Straight to my vote: the game is "somewhat" playable after patch 7, not total garbage like on day 1, with some mods the score could reach a 6/6.5 (average), though some moments on campaign/battles can be rated easily as an 8: unfortunately these moments happen not so often and don't last very much.

But i'm downvoting it because the game has still SERIOUS BUGS, GAME DESIGN FLAWS, and the BEHAVIOR OF CA IS TOTALLY OFFENSIVE on its fans.

These especially make me totally pissed:


-Combat system is totally arcadish and not enjoyable: fastest battles of the franchise, magic abilities, BS flags, TORCHES, formations don't matter, blobbing, almost no "gameplay" unit diversity between factions.

-AI alternates moment of cleverness to totally stupid moments, especially on sieges, where sometimes the AI freezes, and, if you are the defender, you are forced to sally out, or wait the 60 minutes timer goes off (siege AI on Rome I and Med 2 was a lot better, and those AI were not the top: after 3 months from release is still not properly patched...).

-Boring and broken naval battles, alongside a horrific non-working political systems.

-Stripped down features from previous games (guard mode, family tree, fire at will for legionaries and so on).

-CA keeps releasing BS panoramic screenshots or trailers, saying they are made with Rome II engine (they are not, they are trying to cheat more people with that BS!) instead of creating cutscenes especially designed for the game (a big lack on the game)!

-Instead of properly patching the game, they are keeping releasing DLCs over DLCs. Till now we have blood&gore, nomadic pack, greek states pack, caesar in gauls, and this doesn't stop. And that stuff needs patching too...

-Lies over lies on marketing pre release campaign; i'll mention only one aspect: performance. They said a lot of BS about how well Rome II would be considering this aspect. You can even read "extremely scalabe experience" here on Steam description (yeah, my ass!). They didn't release a DEMO prior to release for THE FISRT TIME IN THIS FRANCHISE: now i know precisly why the didn't make one.
The game has seriously engine flaws: the worst are no proper multicore support, and the fact that CPU (and not GPU!) is used for some intesnsive gfx tasks, which brings to high CPU bottleneck-->low FPS, especially on melee.

-Lack of immersion elements: no connection with generals, no family tree, almost no faction intro videos/cutscenes, boring and repetitive musics.

-Horrific UI: they have gone from the perfection of Shogun 2 to the actual crap!

And i can continue to go on, but let's stop here...


In the end: ALMOST NO CHALLENGE (sometimes the challenge turns out as frustration), NO IMMERSION, NO FUN LIKE ON PREVIOUS TITLES.

And this is really a SHAME, considering the HUGE AMOUNT OF BEAUTIFUL ASSETS made for this game, such as beautiful units and their huge variations of helms, shields armours and so on; along awesome landscapes and cities and huge number of factions.
Moreover this is double shame, considering that many aspects of the game where way way better on the old Rome I and on the previous Shogun 2.

Why didn't they take the best parts of these 2 awesome games and combined to make a proper Rome II?

Straight to my vote: the game is "somewhat" playable after patch 7, not total garbage like on day 1, with some mods the score could reach a 6/6.5 (average), though some moments on campaign/battles can be rated easily as an 8: unfortunately these moments happen not so often and don't last very much. But i'm downvoting it because the game has still SERIOUS BUGS, GAME DESIGN FLAWS, and the BEHAVIOR OF CA IS TOTALLY OFFENSIVE on its fans. These especially make me totally pissed: -Combat system is totally arcadish and not enjoyable: fastest battles of the franchise, magic abilities, BS flags, TORCHES, formations don't matter, blobbing, almost no "gameplay" unit diversity between factions. -AI alternates moment of cleverness to totally stupid moments, especially on sieges, where sometimes the AI freezes, and, if you are the defender, you are forced to sally out, or wait the 60 minutes timer goes off (siege AI on Rome I and Med 2 was a lot better, and those AI were not the top: after 3 months from release is still not properly patched...). -Boring and broken naval battles, alongside a horrific non-working political systems. -Stripped down features from previous games (guard mode, family tree, fire at will for legionaries and so on). -CA keeps releasing BS panoramic screenshots or trailers, saying they are made with Rome II engine (they are not, they are trying to cheat more people with that BS!) instead of creating cutscenes especially designed for the game (a big lack on the game)! -Instead of properly patching the game, they are keeping releasing DLCs over DLCs. Till now we have blood&gore, nomadic pack, greek states pack, caesar in gauls, and this doesn't stop. And that stuff needs patching too... -Lies over lies on marketing pre release campaign; i'll mention only one aspect: performance. They said a lot of BS about how well Rome II would be considering this aspect. You can even read "extremely scalabe experience" here on Steam description (yeah, my ass!). They didn't release a DEMO prior to release for THE FISRT TIME IN THIS FRANCHISE: now i know precisly why the didn't make one. The game has seriously engine flaws: the worst are no proper multicore support, and the fact that CPU (and not GPU!) is used for some intesnsive gfx tasks, which brings to high CPU bottleneck-->low FPS, especially on melee. -Lack of immersion elements: no connection with generals, no family tree, almost no faction intro videos/cutscenes, boring and repetitive musics. -Horrific UI: they have gone from the perfection of Shogun 2 to the actual crap! And i can continue to go on, but let's stop here... In the end: ALMOST NO CHALLENGE (sometimes the challenge turns out as frustration), NO IMMERSION, NO FUN LIKE ON PREVIOUS TITLES. And this is really a SHAME, considering the HUGE AMOUNT OF BEAUTIFUL ASSETS made for this game, such as beautiful units and their huge variations of helms, shields armours and so on; along awesome landscapes and cities and huge number of factions. Moreover this is double shame, considering that many aspects of the game where way way better on the old Rome I and on the previous Shogun 2. Why didn't they take the best parts of these 2 awesome games and combined to make a proper Rome II?