Rome II - 2 Months Later - Feedback needed

[Humble Warrior]

5. Free? Or an option to pay what I want like humble bundle?

lol. Made me laugh. For some reason...

[Americanus Supremus]

1-What would you give the game out of 10? Release 4/10 Currently 6/10

2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything). Pathetic AI, Sieges being unplayable if defending a walled city, Many MAJOR cities badly misrepresented to appease Fan Boys and Noob gamers, transports auto build even for factions with no port and that are land locked, No challenge in any mode unless you play be many house rules, No depth to city building, No immersion with Characters, No seasons, the ABSLOTE NEED to have mods to make this game even partly playable, the WHORING of DLC, The unit build structure, No manpower, The bs province system that is the same for everyone, No family tree, Agent Rampages, Lack of any depth in the Political scene, Faction Carthage is neutered while its made up faction Carthago Nova was added so as not to confuse said Fan Boys and Noob Gamers with no knowledge of basic history (Does CA even know who its target customers are?) The army building system so you cant have an army without a General takes away from game play so they have a CHEAT way to fix their Pathetic AI, the AI not protecting its cities (THEY RUN FROM YOU) the AI just allowing a siege to go on and on and then not even fight the battle because the odds are even (Totally makes sense to just give up and die rather than FIGHT, FFS this is supposed to be TW) Trade connections having to have direct lines to capital (though when surrounded by Allies and Client states your trade CAN NOT PASS, again totally makes sense)

3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes? Ummm NO!!!! Where have they been? All I hear are crickets... Oh they are busy developing more DLC to make more $$$$

4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now? Hell no, have already told three not to buy it. Told them about bugs and problems, and actually gave one my copies of RTW 1 and MTW 2 and am now regretting it as those two titles are far and away better than Rome 2. Anyone who thinks other wise is to caught up in the pretty colors and graphics of this blobbed out buggy mess.

5-What price is this game worth in your opinion? 20 bucks tops, that is including all the bs DLC that has been released so far... Fcking bull that the Greek Cities and Seleucid aren't part of the fcking original game... CA = Whores for the almighty dollar/euro/pound/insert your countries monetary note here...

6-What are you most impressed with in the game? Ummm all the pretty colors, the broken formations, the mass blob effect in battles, the auto transport builds, oh and did I tell you about the thermite torches? So much can be taught to us today from this games representation of antiquity. Not much really to be impressed with other than the amount of corners cut to release this game before some more well established titles hit the market BF4, AC Black Flag, GTA 5, FIFA 14, Batman just to name a few. I really am impressed with that, and CA/Sega's business ethics and accountability they are SUPERIOR TO ERRRRBODY ELSE (#MajorSarcasamInCaseYouDontGetIt)

7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything). Just read all my above statements, there is PLENTY to work on without depending on modders to SAVE YOUR GAME

8-How many hours of Rome II have you played? 540 hours played though several of those were spent in frustration watching countless campaigns devolve into me fighting the minor factions hordes of hillmen, levy spear and levy pike because the majors (Rome, Ptolmy, Macedon, Seleucid, Carthage) are all destroyed or on there last leg by turn 50.... Turn 50!!!!! that's not even 200bc if your playing CA's bs 1 turn = 1 year. Hope you don't want to play with any of the cool units because the game is over by the time you get them... Game is total sandbox bull . The fan boys have won and destroyed one of my favorite franchises of all times. Congrats you have gotten the game you have always wanted. Something that presents no challenge so your preciously soft and easily hurt egos get a boost from beating up on AI that has the intelligence of a mentally challenged two year old. Bravo indeed fan boy, bravo...

9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer? Would love to play but it to suffers from a POOR ORIGINAL GAME. Why play something broken unless the old adage holds true, misery loves company... (Runs off to play multiplayer)

I know I am forgetting some stuff so please forgive me, I have been playing some other games of late (BF4, GTA5, AC4 etc), ones that aren't released with loads of problems IE anything outside of a SEGA release. This game should have been/could have been the best game of all time in my opinion, sadly it ranks just above the worst for me mostly because of the unrealized expectations and false advertisement.

Ive said this before and I will say it again here, if aint broke don't fix it... Once the wheel has been created, you don't keep recreating the wheel, you make some cool as stuff to put that wheel on...

[VINC.XXIII]

8-How many hours of Rome II have you played? 540 hours played though several of those were spent in frustration watching countless campaigns devolve into me fighting the minor factions hordes of hillmen, levy spear and levy pike because the majors (Rome, Ptolmy, Macedon, Seleucid, Carthage) are all destroyed or on there last leg by turn 50....

A honest review

[General George S. Patton]

1-What would you give the game out of 10?7

2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything).the cpu optimization and the fact its still the warscape engine

3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes?admittedly very good

4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now?yes

5-What price is this game worth in your opinion?no new games are worth 60$ should still be 50

6-What are you most impressed with in the game?graphics

7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything).campaign depth

8-How many hours of Rome II have you played?bout 30-40

9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer?played it a bit but im not good at it, not bad but shogun 2's was better

[RandyRhoads]

1. 5/10
2. Nothing seems to work as promised.
3. Did well on optimization but still a ton of fixing to do. Instead they chug out broken DLC.
4. Not really.
5. 30 euro (based on how the market works, I wouldn't pay 5 for this)
6. The way the cities look on the campaign map (even tho their development is bare bones now)
7. Nothing really... For me it's broken beyond repair, it can never reach the promised potential with this engine and lack of testing.
8. 50
9. Haven't played and don't plan to.

[DarrenTotalWar]

Again thanks to everyone who helped with this, I have most of the video done as a result and will be posting it Sunday for those interested. www.youtube.com/darrentotalwar is where you guys can find it.

[Unchained]

1-What would you give the game out of 10?

At launch, I would say, maybe a 3 or a 4 out of 10. Currently, I feel 5 or 4 out of 10 is fair. Let's call it an even 4.5/10.


2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything).

The biggest issue with the game is that it has some fundamental flaws. It's not just a few CTDs here and there. The issue is that there were some bad design decisions that were made:

- Poor UI design compared to Shogun 2
- Battle AI and Computer AI have serious deficiencies. While I do not expect it to stand up to a veteran human, I feel a reasonable degree of competence is expected.
- Sieges seem to be broken
- There continue to be balance and performance issues (sometimes frame rate drops, especially it seems on AMD hardware)
- Certain things that add depth like seasons are missing
- There is no attachment towards the generals, or leaders because their is no character development
- We do not have the ability to play the battles on the scale of Shogun anymore
- Faction variety isn't really variety in a sense; unit design at times appears to have been poorly thought out

I feel like they ignored all of the lessons from Shogun 2 and Empire, and made several steps backwards.


3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes?
They appear to have done a decent job at slowly fixing the CTDs and some of the lagging issues.

However, the game design decisions have not been acknowledged, much less have any fixes been attempted.


4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now?
I would not.

I would recommend that they wait and see if this game continues to be patched and that CA continues to address the issues currently affecting this title. I would also recommend waiting until the prices drop.


5-What price is this game worth in your opinion?
Approximately ~$15-$20 USD. Given the lack of replayability and the other issues surrounding this game, I do not feel that the full retail price is justified.

6-What are you most impressed with in the game?
I found the regions to be quite visually pleasing.

7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything).
Better communication with the hardcore base players. CA needs to listen. This is a niche genre. There just isn't the playerbase of say, WoW.

Implement the game the hardcore want and the rest will take care of itself. Also, for future games, delay releases rather than release in a poor state.


8-How many hours of Rome II have you played?
Perhaps 40 hours in total.9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer?

I am underwhelmed by it. It feels like they've taken out the features that made Shogun 2 distinct in MP. I think that they need to understand what was well received (the avatar system) and build on it. There are also many poor unit design choices made that affect balance. I think that they need a ground up overhaul.

[EireEmerald]

1-What would you give the game out of 10?

5

2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything).


lack of personal immersion in the game, annoying glitches and bugs, the enemy never attack me, EVER in a uniform and strategic way on the campaign map.

3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes?

Too early to say, but i have noticed slight improvements.

4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now?

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. no

5-What price is this game worth in your opinion?

10 euro

6-What are you most impressed with in the game?s

ome of the new battle featues, line of sight, battle kill features.

7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything).

something is missing, that is all i can say.

8-How many hours of Rome II have you played?

10 - 15

9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer?

no

[Red River]

Again thanks to everyone who helped with this, I have most of the video done as a result and will be posting it Sunday for those interested. www.youtube.com/darrentotalwar is where you guys can find it.

there's no videos there.. guess will have to wait 'til Sunday(hopefully tomorrow)

[gary]

1-What would you give the game out of 10?

7.

2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything).

Optimization for high end computers and the BAI and CAI.

3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes?

Not really as i am still waiting for my i7 to be able to run this game, and the AI is still very poor.

4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now?

As it is now, i would not recommend this game to anyone who wants to play a RTS, stick to Shogun.

5-What price is this game worth in your opinion?

£15

6-What are you most impressed with in the game?

The music is great and also the animations look really good also the sound effects are great. The cinema view is cool to.

7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything).

The AI for both campaign and battlefield need to be looked at also the optimization so those who have spent good money on pc can actually run the game, Guard mode needs to be brought back as an option as the default mode just does not work, the battles need to be longer as over way to quick, family tree brought back, the magic spears of the phalanx needs to be fixed, buildings and tech need to be more varied and not streamlined. etc, etc.

8-How many hours of Rome II have you played?

200

9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer?

No.

Thanks very much everyone.

[Huberto]

1-What would you give the game out of 10? I give it a three out of ten only because I had no glaring technical problems. This is probably the worst PC strategy game I've ever played.

2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything). I think the game is an attempt to make easy money off of gullible young people; many of the design decisions reflect an arrogant and lazy approach to historical games and the blood DLC is a slap in the face to the fan base.

3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes? No I tried it out last week and it seemed the same. The AI certainly is still bad. Note that I didn't have crashes and long wait times that others had.

4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now? Very strongly no.

5-What price is this game worth in your opinion? Under $10 including all DLC

6-What are you most impressed with in the game? Good question. I'm genuinely impressed by how bad it is. I bought it after release and I thought it would be awful, but I had no idea of the enormity of the fail involved.

7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything). There are many profound, game breaking problems with the AI. In addition and no less significantly, they need to radically rework the game systems, not unlike the way Civ V was reworked by Firaxis over a period of several years. Honestly the game is so bad they should scrap it ASAP and get to work on a new engine or sell the franchise.

8-How many hours of Rome II have you played?
About 45 hours of futility trying to finish a campaign and I'm done. I've never played less than 300 hours in any TW stand alone title since my first one, M2TW.
9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer?
Don't play TW multiplayer.

[DarrenTotalWar]

there's no videos there.. guess will have to wait 'til Sunday(hopefully tomorrow)

Yeah its a new channel, I previously did videos on www.youtube.com/collegegamingvideos but decided to make a Rome only channel

[Ichon]

1-What would you give the game out of 10?

6/10 now as it is playable but there remain some serious problems.

2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything).

Sieges, meaningless politics, missile accuracy/balance (including especially artillery) poor economic balance after 50 turns, very low challenge compared to Shogun 2, map layout, lack of imagination of map resources and upkeep costs.

3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes?

Not sure how to answer that... many of the bugs have been fixed but I still had land ships after patch 4 and occasionally stutter when AI landed boats near walled town after patch 5 while sieges, multiplayer, and replays remain broken so as of patch 5 I quit playing until at least the next few patches.

4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now?

No. If CA gets sieges in a better state even with remaining more problems I would recommend but walled sieges seem to compromise a good 1/3 of battles if not more (since I auto resolve some unwalled settlement sieges if I think there is absolutely no chance for one side or the other). With 1/3 or more of the battles broken it is not worth the time yet.

5-What price is this game worth in your opinion?

$14.99 USD basically a clearance price game as the sieges and AI is a huge problem while Rome 2 has FAR less multi support and many crashes still so playing vs AI is the only option. However naval battles and improved graphics are worth something.

6-What are you most impressed with in the game?

Naval battles despite some problem are the first ones I've enjoyed in TW. Unit cam is nice addition and would be especially wonderful if replays worked.

7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything).

Sieges need to be fixed. If CA can't fix sieges in Rome 2 I won't buy Warhammer as sieges are going to be very important part of a Warhammer themed game and CA has had almost a decade to either fix siege AI or probably re-think how sieges are portrayed in the game.

8-How many hours of Rome II have you played?

Due to Steam bug I'm not exactly sure but Steam currently shows me at 224 but I'd guess at least half that since it shows me over 600 hours of Shogun 2 and I know for sure last time I really played it was around 260 something.

9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer?

I've tried it, not really enjoyed it mostly due to balancing or units and cost + frequent crashes.

[shogon]

1-What would you give the game out of 10?

5. I would give it a 2 but I hope in a few months it will be better, so I won't give it a metacritic reciew.

2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything).

How the game turned out.

3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes?

They are updating, but I have yet to enjoy the fixes.

4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now?

Certainly no.

5-What price is this game worth in your opinion?

$15 for the game including all the DLC.

6-What are you most impressed with in the game?

It doesn't crash anymore.

7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything).

So much, the forums have done a good job pointing that out.

8-How many hours of Rome II have you played?

Less then 10.

9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer?


No.

[General Sherman]

1. 6/10 Thats what it has been since release, none of the patches I have tried have addressed the core design issues I have with the game.
2. I'm upset with the lack of cohesive design for the game. We get the most detailed unit models of Roman era soldiers yet, with astonishing fidelity to the historical record, along with the most arcade style battles TW has ever done. This tells me that there was no single overarching concept driving the development of the game.
3. They've been nibbling around the edges. I've stopped paying much attention to the updates as CA doesn't seem interested in making games I want to play anymore, or I no longer seem interested in playing games they make.
4. As a comparison to Shogun2, this game does fairly well. With recent patches its probably about 85% of what shogun2 had to offer, so yes; I would recommend this game to Shogun2 fans.
5. 40$ US. The 60 dollar price-tag is one of my biggest gripes. There is no reason other than greed and obstinacy to charge a price designed to cover the overhead of distribution of a physical product for a digitally distributed game.
6. The unit models. They are detailed and mostly historically accurate.
7. A complete re-evaluation of how battles play out. They are way too arcade. The presence of so many cooldown "special abilities" strongly suggests this was a design decision, and it is an atrocious one imo.
8. According to steam, 124 hours. I've heard there are some bugs there though, and have seen my "hours played" jump from 194 DOWN to 120 when launching the game.
9. I have never played the MP.

[mephhhh]

1-What would you give the game out of 10?
6
2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything).
lack of family tree and lack of detail in UI
3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes?
the game design direction is wrong.
4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now?
i dont know about shogun but i would not recommend this game to anyone right now
5-What price is this game worth in your opinion?
$30
6-What are you most impressed with in the game?
ummmm im not sure
7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything).
more details. family tree. ai needs to field better larger armies
8-How many hours of Rome II have you played?
~100
9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer?
i cant get it to work

[Mhantra]

1-What would you give the game out of 10? 8.5

2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything). The gaming community is one of the worst I have ever seen. Shameful.

3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes? Wonderful. It is stable and has been taken in a positive direction.

4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now? I did recommend it, he loves it, we play coop campaign and we are having a blast. It replaced Shogun 2.

5-What price is this game worth in your opinion? $60

6-What are you most impressed with in the game? The epic scale, the depth of strategy, even the limitations of armies that makes me have to make difficult decisions to expand (including diplomacy)

7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything). Seige AI especially, AI in general.

8-How many hours of Rome II have you played? 89

9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer? It has been fantastic for coop campaign for my brother in law and I. Epic battles, gotten crushed once by over expanding.

[Leonidas II]

1. I would give it 6/10
2. I'm upset about the terrible performance problems this game has on good computers
3. They adressed many things , but did not improve the performance at all
4. No I wouldn't , because it's a HUGE downgrade compared to shogun 2 and my friend would be shocked.
5. 12.99 $
6. The good mods that improve this game a lot
7. Performance must be fixed , CPU bottleneck must be removed , gameplay features must be added (which were removed or not even made) , price must be lowered , DLC must be given for free
8. I have played enough to know it's unfinished.
9. Multiplayer is not enjoyable ( beacuse of the poor content , compared to Shogun 2)

[The Roman Republic]

1-What would you give the game out of 10?
7/10

2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything).
The amount of advertised and highlighted features that were shown and projected to us, to then have been wiped out and no where to seen from the release.

3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes?
They could be doing better in my opinion, I still feel the game is way beyond from a finished stable version and I hope CA realize this.

4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now?
Only if they were wiling to use mods to make the game better.

5-What price is this game worth in your opinion?
Most beta's/Alphas are sold at the same price as it will be when it's retailed, however I feel that Rome 2 was in CA's eyes a full game release and so they charged it at the same price as any company would.

6-What are you most impressed with in the game?
The optimization, it gives hope to low-end performance computer gamers that the next few TW games will be playable on a lower-end computer for the first time.

7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything).
Less of the arcade route, more of the realistic.
8-How many hours of Rome II have you played?
Steam has logged me in at 117 hours
9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer?
Haven't been able to play one multiplayer battle, having errors with version compatibility.

[DaGrenadier]

1-What would you give the game out of 10?
6/10 post patch, 3/10 at release.

2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything).
The shallow nature of the game, True this franchise has progressed in terms of graphics but has taken huge steps backwards in regards to immersion like features, It
feels like this game is targeted to the 300 fan club that want flashy battles and strategy be damned. And lets not forget the launch disaster.

3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes?
yes and no. Its better now with a few patches but it still far from a enjoyable experience but i absolutely despise the DLC whoring.

4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now?
no.

5-What price is this game worth in your opinion?
15£
6-What are you most impressed with in the game?
graphics.

7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything).
Siege AI needs a complete overhaul, add back features that where missing from previous total wars and fix the halfbaked politics system and the retarded AI
but seeing as this has been an age old problem i'll guess we have to be satisfied with Radious(god bless him)

8-How many hours of Rome II have you played?
Steam says 121 hours

9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer?
cant get the f***king thing to work!! GRRR