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Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 65 Critics What's this?

User Score
3.8

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 2442 Ratings

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  • Summary: Become the world’s first superpower and command the most incredible and vast war machine of the Ancient world. Dominate the enemies of your glorious empire by military, economic and political means. Your ascendency will yield admiration from your followers but will also attract greed and jeaealousy, even from your closest allies. Will betrayal strike you down, or will you be the first to turn on old friends? How much are you ready to sacrifice for your vision of Rome? Will you fight to save the Republic, or plot to rule alone as Dictator — as Emperor? Total War: Rome 2. Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 48 out of 65
  2. Negative: 5 out of 65
  1. Sep 2, 2013
    100
    Rome II is a testament to all that is great about PC gaming and should be a must buy for all its followers.
  2. Sep 2, 2013
    90
    Rome 2 is the product of years of experience and the work of a studio that finally found the perfect harmony between RTS and turn-based. The developers changed certain parts drastically, but created a game that can surprise you at any time and offers a great deal of depth.
  3. Sep 4, 2013
    90
    After the first 10-12 hours, anyone could be enraptured by the enormous content of the game and start a real fight against themselves, trying to master the finer aspects of this wonderful title.
  4. Sep 4, 2013
    80
    The age-old problems that have plagued Total War since its inception, which were mitigated with such great skill in the last game, return with a vengeance. As much fun as the battles often are, I never feel like I’m masterminding the rise of an empire against all odds – and that lack keeps any grand strategy game from realizing its full potential.
  5. Sep 18, 2013
    80
    If you’re willing to put in the effort and learn what Total War: Rome 2 wants to teach you then you’ll find a game that is deeper, more robust, and more detailed than any strategy game that’s come before it.
  6. Oct 5, 2013
    73
    I have only one thing to say about this game: caveat emptor! [Oct 2013]
  7. Sep 6, 2013
    20
    I am astonished at the state of this game. Did they think that I wouldn’t notice the clumsy interface, the wretched documentation, the absolutely untenable naval combat, the weird bugs, the lock-ups, the game-killing glitches? Did they think I wouldn’t notice the AI? Did they really think this was an acceptable AI for a single-player game? A single player game with disappointing multiplayer compared to the clever multiplayer in their last release?

See all 65 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Sep 3, 2013
    10
    Being a great fan of all Total War games, I was of course awaiting the newest entry with great anticipation. I was aware that perhaps I would be disappointed, with so much hope and hype around this game.
    Rome 2 does not disappoint. This monumental game is a technical achievement, that will only get better with time, as any bugs expected from any gigantic game such as this will be ironed out, and new factions/units are added throughout time. The graphics are astonishingly good, and the animations bring unparalleled realism to the battlefield. Only caveat, this game may seem a bit daunting to new players of the series, but it will not disappoint when mastered.
    CA has proofed they have the drive and the might to achieve a masterpiece such as Rome, and they did it again with Rome 2.
    Expand
  2. Sep 10, 2013
    9
    Pro:
    Fantastic graphics on high end gaming rigs
    The best battles of the series
    The best strategy layer of the series
    Addictive, fun, acces
    sible

    Con:
    AI is terrible on the strategy layer (Bugged?) It runs its cities into the ground and splits its units into lots of tiny stacks. I'm playing on normal and haven't tried the higher difficulties yet.
    AI is poor on the battlefield. I don't mind this so much because I'm not very good and I enjoy having the opportunity to out manoeuvre someone.
    Battle graphics are worse than recent games in the series on low-mid PCs. But at least the game works smoothly and very playable on the lowest specs.

    Overall the pros outweigh the cons to such an extreme degree that I have no hesitation giving this 9/10 and would go to 10/10 if they can improve the AI's strategy efforts.
    Expand
  3. Sep 6, 2013
    5
    I have a middle of the range computer like most of you will and this game just doesn't run as well as the rest of the series,i love total war and have all of them but this beta of a game is a let down,the game lacks substance and the draw in factor of other titles,its sad and hopefully they will fix it but i have no trust in the game any more you can see me playing Rome 1 or empire over this until its fixed Expand
  4. Sep 6, 2013
    2
    I've enjoyed the Total War series immensely through the years: I even enjoyed Empire at release as I didn't really encounter any of the crashes others did, and the bugs that were there were play through-able Rome 2 on the other hand, is a half finished game; I hope they realise their mistakes and patch it relentlessly to get it up to scratch as I want this game to be a success but right now, as it is, it's not even deserving of a 5/10 average score Expand
  5. Sep 14, 2013
    1
    Dear oh dear oh dear. What a complete shambles. It's not that there are bugs in this game; sadly that's par for the course these days. It's not that the turn ends take far too long; in fact, everything takes far too long, for too little benefit. It's not even that it's lost a lot of the attractive features of previous games in the series in the name of streamlining; change has to happen and that's fair enough. It's that the end result is a complete, unplayable, mess.

    Bad AI? Check. Poor performance? Check. Dire documentation? Check. Poorly designed new features? Check. Lack of balance? Check. Lack of usability? Check. This game is a textbook example of how NOT to design a game. That they took such a good series and somehow turned it into this deserves some sort of award. Preferably the sort that involved unemployment.

    Don't bother buying it now; wait a couple of months and you'll find it in the bargain basement at $5, which frankly would still be overpriced.
    Expand
  6. Oct 13, 2013
    0
    I registered just so I could highlight my digust for this effort by CA. First and foremost, I am a fan of the Total War series starting with the first Shogun. This game is unfinished, pure and simple. If the game was play-tested, you can hardly tell. It is so obvious it was rushed out before it was ready. Commercial decisions came at the expense of the consumer.

    Shame on you CA, I will never pre-order anything from you again. I am placing you right because EA on my naughty list.

    And shame on all magazine reviewers who gave this more than 5.0. Either your reviews are shoddily researched or you have no journalistic integrity. Or maybe both.
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  7. Sep 5, 2013
    0
    The games should never have been released in its current state for the following reasons:
    - Poorly optimized
    - Removal of popular features f
    or no good reason e.g fire at will for infantry, guard mode, tight/loose and no family tree.
    - CA have simplified the game for the masses in terms of game play and UI, it looks like they have consoles in mind e.g tech trees and less facts and figures
    - AI is useless, armies made up of skirmishers and the AI has tactical awareness above rushing the flag or standing still
    - Game play is arcadey in terms of 2 minute battles because of game speed, also stupid magical abilities and the units lose all tactical cohesion breaking formation and forming a large blob
    -Worst idea is the frustrating capture points which remove any strategy in battles as I'm forced to defend an open field and can lose a battle despite having 20units left to the AI's 1, IMO this addition is just a cheap way of simplifying the AI path finding as it forces both armies to a single spot
    - Many many glitches on both campaign and battle maps
    - Most annoying aspect is many of the problems are clear to gamers within a few hours of playing so this shows CA are either completely inept and haven't tested their game or consulted their core fan base or they knew of the problems and released the game regardless either way next time I wont be buying the game on day one or per-ordering as I'm not interested in paying CA to be their game tester.
    Expand

See all 1315 User Reviews