PC Gamer Report From E3

[Darvich]

"Three things I loved about Total War: Rome II at E3"


​

[osros]

Oooook works now Ty! Rep

[Sebt1890]

in on epic thread...

[torongill]

Another element that can affect your victory is the optional Realism mode, where players will be unable to reload save games. Realism mode also limits certain Battle mode user interface elements, like details on enemy units or their location.

[ISG01]

The Realism mode sounds lovely. Definitely something I will be trying, though not on my first playthrough. I'm a real pussy in games where you can quick save and load. I've managed to unlearn doing it in RPGs, perhaps now's the time to unlearn it in strategy games.

[The Useless Member]

I want to be able to burn Rome in the demo.

I love and am excited about the part about political scheming.

[I2ain_2_Battle]

poison arrows, flammable pit, pitfalls. awesome

[Sharpe]

For the lazy among us



Creative Assembly’s demo of Total War: Rome II left us wanting more. Large-scale battles over huge landscapes, powered by an overhauled campaign system, are a given for the sequel to Rome: Total War. But the devil’s in the details: Here are the three new mechanics in Rome II that got us eager to play.


Defensive deployables

The battle I witnessed pitted Caesar’s Roman army against the Egyptians, who held the high ground. One tactic the Egyptian army employed was flaming boulders, which were rolled downhill to decimate the Roman legionnaires. These are one of many defensive deployables Creative Assembly has added to help defending armies challenge aggressors. I spoke with Jamie Ferguson (lead battle designer) and Dominique Starr (campaign designer) from Creative Assembly, and between them I heard about caches of poison arrows, stakes that impale cavalry, sharp stones to stall enemy advances and hidden fire pits that light front-line assault troops ablaze.


Using these deployables to repel attackers isn’t as easy as it sounds. “If you place them in the wrong place, they’ll be totally useless to you,” Ferguson said. “It relies on a certain amount of common sense from the player.” He also described how using some elements can backfire on the player, citing how war elephants can run amok. “They go completely out of control but get much tougher,” he said. “The result of that is that they can smash through not only the enemy units, but yours as well. And you have to choose if you want to destroy them or not.”


In the case of the flaming boulders, they weren’t always effective. While some crushed the attacking Roman troops, others veered off course down the hillside. But when they worked, they did some serious damage.


More victory conditions

While past entries of Total War have had rigid victory conditions, Rome II will feature three distinct ways to win: military, economic and cultural victories. Any of the three can be achieved on the fly, giving some players the chance to switch up tactics depending on how the ages have treated their empire.


“These aren’t picked from the start,” Starr said. “There’s no pressure. No one ever told Rome, ‘Hey, you only have 200 years. Get to work.’”


The victory options mean more opportunities for the game to fit a specific player’s style. Some players will min/max their way to an economic victory, assuming everything goes their way. In other cases, Ferguson says, the additional victory options will help a player who may feel stuck because of forgotten victory requirements. Trying to control the most territory, but forgot about an obscure island? You may not have to start over if your cultural influence is great enough.


Another element that can affect your victory is the optional Realism mode, where players will be unable to reload save games. Realism mode also limits certain Battle mode user interface elements, like details on enemy units or their location.


Political scheming

Since Rome II is recreating the feeling of running the Roman empire, adding a level of political influence (or political backstabbing) sounds natural. Each faction will have a number of political parties that players can choose to deal with. Rome, for example, will have three families looking to exert influence, as well as the senate with its own agenda. Using members of these parties in your battles will add further power not just to the unit, but to the political party as well. Players can balance this political capital between the different families or choose to favor their own—with all of the consequences that may bring.


“The balance in political power is constantly shifting,” Starr said. “If there’s an imbalance, whether you become too powerful or too weak, you’ll find yourself in a civil war.” And for the other factions, that political balancing act means trying to keep the power you have, without having another group overthrow you.


Players can also spend this political capital to adopt powerful generals into the family, or marry off children to appease groups that are growing dangerously close to influential. Ferguson says that the political system won’t feel like a micromanaging mess, but that the interface will alert you to political events and let you decide to deal with them or not.


Total War: Rome II launches September 3.

[Darvich]

For the lazy among us

Sorry, was in a bit of a rush to post!

[T-Duke]

Ferguson says that the political system won’t feel like a micromanaging mess, but that the interface will alert you to political events and let you decide to deal with them or not.

mhhh what does it mean ? Will political events and interface be just estethic stuff with no real influence on campaign gameplay?

[Lockcaps]

mhhh what does it mean ? Will political events and interface be just estethic stuff with no real influence on campaign gameplay?

No, it means you have a choice if you want to do something about that particular situation. In the example some other magazines used, when Cicero appears you -can- deal with him in multiple ways. They chose to assasinate him, which they succeded in doing - but if Cicero had managed to survive the attempt he would become an even bigger influence in Rome. So whatever you do you are always taking a risk.

[♞Rogue General♞]

Flaming boulders, poison arrows, fire pits???

[AngryTitusPullo]

Another element that can affect your victory is the optional Realism mode, where players will be unable to reload save games. Realism mode also limits certain Battle mode user interface elements, like details on enemy units or their location.

I hope this is also will be available for all difficulties. I'm too old to play Legendary Mode anymore. Hope can still have this feature for Normal Mode.

[osros]

Hmmmm realism mode...and other goodness things are stepping up a notch.

[Raikou]

" heard about caches of poison arrows, stakes that impale cavalry," Better be some gore that goes with that horse impaling !

[-=PHX=-Hades]

" heard about caches of poison arrows, stakes that impale cavalry," Better be some gore that goes with that horse impaling !

Didn't they say something about blood in one of the articles?

[Dan113112]

Didn't they say something about blood in one of the articles?

I think they mentioned blood in areas where many soldiers have died. As for gore it is possible to implement it through mods. The Great War mod is doing this to some extent.

[Lockcaps]

"These are one of many defensive deployables Creative Assembly has added to help defending armies challenge aggressors. I spoke with Jamie Ferguson (lead battle designer) and Dominique Starr (campaign designer) from Creative Assembly, and between them I heard about caches of poison arrows, stakes that impale cavalry, sharp stones to stall enemy advances and hidden fire pits that light front-line assault troops ablaze.


Using these deployables to repel attackers isn’t as easy as it sounds. “If you place them in the wrong place, they’ll be totally useless to you,” Ferguson said. “It relies on a certain amount of common sense from the player.” He also described how using some elements can backfire on the player, citing how war elephants can run amok. “They go completely out of control but get much tougher,” he said. “The result of that is that they can smash through not only the enemy units, but yours as well. And you have to choose if you want to destroy them or not.”


In the case of the flaming boulders, they weren’t always effective. While some crushed the attacking Roman troops, others veered off course down the hillside. But when they worked, they did some serious damage."

Poison arrows sounds interesting, i wonder what they'll do. Also fire pits are just awesome

[RGA]

I hope that stakes will only impale cavalry charging against them, not cavalry walking against them as in Empire and NTW.

[stradar1]

"These are one of many defensive deployables Creative Assembly has added to help defending armies challenge aggressors. I spoke with Jamie Ferguson (lead battle designer) and Dominique Starr (campaign designer) from Creative Assembly, and between them I heard about caches of poison arrows, stakes that impale cavalry, sharp stones to stall enemy advances and hidden fire pits that light front-line assault troops ablaze.


Using these deployables to repel attackers isn’t as easy as it sounds. “If you place them in the wrong place, they’ll be totally useless to you,” Ferguson said. “It relies on a certain amount of common sense from the player.” He also described how using some elements can backfire on the player, citing how war elephants can run amok. “They go completely out of control but get much tougher,” he said. “The result of that is that they can smash through not only the enemy units, but yours as well. And you have to choose if you want to destroy them or not.”


In the case of the flaming boulders, they weren’t always effective. While some crushed the attacking Roman troops, others veered off course down the hillside. But when they worked, they did some serious damage."

Poison arrows sounds interesting, i wonder what they'll do. Also fire pits are just awesome

Knew about this ages ago today.