EDIT: I initially wrote this review two months after Rome 2 was released, which I think is obvious given my reaction to it. Total War games are, since Empire, not known for being in a particularly high-quality state at launch, but Rome 2 really took the biscuit. It was dreadful.

Anyway, fast forward seven months. It's almost the end of June now, and Rome 2 has received 13 patches to date, as well as two main DLC expansions and several "free-LC" updates. The second of those major DLC expansions, Hannibal At The Gates, brought me back to Rome 2, and I have to say that the state of the game is far improved. Those awful "capture the flag" bits are gone, the technical performance of the game is better, there are more factions, more units, more features, more everything. The HatG mini-campaign is (annoying Agents aside) about as close to a perfect Total War campaign as I could ask for, and the factions are more balanced. Those unbearable turn-load times I mentioned before? Dealt with. Basically almost everything has been improved.

There're still some glaring errors- siege AI remains fundamentally thick-headed, naval battles are still dogged by the AI insisting on clumping all its ships together in a mess when it regroups, and the policy of charging for factions still makes me sick- but the game is in a state where it can be played and enjoyed. That mod that brings the original Rome music into the game is brilliant too!

I've left the original review below.

* * * * * * * *

Given how much I was looking forward to this after the first Rome game, Rome 2 is disappointment in video game form. Technical issues have abounded from day 1- it looks like I've got over 100 hours logged, but most of that was spent waiting for the AI to take its turns. Though this and many other issues have since been patched, it's a mark of how important it is for a game to launch with at least a pretence of smoothness: I haven't gone back to Rome 2 in a month. It's not just the bugs that have killed my enjoyment, it's some quite fundamental alterations to the way the game plays as well as some baffling design choices. As usual, the game lacks difficulty after a certain point, and the game's attempt to introduce a mid/late-game challenge is to spawn rebels with inexplicable amounts of troops instead of, say, actually building up enemies to be a threat. Agents are more of an irritation than anything else; the AI seems to prefer a bunch of smaller armies instead of larger ones that makes fighting them more akin to a game of whack-a-mole than anything else; multiplayer has been utterly eviscerated since Shogun 2.

There are some bright spots: the new cinematic mode makes engagements a joy to watch, for instance, and the army traditions help breed attachment to your forces and can lead to some nice emerging stories. Unfortunately this is nowhere near enough to make up for the disappointment of everything else- the AI, the design choices, the multiplayer, the loathesome attitude towards DLC. Avoid if at all possible.

EDIT: I initially wrote this review two months after Rome 2 was released, which I think is obvious given my reaction to it. Total War games are, since Empire, not known for being in a particularly high-quality state at launch, but Rome 2 really took the biscuit. It was dreadful. Anyway, fast forward seven months. It's almost the end of June now, and Rome 2 has received 13 patches to date, as well as two main DLC expansions and several "free-LC" updates. The second of those major DLC expansions, Hannibal At The Gates, brought me back to Rome 2, and I have to say that the state of the game is far improved. Those awful "capture the flag" bits are gone, the technical performance of the game is better, there are more factions, more units, more features, more everything. The HatG mini-campaign is (annoying Agents aside) about as close to a perfect Total War campaign as I could ask for, and the factions are more balanced. Those unbearable turn-load times I mentioned before? Dealt with. Basically almost everything has been improved. There're still some glaring errors- siege AI remains fundamentally thick-headed, naval battles are still dogged by the AI insisting on clumping all its ships together in a mess when it regroups, and the policy of charging for factions still makes me sick- but the game is in a state where it can be played and enjoyed. That mod that brings the original Rome music into the game is brilliant too! I've left the original review below. * * * * * * * * Given how much I was looking forward to this after the first Rome game, Rome 2 is disappointment in video game form. Technical issues have abounded from day 1- it looks like I've got over 100 hours logged, but most of that was spent waiting for the AI to take its turns. Though this and many other issues have since been patched, it's a mark of how important it is for a game to launch with at least a pretence of smoothness: I haven't gone back to Rome 2 in a month. It's not just the bugs that have killed my enjoyment, it's some quite fundamental alterations to the way the game plays as well as some baffling design choices. As usual, the game lacks difficulty after a certain point, and the game's attempt to introduce a mid/late-game challenge is to spawn rebels with inexplicable amounts of troops instead of, say, actually building up enemies to be a threat. Agents are more of an irritation than anything else; the AI seems to prefer a bunch of smaller armies instead of larger ones that makes fighting them more akin to a game of whack-a-mole than anything else; multiplayer has been utterly eviscerated since Shogun 2. There are some bright spots: the new cinematic mode makes engagements a joy to watch, for instance, and the army traditions help breed attachment to your forces and can lead to some nice emerging stories. Unfortunately this is nowhere near enough to make up for the disappointment of everything else- the AI, the design choices, the multiplayer, the loathesome attitude towards DLC. Avoid if at all possible.