Back when Creative Assembly & Total War actually gave a sh1t about their games & integrity.

Old, solid, reliable. And should you get bored of the base game, there's plenty of mods to choose from that work to this day (obsessive saving after every major move or decision is a virtue, as crashes are inevitable after a while). The original Rome TW still remains as my absolute favorite, but Medieval 2 is a truly worthy successor in every way.

Still holds up surprisingly well.
I've returned to play the Britannia campaign after probably 15 years and 13 hours in I'm still having fun.
The Ai does leave a lot to be desired, and the cut-scenes are very dated. But the graphics upscale surprisingly well. If anything it looks better now than it did back in the day, because everything is just easier to distinguish in 1080p.
Very much worth a revisit if you used to enjoy the game back in the day. Or if you are bored of modern game developers getting in the way of play and just fancy a simple 4x experience to take up some spare time.