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. dementium
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    Such a huge disappointment!

    I was an avid fan of the TW series, having played every game since the first Shogun. Rome 2 is by far the worst TW game. Ok some TW games had awful AI at first, some had limited unit variety, some had very annoying bugs, broken mechanics etc. Rome 2 has all of these combined, and more! - Campaign AI is extremely inconsistent. It removes all its forces from    Such a huge disappointment!

    I was an avid fan of the TW series, having played every game since the first Shogun. Rome 2 is by far the worst TW game. Ok some TW games had awful AI at first, some had limited unit variety, some had very annoying bugs, broken mechanics etc. Rome 2 has all of these combined, and more!

    - Campaign AI is extremely inconsistent. It removes all its forces from its last remaining settlement. Then after I capture it, the pathetic guys start attacking my 2000-man army with 200 soldiers each turn. For some reason, noone, even friendly states/tribes accepts trade agreements, even though they will also benefit hugely from them.

    - If you autoresolve town defenses (against let's say rebel forces), there will always be some remaining soldiers in the enemy, which in turn will harass you again next turn. This forces you to play the boring battles in real time.

    - Optimization is non-existent. Loading times extremely long in some systems. Loads of graphical glitches etc. These will eventually get fixed with patches I guess. But I hate this approach when companies release unfinished games and the game gets completed 6 months later after 20 patches.

    - The most important part: HORRIBLE UI. Technology screen is a disaster, looks like a f2p ipad game. Skill selection screen is awful. Unit cards unintuitive and much more! The only explanation for this ridiculous UI is that they are planning to port the game to consoles in the future. RIP CA!

    - Battles are too fast. 10000 people battles are finished in 3-4 minutes. Tactics don't seem to be important anymore. Just blob your units and attack.

    - Navies are mostly unnecessary. Just move your armies onto sea and ram every ship you see with your army. Another cruel joke.

    I could go on but what's the point? It seems CA shifted their target audience towards more casual gamers, like many other companies in the recent years. Spending tons of money on marketing instead of finishing the game before releasing it. Bravo!

    Just a final note: I will never spend another cent on a CA game. Au revoir!    … Expand
  2. Woody0
    Sep 5, 2013
    6
    I had some graphic and FR problems but was expecting the game to be buggy at release as the other TW games. To save time for some of you I would not buy this game until 2014 when more patches are released and the modders get a chance to polish this game. Overall I found myself spending most my time hitting the end turn button. This game seems to have a tremendous amount of potential ofI had some graphic and FR problems but was expecting the game to be buggy at release as the other TW games. To save time for some of you I would not buy this game until 2014 when more patches are released and the modders get a chance to polish this game. Overall I found myself spending most my time hitting the end turn button. This game seems to have a tremendous amount of potential of being the best TW title yet. I'll go back to playing the older titles and check back 6 months down the road to see if the game becomes more challenging and fun to play.

    Likes:
    Graphics

    Dislikes:
    Battles:
    -Victory points in open battles( Flags you have to hold placed in non strategic points) makes strategic placement of forces, hiding and ambushing pointless.
    -BAI not defending walls but the victory point in middle of city
    - Too fast paced battles, the one full stack vs full stack battle I had lasted under 10 minutes, no time to maneuver or check out the awesome graphics, before my cav flanked battle was pretty much over, so no epic 30+ minute battles.
    -Super fast movement speeds for infantry and other foot troops, makes any tactical error easily fixed
    -Units have magic powers(easily fixed by just not using them, the AI needs all the help it can get)
    -Ran into path finding issues both AI and my units in several battles
    -AI blindly heading for victory points regardless of what is in the way
    -Lack of open field battles, AI seems to wait for me to attack a city, many times the AI moves there army away leaving only garrison forces and is content to do it even at their last city.
    CAI:
    -AI seems to prefer small stacks instead of combining into large army, I have seen 4 large armies in 10 hours of playing, only one of which was used against me
    -AI attacks multiple times with small stacks against overwhelming odds
    -Seems more passive against player and more active against non-player factions
    -I have not figured out how to get other factions to trade with me, the diplomacy they do with me is them making unreasonable demands
    -The whole family/political thing does not seem to effect game play, maybe playing longer it will make more of a difference
    -The one turn a year is back, Don't get attached to your generals, they are dead before you can do anything worth while with them. It seems you have about ten turns or less to use them.
    -I do miss the generals' speeches, family tree
    -I am not a big fan of the changes in the UI but did not factor it in with my rating.

    There are of course the bugs here and there but CA has a pretty good track record of patching their games as mentioned before I'll go back to the other TW titles and give CA and the modding community a chance to make this into the best Total War yet.    … Expand
  3. Syferot
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    list of disadvantages:
    1) terrible optimization.
    2 )awkward interface. 3) lack of strategy and tactics in battle because of the speed of units (cavalry barely escapes from slingers) 4) faceless generals and lack of family tree: ( 5) Commanders are dying like flies! 6) You can burn torches forged gate cities! 7) terribly stupid AI. 8) transport ships from the air (why do we need a    list of disadvantages:
    1) terrible optimization.
    2 )awkward interface.
    3) lack of strategy and tactics in battle because of the speed of units (cavalry barely escapes from slingers)
    4) faceless generals and lack of family tree: (
    5) Commanders are dying like flies!
    6) You can burn torches forged gate cities!
    7) terribly stupid AI.
    8) transport ships from the air (why do we need a fleet?)
    9) animation of the battle between the units into a landfill just dying soldiers. (in-game animation SHOGUN 2 fights between units was excellent, both for strategic games)
    10) even at the highest level of complexity can not think several moves ahead, it is enough to have a strong army...    … Expand
  4. atticuswiig
    Sep 9, 2013
    2
    With Rome: Total War being the game I've sunk most hours into ever, I was awaiting Total War: Rome 2 with great anticipation. This was going to be the game I would spend the long Norwegian winter-evenings with in the coming months, conquering Europe as romans, greeks, germans and parthians.

    I could go on for hours describing everyting that's wrong with TW:R2, but all I really need to    With Rome: Total War being the game I've sunk most hours into ever, I was awaiting Total War: Rome 2 with great anticipation. This was going to be the game I would spend the long Norwegian winter-evenings with in the coming months, conquering Europe as romans, greeks, germans and parthians.

    I could go on for hours describing everyting that's wrong with TW:R2, but all I really need to say is this: It broke my heart. Bugs and poor optimization can be fixed over time, but the core of this game is a soulless and halfhearted attempt to make Total War a more streamlined experience. There's no emotional connection, no reason to continue playing. All I feel is bitter disappointment at the thought of what could have been the greatest game ever.

    I wasted 10 hours with you, but now you're uninstalled and will stay that way until (hopefully) modders will be able to save you from the grave. Such a shame. So sad     … Expand
  5. Portos_89
    Sep 9, 2013
    2
    There are far many games worse than Rome II, but $60 for this is absolutely a travesty. Graphics not great, AI pretty retarded, user interface looks horrible and when playing you know that it's not worth even $30 so it makes the game that much worse. Everyone has said enough already, but don't buy this game now.
  6. bartd
    Sep 9, 2013
    4
    I waited for this game to long not to play it and all i have experienced is a huge disappointment!

    The only thing improved is soldiers behavior(they raise shields and fall on the knees s but apart from that it is rubbish... game looks like it`s not finished. i feel like playing Rome 1 again :) Creative Listen: This is strategy game! Focus on strategy than! AI ,unit    I waited for this game to long not to play it and all i have experienced is a huge disappointment!

    The only thing improved is soldiers behavior(they raise shields and fall on the knees s but apart from that it is rubbish...

    game looks like it`s not finished. i feel like playing Rome 1 again :)

    Creative Listen:

    This is strategy game! Focus on strategy than! AI ,unit "intelligence", diplomacy and battle! stop wasting your time on pointless birds, raindrops on the screen, grass and trees and other crap...

    by the way ships behave like bricks!

    i could go on but i think i have made my point!    … Expand
  7. Norsa
    Sep 9, 2013
    2
    I give this a 2 due to the work that has gone into improving the battlemaps the campaign map looks pretty.

    1: Campaign map, its pretty yes. But there is nothing to do here. They have taken out most features from previous titles so you are only left with upgrading buildings in your cities and running your army from siege to siege. Close to no open field battles. 2: The battles have    I give this a 2 due to the work that has gone into improving the battlemaps the campaign map looks pretty.

    1: Campaign map, its pretty yes. But there is nothing to do here. They have taken out most features from previous titles so you are only left with upgrading buildings in your cities and running your army from siege to siege. Close to no open field battles.

    2: The battles have been changed so you dont have to spend alot of time fighting, its fast paced and you just need to blob your units to win every engagment. A normal battle is like this: 5-6 minutes to march your army (unless you fast forward) With maybe 2-3 minutes of fighting. 1 unit vs 1 unit will often be over in 30 seconds or less (if you forget to activate the magic abilities introduced into this game for whatever reason)

    3: UI is bad. Minimalistic and without any soul or immersion factor at all.

    4: Unitcards are ugly and often confusing as they often do not convey the information you need at a glance.

    5: AI is among the worst of any totalwar to date. The ai is often passive, wont attack your cities. And in battle will often stand passive while you shoot them to death from afar. (espesially bad in walled city sieges.) Other times they will bumrush your victory location. That means run trhough your army without trying to fight thus getting slaughtered.

    6: No family tree (at the same time as they have a politics system where such a feature would fit greatly. At present the important chars die right away due to 1year per turn)

    7: No seasons (this fantasy world has eternal summer. Though sometimes snow magically appear in some battles)

    8: Multiplayer broken. Out of sync all the time crashes that corrupt the autosaves.

    9: No fun multiplayer features. The ladder has 0 soul compared with shogun 2.

    10: There are navies in the game that you build for war. But if one of them dares to come near, you can spawn a free transport fleet for your army and that transport fleet is then able to single handedly kill most fleets in the game (even if they are high tier warships)

    I could go on and on. The game is just boring, there is nothing to do but fight small battles (mostly in cities) A complete grind, and most features are dumbed down/streamlined/simplified. It becomes more clear why they have gone in this direction when you hear the empty suits talking over the possibility to port the game for next gen consoles.

    Totwal war has sold its soul and the game suffers greatly for it.    … Expand
  8. Liberalis1
    Sep 10, 2013
    4
    Cons: -Really bad AI.
    -Super fast battles (on average 3min...)
    -No family tree. -Broken siege battles. -All armies can magically transform into fleets. -Badly optimized game. -No unit numbers displayed on unit cards. -Campaign AI too weak. -Naval battles broken. -Flaming javelins wtf! (do they have lighters on them ?) -No role-play. -Generals acquire too quickly traits, and    Cons: -Really bad AI.
    -Super fast battles (on average 3min...)
    -No family tree.
    -Broken siege battles.
    -All armies can magically transform into fleets.
    -Badly optimized game.
    -No unit numbers displayed on unit cards.
    -Campaign AI too weak.
    -Naval battles broken.
    -Flaming javelins wtf! (do they have lighters on them ?)
    -No role-play.
    -Generals acquire too quickly traits, and always the same ones... (pain in the behind)
    -Too many in-battle special-options for units. (most are irrelevant)
    -Political systems are useless and badly integrated !!!!
    -Broken Multi-player Campaign.
    -Not enough open field battles.
    -Useless capture points that hinder the AI from having an actual battle.
    -No walls for non-capital cities.
    -Over-powered elephants.
    -Almost no cinematics (small in-game videos).
    -No historical event messages.
    -AI turns take forever.
    -Phalanxes not used by AI (or rarely) .
    -No out of the box 40 unit stacks on the campaign map.
    -Unclear trait/skill-tree.
    -Un-immersive music.
    -No battle speeches.
    -Impossible to build Colosseum & Circus Maximus in the same city...
    -Disappearing rebellions on the campaign map (slave revolts)
    -Marian reforms can be researched and acquired too early in the campaign.

    Pros: -Really big map and mostly well done.
    -Lots of units.
    -Lots of factions.
    -Very nice textures and details.
    -Being able to choose the generals bodyguard unit.
    -Province/region system.
    -Campaign User-Interface.
    -Diplomacy/resource maps.
    -War targets (when they work).    … Expand
  9. Jazios
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    Much like other fans I am disappointed in what should have been an amazing game based on what we experienced in Shogun 2.

    What we got is little more than an unfinished, streamlined mess that needs serious work before it can be considered worthy of the average players time and money. For the best experience with this game I highly recommend looking for fan mods that have already    Much like other fans I am disappointed in what should have been an amazing game based on what we experienced in Shogun 2.

    What we got is little more than an unfinished, streamlined mess that needs serious work before it can be considered worthy of the average players time and money.

    For the best experience with this game I highly recommend looking for fan mods that have already addressed the serious problems with the games AI and balancing. Said mods are the only reason I am giving this game a 2.    … Expand
  10. fox32145
    Sep 10, 2013
    1
    pure dump...ter I played over 10 hours, I will adjust my 10/10 to a 4/10. The AI is just too stupid, a donkey i a compliment to them! I can defeat 3 armys with 1 on legendery! The AI is killing the game.. Also, i have lag... while I can run all other newest games on ultra settings! I have to tune down alot
  11. thilinab
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    The most disappointing total war yet. Start with the performance issues (horrible frame rates, ending turns take a good 3-4 mins each if you're lucky, and load times are just as bad. All of it combined, its a good idea to have a tv or book near you to occupy the wait times) then graphical issues (texture pop-ins and tearing, missing or low quality textures), all of which will hopefullyThe most disappointing total war yet. Start with the performance issues (horrible frame rates, ending turns take a good 3-4 mins each if you're lucky, and load times are just as bad. All of it combined, its a good idea to have a tv or book near you to occupy the wait times) then graphical issues (texture pop-ins and tearing, missing or low quality textures), all of which will hopefully get patched in a reasonable time frame. The rest of the game is just a buggy with terrible AI (specially evident when the AI attempt to siege cities), a broken diplomacy system and awful navel combat just to name a few.
    The line of sight system is one of the few features that stand out as an improvement over previous total war titles. To even make this worth buying on sale would require a huge bug-fixing effort as well as an overhaul of the AI system.    … Expand
  12. Zkiller
    Sep 11, 2013
    0
    Unplayable trash at launch, even after the first patch it suffers from allot of bugs and really bad frame-rate issues. The final product does not compare to the footage we where given in a "Alpha state" which was MUCH better.

    I own a monster machine with x2 ATI radeon 6970 and Im running this on below 30 FPS on average
  13. theline1982
    Sep 11, 2013
    0
    Why a "0".
    -This is not a complete game, its nothing like the lead up made it out to be.
    -AI is completely broken therefore there is no single player experience. What's a game without a challenge, I mean why even bother. -Multi-player started de-syncing as early as turn 3 for a friend and I or freezing during battle. -Tutorial completely leaves out how family/senate works -Shogun 2    Why a "0".
    -This is not a complete game, its nothing like the lead up made it out to be.
    -AI is completely broken therefore there is no single player experience. What's a game without a challenge, I mean why even bother.
    -Multi-player started de-syncing as early as turn 3 for a friend and I or freezing during battle.
    -Tutorial completely leaves out how family/senate works
    -Shogun 2 was better and that's an earlier game
    -Game is in Beta condition basically, don't even know why they bother releasing complete games anymore, probably because they can get away with it. My list for pre-ordering games of publishers is becoming less and less.
    Recommend saving your cash for a steam sale hopefully there will be additions and fixes that make the game playable by then.    … Expand
  14. R80
    Sep 13, 2013
    0
    I played all main Total War titles and some, though not all expansions. And I expected this game to be if not better, than at least equal to the previous Total War games. I was wrong.

    This game is Rome: TOTAL FAILURE. I don't even know how to start writing about what's wrong with this game, because I the truth is: almost EVERYTHING. - the AI is horrible- not just stupid, but    I played all main Total War titles and some, though not all expansions. And I expected this game to be if not better, than at least equal to the previous Total War games. I was wrong.

    This game is Rome: TOTAL FAILURE.

    I don't even know how to start writing about what's wrong with this game, because I the truth is: almost EVERYTHING.

    - the AI is horrible- not just stupid, but actually malfunctioning. Armies sometimes stand motionlessly under missile fire, untill they get routed due to casualties.

    - the UI and graphics feel heavy and unpleasant simply looking at them feels bad somehow

    - framerate is strangely low, compared to the framerate on the same computer for shogun 2. But the graphics do not look better, they actually look worse.

    - overall, this game simply lack PLAYABILITY. I mean the factor that made previous Total War games pleasurable to play. Rome Total War 2 doesn't have it "playing it feels like a job, like a burden.    … Expand
  15. Backslider
    Oct 5, 2013
    4
    A gutted and souless excuse of a Total War game. It's pretty, and introduces a couple interesting mechanics, but that's where it ends. A mountain of well loved and/or classic Total War features have been inexplicably amputated from this gimpy game. Family trees, seasons, loose formation, agent cutscenes, epic general speeches, all of these and more are gone.
    Despite boasting a huge unit    A gutted and souless excuse of a Total War game. It's pretty, and introduces a couple interesting mechanics, but that's where it ends. A mountain of well loved and/or classic Total War features have been inexplicably amputated from this gimpy game. Family trees, seasons, loose formation, agent cutscenes, epic general speeches, all of these and more are gone.
    Despite boasting a huge unit count, the units feel bland, and therefore so do the factions. 200 reskinned units of spearmen with identical stats do not an interesting unit roster make. Combat feels arcadey; battles are over in a couple minutes, with units flying across the battle field while making liberal use of magical cooldown-based abilities click, click, click click. It feels more like Dance Dance Revolution than Total War.
    The AI is terrible, but will likely be patched. But what of all the other things that are wrong with the game? Time will not fix their horrible design decisions, and AI tweaks won't bring back all the gutted content. Don't waste your money on this game. If you want CA to make a good TW game, they have to know when they've made a mistake.    … Expand
  16. Druganov
    Dec 11, 2013
    1
    After 2 hours of playing i returned this game. poor graphics, dumbed down, no decent economy/management, horrible AI, crazy system requirements. this is an abomination compared to the original
  17. Raynys
    Sep 4, 2013
    0
    Disappointed, just disappointed! Confusing interface, graphics embarrassing. This game is full of bugs, slow and does not exceed 10 fps even at low resolution. Misleading advertising with full audio support for the Italian language that does not exist! Total failure.
  18. isleman
    Sep 4, 2013
    4
    If you haven't bought the game yet, I recommend holding off until the worst bugs and AI have been fixed. I would wait at least 2-3 months before the game becomes truly playable.
  19. StepYourGameUp
    Sep 4, 2013
    2
    Simply frustrating to have paid $79.95 USD, which ended up being closer to $90.00 AUD! For a product that had made a lot of promises but did NOT deliver on most of them, feels like a beta.
    Performance optimisation is a joke.
    Battlefield Siege AI is seldom smarter than playing against a 6 year old. Campaign map UI is sloppy and counter productive for mouse input. Texture quality is sub    Simply frustrating to have paid $79.95 USD, which ended up being closer to $90.00 AUD! For a product that had made a lot of promises but did NOT deliver on most of them, feels like a beta.
    Performance optimisation is a joke.
    Battlefield Siege AI is seldom smarter than playing against a 6 year old.
    Campaign map UI is sloppy and counter productive for mouse input.
    Texture quality is sub par even on maximum setting. General graphical fidelity is WAY below what was shown.
    ABOVE ALL.. the game crashes on most people systems, broken product essentially.
    Thanks for charging me almost $100 to be a beta tester CA!    … Expand
  20. KickingMo
    Sep 6, 2013
    5
    Horrible. Gameplay is extremely dumbed down, lack of family tree in campaign is obvious mistake and the greatest disapointment is the lack of online modes. Also, removing walls from cities is a horrible idea.
  21. rogerxing0318
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    I'm pretty sure this game is unplayable, I don't understand how the critic reviews are so high, are they getting bribed or something??
    the game should be a pre-alpha.
  22. calmon
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    AI is for me an absolute showstopper.

    There is NO challenge for me in Mid/Lategame. AI is not able to handle the game.

    Rome 2 official Reviewers should take more time testing a game. They should test not just the early steps because when the game go on the problems start poping up all over.
  23. HelterSkelter
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Quote:"Rome II is a testament to all that is great about PC gaming and should be a must buy for all its followers"

    Thoughts:" NO THAT IS A FREAKIN LIE!!!"

    I just cant understand what this game has done to all my hopes and expectations maybe it was hyped too much but still Rome 2 goes back 2 steps in the franchise where Shogun was 2 steps ahead.

    I cannot believe the professional review score ..still it might be a good/ok game it DOES NOT deserve a    … Expand
  24. I_love_CA
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    It's quite funny how CA games are more bugged with every new release, while modders get less and less opportunity to make these alphas playable. Hilarious.

    But no problem people will still buy pre-orders, otherwise they will be given more castrated product, aka "buy it now or we don't give you 3 factions, LUDICROUS.
  25. Azazl187
    Sep 12, 2013
    2
    No No No No NO! The game performs poorly on a 780 GTX, the AI is completely stupid. The release looks nothing like the Marketing screen shots and movies. CA were clearly on drugs when they sat down and made the developer vids.

    Most infuriating of all, I paid for an unfinished, rushed, unpolished game. What the hell are the industry reviewers talking about as well! 80!!! more like 40    No No No No NO! The game performs poorly on a 780 GTX, the AI is completely stupid. The release looks nothing like the Marketing screen shots and movies. CA were clearly on drugs when they sat down and made the developer vids.

    Most infuriating of all, I paid for an unfinished, rushed, unpolished game. What the hell are the industry reviewers talking about as well! 80!!! more like 40 my friends. If you have read this than read the user reviews, not the industry ones as they have clearly not played the game at all!    … Expand
  26. Coolz
    Sep 12, 2013
    1
    the only good thing about this Total War game is the campaing map size and the number of factions. Rest of the game has taken major steps back. No more family tree, AI is horrible on all aspects, open field battles have capture points, navy has lost it's meaning and moving armies is way too easy, cities are dumbed down and they no longer feel like cities, most battles are sillythe only good thing about this Total War game is the campaing map size and the number of factions. Rest of the game has taken major steps back. No more family tree, AI is horrible on all aspects, open field battles have capture points, navy has lost it's meaning and moving armies is way too easy, cities are dumbed down and they no longer feel like cities, most battles are silly "city-battles" (not sieges really), politics they promised are the most offensive slap into the fans' faces, units are now dumbed down so bad that no unit feels special, battles take less than 5 mins and have lost all epic feeling, diplomacy is meaningless, all provinces feel even more the same than before, agents and generals die too fast and you have no connection with any of them... I could go on with this but I think you get the idea.

    This game is made for the dumb casual players who play the game for 50 hours and then move to the next game. There's no more any dept in this game, no epic feeling and it's so mainstreamed that I almost feel anger towards the devs who made this pile of crap. But then again all companies have their serious flops and this is one of them. Now their only hope is marketing to get this game sold, not the actual game.    … Expand
  27. lastrambo
    Sep 12, 2013
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. HUGE bugs that can be fixed with patches but some key features like the random capture point on the battlefield or the stupid long wait in coop campaign make it barely enjoyable. As someone who played all the total war games and has spent about 2000 hours playing these games i fell like this game is the worst of them.

    I cant even enjoy the battles because of the brain dead AI and the steamroll strategy which consist in making all your units charge and winning instantly even at legendary difficulty because there is no unit collision and they all stack and attack at the same time.

    The diplomacy is broken right now because the AI will never take into consideration your military power when negotiating with you for some reason. The navy is useless cause you don't need it cause your armies can fight in the water like if it was a fleet and 80% of the battles are siege battles WHEN THEY SAID IT WAS A WEAK POINT IN SHOGUN AND THEY WERE GOING TO CORRECT IT FOR R2TW. Seriously i don't know what kind of illegal substances they took when they made the game.    … Expand
  28. mehican
    Sep 16, 2013
    0
    I was very excited for this game, and expected the very best from CA, however what I got was a bad, unfinished and dumbed down game. The main issue I found during the first couple of days was how horrible the AI is, and being a primarily single player game I had expected a more appropriate AI skill, besides the fact that my fairly new upgraded pc had some performance issues.There are justI was very excited for this game, and expected the very best from CA, however what I got was a bad, unfinished and dumbed down game. The main issue I found during the first couple of days was how horrible the AI is, and being a primarily single player game I had expected a more appropriate AI skill, besides the fact that my fairly new upgraded pc had some performance issues.There are just far too many issues and I highly recommend you wait or simply not buy this.… Expand
  29. jm007
    Sep 18, 2013
    3
    The game AI is awful. The numerous bugs and unfinished features are a real kick in the backside of people who expected more from this development team. Even worse are these people (so called gaming sites) giving the game high ratings. Do we really condone unfinished products like Rome 2? Don't reward them with high marks on what a game can be as opposed to what it should be?
  30. dasjefe
    Sep 18, 2013
    0
    Sega and CA are at it again. Wait a year and buy R2 for 20 bucks. It might be fixed by then, but it probably still won't be as good as previous Total War titles. The franchise is going the wrong direction. Things are getting dumbed down and the hardware, stability, and AI issues are worse than ever.
  31. Securion
    Sep 24, 2013
    2
    Very buggy AI (Unit AI is so bad its destroying the game right now) and not much to do in the game. Got bored very fast.
    Also, VERY expensive DLC that gives you basicly nothing. Feels like a rip-off.
  32. Quforic
    Sep 25, 2013
    3
    Constantly crashes, ugly graphical tears and poor shadows on both the campaign and battle views, All the units look nearly the same, have pretty much identical stats, and have similar unit icons.

    After 3 patches from Creative Assembly its still broken, still buggy, and still and huge pile of dog **** Thanks for shows us alpha shots that looks 10x better than the finished product,    Constantly crashes, ugly graphical tears and poor shadows on both the campaign and battle views, All the units look nearly the same, have pretty much identical stats, and have similar unit icons.

    After 3 patches from Creative Assembly its still broken, still buggy, and still and huge pile of dog ****

    Thanks for shows us alpha shots that looks 10x better than the finished product, and thanks for lying through your teeth all through development.    … Expand
  33. Demagogue
    Sep 11, 2013
    1
    1000s of hours playing total war games from shogun 1. This has topped the disgrace of empire total war release by a hundred fold. AI so poor, buggy and crashed, unoptimised performance. No chance for a refund this is an alpha build scam Buy in 6 months to a year and dont be scammed.
  34. GerbilTracker
    Sep 4, 2013
    2
    It gets a 2 because I could get it to run, and it didn't crash...although the game looks terrible...with everything minimized and on low, i still watch as the game drops to bellow 10 FPS during benchmarking (wherein I got my first achievement...Play 1 hour of Rome II...yeah, I received it while benchmarking just to try and play the game at an FPS that wouldn't make my eyes hurt and bleed).It gets a 2 because I could get it to run, and it didn't crash...although the game looks terrible...with everything minimized and on low, i still watch as the game drops to bellow 10 FPS during benchmarking (wherein I got my first achievement...Play 1 hour of Rome II...yeah, I received it while benchmarking just to try and play the game at an FPS that wouldn't make my eyes hurt and bleed). They said this game would be optimized for high and low end machines. Blatant lie. The AI is hilarious...and by hilarious i mean silly and very non-threatening. I think this game actually took a step back from Rome I in that department...and also yes, I am a guy who created a metacritic account just so I could express my absolute disappointment in this game and Creative Assembly. With a system WELL above the recommended specs, I have never had so many problems getting a game to work properly....and I do mean ever. I own every other total war game except for Napoleon, and I am a huge fan of Shogun(1 and 2) as well as Medieval and Rome 1. This absolute piece of beta crap is inexcusable. I am one of the most forgiving gamers you could meet, but this garbage needs to end. First and last time I will ever be suckered into buying a game via pre-order, and fat chance I will support Creative again until they change this pathetic business practice. Many of us are to blame as well...if you pre-ordered like I did, its sad to say that we have become part of the problem....we are rewarding poor business practices by doing this (Thanks to TotalBiscuit for helping me to see that light). To those that read this, Rome II is yet another warning bell. We, as the gamer community, should down right REFUSE to pre-order anything. Period. Rome II is a GREAT example of why, and unless we hit them were it counts, they will continue this arrogant, terrible behavior...all the while patting themselves on the back on the way to the bank while throwing in-game dress up clothes at us to try and satisfy the anger of being lied to and having our trust abused. Thanks to any for reading.… Expand
  35. Kypdurron11
    Sep 4, 2013
    1
    General Cap= bad idea
    Victory Point= You can win or lose battles just by avoiding people and sitting on random parts of the map...
    Confusing UI= I can handle a abundance of UI I've played wow with enough add-ons to fill the screen. This how ever was amazingly un-intuitive, confusing and just unpolished Lag ridden=I complete my move in campaign and spend the next 5 minutes waiting on AI    General Cap= bad idea
    Victory Point= You can win or lose battles just by avoiding people and sitting on random parts of the map...
    Confusing UI= I can handle a abundance of UI I've played wow with enough add-ons to fill the screen. This how ever was amazingly un-intuitive, confusing and just unpolished
    Lag ridden=I complete my move in campaign and spend the next 5 minutes waiting on AI so I can play again
    Overall Uninspired performance from this company, truly sad    … Expand
  36. Bonsaimancer
    Sep 4, 2013
    2
    A great example, why it´s more worth to be a pirate having paid for this game made me just feel really bitter. I´ve played for 24 h and it really isn´t working properly.

    Diplomacy isn´t working well (as always in TW), soldiers are VERY VERY stupid I hate it how the horses tend to return to fight the spear-men head on even if I order them for the 10th time to withdraw. Also capturing    A great example, why it´s more worth to be a pirate having paid for this game made me just feel really bitter. I´ve played for 24 h and it really isn´t working properly.

    Diplomacy isn´t working well (as always in TW), soldiers are VERY VERY stupid I hate it how the horses tend to return to fight the spear-men head on even if I order them for the 10th time to withdraw. Also capturing routing enemies is compared to Shogun simply broken it´s more like a Terry Fox run with your pals to the borders and eventually someone dies in the process. I can´t see whether my units are tired, can´t see detailed information about their status and mood, general unit is compared to Shogun quite useless. All together the fights are simply BAD I played Shogun campaign a week ago and EVERYTHING was better there....WTH is that supposed to be CA?!

    AI sucks generally, graphics are worse than Shogun 2 and performance is much worse also on the tactical map. Loading times between turns take forever and enemies tend to attack You even if their chances aren´t even visible at the strength bar. The more I write the more problems I suddenly realise...I could carry on like that for an hour, but I´ll rather summarize it in one sentence....

    Please, DON´T BUY THE GAME, because they don´t deserve Your money....at least not now     … Expand
  37. Code18red
    Sep 9, 2013
    2
    55 hours of gameplay mostly on legendary difficulty prior to reviewing.

    The good: 1.Graphics are amazing with latest patch and beta graphic drivers on extreme settings and run smooth as silk on 2 6990 running in crossfire if I had reviewed it prior to that they would have got a 1 2. I like what they did with the spies, diplomats and champions, that side of the game seems well thought    55 hours of gameplay mostly on legendary difficulty prior to reviewing.

    The good:
    1.Graphics are amazing with latest patch and beta graphic drivers on extreme settings and run smooth as silk on 2 6990 running in crossfire if I had reviewed it prior to that they would have got a 1
    2. I like what they did with the spies, diplomats and champions, that side of the game seems well thought out and purposeful

    The bad:
    1. The AI is bad on the campaign map: they don't ambush but sometimes fortify when absolutely decimated and will just let you waltz all over their territory without even a hum on legendary
    2. Diplomacy is terrible: good luck trying to secure trade agreements without a mountain of gold, never take a vassal state ever as they are consistently more of a hindrance than helpful.
    3. Anything to do with slaves is broken, they cause way too much unrest and I actively try to kill off armies outside of cities so I have a chance to loot a city without taking too many slaves. I really want an option to loot cities with releasing/killing captives. Having too many slaves will cause slave revolts which don't reduce slave population so the negative unrest per turn stays the same and causes perpetual endless slave revolting.
    4. The entire political system seems tacked on and not finished. No family trees, no marriage except to bring a political rival into your fold and no offspring. Taking political office with any faction other than rome is next to useless as its impossible to accumulate enough gravitas to get anything other than the base bonus.
    5. Ship battles are really really horrible, to be auto resolved with stacks of doom or preferably avoided at all costs. Tons of glitches, for example tiny ships without rams ramming my huge ships and sinking them.
    6. The factions all seem to be the same unit wise and get very similar 'unique' units
    7. Slingers are better all round than even mid tier bowmen and it makes me so damn sad.

    I will attempt to update this review as the game gets patched but for anyone thinking of buying it... Wait for a sale, maybe it'll be patched by then.    … Expand
  38. Cainga
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    I feel Rome 2 is a very poor total war title. I am doing this because reading these forums I feel like many people are content with the game. I personally find that hard to believe. I have played every game in the total war series for anyone who is wondering what I am comparing it too.

    The game has a few pros/features that I think are excellent additions: 1. The new top down birds eye    I feel Rome 2 is a very poor total war title. I am doing this because reading these forums I feel like many people are content with the game. I personally find that hard to believe. I have played every game in the total war series for anyone who is wondering what I am comparing it too.

    The game has a few pros/features that I think are excellent additions:
    1. The new top down birds eye view accessed via the tab key. This is a great idea for managing large battles.
    2. The region concept on the campaign map where multiple cities give you control of a region. This is a brilliant addition and adds depth and complexity to the game.

    Now for the cons, sadly this is a much longer list.
    1. No seasons, these have been in every total war game and add depth ad complexity to the game. Attacking in the wrong season has serious consequences. There is absolutely no good reason to remove this long standing feature.
    2. VASTLY reduced options regarding defense on the campaign map. Spending your precious resources on walls and towers was always something to balance with the rest of your empires needs but it paid huge dividends when your town came under siege. Now some cities have walls some don't and regardless you cant modify them.
    3. Generals skill trees/abilities: In previous installments in the Total War Series generals who had won many battles had numerous perks and skills that were sometimes quite unique. Losing a veteran was a huge deal as it would be a long time indeed before you had another commander that was his equal. Rome 2's generals all follow the same skill set and come and go so easily its like they are another regular unit card. There is no need to care about them.
    4. Family/Clan management is basically non existent now. Where it was once a deep and involved part of the game.
    5. Agents no longer have cutsceens. While not a vital part of the game by any means, every previous iteration of the game had this and they added to your immersion.
    6. The encyclopedia is now bare bones containing minimal information and no historical references. All the previous Total War games included a substantial amount of history about a unit or advance. Really added to the games depth.
    7. The AI is poor and borderline incapable of doing its job. I at least believe this can and will be patched.
    8. The battles are over in a few minutes. No more epic battles here just 5 minutes, 10 if you are lucky and things will be decided. Why the sudden shift in the scope of battles?

    In summary I believe that all the technical bugs will be fixed in the coming months. The problem I see is that several reason why Rome 2 is a poor game boils down to features that were intentionally removed. I doubt they will be addressing anything like this in the patches. Thus in the end we are left with a hollow "Rome Lite" when we should of had their best work to date. Am I missing something here is this really the game the rest of you were looking for? Or are you as disappointed as I am?    … Expand
  39. Efix484
    Sep 9, 2013
    4
    Horrible UI.
    AI is brain dead
    Poorly optimized. Navy is useless (Normal troops can spawn magical boats) No more guard button. Units don't fight in formation (Phalanx have to brake to attack etc) Stupid magical powers (flaming javelins etc) Arcadey useless effects (Glowing light on everything) Unit card that covers half my screen. (5 times bigger then shogun) Awful and useless    Horrible UI.
    AI is brain dead
    Poorly optimized.
    Navy is useless (Normal troops can spawn magical boats)
    No more guard button.
    Units don't fight in formation (Phalanx have to brake to attack etc)
    Stupid magical powers (flaming javelins etc)
    Arcadey useless effects (Glowing light on everything)
    Unit card that covers half my screen. (5 times bigger then shogun)
    Awful and useless generals and agents 3D models (Really awful)
    Civil war is pointless (Both choice mean nothing no color beam sry)
    1 year turn, no point caring for generals they die way to fast
    No more seasons
    and again
    Horrible UI
    Horrible UI
    Horrible UI
    Horrible UI    … Expand
  40. sarrow
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    For new players, if you can deal with illogical menus, horrid ai, imbalanced units, confusing unit cards, a perplexing government system, combined with a severe lack of in-game help (despite the encyclopedia and numerous tips options), not to mention the terrible optimisation, glitches and bugs there's something for you to enjoy here.

    For total war vets, guys, just wait for the modders    For new players, if you can deal with illogical menus, horrid ai, imbalanced units, confusing unit cards, a perplexing government system, combined with a severe lack of in-game help (despite the encyclopedia and numerous tips options), not to mention the terrible optimisation, glitches and bugs there's something for you to enjoy here.

    For total war vets, guys, just wait for the modders to fix the game. It will ruin years of fond memories and make you cry real man tears.    … Expand
  41. Sogin
    Sep 11, 2013
    3
    BS to all of the critic reviews.

    The game is disappointing and not finished. CA rushed the game and its still basically a beta. The AI and UI are terrible, which makes no sense because TA games are all pretty similar in their battle mechanics so why would the battle AI be worse... The load times and graphics are also worse then any other TA game. Good things are, the map is huge and the    BS to all of the critic reviews.

    The game is disappointing and not finished. CA rushed the game and its still basically a beta. The AI and UI are terrible, which makes no sense because TA games are all pretty similar in their battle mechanics so why would the battle AI be worse... The load times and graphics are also worse then any other TA game. Good things are, the map is huge and the campaign UI is good. I like how you raise troops in the army instead of a town and I like the province system.

    DO NOT BUY until they finish the game.

    If you want a good and true review please watch Angry Joe's review.    … Expand
  42. Huberto
    Sep 13, 2013
    1
    Hugely misguided effort, which tries to be Starcraft or maybe a commercial sellout but is just a boring pointless game. It also happens to be bug riddled with terrible AI and has numerous unfinished features to boot. Buyer beware. This is the strategy turd of the year!!!
  43. CommissarPetrov
    Sep 13, 2013
    2
    Disclaimer for my review:

    I created a Metacritic account simply to write a review. I have never reviewed a game before, but due to my love for the series and my utter disappointment I went through all the damned hoops to do this. I am copy/pasting my request for a refund from Steam Support, but feel that others should read it as well and interact with this review as they see fit.    Disclaimer for my review:

    I created a Metacritic account simply to write a review. I have never reviewed a game before, but due to my love for the series and my utter disappointment I went through all the damned hoops to do this.

    I am copy/pasting my request for a refund from Steam Support, but feel that others should read it as well and interact with this review as they see fit.

    Hello Steam Support,

    First of all let me apologize for not putting "Rome 2: Total War" into the Product line of the ticket, as I was unable to find it [only found Rome: Total War and didn't want to add undue confusion].

    I, among many, preordered the new Rome Total War 2 game from the Creative Assembly. As I'm sure you're aware the reception to the game has been less than positive. I feel it prudent to state that I have been a Total War fan since Medieval: Total War and have purchased and played every single game, expansion, and DLC for these games since that release.

    Shogun 2 was a masterpiece (I played over 800 hours). It was engaging, taught me a level of discipline and patience I never knew I had, and made me appreciate a culture previously foreign to me (as did all of the other previous games). The game was solid and defined, smooth, and fostered a gaming community of unparalleled cooperation.

    Rome 2: Total War, however, is a disgrace. The Creative Assembly, no doubt influenced by Sega, has pushed out a "game" that experiences critical errors, but, more importantly for me, has misrepresented itself and its product. As a stout capitalist I believe it is my duty as the consumer to humbly request a refund of this product. I will happily pay for the overhead fee I incurred while downloading the game through your relay. I additionally vow to keep the $60.00 I spent within the gaming ecosystem as a whole and will use this money to reward games and expansions that accurately represent and deliver their product (Xcom: Enemy Within, DLC for DOW Retribution, and Space Hulk). I believe it is our responsibility, mine as the consumer whose voice exists solely through the power of the dollar, and yours as the the most powerful and reliable relay in the U.S. (probably the world), to keep this issue from recurring and poisoning the digital PC game ecosystem that I know you have spent so much time protecting and promoting.

    While I admit this is a most humble plea, please know that I have never requested a refund from any product on Steam before, that I love the Total War franchise more than any other, and that I could not live my life knowing I had rewarded the sloppy mess that is Rome Total War 2.

    Rome Total War 2 is NOT the product that was advertised. We cannot reward the delivery or sustainability of this product.

    This is the most powerful message that I can send to make my voice heard as the consumer and therefore I leave this impassioned request with the sincerest plea to allow me to redistribute my investment within our beloved gaming community to games and companies that accelerate our gaming experience, not retard it.

    Humblest regards,

    Commissar Petrov    … Expand
  44. MuttleyGrouch
    Sep 16, 2013
    1
    I can see a game in there, unfortunately its a game that is only part way through development. Two striking points about Rome 2 first, game companies clearly have weighed up the market and decided they can release in pretty much any state, and the consumer base will take it. This game shouldn't be through beta testing let alone released into a commercial marketplace I struggle to thinkI can see a game in there, unfortunately its a game that is only part way through development. Two striking points about Rome 2 first, game companies clearly have weighed up the market and decided they can release in pretty much any state, and the consumer base will take it. This game shouldn't be through beta testing let alone released into a commercial marketplace I struggle to think of any other commodity that you could get away with this sort of treatment of the customer. Second, this really shows up the reviewers whose opinions are worthless. I hope that there is some sort of club where game reviewers meet and currently the ones who think this is a 80-100 game are being made to pay some sort of forfeit for either being an idiot, or just making it up without playing it. Hopefully their editors will be taking note.… Expand
  45. marksmanjake
    Sep 25, 2013
    4
    Well it's obviously the worst launch Creative Assembly has ever made. The bugs, glitches, horrific AI and crashes destroy the game. If you take away all those errors, the core game itself is pretty bare bones. Compared to the excellent Shogun 2, so many features have been stripped out and nothing has been done to improve nagging issues like the stubborn diplomacy system and campaign mapWell it's obviously the worst launch Creative Assembly has ever made. The bugs, glitches, horrific AI and crashes destroy the game. If you take away all those errors, the core game itself is pretty bare bones. Compared to the excellent Shogun 2, so many features have been stripped out and nothing has been done to improve nagging issues like the stubborn diplomacy system and campaign map and battle AI. It's too easy to win even on legendary. I don't understand how this can be the biggest budget Total War and yet it feels so lackluster and broken. Based on the metacritic score, the reviewers must have played this thing for like an hour. I pray they're not moving to the console.… Expand
  46. Point_Break
    Nov 25, 2013
    2
    So as an avid total war fan I was foolish enough to fall for the hype and pre-order this game.
    Bottom line I wish I never played through half a campaign before realizing I had just wasted $60 of hard earned cash for a complete wreck of a game.
    I'll start with the good points of the game, as they really aren't many. 1: Some interesting new units. 2: The maps are alright and you    So as an avid total war fan I was foolish enough to fall for the hype and pre-order this game.
    Bottom line I wish I never played through half a campaign before realizing I had just wasted $60 of hard earned cash for a complete wreck of a game.

    I'll start with the good points of the game, as they really aren't many.

    1: Some interesting new units.

    2: The maps are alright and you can now fight on the streets in cities, kinda cool.

    3: A ton of interesting and diverse factions.

    4: Naval combat is improved by the fact that you can now move troops directly to sea and they will man their own ships. no need to pack you largest boats with a army that can't help in a fight)

    5: The new diplomatic system now lets you pick targets for your allies to focus on.

    Now everything I just mentioned is undone and completely inconsequential because of various issues.

    To clarify...
    1: All units types and differences are almost completely aesthetic, almost all units have the same stats with little to no variety. Also when armies meet to engage they are just two blobs bouncing off each other, charge bonus', and line penetration are a joke. In a fight the majority of your forces are just standing there waiting for the thin veil of active troops blandly work their way through the the opposing armies equally dull force.

    2: The maps now include capture points which pretty much ruins the AI's priorities, making city fights kind of a joke, and quite frankly broken.

    3: Again due to the units being so similar in stats across the board faction type is again purely cosmetic.

    4: naval combats is simply not fun, the AI for instance had tons of issues, for example AI controlled ships often get stuck on shore unable to unload their troops. Also when fighting in open waters they have poor AI and ship boarding almost always fails, morale breaks at sea way too easy and most battle play out feeling wrong or broken.

    5: The new diplomatic system isn't so bad but still seems lacking, causes AI to act to recklessly, and quite frankly teh whole system feels inconsequential.

    Now onto some more bad...
    6: Graphic wise this game is a total let down and they frankly lied to us with early in game footage during pre-release. IDK how lying to your customers is excusable in this day and age.

    7: Performance wise it's terrible, poorly optimized at release is understatement. I don't think computers that can handle this game even exist yet, well in the average home at least.

    8: PvP is worse than ever due to the similar and bland unit types, poor mechanics of actual fights, by that I mean your armies are just blobs of ugly little lifeless robots bouncing off each other. despite the weak differences in unit types they some how managed to sneak is some OP units, mostly on the Roman side, that further spoil any fun to be had.

    The one thing that wasn't a wreck was the Audio, it's pretty good, they added a lot of color to the troops with some context sensitive dialogue.

    I heard they fixed a lot of the AI issues and they have improved the time it takes to wait for the AI's turn to finish.
    Still I am so disappointed I never want to see this game again, wish I could get my money back, but I won't.
    So I am forced to tell others how this game is an absolute travesty and Creative Arts are no longer a respectable company deserving of our money, well mine at least.

    Shogun 2 was last good thing Creative Arts did, I will try to remember that, still I feel cheated and robbed by them now, months later.    … Expand
  47. peattehgreat
    Dec 9, 2013
    0
    This game is absolutely and undeniably broken to its very core. I have a very good computer so it is not my fault that this game doesn't work. The campaign freezes my computer after every turn and has left resorting to the historical battles and skirmishes. I can't believe they released this game in the state that it is in. I know that PC games need a few weeks to patch themselves up fromThis game is absolutely and undeniably broken to its very core. I have a very good computer so it is not my fault that this game doesn't work. The campaign freezes my computer after every turn and has left resorting to the historical battles and skirmishes. I can't believe they released this game in the state that it is in. I know that PC games need a few weeks to patch themselves up from their initial problems but this is off the fudging grid! I despise the makers of this game who pretend and lie to us that this works fine for the majority because it doesn't. Steam and Total War forums confirm this idea by the thousands of people who still encounter major problems from Ai faults to freezes. I hope that anyone who reads this who is unsure on whether to buy the game or not to check in with Meta-critic every few weeks to see if the green review bar can even see the red review bar way out in front of it. I shouldn't have bought this game and neither should anyone else until its properly fixed. The developers lied to us and we won't forget it.… Expand
  48. post_no_bills
    Dec 24, 2013
    4
    Games should be fun. This game isn't.

    The game is a poorly designed, tedious grind, with all the fun of filling out your tax forms. Hugely disappointing. They would have been MUCH better off just re-skinning Shogun 2. Every single feature of this game is worse than Shogun 2, without exception.
  49. Dasein808
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    ET TU, CA?! (Total War for consoles)**

    I was going to hold my tongue, but after having a reply to a CA forum post deleted and the thread locked, I figured why not take it to an uncensored forum? Many players of the TW series have commented on the seemingly unintuitive design decisions that separate this most recent iteration from its predecessors': - the removal of the family     ET TU, CA?! (Total War for consoles)**

    I was going to hold my tongue, but after having a reply to a CA forum post deleted and the thread locked, I figured why not take it to an uncensored forum?

    Many players of the TW series have commented on the seemingly unintuitive design decisions that separate this most recent iteration from its predecessors':

    - the removal of the family tree
    - the removal of series defining formations/stances (loose/guard)
    - preventing individual unit campaign map movement without a general
    - oversized unit cards
    - shorter battles compared to previous versions

    Why fix what is not broken?

    These are not elements that taxed PCs' resources, but they might strain a next generation console's APU and limited RAM.

    Removing or modifying these things does nothing to streamline the game for PCs, but it would likely help ease the burden imposed by a console port (i.e. fewer stances/formations to better accommodate controller play, larger unit cards for easier TV viewing, short battles for shorter attention spans, less individual army micromanagement through movement limitations, etc.).

    CA has remained cagey with regard to their intentions on whether or not they plan to try and port it; to the point that the moderator that deleted my reply and locked the thread ("Rome 2 is designed for next gen consoles") responded with:

    "No plans for any of this right now.

    Thread closed."

    Attentive readers will recognize that everything about this statement hinges on the word, "now."

    Combined with the speed with which my reply was deleted and the thread locked, as some form of preemptive damage control, I'd say that all but answers the questions as to why this game is so watered down in ways that don't make sense; that's assuming that you can even play and don't have the technical issues that seem to have plagued a lot of people.

    Thankfully, I have not had problems running the game, but it still feels off; like a game designed with intention of console porting.

    Et tu, CA?!

    You guys used to make amazing games that pushed boundaries and represented the epic potential of the PC.

    I'll happily eat my words if this turns out not to be the case, but the signs are all there.    … Expand
  50. BigLuvin
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    The game has potential but is unplayable atm to those of us who have played any game of the TW series in the past. AI sucks and fighting is blob vs blob. No guard formation to hold a line? Really??? The main reason I can't play this game in its current state is the fact that I can't play an open field battle without playing capture the flag. Want to have one of those epic battles whereThe game has potential but is unplayable atm to those of us who have played any game of the TW series in the past. AI sucks and fighting is blob vs blob. No guard formation to hold a line? Really??? The main reason I can't play this game in its current state is the fact that I can't play an open field battle without playing capture the flag. Want to have one of those epic battles where you are outnumbered and have to use the terrain to your advantage to fight off an aggressive AI? Too bad because it is capture the flag and you will lose if you camp a hilltop. This kills any possibility of engaging a larger army at all unless you are pretty closely matched. RUINS THE CAMPAIGN. Jesus this is what made TW so much fun in the past. My first battle with land and naval units, my boats came in and started doing donuts at 100mph and wouldn't stop. One even clipped through the land about 200 yards inland. WTF??? This game is unplayable right now and it will probably be 6 months to a year before it is made right if it ever is. It's a sad sad day for TW fans because I have been looking forward to this game since at least 2006. CA always f's something up at release but I just don't know if this game can be fixed by patches given the inherent flaws in the game play. I hope I am wrong.… Expand
  51. ProfessionalGuy
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    Worst AI of the hole Total War series! Its completely destroys the single player and coop.
    including game breaking bugs which doesnt make it better.
    Broken net code with lots of de sync and bugs!
    bad unit and faction balance!
    overall its a mess
  52. lukinhaz23
    Sep 5, 2013
    4
    My god, what a huge disappointment. AI is broken, UI didn't help, loading times take too long and the campaign is way too easy. I was very hyped for the naval battles, but the AI ruined it(i hope they fix this), i was not challenged not a single time in this game, not a single time. The battles tactics does not exist, all you have to do is select your entire army and right click theMy god, what a huge disappointment. AI is broken, UI didn't help, loading times take too long and the campaign is way too easy. I was very hyped for the naval battles, but the AI ruined it(i hope they fix this), i was not challenged not a single time in this game, not a single time. The battles tactics does not exist, all you have to do is select your entire army and right click the enemy's army and you win. Please CA, respect your hardcore fans and forget the rest of the audience. You lost who you was, shame. Not to mention the technical problems.… Expand
  53. Kellax
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    First, I love the Total War series. TW is a testament to the endurance of the RTS genre, and to the loyal fan base. With that being said, this game is terrible.

    I started having issues with TW: Shogun 2 (CTD) for no apparent reason, and it's still unplayable due to the seemingly unfixable CTD problems. Rome: 2 is starting down this same path. I haven't been able to play it more than 15    First, I love the Total War series. TW is a testament to the endurance of the RTS genre, and to the loyal fan base. With that being said, this game is terrible.

    I started having issues with TW: Shogun 2 (CTD) for no apparent reason, and it's still unplayable due to the seemingly unfixable CTD problems. Rome: 2 is starting down this same path. I haven't been able to play it more than 15 minutes without it crashing, so I'm putting it down until that's fixed.

    The game isn't too confusing, however, the UI is poorly designed; I think the devs forgot they were making the game for other people. And they forgot that not everyone has the ability to purchase a top of the line Alienware PC.

    Maybe all of these negative comments will have an impact on CAs approach to this game, but I seriously doubt it.    … Expand
  54. Person012345
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    To summarize but a few faults of the game: Awful UI, confusing campaign map that leaves me wondering "why?", broken mechanics (such as overpowered transports), huge turn times and worst of all unengaging tactical battles that leave little room for tactics. It has a bunch of technical issues as well but those might get solved. The game has sacrificed the TW soul and I don't feel compelledTo summarize but a few faults of the game: Awful UI, confusing campaign map that leaves me wondering "why?", broken mechanics (such as overpowered transports), huge turn times and worst of all unengaging tactical battles that leave little room for tactics. It has a bunch of technical issues as well but those might get solved. The game has sacrificed the TW soul and I don't feel compelled to play it. Playing it for any period of time leaves me feeling empty.

    I wouldn't say that it was a "bad" game per se. Maybe those who are new to the series or not expecting greatness may enjoy it. But it doesn't -feel- like a total war game and I can't recommend it to anyone who is looking for a true successor to Rome.    … Expand
  55. ChromeRun
    Dec 28, 2014
    9
    This game has definitely improved to a point to which now it can be considered playable and also fun. I would recommend the game in its current stage.
  56. angry_player
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    Its rushed, crappy game of 2013. They abused the title and did a lot marketing brainwash to make some quick money and us off with crappy game. If they polished it and released maybe next year, it would have been a decent game, but as of now its just rubbish. Totally not 2013 standards.
  57. nitetrax
    Sep 14, 2013
    5
    Over hyped and under delivered, day 1 DLC for some of the most interesting factions (preorder or pay additional $8 to play as Sparta? F that), bugs, lag, glitches, and crashes (even on a friend's computer running a GTX 780), no seasons like in Shogun 2 leaves the campaign map looking very static, you don't feel an attachment to your generals as they come and go like drops of water during aOver hyped and under delivered, day 1 DLC for some of the most interesting factions (preorder or pay additional $8 to play as Sparta? F that), bugs, lag, glitches, and crashes (even on a friend's computer running a GTX 780), no seasons like in Shogun 2 leaves the campaign map looking very static, you don't feel an attachment to your generals as they come and go like drops of water during a rain, units just magically generate their own transport ships which can defeat actual navy warships in a fight (needed to use autoresolve to fix this), none of the "mechanistic, meat-grinder" combat that CA promised because melees (even between highly disciplined troops like Romans or Greeks) devolve into blobs as units break formation and cohesion, AI is absolutely retarded (will charge archers and slingers into your spearmen, will suicide rush map objectives such as flag capture and have entire force annihilated, etc.), immersion-breaking graphical effects (such as red skies, warped faces or textures), horribly inefficient UI (unit info, overlays, financial/economic information, etc), ridiculously long AI turn times (even if you turn "show AI movements" off, because there's too many factions and even the shortest move takes a second for each faction)

    This is not only a clearly unfinished game, it has fundamental problems with its mechanics which may doom it forever. These would take too long to describe here. The campaign map mechanics make the game less fun to play, while battle and campaign AI completely ruin everything.

    I have always loved Total War games since I play the first Medieval Total War back in 2002. Rome 2 is, in my opinion, the worst launch and worst game (so far) in the Total War series, and I'm not convinced it will improve, as there are fundamental "unfun" mechanics that cannot just easily be patched, altered, or modded

    This is a 5/10 game when judged after playing all the other Total War games that came out before it. When the bugs, glitches, and lag are fixed, this may be a 6/10 game...to people who've never played a Total War game, it may even be 7/10. If you are new to strategy, wait several months or until an expansion to give this a go. If you are a long-term, hardcore Total War fan...this is a far greater disappointment than Empire, and I recommend skipping it completely unless the fundamental gameplay mechanics are reworked (not to mention AI, blob-like zero-unit-cohesion combat, AI, etc.)    … Expand
  58. Gil8ert
    Sep 11, 2013
    6
    I've put in about 30 hours so far, so I think that's enough for an initial review.

    Given the complexity of the game mechanics, I'm more than willing to forgive the bugs it must be one hell of a mission to debug this game! But I have played all the TW games except the first Shogun so I'm definitely a veteran. Firstly, the campaign map is unforgivable in it's playability. I have an    I've put in about 30 hours so far, so I think that's enough for an initial review.

    Given the complexity of the game mechanics, I'm more than willing to forgive the bugs it must be one hell of a mission to debug this game! But I have played all the TW games except the first Shogun so I'm definitely a veteran.

    Firstly, the campaign map is unforgivable in it's playability. I have an Alienware laptop that is only 2 years old, and it was happy handling the Shogun 2 Campaign map. Rome II is not happy at all, even with the fog of war covering most of the map. I'm talking low frame rates, which I find inexplicable. There is nothing going on in the campaign map which is significantly more complex than Medieval II, and yet it takes up many times the processing power simply to run the graphics. The graphics aren't as important as the game. Go all the way back to Medieval and you'll find a quality game still, even though it looks a lot less graphically resplendent.
    Tied in with this is the number of factions available. It wouldn't be so much of a problem if they each didn't take at least 2 seconds to process their moves. With about 50 factions available that's at least 2 minutes to wait for the end of a turn. Couple that with the horrible campaign map frame rate and the campaign side of the game is woefully slow, with the key word here being 'unnecessarily.' Now I understand better systems will cost me less time but as I meet the minimum spec to play the game, I would expect the game to run properly on minimum spec. If you bought Battlefield 3 with a minimum spec machine, then you'd expect 30fps. If the game only ran at 15fps, you'd soon be questioning where the hell they pulled their 'minimum spec' requirements from!
    Next, the management of towns has changed. It looks as though they've tried to dumb down the complexity of the management but have managed instead to make your understanding of how to manage your province impenetrable. They did explain on their forum that they were trying to avoid the amass and conquer style tactics usually employed in the other games, but I personally find this new management style to be horrible. Very little flexibility in managing your towns, very little idea of how to split your building types effectively.
    Then you have the army units themselves. You now need a general in order to have an army and the number of generals is limited by the number of towns you own. This means if you raced in to conquer a town and won, and wanted to move all your archers west to another battle you would have to take that entire army west, drop the archers off and then bring your army back. This is HORRIBLE! And totally unrealistic, which isn't necessarily a hard hitting criticism of a computer game but as they've prided themselves on their realism so far I think it holds strong.
    You no longer need to build fleets to move your army, just walk your army through a port and onto the sea and suddenly they're all in boats. Why? It's a horrible idea.
    The battles themselves are pretty similar to previous titles and so can be a lot of fun. But there is some proper dodgy AI going on in them.
    So all in all, rather disappointing. I really, really enjoyed Shogun II, and the follow up Fall of the Samurai. I can't recommend Rome II to anyone. The changes they've made are for the worse, and it does feel like another dumbing down exercise like with Diablo 3 or Company of Heroes 2. I'm quite sure that pretty soon every game will involve just 1 button to mash repeatedly. After all, that'll be the entire market covered. It strikes me weird that anyone would even attempt to dumb down Total War. The specs to get it running mean only geeks will be playing it anyway.

    I'm not going to shout at CA, I'm not going to get angry. I'm just disappointed. And anyone who's messed up their school year know that is by far the most devastating comment you can get.    … Expand
  59. Matty92
    Sep 25, 2013
    1
    Very disappointed with this game fan of all total war games but even after patches this is still a bad game doesn't have the full total war fell just going from settlement to settlement attacking not very many land battles and when you do get one you end up in massive mosh pit for 1 or 2 min top. The old Rome was ten time the game this is.
  60. Smoothpie
    Sep 11, 2013
    2
    This game is not worth buying in it's current state (at release). It's horrible, and it makes me so sad that I have to say this because I'm a huge Total War fan. I've got all of the Total War games and this one is by far the worst one. I think that this game has huge potential, but right now it's a horrible mess of a game. I would this game to anyone in it's current state.
  61. outrider23
    Sep 11, 2013
    3
    Poor to say the least. If the glitches and frame rate issues were resolved it would be a good game for sure. However even if these issues were resolved Total War is dumbing itself down to become more "mainstream" just look at the campaign and the limited choices you can make. This game in its current state with glitches and slow frame rate is unplayable. Very disappointing would be how IPoor to say the least. If the glitches and frame rate issues were resolved it would be a good game for sure. However even if these issues were resolved Total War is dumbing itself down to become more "mainstream" just look at the campaign and the limited choices you can make. This game in its current state with glitches and slow frame rate is unplayable. Very disappointing would be how I would describe this game. I recommend to go and purchase Saints Row 4 to get over this shocking game.… Expand
  62. braggfatt
    Sep 13, 2013
    1
    AI terrible
    Bad management of the faction are not present: family tree, princesses, merchants etc etc...)
    Armies must be recruited IN THE CITY
    I would like to move armies even without general
    City ​​management too simple
    Unit cards no comment...
    Battles? duration 5-10 minutes. My army 5-10 casualties,at worst 50-60. Enemy army 2000-3000
    .....
    thanks Sega and Creative assembly!
  63. Mattyo
    Sep 13, 2013
    4
    I wanted to like this game, I really did, but there are just too many issues so I'm going to hold off until it's patched to a point where the game is fun. However by then I'm going to guess that it will be on sale and I will have been ripped of by CA and Sega by buying a broken game on day one. So the lesson learned is wait for the steam sale when you get the game not only cheaper butI wanted to like this game, I really did, but there are just too many issues so I'm going to hold off until it's patched to a point where the game is fun. However by then I'm going to guess that it will be on sale and I will have been ripped of by CA and Sega by buying a broken game on day one. So the lesson learned is wait for the steam sale when you get the game not only cheaper but working better.

    On a positive note there is a lot to like about this game which is why I'm giving it 4/10 instead of 1/10 as it's not all doom and gloom. The visuals are pretty decent and new additions such as army history (rather than it all tied to a general who dies with all his upgrades) is fantastic.

    The biggest bug-bear for me though is I'm writing this review nearly 2 weeks after release and there's still no sign of SLI support. I want to be a PC enthusiast gamer but it's made difficult for me when you have releases like this. So I'll see what's on sale this weekend on Steam and pick up a game I know will work from being patched and have an SLI profile. Suppose that's the system you have to work with which sucks for the developers but they only have themselves to blame if they're going to release unfinished games.

    And I know there's a ridiculous amount of combinations for PCs but it's not like this is hasn't existed with PCs for like, forever.    … Expand
  64. Pesti
    Sep 13, 2013
    2
    The bugs oh the bugs... At least they can be fixed with patches in the future. But there is a much larger problem with this game. it brings nothing new to the table. Even worse it actually removed a lot of the new features that shogun 2 implemented. Gone are the nice and easily accessible tech/talent trees. Now replaced with color clots of various degrees of helpfulness. But that is by noThe bugs oh the bugs... At least they can be fixed with patches in the future. But there is a much larger problem with this game. it brings nothing new to the table. Even worse it actually removed a lot of the new features that shogun 2 implemented. Gone are the nice and easily accessible tech/talent trees. Now replaced with color clots of various degrees of helpfulness. But that is by no means the only or most disheartening problem. The game has been streamlined to the point where you can't feel any of the old magic that the old games had. Even total war empire had some charm, even if that charm was full of nasty diseases that you would not wish upon your own mortal enemies. Right from the start you can feel that there is something wrong, something that does not sit right.

    That is the feeling i am left with after playing the game. That the game is just wrong, that there is no magic, no charm, no nothing it is not just a normal run of the mill strategy game. So for my part i will be heading back to shogun 2. A game that actually has something to offer in the way of actual game play.    … Expand
  65. Slapshot
    Sep 15, 2013
    3
    After playing the game for over 20 hours I have come to the conclusion that this game obviously is suffering from a very poor release. I am not alone in my complaints of the many bugs, AI problems and graphics issues but my biggest problem is that I simply do not like or agree with many of the fundamental changes that have been made to the game itself.

    - Control points in battles. To me    After playing the game for over 20 hours I have come to the conclusion that this game obviously is suffering from a very poor release. I am not alone in my complaints of the many bugs, AI problems and graphics issues but my biggest problem is that I simply do not like or agree with many of the fundamental changes that have been made to the game itself.

    - Control points in battles. To me this was just an awful idea. In battle an objective should be an objective because it is important to secure victory on the map. What is important should be up to the general to decide. Not something the game holds your hand and tells you is important "just because". Not only are these points not usually placed in strategic areas but I can not justify why the control of them would win or loose a battle outside of a siege or open city fight. It is a tool that oversimplifies battles.

    - UI. I find the UI to be cumbersome and leaves mostly everything hidden away inside of the encyclopedia. It makes dealing with the changes to the campaign mode that much harder to figure out.

    - Characters. I honestly feel no connection to any of my generals. For one there is no coherent or dynamic way of viewing them. For the most part the family and political system is meaningless in it's current state and appears like it was never fully realized.

    - Lack of formations in battle. Units do not maintain any semblance of formation once they engage the enemy. It makes things confusing and is completely unrealistic to see certain units behave this way. At one point I felt compelled to play a barbarian faction just so it would feel somewhat realistic when my men abandoned any form of discipline and ran about hitting things. The good news is that you can usually win without much effort on your part anyway as I found myself coming out of battles victorious when at the ground level I had really lost any idea of what my confused ill disciplined troops were actually doing.    … Expand
  66. Lemonadrian
    Sep 15, 2013
    3
    Where did the 40% larger budget go? Marketing?

    At it's core, there is a good game in here, however it was so rushed and unpolished that it is left nigh unplayable. The developers were too ambitious in terms of scope and scale, yet attempted to streamline key aspects to meaninglessness. Yes the map is larger and there are now hundreds of factions and units, but what's the point when the    Where did the 40% larger budget go? Marketing?

    At it's core, there is a good game in here, however it was so rushed and unpolished that it is left nigh unplayable. The developers were too ambitious in terms of scope and scale, yet attempted to streamline key aspects to meaninglessness. Yes the map is larger and there are now hundreds of factions and units, but what's the point when the factions slow down the turn rate horrifically, the units are just renamed clones and the map is stuck on summer with a horrid yellow/red pissfilter. The battle interface is a clunky mess, a huge step back from every other game in the series, and the AI was dropped on it's head too many times in development. The entire game has an interface that would be more appropriate on a console, which is worrying. The frequent crashes, bugs and general design flaws are infuriating.

    Go play Shogun 2 for a few months til this stillbirth of a game is patched, modded and fixed into something resemble a true Total War game. Even then, I doubt CA and SEGA will learn from this.    … Expand
  67. odintsaq
    Sep 20, 2013
    1
    After 30 hours in Rome 2 Total Waste I felt obliged to express my Total Disappointment with this long awaited game.

    I will not repeat the complaints about the state of the game (AI, UI, Family Tree etc.), instead I will make some simple observations: After getting sick of the dismal display of BAI I autoresolve everything. The same applies to the naval battles with the added bonus    After 30 hours in Rome 2 Total Waste I felt obliged to express my Total Disappointment with this long awaited game.

    I will not repeat the complaints about the state of the game (AI, UI, Family Tree etc.), instead I will make some simple observations:

    After getting sick of the dismal display of BAI I autoresolve everything.
    The same applies to the naval battles with the added bonus of not being able to properly control the ships.

    98% of the battles are sieges. The other 2% is because I was lucky to have found the AI on the road.

    How is it possible for me to start a war and then at the same turn the AI says "It's ok mate! Let's make peace!!!" when I send him a peace treaty?

    Why every faction looks and plays the same? I loved Rome 1 and Medieval 2 for their varied way of waging war.

    Capture the flag was funny in Battlefield 1942 and we had a great time with my friends. Especially when one of my teammates crashed a plane on the other team, so we could get in and capture the flag unmolested. Capture the flag is OK for action games, not RTS battles with historic precision (another lie this one).

    Warhammer and W40K magical abilities for the units are in line with that game's world. The ancient civilizations didn't have anything like that. At all.

    Ships were build. Not hocus pocushed on the shore.

    The bugs, CTDs and similar glitches don't bother me at all. Even the low quality graphics. I am a player for 25 years now. I started playing when the pixels where the size of my hand on screen, so it doesn't matter. But my 1500 dollar machine should be at least be able to run smoothly. All I get is way too low FpS and sudden lags in the game. And not even at the highest settings possible.

    Finally as an afterthought I won't only blame SEGA and CA for this low quality, buggy, broken and boring game. I will blame me for preordering. I made the same mistake with Dragon Age 2. Now I know that I'm on the right path Kickstarting Games that I really like.

    The score is calculated from the following:

    Replay Value: 1/10
    Graphics: 4/10
    Sound: 3/10
    Gameplay: 1/10
    Value/Money: 1/10    … Expand
  68. Man_o_War
    Sep 20, 2013
    3
    Awful Release.

    Dumbed down beyond recognition from other TW titles.
    Magic ships and magic abilities. An epic map that can be opened up in no time.
    No politics, no families, no seasons.

    No Good.
  69. Nanoflux
    Sep 22, 2013
    0
    There's just so much wrong with this game.

    They are but not limited to; poor fps; poor AI; poor battle UI; badly designed unit cards; bad colouring on campaign map; unrealistic looking water; not enough trading ships (historically inaccurate); no ability to improve roads; unrealistic diplomacy (also incredibly limited); no ability to create a personalised city; no guard button; no fire    There's just so much wrong with this game.

    They are but not limited to; poor fps; poor AI; poor battle UI; badly designed unit cards; bad colouring on campaign map; unrealistic looking water; not enough trading ships (historically inaccurate); no ability to improve roads; unrealistic diplomacy (also incredibly limited); no ability to create a personalised city; no guard button; no fire at will button; unnecessarily complicated ship controls; poor animations regarding triremes; slingers sling lightning; city sniping; poor diplomacy; protectorates fail to declare war; fog of war is completely unrealistic; trade centres only on the capital; no intercity trade via land; no intercity trade via water (except the capital); huge territories; not enough cities; poor technology tree; clunky campaign UI; bad textures; limitation of the number of armies; the inability to separate armies; no ports; no recruitment tab; no construction tab; no easily accessible finance info; family structures make no sense; no internal politics; hoplite incorrectly use spears; historically inaccurate units; 'heroes' wtf; turns last 1 year (which is ridiculous given how far units travel; magic powers; historically inaccurate states; AI is worse than Rome 1.

    Save yourself some money and get Rome 1 and mod it.

    Loved the opportunity to spend £30 to alpha test this bull.    … Expand
  70. theoander
    Sep 25, 2013
    0
    This game was clearly unfinished for release. A huge number of players were/are having technical issues regardless of computer specs. Many of the best pc's out there, with the biggest most expensive graphics cards are experiencing horrendous, unplayable fps problems. The AI is broken, many features do not work correctly, multiplayer has consistent game breaking problems (desync) ect. ThisThis game was clearly unfinished for release. A huge number of players were/are having technical issues regardless of computer specs. Many of the best pc's out there, with the biggest most expensive graphics cards are experiencing horrendous, unplayable fps problems. The AI is broken, many features do not work correctly, multiplayer has consistent game breaking problems (desync) ect. This was a terrible release.

    Eventually those things may get fixed.

    Equally problematic is the design approach taken. The game developer was qouted as saying his goal was to achieve a score of 90+ on metacritic, and that features were removed if they didnt meet that benchmark. So what we have, is a game designed to get good reviews within 10-20 hours of play. Not a game designed for the fans, the people who actually purchase the game.

    This is another dud in the TW series, reminiscent of Empire on its release.

    Do not buy!    … Expand
  71. bappy29
    Sep 26, 2013
    0
    Like most others have stated, this is an extremely sad release of an expensive long-awaited game. I have a 3rd generation, i7 PC system, and the game still lags and otherwise feels unfinished. The AI can be frustratingly stupid and irritating, while the game mechanic is unbelievably and poorly executed.. This game is Not worthy of being called a Total War title!!!

    Sega and Creative    Like most others have stated, this is an extremely sad release of an expensive long-awaited game. I have a 3rd generation, i7 PC system, and the game still lags and otherwise feels unfinished. The AI can be frustratingly stupid and irritating, while the game mechanic is unbelievably and poorly executed.. This game is Not worthy of being called a Total War title!!!

    Sega and Creative Assembly should have work on this game another 2 or 3 months and release it over Christmas holiday, instead of rush-launching in September, and letting the current purchasers be beta-testing the game. for them. For those who have yet to buy the game: wait for it to go half-price and purchase it after Christmas 2013. This game is not yet playable (and definitely not enjoyable) in its current state.    … Expand
  72. Godwin
    Dec 1, 2013
    0
    Where to start? I can summarise by saying this game is woeful, 5/10 would be the score I would give it had it been a new ip. However due to Rome 2 being in a long line of total war games most of which were great, in particular Rome 1, and due to the developers downright lying through production and even upon release I feel it deserves punishing.
  73. Mattjf09
    Dec 3, 2013
    0
    DONT BUY THIS GAME. Yes, I know you've been waiting years for this and its on sale during the holidays. Don't waste your money. The game is broken. It crashes on the prolouge 10 minutes into the game when youre forced to hire a spy. it took me a couple of crashes before i figured out i have to hire a spy in another city to avoid crashing.

    PLAY SHOGUN 2 or the other total wars. Playing    DONT BUY THIS GAME. Yes, I know you've been waiting years for this and its on sale during the holidays. Don't waste your money. The game is broken. It crashes on the prolouge 10 minutes into the game when youre forced to hire a spy. it took me a couple of crashes before i figured out i have to hire a spy in another city to avoid crashing.

    PLAY SHOGUN 2 or the other total wars. Playing this game will not satisfy you at all. There is no strategy. you click attack and watch them blob up as the first line of men dies the next moves up. missle infantry always fire from a certain distance, there is no button to move all forces forward like there was on the other total wars, IT CRASHES MULTIPLE TIMES DURING LOADING. Other total wars crashed once or twice during the years I've been playing.

    The developers marketed the "cool" unit perspectives. Its not cool, its useless. The tactical view doesnt work bc their is no strategy required to win. PLEASE HED OUR WARNINGS.

    I waited a couple of months before I purchased Rome 2 bc I thought the bugs would be fixed. I was soo wrong. It seems like they havent even began fixing major problems with the game.    … Expand
  74. Asharel
    Dec 17, 2013
    2
    One would think professional reviewers would sink some more hours into a game before giving it 7 or 8 gold stars and calling it a masterpiece, its no wonder that people are asking themselves if they have been bought of by the company in question when the game is clearly broken into shards which then got mauled by a limp bellend full of glass shards.

    Onto the game itself, Ai in the ca    One would think professional reviewers would sink some more hours into a game before giving it 7 or 8 gold stars and calling it a masterpiece, its no wonder that people are asking themselves if they have been bought of by the company in question when the game is clearly broken into shards which then got mauled by a limp bellend full of glass shards.

    Onto the game itself, Ai in the ca franchise has always been rather poor but this one takes the cake and stuffs itself into a black hole into a new dimension of horrible, made worse by capture points that are located in idiotic locations, the worst are siege battles which after 7 patches makes the ai toss torches at the gate instead of using siege equipment (wich in and of itself is buggy i might add, try the ladders i dare you)

    the next offender is the sea battles, they've made them dumber than Empire total war and that in and off itself is an achievement.

    i could go on about various other bugs and the lack of overall depth but i think i have painted a bleak enough picture as is, il leave you with a plea not to by this sham of a total war game as it will surely damp your apetite for further games this company might spew out, they did it right in shogun but this game is 3 steps back into a pit filled with     … Expand
  75. blooper156
    Dec 19, 2013
    1
    Like many other people on here, I was a huge fan of the original Total War: Rome. So much so that I still play it on a regular basis the satisfaction of taking on a horde of barbarians twice the size of your army, obliterating them with the Roman war machine and expanding your Empire to the edges of the known world...a simple and satisfying concept.

    Rome 2, rather than maturing into    Like many other people on here, I was a huge fan of the original Total War: Rome. So much so that I still play it on a regular basis the satisfaction of taking on a horde of barbarians twice the size of your army, obliterating them with the Roman war machine and expanding your Empire to the edges of the known world...a simple and satisfying concept.

    Rome 2, rather than maturing into an adult it's become the unruly teenager of CA. It's all over the place as a game. Despite some updates, it's still hilarious to watch the AI run havoc among themselves seemingly oblivious to their main purpose kill the enemy. Slingers run at infantry instead of aiming their led shots from a distance. Cavalry appears incapable of disengaging properly, meaning their numbers quickly drop once engaged, and infantry fail to hold the line properly, one of the basics of all Roman warfare lock shields, engage enemy and thrust your short sword between the gaps battles descend into duelling with the enemy.

    Not to mention the state of it's diplomacy.

    They have made some small improvements to the game, however they're overwhelmed by the number of quite frankly fatal errors to this franchise. It's as if they've forgotten what they made in every other TW game!

    My advice is save your money. If you want to play a TW Rome game, buy the original.

    CA you've failed millions of gamers.    … Expand
  76. HughDangler
    Dec 20, 2013
    2
    I really wanted to love this game. But I just can't. I played all the total war games and to me this is by far the worst one. here is why.

    Politic system is boring The engine doesn't work with melee battles the multiplayer is barebones You can't siege a city if its port is blockaded ?!? The AI is no good There is no diversity between factions. Too much rock paper scissors game    I really wanted to love this game. But I just can't. I played all the total war games and to me this is by far the worst one. here is why.

    Politic system is boring
    The engine doesn't work with melee battles
    the multiplayer is barebones
    You can't siege a city if its port is blockaded ?!?
    The AI is no good
    There is no diversity between factions.
    Too much rock paper scissors game play.
    The soundtrack is boring unlike rome 1 )
    Frame Rate is no good for most computers.
    Generals die before you get to start caring about them.
    Navy battles are boring.

    The game just isn't up to par. and the fact that CA is trying to sell us more DLC instead of fixing the game makes it that much worst.    … Expand
  77. MileHigh
    Dec 25, 2013
    1
    Well.... This game seemed to have a few great ideas. They added naval combat into land battles, they divided each region up into three and added bonuses for controlling the entire region, they gave Carthage a bigger role than punching bag (as it was in Rome I). But ultimately this game turned out to be a complete farce. They promised that you could play it with the same graphics as ShogunWell.... This game seemed to have a few great ideas. They added naval combat into land battles, they divided each region up into three and added bonuses for controlling the entire region, they gave Carthage a bigger role than punching bag (as it was in Rome I). But ultimately this game turned out to be a complete farce. They promised that you could play it with the same graphics as Shogun 2, but clearly lied. I can't seem to run it in a way in which half the screen isn't covered in grey. The AI seems to have taken a massive step back from Shogun 2, I'll even say it is worse than the original Rome. They continue with the infuriating policy of having to pay twice the value of the game just to get all of the factions. It is undoubtedly the worst purchase I have ever made of a game, and I'm incredulous with myself for having bought it on pre-order. If you are prospective about buying this game, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T.… Expand
  78. pfhbarros
    Dec 27, 2013
    2
    this doesnt have a single significant inovation and the AI is a disaster some times it is ridiculously dumb and other times its impossible to beat and its poorly optimized 2/10
  79. Jethro777
    Dec 30, 2013
    1
    Horrific train wreck. Betrayal, and even more anger as CA release a DLC without having seriously even attempted to put a heart back into the tin man. This empty, soul less, AI impaired, stripped back, no family tree, no point to feeling attached to your general (he will die of old age in just a few turns), diplomatically impaired game does not deserve the bear the name of CA. What aHorrific train wreck. Betrayal, and even more anger as CA release a DLC without having seriously even attempted to put a heart back into the tin man. This empty, soul less, AI impaired, stripped back, no family tree, no point to feeling attached to your general (he will die of old age in just a few turns), diplomatically impaired game does not deserve the bear the name of CA. What a very sad, sad end to this otherwise brilliant gaming franchise. The political system is completely pointless, creating a civil war is pointless, in fact, after about 30 hours, it hits you what a train wreck this actually is. Spare yourself the experience. CA is still in denial, despite even massive player surveys which tell them just how bad the game is and how to fix it. AVOID.… Expand
  80. Substance2020
    Sep 5, 2013
    4
    As mentioned by others the bugs etc. but if nothing else the loading times kill this game dead. I have a very decent PC(i7920, gtx590, 6GB) and waiting to load campaigns, battles, turns is excruciating. It's almost a return to the days of the Commodore 64 and tape loading. Your life is being wasted and you don't even get interesting loading screens to look at/read. They could at leastAs mentioned by others the bugs etc. but if nothing else the loading times kill this game dead. I have a very decent PC(i7920, gtx590, 6GB) and waiting to load campaigns, battles, turns is excruciating. It's almost a return to the days of the Commodore 64 and tape loading. Your life is being wasted and you don't even get interesting loading screens to look at/read. They could at least give you a mini game to play perhaps tetris...

    I'm a big fan of the Total War series but I'm sorry to say Rome 2 is NOT enjoyable. If the loading times get fixed then maybe it get's an 8/10.    … Expand
  81. WhataTwist
    Sep 10, 2013
    4
    Rome 2 has been a massive step back in the franchise since Shogun 2. Somewhere in there is a good game, but it's bogged down in bugs, horrific AI, graphics problems and tons of really bad design decisions. Give it a few months for modders and patches to make it playable and then buy it.
  82. Muskelsteffen
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    This game seems like an empty shell of a Total War game. Beautiful (yet horrible demanding) graphics and animations but no strategy content. In the battles you can win with nearly nothing against anything because of the dead AI that can't attack without destroy itself or defend without doing only stupid things. At this stage it seems like luck that the battles are so ugly fast you have toThis game seems like an empty shell of a Total War game. Beautiful (yet horrible demanding) graphics and animations but no strategy content. In the battles you can win with nearly nothing against anything because of the dead AI that can't attack without destroy itself or defend without doing only stupid things. At this stage it seems like luck that the battles are so ugly fast you have to come up with a very clever strategy to have battles longer than 10 minutes. And such longer battles would be nice because the loading time you have to invest every single time is really long!
    On the campaign map you are left alone to conquer anything with again nearly nothing because of the dead AI that only leaves it's towns only with max 3 unit armies that can be beaten with every garrison army with ease. The towns may look nice but they are empty because there is nothing to manage despite burning a little bit of the tons of money the game provides even the most prodigal player. Playing on the campaign map is like walking through a dead post-apocalypse town, overthrowing cardboard cut-outs of enemies.

    The release version of this game is not a strategy game. It is a good looking, brain dead Blondie. It is a empty nutshell and everybody, who has seen Charlie and the Chocolate Factory knows, what is to do with empty nuts.    … Expand
  83. Chomie
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    There is just too many things that are wrong. Right now i am going to try to forget that i bought this game and return to it once it is finished, polished and made into a game worth the money we payed. If you don't own the game i recommend you wait. One day it might become good.

    My low score is a punishment for CA for giving us a beta.
  84. Ookame
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    Great potential..... few nice changes... that were TOTALLY anihilated by bugs, AI and the lack of features that were present in previous TW titles. Examples: no way to defend cities no walls, and no you can't build them no guard mode, javelins thrown only at charge, way to fast battles, land armies that can defeat fleets CAPTURE POINTS and most of the time very retarded AI.

    C' mon    Great potential..... few nice changes... that were TOTALLY anihilated by bugs, AI and the lack of features that were present in previous TW titles. Examples: no way to defend cities no walls, and no you can't build them no guard mode, javelins thrown only at charge, way to fast battles, land armies that can defeat fleets CAPTURE POINTS and most of the time very retarded AI.

    C' mon CA you can do better than that. Big warning from me, it's a shame i have been your client from first shogun and rome 2 was last product that i bought with pre order.    … Expand
  85. hype7
    Sep 5, 2013
    3
    As most have said, it's clunky, slow load times, AI is dreadful, UI is confusing for some things, and quite buggy throughout various parts of the game. It is certainly playable but minus the additional features graphics in the game, Rome 1 was actually better.
  86. fployd
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    This is not really a playable game at release. It is a bug ridden, mess which Creative Assembly (the developers) expect you to pay a premium price to be a beta tester. Shame on you CA, SEGA, and Steam for not allowing refunds for people who were scammed into buying this, by CA's fake game-play footage and marketing hype
  87. Romund
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    Major dissapointment on release. Huge problems and game breaking bugs. I even unable to finish tutorial campaign because game crashes.

    Stay Away until they fix the issues and release it much cheaper in a few months! dont fall for the hype and pay the extra cash to play it now.
  88. cdrwrecorders
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    this game is a mess. it is worse than Empire. do we pay 60$ to be beta testers? this game has no AI. CA and SEGA (i don't care is more to blame) are doing same thing over and over again. not only there is no challenging AI (oh sorry there is... buff to the stats. because who would want challenging behavior from computer opponent) but AI can do only basic stuff. no sorry, it can't do eventhis game is a mess. it is worse than Empire. do we pay 60$ to be beta testers? this game has no AI. CA and SEGA (i don't care is more to blame) are doing same thing over and over again. not only there is no challenging AI (oh sorry there is... buff to the stats. because who would want challenging behavior from computer opponent) but AI can do only basic stuff. no sorry, it can't do even that because it is buggy.
    they fix only extreme cases of retardness of AI and bugs. but they never make AI "good". community and their mods do that. vanilla TW are frustrating for people that play mainly strategies. even CA assumes that modders will do their work for them and they made that their business model. they are release framework for game. and they make beta tester from consumers. they got away with this to many time. they used all of my good will at this point.    … Expand
  89. JackPaladin
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    Yet another corporate pickpocketing. Released with horrible AI; bugs galore; and features tore out of the game that leave a confusing empty hole. Not to mention DAY ONE DLC that should have been in the game at release for SURE.

    It's yet another outrageous game release. And for those that pre-bought this game, your 51% to blame. Watch the Angry Joe video review to see in detail how    Yet another corporate pickpocketing. Released with horrible AI; bugs galore; and features tore out of the game that leave a confusing empty hole. Not to mention DAY ONE DLC that should have been in the game at release for SURE.

    It's yet another outrageous game release. And for those that pre-bought this game, your 51% to blame.

    Watch the Angry Joe video review to see in detail how bad this release is.    … Expand
  90. Efa
    Sep 4, 2013
    7
    A good game, with huge potential, if not for the fact it simply doesn't feel finished.
    Riddled with bugs and frame rate issues, this is only a Beta. Plus, with all the "new" features (by which I mean all the removed features) It just doesn't feel like a sequel, or even part of the series.
  91. Ujio
    Sep 6, 2013
    2
    Huge disappointment. I play Total War games since the first Medieval and I had high hopes for this game, but in vain. It is much worse than Shogun 2 in just about everything. I don't even know if it is salvageable with patches and mods cause it has too much oversimplified and stupid "new" stuff. I'll keep playing the fantastic and complete Shogun 2 and I hope that some talented moddersHuge disappointment. I play Total War games since the first Medieval and I had high hopes for this game, but in vain. It is much worse than Shogun 2 in just about everything. I don't even know if it is salvageable with patches and mods cause it has too much oversimplified and stupid "new" stuff. I'll keep playing the fantastic and complete Shogun 2 and I hope that some talented modders will find a way to save Rome 2.… Expand
  92. SgtSmith95
    Sep 6, 2013
    3
    game looks great.
    In its trailers. Be assured this is A BETA game. with a huge proportion of players suffering from vomit inducing graphical errors to heartbreaking comparability problems.
    CA are now starting to make amends but their updates have cause some problems whilst fixing others. Now onto the gameplay. If you like previous Total War games then this is not for you. The devs in    game looks great.
    In its trailers. Be assured this is A BETA game. with a huge proportion of players suffering from vomit inducing graphical errors to heartbreaking comparability problems.
    CA are now starting to make amends but their updates have cause some problems whilst fixing others.

    Now onto the gameplay.
    If you like previous Total War games then this is not for you. The devs in their urine soaked underwear were obviously held hostage by SEGA to release the game prematurely and to change so many tried and tested great points about the series and turn it into an arcadic casual gamer version of an RTS. With all battles now having CTF in it throwing away the reason to use ambushes and terrain to your advantage. They removed a beautiful and intuitive UI with a hideous number crunching interfave that to be honest make me fell like i am playing Europa Universals (which uis a good game but should not be in a TW series game)

    Units route within 5 minutes of combat. That is however if you are ever lucky in the campaign to enter combat the AI is passive and runs away or is just plain broken at times and that is on the hardest difficulty Legendary. On normal it will ZERG rush you and that is because on the higher difficulty it analyses dangerous situation and never wants to enter a fight because it may loose. The siege battle are worst instead ogf having great epic battles with ladders and towers the AI will only try to burn your gates or naval assault which was cool the first few times but is just annoying as the AI demands to land as far away from you as possible.
    Testudo is usless against arrows hoplites and phalanxes no longer hold back enemies they just broke all unit capabilities but instead gave you magical powers to give them small buffs here and there at certain points wich is just lazy.

    The sound
    It is simply brilliant the soundtrack gives pacing and the voices of troops banter when you zoom close is very amusing at times with 300 references everywhere. Example of such i i had 1 unit of spartans attacked by a full stack of Parthians when in the battle i heard a spartan say "There are so many sir"
    then another say in response "THIS IS MADNESS"

    Graphics
    i was lucky enough to have a very powerful rig which meant that i was stricken with all the biggest graphical glitches ever. Yep that's right this game worked better for worse computers. I eventually managed to fix my game thanks to some trickery in script files and task manager and just simple fiddling with options in the game.
    For instance to help me i had to run in windowed mode. disabled alpha vegetation, disabled SSAIO and distortion effects. turn shadows down to low. and tick unlimited virtual memory. Then disable in task manager set Rome 2 to high prioity. There are a few more steps but they get pretty lengthy so to summarize this section after these steps i got the game running on extreme settings at 35-53fps which is decent but i should be pulling at least 70fps with crossfire on my eyefinity setup.
    (Oh btw install the latest beta drivers AMD is 13.10 that lets me use crossfire on rome 2 if you dont get it your crossfire will cause massive drops in fps due to bad optimization.)

    To summaries in all now. As a veteran of the series (Shogun 1 for those of you wanting to know) i am truly disappointed in this game m it was the same case for empire but empire was a new field of warfare and a new engine. This game just feels like it is broken and i can only give it those 3 marks due to it having spartans and for CA being ther with 24 hour support with theit devs working day and night on massive future patches which give me hope for this game as shogun 2 did not work properly for mw at first until a patch came in i was first gen FX cpu back then and TW games hate multi threading in AMD's architecture but thankfully patches and beta Bios later all was fixed. so i still hold out hope and may re-review this game in a month or so after patching and extensive multiplayer testing (multiplayer completely broke as in not even working for me right now) but some people are loving it)

    This is just a simple case of a big company pulling strings and rushing it out before the more mainstream games come out. They needed more time and should have released an actual open beta so they could get tens of thousands of rigs tested for comparability issues. and could have responded to fans and our constructive criticism like in shogun 2.    … Expand
  93. zengoboy
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    This is NOT Total War game. Don't even try it, don't even buy it. Even if you bought it by accident, don't even pop the disc in. The problem isn't bugs or anything, just doesnt feel like other TW games.
  94. Scottishdwarf
    Sep 7, 2013
    0
    I know a 0 rating is harsh even almost unthinkable for most people to place on a game. Despite this, rome total war 2 needs a slap in the face for releasing an un-optimized alpha stage game.
    Personally i can look past most of its short comings and still enjoy playing the game a bit, although putting on my critical cap this game is as close to completely broken as anything iv played in    I know a 0 rating is harsh even almost unthinkable for most people to place on a game. Despite this, rome total war 2 needs a slap in the face for releasing an un-optimized alpha stage game.
    Personally i can look past most of its short comings and still enjoy playing the game a bit, although putting on my critical cap this game is as close to completely broken as anything iv played in years.

    The game has literally taken 3 steps backwards taken out a ton of good features and introduced some good new ones which few and far between just to complement thier completely broken and/or defunct ones.

    If your a huge total war fan you'll enjoy it like me but come to hate how badly done it is very soon into playing it. You can grit your teeth and hang on through the turn times and horrible AI but it dosnt get any better. Only worse.    … Expand
  95. CharlesK
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    As a big fan of the franchise I've waited years for this game. And it's lousy. It's not like a Total War game, it's like a bad port of a cheap console RTS game. Hyper speed battles where armies merge into huge blobs, awful AI, dumb capture the flag garbage, troops with magical powers. Before you get to all the other design flaws and terrible optimisation. Arcade Total War. Avoid like the plague.
  96. tontonfun
    Sep 8, 2013
    0
    You can tell that the people who rated this game weren't biased!
    Did they even play the game? Or did they just watch the trailer?
    I give it a ZERO( 0 because I felt that I was lied to by these people.
    It is a good for nothing piece of garbage, just like Skyrim. But
    in this case the majority are not in a trance, yelling ROMA!
  97. Tsuroo
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    I played over 30 hours of this game...it took me that long to realize the shell of a Total War game I had purchased. I am so disappointed with Rome II.

    I do not like the new UI (personal opinion). The AI is a joke (both campaign and battle). It is SOOOOOOO slow it lags on the campaign map, on the battle map, AND it takes FOREVER to get through the AI turns. No family tree.    I played over 30 hours of this game...it took me that long to realize the shell of a Total War game I had purchased. I am so disappointed with Rome II.

    I do not like the new UI (personal opinion).

    The AI is a joke (both campaign and battle).

    It is SOOOOOOO slow it lags on the campaign map, on the battle map, AND it takes FOREVER to get through the AI turns.

    No family tree. Why would they leave that out?

    The political system is stupid and pointless. What the hell is it even supposed to do?

    I feel no connection to my generals; just another face and name. If one dies, he just gets replaced by another face and name. Also, why can you assassinate one of your own generals. Why would I want to do that?

    Naval battles are boring and it is a pain in the ass to get your ships to do what you tell them to do.

    The land battles last minutes. I have won battles with thousands of soldiers in less than 3 minutes...why did they decide that was fun? I thought this game was supposed to be the most EPIC Total War game ever (CA's words, not mine)...................3 minute battles..........Also, go ahead and forget about tactics; every battle quickly turns into one giant blob of people..........

    And those STUPID flags on the battle maps. WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY the HELL are there FLAGS!?!?! You know, King of the Hill might be a cool variant to play in a quick battle...BUT WHY ARE THERE FLAGS IN THE BATTLES I AM FIGHTING DURING A CAMPAIGN!? So stupid!

    On the upside, the campaign map is beautiful and I really love the province system.

    This game is such a let down     … Expand
  98. SpiritSharD
    Sep 25, 2013
    5
    I don't normally write reviews on this site (in fact, I'm not sure I ever have), but I felt compelled to write one after reading an interview on Gamasutra.

    To put it simply, I am not at all happy with the way this game has turned out. The promotional footage/advertising for this game was incredibly misleading, and I honestly feel as if I've purchased an alpha version of their title.    I don't normally write reviews on this site (in fact, I'm not sure I ever have), but I felt compelled to write one after reading an interview on Gamasutra.

    To put it simply, I am not at all happy with the way this game has turned out. The promotional footage/advertising for this game was incredibly misleading, and I honestly feel as if I've purchased an alpha version of their title. Now, I'm not a huge Total War fan; I brought all the games alongside TW: Shogun 2 several years ago, and whilst I could never get into their previous games I did thoroughly enjoy the aforementioned. Granted, there were many bugs, but over time they were polished out...and it was never broken (for me, anyway).

    Rome II seems as if they've taken steps back for no apparent reason what-so-ever. The game runs poorly, the game is too easy, there are too many bugs (AI mostly), and all-in-all it's nowhere near impressive as Shogun 2 was (for me). I suspect it's due to the publisher rushing the release (SEGA also publishing that abysmal game that was Alien Colonial Marines), but I can't help but feel as if the developers are also at fault here. Their willingness to fix issues is honorable, but I don't believe a single member of staff has come out to say why exactly things turned out as they did. I think CA need to take a long, hard look at themselves, and hope they learn from their mistakes. Oh, and seriously...don't aim for meta-critic scores. I know you only care about the "professional" reviews, so what I have to say here will probably be ignored (that's if any of you actually read this), but it's people such as myself who buy your games so that you can keep your job. You have a significantly large fan-base of people wanting to support you and scream praise, don't let them down just to focus on reviewers who'll put your game down as soon as they've finished writing. C'mon guys/gals, we know you can do better! =)

    I'm giving the game 5/10 now in it's current state, but I'm sure that rating would increase in my eyes if they continue to work on issues. The potential for a great game is there.    … Expand
  99. WerewolfAlpha
    Oct 6, 2013
    4
    Another case of paid reviewers giving the buggy ass game a 78 and the ACTUAL PLAYERS GIVE IT A 3.8.
    Terrible AI, game lags constantly, end game is a DISASTER of game-ending bugs. The UI is like they just started making these games. Did they fire their entire team and hire people off the WarZ team??? Wasted my money on this. Total War is Over. Total Failure is HERE!!!
  100. DraganCar
    Sep 24, 2013
    0
    I wasted my saving on a game that is unplayable omg im so crying right now total war shogun 2 was so good why has this happened please whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
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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