The Pros and Cons of Rome II
I feel like I'm part of the 1% enjoying this game. I know a lot people can't even run the game but honestly if you can't even run the game than you can't have fair judgement of the game because you can't play it. I understand the anger, and the anger is more than warranted but reserve your actual judgement until you can actually play the game.
First off I'd like to say that I used some of these fixes to improve my game performance. I gained about 10-15 FPS from these fixes and I'm now able to play the game at a much smoother rate than before. It actually runs much closer to how I ran Shogun 2. Performance can still be a little better but the game is definitely playable now for me until the game is patched up more.
http://forums.totalwar.com/showthrea...p-PLEASE-READ?
(make sure also the check out the fix on page 15)
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Honestly, I don't feel that this game has that many negatives if you can manage to calm down and judge the game from an objective based perspective.
Major Cons:
-Crap optimization (this however can definitely be fixed from patches. if fixes that involve me downloading beta drivers and editing the preference files helped tremendously. then I know patches and official drivers will definitely solve this problem)
-Game speed too fast (this is easily fixable by editing unit stats)
-Campaign AI recruits too many skirmishers in an army. This makes battle much easier than it should be. (again this is fixable)
Minor Cons:
- No tight/loose formation or guard mode.
- The fact that armies can sail without a "real" navy. I like the idea of an army using transport ships but I think CA should really limit armies that travel on transport ships. For example, making armies travelling by transport ship have much less move points than a real navy. Also restriction of navy movement to only their own territory. I feel that if an army wants to sail in another faction's waters, it must declare war. As of now, I think this mechanism of the game makes it too easy to sail and doesn't encourage the player to build a real navy.
- Multiplayer. What happened to the great ranked quick match system and really neat avatar system from Shogun 2? I was really hoping it would be in Rome 2 but it is sadly not.
Neither good, nor bad:
- No family tree system. I guess it makes the game make somewhat more realistic as it makes a lot of sense for republican factions but there's no fear of losing your family in battle that could lose your entire faction like in previous TW games. New generals just respawn infinitely for free. CA needs to find a way to make you get attached more to your generals. Perhaps putting a cost in replacing a general. I do like the little video that plays when your general dies though that does help.
- Battle AI. From my own gameplay, the battle AI is about the same level is as good as Shogun 2 or a little better. Which is acceptable. CA advertised a much improved AI however.
- The UI can feel a little bloated at times but I feel that one can adjust to this.
- The politics system. I personally like those events where you can make a choice to avoid bad omens for example. Overall however, it's kinda useless but the idea is good. CA needs to expand on it.
- Unit abilities. I think unit abilities are fantastic for example for a general unit so it can raise it's army's morale. That's actually realistic however, almost every unit has some sort of ability. Other than a general, I think there should be way less abilities and abilities should be restricted to elite units for example.
- Soundtrack is one of the few things overlooked by many but can have a significant impact. A great soundtrack will subconsciously lure in players who don't even really care about the music into staying in the game more to hear more of the great music subconsciously. For the people who really do listen to the soundtrack, a great soundtrack will add even more gratification. Unfortunately the soundtrack of Rome 2 is very bland. This is very subjective, but I personally find the soundtrack of this game to be pretty boring. It's not bad, but it definitely doesn't incite me to play more like in previous TW games where Jeff Van Dyck was the composer.
Minor pros:
- The garrison system, the food system, technology system, and replenishment rate system all carried over from Shogun 2 and work perfectly in this game.
- The culture system. I really like for example if a barbarian faction took over a province from you and you try to take the province back, the enemy can't use the garrison against you in battle and use other buildings in your province until they convert your buildings over into their culture.
- Campaign AI. I think the campaign AI does well in terms of maneuvering. Early game as Sparta, I was attacked early and was pressured by Epirus multiple times, and at one point during the campaign a barbarian faction took over Pella, Larissa, and Macedon, and even took Sparta from me for one turn as I was campaigning in Epirus. I've had some very aggressive AI in my early Sparta campaign. (This could be a major pro, but I'll reserve judgement a little longer until I for example get into late game)
- I like the stance system. I think it's useful and it's well balanced by consequences.
- Graphics. Graphics are a small improvement over Shogun 2 but that's personally good enough for me.
Major pros:
- The units. More historically accurate than Rome 1 and great unit design. I sincerely love the unit variety. The units available for each faction perfectly represent the faction. Every faction seems quite balanced as well in terms of military. Because of this, people will be able to use any faction online for example.
- Diplomacy. No longer does diplomacy feel purely aesthetic as in Rome 1 for example. Treaties, and trade agreements for example really stick in this game
- I really like the region system in this game. My favorite part about it is how it drastically reduces the number of sieges where you could easily exploit the AI. The region system feels very realistic and feels like one is actually governing a region compared to the relentless sieging in previous Total War games.
- In combination with all the campaign elements listed in the minor pros and major pros, this is the best single player TW campaign yet.
- Line of sight. This new game mechanic adds a lot of extra depth to battle. For example in a battle with a friend online, I was able to totally surprise him with cavalry that I marched behind a hill. Against Epirus in my Spartan campaign where I was outnumbered 2:1, I was engaging one army and the other army marched right behind me and his units did not become visible until his units were literally right behind me and Epirus charged elephants into my Spartans. Awesome.
- Amphibious battles. CA really did this well here. Not only is it simple and easy to use a navy during battle, extra depth is added in the game with the option to flank your enemy with ships. The AI actually uses navies in battle at an acceptable skill as well.
- The sound design in this game is incredible. The voice acting, units speaking to each other, the small speech the general gives after you start the battle, the sound effects. The sound of this game truly helps immerse you into the game.
As one can see, there are more pros than cons in Rome 2 and the major cons of Rome 2 are easily fixable. In fact, every con of Rome 2 is fixable to an extent. It's a really good game if you look at it in an objective based perspective.
All this focus on negativity was seriously starting to get to me as well and made me no longer feel like playing the game. However, looking and thinking about the positive aspects of Rome 2 makes me more than enthusiastic to continue to play the game.
With patches Rome 2 can become the undisputed greatest TW game of all time and the patches are coming.
Stay positive.
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Re: The Pros and Cons of Rome II
Originally Posted by Smartbomb
