the made a system first with the effects from the buildings and then randomly filled in the empty spaces with a name of a building and a picture. Its so poorly designed that you are actually being punished for upgrading the buildings. Why????? To me this ruins the entire game and make it unplayable. Compare it to Rome 1 or Medieval 2 where you had more building in one city than i a whole region with 4 cities in Rome 2 and with no limitations. But I guess that's to complicated for the "wider audience".

    Another thing that's been dumbed down is the population system. Instead of showing the actual population and the percentage of growth based on different factors which made town development and planning interesting in Rome 1 and Medieval 2. It now shows the growth in plain numbers and the required accumulated growth to get a population surplus. When you have enough population surplus you expand the city with a new building slot (unless you already have the maximum number of 3-6 slots). I guess % and numbers above 500 is to complicated too.

    Next is the extremely simplified and boring traits and retinue system for generals. Its limited to 3 traits and 1 retinue per general. Plus 1 bonus you get to choose at each level up (which follows standard template for all characters). In Rome 1 your general received traits and retinue based on events in his life and with no limits to the number of traits. For example if he lost health in battle he would get the trait scarred which had some effect on his influence and popularity and so on. Which made it interesting to shape a character and follow him throughout his life. Traits could be inherited as well. In Rome 2 your generals lacks personality and get replaced automatically when they die, then you go through exact the same process of choosing upgrades for the new guy at level up. You just don't care about them. On the other hand the 10 year old's of the wider audience probably don't appreciate a sophisticated system of character traits.

    But if you are one of those who don't care about strategy and planning and challenge and so on, don't worry your armies will replenish themselves automatically (no retraining here) you can stop and kill almost an entire army with a couple of spies and then finish the job with a few units that's easier to manage.

    I wont say much about the graphics since its not that important to me personally but could the unit cards, building pictures (or rather lack of) etc be any more boring and same looking? They actually had to give buildings different color backgrounds to be able to distinguish them from other type of buildings

    The AI is too poor to mention, its not worth the attention.

    If the next game in the series continue on the same path as this it will be a point and click linear game with an advisor saying click on this enemy to kill it, well done! Click on this settlement to make it happy.

    The things i like about this game:
    I welcome the region system with a fortified capital and smaller towns with no walls.
    Useful garrison armies.
    Beautiful campaign map

    So this game is a huge step backwards for the franchise. Things don't make sense. Rome 1 was infinitely better. They betrayed the fans and stripped away everything that was good and unique to have a much much simpler game so that people who uses a computer for the first time in their life also can play and enjoy. They could have made a great game but they just didn't want to and didn't care.

    I give it a poor rating mostly because it's such a disappointment from previous games. A sequel should be better than the game before. It would score slightly better if this had been the first game in a franchise.    … Expand
  24. Syndicater
    Feb 15, 2016
    1
    I am astonished at the state of this game. Did they think that I wouldn’t notice the clumsy interface, the wretched documentation, the absolutely untenable naval combat, the weird bugs, the lock-ups, the game-killing glitches? Did they think I wouldn’t notice the AI? Did they really think this was an acceptable AI for a single-player game? A single player game with disappointingI am astonished at the state of this game. Did they think that I wouldn’t notice the clumsy interface, the wretched documentation, the absolutely untenable naval combat, the weird bugs, the lock-ups, the game-killing glitches? Did they think I wouldn’t notice the AI? Did they really think this was an acceptable AI for a single-player game? A single player game with disappointing multiplayer compared to the clever multiplayer in their last release?… Expand
  25. scarfake
    Jan 8, 2016
    2
    low fps, bad ai, bad diplomacy, complicated interface, unnecessary country, too much turning time, boring and nonsencial details... i think rome 1 is better than this. also dlc scams exploit you
  26. crazytony0
    Feb 21, 2016
    1
    For a game that is supossed to replace the orriginal this is just sad. Graphics are good, but the AI and the user interface just sucks, uninstalled the game now, off to the orriginal again.
  27. focknee
    Feb 16, 2017
    4
    FAIL do not waste your time to play this, graphics AI and gameplay are all a FAIL.
    This game is not finished.
    First time CA has failed me Shame on you to release this FAIL.
  28. Berik
    Nov 4, 2018
    4
    The difference in scores between users and the critics probably give it away, but this game did not deliver on its promise. instead it insulted many Total War fans.

    Right from launch problems arose when the game wouldn't run, crash, be littered with bugs and glitches. And if you got passed that, you'd discover that game has nothing to offer but a broken experience. Features that had    The difference in scores between users and the critics probably give it away, but this game did not deliver on its promise. instead it insulted many Total War fans.

    Right from launch problems arose when the game wouldn't run, crash, be littered with bugs and glitches. And if you got passed that, you'd discover that game has nothing to offer but a broken experience. Features that had been present in Total War games like the family tree was gone, the AI was so broken that it was nearly impossible to lose.

    As for graphics, it looked good in pre-released footage, but not in the actual game. Even beasty PC's didn't get the beautiful graphics that were shown, and instead had to sit and watch The Creative Assembly sell The Greek States DLC for additional money. Insulting to say the least. And, the mutiplayer is broken, because it constantly desynches or crashes.

    So what's actually good about the game? Well, it does some interesting things with city building options, and gives some new naval combat that wasn't in the series on this level before. There are many factions, though probably too many to even function.

    This game single handedly made sure i will never pre-order a game again, let alone try a new Total War game. It is broken till this day, and it is a bad show all together. i give this game a 4/10.    … Expand
  29. chrisr2112
    Dec 28, 2013
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I really feel that the user reviews for Total War: Rome 2 don't give the game justice. Before receiving the game, i was well aware of many of the "game breaking bugs" and "horrible user interface" that people claimed the game had. I was also aware of the painfully low score on metacritic. None the less, i wanted to give CA the benefit of the doubt because i have not played a Total War game to date that i did not enjoy. I started playing and the first thing i noticed was the steep learning curve that came with managing your faction. There is far more detail in dealing with settlements (which are now divided into many provinces with settlements inside of them). Once I got the hang of it however, it wasn't too difficult to figure out basic functions that allow you to run your settlements efficiently. As for the actual battles, the game is absolutely stunning if you have a system capable of running it. Unless you play on lower settings, clone armies are no longer an issue with most soldiers having some form of variation from the others (this is particularly noticeable with the barbarian factions). The battle AI is not always the smartest, but still provides somewhat of a challenge. Overall, its not my favorite Total War game, but it is a worthy addition to a great series. I honestly cannot understand how people are giving the game 1's and 2's.… Expand
  30. IGNsus
    Mar 26, 2014
    0
    I am at a loss why Creative Assembly wanted to ruin their reputation with this pile of trash. It's also inexplicable how Total War: Rome II is made by the same studio that made Shogun II, an excellent successor to the original Shogun. The game betrays every single Total War fan. It is so casualized I felt like I was playing a tablet game. Some lamentable design decisions include no familyI am at a loss why Creative Assembly wanted to ruin their reputation with this pile of trash. It's also inexplicable how Total War: Rome II is made by the same studio that made Shogun II, an excellent successor to the original Shogun. The game betrays every single Total War fan. It is so casualized I felt like I was playing a tablet game. Some lamentable design decisions include no family tree, no attrition, no AI aggression, and my personal favorite: fire torches for gates. Then of course you get the expected technical issues of a CA game. But wait. This isn't your typical CA technical mess. It's much, much worse. On a nice computer you would be lucky to get more than 30 FPS on the campaign map. Do you like to wait 5 minutes at end turn? This game offers that. The biggest joke of this joke is unit AI, where units clump up together like a mosh pit and run randomly in all directions.

    Heh, I actually told people how great this game was going to be. Good job using misleading footage, CA.

    P.S. When your game is absolute trash, you might not want to anger your fans by releasing DLC.    … Expand
  31. YGrognard
    May 29, 2014
    0
    It's the worst Total War game over the entire Total War series I've ever payed, and I have played them all since the original Shogun more than 10 years ago.

    Being a hardcore Total War fan, it was the biggest disappointment in all my years of gaming.
  32. yocheco619
    Jul 20, 2015
    8
    Came back to the game this last weekend after taking a year away from it. Improvements across the board. Some features are still gone like some of the diplomacy options, agent videos, etc., but overall the gameplay has improved. Officially safe to buy it now.
  33. Creardo
    Sep 4, 2013
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I am a fan of Total War series and of Rome Total War in particular for a long time... and since Empire Total War that not just me but many people expects a Rome II that would retrieve the greatness and unique masterpiece that Rome I achieved in its time. Rome II, with sadness we can say, didnt get that.

    Believe me, Creative Assembly AND SEGA, Everything on score below 8.5 is a shame for a Total War Title. Yes, we are very demanding as fans of Total War... Creative Assembly made us this way.

    I begun playing the game on release and checked the first reviews but preferred to wait, play a little more to decide and to be just, as a fan paying money for what i thought would fulfill what me and everybody were expecting, so i waited until at least 10 hours playing to make an opinion.

    We have to be just. Graphically, the game improves almost every aspect we could imagine they could improve. The historical research was well made too, at least to an acceptable point. And the positive points may not be rated bad because we dont like other things in the game. Positive points to other things too. For this reason, a give it a seven.

    But CA, what did you to gameplay? 1 TURN PER YEAR, since it was revealed, everybody is criticizing it but you didnt hear... and now you have a broken piece of a game with an old great idea that is just crap now, with this thing of 1 turn/year that disgraces since historical accuracy of events to game pace, heavily injured by this.

    Settlement manage? Hurtful, shameful, weak, boring. Taxes that you can not specify to each settlement with some special idea? Boring. The GUARD MODE button disappeared, and other simple but efficient things in battle? Bad... AI badly stupid at many moments? Bad... Glitches in Multiplayer with crashes to desktop? Ugly...

    A harm is made to the image of something that we expected greatness, not routine, standard. If CA and Sega want to fix this, they still have a way, with patches. Toilsome, but viable. But please dont put more shame on it and forget to at least try to fix this... you have a work to do, if you care with the business aspect of Total War future sales.

    SEGA, the great market power of CA is their hardcore Total War fans. They convince newcomers to play Total War franchise, not game ads. And you all hav to do better.    … Expand
  34. Caly5000
    Jan 19, 2014
    0
    I am an angry fan
    Who has forever lost faith in all the new CA games So long as I ever see any one of the wankers from the rally point episodes Especially the ginger one or the Head programmer or head of communication.. LIERS! ….Heard of prince of Macedon ? Well for those that have he is a sell out… and still can’t help but admit privately to players that he is Disappointed with how    I am an angry fan
    Who has forever lost faith in all the new CA games So long as I ever see any one of the wankers from the rally point episodes Especially the ginger one or the Head programmer or head of communication.. LIERS! ….Heard of prince of Macedon ? Well for those that have he is a sell out… and still can’t help but admit privately to players that he is Disappointed with how Rome 2 turned out and they paid him to promote it … did a terrible job when showing the actual game there is not much to work with in the ways of good points… compared to previous TW titles with less budget.. He spends more time on Rome I now. Sega and C.A .. Spent more money on promotions and bribing reviewers and critics that certainly have rather low grade brain cells.. to make false positive vague reviews with no real detail on how it’s any good… apart from saying its based in ancient times and it’s a Strategy… NO **** Sega And C.A THEY HAVE FORGOTTEN US!    … Expand
  35. stocean
    Jul 30, 2014
    9
    Okay, I've been following the game for almost a year now. It was no doubt in a terrible state at launch. However, through continuous efforts in improving the game by both the developers and fans alike, the game is in a much much better shape now that I think it deserves a better score than this.

    Yes, it's not acceptable to release an unfinished product and it should be criticized. On    Okay, I've been following the game for almost a year now. It was no doubt in a terrible state at launch. However, through continuous efforts in improving the game by both the developers and fans alike, the game is in a much much better shape now that I think it deserves a better score than this.

    Yes, it's not acceptable to release an unfinished product and it should be criticized. On the other hand, however, if developers admit their faults, put tons of effort in improving and fixing their product, it should be recognized and credited.

    I believe now with almost 14 patches and numerous DLCs and/or user made mods, the game not only has tons of contents to offer, but also performs much better and the AI got improved by a great margin(still not perfect, but much better).Overall I think this game, at the current state, deserves a spot in any RTS/Total fan's library.    … Expand
  36. TheXand
    Jul 13, 2014
    0
    12 patches later and halfway into 2014 and the game still runs poorly, with the fps plummeting when units enter into melee (like the old Shogun 2 bug before patches ironed that out). I have an R9 270 and an i5 2500K so make of that what you will.
  37. NecroMnemic
    Oct 24, 2013
    7
    I rate it a 7 out of 10, as it is a decent game, but does not live up to the Total War standard and doesn't even come close to the original Rome 1.

    I'm writing this after patch 5 has been applied and sadly the performance is still... not atrocious but not good either. The battles are still somewhat too short and AI does some really weird things. But actually these are not the issues    I rate it a 7 out of 10, as it is a decent game, but does not live up to the Total War standard and doesn't even come close to the original Rome 1.

    I'm writing this after patch 5 has been applied and sadly the performance is still... not atrocious but not good either. The battles are still somewhat too short and AI does some really weird things.

    But actually these are not the issues that I found saddening, I much rather regretted seeing that still all factions somewhat play the same and there has not been done enough to make them distinct from each other.

    All in all I recommend buying it for 25€ or less.    … Expand
  38. mjohnsimon
    Sep 10, 2013
    5
    I'm not going to write a full fledged review because most of the complaints you see here are the main problems and reasons why people hate this game so much at the moment.

    In the end, despite some of the issues, I did have fun and in no way does this game deserve a "red" score. Heck, once patched up, this game has the potential to be great, but until then, it truly deserves a "yellow"    I'm not going to write a full fledged review because most of the complaints you see here are the main problems and reasons why people hate this game so much at the moment.

    In the end, despite some of the issues, I did have fun and in no way does this game deserve a "red" score. Heck, once patched up, this game has the potential to be great, but until then, it truly deserves a "yellow" score.

    In the end, just buy Shogun 2 or the original Rome Total War, or just wait until everything is fixed by next year...    … Expand
  39. jaydi
    Sep 7, 2013
    5
    ive played over 1000 hours on both STW2 and ETW both with darthmod. This game is an insult to the TW core fans and an insult to grognards the world over. They have removed key features that made the old games grand strategy like the four seasons, guard mode and fire at will for roman legions. The AI is the worst of any TW game to date. The strategic game plays more along the lines ofive played over 1000 hours on both STW2 and ETW both with darthmod. This game is an insult to the TW core fans and an insult to grognards the world over. They have removed key features that made the old games grand strategy like the four seasons, guard mode and fire at will for roman legions. The AI is the worst of any TW game to date. The strategic game plays more along the lines of CIV and they added magic spells to commander abilities... perhaps in prelude to the fantasy series they are working on for the next game. Rumors abound that it was dumbed down for a port to the XBOX1 and CA's attitude is "So what. You dont like it to bad. You dont need those features now deal with it." I dont like spending money on falsely advertised products and will never do so again. This is the end of the series. They even had the hubris to admonish darth whose many mods ressurected past titles and inspired an entire community of modders to give a hoot about this lame duck franchise.… Expand
  40. cptsoban
    Sep 22, 2013
    2
    This game in its current state is unplayable. The ai is mentally retarded, sieges don't work as well as naval battles. There is no functioning political system that matters and diplomacy is worse than Rome 1.

    There some amazing new ideas and if the game is ever patched into a working state buy it. Provinces and limited armies work well. But overall a huuuuuge step back from shogun 2.
  41. Smelliestelm
    Jan 28, 2014
    8
    The game is a very good game besides some minor bugs. I my self have never encountered any bugs and have clocked in well over 6 hours. The game is not as good as Empire total war for sure but the game is still a great game.
  42. total
    Jan 27, 2014
    6
    First off I am a big fan of the Total War series so it hurts me to say this. Sega stop putting Betas out on steam for at full price. you did it with Empire Total War and now you did it with this game. I am going to give this a 6 just because going back to that time time period is so much fun by it self.
  43. Bordin74
    Sep 22, 2014
    8
    This game was a bitter disappointment for me but after a year of patches it's now worth a 8. The Emperor edition with a lot of extra stuff for free is a must buy!
  44. BigDegs29
    Feb 24, 2014
    6
    All these 0/10 ratings are ridiculous. This is a game flawed on many levels, but still enjoyable.

    Pros: (1) A deep strategy game that combines turn-based strategy with real-time tactics. Has the potential to be great, if not for the below cons. (2) Gorgeous on ultra. I haven't had any problems with frame rate, though I admit my computer is relatively powerful. Cons: (1) Naval    All these 0/10 ratings are ridiculous. This is a game flawed on many levels, but still enjoyable.

    Pros: (1) A deep strategy game that combines turn-based strategy with real-time tactics. Has the potential to be great, if not for the below cons. (2) Gorgeous on ultra. I haven't had any problems with frame rate, though I admit my computer is relatively powerful.

    Cons: (1) Naval combat is frustrating as hell. Whenever there's a joint naval/land battle, I always immediately dump my troops on land. (2) The AI. I don't mean the skill of the AI components (that seems to be relatively good post-patch), but the system's response to your own actions. Often I'll be issuing orders and the units will either ignore me, or do something else instead (especially naval in naval combat). (3) The UI could be a lot more intuitive; it's incredibly confusing for newcomers.    … Expand
  45. Th3UniQu3
    May 3, 2014
    0
    Biggest pile of trash I've ever played in my entire life. **** mechanics, **** graphics, terrible AI, repetitive shallow campaign map gameplay, there are no positive things to say about this steaming pile of slag.
  46. Clifton_Dupler
    Jun 27, 2014
    8
    It's Getting better with the patches and all. However they (C.A.) should have never released this game when they did. I mean they added "Up Hill Advantage" in a later patch!!!!!!! THAT'S something they should have added from the beginning like every other Total War. Basic fundamentals guys!

    Anyway it's getting good with the patches and it's only $20.13 on Steam till June 30th has    It's Getting better with the patches and all. However they (C.A.) should have never released this game when they did. I mean they added "Up Hill Advantage" in a later patch!!!!!!! THAT'S something they should have added from the beginning like every other Total War. Basic fundamentals guys!

    Anyway it's getting good with the patches and it's only $20.13 on Steam till June 30th has been for 8 days now. "Steam's Summer Adventure" Everything's half off.    … Expand
  47. mickeymorris626
    Oct 26, 2013
    10
    Do i wish this game came out as it is right now (late October), all patched up and tidy? yes! am i going to hold it against Creative? NO! every gamer should understand the relationship between the game devs and the publishers! Sega says the games going to be ready by a specific date, and that's final. I'm sure the developers would have loved to polish this game to its current shiny state.Do i wish this game came out as it is right now (late October), all patched up and tidy? yes! am i going to hold it against Creative? NO! every gamer should understand the relationship between the game devs and the publishers! Sega says the games going to be ready by a specific date, and that's final. I'm sure the developers would have loved to polish this game to its current shiny state.

    In short, all the haters should give it a go now that the developers had their extra time to work on it, its a marvelous addition to the Total War series, dare i say the second best (after Rome I)    … Expand
  48. Spalas
    Sep 15, 2013
    0
    That is enough!
    I can only compare this to war-z with the false advertising. I will not buy anything else from them or STEAM again.
    It is not funny to spend money on lies and all they do in the support forums is to mock you in your face.
    I feel like an idiot to have spent money on this but at least I just lost some money while CA will lose their jobs. It is a matter of time...
  49. avwynin
    Nov 23, 2013
    0
    Can't start a battle after the newest patches. With mods installed, can't even start the game at all, which I can accept, but seriously? Only game I have ever played which seems to be degenerating with every update.
  50. abieber
    Oct 20, 2013
    0
    By far the worst game for installation EVER!!!! DO NOT BUY. What they don't tell you is that you do not just download and play you first download an installer, that instals the downloader which then installs steam. Then you have to wait (now going on 2 days) for them to send and activation code. Then go into steam and put in the code to then finally download the game. Worst Install ever,By far the worst game for installation EVER!!!! DO NOT BUY. What they don't tell you is that you do not just download and play you first download an installer, that instals the downloader which then installs steam. Then you have to wait (now going on 2 days) for them to send and activation code. Then go into steam and put in the code to then finally download the game. Worst Install ever, disrespectful and backwards. I keep asking myself why would i pay 60 dollars for a game then have to wait 3 days to get a simple activation code. ONCE AGAIN DO NOT BUY TOTAL WAR IS A TOTAL WASTE OF YOUR TIME EVEN BEFORE YOU CAN PLAY THE GAME.… Expand
  51. Wademan
    Oct 20, 2013
    0
    This is a very disappointing release from TW. There are a lot of bugs and the AI is not at all challenging even on high difficulty levels. Sieges are ruined by besieging units being able to destroy gates quickly with magic burning torches rending the need for siege engines pointless. Battles are over too rapidly because one side or the other will rout. within minutes. Overall the game hasThis is a very disappointing release from TW. There are a lot of bugs and the AI is not at all challenging even on high difficulty levels. Sieges are ruined by besieging units being able to destroy gates quickly with magic burning torches rending the need for siege engines pointless. Battles are over too rapidly because one side or the other will rout. within minutes. Overall the game has been dumbed down and simplified for a casual audience.… Expand
  52. Buzzerker
    Jan 3, 2014
    8
    Why would anyone rate this game so low? As if you are all armchair generals with Westpoint backgrounds LOL! If you bought the game through Steam you have access to the Workshop, and for this reason this game is highly customizable. Thank you Steam just for being you. without that workshop full of mods this game would take forever to be fixed to my liking the unit cards are a glaringWhy would anyone rate this game so low? As if you are all armchair generals with Westpoint backgrounds LOL! If you bought the game through Steam you have access to the Workshop, and for this reason this game is highly customizable. Thank you Steam just for being you. without that workshop full of mods this game would take forever to be fixed to my liking the unit cards are a glaring mistake which I modded immediately and it seems those tribes really beat the hell out of Ancient Rome in a free for all the first time I played as Rome before I modded the game extensively I lost entire legions to barbarian forces less than a forth the size and the 2 turns a year. what the were they thinking? A year is 12 months divided into 4 seasons so why do it any other way? unforgiveable CA developers. Anyway it is not a bad game.… Expand
  53. Kellie
    Jan 14, 2014
    8
    While its launch was a little rough, they have put in a work with patches and have improved the game greatly, they still continue to patch and improve the game along with bringing out a new expansion (that is fantastic) and new factions. Very much enjoying it, do wish that in co-op I could take my turn at the same time as my partner however, maybe have a pop up to view your friends battlesWhile its launch was a little rough, they have put in a work with patches and have improved the game greatly, they still continue to patch and improve the game along with bringing out a new expansion (that is fantastic) and new factions. Very much enjoying it, do wish that in co-op I could take my turn at the same time as my partner however, maybe have a pop up to view your friends battles if they start one in the middle of your game play that you can then click that would take you to the current options to spectate.… Expand
  54. sb123
    Jan 21, 2014
    9
    Don't listen to the negative reviews, the game certainly had a rocky start, but 9 patches in and the game works great now. Combined with user mods the game is the gem it should have been on release.

    I've played 285 hours and i'm still totally addicted. There are certainly some aspects of the game that I don't particularly agree with, like the removal of family trees and such, but    Don't listen to the negative reviews, the game certainly had a rocky start, but 9 patches in and the game works great now. Combined with user mods the game is the gem it should have been on release.

    I've played 285 hours and i'm still totally addicted. There are certainly some aspects of the game that I don't particularly agree with, like the removal of family trees and such, but overall the game is still amazing. Both graphically and game play wise.

    People come on here and give the game a 1 out of ten because of one or two features that they don't like. They are reactionary titbags who think every game should cater solely to them and are only able to focus on the stuff that they don't like, rather than see the game as a whole and admire all the good thing about it.

    Play on the hard difficulty or more and the game is truly a mental challenge that requires intelligence and good strategy, just like a good strategy game should.    … Expand
  55. jasper6333
    Jan 28, 2014
    10
    yes the game had some problems in it's release! but all of those problems are gone. nowadays there are only some small bugs. the game is really good,the map is great i love the UI! one conclusion they Nailed it!
  56. TheReaper1221
    Sep 23, 2014
    9
    As of September 2014, this game has been fixed. It is now one of the best total war games out there. Don't know what this talk of the UI is, it's the best UI yet, far better than the abomination that is napoleon. The AI has improved greatly, Far fewer bugs, turn times are short, the game is now much better optimized. Basically, it has followed the path of every Total War game sinceAs of September 2014, this game has been fixed. It is now one of the best total war games out there. Don't know what this talk of the UI is, it's the best UI yet, far better than the abomination that is napoleon. The AI has improved greatly, Far fewer bugs, turn times are short, the game is now much better optimized. Basically, it has followed the path of every Total War game since Medieval 1, released as a shambles, then fixed. Happened in Shogun 2, Napoleon, Empire, Medieval 2, and Rome 1.

    The whole system with regions, and especially the building trees are a MASSIVE improvement over every previous total war game. The building trees make sense, as do the tech trees. The politics system is somewhat interesting, but I wish it played a far larger role in the game. At this point, pretty much everything you do in the politics system is to lessen the impact of the inevitable civil war. Don't get me wrong, getting hit by a civil war is a huge deal, but I would like for there to be more purpose to the politics system, some real and immediate advantage to having more senate support, and things like that.

    I would like to point out that the AI in all the total war games has always been awful, and that it has been improving since shogun 2. Rome 2 after patches has helped it dramatically, as they did with Shogun 2.

    A couple minor gripes:
    The tooltips need to have a slight pause on the campaign map, as of right now, there is constantly a tooltip up at all times, which gets really annoying.

    It would be nice to have an easier indication of how many troops you replenish per turn, in the form of perhaps some sort of second color on the units health bar.

    Wet ground just looks bad.

    AI can still be a little derpy, splitting their army in half to chase your cavalry (exploit this heavily for fun and profit), as well as making basic, but idiotic tactical mistakes. For example, with a superior force on a river crossing with 2 crossing points, they sometimes leave one crossing completely unattended, allowing an easy superflank, and total destruction by an inferior force. However, these aren't gamebreaking, the AI works fine, It just makes big mistakes, that no reasonable player would ever make. It needs to make some mistakes of course, so that it can be beaten, but not the ones that just make you cringe.    … Expand
  57. Pandakiller984
    Nov 1, 2013
    6
    Well lets start off by saying this game has a TON of potential.....and I'm sure that it could be delivered if the game was actually finished...which it is clearly not. The reason this horribly unfinished game a whopping 6 is because it has obviously given us a lot things such as simpler city management, Cool battle animations with a sweet camera, and various other things such as buildingWell lets start off by saying this game has a TON of potential.....and I'm sure that it could be delivered if the game was actually finished...which it is clearly not. The reason this horribly unfinished game a whopping 6 is because it has obviously given us a lot things such as simpler city management, Cool battle animations with a sweet camera, and various other things such as building unique armies and navys and having a lot of various things to do within your faction.....But boy oh boy is this game flawed with an enormous amount of glitches and bugs, the game's AI is LAUGHABLE some of the dumbest I have ever seen, and I said the city management is simpilar but it gets rid of so much control that we loved in the first Rome Total war, While the battles are cool the graphics and UI are a little bad considering the 40% bigger budget than all the other games. There is many more Cons and a few Pros I missed as well but I hope this gets you to think about possibly waiting until the price drops or the game is actually...Finished… Expand
  58. PCgamesreviewer
    Jan 20, 2014
    6
    As a long time fan of the series i was extremly hyped for the release for Rome 2 and never have i been this disappointed with a total war game. Luckily i didnt pre-order at the time because of a holiday in england. The shock that hit me when i checked metacritic at release day was enormous. I could'nt believe what i was seeing. Never have i seen a total war game with such a low score!As a long time fan of the series i was extremly hyped for the release for Rome 2 and never have i been this disappointed with a total war game. Luckily i didnt pre-order at the time because of a holiday in england. The shock that hit me when i checked metacritic at release day was enormous. I could'nt believe what i was seeing. Never have i seen a total war game with such a low score! Despite the warning i bought the game in the steam winter sales. While the lag and crashes seem to be fixed the ai and game mechanics are broken. The only thing that stops me from giving this game a 3 is the modding scene that has done a wonderful job to try to fix the game with some exellent improvements. All-in all only get the game if your a fan of the series and can cope with the horrendous ai and broken campaign mechanics.… Expand
  59. Fredwitt
    Sep 16, 2013
    6
    Rome 2 is a disappointment, however not a travesty. All those giving it 0's and 1's are just in the heat of the moment about how much of a disappointment it was. I can play this game for 66 hours, because i want to experience Rome like i experienced it all those years ago. It doesn't bring anything new to the game, it is just a streamlined new looking box, with the content being hollow andRome 2 is a disappointment, however not a travesty. All those giving it 0's and 1's are just in the heat of the moment about how much of a disappointment it was. I can play this game for 66 hours, because i want to experience Rome like i experienced it all those years ago. It doesn't bring anything new to the game, it is just a streamlined new looking box, with the content being hollow and annoying. Please don't give this game a extremely low score because if you compare it to, for instance, ride to hell redemption, i would play Rome any day of the week over it. Rome can be saved here with patches, but its going to leave a nasty scar… Expand
  60. Pie47
    Sep 21, 2013
    5
    This game is good. but sucks compared to Shogun 2 and Medieval 2. The graphics, AI, and FPS have got some series issues but if you can look past those issues you can have a lot of fun with the game. I would say stick with Shogun 2 until this game is fully patched.
  61. Samael87
    Oct 18, 2013
    3
    The game is a total failure. was sold as a full ita (written in the game box "completamente in italiano") but the audio is only partially translated. this is a scam! bugged, stupid AI, slow load, bad graphics and terribly heavy. The worst total war ever.
  62. Canopus
    Oct 25, 2013
    3
    The flags remove any strategy in city and fort battles when the AI attacks because the AI rushes the flag and ignores your units. Units glob together in great balled-up blobs that eliminate any reason to use the cinematic camera. Battle times are 3 to 5 minutes, which is barely enough time to watch the battle. The game becomes a tedious grind to conquer the map with battles that feelThe flags remove any strategy in city and fort battles when the AI attacks because the AI rushes the flag and ignores your units. Units glob together in great balled-up blobs that eliminate any reason to use the cinematic camera. Battle times are 3 to 5 minutes, which is barely enough time to watch the battle. The game becomes a tedious grind to conquer the map with battles that feel repetitive. There is a clear lack of immersion to keep the player interested before the player approaches mid game.… Expand
  63. headhunterU23
    Oct 27, 2013
    1
    You dream to bring Rome out of the darkness? Face the Carthaginian threat? Invade the uncharted barbarian lands? Honor the gods and your family? Et caetera. Well, install Rome Total War I (one). Don't waste your time or disk space installing Rome Total War II (Two), after playing the tutorial you will find yourself wondering what's going on. The answer is: nothing, Rome Total War 2 is justYou dream to bring Rome out of the darkness? Face the Carthaginian threat? Invade the uncharted barbarian lands? Honor the gods and your family? Et caetera. Well, install Rome Total War I (one). Don't waste your time or disk space installing Rome Total War II (Two), after playing the tutorial you will find yourself wondering what's going on. The answer is: nothing, Rome Total War 2 is just an empty shell. Golden empty shell, but empty nevertheless. I won't waste my time and yours writing about what's not good about this game, the only thing I have to say is: I wouldn't install this game even if this was a freeware. Ah yes, I have something more to say: DO NOT BUY THIS GAME.… Expand
  64. leoriela
    Nov 1, 2013
    5
    Total ripoff. Developers did not complete the game but released a bunch of DLC expecting us to pay what should have been in the game in the first place. This is the last TW game i am going to buy
  65. orangefalcon40
    Aug 1, 2014
    4
    I'm a big fan of the Total War series. The original Rome was great and that got me started, then Medieval 2 was a triumph. I loved Empire and Napoleon was OK but Shogun2 was not as good, killed my laptop (Core 2 Duo, 4Gb Ram, 1Gb NVidea graphics card supporting direct x 10) and Rome 2 is unplayable on it, I'm having to play it on my wife's desktop PC. What really annoys me, even more thanI'm a big fan of the Total War series. The original Rome was great and that got me started, then Medieval 2 was a triumph. I loved Empire and Napoleon was OK but Shogun2 was not as good, killed my laptop (Core 2 Duo, 4Gb Ram, 1Gb NVidea graphics card supporting direct x 10) and Rome 2 is unplayable on it, I'm having to play it on my wife's desktop PC. What really annoys me, even more than my inability to garrison my towns with units of my own choosing (GRRR) is the difficulty in changing the orientation of a unit. I had one battle where I was attacked in a fort and had barricades to erect but could I rotate them 90 degrees to block the side entrances? No. Then there's the crashes and the slow downs.....… Expand
  66. Oxu90
    Sep 22, 2014
    10
    After 15 patches, multiple DLC and EMPIRE edition coming out (with augustus dlc) i would rate this game a 9 and best of the series.

    True some bugs exists, but at the moment it has less bugs than any other VANILLA totalwar game to date. Almost all complains of release version has been addressed and even politics and civil war got major overhaul. Rome 2 is most supported totalwar game to    After 15 patches, multiple DLC and EMPIRE edition coming out (with augustus dlc) i would rate this game a 9 and best of the series.

    True some bugs exists, but at the moment it has less bugs than any other VANILLA totalwar game to date. Almost all complains of release version has been addressed and even politics and civil war got major overhaul. Rome 2 is most supported totalwar game to date and i would argue that it is also game that CA has listened it's fans most(after release).

    For those that have never played Totalwar game before, i would say that dont be afraid of these "0" reviews, those are just plain stupid as game itself is top quality and brings shame to many games that can be completed in 3 hours

    Oh and there is EXCELLENT mods out there for everybodys tastes, easily accessed from STEAM workshop

    Greetings
    - somebody that has played 1000 hours    … Expand
  67. xbrick
    Oct 4, 2013
    10
    With the beta patch 4 and AMD beta driver I'm pleased with this product. I will now pour count less hours into this game. It had a rough release but with all the fixes its up to snuff.
  68. Zuloni
    Jan 18, 2014
    8
    Not the best of the Total War games (which would be Shogun 2 imo) but it's a refreshing take and certainly better in every way than Empire and Napoleon. A bit unbalanced (Suebi's units are completely worthless on all difficulties) but still fun and immersive.
  69. GermiyanBey
    Mar 8, 2014
    10
    People put downgrading ratings or wrote bad reviews because of the condition of Rome II's initial release; but after the game is patched, you will witness the Best Total war Game ever!

    I started to play the game after patch 7 and I don't know the level of condition to play the game which that was badly graded by reviewers. So I suggest to players who still think the game with its early    People put downgrading ratings or wrote bad reviews because of the condition of Rome II's initial release; but after the game is patched, you will witness the Best Total war Game ever!

    I started to play the game after patch 7 and I don't know the level of condition to play the game which that was badly graded by reviewers. So I suggest to players who still think the game with its early condition to revise their opinions about the game and start to play it again.

    For the newcomers who have not played Rome 2 before, I strongly suggest Rome 2 with its strategical environment which has so developed diplomacy, different elements of warfare (such as raid, fortify, forced march), and trade that are all having large impact on the game. After latest patches, it is certain this will become your favorite totalwar game if you played and enjoyed previous ones.    … Expand
  70. BadIdeas
    Feb 14, 2014
    0
    No, I didn't play it, just counter balancing all their paid for voters. Also still upset at the BS they released that was called empire total war. I said I would never purchase a total war game again after I got that half off, and felt cheated out of my money. Only played it an hour or two tops and in one battle, I saw the ai kill its own general with its first barrage of canon fire, thenNo, I didn't play it, just counter balancing all their paid for voters. Also still upset at the BS they released that was called empire total war. I said I would never purchase a total war game again after I got that half off, and felt cheated out of my money. Only played it an hour or two tops and in one battle, I saw the ai kill its own general with its first barrage of canon fire, then had a unit completely freeze, and then watched the ai abandon its cannons to charge my fort with its cannoneers.

    Well, I did buy shogun total war, when it was 85% off, and still felt it wasn't worth it. Within 10 turns I had by far the strongest faction, and within 30 I controlled a quarter of japan, and I wasn't playing on easy. Diplomacy was completely broken, I would attack a faction, then make then pay me insane amounts of tribute for peace, then rinse and repeat. It was supposed to be their best release in the last few years, and yet I found it boring, easy, and less complex than the original shogun total war. I felt it wasn't worth it, at 85% off.

    IMHO, Creative Assembly needs to rename their total war series Total CRAP, which would be more fitting for their dumbed down glitchfests, which they try to sell for triple A prices after they pay for positive reviews. They managed to keep empire at an average of 90 from critic review, which has told me a lot about who not to trust for accurate reviews.    … Expand
  71. locksly77
    Dec 25, 2013
    9
    True this game had multiple issues upon release that made it virtually unplayable even on a high end system. However, many of those issues have been addressed including the AI. On occasion the AI can still act incredibly dumb but on other occasions I have seen it act very intelligently (it seems to be somewhat hit or miss). The graphics are on par with shogun 2 if not a slight improvement,True this game had multiple issues upon release that made it virtually unplayable even on a high end system. However, many of those issues have been addressed including the AI. On occasion the AI can still act incredibly dumb but on other occasions I have seen it act very intelligently (it seems to be somewhat hit or miss). The graphics are on par with shogun 2 if not a slight improvement, but trying to run this game on a lower end system would be a fps nightmare I'm sure. Nevertheless, this is not the disappointment many have made it out to be. With the recent patches and updates the game now runs much smoother and the game play is very enjoyable. Despite what many have said you cannot just fling your army at the enemy and win a battle, I have tried this and it will get you beat every time (unless of course your playing on easy) if you employ counter strategy and flanking maneuvers then yes you can win even if your outnumbered on legendary BUT if the enemy has enough or acts intelligently you can still lose. The new political system IS somewhat pointless because civil war is going to break out anyhow, you can pretty much just ignore it, but this doesn't really take away from anything it just doesn't really need to be there. Overall the graphics, unit diversity, good strategy by the AI in SOME battles (I still haven't figured out why sometimes it acts smart then incredibly stupid in the very next battle), and just the basic turn based/real time combat setup of a total war game is all there. Basically I enjoy this game a lot and have already put over 300 hours into it, of course I have put about 500 hours into every TW game since the original Medieval TW. This one didn't give a whole lot of new innovative features but it is still a solid game (now with the patches) and as enjoyable as any other TW game.… Expand
  72. daanelf
    Apr 7, 2019
    9
    Just read some of the negative reviews. Some of them diddnt bother really playing it for one day before posting a review it seems. Or gave it a 0 for silly reasons i personally dont cara about. You know there is a mod for roman archers. Why do you give it a 0?

    This game is about a 8 or 8,5. Its above average but that has said it all. It is not bad at all. But after a couple of hundreds    Just read some of the negative reviews. Some of them diddnt bother really playing it for one day before posting a review it seems. Or gave it a 0 for silly reasons i personally dont cara about. You know there is a mod for roman archers. Why do you give it a 0?

    This game is about a 8 or 8,5. Its above average but that has said it all. It is not bad at all. But after a couple of hundreds of hours you might feel you have seen it all and move on. I would say it is worth your time and money.    … Expand
  73. mosti
    Jan 8, 2014
    10
    08/01/2014
    Lots of bug fixes since the release of this game. You will find the majority of negative reviews were written before these major fixes.
    I was scpetical but purchased the game after the latest patch. Game is absolutely amazing and highly addictive. There are a few issues I have with camera panning etc which ticks me off and slight issues with micro management of units of the    08/01/2014
    Lots of bug fixes since the release of this game. You will find the majority of negative reviews were written before these major fixes.
    I was scpetical but purchased the game after the latest patch. Game is absolutely amazing and highly addictive. There are a few issues I have with camera panning etc which ticks me off and slight issues with micro management of units of the battlefield but overall quite a solid game.
    I'm new to the total war franchise so not sure if this is above of below their average.
    Would recommend this game    … Expand
  74. pierojal
    Dec 25, 2013
    10
    Impossible to understand all these negative reviews. It is an excellent game, work done should have been immense. After 100 hours, I can state this 10/10 and nothing else!
  75. Stewhammer
    Oct 31, 2013
    9
    Release was horrible but patches have fixed most problems. AI still needs some work but for the most part the game is fantastic! I can understand people giving bad scores at release but they have no right to give 0's at this point or anything below a 7.
  76. speeDRunner
    Oct 29, 2013
    8
    Post patch 5, the game is near to perfection. I've been having the most difficult Macedonian campaign ever, it will test your decision making in every sphere military campaigning, managing your finances, its eithera win-win situation or you lose in a chain reaction.

    There are a lot of factions in this game, so if you're playing a major faction, you'll be at war with minor factions in    Post patch 5, the game is near to perfection. I've been having the most difficult Macedonian campaign ever, it will test your decision making in every sphere military campaigning, managing your finances, its eithera win-win situation or you lose in a chain reaction.

    There are a lot of factions in this game, so if you're playing a major faction, you'll be at war with minor factions in the beginning. And mind you, these minor factions when allied against you are even more major threat than even the biggest, largest factions and thats what makes your mind racing. It is always you have to secure yourself certain provinces and territories so you can expand further.

    Province system is awesome. You have a provincial capital and minor sub-settlements, making the fight to glory even harsher and challenging demanding capture of every settlement to secure a province, Unlike previous total wars where you captured the capital and the whole province was yours.

    The only thing that receives my negative attention is the poor optimization. CA needs to optimize the game ASAP or they are losing fans in perpetuity. I myself had to change a lot of custom settings to make the game playable. It was UNPLAYABLE in the beginning and CA needs to address that.

    And one final advice, those negative reviews are pre patch 5 when the game was in a horrible condition, almost a pre-alpha. Believe me, now you will enjoy the game to the fullest! provided you interfere with some custom settings to make the game playable!    … Expand
  77. KrisIsHidden
    Oct 24, 2013
    10
    After all the patches i am glad to say that the game has come a long way and is one of the best of the series hands down. Don't trust the negative reviews sure they are still bugs and glitches at times that may be frustrating but they are slowly getting rid of them all bug at a time. If you love total war you will love this game. It brings epic battles and visuals to your screen that makesAfter all the patches i am glad to say that the game has come a long way and is one of the best of the series hands down. Don't trust the negative reviews sure they are still bugs and glitches at times that may be frustrating but they are slowly getting rid of them all bug at a time. If you love total war you will love this game. It brings epic battles and visuals to your screen that makes you feel immersed in the battles. The game not only has rich game play but accurately tells historical battles and story's from past time civilizations. It plays on the Athens and Sparta alliance against Epirus the empire that betrayed they to side with Persia during Persia's tyrannical reign. You can re-live ancient feuds and battles and raise your empire above the rest. How will you forge your destiny? Through Tyranny and Power or Diplomacy and Economy? The choice is yours, you are emperor "forge your path"

    Try it, you will love it     … Expand
  78. Dave-Champagne
    Oct 22, 2013
    10
    This is the Best TOTAL WAR of the Series why many people don't like graphic are better than other Total war ...
    the strategy is different for each faction that why I love this game its a new adventure for each civilization
    and this game have a life expectancy
    Each Faction have something different

    BUY IT if you have a great cpu
  79. God_Legend
    Oct 28, 2013
    10
    I am writing a review to say that after 5 patches and 8 free factions alongside the original ones available, that the game has improved immensely. AI could still use more work (getting there), but a lot of the technical and performance issues are becoming non-existent with 5 patches and AMD and Nvidia releasing dedicated drivers. The game received way too many bad reviews at the start,I am writing a review to say that after 5 patches and 8 free factions alongside the original ones available, that the game has improved immensely. AI could still use more work (getting there), but a lot of the technical and performance issues are becoming non-existent with 5 patches and AMD and Nvidia releasing dedicated drivers. The game received way too many bad reviews at the start, everything was there, they just needed to patch things up, which is not the fault of Creative Assembly. Sega is the publisher and tells CA when it is to be released, no matter how incomplete it is. I would look into updated reviews from major review sites or other metacritic users to get an idea of the games state as of now, because it is amazing. Also remember that this game is moddable and takes advantage of steam workshop, mods are easy to find and install and can improve your experience tremendously.… Expand
  80. Necrotaur
    Nov 5, 2013
    8
    I bought Rome 2 on release and it was pretty buggy and underwhelming. The patches released since then however have done a lot to redeem it, and currently it's a pretty good game though there is still some work to do. The graphics are fine, though I apparently am one of the few who has no problem running it on ultra (even at launch). If you're coming from Shogun 2 you'll find a lot ofI bought Rome 2 on release and it was pretty buggy and underwhelming. The patches released since then however have done a lot to redeem it, and currently it's a pretty good game though there is still some work to do. The graphics are fine, though I apparently am one of the few who has no problem running it on ultra (even at launch). If you're coming from Shogun 2 you'll find a lot of welcome unit and play style diversity among the factions. The campaign AI feels fairly robust, and I was able to forge some pretty solid game-long alliances with them. Once, some enemy troops slipped past my army and headed toward an undefended city, but an allied AI planted an army to deny them movement pretty cool. Battle AI is a liiiittle less stellar, as is common in all TW games.

    My biggest unresolved gripe has to do with the politics system. The gist of it is, every once in a while, you make a decision about some political event and something good or bad happens. In practice, it's extremely anemic, feels tacked on and you can totally ignore it because it's basically a coin toss. The in-game encyclopedia is buggy and lacking a lot info and flavor about units (all celtic swordsmen have the same unit descriptions, for example). The tech trees at first glance feel very weak, but every culture has different research items so maybe it can be forgiven. UI doesn't bug me, but the lack of seasons (something I LOVED in Shogun 2 and earlier titles) does.

    Anyway, I'm enjoying it quite a bit at this point and I don't regret getting it. I feel like Rome 2 is a pretty solid entry though maybe not the best in the series.    … Expand
  81. PrettyMaid76
    Oct 24, 2013
    3
    A very buggy and unsatisfying experience! Given the high production value of their earliest titles I'm continually appalled to see what they deem worthy of a release. What I payed for felt as nothing but a rushed cash grab.
  82. Sexysingle
    Oct 19, 2013
    2
    Despite 5 patches, the game is still bad. I can't even get the game to run now, when I could before. AI still does stupid things, and the game that should have been outstanding at launch, is still on life support 5 weeks after release.

    What upsets me most is the games media. CORRUPT! Anyone who gives this game 8/9/10 either hasn't played it, or Sega threw them a few quid. Worst Total    Despite 5 patches, the game is still bad. I can't even get the game to run now, when I could before. AI still does stupid things, and the game that should have been outstanding at launch, is still on life support 5 weeks after release.

    What upsets me most is the games media. CORRUPT! Anyone who gives this game 8/9/10 either hasn't played it, or Sega threw them a few quid. Worst Total War game in the series and any game that has a Victory flag in the middle of a field, can't be classed as a strategy game. AVOID!    … Expand
  83. Ankhthiel
    Oct 26, 2013
    1
    The game was simply not ready for release. Its a crime they took our money for it. 1600 negative reviews and the critics loved it no it dosent look like they were payed for their opinion no it dosent look like gaming journalism is a joke in general. /end sarcasm
  84. Murphmeister
    Mar 21, 2014
    6
    Really bad launch but good support from CA are now getting this game back on track. The reviews here just go to show why it's important that a developer be given time to finish and polish their product rather than release early just for the sake of hitting a deadline.
  85. bigbonees
    Sep 19, 2014
    9
    After a year of the originl realese, the emperor edition is the game what rome 2 should been. They fixed the AI, all the bugs, the graphical errors and improved the performance.
  86. TheGamer31
    Nov 3, 2013
    5
    They up this game so bad. Quite possibly the most disappointing game this year. Let us talk about how this game was disappointing, hm? Horrible in game character face models compared to the screen shots, laughable face animations, atrocious AI, painfully stressful loading times for both the single player campaign and multiplayer campaign with the more than 100 factions in the game, andThey up this game so bad. Quite possibly the most disappointing game this year. Let us talk about how this game was disappointing, hm? Horrible in game character face models compared to the screen shots, laughable face animations, atrocious AI, painfully stressful loading times for both the single player campaign and multiplayer campaign with the more than 100 factions in the game, and unbalanced units. I could take ONE group of twenty-four elephants and wipe out an opposing army of 2000 TROOPS!!! Yet I LOVE this game! Why? Because... it's Total War.… Expand
  87. TenchuuKhan
    Jul 19, 2014
    3
    Coming from MTW, M2TW, ETW, S2TW giving this some 20 hours now I must say that I still can't get warm with it.
    The UI is just horrible, every time you have to click down 3 sub-menus until you are where you have to go. Which is quite the case with Agents because they need an Upgrade like every turn.
    Town management is just stiff and better don't get anything wrong because your people will    Coming from MTW, M2TW, ETW, S2TW giving this some 20 hours now I must say that I still can't get warm with it.
    The UI is just horrible, every time you have to click down 3 sub-menus until you are where you have to go. Which is quite the case with Agents because they need an Upgrade like every turn.
    Town management is just stiff and better don't get anything wrong because your people will freak out and **** up your game in only a few turns. This is especially fun once you have a few regions and your people freak out for no apparent reason and destroy your game.

    Whatever they were trying to do with this, it doesn't work for me... at all. It's like it tries to be a different game borrowing concepts from CIV... just in the worst way possible    … Expand
  88. kirkwall
    Jun 5, 2014
    8
    I have been a fan of the Total War series since it's inception with Shogun. I loved the first Rome and eagerly looked forward to Rome 2.

    Overall it's a good game but had two shortcomings for which I deducted one point each: 1# eliminated the stellar aspects where the patriarch (the player) had decision making power over who his offspring married. This choice included viewing character    I have been a fan of the Total War series since it's inception with Shogun. I loved the first Rome and eagerly looked forward to Rome 2.

    Overall it's a good game but had two shortcomings for which I deducted one point each:
    1# eliminated the stellar aspects where the patriarch (the player) had decision making power over who his offspring married. This choice included viewing character qualities and talents. In short it affected the genetic capabilities of future offspring.

    2# the later and advanced game stages became redundant and mechanical.    … Expand
  89. GaiusAugustus
    Sep 28, 2013
    5
    I've played all of the Total War games, and let me just say that this is definitely the worst of them all. It's like they've taken a huge step backwards in innovation an design. The game isn't horrible, though their are a good deal of game breaking bugs (my army got stuck on a ship in the middle of the Mediterranean.) This should not become the standard for Total War games. Disappointment/10.
  90. Pandasareevil
    Oct 15, 2013
    6
    Did not give me that same feeling as previous Total war Games. The UI is terrible, the release was far below average, though I do quite like the unit cards, once the optimization issues were fixed the game was playable-ish.
  91. Driftic
    Jan 6, 2014
    7
    At launch, it was more enjoyable to electrocute your eyeball with a stun gun than play this game. But now there have been a lot of patches that have semi-fixed the ai and performance. I have found the game fun after these patches, and with mods that make the textures better and enhance the campaign Rome 2 is very addicting if you are a fan of the genre.
  92. TurianHero
    Jun 1, 2014
    9
    after all the patches and dlc Total War Rome 2 is by far one of the best total war games i have played. From historical accuracy to the vast number of drastically different factions and to the amount of detail in the game. I like many, had major issues upon launch but since then CA has fixed most of the issues and giving away free dlc for those who bared with them and stuck around. I amafter all the patches and dlc Total War Rome 2 is by far one of the best total war games i have played. From historical accuracy to the vast number of drastically different factions and to the amount of detail in the game. I like many, had major issues upon launch but since then CA has fixed most of the issues and giving away free dlc for those who bared with them and stuck around. I am very impressed with the game even though it started in ruff water.… Expand
  93. rjbangueses
    Jun 5, 2014
    1
    After playing Rome TW for so much time i can only say this about the sequel: Boring, broken piece of crap.

    AI is actually worse than the first Rome, congratulations CA.
  94. gwm6102
    Jun 8, 2014
    1
    It's just unplayable and boring. Almost every aspect of this game doesn't make the grade. I enjoy a challenge, but the conquest map is just too massive. And, it finally becomes so repetitive - conquer city, move units around, rest, conquer city, move units around, rest........... Such a disappointment after Shogun 2, which I still dust off and play sometimes.
  95. tillhopesdies
    Jul 20, 2014
    3
    low score is not the result of the battles , I think they are the best in terms of moral , how long a unit lasts is important for strategy and I think it was way to short in shogun 2 and the detail is beautiful. I think the thought gone into the fighting is really good. however . a game that is this buggy and lags this much in a siege makes the game unfinished. my score reflects this. morelow score is not the result of the battles , I think they are the best in terms of moral , how long a unit lasts is important for strategy and I think it was way to short in shogun 2 and the detail is beautiful. I think the thought gone into the fighting is really good. however . a game that is this buggy and lags this much in a siege makes the game unfinished. my score reflects this. more importantly however ! this game lacks all character. rome 1 has this simply by having different colours. seeing your towns buildings change in size (noticibly) in the (see town option with your civilans in it) and huge temples ,being able to choose your own king by the family tree. the game should be trying to preserve the children it captured bye making more character within the game like from Rome 1 by allowing and supporting our own story lines , being able to pretend that I was the son of a king who removed me from the throne and so i took my reputation and money and used it to buy and bribe an army of mercenaries , which I then invaded the gual making the empire twice as big. and then "pretending" I made my own civil was against my hated brother. this and the feel of power I had, but with out feeling like I was just easily rolling over everything , boring and unchallenging. rome 2 naval is by far the best I have seen , besides empire total war. I love ramming ships ! but after my 30 hours (enjoying about the first hour) and then it becoming a chore and thinking (if I wanted more fun and character, I would just go sleep and dream about it instead) I see ca thought we wanted better battles, I see there dedication to it. however , balancing issues and the complete lack of any reason to want you to care enough to keep playing to fight the battles. maybe im just getting old, maybe the younger audience , who I assume don't even play p.c any more , would like it better, maybe im loosing my imagination, or maybe ROME TOTAL WAR has failed to spark my imagination and from the negative reviews , ill assume its the later.… Expand
  96. MoonflowerDarsh
    Jul 19, 2014
    1
    Been with the TW series since Rome 1. I am a scholar interested in the time periods pre-ancient greek/roman as well as the ancient greek/roman period.

    With those things in mind as well as my expectations set fairly high thanks to CA advertising and marketing... I can say that Rome 2 was absolutely disappointing. I have to agree with other users and long-time fans who know what they are    Been with the TW series since Rome 1. I am a scholar interested in the time periods pre-ancient greek/roman as well as the ancient greek/roman period.

    With those things in mind as well as my expectations set fairly high thanks to CA advertising and marketing... I can say that Rome 2 was absolutely disappointing. I have to agree with other users and long-time fans who know what they are talking about--CA released a beta, and made their base pay full price. It's shameful.    … Expand
  97. aetherium_wars
    Sep 18, 2014
    10
    Apesar do lançamento ter sido uma grande decepção, muito foi-se arrumado no jogo. A I.A. do jogo está muito mais desafiadora e inteligente do que antes; Dezenas de bugs foram consertados, não há mais o porque de ficar se criticando o jogo por coisas do seu passado. Então nota: 10/10
  98. mikey6854
    Sep 3, 2013
    7
    I made an account to review this game because wow some people are really crazy. 10s? 0s? Really?!

    First of all: If you liked the other Total War games you will like this game. The history is cool and the number of sheer factions in the game along side the map is incredible. The combat itself is similar to the other guys although it seems a little bit sped up. I suppose some will like it    I made an account to review this game because wow some people are really crazy. 10s? 0s? Really?!

    First of all: If you liked the other Total War games you will like this game. The history is cool and the number of sheer factions in the game along side the map is incredible. The combat itself is similar to the other guys although it seems a little bit sped up. I suppose some will like it more some less but it's not THAT different than it was. Certainly nothing to get upset about.

    The game itself is very pretty. The water looks great and the sounds are also amazing. The individual soldiers really, really, really make it seem photo realistic when you get close to the action. There are some weird frame rate issues but my PC is 2 years old (I'm on an i5 and a HD6970) and the game runs pretty well. It isn't 100% optimized and I noticed it maybe 10-15 times over 5 hours. That is quite a bit but not "0" worthy and I'm confident it will get fixed eventually. A game the size of this I can understand the lack of polish.

    I can't really comment of the campaign mode more than 5 hours but it looks good, I like the region-based city management. The world is HUGE. Almost overwhelmingly so. The intro campaign is useful as a refresher even for a veteran player like myself.

    I don't want to blab your ear off. The game isn't a 10.. and it's not a 1. At launch: a fair and honest 7. Once (if) they fix the issues so it runs more smoothly and fix the AI (which is pretty bad but hey.. it's never been good) It could realistically go up to a 9. People need to keep it real when reviewing especially on day 1. Jeez. :)

    Thanks for reading,

    -Mike    … Expand
  99. libno
    Feb 17, 2014
    3
    Well I, like many, formerly gave this one a good review at first. But after 90+ hours of gameplay, I cannot stand this game anymore. Initially, even before patches, I enjoyed the game. Any quarrels I had could be easily remedied with the Radious mod. But after putting one and half campaigns' worth of time into it, its lack of depth has truly killed it for me. I'm not going to rip on unitWell I, like many, formerly gave this one a good review at first. But after 90+ hours of gameplay, I cannot stand this game anymore. Initially, even before patches, I enjoyed the game. Any quarrels I had could be easily remedied with the Radious mod. But after putting one and half campaigns' worth of time into it, its lack of depth has truly killed it for me. I'm not going to rip on unit cards or the UI. I actually think those are fine. What I will say is that this Total War requires far less brain function than previous installments, as if it was streamlined and dumbed down to appeal to a wider audience. Gone is the family tree, which sadly rid the game of both its personal touch and its risk. My general fell in battle? That's okay, there are three more just as good waiting to be instated. It's not like we have to worry about faction leaders or heirs anyways. Control over resources is now an afterthought. There are no trade posts to acquire monopolies as in Empire and they don't aid in construction as in Shogun 2. They're just trade goods, on the off chance that the AI will actually accept trade with you. There was a great chance for trade posts in the form of the Silk Road, but I guess CA had other interests in mind. Instant transports mean that you no longer have to wait years, amassing forces and planning an over seas invasion. You just swim over now, which really takes away one of Total War's rewarding and accomplishing feelings (or brutal and dismal defeat). This also makes no sense, but I suppose we had to suspend disbelief when we accepted "Imperium" as a model for how many troops we could raise, instead of just simply being able to afford them population and money-wise like in previous installments. Not only is "Imperium" probably the dumbest thing that has happened in the series' history, but it also makes the game the most annoying thing to manage in the late game. This isn't strategic depth, this is CA saying "we're gonna dumb down the game and then give you the finger while we're at it." Because of this I can no longer maintain public order as I please and can hardly protect my border settlements. In addition, "Imperium" has allowed the AI, down to its last city, to simply spam stacks around a poor village, preventing my one or two stacks, that should have been sufficient, from actually wiping them off the map.

    3/10 for better graphics and not completely tearing down the franchise's gameplay.    … Expand
  100. dajarvi
    Sep 15, 2013
    8
    I've put over forty hours now into the game. In it's first release, I felt like it was a rehash of Shogun 2, but with the latest beta patch and Radius Mod and All Factions Unlocked mod, I have given the game an 8 (my previous score was 6). Vanilla itself is worth a 7 in it's current state, but throw on a few mods, this game is suddenly addictive.

    Total War has a strong heritage of a    I've put over forty hours now into the game. In it's first release, I felt like it was a rehash of Shogun 2, but with the latest beta patch and Radius Mod and All Factions Unlocked mod, I have given the game an 8 (my previous score was 6). Vanilla itself is worth a 7 in it's current state, but throw on a few mods, this game is suddenly addictive.

    Total War has a strong heritage of a community of modders who have dedicated years to improving off the core of TW games. Unique to Rome 2 is the campaign setting. It is the best it has ever been. I feel like a chief of my own kingdom. Beautiful scenery, and mechanically, a step in a different direction from what they began with Empire.

    If they release a comprehensive set of modding tools, I will give Rome 2 a 9.0 I have played Total War since Medieval 1.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

4
#4 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
7
#7 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 71 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 49 out of 71
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 71
  3. Negative: 7 out of 71
  1. Worth Playing
    Nov 18, 2013
    74
    The game is far less polished than Shogun 2, and a few more patches will help, but Rome II is still a flawed game that is underwhelming when compared to previous titles in the franchise.
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  2. PCGamesN
    Nov 6, 2013
    70
    And here’s the rub: every addition, every sub-system, every mechanic is subservient to War. War is what Total War is really about. Everything else not directly related to conflict comes across as ancillary. Rome II is a game for warmongers, on both the campaign map and, obviously, on the battlefield. When peace is happening, nothing is happening. When war is happening, Rome comes alive.
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  3. PC PowerPlay
    Oct 28, 2013
    40
    If you will play literally anything featuring Total War and Rome in the same title and don't value your time, this is for you. [Nov 2013, p.80]
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