Rome II (Total War)

[RandBlade]

Not sure whether to go for this straight away or wait. One thing that puts me off is that a "pre-order bonus" is access to playing 3 Greek States. I'm getting very irritated with games like this having other states be unlockable DLC that you need to pay extra for. How many other nations are going to be DLC?

One thing I liked with the original Rome was that although it just started with you playing as one of the three main Roman states via finishing the campaigns you could unlock the extra nations to play as. No need to pay for them. The expansion packs added whole extra material to the game, not just unlocked parts you already owned.

Having the extra nations locked at start and being unlocked via winning games (or easily editing files) is one thing, a bit of fun. Having part of the game locked from the start and needing to pay more cash to play it is not so fun and puts me off buying the game at all at first until it becomes discounted to a 'gold edition' that comes with everything you'd expect included from the start.

[Timbuk2]

'Tis the business model games publishers now have it seems.

EDIT: £44.99 purchase price.

[Steely Glint]

None of the factions included in the Greek states pack have much relevance in this period of history and do not deserve slots as playable factions in their own right.

[RandBlade]

Has anyone bought or played this? Used to love the Total War series, I think I've got every game (no DLC) in the series (though never played Napoleon) but kind of got a bit bored of it so this might be the first one ever I skip. The original Shogun and Rome I loved but Shogun II was very easy and basic in comparison to Paradox titles so not sure whether to go for it or not?

[coinich]

Sorry for the brick of text, I'll reformat it after dinner.

I've been playing it, and its ok so far. 7/10

• The city system is vastly different from Rome 1 and somewhat different than Shogun II. Personally, I'm liking it more and more; it gives each region more customization. The garrison feature imported from Shogun II is also nice, but garrison troops are largely worthless IMO.
• Since I began my campaign in the cold, northern reaches of Germany, I really haven't experienced naval combat at all.
• The 110 factions is an interesting feature, but they don't seem to be really that distinct from one another. They can and do expand between regions however, so politically the map is dynamic.
• Overall army generation and AI strategy seems to be somewhat flawed; CA claimed it fixed this in the most recent patch. Unit AI tactics are two steps back from Shogun IMO. Not much more to say about that.
• Diplomacy seems functional, but others haven't reported much success with it.
• Agents are rather strong, and it seems very easy to level up a Spy and poison everyone's armies. The Champion seems to have some mass stack debuffs too.
• Technology seems like it was conceived and added in 1 day. The tech tree is quite small, though perhaps appropriately scaled with campaign duration. There are 56 techs total I believe. No innovations there, at least compared to any other game on the market.
• Sadly, internal politics is terrible IMO. Easily the biggest setback in the series. The family tree has been completely done away with, and now the faction has random chances to kill off random generals you've groomed all game. They disappear and reappear solely at the whim of the RNG, making any immersion with that system impossible. Political parties do not seem to have any impact other than to annoy you that I can find.
• Overall, despite its negatives I think Rome II has strong potential, but it was released in alpha form. Patch 2 is pages long of fixes and tweaks that should have been included months ago.
• The guy in the link below has a review that I mostly agree with. I haven't run into nearly as many graphical problems, though I'm sure they exist, and I also didn't think Shogun II was the pinnacle of CA development.

http://youtu.be/P_QK-lcW8a8

[RandBlade]

I haven't watched the entire 40 minute review, got as far in as the guy saying the campaign map AI even on Legendary Is far too easy? Would you agree with that?

It's the Campaign and not the battles that I love about the series and my problem with Shogun is that it presented no challenge at all. If Rome is easier then I'm not sure I see the point.

[Steely Glint]

I would strongly advise you to wait. The game in it's current state can only be described as beta. AI bugs, bare bones features, performance issues, balance problems... the list goes on and on.

It's the Campaign and not the battles that I love about the series and my problem with Shogun is that it presented no challenge at all. If Rome is easier then I'm not sure I see the point.

Really? I thought the AI in Shogun 2 was pretty damn decent - things get pretty hairy once you reach realm divide, and the starts for certain factions (well, the Uesugi) are downright difficult.

[coinich]

I haven't watched the entire 40 minute review, got as far in as the guy saying the campaign map AI even on Legendary Is far too easy? Would you agree with that?

It's the Campaign and not the battles that I love about the series and my problem with Shogun is that it presented no challenge at all. If Rome is easier then I'm not sure I see the point.

Patch 2 made the difficulty much harder IMO; the strat map AI suddenly built full stack armies and moved much more smartly around the map. I tried to destroy a small minor faction holding a settlement. In response to my declaration of war, they destroyed one full stack of my army with impunity, then went on a rampage through all of Belgium/Holland/France, capturing any unguarded settlement they could find before moving on. I only now have managed to corner them, after losing 2 more armies. This is on Hard, btw.

Also note that the number of armies a faction can control is directly limited to how large their empire is, so thats a factor in keeping down mass numbers of stacks from swarming the map.

I would strongly advise you to wait. The game in it's current state can only be described as beta. AI bugs, bare bones features, performance issues, balance problems... the list goes on and on.



Really? I thought the AI in Shogun 2 was pretty damn decent - things get pretty hairy once you reach realm divide, and the starts for certain factions (well, the Uesugi) are downright difficult.

I never did beat Shogun 2, so I can't compare it well to that. As for your first statement, thats absolutely correct. Look to Patch 3, which should fix another book's worth of issues next week.

[Steely Glint]

I've played as Rome, Macedon and Parthia. I've played over 30 hours so far, and I have yet to have an AI empire declare war on me. Not once.

[Steely Glint]

UPDATE: Everyone will declare war on you if you play Egypt. Apprantly, CA used up all the wars for the Egyptian campaign and didn't have enough left for any of the others.

[coinich]

Ah, that does explain everything.

Also, latest beta patch broke maximizing and minimizing the game.

[Wraith]

Did this game ever get fixed up enough that it's worth playing? Is it still obnoxiously slow to switch between strategic and tactical modes like previous Total War games?

[RandBlade]

I'd be curious about that too.

Has anyone bought or played this? Used to love the Total War series, I think I've got every game (no DLC) in the series (though never played Napoleon) but kind of got a bit bored of it so this might be the first one ever I skip. The original Shogun and Rome I loved but Shogun II was very easy and basic in comparison to Paradox titles so not sure whether to go for it or not?

Still the only game I've skipped.

[Timbuk2]

Apparently it has undergone significant updating, tweaking and bug-fixing, but I've not gone back and played it since it was first released.

[Steely Glint]

Did this game ever get fixed up enough that it's worth playing?

No, not really.

Is it still obnoxiously slow to switch between strategic and tactical modes like previous Total War games?

Depends on what you consider obnoxiously slow. I didn't really have a problem with the load times, but I've spent most of my gaming life on under specced hardware, so I may have more tolerance for long load times than you.