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. DylanMBlaine
    Nov 11, 2013
    1
    Terrible game in every sense; 1/10. The game is worse than its predecessors and yet it was developed with a larger budget. The AI system is horrible to the point where if it were the only problem, which it is not, it alone would be a game breaking feature that earns the game a score of 0/10. This artificial "intelligence" provides no form of challenge to the player on even the highestTerrible game in every sense; 1/10. The game is worse than its predecessors and yet it was developed with a larger budget. The AI system is horrible to the point where if it were the only problem, which it is not, it alone would be a game breaking feature that earns the game a score of 0/10. This artificial "intelligence" provides no form of challenge to the player on even the highest difficulty level (when playing as Rome, the faction that the game is named after and pretty much about). I could go on and on about the AI, such as how it is unable to use siege equipment (YES! That's right, the AI doesn't even know how to use siege equipment, so you either auto-resolve or play the battle and feel like you cheated), but as I said it is not the only problem and the others deserve a mention. Other problems like the game not launching, AI turns taking so long that a multiplayer campaign is nearly impossible to endure, and the fact that the AI sends all their troops into small divisions and sails them around just asking to be sunk while you steamroll through their cities on the hardest difficulty, I know I promised to move on from the AI but it's just so pathetic! Every employee that even touched the AI in development should be fired and shunned from the PC gaming industry. Let them go develop the next COD for xbox, at least there they won't be found out for the fraud that they are because the children that are their customers won't even realize that they've been scammed for years to come.… Expand
  2. Andddreass
    Nov 25, 2013
    0
    This game is buggy as hell, the coop is broken beyond belief, it freezes regularly and sometimes crashes after a battle. Whatever you do, do not buy this game, the developers doesn't deserve money for this game, go and download it from Piratebay instead.
  3. BillyBobSusanMa
    Dec 4, 2013
    0
    My review is somewhat limited because I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO PLAY A SINGLE BATTLE since the prologue, now before you wonder i do have a top gaming Rig that far surpasses even the recommended specs yet every time i choose to fight a battle the effing game crashes? its so frustrating!

    To play this game at all i'm forced to auto-resolve every battle and just play the campaign map,    My review is somewhat limited because I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO PLAY A SINGLE BATTLE since the prologue, now before you wonder i do have a top gaming Rig that far surpasses even the recommended specs yet every time i choose to fight a battle the effing game crashes? its so frustrating!

    To play this game at all i'm forced to auto-resolve every battle and just play the campaign map,

    Diplomacy? what the hell again, you have more chance of winning the lottery that making a trade agreement with a friendly faction never mind forging an alliance, i receive declarations of war from factions that i've never even met or had any dealings with and trying to broker peace is impossible even when you are far more powerful than your opponent.

    Spy's & Diplomats OK, but champions WTF is that? a single Guy can just wonder into Rome and beat the out of an entire legionary army? please i know its a game but there needs to some plausibility

    Walls? whoever decided doing away with walls needs shooting,

    Rebellions & Slave revolts -this is the core of the game because its what i seem to spend all my time auto-resolving, it seems impossible to keep the population happy, every building built every town garrisoned, plenty of food and they still revolt every other turn, its just ridiculous,

    I'am very very disappointed in what Sega and the CA have offered up, it basically looks like Medieval 2 and plays.....? well it doesn't does it,

    You really have to wonder about the seemingly massive disconnect between the "Professional" reviews and the reviews of the buying public, it really does raise issues about the credibility of these fellows, its obvious from the thousand of negative reviews that this game is a broken piece of crap, giving this game review scores of 85-90% is just insulting to peoples intelligence,

    Never again, I'm going back to Darth Mod Empire, this piece of Crap, Sega and the CA wont see a dollar from me again.    … Expand
  4. aoetje
    Nov 8, 2013
    0
    A perfect example on how NOT to treat your customers...

    Releasing unfinished game that looks worse than previous instalment but boasts the opposite? Ridiculous approach. Very poor optimization...the campaign map...waiting for other factions movement takes up 90% of your time...we did not pay to sit around waiting to play... Multiplayer desync problems. Avoid...unless you are    A perfect example on how NOT to treat your customers...

    Releasing unfinished game that looks worse than previous instalment but boasts the opposite? Ridiculous approach.

    Very poor optimization...the campaign map...waiting for other factions movement takes up 90% of your time...we did not pay to sit around waiting to play...

    Multiplayer desync problems.

    Avoid...unless you are very patient and loaded...    … Expand
  5. Cloud7
    Oct 1, 2013
    3
    I'm surprised at all the dishonest critic reviews. Surely we didn't play the same game? "This is not an easy game and require a learning curve" What?! This is by FAR the easiest Total War game I've ever played and the only Total War game that is a complete walk in the park on legendary. It's a joke. Nothing but a rushed poorly optimized game at the moment. Depending on your hardware youI'm surprised at all the dishonest critic reviews. Surely we didn't play the same game? "This is not an easy game and require a learning curve" What?! This is by FAR the easiest Total War game I've ever played and the only Total War game that is a complete walk in the park on legendary. It's a joke. Nothing but a rushed poorly optimized game at the moment. Depending on your hardware you will get pretty much the same exact FPS whether you have all settings on very high or the lowest possible settings. I will be honest and say I do like the concept that they had here, with how the UI was designed and innovative from the past Total War games. But besides that this game has nothing to offer in it's current state. The campaign map is still unplayable for some players, someone would be lucky to average over 25 frames. The player will normally dread ending his/her turn because not being able to get over 15 frames when waiting for over 100 factions (although I do like competing with a large amount of factions) is just a terrible experience. I found myself ending my turn and physically leaving to go do something in the mean time, it was that bad. This is all after CA's patch 2.0 (patch 3 beta is just a broken mess from what I've heard). The naval battles are still broken. I experienced a battle where all of the enemies routed off map but one unit couldn't leave the map. It seemed as if an invisible force field wouldn't let the enemy off the map despite me using all 4 of my units left to ram the unit (which was invincible at this point by the way) to try and force it off the map or just destroy it. However after trying to do anything that would let me just win the battle the clock ran out and I LOST. That was honestly one of the worst gaming experiences I've ever had, I just couldn't believe it. Another issue I personally experienced is that the AI factions will almost NEVER declare war on you no matter what you do. They possibly might have agents commit actions on you but never more than that unless you declare war on them. If this game was to be properly patched and all of the issues fixed (that won't happen anytime soon) the most this game deserves is a 7/10 bottom line.… Expand
  6. Sergey_Nabrusko
    Oct 1, 2013
    1
    If you will buy this game, you will buy just a part of game: there are some stupid DLC. Is this a game at all? Of course it is not strategy, cause there is no strategy at all: not in global nor multiplayer. Multiplayer in Rome 2 is the worst thing CA ever made: it's unbalanced and not interesting. These british guys prove that they love money.
  7. Rayven
    Oct 1, 2013
    3
    1.) The UI is dumbed down
    2.) The game is poorly optimized
    3.) Numerous bugs
    4.) Loooong campaign load time
    5.) AI is stupid
    6.) Balance of power bar is inaccurate
  8. crimy_x
    Oct 2, 2013
    0
    NO FREAKING SLI SUPPORT! NOT FOR ROME 2 NOT FOR COMPANY OF HEROES 2!!! On top of that the last two game you put out have been buggy, broken low qual games. I am never gonna buy another one of your games.
  9. Iakesm
    Oct 5, 2013
    0
    City management is pathetic. Nothing to do!
    Technology development is for a 2 year old to manage.
    Increase food creates more squalor??? One year per turn and only one season. The enemy is tame as they did not grow and I conquered all of Northern and Easter Europe with 3 armies??? If there is a civil war early on, when one can have only six armies, where does the competitor get 12 full    City management is pathetic. Nothing to do!
    Technology development is for a 2 year old to manage.
    Increase food creates more squalor???
    One year per turn and only one season.
    The enemy is tame as they did not grow and I conquered all of Northern and Easter Europe with 3 armies???
    If there is a civil war early on, when one can have only six armies, where does the competitor get 12 full armies from???
    Then strange things where armies can sail seas without fleets and destroying fleets? What is the use of having fleets???

    Just a bad repackage of the old, with no imagination or ingenuity, making this game a huge disappointment after 8 years of waiting.

    Complete and utter rubbish.    … Expand
  10. genesix32
    Nov 9, 2013
    0
    Rome 1 is one of my highest rated game, and there I was anticipating for how godly Rome 2 would be after the trailer with the graphics, but I spend 60 USD for this bloody piece of junk that is even worser than it predeccessor for almost everything.

    (-) First of all, the AI is outrageously dumb for the campaign as each faction does not try to expand and tries to make alliance which is    Rome 1 is one of my highest rated game, and there I was anticipating for how godly Rome 2 would be after the trailer with the graphics, but I spend 60 USD for this bloody piece of junk that is even worser than it predeccessor for almost everything.

    (-) First of all, the AI is outrageously dumb for the campaign as each faction does not try to expand and tries to make alliance which is useless as when I attack one of them, the rest does not help. Also there are times when I attacked a faction with last city with only the garrison troops, making the most important aspect of the game crappy. Initially when they released the tutoberg forest trailer, I was expecting the campaign to have short cutscenes and evens such as the forest ambush.

    (-) Next, the building and economic. Rome 1 building and layout was simply beautiful (Amphitheather, Cohort Barracks) with each aspect to building being really realistic when gave me a sense of building a great empire, Rome 2? Step 1, Building the god damn farm followed by town temple economy building which seems like I am playing a small kids game. The province system sucks especially which completely robs away the empire building fun.

    (+) The only thing that was good in rome 2, The graphics for the campaign map, the campaign map for Rome 2 really uses high-end graphics, however the trade off would be how realisticness of the distance of city as each city is only 1 turn far away from each other and upon expanding it is even easier to invade a nearby city. Just a little bit of tweaking would make it perfect.

    (-) I'm not a battle crazy fan so I wont go into details, firstly when zoom out the units looked more like bunch of black ants running across my screen than armies, I rather they used Rome 1 unit collision. Next is the siege where the same bug requires all units to climb the ladder before they are able to move properly.
    one improvement to be made for the siege could be to have AI controlling a part of the army to assault another wall to take advantage of multiple capture points, also multiple ladders should be able to assault the same walls and all tower should have peasant to should (killable) as the tower is like a complete rape.

    Seriously this game seems like created by a bunch of who cant make game as I am able to list out all these problems in the game. Its like being promised to see heaven yet was given hell.

    CA really needs the help of modders to save this game by giving them the power to mod the game. As for the AI this is my opinion that a randomising engine can be added to the game code in complement to the possible actions AI may take (lets say skirmishing has 40% success rate while going all out has 60%, the engine may choose skirmishing and further randomising causes the butterfly effect where AI uses a good tactic.

    I am really interested in help this game become better but I do not have any programming skills, my strengths would be coming out with ideas to help improve the game, if I can be of any help do PM me    … Expand
  11. gandalf55
    Nov 9, 2013
    0
    Best my game Empire Total War and Shogun Total War
    Rome 2 Total War not normal total war its another game. I am very disappointed that I bought the game.
  12. John_Sterling
    Dec 4, 2013
    0
    50 hours of play on patch 7. The AI makes me feel as if I'm playing Risk against my 8 years old cousin. Fun at first but quickly boring. There is no reason for any of its actions. I'm not even mad about the money I wasted, I'm just really sad. I had really been looking forward to this. This was supposed to be the game that kept me entertained for years like Rome 1. Every time I think about50 hours of play on patch 7. The AI makes me feel as if I'm playing Risk against my 8 years old cousin. Fun at first but quickly boring. There is no reason for any of its actions. I'm not even mad about the money I wasted, I'm just really sad. I had really been looking forward to this. This was supposed to be the game that kept me entertained for years like Rome 1. Every time I think about it I feel like Obi Wan, "You were supposed to be the chosen one" Just Sad… Expand
  13. gjgfjgfjgfjjgfj
    Apr 8, 2014
    0
    Utterly and entirely disappointing experience . A broken game months after release. The product released 10 years ago by the same developers was 10 times better. This is such an abysmal product its hard to put into words.
  14. Panopticon
    Oct 1, 2013
    3
    Got burned again. Told myself I'd never buy another Total War after Empire. Well, fool me once, shame on you, CA. Fool me twice, shame on me. I should have known better.

    In short, a terribly broken game missing many features that I just KNOW are going to cost me £10 each to implement. Sega need their pound of flesh.
  15. Orthogon
    Sep 25, 2013
    8
    It's shocking to play a Total War game where features people use *all the time* have been dropped from the battle (guard button anyone? No loose formation, etc.)

    The AI can't put up a good fight, which makes the battle mode fun : I know formulaic games get boring, but they've taken the formula and broken the fun bits, you won't be recreating your Rome: Total War battles or any    It's shocking to play a Total War game where features people use *all the time* have been dropped from the battle (guard button anyone? No loose formation, etc.)

    The AI can't put up a good fight, which makes the battle mode fun :

    I know formulaic games get boring, but they've taken the formula and broken the fun bits, you won't be recreating your Rome: Total War battles or any episodes of Time Commanders with this, it just can't do it!    … Expand
  16. Maragavin
    Sep 30, 2013
    0
    This. Was. Bad. Gods. Hell, even blacklist was less over-hyped and less riddles with developer/publisher lies.
    Do not buy. It will be in a 5£ bin soon enough.
  17. FATBOYONADIET
    Sep 29, 2013
    0
    I love TW games but this game is at best described as "hollow". It is a shell of a game which no right thinking person should waste their money on. Simply put, don't buy it.
  18. fruitloopeater
    Sep 30, 2013
    0
    I have played since the original Rome Total War. I have many problems with this game. It had a ton of potential, it still has some. I am going to use bullet points so you can read this easy. I think CA made a serious error and will not ever pay for a Total War game again. This is a pump-and-dump game made by vulture capitalists stealing your money.

    The fact meta critic gives it a    I have played since the original Rome Total War. I have many problems with this game. It had a ton of potential, it still has some. I am going to use bullet points so you can read this easy. I think CA made a serious error and will not ever pay for a Total War game again. This is a pump-and-dump game made by vulture capitalists stealing your money.

    The fact meta critic gives it a 77 right now is testament to the corruption for paid reviews. The game is unplayable due to bugs. Also, I have a great computer and whatnot- these bugs are related to the game and prevent play.

    Main Problems:
    Campaign

    -buggy, will crash a good deal, impossible to complete
    -the graphical interface has no labels so you must memorize what button means what
    -if you mess up with food by conquering a city that has none and you are low on food, it can destroy any chance you had at that game because your entire empire will starve to death.
    -every army must be lead by a general, of which you are given a limited number. These armies cannot be split which takes away hugely from the experience
    -in general the game feels cartoonish and there is not the strategy of the old CA games. The game path is far more linear.

    there are other problems with the campaign but those are the ones that render it none-fun and completely unplayable.

    Battles:

    -Siege Battles are broken and very buggy and will crash games constantly. Siege Towers will move through walls, units on walls will not fight right, siege equipment for defenders will crash game if moved.
    -Capture points have been added to maps and make game play very silly. A single unit of horse can often capture the lone capture point on the map while the rest of your army is crushing the enemy. These are on land battles, not siege battles as in the old Rome. It essentially breaks the battles with these involved.
    -Naval Battles are very unresponsive in general and after the initial charge it is hard to get anything to obey
    -Units are not organized after a small amount of fighting and will form blobs. Unit formations are bugged. Many easy features of Rome 1 were removed. This includes loose and tight formations and toggle fire at will mode for Roman Legions among others.
    -Cav Camels in general are none-responsive and after the initial charge will not obey orders to retreat even if ordered multiple times.
    -Some people have FPS issues, I do not though. I have a Intel Core with a 580 twin frozer though.

    Multiplayer Issues

    This is what I do not understand most. Shogun 2 was perfect, all they had to do was copy it and they would have been set.

    -Maintaining connection- I have a great internet connection. I would estimate that 70-85% of all matches end in a desync or disconnect (none-intentional) of those involved. Siege Battles disconnect at a near 90% rate.
    -Game cannot handle large amount of soldiers- they are improving this with patches
    -Global Chat gone
    -You must click to bring up chat box. When you start game it makes it go away and you can no longer type in it. So you cannot be "ready" and still type. which is frustrating in multiplayer lobby. I don't understand once again why it cannot be how it was in Shogun 2, and like every other Total War series game ever.
    -No avatar campaign customizable general/units as in Shogun 2
    -None-moveable artillery available for reduced cost needs to be removed from the game as it encourages camping and is very cheap. You cannot beat Macedonia if they go full cheese.
    -Maps are smaller than Shogun Two. However there are beautiful custom made maps for each city. There is a huge plus.

    Overall I hope that CA listens to customers and fires the person responsible for managing this (I think we all know who that is... hint he ruined other franchises as well). They did a terrible job when they could have copy pasted multiplayer from Shogun 2 and it would have been amazing. The Campaign is currently a buggy mess and not possible to finish. Most stuff can be fixed with patches but the core problem is more that they released an unfinished product with a laughable campaign and entirely unstable multiplayer.

    This game is borderline fraud do to unplayability. Most BETAs have more stability than this game.    … Expand
  19. themasterconnor
    Sep 30, 2013
    0
    Terrible, just utterly terrible.

    They have dropped everything you would associate with total war and cut corners to the extent where the events in-game stop a quarter way through the game, conveniently just when the reviewers demo ends, they cut corners on purpose and sold a broken game to all of us.
  20. YouLiedToUs
    Sep 30, 2013
    0
    Campaign AI is extremely passive. Battle AI is simply broken. It doesn't work. It ignores your troops and just suicides into you. Its easily possible to win with 100 man against 5000. No joke.
    With far lower settings than Shogun 2 I get not even half the FPS.
    With the latest patch siege battles crash making it impossible to continue my current campaign. At least I don't have to look at    Campaign AI is extremely passive. Battle AI is simply broken. It doesn't work. It ignores your troops and just suicides into you. Its easily possible to win with 100 man against 5000. No joke.
    With far lower settings than Shogun 2 I get not even half the FPS.

    With the latest patch siege battles crash making it impossible to continue my current campaign. At least I don't have to look at the horrible Battle UI which clearly nobody tested on 1440x900 resolutions. It takes up half the damn screen.

    I hope there will be an Achievement for participating in the Beta.    … Expand
  21. tom_gr7
    Oct 1, 2013
    2
    Rome II: Totally Casual.

    Streamlined features, zero diplomacy, no family tree, lack of character progression, magical transports, complete lack of battle, siege and campaign AI, blob style fighting formations, 3minute battles, magical fire burning torches, zero seasons, 1 turn per year, awful performance on high end systems, monotonous and incredibly tedious campaign,
  22. smith1604
    Oct 1, 2013
    2
    wow what a horrible game this has turned out to be gone are the family tree gone are the little assassination cut scenes it has a complicated UI the AI is the dumbest i have ever seen in a video game.I have a high end PC i see some people stating get a better PC well i have one and the fps are pretty crappy.Really big disappointment.
  23. katzenkrimis
    Oct 2, 2013
    0
    It deserved 2/10 on release day.

    +1 for sound effects, and +1 for the lead designer admitting failure and apologizing to the world.

    But one month after release, nothing has improved. So it now gets a big, fat 0/10.

    When you play this game, you can actually smell the cattle farms. It's amazing.
  24. Pa23kings
    Nov 10, 2013
    0
    DO NOT BUY!!! This game is so bad. Waited till it went on sale thought with all the bad ratings might be ok with the sale price, boy was I wrong, Not worth anything. Can't seem to be able to make my towns happy spend all my money just trying to keep them happy but what can you do when it is 58 unhappy and the largest your army can get is 40 which by the way breaks you if you go thatDO NOT BUY!!! This game is so bad. Waited till it went on sale thought with all the bad ratings might be ok with the sale price, boy was I wrong, Not worth anything. Can't seem to be able to make my towns happy spend all my money just trying to keep them happy but what can you do when it is 58 unhappy and the largest your army can get is 40 which by the way breaks you if you go that route.bad graphics really considering, the date it was put out, should have been better then Empire. Cannot really think of one good thing to say about this game worst $45 I have ever spent. I really do not know what steam can do about it but I will not be buying another game from steam again till they start screening these games… Expand
  25. sungod
    Nov 29, 2013
    3
    After holding off playing Rome 2 for several weeks while it's been relentlessly patched, I finally started it up tonight and gave it a go, and here are my first impressions. Bear in mind I'm a HUGE Rome 1 fan and still play it. I've played Medieval II, Shogun 2, Empire, and Napoleon as well, so I'm quite familiar with CA titles.

    As a whole, I think Rome 2 is pretty boring. I have to    After holding off playing Rome 2 for several weeks while it's been relentlessly patched, I finally started it up tonight and gave it a go, and here are my first impressions. Bear in mind I'm a HUGE Rome 1 fan and still play it. I've played Medieval II, Shogun 2, Empire, and Napoleon as well, so I'm quite familiar with CA titles.

    As a whole, I think Rome 2 is pretty boring. I have to agree with others who've said that they feel R2 really has no soul I just don't see it. Yes, it's pretty, but it's boring just like a supermodel looks great on your arm, but as soon as she opens her mouth, your eyes glaze over. The UI is just awful the font is hard to read, the informational display is scattered and chaotic, it's hard to follow what's going on. The audio well, the music is fine, but all the voice overs sound like they were recorded in an empty music hall with a horrible echo. The unit cards are terrible; I don't want to have to decipher what I'm looking at, a unit card is supposed to be obvious; these are not. And as for the AI blech. I lost interest in the game after the second battle. I *never* lost interest with battles in Rome 1.

    So, I'm sad to say that I've joined the chorus of other long-time CA and Rome 1 superfans that think CA really tanked it on Rome 2. Without question the most disappointing game release since the disastrous SimCity reboot by EA. I spent a good 6 hours playing XCom Enemy Within today and loved it. I just spent 60 minutes playing Rome 2 and could care less. So sad. Such a missed opportunity by CA, and a wasted $60 by me. I'm never pre-ordering a CA title ever again. Lesson learned.    … Expand
  26. therand
    Nov 30, 2013
    1
    Bad game. Waste of money. SLOW performance. Bugs and unfinished GUI. I've only played this game about 4 times after buying it. I won't play any more. A total waste of money.
  27. Arabian_Knight
    Dec 1, 2013
    3
    An extreme disappointment-it really makes me wonder what version the critics were playing, because I would have liked to have tried it. The game's graphics are not optimized well at all, and it eats up video memory at a catastrophic rate. The graphic quality WILL be poor, it seems, no matter what you do.

    The AI is not only awful, but aggressively so. Diplomacy is broken, so there's not    An extreme disappointment-it really makes me wonder what version the critics were playing, because I would have liked to have tried it. The game's graphics are not optimized well at all, and it eats up video memory at a catastrophic rate. The graphic quality WILL be poor, it seems, no matter what you do.

    The AI is not only awful, but aggressively so. Diplomacy is broken, so there's not much dealing with them either. Territories can only be gained through battle as well, so an alliance with another faction usually turns into an impediment, since you cannot trade territories to allies. The UI is confusing and takes up much of the screen, and unit cards are nondescriptive and are stylized, so it is difficult to tell which card is which unit.

    The game feels very temporary; factions die out within ten turns usually (including supposedly powerful factions such as Egypt), battles last only around five minutes and are just a contest to see who can make who break and run first. Family trees have been removed, so forget grooming or developing characters. Characters only live a few turns before dying, and traits have been severely cut back so that characters usually only end up with two or three on average. Because characters and factions come and go so quickly, and conquering territory is so easy, the game feels very unattached and inconsequential, especially if playing as a non-Roman faction. There is nothing to unlock, or build up to. Where you start is where you are. You may research technologies to enable new buildings, but everything is pretty much set before you when you start. The game is also very buggy-certain bonuses do not work, and the graphics issues are unresolved. Despite this, the publishers think that it is appropriate to charge users for DLC packs that should have been included alongside the handful of playable factions (all of which have limited rosters) when the game shipped.

    Regions are split into provinces, usually composed of three cities, each of which is a separate region. Only around three-six buildings can be built in a city, and only the biggest city in each province has walls. The most important cities (Rome, Carthage, Athens, Babylon) have specific city maps, but these are underwhelming at best. Each building, if it does not add to public order, subtracts considerably from it, and many cost food as well. By midgame, public order strangles any sort of construction available and forces the player to either build temples en masse or put down numerous revolts. Food also becomes a problem, as most public order or wealth buildings subtract from food stocks, and food producing buildings consume massive amounts of public order. It seems that random bouts of revolts and starvation hit every now and again, which severely limit the type of buildings the player can construct and also leaves the player's armies severely drained.

    The positives are few, but are still there. Though the graphics are buggy and flawed, they on the whole are an update to the first Rome: Total War. The voice acting is very, good though there are only four or so voice sets (Barbarian, Roman, Near Eastern, maybe one more that I do not recall). While diplomacy is broken, defensive alliances have been added and so has a "point balance" to measure how well factions get along. Unit animations are much improved, and the soldiers themselves are designed better. Armies now have names and "unit traditions"-or in other words, armies can "level up" just like characters and receive bonuses. Armies also have (and this may be considered a negative) "the ability to transport themselves across water without being loaded onto ships.

    My personal recommendation is to wait if you are intent on buying this. The game's problems are too deep to fix with patches, other than maybe the graphical and lag issues. Since the later Total War games are not as conducive to modding as the earlier ones were, these gameplay problems are likely permanent. If you are intent on trying Rome II, wait until the price drops, or you will be kicking yourself for paying so much for this game. Its best positives come from the fact that it is a Total War game; unfortunately, it feels hastily put together and rushed. The best way to describe it, unfortunately, is haphazard. I personally was looking forward to playing this, but I was disappointed.    … Expand
  28. Publius-Defecus
    Feb 4, 2014
    2
    This game was a complete disappointment and well beneath the capabilities of this franchise. The game on it's own and in it's current state, I would give a 6/10. HOWEVER, because this game is part of a well known and previously respected franchise I would have to give it a 2/10 as it fails miserably in doing what the previous titles did so well.

    Simply put this game is just not fun.    This game was a complete disappointment and well beneath the capabilities of this franchise. The game on it's own and in it's current state, I would give a 6/10. HOWEVER, because this game is part of a well known and previously respected franchise I would have to give it a 2/10 as it fails miserably in doing what the previous titles did so well.

    Simply put this game is just not fun. I've lost count of how many times I've played through the original Rome, Medieval II, and even Empire in the past. I sunk over 750 hours of gameplay into Empire alone, even though I considered it to be the weakest title (until now). I can understand CA trying something new and it not working as they had hoped and I could forgive it with ease but this game was simply rushed and felt completely half-♥♥♥♥♥.

    The AI has never been worse, the battles started as mobs and now consist of awkward formations, kill animations are poorly implemented as they are the only way to kill a unit and therefore result solely in 1v1 combat amongst troops. In the original games, troops were able to help one another meaning that multiple units could engage a single unit and kill it with ease whereas now we have Shogun II stand-offs where a single soldier can take forever to kill because your individual soldiers just stand around looking like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ until it's their turn to participate in a kill animation. The buildings in this game are very unimaginative and have effects that are completely illogical to the point where the CAI has no idea how to build a proper city and instead is constantly being taken over by rebels. Unit collision is FUBAR as units just clump up together, walk through each other, and feel fake as a whole making any level of immersion impossible.

    I recall seeing similar things in Empire which leads me to believe that the Rome II engine is based off of the Empire engine which is complete nonsense as the Empire engine was built for guns and not close-combat. I could go on for hours talking about how this game disappointed me and listing (in great detail) all the things wrong with it but you could go on youtube and find numerous hour-long rants on the subject.

    All in all this game is a shell of what the Total War series used to be as many great features have been stripped from it (including good music, good voice-acting, key UI and battle components, family trees, a good diplomacy system, etc). This game feels like more of a cash grab than anything else as CA seemed to only care about DLC whoring, advertising, and focusing on silly gimmicks such as facial animations as opposed to core gameplay elements. They also flat-out lied about what they were selling as the game looks NOTHING like the advertisements.

    I honestly doubt that any amount of patching will be able to fix this atrocity and even doubt that the mods will be able to keep this title alive for much longer. If this is to be the future of the Total War series than I can honestly say that this franchise is dead as it will be further turned into the strategy equivalent of Call of Duty.

    P.S.
    To all of the apologists that see themselves as the Knights in shining armor defending CA from the onslaught of "neck-beard losers" that have valid criticisms of this game and CA's business practices, I say that you are the reason that more and more game franchises are turning to DLC whoring, releasing incomplete products, and simply worse games in general because now they know that they can get away with it. They are literally crapping in your mouths and you are thanking them for it in cash. You praise CA for listening to it's community and for actively patching it's game but remain blind to the fact that it should be unacceptable for a game to be released in such a state in the first place. Moreso, this is not even the first time CA has done something like this.

    I challenge the apologists to tell me how this title improves upon the franchise in some major way.

    - Better graphics? Not really as Shogun II looks MUCH better when looked at side-by-side.
    - Better design? No, since the game is horribly optimized (if at all) and has countless design flaws (such as huge cities preventing armies from moving)
    - Better AI? Lol no. Just no.
    - Better UI? No, since most features are missing (such as family trees and general/agent trees).
    - Better Battles? Absolutely not. See reasons in review above. Also, capture-points.
    - Better Diplomacy? No, since factions can barely be reasoned with and many diplomacy features have been stripped down.
    - The addition of something new?
    - Politics system is a joke.
    - Facial animations are useless and take up unnecessary space, time, and money.
    - Units shouting during battle sound (almost comically) terrible, repetitive, and break immersion.

    I do not hate CA or the Total War series. I am a die-hard fan of this series as it has been with me since I was 12 years old. I fear that the direction CA is taking however, will lead to the death of this once proud series.    … Expand
  29. triladar
    Sep 23, 2013
    8
    Seriously, the only thing I want to comment on this game is: What a fu**ing dissappointment!
    I'll try it again in like a year and hope the patches they release until then make it playable.
  30. Merwanor
    Sep 25, 2013
    5
    I have been a big Total War fan ever since the first Shogun TW game came out, which I bought on impulse back in the day, having no idea what kind of game it actually was, and I am so happy I did. Shogun 2 is by far the best in the series as it has the nostalgia feeling going for it, and the amazing depth and passion that CA put into the game. Everything was an improvement over theI have been a big Total War fan ever since the first Shogun TW game came out, which I bought on impulse back in the day, having no idea what kind of game it actually was, and I am so happy I did. Shogun 2 is by far the best in the series as it has the nostalgia feeling going for it, and the amazing depth and passion that CA put into the game. Everything was an improvement over the previous games in my opinion.

    And so it is sad to say that with Rome 2 they have taken a few feet forwards in some aspects, but a big step backwards in the core gameplay. First I want to say that the performance part of Rome 2 is not a big concern for me, as I run the game better than I ran Shogun 2 when it was released, but some of the design issues are puzzling and the game seems to lack the passion that CA has put into previous games.

    Let us start with the good parts of Rome 2.

    The new city/province system:
    This is a big welcome to the game, especially when you start to conquer large parts of the map, it gets much easier, but still retaining the tactical choices of what to build and how to manage, so even if it may lack some depth, it is a step forward for the series. Also the graphical representation of the cities and towns are a great new addition as it really shows the size and type of each town clearly.

    Legacy armies:
    I love the fact that an army has a name, history and well a legacy, you don't care about generals, but you do care about an army.

    Some battle animations:
    I love the physical look of javelins, rocks and arrows have when they hit shields, walls etc. Also some of the fighting animations are great, especially sword wielding units and their clashing of shields.

    The Graphics:
    The game looks good, but so did Shogun 2 and there is not that much of a difference, Rome 2 may have some better looking units, vegetation and lighting, but right now it runs much worse than current Shogun 2.

    The bad things about Rome 2:

    The User Interface.
    The interface lacks so much personality, it looks as if it taken from some iphone game or something, it is so out of place for a TW game and it lacks so much information and depth, and it is not scale able, as it is way to big and covers most of the screen. Those who made it really put no sense of passion into making it I feel. Shogun 2 has a much more authentic and helpful UI.

    The Political System:
    This is the most annoying and pointless system ever, as it seems that Civil War happens randomly or no matter what you do, and some of the options makes no sense, for instance, why do I lose senators if I assassinate a general or statesman, should it not be the other way around? We lost the familiy tree for this piece of garbage feature, I would rather have the annoying pope from Medieval 2 than this system.

    1 year turns:
    Not only have we lost seasons, which I loved in Shogun 2, but generals are pointless because of this as they die so fast. In shogun 2 it was amazing to see the change from winter to summer, you knew that now I can send my armies out without losing men to attrition, now attrition is specific to special places on the map instead. A big step backwards.

    AI:
    As stupid as ever, and even dumber in many ways than in Shogun 2. Why are they demanding loads of money from me to make peace when they are about to be crushed, makes no sense. And it is so easy to win as they seem to only produce slingers, create just a bunch of cavalry and you win all battles.

    Diplomacy:
    Some of the new features here is actually great, like being able to set a target for your allies to attack a city, but the whole system is bugged as client states are supposed to give me tribute, which never happens and AI keeps demanding crazy amounts of money for trade rights, and somehow they know how much money I have since they keep demanding more the richer I get. And there is no freaking give or demand city option, man I miss this.

    Cavalry animation:
    They just run through enemies, they don't seem to do much in battle, just Rome 1 level type stab animations. Compared to Shogun 2 this is just lame.

    Generals and traits:
    Since a turn lasts a year, they die so fast I just don't care about them, and they are annoying as they keep leveling up and gaining useless traits. I wish I could rid myself of generals all together.

    Armies requires generals and there is a army cap:
    I hate that I can't just make a few groups of soldiers here and there to keep order while i move my main armies around, this is a big step backwards. And the army cap is way to small and I require those annoying generals to lead an army. Sure it may be more realistic, but it is still annoying.

    Victory Points:
    Remove these game breaking victory points, but I get the reason for them when talking about naval/land battles. Only instance where they can be used.

    No Cutscenes:
    Where are the awesome assassin cutscenes, man champion cutscenes would be awesome, lack of passion.

    Rome is a big disappointment, so it gets a 5/10 from me.    … Expand
  31. True_Insanity13
    Nov 5, 2013
    3
    Very sad, but Total War: Rome II failed. I expected a lot of from this game, but a see only one thing- failure. The game has very good graphics, but very bad optimisation. Bad AI, that make game quite boring. In my opinion- pure waste of money
  32. tumbidragon
    Sep 16, 2014
    7
    After a complete farcical release, Rome 2 a year on is now an actual good game. 15 patches has seen vast improvements to optimization and game play. We now have three great campaign in CIG, HATG and EE. Battles are no longer decided within 2-5 minutes and I have had some last ~20mins with the new unit re-balancing to morale and armor!
    Unfortunately It still lacks the depth in which so    After a complete farcical release, Rome 2 a year on is now an actual good game. 15 patches has seen vast improvements to optimization and game play. We now have three great campaign in CIG, HATG and EE. Battles are no longer decided within 2-5 minutes and I have had some last ~20mins with the new unit re-balancing to morale and armor!
    Unfortunately It still lacks the depth in which so many were hoping they would deliver. The "new" political system is nothing more than a updated graphic to the UI so that you are able to track what is happening easier. But you could hardly call it immersive or in depth. Diplomacy is still hit and miss and just outright random sometimes (specifically trade agreements). There are also still major path finding issues atop walls when you have multiple units stationed on them. Also AI is still.. meh.

    Upon release I would of given this 3/10. But now I could unabashedly give it a 7/10 (but not forgiven nor forgotten CA!).    … Expand
  33. narkoburger
    Oct 3, 2013
    3
    Yaaaaawn.
    I really tried my best to enjoy the game but i can't.
    Together with Sim City this is one of the worst games I've played the last couple of years.

    And I find it insulting that they even dare to charge more money for DLC, at least EA gave us something free to compensate for a poor game
  34. spinkick
    Sep 24, 2013
    3
    Every single CA game is broken upon release. There is absolutely no reason to release a game like this; its not your first rodeo. People will not put up with this forever.
  35. HONDOMAN
    Nov 4, 2013
    4
    I want to know what game the critics were playing, because it certainly wan't this one. This game is rampant with bugs. It is flat-out broken. The A.I. is horrendous. I don't even know why the game was released. It needed at least six more month's. Absolutely no polish, because the game wasn't even finished to begin with! Why i everything red as well? It looks like you're playing on Mars.I want to know what game the critics were playing, because it certainly wan't this one. This game is rampant with bugs. It is flat-out broken. The A.I. is horrendous. I don't even know why the game was released. It needed at least six more month's. Absolutely no polish, because the game wasn't even finished to begin with! Why i everything red as well? It looks like you're playing on Mars. An utter disappointment, especially after the beauty that was Total War: Shogun 2… Expand
  36. zarule
    Sep 9, 2013
    5
    Rome Total War 2 does not live up to either advertismen/marketing or even earlier games in the series standards. It does bring some innovative ideas and concepts but the execution is so poor, the bugs are so many that the only explanation is they released a BETA and charged for the full game using buyers as testers. Unacceptable!
  37. Yazilliclick
    Sep 10, 2013
    5
    Has a lot of potential but falls completely flat due to bugs, poor AI and questionable UI decisions. It's amazing that a developer would go backwards on so many items in a series that they've worked on for over a decade. Shogun 2 had pretty good UI for presenting information in a lot of cases, not perfect but OK; Rome 2 goes backwards with battle UI not presenting proper information, notHas a lot of potential but falls completely flat due to bugs, poor AI and questionable UI decisions. It's amazing that a developer would go backwards on so many items in a series that they've worked on for over a decade. Shogun 2 had pretty good UI for presenting information in a lot of cases, not perfect but OK; Rome 2 goes backwards with battle UI not presenting proper information, not showing skill trees, settlement details about order and such being hidden in mouse over popups etc... The AI is probably amongst the worst in past several games which is incomprehensible how they can go backwards. Performance is poor, turn wait times are very very long even on decent hardware. They've sped up combat both by making units run faster and making units die and break morale sooner which takes away the ability to really feel like your in command of the battle and turns it more into an arcade action game of trying to control units.

    Ultimately there's potential here for a decent game if they can patch this stuff out but at this point the developer deserves no respect for handing the game out in it's current state. These are all common and very apparent issues which would not have been missed in Q&A and thus were deliberately shipped with the game.    … Expand
  38. carlocgc
    Sep 23, 2013
    3
    Bad points:
    Unit collision Battles become moss pits )
    Skill cards With these cards you have no idea how your unit will progress ) Campaign AI See every other review ) Multiplayer Pointless in effect a multiplayer custom battle mode no mmo progression at all ) Historical battles The most enjoyable part for me yet only 4 battles 4! ) General speeches Very short and    Bad points:
    Unit collision Battles become moss pits )
    Skill cards With these cards you have no idea how your unit will progress )
    Campaign AI See every other review )
    Multiplayer Pointless in effect a multiplayer custom battle mode no mmo progression at all )
    Historical battles The most enjoyable part for me yet only 4 battles 4! )
    General speeches Very short and impersonal )
    Campaign AI turn time Though improved somewhat with patches still way too long )
    Good Points:
    Cinematic Camera
    Epic siege battles even with all its flaws    … Expand
  39. Xaosian
    Sep 23, 2013
    2
    I've played since the original Shogun total war loves all of them until now.

    Rome 2 is a nightmare pos of a game. The AI which was never very good to start with is horrid now, just straight retarded. Like attack a walled city and they wont put troops on the walls retarded, like do a joint naval and land assault and they just dock and off load their navy, every time. Even in field    I've played since the original Shogun total war loves all of them until now.

    Rome 2 is a nightmare pos of a game. The AI which was never very good to start with is horrid now, just straight retarded. Like attack a walled city and they wont put troops on the walls retarded, like do a joint naval and land assault and they just dock and off load their navy, every time. Even in field battles their only tactic is to form a ball and charge. Hell if they are the defender you can walk your missile units into range and just fire into them until your out of ammo then go after them with melee troops.

    Diplomacy again never very strong in the series is a joke in this one, think ADHD mixed with paranoia and a solid dose of hallucinogens. No grip on reality, no sense of deal value, no concept of friend or foe, heck not even any concept of self interest.

    Like the old family tree set up to give your generals and leaders some depth? Its gone. Politics? just a countdown to civil war and doesn't work for most of the non imperial factions. How about random event? Mostly non existent and not working, plus they seem to cut off after the first handful of turns.

    Granted those are all in game things that you might disagree with me about. Lets talk a little about performance issues and such now. A very high percentage of the player base can either barely run the game do to poor code design or can't run it at all. Think fallout 2 graphics. Massive lag both in campaign map and in battles. Game can't run more then one CPU Core, Can't run more then 1 GPU, and the coding is so poor it can't run the one core well. Not good for a game touted as next gen graphically.

    A large number of the old guard have given up on this one guys. So save your money wait for a 50-66% off sale next year and hope some of the modders have made it worth while by then.    … Expand
  40. UristMcMechanic
    Sep 23, 2013
    1
    Everything that was good in Total War series is removed, while so much issues and bugs are introduced. Post-release patches are making it even worse for more players than they do help. And it's still unplayable after almost a month since release with no AI at all, no features that we loved from previous games (family trees, city development), no challenges (because there is no AI) and fullEverything that was good in Total War series is removed, while so much issues and bugs are introduced. Post-release patches are making it even worse for more players than they do help. And it's still unplayable after almost a month since release with no AI at all, no features that we loved from previous games (family trees, city development), no challenges (because there is no AI) and full of bugs.
    Waste of money. Even when bugs are fixed it still will be worse compared to previous TW games.    … Expand
  41. nigelnire
    Sep 24, 2013
    1
    I am a Total war veteran who has played every game from Shogun 1 .This is by far the worst Total war game ever, even worse than Empire on release. Poor optimisation I have a high end PC and theres terrible lag. Capture flags on open field battles full of bugs ,the worst Ai ever totally brain dead. I could go on. six months time with mods and patches the game might deserve 6/10 but ifI am a Total war veteran who has played every game from Shogun 1 .This is by far the worst Total war game ever, even worse than Empire on release. Poor optimisation I have a high end PC and theres terrible lag. Capture flags on open field battles full of bugs ,the worst Ai ever totally brain dead. I could go on. six months time with mods and patches the game might deserve 6/10 but if you are considering buying don’t and certainly never pre order a game from CA again based on their promotion and hype.… Expand
  42. letitbee
    Sep 24, 2013
    1
    The simple fact is the game is released unfinished. Three patches later, it crashes less, but the AI just does not work at all. Half of the mechanics are alpha quality at best, innumerable bugs, typos, awkward design decisions, broken mechanics, and general lack of love and polish show utter disrespect for fans of the series.

    Make no mistake: this is an alpha version. Once finished, the    The simple fact is the game is released unfinished. Three patches later, it crashes less, but the AI just does not work at all. Half of the mechanics are alpha quality at best, innumerable bugs, typos, awkward design decisions, broken mechanics, and general lack of love and polish show utter disrespect for fans of the series.

    Make no mistake: this is an alpha version. Once finished, the game will probably be great. But no matter how much I love Total War, it is not ok to release your game in such a state.

    You should absolutely not buy it right now, it is a mess.    … Expand
  43. Noif
    Sep 24, 2013
    2
    Don't buy it now, because you don't want to pay for broken/incomplete game. While CA are fixing it, I recommend use your time for other games. Maybe in future, this will be better after fixes.

    - AI is poor and stupid, pathfinding is really weak. Passive CAI and AI never declare war for you. BAI never use siege equipment, just standing and do nothing. - Diplomacy is lazy and broken -    Don't buy it now, because you don't want to pay for broken/incomplete game. While CA are fixing it, I recommend use your time for other games. Maybe in future, this will be better after fixes.

    - AI is poor and stupid, pathfinding is really weak. Passive CAI and AI never declare war for you. BAI never use siege equipment, just standing and do nothing.
    - Diplomacy is lazy and broken
    - Poorly optimized
    - Less features
    - UI too huge and bad.
    - Transport ships are op against naval fleet.
    - Performance is weak too.
    - Some normal tweaks on units are missing    … Expand
  44. Pesticide
    Sep 24, 2013
    1
    Played 20 hours as a veteran of the series, this game is more broken then empire at release, had many features cut and basicly all the extra budget they claimed went to marketing of fancy videos adds that are not even in the game. Do not be deceived by this company ever again, they stopped caring and are now doing games by the numbers sega dictates 4 weeks after release the game is stillPlayed 20 hours as a veteran of the series, this game is more broken then empire at release, had many features cut and basicly all the extra budget they claimed went to marketing of fancy videos adds that are not even in the game. Do not be deceived by this company ever again, they stopped caring and are now doing games by the numbers sega dictates 4 weeks after release the game is still broken and unpolished.… Expand
  45. Greven93
    Sep 24, 2013
    2
    Creative Assembly have somehow managed to misuse their franchise so badly that it has caused permanent damage to their reputation. They have pushed out a game that is not finished.

    It is a clear downgrade from Shogun 2 both technically (Graphics & performance) and in game design (Art direction, polish, features etc..). Creative Assembly seems to have pushed for a more streamlined game,    Creative Assembly have somehow managed to misuse their franchise so badly that it has caused permanent damage to their reputation. They have pushed out a game that is not finished.

    It is a clear downgrade from Shogun 2 both technically (Graphics & performance) and in game design (Art direction, polish, features etc..). Creative Assembly seems to have pushed for a more streamlined game, but in doing so they have removed core aspects that were part of the definition of a "total war title".    … Expand
  46. Mackles
    Sep 24, 2013
    3
    Graphically impressive. Excellent combat animations and sound effects. Streamlined empire management. That's the good stuff.

    The campaign itself has the depth of a puddle. The much vaunted politics system is pathetic. Diplomacy and CAI in general is broken. Essentially, you'll be doing exactly the same thing 250 turns in as you were 20 turns in. Battles are ridiculously fast. Units    Graphically impressive. Excellent combat animations and sound effects. Streamlined empire management. That's the good stuff.

    The campaign itself has the depth of a puddle. The much vaunted politics system is pathetic. Diplomacy and CAI in general is broken. Essentially, you'll be doing exactly the same thing 250 turns in as you were 20 turns in.

    Battles are ridiculously fast. Units are horribly balanced. Plenty of features and controls are broken or poorly redesigned. Voice work is mostly poor. 90% of battles are sieges and siege battles are currently broken.

    All in all, an extremely poor addition to the Total War series that suffers as much from bad design choices as it does from a lack of optimization and extensive technical issues.    … Expand
  47. ironman3112
    Sep 24, 2013
    4
    This game was a large disappointment for me. I followed the game for the full year from the announce date until release. CA had an incredible marketing team, made the game look absolutely fantastic up to the release date. Any concerns on the forum were crushed by simply saying the footage shows was alpha footage. I can remember raising concerns about Al Bickhams videos showing the ai inThis game was a large disappointment for me. I followed the game for the full year from the announce date until release. CA had an incredible marketing team, made the game look absolutely fantastic up to the release date. Any concerns on the forum were crushed by simply saying the footage shows was alpha footage. I can remember raising concerns about Al Bickhams videos showing the ai in battles. Bickham played horribly and the ai won a couple battles, deep down inside I knew something was up, but I brushed it off thinking the final release would be better.

    When the day of release came I had already sunk 1 700 dollars into a new computer and had pre ordered the game thanks to having it gifted to me on steam for my birthday. I thought that Rome 2 would be too big to fail, that there would be no possible way that CA could screw it up.

    Boy, was I wrong. I'll start with the ai, the ai on the campaign map doesn't build very many large armies in the early game. They'd much rather have multiple small stacks roaming around. The armies that they do have usually consist of militia units and slingers, regardless of what stage of the game you're in. Ai empires typically don't know how to manage public order so any large empire will soon crumble (this is perhaps why large empires like carthage and the selucids were split up into satrapies or client states). This is just the tip of the iceberg for campaign ai failures.

    The battle ai is reasonable when fighting in an open battle, it creates a formation and sends every single soldier it has at its disposal at you and attacks your units. You'll typically be able to take on 3-5ai armies with 1 full stack of your own troops because they'll come at you 1 army at a time, with militia units that route incredibly easily.

    The true problem with the battle ai is when it comes to sieges. When it is defending its alright since all it has to do is camp flags, but when it's attacking it has a tendency to disregard your entire army, and bull rush the flag through your men as you hack them to pieces giving no consideration to the fact that you're slaughtering its entire army. This is gamebreaking. As well during sieges, (this isn't an ai issue, just a siege issue) it is possible to destroy the gates by throwing torches at them thus rendering all siege equipment completely useless. There is absolutely no need to build siege equipment when you can just destroy the gate with torches, there by making sieges really boring.

    The naval ai is pretty competent from what I can tell, my navy gets its ass kicked by transport fleets when I fight the battle due to transport ships being overpowered. Auto resolving battles with a navy against a transport fleet causes the Transport fleet to be annihilated, so at least that works as intended.
    Quick Points:
    -The graphics are pretty good when they aren't glitching out or causing your machine to lag. However I've found that shogun 2 is more optimized and at times definitely looks better.
    - The province system works as intended and is pretty reasonable overall. Makes recruiting easier than it was in previous TW games
    -with 172 factions the map is full of factions which is great, one thing that bothers me however is that a lot of the major factions get stomped by random no name factions, so your campaign can turn into fight no name faction A and no name faction Y. e.g. carthage gets destroyed by numidian tribes and egypt is destroyed by Ethiopian tribes typically.

    Finishing points:
    I haven't covered all the flaws in this game, there's plenty of them, however the game will get better with additional patches. So far there have been multiple patches released to fix these issues and more will continue to come out. What really irks me is that the game was shipped out the way it was September 3rd. It was a compete mess, CA has apologized twice and that is why they've sent out so many patches. I just hope that everyone remembers this release and refuses to pre order any other games let alone Total war games.

    I've played Total war games ever since Medieval 1 Total War, when I was 9 years old and this game has been the only one that's really pissed me off. I completely agree with angry joe's sentiments, check out his review its great, also check out what CA said in this interview with regards to meta critic, it's disgusting.
    http://gamasutra.com/view/feature/169354/how_creative_assemblys_process_.php

    anyways, this game definitely didn't live up to the hype. Just remember what happened with this game, the marketing, the promises, the buggy release, all the patches. Just remember this when you think about pre ordering the next game, because I gurantee that if you do pre order you'll be kicking yourself when this happens again.    … Expand
  48. uaronain
    Sep 24, 2013
    3
    After a massive build up after the classic rome total war, this one fails to deliver much more than some pretty graphics. The game just feels empty, voice acting is not much to rave about. Combat AI 75% of the time is horrible. The campaign is not a challenge and when you win it leaves you feeling like "thats it?"
  49. Rhazes
    Sep 24, 2013
    3
    This is by far the worst Total War game I have ever played and I own them all. I was so excited because Rome is my favorite of Total War games. This game is an Alpha build. This is what you deal with in closed beta testing. I don't even think it will be fixed. CA has never been a company that supports there games for long. They will drop down to a skeleton crew for support and DLC andThis is by far the worst Total War game I have ever played and I own them all. I was so excited because Rome is my favorite of Total War games. This game is an Alpha build. This is what you deal with in closed beta testing. I don't even think it will be fixed. CA has never been a company that supports there games for long. They will drop down to a skeleton crew for support and DLC and everyone else will be working on the Rome expansion.

    Creative Assembly went heavy on the marketing and it only took 10 turns to see they never even play tested their own game before release or they just didn't care.

    Avoid this game unless you like to waste money.    … Expand
  50. TARZAN
    Sep 24, 2013
    1
    Worst strategy game i've ever seen.
    It's not a game, it's trash and It is broken, it's trash and It is broken
    It's not a game, it's trash and It is broken, it's trash and It is broken
    It's not a game, it's trash and It is broken, it's trash and It is broken
    It's not a game, it's trash and It is broken, it's trash and It is broken
  51. chunter
    Sep 24, 2013
    1
    Rome 2 Boring. Out of all the total war games, this is the 1st total war game I have found boring even after patch 3, I can not play more 13hours of this game. I recommend buying Shogun which I played 640 hours. And wait 6-12 months for CA and see if they re-write the game or release an expansion.
  52. isamurai
    Sep 24, 2013
    1
    Played since first rome and was so hyped to play this game but this was a great disappointment...
    A few of the many things that wounded my love for CA: (sorry if there is many english mistakes)
    -Unfinished game, Bugged to death and tends to crash. -removed features - game dumbed down -badly optimized -terrible AI. -poor UI. - Simplified to death multiplayer...    Played since first rome and was so hyped to play this game but this was a great disappointment...
    A few of the many things that wounded my love for CA: (sorry if there is many english mistakes)
    -Unfinished game, Bugged to death and tends to crash.
    -removed features
    - game dumbed down
    -badly optimized
    -terrible AI.
    -poor UI.
    - Simplified to death multiplayer... What happened to the new features of the last opus?
    -unbalanced units
    -illogical features (torches on Metal doors... Really?!) Great no need to spend energy on siege towers! (sarcasm to the max)
    - Magic boats because yay magic!
    -in the same idea Magic like battle changing abilities.
    -Lost immersion
    -Battles last 30 seconds
    -No real political system.
    -Graphics errors
    -DAY 1 DLC This, just this is enough to make me cringe... As Angry Joe said the DLC whoring is out of control...

    I could go on for long like this but i think you all know this already. just go on any forums, youtube or facebook page talking about rome 2 and you will have many complete list of what is wrong.
    Now, it is not just some problems related to my machine... In fact i had bought a system in prevention to be able to play Rome II at its Maximum... What a disappointment...
    Okay the Campaign map is nice. I can give em that. I cant believe any of the "pro" reviews I am reading :
    "Rome II is a testament to all that is great about PC gaming and should be a must buy for all its followers"
    The Digital Fix.
    What in the seven circles of hell is this?! How much did they paid you to say that?! CA are you making a game for the reviewers or the players? How can there be so much distance between "journalistic" and real user review and scores?! I have been on the total war forums and saw the going on in there... Sadly, i really don't think that complaining as I am doing right now) has any effect. They have made the money they needed and they will probably patch it to the minimum then rush to the next money shot with a new expansion or new god damn DLC. Hopefully I am wrong. I really do hope with all my gamer heart that I am wrong...

    To conclude, this game, this disgrace, is a slap in the face of most if not all) the hardcore Total war fans. Fans who believed in the franchise even after some errors in the past. Fans who pre-ordered the game asap. Creative assembly you now feel like a traitor to your fans.

    Et tu, CA    … Expand
  53. havoccau
    Sep 24, 2013
    3
    The game is on its third week and third patch since launch. It's immediate predecessor runs well on my computer, look gorgeous and has the deepest campaign map system (not the largest) of the Total War games to date.

    Rome II is a big step backwards. The game doesn't run smoothly on any settings for me and a lot of players. The AI is a big step backwards (even for a series known for poor    The game is on its third week and third patch since launch. It's immediate predecessor runs well on my computer, look gorgeous and has the deepest campaign map system (not the largest) of the Total War games to date.

    Rome II is a big step backwards. The game doesn't run smoothly on any settings for me and a lot of players. The AI is a big step backwards (even for a series known for poor AI), the characters and agents are convoluted and oversimplified, and the game just kind of chugs under its own weight at this point.

    I would have loved this game if it was just a paint job on the original Rome: Total War. But it's nowhere near as fun as that one, and will need a lot of work before it lives up to its true potential.    … Expand
  54. RhbynYew
    Sep 24, 2013
    2
    Gutted features, terrible AI, fast paced COD style action battles, dumbed down, they are preparing to enter console area with what this game looks like. DO NOT BUY if you are a total war fan, you will regret it. Developers in interviews and videos clearly lie, I do not even know how they sleep bluntly lying to fans like that.
  55. triarii3
    Sep 24, 2013
    5
    Unit AI....I win 9/10 battles due to the AI's own stupidity.

    This game is released as a barebone. or even Beta.

    As someone who has bought EVERY title since the FIRST Shogun total war. I am most displeased with this one.
  56. Wuffel
    Sep 24, 2013
    5
    After playing Shogun 2 for over 500 hours, Rome 2 is quite a dissapointment to me. Although the era it is set in allows for much more identification than historic Japan, Rome 2 did not quite spark my interest as its predecessor. It also taught me not to preorder the next TW title.

    First of all, I still experience FPS drops although the in-game benchmark recommended high settings. These    After playing Shogun 2 for over 500 hours, Rome 2 is quite a dissapointment to me. Although the era it is set in allows for much more identification than historic Japan, Rome 2 did not quite spark my interest as its predecessor. It also taught me not to preorder the next TW title.

    First of all, I still experience FPS drops although the in-game benchmark recommended high settings. These frame drops mainly happen while on the strategic map so scrolling over is quite a lagfest. In battles, I experience graphics glitches: Large black boxes keep appearing to cover the terrain. After 3 weeks, they should have fixed that.

    But there are more important things than graphics in a strategy game. What I liked most about Shogun 2 was the more or less clear-cut rock-paper-scissors(-lizard-Spock) system in its battles. Almost every unit type had its use. This is not the case in Rome 2 which evolves into a heavy infantry spam fest. Although in historic terms, this is quite an accurate representation of Roman military tactics, it is not fun. As in Shogun 2, they should have put gameplay first, historicity second. (And I'm saying this as a historian ^^).

    The gameplay on the strategic map seems to be limited. Okay, it was limited in Shogun 2 too, but there seems to be no real improvement, except the new provincial system which I quite like. The auxiliary units are also a good idea, as is the more stream-lined research. I would say it is solid, although compared to titles specialised on strategic gameplay like Europa Universalis, it still is simplicistic. Especially the diplomatic system needs expansion. The internal political system has no impact on the game which is a huge disappointment. With the political system so well documented and the more or less clear-cut Roman cursus honorum, they had so much potential to toy with. Why did they put it in there in the first place then?

    The worst thing, as in any TW title, is the AI. It's utterly stupid on the strategic map. I mostly auto-resolve battles, because they keep attacking with ridiculously small stacks. In the battles themselves, the AI can be quite good, but also utterly stupid. During sieges, the enemy troops love being butchered by artillery/missile inf. What better thing to spend the day with than being pierced by arrows or squashed by catapult-launched rocks? That's what the poor encamped Samnites must have thought when I shot them with my ballistas in the Prologue Campaign/Tutorial. Quite an eye-opening OMG moment right at the start ...

    But still, AI does not matter in multiplayer. After all, utterly stupid AI does not matter there. I spent 300 hours in Shogun 2's avatar conquest. I liked the sense of achievement it gave, the identification with my general, my ridiculously custom-named and painted units (even the useless ones just vetted for fun). The whole system of course was also quite simple, and the retainer-drop and matchmaking led to unfair situations. But why did they drop it as a whole? Rome 2 just offers the bare-minimum ranked-ladder custom battle. And those are dominated by pike/heavy inf spam, which becomes boring very fast. Instead of further developing the avatar system or coming up with something new, they took two steps backward. As it seems that CA is not able to program a decent AI, they should have put much more effort into multiplayer, especially interactive-wise.

    All in all: Rome 2 is still a solid game. But after CA raised expectations that much and the hope that the more familiar setting would do its part to make it more fun than Shogun 2, I have to conclude that even after the first 3 patches, Rome 2 does not even come close to fulfill my expectations.

    CA really has to earn my trust a second time.    … Expand
  57. mokawa71
    Sep 29, 2013
    4
    I believe the most of us liked the advertising of the game which looked great and made us buy the game.
    Game flaws are all known in this metacritic forum but lets hope the patches are improving the fun over the next weeks and months
    Anyway, my action to prevent a purchase of a CA/Sega game on release day is that I set a monthly reminder in my cell and lotus notes calendar. Secondly I    I believe the most of us liked the advertising of the game which looked great and made us buy the game.
    Game flaws are all known in this metacritic forum but lets hope the patches are improving the fun over the next weeks and months

    Anyway, my action to prevent a purchase of a CA/Sega game on release day is that I set a monthly reminder in my cell and lotus notes calendar. Secondly I used the code 0903 (release date) on my ipad to remind me on the catastrophic Rome 2 release. I can recommend this actions to everybody if you are serious with not buying a CA/Sega game on release day or never again.    … Expand
  58. zeock9
    Sep 30, 2013
    2
    Unfinished product at best the core concept was grand, but the devs rushed it out the door with zero polish and absolutely zero play testing.
    It's full of bugs and incompetent AI behaviors that render all other good aspects of this game moot.
    Shame on them.
  59. Beeeno
    Oct 3, 2013
    4
    This is an unfinished and broken game released without beta testing with several heavy issues. Advertisement before game release was false as the game is not fully localised in Italian and Spanish language. Untill today we've had 3 patches but the mess is still on. If you want to buy this game wait 'till next Xmas sales and check how patching proceeds. Just my two cents. P.S. I'veThis is an unfinished and broken game released without beta testing with several heavy issues. Advertisement before game release was false as the game is not fully localised in Italian and Spanish language. Untill today we've had 3 patches but the mess is still on. If you want to buy this game wait 'till next Xmas sales and check how patching proceeds. Just my two cents. P.S. I've preordered a CA/Sega game for the LAST time.… Expand
  60. Yoritomo
    Oct 3, 2013
    4
    Rome II the divorce between TW Fans and Developer.
    From Shogun 1 i played all titles in Series and loved the MP Part of Shogun 2. Now i am totaly disappointed from my pre-order after 3 Patches and 4 Weeks trying to find joy in playing this game.
    Singleplayer Gameplay is still broken and cant be fixed by patch. Exploring new bugs every day is not fun. Facing Bugs that are unfixed since    Rome II the divorce between TW Fans and Developer.
    From Shogun 1 i played all titles in Series and loved the MP Part of Shogun 2. Now i am totaly disappointed from my pre-order after 3 Patches and 4 Weeks trying to find joy in playing this game.
    Singleplayer Gameplay is still broken and cant be fixed by patch.
    Exploring new bugs every day is not fun. Facing Bugs that are unfixed since Empire is a insult.
    Seeing the potential of the game and realize that it wont be reached is frustrating.
    Technical aspects may be fixed with upcoming patches, Mistakes in Gamedesign wont.
    This game feels like its a beta version for a console or smartphone TW Title.
    Absolute no depth at strategic campaign mode (from broken AI to Province Design) and no tactical depth at real time battles. Camping, Spamming, rushing, no brain AI better autoresolve it. Wait 4 Minutes till AI done its turn, spend more time waiting than acting is not a game.

    No beta pre-release, a step back for Multiplayer mode. All the inventions from Shogun 2 are gone and the player is draw back to a empire like gamelobby without a chat. Empire MP works fine now, this mode in Rome 2 seems to be alpha. MP Campaign and you will face stupid AI with a player by side and play a waiting game till it crashes for no reason.

    Score 4 cause i belive CA will get the tecnical aspects done and already apologiesed for the mistakes.

    Quo vadis Total War Series?    … Expand
  61. Shu1984
    Oct 3, 2013
    3
    I would gladly give this game a good rating, but unfortunately I can not. It is my first TW series purchase and, being a strategy games' fan for a long time, I expected much more from this title, but so far I can not find a single reason why a seasoned strategy vet would recommend this one. And believe me, I have tried hard (100+ hours of play).

    The game is flawed as hell (3 patches    I would gladly give this game a good rating, but unfortunately I can not. It is my first TW series purchase and, being a strategy games' fan for a long time, I expected much more from this title, but so far I can not find a single reason why a seasoned strategy vet would recommend this one. And believe me, I have tried hard (100+ hours of play).

    The game is flawed as hell (3 patches so far with HUNDREDS of alleged changes and improvements prove this fact), and it seems that it has been dumbed down to the point where it lacks the minimum depth in almost all of its areas: campaign, province management, battles, diplomacy, politics, etc. Former players of the TW series describe it as "lacking any soul". To me its simply shallow, repetitive, unchallenging and in the end boring. There is almost no real reason to go one turn beyond.

    Do not believe the hype (if you still think Santa is out there) and please think twice if you want to spend euro 55 (plus upcoming DLCs of course) on this one.    … Expand
  62. ruarz
    Oct 4, 2013
    2
    This game deserves far worse press coverage than it has received. Thumbs up to the Guardian and the users on here for letting people know the truth. Its just a shame about the reporting standards of PC Gamer and the like.

    Before the patches I would have probably given this game a 0 or a 1. It was utterly broken and reeked of rushing out an untested and unfinished game in ordered to meet    This game deserves far worse press coverage than it has received. Thumbs up to the Guardian and the users on here for letting people know the truth. Its just a shame about the reporting standards of PC Gamer and the like.

    Before the patches I would have probably given this game a 0 or a 1. It was utterly broken and reeked of rushing out an untested and unfinished game in ordered to meet a deadline. Everything in the game or not in the game points towards these guys trying to making a quick buck. Since the patches I have amended my score to 2. The game runs slightly better but it still falls way short from acceptable. Some of the bugs have been smoothed out but it is still a 'buggy' game.

    The gameplay itself remains awful. Everything is over-simplified. There is no need for a fleet as ships magically spawn for you troops at no cost when you send them into water. The public order system is unbalanced and utterly nonsensical. The UI is unnecessarily bulky, especially during joint sea and land battles.

    The graphics are dull and muddy. They look far worse than Shogun 2 yet the game runs far slower. The fonts are not crisp and are blurred at the edges.

    The diplomacy feature is fundamentally flawed by forcing the player to use a minimum of 10% of their treasury in any payment. This is fine in the early stages of gamplay but when you have 200,000 in you get hammered every turn by AI states asking you for 20,000 or 40,000 just for a trade agreement that will generate a fraction of that over the rest of your play through.

    Worst of all, both the Campaign and Battle AI are absolutely dire and seem like a massive step back from the already lacking AI in Napoleon and Shogun 2. The gameplay is incredibly easy, even on the hardest setting and gets boring very quickly. With the long AI turn times you will spend at least half the time on the campaign screen just waiting for the AI to finish their moves. Simply put, this is not a fun game. It is not a good game. It is a shameless exploitation of Total War's existing fanbase. I only hope that fanbase shrinks and these crooks get the bad press they deserve in the mainstream.    … Expand
  63. Rome
    Oct 6, 2013
    4
    Ugly graphics, even on Ultra. On Extreme(the highest setting) it begins to look somewhat ok(but not very great), but at a heavy cost: even on high end rigs(like mine) you'll get fps as low as 20. It's nearly 2014, there is no excuse for an (supposedly) AAA title to have 2009 graphics. I feel cheated just by looking at the game...

    Battle camera is a complete joke. There is no click and    Ugly graphics, even on Ultra. On Extreme(the highest setting) it begins to look somewhat ok(but not very great), but at a heavy cost: even on high end rigs(like mine) you'll get fps as low as 20. It's nearly 2014, there is no excuse for an (supposedly) AAA title to have 2009 graphics. I feel cheated just by looking at the game...

    Battle camera is a complete joke. There is no click and drag action at all. I said: NO CLICK AND DRAG ACTION!! What were they thinking? The camera movement is just horrible. Since you'll be using the camera all the time during battle, this is a potential game breaker for me. However it should be an easy fix, so why are they not fixing the camera!!?

    Tech tree. It's awfully uninspired. No really interesting choices here. Every step in the tech tree will mostly bring you benefits like +2 trade income, -2% unit costs etc. Yawn, it seems utterly irrelevant and dumbed down.

    Icons. Apparantly CA thought it a great idea to have all uni, building, and tech icons look like something a an average 10-old greek child would have drawn thousands of years ago. They are just ugly to look at. I guess they wanted them to have an ancient feel... We dont want that!! We want them to be highly detailed, beautiful and in 3D. Another moronic design decision.

    This games deserves not 0, it deserves a maximum of 4, so thats what it's gonna get from me.    … Expand
  64. Brac
    Oct 7, 2013
    1
    The game is obviously still in Beta testing as there are so many problems with it. After a patch, the game didn't even load anymore. Developers deserve all the bad press they get.
  65. kiwisneverfly
    Nov 23, 2013
    3
    Not worth the price. I had a better time with Medieval 2, Empire and Napoleon then this game. It isn't well put together, with bugs and disappointing graphics. Hell I've played FTP games that look and play better than this one! I suggest getting a older and better total war game, like medieval 2, empire or shogun 2.
  66. spartan1008
    Dec 5, 2013
    5
    absolutely painful to play for any total war vet in its current state. how and why this was released as it is, no one knows, but it is lackluster and boring. the ai doesnt do any thing, completely non aggressive on the battle field and campaign map. and once you grow just a bit, its next to impossible to lose, you pretty much just steam roll every thing in front of you
  67. Z47_B
    Jan 9, 2014
    2
    After several patches the game is still poorly optimized and the ai is only slightly better. However, if you go to the Steam Workshop and download everything you may get close to what we were promised.
  68. Sarrix
    Nov 8, 2013
    2
    Hahaha the people have spoken and I could not agree more. This is the biggest failure I have seen in a while. I WAS a devoted Total War fan until CA decided to bring out this husk of a game to slap me in the face. I really do not understand what was going through their heads... Do they actually play their own games? They dumbed this game down so much I felt like C&C had more strategyHahaha the people have spoken and I could not agree more. This is the biggest failure I have seen in a while. I WAS a devoted Total War fan until CA decided to bring out this husk of a game to slap me in the face. I really do not understand what was going through their heads... Do they actually play their own games? They dumbed this game down so much I felt like C&C had more strategy involved in it.

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

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

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

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

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

    Reinstalling Empire/Napoleon as we speak.

    /sigh    … Expand
  70. JasonDaCritic
    Nov 13, 2013
    3
    This is a long waited sequel for the hit game Rome Total War I'm a total war fan myself. But what I see in this game is a big disappointment. The A.I is horrible they charge randomly not at my army but in other directions I was really disappointed at this but it's not just the A.I but also there are a few bugs that I found in this game but it could be patched. The UI is really confusing IThis is a long waited sequel for the hit game Rome Total War I'm a total war fan myself. But what I see in this game is a big disappointment. The A.I is horrible they charge randomly not at my army but in other directions I was really disappointed at this but it's not just the A.I but also there are a few bugs that I found in this game but it could be patched. The UI is really confusing I don't know what the hell am I doing. It also has tons of lag and when your processing "next turn" you wait longer more than your playing longer. But there are good adjustments to this game like the graphics have improved. Overall 3/10… Expand
  71. remosu37
    Oct 2, 2013
    1
    Very poor. I have been a fan of the Total War series since Shogun, many years ago. Out of the box, Rome 2 was near unplayable, and even with 3 patches, the game remains disturbingly unfinished. The AI is poor, both in battle and campaign map, the stability issues persist, the game progresses very slowly between turns, and the game is simultaneously too simple (not enough strategicVery poor. I have been a fan of the Total War series since Shogun, many years ago. Out of the box, Rome 2 was near unplayable, and even with 3 patches, the game remains disturbingly unfinished. The AI is poor, both in battle and campaign map, the stability issues persist, the game progresses very slowly between turns, and the game is simultaneously too simple (not enough strategic decisions) because of its emphasis on moving army units around, and too complex (due to the horrid interface, poor instructions).… Expand
  72. kharnevil
    Oct 2, 2013
    4
    A return to the second most lauded setting after the Shogun period, Rome. The game is graphically pleasing, but for older machines the fidelity will come at a hefty price in terms of frame rate drop.

    The battle AI has no perceived improvement since Rome: Total War, while the campaign map has been reduced to a series of tactical choke points. The simplified campaign map I can live with,    A return to the second most lauded setting after the Shogun period, Rome. The game is graphically pleasing, but for older machines the fidelity will come at a hefty price in terms of frame rate drop.

    The battle AI has no perceived improvement since Rome: Total War, while the campaign map has been reduced to a series of tactical choke points. The simplified campaign map I can live with, the in-battle capture points less so.

    Over all a shamefully buggy release from a well respected developer, blame would probably largely lie with SEGA and their questionable marketing 'gurus'.

    Recommended to wait until Darth comes back from retirement to create a community patch to make it into a game worth buying. Until then, wait for the sales.    … Expand
  73. Master-of-War
    Nov 29, 2013
    5
    At first completely unplayable. After 7 patches boring, uninspiring and unchallenging. Very disappointing total war game. Very disappointing sequel to the first Rome game. Too great an emphasis on graphics and changing core elements. Should have focused on gameplay and immersion. And should not have released a game in such a state. Everything Rome II now has a foul stench about it. But itAt first completely unplayable. After 7 patches boring, uninspiring and unchallenging. Very disappointing total war game. Very disappointing sequel to the first Rome game. Too great an emphasis on graphics and changing core elements. Should have focused on gameplay and immersion. And should not have released a game in such a state. Everything Rome II now has a foul stench about it. But it does look great.… Expand
  74. Matteo21
    Mar 30, 2014
    4
    only new players of Total War saga are going to like this game, this is the worst, too much advertising and not programming enough. i'm am italian and this game is not translated in italian, but CA wrote on the pack "All in Italian". bad for a Total War fan!
  75. SneezeJunky
    Nov 7, 2013
    3
    Sad to say that this is THE WORST Total War game i've ever played. Game is not optimized. Gameplay is dull and boring. Ai doesn't work properly.

    It really hurts giving it such a poor score. Since I really love total war series. But this game is a Complete joke.
  76. korab
    Nov 7, 2013
    2
    Part 2:
    -Retreating units can open the gates and run away even though they do not own/occupy the gate before, but eager and standing of course they cannot as they do not own them!-totally ridiculous and same in other TW games!
    -Retreating armies can pass through boats(literally through half of boats when retreating and my elephants pursuing them too! Totally ridiculous and annoying!    Part 2:
    -Retreating units can open the gates and run away even though they do not own/occupy the gate before, but eager and standing of course they cannot as they do not own them!-totally ridiculous and same in other TW games!
    -Retreating armies can pass through boats(literally through half of boats when retreating and my elephants pursuing them too! Totally ridiculous and annoying!

    -Enemy boats have terrible route planning and get stuck in siege battles and as a rule choose farthest shore to disembark loosing valuable time...

    -No bracing of units in moments before the AI charge! Medieval and Rome 1 had this solved long ago...
    -Spears of hoplites are too short! And serve nothing. Historically they were 3 meter long and bracing shield and spears made hoplite wall very strong: much better in old Rome 1 although there spears were too long...

    -NO BLOOD. Plus idiotic animations of single combat, Shogun is a masterpiece compared to Rome 2 and medieval 2 also is much better. Terrible individual animations in battles where units kill by missing opponents and burning people die „praying on knees“ instead of screaming and rolling to put out the fire...
    -Winning unit never pursues fleeing unit but jumps like girls on the playground!? and do so exhausted and under full equipment after combat although that same unit walks with head down simulating being tired). And do so also if there are other units charging into them that very moment! In all previous TW games pursuing or not was resolved with defending or normal stance! Why did you remove this great option???

    -Exactly the same female monument and same colour(black) in both Carthage and Rome and it is well known they had totally different God families(as a matter of fact one of the most conflicting issues among them was that Carthaginians sacrificed children in terrible Baal rituals and Romans despised and hated them for that)! And they both stand in the same city center location more less in both cities?! No effort or whatsoever to make culturally appropriate monument in a particular city corresponding to actual god temple one has chosen to build or AT LEAST FACTION!
    -SUGGESTION: No random citizen people running around the city during sieges which would add greatly to the atmosphere of being under siege... For example a mother with a child runs from one house to another! Or someone runs half naked and hits some wooden stands with goods in a hurry... Much better to have this than to have stupid birds flying around which serve nothing as town looks like ghost town! At least these birds should come down and eat on dead people and/or deserted food...In all battles birds were first to feast on corpses...

    -no historical and logical correspondence of towns or whatsoever neither on the campaign map nor in battle. How is province capital of Syracuse(Greeks) and Lilybale...(Cartaghe) under Roman city in the south!? Even today in 21st century Sicily is like a different country in Italy with still strong mafia lords, not to mention 300-200bc when three different nations controlled the island... Each city HAS to be for itself and maybe only Rome and Carthage and Athens could have small satellite cities VERY close to them... OR use Empire system of small villages which are without army and cannot produce many different buildings...
    -Cities are extremely big compared to land mass and they look ridiculous when they grow...! Actually campaign map paradoxally looks small due to this although it is actually huge! The very first impression is that no attention was given to details (no world wonders, proper mountains, rivers...) and that it is a copy of civilization IV kind of maps with those growing cities... Simply disgusting and not in the spirit of other tw games...

    -Walls of every town does not have a proper end?!(to the hill or sea or rugged terrain or connecting to wall circle but it looks like enemy can pass many units around it. Totally ridiculous as old Medieval did not have such issues...
    -No multi level capital cities, easy to conquer Rome and Carthage..
    -Carthage has one front tower so destroyed that a man on shoulders of another can easily enter the tower and whole army can do that as well so it is totally unrealistic and walls look so easy to bypass on the side or through damaged towers. Carthage historically had GREAT WALLS which could be entered from below and not on the side and it took Romans years to conquer it! Not a slight historical accuracy or whatsoever...
    -With any infantry unit selected when cursor is on the wall it automatically shows positions of units on the wall as if a player wants to put them there!? In all previous TW games this occurs only when one holds left mouse button which means he does want to put units on the wall but not before!

    -    … Expand
  77. jsijason
    Nov 8, 2013
    3
    Graphics took a big step backwards since Shogun 2, the AI is unbelievably terrible, making terrible choices, it's pointless to have military allies and set combined points of attack. Which is a disappointing advantage to someone looking for a challenge: you can always count on the AI to screw up and give you the clear upper hand.

    The bulk of the voice acting is embarrassing and lame.    Graphics took a big step backwards since Shogun 2, the AI is unbelievably terrible, making terrible choices, it's pointless to have military allies and set combined points of attack. Which is a disappointing advantage to someone looking for a challenge: you can always count on the AI to screw up and give you the clear upper hand.

    The bulk of the voice acting is embarrassing and lame. All the special character units basically do the same things, nothing to truly distinguish them and make them interesting individually.

    I give it a 3/10, mainly on nostalgia for excellent predecessors.    … Expand
  78. JamesGHarris
    Nov 8, 2013
    1
    This is by far the most disappointed I've ever been about a game. I expected a game that would stand tall along side Shogun 2 and the original Rome total war. I sure that with this game we'd forget the horrors of Empire and Napoleon. But alas, that;s not what we got. This game was ultimately broken on release, and even now it still doesn't run as it should... The UI is terrible, the AI isThis is by far the most disappointed I've ever been about a game. I expected a game that would stand tall along side Shogun 2 and the original Rome total war. I sure that with this game we'd forget the horrors of Empire and Napoleon. But alas, that;s not what we got. This game was ultimately broken on release, and even now it still doesn't run as it should... The UI is terrible, the AI is somehow worse than previous games, and most of the factions 'unique' units are just re-skins of a basic skirmisher or whatever with slightly buffed stats. This game is probably the worst total war game of the lot, I could at least (maybe) see the appeal of Empire and Napoleon but there's no reason to play this over the original Rome total war, or any other total war, or even game for that matter. This is just garbage, and if you defend this game, you're a shameless fan boy.

    Seriously though where did the budget for this game go, it's a mess. It does not even compare with it's predecessors or games like Europa Universalis IV (which had a tiny budget by comparison.

    I guess they spent all the money on porn and top quality tissues.    … Expand
  79. Capshaw
    Nov 8, 2013
    3
    This game is wait and more wait. So much marching. Only did one mission and i was fed up. Great graphics, easy enough to play though. If you REALLY like strategy games, this probably is right up your ally. But for me it just became to boring.
  80. kvaroyaldo
    Nov 15, 2013
    2
    Rome 2 is quite nice to look at if you got a decent gaming rig. However, thats about it.
    I certainly do not play strategy games for their looks. Thats just a bonus for me.
    The issues with rome 2 are: -horrible ai -same ai mistakes since empire(sometimes the ai will attack your city, but they wont do anything, just stand still outside your walls) -bad ui -poor performance    Rome 2 is quite nice to look at if you got a decent gaming rig. However, thats about it.
    I certainly do not play strategy games for their looks. Thats just a bonus for me.

    The issues with rome 2 are:
    -horrible ai
    -same ai mistakes since empire(sometimes the ai will attack your city, but they wont do anything, just stand still outside your walls)
    -bad ui
    -poor performance
    -multiplayer is a gigantic letdown (co-op campaign, vs campaign and battles)
    -endgame/late game is just boring
    -the game is way too easy because the ai is quite passive(ive never run into some huge ai empire)

    I really really wanted to like this game. I really did. I even bought a friend another copy of the game so we could co-op the campaign. We have spent some 100+ hours on that bit, but we havent been able to finish it. We get desynched around 50 turns into the game. You can feel the game at that point is extremely slow. The save games stop working. All sorts of bugs ranging from ctd to bluescreenofdeath, all depending on which of the 2 of us click first when ai attacks us on the ai turn. have tried to start over 2 times, but with the same result. Unable to finish it because all sorts of bugs and glitches come around. Really painfull.
    Ive spent more time in co-op trying to get the game to work, than we have spent time actually playing it.
    The whole faction/political thing is just a realm divide. However you beat it quite easy. And from there on out it is a complete breeze. Making the last part of the game feel like a complete chore.

    Another thing which really annoys me is that some guy made a mod which basicly makes you able to play all the factions. They are all there, on your hdd. However Sega/CA seem to gone completely off the wall when it comes to dlc's. It leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.

    True, some mods do help. But you shouldnt rely on the community to fix your 60 dollar game. It should be working from the second you buy it.

    The 3 different types of agents have too similar actions. The ingame wiki is painfully slow.
    The agent/general upgrades window is a mess.

    This is an overpriced game which doesnt even come close to your expectations of a Total War game.
    And I am a huge fan of the series. I got every single of them bar shogun 1.
    A real shame. This could have been so good.    … Expand
  81. Serene86
    Nov 15, 2013
    4
    All I can say after forcing myself to play for 43 hours since release, it's not me. The game isn't fun. It looks great on my machine. It's just not fun. And I don't want to force myself to play a game I am not enjoying. Back to Minecraft until something good comes out.
  82. ApexPanda
    Dec 6, 2013
    5
    So I've played about 200+ turns and about 55 hours of play time into this game. Did CA up with the release? Yeah! BUT a lot of the problems you guys seem to have encountered have been fixed for the most part. And don't complain about a game this big crashing. All big games do when they first releases bad if you play any game enough it's bound to crash eventually. I got this game a fewSo I've played about 200+ turns and about 55 hours of play time into this game. Did CA up with the release? Yeah! BUT a lot of the problems you guys seem to have encountered have been fixed for the most part. And don't complain about a game this big crashing. All big games do when they first releases bad if you play any game enough it's bound to crash eventually. I got this game a few days ago and it seems like a lot of the issues are patched/fixed. But seriously! No family tree?! Wtf!?
    For content I give this game a 3/10
    For playability I give it a 8/10
    For CA/Sega being such and releasing this too soon without proper testing 1/10. Bad show    … Expand
  83. TWfreak
    Dec 16, 2013
    6
    Despite the somewhat nice graphics, the game has a lot of problems, like bugs and of course the goddamn 5yr old AI!
    As you may have guessed the problems are all caused by the quick release and the patches have made this game slightly more playable than at first
  84. rBose
    Feb 28, 2015
    0
    Decided to give it another try after almost 2 years in the "patching" process where they have sprayed numerous doses of huge "improvements" that actually aren't there.

    I played day1 and stopped immediately once I witnessed how **** up the game is, I think it was released as a **** alpha and I played the latest version a few days ago, fully patched, the only thing I could definitely    Decided to give it another try after almost 2 years in the "patching" process where they have sprayed numerous doses of huge "improvements" that actually aren't there.

    I played day1 and stopped immediately once I witnessed how **** up the game is, I think it was released as a **** alpha and I played the latest version a few days ago, fully patched, the only thing I could definitely notice was the huge fps improvement, other that this nothing seems fixed.

    The AI is like a miniature retarded puppet that twitches and freezes whenever you give him orders, there are thousands of pathfinding issues.

    Uninstall and find something else to fill your time with, this **** is not even worth pirating.    … Expand
  85. Lunaheal
    Apr 6, 2014
    0
    The game is completely broken.A lot of bugs.AI dead. Diplomacy is completely awful. Battle is worse than in Rome one. Music is 10 times worse than in Rome one.
  86. SmoothCriminal
    Apr 19, 2014
    0
    This game was the most disappointing and boring game in a long line of Creative Assembly disappointments It was not worth the £30 tag and I was galled I couldn't get a refund only recommendation however shrill would be to look up the previous game and play that instead . The much toted graphics and AI were poor and broken even on my gaming laptop this game was grudgingly drawn out and slowThis game was the most disappointing and boring game in a long line of Creative Assembly disappointments It was not worth the £30 tag and I was galled I couldn't get a refund only recommendation however shrill would be to look up the previous game and play that instead . The much toted graphics and AI were poor and broken even on my gaming laptop this game was grudgingly drawn out and slow this has to be the worst game I've played on PC, not in terms of its not Rome 1 ergo its bad, It was bad because it was slow, boring and too long like all the bad parts of Empire total war without the fun of any previous TW games. Its a shame because I looked forward for years for this (I was a child playing Rome 1 and a fan) and once again creative assembly disappointing and doesn't deliver.This however, is the straw that has broken my resolve I am no longer a fan of CA and when they release another TW I cannot say I will trust them to make it good or at least playable. P.S. this game was dismal and poorly optimized at best and the most nice thing I can say is that I don't know how they managed to release this without also releasing an apology as well 2nd P.S. I still cant believe they withheld so much content for a game so bareboned and sold it for a tenner the day after I bought 3rd P.S. (AND A WARNING OF GRAPHIC LANGUAGE) **** you Creative Assembly you traitorous thieving **** how dare you sully your name and my trust in you I'm going somewhere else for my conquering fix next time( you had a golden chance to rekindle my love for the TW franchise with this you could have just released a HD remake and wallowed in old ground nostalgically but no) tip for CA sometimes nostalgia is neither good or bad as a well for ideas it is just the ideas which are good and bad like, oh i don't know criminally retarded AI or picking on new ideas the food and happiness balancing act which... sigh I cant actually think of a worse idea in the entire total war series which is incredible its like this game can only be compared with the worst Nicholas Cage movie. Definitely the worst game I have ever played on anything I.e. I'm actually trying to think of something worse and I cannot so well done CA in that field you've made my jaw drop like you did for Rome 1 but for the exact opposite reason. 4th P.S. hahah so many of these but seriously I am a fan of TW and CA I've liked Rome, Medieval 2 but I am not completely blind I.e. I thought Empire started **** but got good later and the sort same for Shogun and Napoleon however this game really scares me because I cant believe how bad it is I cannot phrase it in words or letters. I can only say what has gone wrong here? and hope someone at CA will take notice I know this is constructive criticism however I want it to be destructive instead I don't think there is a way so save this game I just want CA to not make anything with the ideas from this game for It is all bad and irredeemable and should instead be a model for how we can fail for CA. ( CA stands for Creative Assembly and TW stands for the Total War franchise)… Expand
  87. cylian3
    Dec 8, 2014
    0
    Boy am I glad I didn't pay for this game. Despicable launch issues and disgusting day 1 DLC's aside, Rome 2 is a cancerous mess that took the overall excellent concept from Shogun 2 and fundamentally ruined it entirely. The AI is a bunch of dumb bricks, Tech trees are linear as all hell, generals and agents die every other week from "natural causes" leaving any real character developmentBoy am I glad I didn't pay for this game. Despicable launch issues and disgusting day 1 DLC's aside, Rome 2 is a cancerous mess that took the overall excellent concept from Shogun 2 and fundamentally ruined it entirely. The AI is a bunch of dumb bricks, Tech trees are linear as all hell, generals and agents die every other week from "natural causes" leaving any real character development to be absolutely pointless as the developers had to make the disgusting new "Family" features be used somehow, city expansion through warring is absolutely retarded as the game DEMANDS you need to rush-build culture and religious buildings to avoid, and I'm not kidding now, a whopping -75 to a -100 out of a possible +100 "Unhappiness" in cities you occupy as peacefully as possible. ON THE NORMAL DIFFICULTY LEVEL.

    To put it into a comparison, stacking a maximum sized grand army with the most hardiest of units lead by a fearsome general into a city's garrison will net you about 15-20 happiness. Build 2-3 very expensive buildings that help the population's happiness and you might bump that up into maybe the 30 mark.. Exempt the city from paying taxes and you got another 20. This still leaves you with a -50 city unhappiness and rebels WILL flood your gates. IT. IS. INSANE. I played as the Germanic barbarians, conquered 3 cities, rushed every singe stability & happiness building I had on all of them while specializing in construction (to make these happiness & stability buildings better), declared peace, lowered taxes to the minimum for about 30-45 years (turns) and I STILL HAD MASSIVE REBEL & SLAVE UPRISINGS EVERY YEAR.

    The new UI is a crystal clear example on why you shouldn't try to fix what ain't broken. The battle unit controls have been hamstered by making one M1 click be the command for units to get in a line (removing your ability to De-select all units as was commonly wanted in Shogun 2 while having Mouse button 2 + drag be that EXACT EXISTING COMMAND FROM THE PREVIOUS GAMES), they removed the convenient control ball you had on the bottom left where you could tell selected units to turn in unison, back away or more forward mere inches. While a bit confusing to beginners, it was FUNCTIONAL. What did they get to replace it? Calling this a replacement would be an overstatement since you can no longer do any real precise movements but what we got instead is an ball-busting charade of moronic and messy "Formations" that pretty much only adhere to all your units on the board at once. Flanking? Ambushes? Tactics? What's that?

    And don't even get me started on the camera. You have either the choice of watching from space with a telescope, being unable to see anything clearly or zoom in and have your nipples be plowing the ground and your nose stuck in a random soldier's armpit. While the camera in Shogun 2 was nowhere near perfect, this one makes a bad situation even worse as If you are all the way down on the ground, It will "Lock" itself onto there and require you to tell it to go up TWICE. Fail to do that over and over again flawlessly in the midst of battle and the camera will instead just change the angle of staring into a random armpit to a nearby sweaty blood-stained crotch of your fellow soldier because the developers thought It would be a good idea to leave the camera design to some random guy off the street with Alzheimer's sniffing paint.

    Moving past that, the AI diplomacy reminds me of whining children, constantly pestering you about wanting free money, military access, alliances and trade agreements every other 5 years. While not bad in itself as you can conquer them to make them shut up, IT CANNOT BE TURNED OFF OR AVOIDED IN ANY WAY DURING THE LOADING SCREENS. And If you conquer the annoying spammers, you'll get new borders with other spammers! An endless cycle of annoyance created as a place-holder for actual AI relationships due to lazy design.

    I could keep on pouring sewer on this game but I don't want to spill any on my shoes so I'll simply suggest everyone to avoid it.. Unless you enjoy swimming in feces.    … Expand
  88. metamoth
    Jul 11, 2014
    7
    I used to wonder why in spite of all the very good professional reviews there were so many criticisms and negative feedback from users. Then when I bought this game at a steam sale a couple of months back I realised why... cos they are all true. And yet... I've had an enjoyable 89 hours with this game thus far. There are many good things about it that perhaps is lost amidst the criticism.I used to wonder why in spite of all the very good professional reviews there were so many criticisms and negative feedback from users. Then when I bought this game at a steam sale a couple of months back I realised why... cos they are all true. And yet... I've had an enjoyable 89 hours with this game thus far. There are many good things about it that perhaps is lost amidst the criticism. The campaign map is a thing of beauty. It is the best in a TW game so far. The graphics, especially of towns and cities are very good if you have the right equipment to play at ultra settings. The field battles (not siege battles) are comparable to the best TW games. Diplomacy is definitely way more interesting than past TW games. If you are a fan of ancient history you will find much to like in R2 as it is populated with lots of ancient nations. The strategic situation is ever changing with public order, political intrigues and rebellions giving you something else to worry about apart from how to fight your enemies. Naval battles are some of the most enjoyable for me. Ramming ships just doesn't get old. Still the game is far from perfect as you can read from the negative reviews, but for me it is very fun to play. If CA finally makes siege battles challenging I'll be more than happy with this game.… Expand
  89. Groundducky
    Aug 28, 2014
    5
    I have been playing the Total War series since the original Shogun. Often with each game there has been at least to some extent a jump in features, graphics and gameplay as each new game has been released with so far the pinnacle of the series being Shogun 2. Rome 2 however has been a major disappointment. The gameplay trailers originally shown made the game look much better than theI have been playing the Total War series since the original Shogun. Often with each game there has been at least to some extent a jump in features, graphics and gameplay as each new game has been released with so far the pinnacle of the series being Shogun 2. Rome 2 however has been a major disappointment. The gameplay trailers originally shown made the game look much better than the version we have even now, even with mods. Everything was hyped about the content of the game, the graphics, that the game will actually perform well. Almost all of this turned out to be a total lie by CA with them taking ~14 patches just to get the game to a state that it should have been on release. But of course while they have been making the game playable they haven’t stopped giving us lovely DLC to buy from new units to mini campaigns.
    Many people point to Empire being the worst of the total war games but at least with Empire the game had the excuse of being the first Total war to be set in the gunpowder age. The mechanics in Rome 2 are not that different to the ones used in Shogun so I do not understand how they managed to get it all so wrong. Although I am now enjoying the game this is mainly due to mods I suppose on consolation is at least CA are supporting mods again.
    If it is your first Total War, get Shogun 2. If you loved Rome 1 just don’t buy this.    … Expand
  90. Tannumber17
    Oct 10, 2014
    0
    it's just a terrible terrible game. the AI is complete derp and when i tell my units to skirmish they hurr derp durr around until the enemy kills them. any time a give an order to a unit one or two guys will obey the order and the rest of the unit will derp looking at the cool things in between their toes until the enemy charges them from behind. I should be able to build walls around allit's just a terrible terrible game. the AI is complete derp and when i tell my units to skirmish they hurr derp durr around until the enemy kills them. any time a give an order to a unit one or two guys will obey the order and the rest of the unit will derp looking at the cool things in between their toes until the enemy charges them from behind. I should be able to build walls around all of my cities. i should be able to manage garrisons. if some enemy agent comes and flexes their muscles at my army the whole army can't move or reinforce the next turn; that literally makes zero sense, "our friends are dying 2 inches to the left but we can't help because of that guys muscles". this game is seriously embarrassing and CA should never be allowed to make another game ever again. literally the most frustrating game i have ever played. I will not be buying the next total war game.… Expand
  91. ttnordbo
    Feb 26, 2015
    0
    The total war series has dwindled and now they just pump new ones out with better grahpics and minimal additions otherwise. In fact, I much prefer playing medieval 2 total war these days, as its actually fun to play.
  92. Nogard123
    Nov 15, 2013
    1
    Go play Rome 1,it's a far better game then this.
    The AI was never very good in these games but in Rome 2 is just one big joke.
    Also the day one dlc leaves a bad taste and lets not talk about the horrible UI.

    I though it wasn't possible but this is even worse then Empire.
    So people,do not pre-order ....Ever and don't support these greedy weasels.
  93. Atr0s
    Jan 22, 2015
    2
    Every problem was brought up unchanged from the previous game and added up with new ones thanks for many half-tested features. While some of these problems have been fixed, like the complete absence of AI to deal with specific but regular situations (like sieges) the problems intrinsic to the engine still stand. All big fights devolve into 1v1 duels like in Shogun II (no single unit can beEvery problem was brought up unchanged from the previous game and added up with new ones thanks for many half-tested features. While some of these problems have been fixed, like the complete absence of AI to deal with specific but regular situations (like sieges) the problems intrinsic to the engine still stand. All big fights devolve into 1v1 duels like in Shogun II (no single unit can be attacked by more than one unit), making melee battles last than it reasonably should (even if it's one elite survivor against a whole mob). The battle mechanics also changed unreasonably from the previous Rome title, turning pikemen in phalanx from the previous unpassable wall to a murder machine to anything that dares a frontal assault and making some hybrid units only able to use ammunition when charging. The siege machines also have an absurd degree of precision for its time, particularly when using first-person mode (you can actually point the general location you want your projectile to land, unlike Shogun II on which you had to guess its trajectory based on angle and distance). The naval battles, the first big "improvement" to the series (marines, for the first time, can disembark and help in land battles), also suffer from the same problems as land battles during boarding (1v1 duels), boarding can't be disengaged under any circumstance and several glitches still plague it (jumping marines for example, on which your tripulation jumped off ship as a boarding action, only to inexplicably fly high and drown by landing on the sea). If it wasn't enough, the ONLY thing worthwhile about voice acting in this game is Mark Strong as the narrator as they didn't bother with the factions languages (not even making a fake eastern/greek/latin/celtic-esque accent) unlike the previous titles.

    All in all, it's a poor Total War game. Stick to the previous titles as they didn't have as many killjoy bugs as this one. CA is offering here a bad product as the graphics will be nowhere as good as trailers show (tons of videos on Youtube to show what this game really looks like on Ultra, with often hilarious results when zooming in the individual units) and most official reviews were done by people paid to put up a good word for the game or too lazy to actually research the previous titles and evaluate the overall improvement (or lack of).    … Expand
  94. SaintJames012
    Nov 4, 2013
    5
    Coming off of Shogun 2, the only word you can use to describe Rome II is utter disappointment. This game took out a lot of what made Shogun 2 so fun. There are bugs that cause it to become just an annoying PoS, and overall after about 10 hours you will stop having fun. the game feels more like a chore than a fun strategy. Family trees and rulers have become completely irrelevant and whenComing off of Shogun 2, the only word you can use to describe Rome II is utter disappointment. This game took out a lot of what made Shogun 2 so fun. There are bugs that cause it to become just an annoying PoS, and overall after about 10 hours you will stop having fun. the game feels more like a chore than a fun strategy. Family trees and rulers have become completely irrelevant and when one of your generals dies the game just spawns another one almost equal to what your last general's stats were. victory is too easy and battles seem to be rushed as I have run into epic battle of 1500+ armies win in 15 minutes flat. The only thing I think the game added that is useful is auto pilot. There is a move you can do in battles where you can tell specific units to attack an enemy unit, then that unit will be set on auto pilot and attack the unit you ordered, once the enemy is killed the auto pilot unit will then go and attack another enemy where it is needed. This is nice as it allows for you to set a couple units to autopilot and eases the burden of running a massive army in battle, as you can set some units to auto pilot then set them back to manual once you need them. Other than that Rome II is a major step back and not worth the $60 pricetag. Game is worth a $20 tag maybe, but beware, this game sucks. Go back to Shogun 2… Expand
  95. smeeeee
    May 27, 2014
    5
    Total War: Rome II was a bit of a disappointment, to say the least. The game lagged quite a lot on my computer, the epic battles Creative Assembly promised weren't all that great, and I found it hard to implement strategy when I could hardly figure out what the heck was going on. Plus, OP units like the Italian Noble Cavalry of the Etruscan League/Samnites are a) easy to get, b) probablyTotal War: Rome II was a bit of a disappointment, to say the least. The game lagged quite a lot on my computer, the epic battles Creative Assembly promised weren't all that great, and I found it hard to implement strategy when I could hardly figure out what the heck was going on. Plus, OP units like the Italian Noble Cavalry of the Etruscan League/Samnites are a) easy to get, b) probably the most powerful cavalry in the game.… Expand
  96. Slabsurfer1
    Jun 16, 2015
    0
    Anger... not something I have ever associated with an evening of gaming, but this particular title has raised such a wave of it in me that I feel compelled to warn all viewers of this post to stay the hell away from this game.
    if you still want this game you will need the following
    1- the worlds next supercomputer to load it in any kind of respectable time. 2- some monster of a graphics    Anger... not something I have ever associated with an evening of gaming, but this particular title has raised such a wave of it in me that I feel compelled to warn all viewers of this post to stay the hell away from this game.
    if you still want this game you will need the following
    1- the worlds next supercomputer to load it in any kind of respectable time.
    2- some monster of a graphics card, which still wont be enough.
    3- lightning fast Internet to download this massive file and all its patches.
    4- €$£ to pay for all the DLC (costs about as much as the game itself).
    5- a Metacritic account so u can join the rest of us in trying to dispel some of our fury at having been cheated out of what should have been a game of epic proportions.

    please don't waste money on this like i did    … Expand
  97. MariosGAte7
    Feb 17, 2020
    10
    Great game after all the updates.. My favourite dlc is wrath of sparta and is worth buying if you like ancient greeks and also if you download the mod HELLENIKA which is a mod absolutely for wrath of sparta you will experience the ancient greeks with many more units all of them historical accurate and a much better campaign ...Give it a try you wont regret it!!! Make sure to read theGreat game after all the updates.. My favourite dlc is wrath of sparta and is worth buying if you like ancient greeks and also if you download the mod HELLENIKA which is a mod absolutely for wrath of sparta you will experience the ancient greeks with many more units all of them historical accurate and a much better campaign ...Give it a try you wont regret it!!! Make sure to read the manual before playing if you download the mod..… Expand
  98. vanzi
    Oct 31, 2014
    7
    After all the patches that were released and the even better job of modders (DeI, Radious), the game is in a definitely playable state. Performance is A LOT better than it was on release. The AI is still pretty dumb though and I'm personally not a fan of some of the changes they've made to the game (especially the province system and army movement only with general). All that said, I'mAfter all the patches that were released and the even better job of modders (DeI, Radious), the game is in a definitely playable state. Performance is A LOT better than it was on release. The AI is still pretty dumb though and I'm personally not a fan of some of the changes they've made to the game (especially the province system and army movement only with general). All that said, I'm having a lot of fun playing with Divide et Impera and I've spent over 400 hours in game.… Expand
  99. Spedattack
    Mar 20, 2014
    5
    I have very much enjoyed the Total War series especially when I played Empire. However, I am really starting to get tired of the almost broken AI both on the Campaign and Battlefield. I have tried for months to give this game a chance to kick in, but it just isn't working. There are times that I enjoyed the game, but most of the time it was just frustrating at how difficult it is to playI have very much enjoyed the Total War series especially when I played Empire. However, I am really starting to get tired of the almost broken AI both on the Campaign and Battlefield. I have tried for months to give this game a chance to kick in, but it just isn't working. There are times that I enjoyed the game, but most of the time it was just frustrating at how difficult it is to play the campaign when the AI is so bad. The game definitely looks good, but it lacks the enjoyment of its predecessors. Creative Assembly needs to stop trying to add new features that aren't needed and fix the AI that has been a problem since the beginning of the series. There is no longer an excuse for the AI to be this terrible and I hope Creative Assembly has the sense to address these issues before adding new features.… Expand
  100. heime2003
    Nov 16, 2014
    2
    i didnt think creative assembly could messed it up cuz they are good develpers and has good record
    but it was slap to fans face. everything in this game is steps back from rome 1
    not to mention huge framemate problems, every moments u have to fight glitches, non responsiveness and bugs instead of units. even high end computers cant run this game on high setting without lag or    i didnt think creative assembly could messed it up cuz they are good develpers and has good record
    but it was slap to fans face. everything in this game is steps back from rome 1
    not to mention huge framemate problems, every moments u have to fight glitches, non responsiveness and bugs instead of units.
    even high end computers cant run this game on high setting without lag or stuttering. thinking the game looks not better than rome1 i wonder dev leave programming of the game to their interns
    biggest let down. luckily i didnt upgrade my com to play this which saved me $$$ and bitter disappointment    … Expand
Page:

Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 71 Critic Reviews

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