Hows the singleplayer portion of the game?

[Daddy is Thirsty]

I will only rarely use the multiplayer (unless theres a co-op campaign in which i will use the multi non stop) so hows the ai? hows the campaign? the reviews Ive seen mostly complain about the AI, but it was on release day, and the game got updated since than.

[Yggdrasil]

The AI is terrible, you need to find mods to enjoy this game. so much potential wasted.

[Daergar]

Download a good modification. I recommend Divide et Impera with the experimental battle AI by Kam. Just browse their twcenter's forum-section.

[Skarbrand]

Unfortunately, I pretty much agree with the Osborn, in my 320 hours of experience the AI is terrible, the campaign really doesn't have that much to it, the politics are very shallow, though it has cool things like army traits. If you want to have a good experience, you'll want to play with a friend, helps to get around the AI problems.

Mods can also help the experience, and you'll certainly find people on these forums who can enjoy it without mods or friends, but I am not one of them, there just isn't enough there.

[Dr. G]

With Divide et Impera, the campaigns and battles are a lot of fun for me. One of the great things that mod does is increases the sight radius of AI units in battles, which lets the AI make much better decisions and not just blob into the first unit it sees.

[Welsh Dragon]

I've played over 900 hours of singleplayer (I don't really play multiplayer in Total War titles,) most of it campaigns and almost always without mods. In my experience you don't need mods to enjoy the game, and the AI can provide a challenge and even catch the player out. The game has improved by light years since launch day I feel. I pre-orderd, but couldn't even get it to work at first. But now it runs smoothly most of the time and is great fun I feel, which is probably why I am still playing it over 2 years after it first came out.

But I also respect that for some people than can only enjoy it with mods. (It's much the same with the Blood & Gore DLC. I have no interest in it, but for others it is an essential purchase.) One of the strengths of Rome II is that with so many mods around you can fine tune the game to your liking if you want.

But I would suggest playing any Total War game without mods first. That way you can get a good grip of the basics and you'll also have a better idea of what (if anything) you want to change with mods.

If you are interested in giving Rome II a go, at time of writing (27th September 2015) there's still just over two days left on the Total War Humble Bundle: https://www.humblebundle.com/

For $15 you can get Rome II: Emperor Edition (contains all patches and FREE DLC) plus 4 DLCs (two campaigns and two culture packs, adding a total of nine additional factions to the Grand Campaign.) And you get all of the content from the lower tiers too (which includes complete editions of 6 earlier Total War games.) Best thing is you can give up to 100% of the money you spend to charity.

Hope that helps.

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

[MANWHATADONGA]

Welsh Dragon is right play with out mods to get feel.I play with mods thats my choice.most of my mods should have been in game at start.growth for lower taxs is a great mod.lower your tax rate down get higher public growth.I did play long time with out mods .

[Jarcaddy]

I have a little over 800 hours into the game and have never touched multi. I'd say the single player is in a very good place, i'd try it at normal settings and work up from there to get a feel before trying a mod.