Impressions, comments of a guy who played at E3
here it is:
I hope it hasn't been posted before
http://questgamingnetwork.mymiddleea...2-impressions/
E3, Editorial, PCJune 14, 2013
Total War: Rome 2 Impressions
T he world is ripe for the taking in the latest entry in the highly acclaimed Total War series. Total War: Rome 2 is a sequel to the 2004 hit Rome: Total War, and the world of ancient times has never looked better. I was able to sit down at the SEGA booth today and get my hands on the mighty armies of ancient Rome. What I saw blew me away. Additions have been made in game to bring further realism while managing your empire, and the debut of combination battles, where you control both land and naval units, is a welcome addition to the strategy.
The Campaign Map
One of the mainstays of the Total War genre has been their campaign map. This is where all of your micromanaging, recruiting, diplomacy as well as how you keep an eye on your rivals takes place. The map in recent games have become more and more detailed, but Rome 2 is the most beautiful yet. While we spent a lot of time seeing the map near the Nile River in North Africa, we did traverse to Syria, as well as Gaul and Germania to see a couple different regions. The forests, trees, hills and valleys looked simply stunning. Water looked realistic as waves crashed onto the shores of the Mediterranean, tossing the boats of both the Romans and the Egyptians with the waves.
The Nile, what would become our battleground.
The map spans from Spain to Afghanistan, Britan to Africa, so a large breadth of land is available to conquer. The map is separated by provinces with each having settlements to control. Conquer all of the settlements and you gain control of the province. The map also features Great Wonders, two of which we saw today was the Library of Alexandria and the Pyramids. Owning the province where these wonders are located is crucial, as they provide both local and global buffs to your faction.
The campaign map also changes due to your actions. One example of this is when you expand and build in a city you own. You can see the construction going on and the city getting bigger. As a result, the landscape around the city takes a different look and feel to it as well. One example of this is you are building a city and it happens to border a forest. Even if you don’t expand towards the forest, you still see the results of your construction as your city would use those resources to expand. Another example was farmland near a settlement in Gaul. Depending on how your city grew, we could see even more farmland appear to keep the city fed due to the higher population.
Factions and Diplomacy
In Total War: Rome 2, you have the opportunity to play as either 1 of 3 Roman Factions, or the rest of the world. The three Roman houses you could control are the Julia, Junia and Cornelia. Thanks to the inclusion of a new “politics” mechanic, you will not only be trying to out pace the other families on the field, but on the Senate floor as well. Your rivals can influence other houses and senators, and while some might support your cause, others will not. You can either support, extort, discredit and assassinate those rivals to allow you to gain a foothold.
Your ability to rise above your rivals will be shown in your political capital. Political Capital can be used to “purchase/adopt” better generals, but be warned: if your political capital and influence becomes too great, the other houses of Rome might see you as becoming too big for your own good and go to war with you. Because of this, any outward expansion must be placed on hold due to a civil war back at home. One way of equalizing this is through marriage. Marry into a lesser house and it brings down your capital, but increases theirs. Of course, the assassination your rival option is always there as well.
Gameplay
After the presentation from the team at Creative Assembly, we were finally given the chance to try out one of the new combination battles that they have been talking about. We could take the role of the attacking Romans, which was the harder route, or we could play as the defending Egyptians. Of course, I chose the Romans looking for a challenge.
The first thing I noticed was just how simply stunning the battlefield looked. The textures were beautiful, the water effects looked realistic, and everything just popped out on screen. The models of all the units on the battlefield looked as though they were meticulously crafted individually, adding more realism to the fight.
Gameplay opened up with a cut scene setting the stage for the battle. The Egyptians had the high ground and had heavily fortified it with powerful siege weaponry and defensive weapons such as flaming boulders to be rolled down the hill into an attacking army, etc. On the coastline your navy holding several armies of powerful Legionaries lay awaiting your orders, but the Egyptian navy was closing in fast. You troops were outnumbered without those reinforcements. Two options were presented: do you disembark your troops ahead of enemy lines and meet them up with the greater bulk of the 13th legion, or do you bring your navy behind enemy lines and close in the Egyptian position from both sides? Each decision had it’s own set of obstacles. By bringing your troops ashore to start the battle, you leave your army vulnerable to the onslaught of defensive weaponry the Eqyptians had laying in wait, but in order to bring them around the enemy force you would have to destroy the enemy navy.
This was by far the most important decision you had to make, as the success of this choice would be indicitive of the outcome of the entire battle. I talked with one of the developers afterwards, explaining that I have played every TW game since the original Shogun, and this was literally the hardest battle I have ever fought. He seemed pretty pleased when he heard that.
Back to the gameplay. One of the great features of Rome 2 is their legacy system. Your troops gain bonuses by winning battles and leveling up. But if your troops are destroying in a battle, you still have the ability to salvage those buffs and bonuses by raising that armies banner with another set of troops. So if the 13th legion fell in battle against the Egyptians, when we recruited a new army in Rome, we could raise the banner of the 13th Legion once again. The troops themselves will be green, but the bonuses your army gained will live on, thanks to the tradition of the army before it.
I decided to risk my navy in order to secure the more strategic position of flanking the enemy atop the hill. I sent my army on the ground in different directions in the hopes of causing some flanking situations when I assaulted the hill as well. I moved my navy to begin engaging the enemy naval units. It was when they clashed I remembered something: I am awful at Total War naval battles. At this point though it was too late to bring them out and try and maneuver around them the get as many units ashore as I could. While I was focusing on my navy, back on land the enemy was marshaling on my position. I sent some ground infantry to camouflage themselves in the jungle at the base of the hill, in the hopes I could draw the attention of the enemy one way and then flank from the left with this unit. The computer sniffed this out and as I was focused on the situation happening with my navy, I could hear my general yelling orders and the cries of people dying. I went back to see a host of elephant units absolutely decimating my troops as they approached the shelter of the trees. Realizing the only units I had that could contend with the elephants were my elephant troops, I sent them as well as my pilum spearmen to harass the enemy and force a retreat.
By the time those units arrived, my infantry lines broke and began to retreat. I did repel the attack of the elephants, only to realize that while my attention was focused there, my navy had been pretty much sunk – with the legionaries still inside. Realizing that defeat was probably imminent, I decided to just rush the hill in the hopes of taking some of the Egyptians with me. I took control of the a unit camera and watched as flaming boulders rolled through my lines, leaving paths of death and fire in their wake. More elephants began to rush through my armies, sending men flying in all directions. As a side note, I was pleasantly surprised to see as the bodies hit the ground, they left marks in the sand where they landed, adding some more realism to the scene unfolding.
This event did not grace my computer screen unfortunately.
I did manage to flank the Egyptian army from the right and take out a few of their siege weaponry, and from there my heavy cavalry and elephant troops bared down on the enemy position. Unfortunately, though I was winning battles atop the hill now, my army was pretty well decimated. Even with the little victories with my cavalry and elephants, my infantry, general and ranged units trying to come up the hill were either dead or fleeing.
Thankfully, before complete destruction could be realized, the time limit on the demo ended and we were thanked for the time spent taking a look at the game. Only one person out of 20 won their battle (he chose the Eqyptians, so even the Creative Assembly guys didn’t think it counted) and I left their booth wanting more.
Conclusion
Having played every Total War game in the series, I can see Total War: Rome 2 easily surpassing the rest of the titles by a long shot. With new systems to make your game even deeper, the ease in which they made how you recruit troops and construct your cities, the political intrigue that you will have to balance within Rome and beyond, and learning to balance naval and land battles to your advantage, Rome 2 is shaking up to be one of the best games of the year, and the defining game in the Total War series.
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Originally Posted by Sol Invictus
Re: Rome II: Total War - News, Features, Articles & Interviews
Interesting read!
