Total War: Rome II

By: Sean Dibble

Well guys it's been a while since I have done a review for the server, and I think that it is time to change that with the brand new game made by Sega and Creative Assembly. Total War: Rome II. So be prepared to lose what social life you have (if you had on at to begin with) and dive into this game.

Total War: Rome II was released on September 3rd 2013 and if you are like me have not turned off your computer or the game since. The game is addicting the many changes that they have made since Total War: Shogun 2 are amazing, and graphically I am blown away, you should be too. The world actually works no more sending troops through thick and impassable forests and NO MOVING OVER A MOUNTAIN RANGE IN ONE TURN, like you could do in some of the first Total War games. Now you can set up strategic points to protect what's most important to you...your populace (ok well maybe the people are not important but they make you money to fund that HUGE army of yours don't they?). Now I have a great laptop and play the game on extreme graphics, but if you don't have a great computer and need to run on low graphics be prepared even the low graphics look great. Creative Assembly did not cut any corners graphically.

(Gameplay on the campaign map)

Graphics aside there are a few issues with the A.I. minor points if you are like me and not a great battle general so you'll take the glitches (they help you win :)) but for the hardcore gamers out there who want to be a 5-star general be prepared the battles are easy on normal and I don't see them getting much harder when moving up in difficultly. Some of the issues are that in battle when the AI attacks you they run up and get right about to attack and say "UHHH yeah gotcha" and run back doing this over and over again, ruining your well made plans of defending the area from attack and sadly making you the aggressor during their siege (confusing yes sad yes funny a tad.) Another glitch I have found is when you are doing defense of a combined attack (being attacked by land and sea for those of you confused) your troops wont attack a landing party....if one soldier got stuck on the boat and can't get out. The only thing that I can see stopping them is the other soldiers are saying "wait wait Dave's not hear man." With that said those are the only glitches I myself have found and I am sure they will be fixed with a future patch, and in my opinion they don't take much away from the game play itself.

(Providences available to conquer)

Changes and Things They Brought Back:

Military Changes-  First things first building an army is a tad bit different in this game than any of the past ones. Instead of building the army in your city and reinforcing in the field with your generals, you do it all from the general. One difference is EACH army must have a general and pending on your factions fame you can only have so many out at a time. This adds an odd enjoyment to the game, it makes it so you can't get overwhelmed quickly by someone sending out 10+ maxed out armies on turn 5 and demolishing you before you even had a chance to play the game. Now the downside is that means the more territory you own, you have to leave it without a military presence and well that usually leads to a rebellion. So be careful on how big you get, quicker isn't always better in this case.

City Building Changes- Another change has come to the city building itself, in past Total War games to get a new building slot you needed to upgrade your castle or fort. This is a thing of the past, now with that said there is a limitation to when you can expand a city. What they did in this game is you need a population surplus to expand your cities walls which will then give you a new building slot to build with. Now unlike in previous games if you get a new building slot but do not feel like using it any time soon that is no problem nothing bad will happen, this game leaving a building slot empty has consequences it creates slums which will lead to a unhappy populace which can lead to a rebellion. Another change that I do hope they change is not every city can build each type of building. For example Rome can build training grounds (if its researched) and Sparta can't (even if it is researched) now why this is I am not sure and heck they may even be a way around it that I have not found yet, but if not I hope they fix that soon.

Government Things They Brought Back- Now I'm not sure if this was in Shogun 2, but I do know it was in Empire Total War was inciting a civil war within your own populace. Why would you do this you ask? Simple you do not like the starting type of government you were handed why else? But if you do incite a civil war be sure to win or else the game is over for you. Now, if this is truly what you want to do I will be helpful enough to help you out (because I am just that awesome)

Steps to cause a Civil War (Rome as example)

·         Have a Government type you do not wish to be

·         Raise taxes to High

·         Exempt your territories from taxes except Rome

·         Wait for rebellion

·         Crush rebellion

·         Choose new Government type

Now I have not done this myself in game, but if it is indeed the same as it was in Empire Total war those are the steps you need to take. With that said I do not know if how many choices of Governmental changes you have when you cause a civil war but that is something you guys can ether let me know or figure out yourselves (I cannot tell you everything can I?)

Special Characters/Battle Changes- So as you know if you played a total war game in the past you had spies and diplomats but now you can have Champions and in the case of Sparta you can recruit Leonidas who can do everything a spy/diplomat can do but can also train any army you put him in. Battles though have not changed a lot they added a few more details to them, you can now have combined assaults of both naval and land increasing your odds of winning exponentially, but that's not it instead of after winning a few battles your general increases in rank and gets minor traits to give to his men, the men gain experience points during battle and become better over time. This feature blows my mind and I wish they had it in past games because now it feels like you are a real life general. An example of this is your playing as Sparta and want to take over Rome instead of sending out a bunch of greenhorn troops you can send out that army you have been working on since turn one and now is unstoppable. Naval battles have changed a bit also in the past if you are like me you just auto resolved the naval battles or just did not bother to even create a navy in the first place. Now on the other hand not only can you shoot at other ships you can ram and or board other ships to take them out.

Troop Movement Changes- This is a small change but I think it is worth mentioning YOU NO LONGER NEED TO WASTE TIME CREATING TRANSPORT SHIPS. Now click the army you wish to move across the sea and click the sea and bam transport ship. Now troops need to follow paths on the map they cannot go way off the beaten path and attack from a side you thought was impassable and you can put your troops on a path blocking the way to your city too.

Legacy Addition- Now as armies get stronger and better they gain fame, but that does not mean they cannot get destroyed, but now you have the option to reinstate a legacy. What does this mean? you ask puzzled and confused. In this case say your 3rd Legion is destroyed in battle and you loved that Legion, well go to any city click on the raise force button chose a commander and hit the reinstate legacy button. Now not only will they gain the emblem from your beloved 3rd legion but they will also gain all their hard earned traits.    

(SPARTANS)

Gameplay is fun but a tad bit flawed, but this is really nothing new to total war games sadly and hopefully they fix it soon because I'm starting to get annoyed with it. The flaw I'm talking about is when playing a campaign it's safe to say your armies are not going to be attacked unless they are in a city so get your armies out there your safe. AI only attacks cities and most of the time they do it with large armies yes...but with weak and inefficient units in them so they are easily defeated. But none the less I still find myself playing hours and hours on end because cant and really shouldn't only focus on military and should manage both economy, military and your pubic order of all your cities giving this game a ton of replay just with those aspects but add on the amount of factions you can choose to play as and well say goodbye to your friends and family this winter because you'll be building many new empires from Britannia to Persia and yes Rome, but one I find myself playing as most is Sparta. So sit back, get your generals cap on and get ready to become grand empower of the old world.

Good:

-Game play

-The Changes made by Creative Assembly add more to the game

- Graphics

Bad:

- A few bugs and AI issues but that's it

Scully Rating : 8.9 out of 10 

(but with patches fixing the glitches it will be a 9)