source: http://www.pcgamer.com/previews/tota...er-and-mods/2/James Russell explains. “We’re trying to reduce the management you’ve got to do [with] assembling armies, and that kind of thing.”
Now let's see. Something that has bothered me like little else in my recent gaming career is the dumbing down of games. Games that had much potential in their first installement got "streamlined" in the second installment and outright made for pet monkies to play in their eventual third installment.
A great example is that of Mass Effect from Bioware where you had many different controls on your keyboard for your different actions, it got simplified in Mass Effect 2 and with Mass Effect 3, all your actions were reduced to ...you guessed it - [SPACEBAR]. The quote here by James Russell gives me a hint that this is the way that Rome II will go from its predecessors. The micromanagement of everything is what (to me) drew me into the series. The fact that you could get different traits for your generals/family members in Rome Total War or Medieval II depending on how they were doing on the campaign map or battle map.
Fantastic mods such as Europa Barbarorum, RTR, Roma Surrectum, Stainless Steel and Bellum Crucis expanded on this with deeper and more complex traits, further adding to the complexity of the original game by expanding that experience for me. My problem is that I've seen these kinds of comments from developers before, and they have unequivocally been foreshadowing a dumbing down of game mechanics.
I did not dislike Empire and Napoleon TW, because I like especially the Empire TW era of history - but I downright hated the campaign map changes and the dumbing down of character-progression of the generals. Complexity is what adds difficulty to a game, that is what makes the games of Paradox Interactive such as Crusader Kings 2 into successful games. Complex and difficult games are hard to master, but when you learn to master it - you feel like a god and that sense of reward is well worth the effort. One of the reasons that Rome and Medieval II are still very popular strategy games and remembered fondly by players all over the world is their modding friendliness, difficulty and the complexity that those mods added.
I don't know, I was naturally excited about the Rome 2 announcement, and from the few screenshots, the graphics impress, and I'm certain that the combat will impress too. But I am skeptical as to wether or not this will turn out the way fans hope. Fans were fairly disappointed with the outcome of Empire, Shogun 2 was good, but was a far cry for many old Shogun fans' dreams of what Shogun 2 should have been.
The Creative Assembly have a mountain of expectations to climb for Rome II: Total War, and if they fail - I fear that the reprecussions of their fanbase may remind of that of Mass (D)Effect 3's failure as a game. And that would be a shame.
My two cents,
Aru
A concerned Medieval II modder and Med2 and RomeTW rabid fan