I understand the frustration over lack of walls, but keep in mind that during this time period, a lot of cities under Roman rule didn't build walls because they didn't need them. Most walls were built during the Crisis of the Third Century.
As someone facinated by history. I can say that once a empire builD walls. It's doomed. Because it means it can never face the treaths on the field. I am sure there is a human psychology on play there. If you are the hammer you don't need walls. And if you are the anvil you probably already built walls Btw good video, TW Rome 2 is my fav TW game by far
@@v44n7 Thank you so much! That’s an interesting take, but I would say the wall-less lasts even shorter than the walled! See the mongols, the Huns etc for reference :) thoughts on that?
@@v44n7 That pattern can be certainly seen too in the mongol empire. When they settled in their new domains, and started incorporating the burocracy and cities of their subjects.
@@v44n7 I think that it could be an instance of correlation not equaling causation. This is an incredibly complex topic. I don't think walls themselves are an indication of weakness. For years, fortresses were the mainstay of any nation's defense. Now, I'm referring to a period much later than antiquity.
Other people: "Rome 2 is such an old game. Maan, it was released back in 2013!" Me who constantly plays Medieval 2 TW: "You guys seriously call Rome 2 old?"
I know, but Medieval II is ANCIENT my dude haha. I mean, in most ways. The graphics have held up surprisingly well, but sadly the game doesn’t work too well on modern computers (the map movement moves insanely fast). I would actually not mind a remaster, but I DO want a Medieval III!
@@AndysTake I just beat a medieval 2 campaign and captured every single region on the map I play the vanilla game with zero mods and it runs flawlessly. For me it might honestly be the best running total war game. The only issue is the very rare crash to desktop. Other than that, zero issues. Still my favorite total war to this day and I'm over here going crazy waiting for medieval 3
@@saltgamer7895 shogun 1 still runs great too. It's rome 1 that runs like complete crap. My game crashes after the first battle every time. And the remaster doesn't look good. Very unfortunate
I'll be honest, it www the first total war game I ever played and I bought it years after release without hype and without expectations or hearing the hate. I couldn't understand why people hated it. It was amazing when I first bought it. Still play it endlessly to this day
Glad to hear it :) some people are just stuck in their ways, the game is so much better than it was anyway, and I’m sure it was amazing to play as your first total war game as well!
I love, love, love Rome 2. However, if you pick Rome as your faction you'll realize how incredibly OP they are, yet if you pick any other faction you'll find that the Roman AI is completely incompetent.
In regards to the civil war system. I found that it's best avoided though only using one family. Avoid recruiting generals/admirals from other families so they won't defect them. Make sure all of your family members get married and have kids. Recruit politicians into your clan and only use from your clan. Civil wars late game can seriously fuck up playthroughs
I'm not sure if it was just for me, but it wasn't that big of a deal. They never recruited or built anything, so I could easily conquer them, you just need to avoid the civil war until even if your empire gets cut in half, you are still bigger than all your neighbours.
I play DEI mod, not sure if it's the same in the base game, but you want to have a balanced senate to avoid civil wars, if you become a one party system you face big campaign penalties.
Yeah agreed. If you start with a decent-sized family, just generate random spouses for them and make them your generals. Ironically, the politics system pushes you to neglect the other families.
Yes! I kind of prefer that type of raiding over the general “raiding stance” to be honest, raiding villages and towns was a much more tangible thing, and left awesome visible smoke on the map.
@@AndysTake Not just that, but in empire villages turn into towns (which you can build buildings on) and towns themselves have 4 levels; very poor, poor, wealthy and prosperous. Building income buildings on prosperous towns literally doubles the amount of income you get from that building. Also many don't even know in Empire government type had very big impact on your empire. Absolute monarchy being best for military, constitutional monarchy for industry/economy and republic for growth/technology research. The way you change government type is very clumsy though, you essentially need to trigger rebellion in the capital region and then side with the rebels and take over capital to change the government type. Which is precisely why most people don't even know you could change government type or change poor ruler to a better one.
This was a fantastic review Andy! I actually forgot about capture points existing in field battles on launch 😂, thanks for reminding me of that nightmare. Also, thank you very much for the shout outs!
Thanks for watching, Happy! Omfg I know, I can’t believe how different this game was at launch. Capture points. No seasons. No political parties in the same way, no family tree, no guard mode, etc etc. Also, my pleasure! 😎
@@AndysTake You are actually wrong with the caputure points in field battles. They only existed when you had a combined land-sea battle outside of a settlement to prevent one side of just camping in the ocean with their ships and letting the timer run out. Later this was removed to by introducing a morale penalty to any side that has no units on land after a certain time has passed. But there never were capture points in normal field battles.
Honestly for some reason I just prefer Attila more. Really annoying that CA just let it die in the ditch and never bother fixing all the bug and optimize the game. Something about Attila setting make me feel better for me plus the setting of defending a fallen empire is enough of a fresh start in Total War compare to every other game where you start out as a small region and expanding outward.
@@lookb3hindu1 Blame Rome TW 2's system of introducing unit HP, little unit collision, and faster battles for making it feel like an arcade game. Attila TW has significantly more depth than Rome 2 so it has less of an arcade feel in comparison (but still no match for the earlier games).
I play Europa Barbarorum 1 and Europa Barbarorum 2 mods for RTW1 and MTW2 respectively. It gives you the ancient Roman setting, add a lot of in depth features and historical units, and with the much better combat mechanics of the older games. AttilaTW's mod "Ancient Empires" also recreates RTW within the AttilaTW game. If you like Attila more but still want the ancient Roman Republic setting, then you should try out Attila's Ancient Empires mod.
@Iouiis I haven't kept up with the recent versions. Did the work out most of the bugs and did they ever add short_pike ability formations to hoplite units like they had in Europa Barbarorum 1/RTW 1?
What always bothered me in Rome II is the fact, that empires Form at random. What I mean by that is, that if I play as Carthage, Parthia or a barbarian tribe, I want to fight the mighty roman empire. But normaly the Romans stay in 2-3 provinces. It's the other way around too, when playing the Romans and I want to fight mighty Carthage... This is different in Attila where you fight against the whole Roman empire and it's ok, that it quickly desolves into small factions, because it makes historically and thematically sense. Not so in Rome II. Maybe there are mods out there that fixes it, but I wanted it from the start in the vanilla game. Make all important factions a lot stronger, so that the player and the other small factions can't interfer too much in the plan of the Big factions to become the empires I want to take on in the mid to late game.
I love the animations and the overall mood of this game. Newer TW seems too much "gamey" and arcade for me, and above all I hate how goofy the animations and fighting are now, like just compare Troy to R2 fighting animations, the gap is huuuuge.
Yeah, the gap is quite large. I wish TW would return to more natural fighting, my favourite in terms of organic battles are Medieval II, but we can only hope.
Absolutely, Shogun 2 and Rome 2 nailed the feel of unit combat. From Warhammer (which I like btw) onwards, it just feels like RTS or MOBA units depleting each others' health bars. And the unit collision is awful. Genuinely, I refunded 3K after my first battle when the defeated enemy phased straight through my troops during the rout.
Sooo sooo many people cried about heart attack animations and wanted rid of synced animations, as at times they were just staring to start a fight sequence. Also with the new method you can have multiple units attack a single one, rather than them line up to attack one at a time. Charges are also much more impactful in three kingdoms, troy and warhammer. Synced animations worked very well in shogun 2 though.
@@paladinprops6117 charges do look better when you make models fly away like goofy cartoon villains Plus I'd rather have a few staredowns over models hitting the air and spontaneously exploding
I think Rome 1 was better in terms of its mechanics. The family tree is much better than Rome 2's, the Civil War mechanic is much more interesting rather than just periodically having to reconquer your own land, city development (roads/walls/population), not being forced to use generals (makes skirmishes and crushing small rebellions better), surprisingly better unit collisions, better sieges (requiring to build them before attacking) and a lot more. Really, what makes Rome 2 better is that it's newer - more modern mechanics like group and group auto attack, minor factions instead of rebels, a much larger map, more campaigns, etc. Basically, I prefer the direction and feel of Rome 1, but Rome 2 comes out on top in certain aspects because it's newer.
I think Rome 1 haves the best Unit collisions of all the games (Maybe only surpassed by Shogun 2) I love medieval 2, but god damn, that collisions are fricking dissapoiting
I still remember playing Rome I for the first time back in the day. I was so hooked with Caesar conquering Gauls that I fake being sick so I can skip basketball practice that evening, it was august so no school at that time :)
EA, I mean CA, seems to really be downgrading since the original Rome total war. And it's a shame. I believe most people want a diplomatic and rpg aspect of Crusader Kings 3, mixed with the spectacular battles of the total war series. That's the kind of game I want to spend 10,000 hours on
I still prefer medieval 2. Modders invest so much more time into mod building, eso, game of thrones, lotr, even a medieval 2 revamped version. Sad TW no longer releases map modding tools, no way to make modules in the modern games now.
DAC 4.5 is by far my favourite TW game. Very challenging, a vast map and some of the greatest variation. You know a game rocks when have to abandon campaigns.
This game is so god damned good. Only downside is that it took as long as it did to get to where it is, but as of right now it is a masterstroke of a game.
rome 2 is by far my favorite im getting sick of the hero based fighting and having certain factions in warhammer that are down right terrible to others and let alone the minor settlements they got rid of
@@ESKATEUK All opinion based Attila is far more laggy, has less factions, unit variety and the razing system is Also mediocre but the game is still fun regardless.
This was the first game I streamed on twitch, I played legendary campaign, which was hard af I’m 2014. At least for a first time player like me. But I had no idea about what was supposed to be in it like roads and other stuff, that woulda be awesome Rebel armies popping up every single turn after I conquered the entire map
Well, this is my very first total war game since I decided to jump in TW Franchise after all this time. All I can say is, yea, it's enjoyable (maybe I never play any other TW before?) and the empire-building is soo deep. I like the battle too, though it's a little bit boring, knowing that the defensive wall only implemented in capital city of the province. The UI and the icons of building is not a big problem for me, as I believe every total war has it's own kind.
I’m glad you like it, Sultan! Yes I wish the cities and the forts were a bit more diverse and different as well, the field battles are definitely the best!
I would disagree although I can see from where you're coming with that opinion. For me strategy games shouldn't focus to much on characters and storys since this always railroads the player in a way and limits the sandbox aspects of the game. I don't need no fancy cutscenes and such because the story in my head is always better and more interesting than anything CA could come up with!
That's what games like Ryse: Son of Rome are for. If they spent any more time on cutscenes the games would have even less attention to gameplay than they increasingly have. Thumbs down for this. We need them to work on the shitty AI.
@@Harrier_DuBois Completely disagree with you but respect your opinion. When I mean cutscenes I mean like the Shogun 2 cutscenes but this time have it for individual factions.
@@AndysTake i disagree with the building icons i quite like that Roman wall art style, but thats a personal preference. 🤷 overall your review is pretty damn spot on mate, you got yourself a subscriber 🙏
@@andrewreil3938 Awesome, thank you!! I guess we can’t ALL have the right opinions ;) hahaha glad you like them though, as you say, it’s a matter of taste
I personally disliked the province system a lot. I'd rather have the old cities system where you could build everything, just change to make it more difficulty (eg cost, population requirement, ...) and maybe terrain depended so that your city (for example capital) isn't limited by just the same amount of building slots, but rather by how good you are doing, the location it is in and what you are prepared to do to grow said city. The lack of walls availability was imo inexcusable, any decent town/city that is worth to be on the map would have build walls at some point. At worst it would have taken a building slot that you could change later on when the town was save by being for enough from any border. I also disliked the command system. The limitations on raising an army/moving troops around were pretty stupid. You never should need a general to just move 1-2 units around, even a large army that comes to reinforce another shouldn't necessarily need a general. However to keep some semblance of how they did it, I'd have liked to see lesser commanders, like a captain that can max command 5 units and a commander that can max command 10. With the weaker commanders being more prevalent and less expensive than the higher ranked ones. Maybe even introduce a system of promotion from captain to commander to general at certain levels (though caping the amount of each kind of commander), with only high nobility being able to immediately become general at a steep price and an exception for your factions leader obviously.
This would actually be a pretty great system, especially if you did it in a hierarchical way - a general can control several commanders who in turn each have control over a number of captains, with captains having more troop and battle-related skills while generals are more focused on campaign bonuses and maybe logistics or equipment, rather than necessarily battle effects.
The command system is beyond stupid. I mean, raising a general just to send some units to other army, or as a reinforcement, it doesn't make any sense. If you are at max. army capacity it 's surely a burden.
Rome 2 is probably the worst game ever released in terms of result compared to expectations. It’s enjoyable now but still not as good as Rome 1 in my view. Terrain just doesn’t matter. If your archers are on a hill then you gain no advantage. There’s no sense of realism. The province system is a mistake. Having your cities suffer from public disorder because a rival’s city is mis-managed doesn’t make any sense. I also find that ai armies replenish almost instantly so that you have to defeat them again and again. It will never be a great game but it’s certainly better than it was at launch.
Yes u do gain an advantage from having the high ground wym? Also having your cities suffer because of rivals is very realistic, for example imagine the governor of egypt was messing up the way things are supposed 2 be in egypt and your the governor of syria, syria would receive less imports from egypt and the revolts and discontent would spill out into syria
replenishment is my main issue out of the things you listed but they do actually replenish at our same time as us, the main thing boosting the thought of high speed replenishment is the amount of full strength mercs they enemy can suddenly pay for after you destroy their initial force
Download the DEI mod, it makes it the most realistic total war ever, you (and other nations) have a population per city that grows or dwindles that you recruit from for the army, bigger unit sizes etc
@@reignadams6692 ueah, except if you have just conquered a city, and now 3 others suffer unhappiness because they are in the same province. Its like me: I have conquered new lands for you, brought gold and slaves citizens of my cities: well, SHIT. Basic stuff, in Empire which I started immediately as a palate clenser after trying R2TW, your people actually CELEBRATE when you kick ass and conquer. I have never played either and now couple dozen turns in on both I must say I am enjoying E:TW MUCH more.
@@aeu569 the taking over a city and other cities within the province being mad didnt make much sense but ig it is just another instance where the disorder in a nearby city can spill out into others
Only a True total war fan like that would make such an awesome video, thank you brother, I think you are one of the people that I played thousands of hours, which is crazy.
The one thing that really disappointed me is that the grand campaign lacks the level of detail seen in the smaller campaigns, such as the rise of the Republic, provinces there make much more sense there than the big blobs you see in the grand campaign.
My only major problem with Rome 2 and other TW games, they never put any effort into the AI, I've quit many a campaign because the enemy just sucks so hard there is no challenge. The AI won't defend it's settlements, it might delcare war on you and then leave it's border regions with you undefended and proceed to do nothing for 20 turns. The AI seems literally non existant sometimes, if you talk to modders they will say there is no AI, just a basic series of switches. The battle AI has some improvements from previous games, but fort battles are super tedious as the enemy will charge every unit, including it's general, through one gate. Also, it will routinely fail to wait for reinforcements before charging you with 3 units VS your 20. You can win many battles in this game by exploiting non sensical moves by the AI, you have to make self imposed rules to not use exploits if you want any semblance of a strategic challenge.
My only dislike is how easy the campaign turns into after like 100 turns when you’re out of the starting phase, there needs to be more events and challenges
I get a 20 stack and put it next to two enemy 20 stacks and their settlement and BOTH ARMIES ABANDON THEIR CITY AND RUN AROUND THE MAP FOR LIKE 30 TURNS WHILE I CHASE THEM it’s so aggravating 🤦♂️then when I finally catch up they’ve suffered to much attrition it’s just a quick wipe
My biggest AI complaint is the way they immediately blob their entire army upon first contact. This makes outflanking pathetically easy and, if you have pikes, it doesn't even threaten your centre.
If I make a Rome 2 analysis video in the far future, may I use some quotes from your video? I'll also ask HappyCompy for his permission if he doesn't see this comment
This was a great video. Excellent points all around. I'd have added that faction intros aren't there, lack of unique dialogue like you get in Warhammer 2 and Troy - not there either. However I still end up playing Rome 2 more than often than any other total war game. It's an incredible experience that no other RTS title can really offer tbh.
Thank you so much! 😊 ah you’re so right, no unique faction intros is a big bummer, same with the unique general speeches and everything from Rome 1/Medieval 2. Still, a great game in many respects, and we can only hope Rome III learns from it!
Faction intros should be a minor issue. If that's a gripe for you then that seems ridiculous IMO. As for dialogue etc remember this game is from 2013. That's like saying how crappy the iphone 5 is to the iphone 12. I still play Rome 2 the most but yes they will probably need to score a home run with Medieval 3 or Rome 3 in the future. At this point there will be no excuses especially with Troy's lukewarm reception, and abandonment of 3K
What I think they could have done with walls is had some sort of threat system. Like every settlement has walls, but the quality of the walls would depend on a few things, like their main building level and the provincial or empire income (they pay less tax or deduct from your treasury for defence) and their proximity to another factions boarder and wither that faction I hostile or friendly. So if they are deep in friendly territory, a simple wooden palisade. On the frontier but bordering a friendly faction, a larger wooden wall. On the frontier but boarding a hostile faction, a stone wall. Leave the big old walls with artillery mounts and lots of towers for capitals.
I play Europa Barbarorum 1 and Europa Barbarorum 2 mods for RTW1 and MTW2 respectively. It gives you the ancient Roman setting, add a lot of in depth features and historical units, and with the much better combat mechanics of the older games. AttilaTW's mod "Ancient Empires" also recreates RTW within the AttilaTW game.
Oh definitely! If you have a good PC, I would also recommend downloading DEI, the mod which makes the game even more complicated with a population system and the like. It’s quite heavy on the hardware though, but again, it’s worth it if you can!
Hey, hi. Really good/nice video. U cover alot of really good points and events alot of other Total War players have overlooked since they have now moved onto Warhammer and other newer entries.
I bought this game at launch for full price, played it for 20 mins, and never touched it again. So naturally, I decided to try it 10 years later. Let's see how it goes.
Its still one of the best total war games out. Its probs my most played even more than Napoleon. Yes its still a bit buggy here and there, but overall it is still an amazing game, with a huge player base still and great mechanics and diversity. And the multiplayer is imo ALOT better than the newer games, it just works great and the plays and choices and maps are just great. Don't care for Warhammer, still waiting for a good historical title. Attila was a buggy mess, the mod 1212AD makes it playable. Waiting on Napoleon 2 or Medieval 3.
Rome 2 ha as fucked moral system and fake difficulty modifiers that reward AI blobbing with tankie units. Game is unplayable to me, I’ll stick with shogun 2 until something good comes out.
In my over 1000 hours experience i must disagree with the diplomacy statements. Once you had build up some allies they would never betray you unlike in shogun 2 where you get betrayed all the time. The way to go is starting with non agression pacts and then hopefully building enough score to get trade agreements or just add some coin. Unless they are barbarians you will usually get a solid partner out of them. Overall the diplomacy system has always been the same more or less in total war.
My biggest problem with Rome 2 is it is an appearance first game marketted to people who don't look that deep into the game. The units slide around. There's no real unit collision. Battle lines do not change from one side being stronger. You literally cannot reenact say Cannae because units don't naturally push due to mass. They remain static relying on dice rolling along a demilitarized zone of two opposing units. Everything has very little weight as a result. This isn't to mention the terrible music, the oversimplification of the map, a terrible launch, and general lack of freedom to simply move troops around. This may sound a bit dickish, but I couldn't care less that most modern total war fans disagree because most of the people who shared my opinion quit after Rome 2. And all the most positive elements which ultimately boil down to cosmetics like historical accuracy were fixed by a bunch of amateurs making mods with an engine they had very few tools to work with from 2003. All in all, there are positive features of Rome 2, but the battles which if I'm going to be honest with you, much of this community sucks at and end up just auto resolving, are flaccid. In Rome 1, real tactics win the day. In Rome 2, it's a dice roll.
Yeah unit weight, is a real problem. When I charge heavy cavalry into slingers those guys should be getting bowled over like bowling pins. Cav chargers and impacts are better from Rome 1.
@@AndysTake versus just for the ability to fight each other if necessary. We don't set out to kill each other but it happens now and then. We're doing pontus and Athens right now so I suspect a bit more head to head in my future than last time (Arevaci and Saba lmfao)
I think grand strategy game have really really good replay ability if the developer consistently try to improve things. Heck you I still play medieval 2 just because of one mod’s submod : Third age total war: divide and conquer. You would not even believe they of the same game. So yeah. I really hate when developers just milk the first profit and then drop the project. Give them some attention.
I haven't played Total War games for a long time and the only ones I've played were Rome and Medieval Total War II. And this game's much more complicated than these two both campaign and gameplay wise. I always played Rome Total War with Julii so tried the same mentality and rushed my way to conquer Etrucians and Carthage altogether but the new commander&recruit system suprised me. After a few turns both of them had huge armies that caught me off guard and pwned me quickly so I reset the campaign with only attacking Ectrucians but still they had an army in the scale of late-game armies in R:TW and M:TWII. Raising armies so quickly in the first turns is the weirdest change for me to adapt. The warfare is so different too. R:TW and M:TWII horsemen were op af when you flanked the enemies so it made me use the same tactic of send the infantry then flank them with cavalry but in this game it's not that effective and ai counters their charge so quickly, it makes archers much more effective than horsemen charge. Also units' morale lasts longer. Lastly the ecenomy, culture and politics are so confusing; again compared to other titles yet fun too. I'd usually just use castles as unit spammers then build every other thing in cities to gain money and send multiple priests/imams to new regions but this time I had to give attention to every detail in my provinces to keep the morale up. I'm generally both having a hard and great time yet I don't thing I'll be able to finish even a normal campaign without tutorials. If there's anything I liked so much is the absence of diplomats, It took so much time to sign trade rights and forming alliances with multiple factions back then.
Still don’t like the campaign style of the newer total wars, recruiting from the field just ruined the whole damn franchise, and how arcadey the battles became
Rome 2 will never die. That being said, i can only play it for a while before i have the masochist goal of playing MK1212 and reforming the Roman Empire.
Only if they put the effort and resources on Historical titles like they do with Warhammer and stop making this Historical slash Mythology hybrid games, Total war will be so much more better and successful.
Decent video, enjoyed it, have been playing a Rome 2 again (and Shogun 2, and Empire) in the last year. Kinda nice to see that many of your negative points were personal preferences instead of about the game - eg I like the Rome 2 province system with walled cities and unwalled towns (though paying for walls would be good) as it makes more diversity and trickier strategy than samey samey cities, and i prefer these icons to the ones you prefer. i also thought alliances and client states worked well, my last two campaigns have only worked because of allies helping out, but agree that trade agreements don't seem to work... my biggest issue is battle AI, there's a few stupid things that AI do which partly ruin battles... still alright most of the time but sometimes ruins a battle. Nice video tho and yeah top game!
In regards to the AI: it is more predictable. Compared to old Rome AI, which is not a fair comparison, the AI feels less wacky, but more boring. It is easier to read, which in my opinion makes it a good starting point for Total War noobs.
I have to gladly agree with everything that you say except 3 things 1- having walls everywhere, but someone else has already explained and elaborated in it so let’s skip it 2- The icons, I honestly can’t say how much I love the artistic stile they used, it feels old and it is non-abstract enough for you to know immediately what represents 3- The diplomacy you’re correct, except in client states, client states were known for ALWAYS trying to become independent at the first chance, that’s the only thing in diplomacy of ROME 2 that they got right In other theme, it’s interesting that I remember a few of the soundtrack of battle, but I can’t remember any track of the big map, just suddens “aaaaaaaaaa” Also, for all those who prefer the cities of Rome 1, infinite buildings is OP, having limited options forces you to make decisions, to decide what are you building where and when, it’s makes each province unique inside your own empire, instead of every city being exactly the same but in different coordinates
I stopped playing at 3000 hours 2 years ago. The game is goated among tw games and CAs absolute betrayel to the historical community is still heartbreaking
My problem with Rome 2 and Atilla is I can't play one game without missing the other. I played Rome 2 for the Era and the empire building and ended up missing and longing for Attila campaign systems and dark theme. When I play Attila I missed Roman Era and greek eras, I missed the empire building (Since Attila is lowkey more of a survival instead of empire building for me). I just want to 2 to merge or something.
Oh man. That’s a request. Haven’t played it in a while and will need a lot more experience with it before I can give an up to date informed opinion. Buuut I might try one of these days ;)
I try and use civil wars as my own end game big bad. Building up ad deliberately leveling up other family members so eventually I will have an advanced enemy equal to mine, with said leveled up different families fielding generals with exceptional armies. That’s my playstyle for Rome at least.
i spend most time on rome2 i have TW- Attila, -Medieval 2, -Empire,- -Rome2, -Napoleon, -Shogun 2 amd -Warhammer 1 I liket much Shogun 2 and the Sea fight in Empire warhammer is... warhammer bro; nice fantasy setting (im more on the LotR-side; but why not orcs and beasts, elfes, human, what you whant more!?) and Medieval 2...🤯 broooooo.... the mods; Third Age and Co this is childhood-dream stuff!!!!!!!!!!!! if you like Lord of the rings you understand me! BUT Rome 2 was me first Total war game; i played this game 1 year cracked from pirate side; it was so good i must buy it!!!! i spend then 367 Houers on this game on Steam Good memories ALLLL the units; the look and the colors from the the grafics😍 look more realistic then the other Total War games and you have all this Factions you know from Movies Rome, the Greeks with SPARTAAAAAA😂, Athen and co the Famous Barbarien from the Nord😤💪 or the Agyptian; who dont know Kleopatra?bruh😂 Or if we go in the East; we all know the Movie 300; we all know LEAONIDAS and hes Enemy XERXERS the great God-King; so there are Persian- Faction to play and you can take them all under your Lead and INVATE Europa with never ending Hordes💪💪✊ like Xersers in the Movie; with diffrent Units from all over the Middle -East😈 (with some mods you can even have the Immortals as a Spezial Unit; looking exactly like in the Movie; badass stuff!) you will find more then thoes but this Faction we all know well from Movies and Documentary-Movies---so.... if you like this Era THIS IS DEFINITLY A GAME FOR YOU! 🙌 ps: sry for me bad english😅
Of all the TW games, which I own all besides the most recent one, I put the most hours into this. I got it 6 mths after release and it was bvug free and great.
you have to be babysitting your general all the time, you go somewhere on the board to view a battle and zoom back to your general and voila, he took off after the toughest meanest unit on the board and is now surrounded and gets killed...this is by far the biggest issue in R2 for me
NOTE: The game engine is really old. It only neutralizes a single core, which means if you have an average or below average cpu you are going to experience lag on campaign maps and in large battles. Although this is a relatively old game, but if you want a great experience out of it you still need a pretty darn good cpu.
@@ShawkyJames Exactly. It’s so sad because performance like that really ruins the overall experience. But I think they’ve learnt now for the most part. 3K and ESPECIALLY Troy has amazing performance, so we can only hope it continues into future titles!
@@AndysTake Did they optimize 3K? I was playing 3K like a year ago with my i5-9400f and gtx 1660 super. I could run it on medium to low settings on big battles at 30fps-ish. The issue was still there that when u zoom in during big clashes that my fps dipped hard. In fact, at one point soldiers went into slow motion. The only reason I uninstalled the game.
@@ShawkyJames Well, 1660 Super isn’t the most high end card, so that’s understandable. I get better frames and stability in 3K than I do in in Attila, so that’ll tell you something at least.
Rome 2 with this mod is definitely amazing. Troy is amazing. Three Kingdoms is amazing if you like the time period and setting. Warhammer is amazing if you like that series. Attila is the best TW game if it likes your specs (it's notoriously badly optimized), and also has the best Medieval mod perhaps ever made. Shogun 2 is perfect if you like Japan and samurai. So much choice :)
Rome 2 suffers from major nations being too weak from the start... The greeks die early, Carthage also dies early, Rome dies early... The game evolves to the degree that no faction becomes a huge issue. Major nations needed perks over minor nations that favors major nations to become more of an issue.
@@alejandrop.s.3942 I agree if they ever update the mods. The developers keep making changes to the game (till this day) for some reason rather than just letting the mod community fix things... Its causing all the mods to break.
I disagree with the building icon thing. How does it remove immersion? Did actual governors look at a picture of the building when making decisions on documents and not visiting In person? No it woulda been just written down or a symbol
Very good review. As a fan of the series but someone that waited back then when I saw the disastrous launch I think I'll get out now. I also was never much into the Rome and Greece of the past, so I was more inclined to Shogun, Medical and Empire, that is until 3k and warhammer came along.
I played Rome I excessively back in the day. I mean, EXCESSIVELY. :D I’m only now really checking out Rome II, and the fact that not all towns can have walls is absolutely confounding to me. This is so laughably implausible, it borders on a dealbreaker to me...
Rome 2 certainly holds up, obviously on launch (and several patches afterward) it was A SHAMEFUL DISPLAY! (so many patches adding in things that should have been their from the START, maybe they should have delayed the game.) Now though id call it a average game (grate game, the little things drag it down a bit), you have the Grand Campaign, 3 mini campaigns, and 2 other campaign periods. Their is certainly ALOT of Content on offer and that isn't even counting the mods (none of which i have tried yet), which is one of the reason Rome 2 is still so popular after all these years. Rome 2 is also a very good "Sandbox" Total War, while you do have "chapter objectives" which give you free money to guide you, you can basically go anywhere and do anything. Rome 2 also has grate battle variety and unit balance. You have Field battle, Minor settlement (i too wish you could give them basic walls), Walled settlement, Ambush, Fort (though lets be honest its a TEST MAP), Naval battle, Navel invasion, Coastal battle with Army/Navy. The Garrisons can actually hold off armies and navies provided they aren't massively outnumbered. Goes without saying but Rome 2s navel combat turns into a cluster F of ramming and being rammed. While their is Cultural diversity aplenty, when you have as many factions as Rome 2 does (in the Grand Campaign at least) it can feel like your playing the same faction just with a different start position, some of them have units to differentiate themselves but their is ALOT of sameness (Carthage can feel like another Hellenic faction with a different culture for example, or German/Britain barbarians and Sparta have renamed units). Also just checked steam charts, ROME 2 IS STILL NUMBER 2 on the player count only surpassed by WH 2 (soon to be WH 3).
Let’s hear Paul Allen’s opinion. Jk lol, but I agree to a certain extent! I love that the cities actually grow, I just wish that they were generally smaller in size, but that they grew more organically, and this would perhaps require a population system the city could grow little by little with, or just have more smaller settlements become available like in Empire.
Make sure to watch my 2022 REVIEW of SHOGUN 2 right here: th-cam.com/video/h0n4P_NFkSY/w-d-xo.html
I understand the frustration over lack of walls, but keep in mind that during this time period, a lot of cities under Roman rule didn't build walls because they didn't need them. Most walls were built during the Crisis of the Third Century.
Interesting!
As someone facinated by history. I can say that once a empire builD walls. It's doomed. Because it means it can never face the treaths on the field. I am sure there is a human psychology on play there. If you are the hammer you don't need walls. And if you are the anvil you probably already built walls
Btw good video, TW Rome 2 is my fav TW game by far
@@v44n7 Thank you so much! That’s an interesting take, but I would say the wall-less lasts even shorter than the walled! See the mongols, the Huns etc for reference :) thoughts on that?
@@v44n7 That pattern can be certainly seen too in the mongol empire. When they settled in their new domains, and started incorporating the burocracy and cities of their subjects.
@@v44n7 I think that it could be an instance of correlation not equaling causation. This is an incredibly complex topic. I don't think walls themselves are an indication of weakness. For years, fortresses were the mainstay of any nation's defense. Now, I'm referring to a period much later than antiquity.
Other people: "Rome 2 is such an old game. Maan, it was released back in 2013!"
Me who constantly plays Medieval 2 TW: "You guys seriously call Rome 2 old?"
I know, but Medieval II is ANCIENT my dude haha. I mean, in most ways. The graphics have held up surprisingly well, but sadly the game doesn’t work too well on modern computers (the map movement moves insanely fast). I would actually not mind a remaster, but I DO want a Medieval III!
@@AndysTake I just beat a medieval 2 campaign and captured every single region on the map I play the vanilla game with zero mods and it runs flawlessly. For me it might honestly be the best running total war game. The only issue is the very rare crash to desktop. Other than that, zero issues. Still my favorite total war to this day and I'm over here going crazy waiting for medieval 3
Me who still plays Shogun 1
@@saltgamer7895 The real OG right here
@@saltgamer7895 shogun 1 still runs great too. It's rome 1 that runs like complete crap. My game crashes after the first battle every time. And the remaster doesn't look good. Very unfortunate
I'll be honest, it www the first total war game I ever played and I bought it years after release without hype and without expectations or hearing the hate. I couldn't understand why people hated it. It was amazing when I first bought it. Still play it endlessly to this day
Glad to hear it :) some people are just stuck in their ways, the game is so much better than it was anyway, and I’m sure it was amazing to play as your first total war game as well!
Same
I love, love, love Rome 2. However, if you pick Rome as your faction you'll realize how incredibly OP they are, yet if you pick any other faction you'll find that the Roman AI is completely incompetent.
Hahaha faxxxx
Totally. I just play with Sparta most of the time, because well... Spartans are pretty broken with their infinite morale etc :D
that was one of my main issues in rome 1 , like you just steamroll basicaly everyone except egypt cause egypt in rome 1 is obnoxious
incompetent AI in a total war game? I'm shocked.
If you play as Carthage on very hard or legendary the Rome ai is your worst nightmare.
In regards to the civil war system. I found that it's best avoided though only using one family. Avoid recruiting generals/admirals from other families so they won't defect them. Make sure all of your family members get married and have kids. Recruit politicians into your clan and only use from your clan. Civil wars late game can seriously fuck up playthroughs
I'm not sure if it was just for me, but it wasn't that big of a deal. They never recruited or built anything, so I could easily conquer them, you just need to avoid the civil war until even if your empire gets cut in half, you are still bigger than all your neighbours.
Or promote EVERYBODY. I send send opposing generals and admirals into death. Easy peasy no civil war.
I play DEI mod, not sure if it's the same in the base game, but you want to have a balanced senate to avoid civil wars, if you become a one party system you face big campaign penalties.
Civil war adds depth to a campaign
Yeah agreed. If you start with a decent-sized family, just generate random spouses for them and make them your generals. Ironically, the politics system pushes you to neglect the other families.
Holy shit, Rome 2's launch was 8 years ago, almost a decade. Time flies, boys, don't waste it.
It really does. It’s crazy.
Check this out. Gangnam Style was 10 years ago!
Have been smh, these last 2 years feels like I can count the things I’ve done on one hand
Thanks for your depressing words, my friends.
those words of encouragement have made me feel even worse lmao
Oh man I love the smaller town with one building from Empire. It adds so much (including making raiding feasible)
Yes! I kind of prefer that type of raiding over the general “raiding stance” to be honest, raiding villages and towns was a much more tangible thing, and left awesome visible smoke on the map.
@@AndysTake and it made a tangible difference to the province, while the current raiding system mosty effects public order
Empire 2 by far has the best city mechanics
@@bravozero6 Empire 2 eh? You from the future?
@@AndysTake Not just that, but in empire villages turn into towns (which you can build buildings on) and towns themselves have 4 levels; very poor, poor, wealthy and prosperous. Building income buildings on prosperous towns literally doubles the amount of income you get from that building. Also many don't even know in Empire government type had very big impact on your empire. Absolute monarchy being best for military, constitutional monarchy for industry/economy and republic for growth/technology research. The way you change government type is very clumsy though, you essentially need to trigger rebellion in the capital region and then side with the rebels and take over capital to change the government type. Which is precisely why most people don't even know you could change government type or change poor ruler to a better one.
This was a fantastic review Andy! I actually forgot about capture points existing in field battles on launch 😂, thanks for reminding me of that nightmare. Also, thank you very much for the shout outs!
Thanks for watching, Happy! Omfg I know, I can’t believe how different this game was at launch. Capture points. No seasons. No political parties in the same way, no family tree, no guard mode, etc etc. Also, my pleasure! 😎
@@AndysTake Man...now I want Rome 3.
One day, inshallah, we will have it.
@@AndysTake One must pray to Zeus himself to have Rome III!
@@AndysTake You are actually wrong with the caputure points in field battles. They only existed when you had a combined land-sea battle outside of a settlement to prevent one side of just camping in the ocean with their ships and letting the timer run out. Later this was removed to by introducing a morale penalty to any side that has no units on land after a certain time has passed.
But there never were capture points in normal field battles.
Love the UI artwork in Rome II and believe it actually increases immersion.
I really like the miniatures, they look like the pictures in Greek amphorae.
Same, they got too much hate. Best unit cards in total war. Elite units look sick
Honestly for some reason I just prefer Attila more. Really annoying that CA just let it die in the ditch and never bother fixing all the bug and optimize the game. Something about Attila setting make me feel better for me plus the setting of defending a fallen empire is enough of a fresh start in Total War compare to every other game where you start out as a small region and expanding outward.
100% mate
Atilla feels like an arcade game
@@lookb3hindu1 Blame Rome TW 2's system of introducing unit HP, little unit collision, and faster battles for making it feel like an arcade game. Attila TW has significantly more depth than Rome 2 so it has less of an arcade feel in comparison (but still no match for the earlier games).
I play Europa Barbarorum 1 and Europa Barbarorum 2 mods for RTW1 and MTW2 respectively. It gives you the ancient Roman setting, add a lot of in depth features and historical units, and with the much better combat mechanics of the older games. AttilaTW's mod "Ancient Empires" also recreates RTW within the AttilaTW game. If you like Attila more but still want the ancient Roman Republic setting, then you should try out Attila's Ancient Empires mod.
@Iouiis I haven't kept up with the recent versions. Did the work out most of the bugs and did they ever add short_pike ability formations to hoplite units like they had in Europa Barbarorum 1/RTW 1?
I have been playing rome total war since 2006 and never stop yet for almost 20 years.
That’s awesome! It’s a wonderful game
Indeed, 2006 plus 20 uears is 2022.. i smike what you smoke genius :)
What always bothered me in Rome II is the fact, that empires Form at random. What I mean by that is, that if I play as Carthage, Parthia or a barbarian tribe, I want to fight the mighty roman empire. But normaly the Romans stay in 2-3 provinces. It's the other way around too, when playing the Romans and I want to fight mighty Carthage...
This is different in Attila where you fight against the whole Roman empire and it's ok, that it quickly desolves into small factions, because it makes historically and thematically sense.
Not so in Rome II. Maybe there are mods out there that fixes it, but I wanted it from the start in the vanilla game.
Make all important factions a lot stronger, so that the player and the other small factions can't interfer too much in the plan of the Big factions to become the empires I want to take on in the mid to late game.
There are some mods that give bonuses to large factions and removes the buffs for minor factions, you could totally try that out!
I love the animations and the overall mood of this game. Newer TW seems too much "gamey" and arcade for me, and above all I hate how goofy the animations and fighting are now, like just compare Troy to R2 fighting animations, the gap is huuuuge.
Yeah, the gap is quite large. I wish TW would return to more natural fighting, my favourite in terms of organic battles are Medieval II, but we can only hope.
Absolutely, Shogun 2 and Rome 2 nailed the feel of unit combat. From Warhammer (which I like btw) onwards, it just feels like RTS or MOBA units depleting each others' health bars. And the unit collision is awful. Genuinely, I refunded 3K after my first battle when the defeated enemy phased straight through my troops during the rout.
Sooo sooo many people cried about heart attack animations and wanted rid of synced animations, as at times they were just staring to start a fight sequence.
Also with the new method you can have multiple units attack a single one, rather than them line up to attack one at a time.
Charges are also much more impactful in three kingdoms, troy and warhammer.
Synced animations worked very well in shogun 2 though.
@@paladinprops6117 lol warhammer cavalry charge are a real joke. Cavalry units are by far the worst in WTW games.
@@paladinprops6117 charges do look better when you make models fly away like goofy cartoon villains
Plus I'd rather have a few staredowns over models hitting the air and spontaneously exploding
I think Rome 1 was better in terms of its mechanics. The family tree is much better than Rome 2's, the Civil War mechanic is much more interesting rather than just periodically having to reconquer your own land, city development (roads/walls/population), not being forced to use generals (makes skirmishes and crushing small rebellions better), surprisingly better unit collisions, better sieges (requiring to build them before attacking) and a lot more.
Really, what makes Rome 2 better is that it's newer - more modern mechanics like group and group auto attack, minor factions instead of rebels, a much larger map, more campaigns, etc.
Basically, I prefer the direction and feel of Rome 1, but Rome 2 comes out on top in certain aspects because it's newer.
I think Rome 1 haves the best Unit collisions of all the games (Maybe only surpassed by Shogun 2)
I love medieval 2, but god damn, that collisions are fricking dissapoiting
I still remember playing Rome I for the first time back in the day. I was so hooked with Caesar conquering Gauls that I fake being sick so I can skip basketball practice that evening, it was august so no school at that time :)
Haha so nostalgic! :) loved Rome 1, it was so damn good
EA, I mean CA, seems to really be downgrading since the original Rome total war. And it's a shame. I believe most people want a diplomatic and rpg aspect of Crusader Kings 3, mixed with the spectacular battles of the total war series. That's the kind of game I want to spend 10,000 hours on
Any suggestions ?
“Building Icons like these are too abstract to create a sense of immersion” well said man I wish CA could hear this
I still prefer medieval 2. Modders invest so much more time into mod building, eso, game of thrones, lotr, even a medieval 2 revamped version.
Sad TW no longer releases map modding tools, no way to make modules in the modern games now.
DAC 4.5 is by far my favourite TW game. Very challenging, a vast map and some of the greatest variation.
You know a game rocks when have to abandon campaigns.
@@christianadams9114 I cant even beat the goblins of moria with khazad dum while only defending a single settlement man
This game is so god damned good. Only downside is that it took as long as it did to get to where it is, but as of right now it is a masterstroke of a game.
Glad to hear you love it mate, I really wish for a Rome 3 that’s amazing from the very start!
rome 2 is by far my favorite im getting sick of the hero based fighting and having certain factions in warhammer that are down right terrible to others and let alone the minor settlements they got rid of
The new ones have less room for scratching that tactical itch, its just about having more stronger magical units than your opponent
@@holechek same boat
Still waiting for someone in comments to address the fucked moral system
Total war Attila is easily better.
@@ESKATEUK All opinion based Attila is far more laggy, has less factions, unit variety and the razing system is Also mediocre but the game is still fun regardless.
Playing the Imperator Soundtrack in the background is a nice homage to another game that launched badly and got good - sadly now abandoned.
The sad or ironic life of Rome games, it seems :(
Abandoned for Victoria 3, which does not look promising.
Scale should be addressed too id love a total war which really does allow me to play large scale battles with immense amount of units
Use a mod mang
This was the first game I streamed on twitch, I played legendary campaign, which was hard af I’m 2014. At least for a first time player like me. But I had no idea about what was supposed to be in it like roads and other stuff, that woulda be awesome
Rebel armies popping up every single turn after I conquered the entire map
Immersaholic also deserves a shoutout, he has really in-depth faction reviews for Divide et Impera and is alround just a really chill guy.
Thanks!
Thank you so much ❤
Well, this is my very first total war game since I decided to jump in TW Franchise after all this time. All I can say is, yea, it's enjoyable (maybe I never play any other TW before?) and the empire-building is soo deep. I like the battle too, though it's a little bit boring, knowing that the defensive wall only implemented in capital city of the province. The UI and the icons of building is not a big problem for me, as I believe every total war has it's own kind.
I’m glad you like it, Sultan! Yes I wish the cities and the forts were a bit more diverse and different as well, the field battles are definitely the best!
Rome 2 will forever be my favourite of all time
Also if Rome 3 could have a TON of cinematic cutscenes it would help. Also more unique dialogue and more character focused stories!
I would disagree although I can see from where you're coming with that opinion.
For me strategy games shouldn't focus to much on characters and storys since this always railroads the player in a way and limits the sandbox aspects of the game. I don't need no fancy cutscenes and such because the story in my head is always better and more interesting than anything CA could come up with!
@@l.s.9095 Understood on that front. But I prefer the cinematic/cutscenes - it has always brought immersion for me. But respect your opinion
That sounds terrible
That's what games like Ryse: Son of Rome are for. If they spent any more time on cutscenes the games would have even less attention to gameplay than they increasingly have. Thumbs down for this. We need them to work on the shitty AI.
@@Harrier_DuBois Completely disagree with you but respect your opinion. When I mean cutscenes I mean like the Shogun 2 cutscenes but this time have it for individual factions.
This game is an unmitigated joy, i love it now.
Happy for you, Andrew! Thanks for watching and leaving a comment! :D
@@AndysTake i disagree with the building icons i quite like that Roman wall art style, but thats a personal preference. 🤷 overall your review is pretty damn spot on mate, you got yourself a subscriber 🙏
@@andrewreil3938 Awesome, thank you!! I guess we can’t ALL have the right opinions ;) hahaha glad you like them though, as you say, it’s a matter of taste
The quality of the content created by the community (mods) is fantastic !
It sure is!
I personally disliked the province system a lot. I'd rather have the old cities system where you could build everything, just change to make it more difficulty (eg cost, population requirement, ...) and maybe terrain depended so that your city (for example capital) isn't limited by just the same amount of building slots, but rather by how good you are doing, the location it is in and what you are prepared to do to grow said city. The lack of walls availability was imo inexcusable, any decent town/city that is worth to be on the map would have build walls at some point. At worst it would have taken a building slot that you could change later on when the town was save by being for enough from any border.
I also disliked the command system. The limitations on raising an army/moving troops around were pretty stupid. You never should need a general to just move 1-2 units around, even a large army that comes to reinforce another shouldn't necessarily need a general. However to keep some semblance of how they did it, I'd have liked to see lesser commanders, like a captain that can max command 5 units and a commander that can max command 10. With the weaker commanders being more prevalent and less expensive than the higher ranked ones. Maybe even introduce a system of promotion from captain to commander to general at certain levels (though caping the amount of each kind of commander), with only high nobility being able to immediately become general at a steep price and an exception for your factions leader obviously.
This would actually be a pretty great system, especially if you did it in a hierarchical way - a general can control several commanders who in turn each have control over a number of captains, with captains having more troop and battle-related skills while generals are more focused on campaign bonuses and maybe logistics or equipment, rather than necessarily battle effects.
The command system is beyond stupid. I mean, raising a general just to send some units to other army, or as a reinforcement, it doesn't make any sense. If you are at max. army capacity it 's surely a burden.
Ha! I still remember that Angry Joe review about how buggy it was. I had so much fun with Rome, but avoided that mess.
Ah, RESTITVTOR ORBIS! Great reskin, loved doing some promotional screenshots for the mod's maker.
YES, I love that mod, absolutely gorgeous units!
Rome 2 is probably the worst game ever released in terms of result compared to expectations. It’s enjoyable now but still not as good as Rome 1 in my view. Terrain just doesn’t matter. If your archers are on a hill then you gain no advantage. There’s no sense of realism. The province system is a mistake. Having your cities suffer from public disorder because a rival’s city is mis-managed doesn’t make any sense. I also find that ai armies replenish almost instantly so that you have to defeat them again and again. It will never be a great game but it’s certainly better than it was at launch.
Yes u do gain an advantage from having the high ground wym?
Also having your cities suffer because of rivals is very realistic, for example imagine the governor of egypt was messing up the way things are supposed 2 be in egypt and your the governor of syria, syria would receive less imports from egypt and the revolts and discontent would spill out into syria
replenishment is my main issue out of the things you listed but they do actually replenish at our same time as us, the main thing boosting the thought of high speed replenishment is the amount of full strength mercs they enemy can suddenly pay for after you destroy their initial force
Download the DEI mod, it makes it the most realistic total war ever, you (and other nations) have a population per city that grows or dwindles that you recruit from for the army, bigger unit sizes etc
@@reignadams6692 ueah, except if you have just conquered a city, and now 3 others suffer unhappiness because they are in the same province. Its like
me: I have conquered new lands for you, brought gold and slaves
citizens of my cities: well, SHIT.
Basic stuff, in Empire which I started immediately as a palate clenser after trying R2TW, your people actually CELEBRATE when you kick ass and conquer. I have never played either and now couple dozen turns in on both I must say I am enjoying E:TW MUCH more.
@@aeu569 the taking over a city and other cities within the province being mad didnt make much sense but ig it is just another instance where the disorder in a nearby city can spill out into others
Only a True total war fan like that would make such an awesome video, thank you brother, I think you are one of the people that I played thousands of hours, which is crazy.
Thank you so much, brother, means a lot 🙏
Great video mate and thanks for the shout out! 🙏
Thank you so much! And of course, your content is amazing! 💪
@@AndysTake we stan Termi
Terminator being shouted out everywhere :)
Just bought this last night. First-time player here over from console.
Wow. Just wow...
Where have I been?
Damn, you have a lot of fun to catch up on! :D
You should make a video with divide et impera mod . This is the ultimate experience to play rome 2 as it should be
Great idea! Love that mod so much.
for me dei sucks
@@laingram8337 How come? For me it just lags which sucks, but I love the added mechanics like populations systems and such!
@@AndysTake They released a mod that adds like 20 fps by optimising some backroung processing. Its a must-have
What's the mod called my guy, dei end turns are rough on my pc
The one thing that really disappointed me is that the grand campaign lacks the level of detail seen in the smaller campaigns, such as the rise of the Republic, provinces there make much more sense there than the big blobs you see in the grand campaign.
Exactly!
My only major problem with Rome 2 and other TW games, they never put any effort into the AI, I've quit many a campaign because the enemy just sucks so hard there is no challenge. The AI won't defend it's settlements, it might delcare war on you and then leave it's border regions with you undefended and proceed to do nothing for 20 turns. The AI seems literally non existant sometimes, if you talk to modders they will say there is no AI, just a basic series of switches.
The battle AI has some improvements from previous games, but fort battles are super tedious as the enemy will charge every unit, including it's general, through one gate. Also, it will routinely fail to wait for reinforcements before charging you with 3 units VS your 20. You can win many battles in this game by exploiting non sensical moves by the AI, you have to make self imposed rules to not use exploits if you want any semblance of a strategic challenge.
My only dislike is how easy the campaign turns into after like 100 turns when you’re out of the starting phase, there needs to be more events and challenges
I get a 20 stack and put it next to two enemy 20 stacks and their settlement and BOTH ARMIES ABANDON THEIR CITY AND RUN AROUND THE MAP FOR LIKE 30 TURNS WHILE I CHASE THEM it’s so aggravating 🤦♂️then when I finally catch up they’ve suffered to much attrition it’s just a quick wipe
My biggest AI complaint is the way they immediately blob their entire army upon first contact. This makes outflanking pathetically easy and, if you have pikes, it doesn't even threaten your centre.
If I make a Rome 2 analysis video in the far future, may I use some quotes from your video? I'll also ask HappyCompy for his permission if he doesn't see this comment
For sure! Just remember to link this video or at least reference it in some way :) was there something specific you were thinking about?
What CA could have done about roads is, make them level up with every time you level up the town square.
Rome 2 is my most played game on Steam, and I still play it now. The modding community is amazing.
Yes it really is :)
It is crazy how shogun 2 looks so clean and easy compared to all the other total war games
This was a great video. Excellent points all around. I'd have added that faction intros aren't there, lack of unique dialogue like you get in Warhammer 2 and Troy - not there either. However I still end up playing Rome 2 more than often than any other total war game. It's an incredible experience that no other RTS title can really offer tbh.
Thank you so much! 😊 ah you’re so right, no unique faction intros is a big bummer, same with the unique general speeches and everything from Rome 1/Medieval 2. Still, a great game in many respects, and we can only hope Rome III learns from it!
@@AndysTake I hope Rome III is released but is immersive on Attila's scale for sure!
Faction intros should be a minor issue. If that's a gripe for you then that seems ridiculous IMO. As for dialogue etc remember this game is from 2013. That's like saying how crappy the iphone 5 is to the iphone 12. I still play Rome 2 the most but yes they will probably need to score a home run with Medieval 3 or Rome 3 in the future. At this point there will be no excuses especially with Troy's lukewarm reception, and abandonment of 3K
„Is it the best Total War?“
Shogun 2 would like a word with you.
I might have a word with IT sometime in the future ;)
There's Rome total war 2 sale on steam right now!
True!
What I think they could have done with walls is had some sort of threat system. Like every settlement has walls, but the quality of the walls would depend on a few things, like their main building level and the provincial or empire income (they pay less tax or deduct from your treasury for defence) and their proximity to another factions boarder and wither that faction I hostile or friendly.
So if they are deep in friendly territory, a simple wooden palisade. On the frontier but bordering a friendly faction, a larger wooden wall. On the frontier but boarding a hostile faction, a stone wall. Leave the big old walls with artillery mounts and lots of towers for capitals.
Varus... Oh, Quintus Varus... GIVE ME BACK MY LEGIONS
CLASSIC
I hated it when the small weak factions used to conquer the supposedly strong factions. There was a mod that fixed it but it never got updated.
Guaranteed major factions, it's still working I think.
I play Europa Barbarorum 1 and Europa Barbarorum 2 mods for RTW1 and MTW2 respectively. It gives you the ancient Roman setting, add a lot of in depth features and historical units, and with the much better combat mechanics of the older games. AttilaTW's mod "Ancient Empires" also recreates RTW within the AttilaTW game.
The mods make the game just amazing to go back too .
That intro is amazing
Glad you enjoyed it, mate 😉 thought it was pretty fun myself haha
I played about 30 or 40 hours when it first came out, and set it aside for the older games.
I guess it's time to dust it off and redownload.
Oh definitely! If you have a good PC, I would also recommend downloading DEI, the mod which makes the game even more complicated with a population system and the like. It’s quite heavy on the hardware though, but again, it’s worth it if you can!
Hey, hi. Really good/nice video. U cover alot of really good points and events alot of other Total War players have overlooked since they have now moved onto Warhammer and other newer entries.
I bought this game at launch for full price, played it for 20 mins, and never touched it again. So naturally, I decided to try it 10 years later. Let's see how it goes.
Its still one of the best total war games out. Its probs my most played even more than Napoleon. Yes its still a bit buggy here and there, but overall it is still an amazing game, with a huge player base still and great mechanics and diversity. And the multiplayer is imo ALOT better than the newer games, it just works great and the plays and choices and maps are just great. Don't care for Warhammer, still waiting for a good historical title. Attila was a buggy mess, the mod 1212AD makes it playable. Waiting on Napoleon 2 or Medieval 3.
Rome 2 ha as fucked moral system and fake difficulty modifiers that reward AI blobbing with tankie units. Game is unplayable to me, I’ll stick with shogun 2 until something good comes out.
@@john66687 DEI solves that stuff
@@gertaewilders9114 reworks a broken game to make it even more blobby
In my over 1000 hours experience i must disagree with the diplomacy statements. Once you had build up some allies they would never betray you unlike in shogun 2 where you get betrayed all the time. The way to go is starting with non agression pacts and then hopefully building enough score to get trade agreements or just add some coin. Unless they are barbarians you will usually get a solid partner out of them. Overall the diplomacy system has always been the same more or less in total war.
As someone who has only played Rome 1, Medieval 2 and Empire I find it daunting and unappealing looking at how the map/UI looks in the new games.
My biggest problem with Rome 2 is it is an appearance first game marketted to people who don't look that deep into the game. The units slide around. There's no real unit collision. Battle lines do not change from one side being stronger. You literally cannot reenact say Cannae because units don't naturally push due to mass. They remain static relying on dice rolling along a demilitarized zone of two opposing units. Everything has very little weight as a result. This isn't to mention the terrible music, the oversimplification of the map, a terrible launch, and general lack of freedom to simply move troops around.
This may sound a bit dickish, but I couldn't care less that most modern total war fans disagree because most of the people who shared my opinion quit after Rome 2. And all the most positive elements which ultimately boil down to cosmetics like historical accuracy were fixed by a bunch of amateurs making mods with an engine they had very few tools to work with from 2003.
All in all, there are positive features of Rome 2, but the battles which if I'm going to be honest with you, much of this community sucks at and end up just auto resolving, are flaccid. In Rome 1, real tactics win the day. In Rome 2, it's a dice roll.
Yeah unit weight, is a real problem. When I charge heavy cavalry into slingers those guys should be getting bowled over like bowling pins. Cav chargers and impacts are better from Rome 1.
These days Rome 2 is the only TW I still play with any regularity, though recently most of that time is spent doing MP games with a buddy.
That sounds like fun! Are you playing versus or coop against others?
@@AndysTake versus just for the ability to fight each other if necessary. We don't set out to kill each other but it happens now and then. We're doing pontus and Athens right now so I suspect a bit more head to head in my future than last time (Arevaci and Saba lmfao)
@@canadian__ninja awesome! Sounds cozy! :D
I think grand strategy game have really really good replay ability if the developer consistently try to improve things. Heck you I still play medieval 2 just because of one mod’s submod : Third age total war: divide and conquer. You would not even believe they of the same game. So yeah. I really hate when developers just milk the first profit and then drop the project. Give them some attention.
Look at stellaris 😂😂 at a certain point they took this to the next level and just updated it into a different game
Interested in my take on one of the biggest RTS games of 2022? Check it out here: th-cam.com/video/P9G1yhEi89s/w-d-xo.html
hey i notice that your units cards look, different, is that a mod and if is, can you please tell me?
2200 hrs later.. I dare say that would be quite a feat, even for the great HANNIBAL BARCA!!
I just downloaded Rome II for the first time and this pops up
Great news
Awesome!! I hope you’ll enjoy it, let me know what you think! :D
I haven't played Total War games for a long time and the only ones I've played were Rome and Medieval Total War II. And this game's much more complicated than these two both campaign and gameplay wise. I always played Rome Total War with Julii so tried the same mentality and rushed my way to conquer Etrucians and Carthage altogether but the new commander&recruit system suprised me. After a few turns both of them had huge armies that caught me off guard and pwned me quickly so I reset the campaign with only attacking Ectrucians but still they had an army in the scale of late-game armies in R:TW and M:TWII. Raising armies so quickly in the first turns is the weirdest change for me to adapt.
The warfare is so different too. R:TW and M:TWII horsemen were op af when you flanked the enemies so it made me use the same tactic of send the infantry then flank them with cavalry but in this game it's not that effective and ai counters their charge so quickly, it makes archers much more effective than horsemen charge. Also units' morale lasts longer.
Lastly the ecenomy, culture and politics are so confusing; again compared to other titles yet fun too. I'd usually just use castles as unit spammers then build every other thing in cities to gain money and send multiple priests/imams to new regions but this time I had to give attention to every detail in my provinces to keep the morale up.
I'm generally both having a hard and great time yet I don't thing I'll be able to finish even a normal campaign without tutorials. If there's anything I liked so much is the absence of diplomats, It took so much time to sign trade rights and forming alliances with multiple factions back then.
Same here and I'm basically brand new to the series as a whole, only played warhammer 2 for a few hours wish me luck
@@xenogrim2735 Good luck! :D
Awesome guide thx!
Im playing three kingdoms till this day.. but i hope they bring something new soon
I would greatly appreciate it if you'd consider supporting my work on Patreon: www.patreon.com/andystake
One of my favourites but attilla with the 1212ad and rise of mordor in the works just takes the cake for me
1212 is amazing!
@@AndysTake Is there a campaign there? Finished mod or not?
Yes there’s a campaign! It’s not finished in the full sense of the word, but it’s highly playable!
Still don’t like the campaign style of the newer total wars, recruiting from the field just ruined the whole damn franchise, and how arcadey the battles became
Rome 2 will never die. That being said, i can only play it for a while before i have the masochist goal of playing MK1212 and reforming the Roman Empire.
Haha I understand!
Only if they put the effort and resources on Historical titles like they do with Warhammer and stop making this Historical slash Mythology hybrid games, Total war will be so much more better and successful.
Decent video, enjoyed it, have been playing a Rome 2 again (and Shogun 2, and Empire) in the last year.
Kinda nice to see that many of your negative points were personal preferences instead of about the game - eg I like the Rome 2 province system with walled cities and unwalled towns (though paying for walls would be good) as it makes more diversity and trickier strategy than samey samey cities, and i prefer these icons to the ones you prefer. i also thought alliances and client states worked well, my last two campaigns have only worked because of allies helping out, but agree that trade agreements don't seem to work...
my biggest issue is battle AI, there's a few stupid things that AI do which partly ruin battles... still alright most of the time but sometimes ruins a battle.
Nice video tho and yeah top game!
Thank you so much! And thanks for sharing ;)
In regards to the AI: it is more predictable. Compared to old Rome AI, which is not a fair comparison, the AI feels less wacky, but more boring. It is easier to read, which in my opinion makes it a good starting point for Total War noobs.
I have to gladly agree with everything that you say except 3 things
1- having walls everywhere, but someone else has already explained and elaborated in it so let’s skip it
2- The icons, I honestly can’t say how much I love the artistic stile they used, it feels old and it is non-abstract enough for you to know immediately what represents
3- The diplomacy you’re correct, except in client states, client states were known for ALWAYS trying to become independent at the first chance, that’s the only thing in diplomacy of ROME 2 that they got right
In other theme, it’s interesting that I remember a few of the soundtrack of battle, but I can’t remember any track of the big map, just suddens “aaaaaaaaaa”
Also, for all those who prefer the cities of Rome 1, infinite buildings is OP, having limited options forces you to make decisions, to decide what are you building where and when, it’s makes each province unique inside your own empire, instead of every city being exactly the same but in different coordinates
I stopped playing at 3000 hours 2 years ago. The game is goated among tw games and CAs absolute betrayel to the historical community is still heartbreaking
3000. Damn. You got your money’s worth at least!
@Andy's Take for a long time total war was the only game series i would play because you can easily study and play tw at the same time lol
@@bravozero6 So true, I’ve been there ;)
@@bravozero6 did you conquer the whole map?
@@bravozero6 conquistaste todo el mapa xdddddd?
My problem with Rome 2 and Atilla is I can't play one game without missing the other. I played Rome 2 for the Era and the empire building and ended up missing and longing for Attila campaign systems and dark theme. When I play Attila I missed Roman Era and greek eras, I missed the empire building (Since Attila is lowkey more of a survival instead of empire building for me). I just want to 2 to merge or something.
Just play both lol. I do much prefer Attila though, much more interesting to me
I would like to see a review on Three Kingdoms
Oh man. That’s a request. Haven’t played it in a while and will need a lot more experience with it before I can give an up to date informed opinion. Buuut I might try one of these days ;)
10 years now...
Medieval 2, Shogun, and Rome 2 are my favorites.
oh i remember that hype... it was glorious
I try and use civil wars as my own end game big bad. Building up ad deliberately leveling up other family members so eventually I will have an advanced enemy equal to mine, with said leveled up different families fielding generals with exceptional armies. That’s my playstyle for Rome at least.
i spend most time on rome2
i have TW- Attila, -Medieval 2, -Empire,- -Rome2, -Napoleon, -Shogun 2 amd -Warhammer 1
I liket much Shogun 2 and the Sea fight in Empire
warhammer is... warhammer bro; nice fantasy setting (im more on the LotR-side; but why not orcs and beasts, elfes, human, what you whant more!?)
and Medieval 2...🤯 broooooo.... the mods; Third Age and Co this is childhood-dream stuff!!!!!!!!!!!! if you like Lord of the rings you understand me!
BUT Rome 2 was me first Total war game; i played this game 1 year cracked from pirate side; it was so good i must buy it!!!!
i spend then 367 Houers on this game on Steam
Good memories
ALLLL the units; the look and the colors from the the grafics😍 look more realistic then the other Total War games
and you have all this Factions you know from Movies
Rome, the Greeks with SPARTAAAAAA😂, Athen and co
the Famous Barbarien from the Nord😤💪
or the Agyptian; who dont know Kleopatra?bruh😂
Or if we go in the East; we all know the Movie 300; we all know LEAONIDAS and hes Enemy XERXERS the great God-King; so there are Persian- Faction to play
and you can take them all under your Lead and INVATE Europa with never ending Hordes💪💪✊
like Xersers in the Movie; with diffrent Units from all over the Middle -East😈 (with some mods you can even have the Immortals as a Spezial Unit; looking exactly like in the Movie; badass stuff!)
you will find more then thoes but this Faction we all know well from Movies and Documentary-Movies---so....
if you like this Era THIS IS DEFINITLY A GAME FOR YOU!
🙌
ps: sry for me bad english😅
Of all the TW games, which I own all besides the most recent one, I put the most hours into this. I got it 6 mths after release and it was bvug free and great.
Awesome content, thank so much!
Thanks for watching! :)
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer:
.
.
.
.
Yeeeeeeeeeeessssssssss!!!
Scream it from the rooftops!
If you use mods for roster expansion, garrison overhaul and more clever AI, this game holds extremely well.
100% agree with your words. Thanks for this.
This was my favorite game to begin with.. was also the first total war game I had ever seen or played I loved it, even with the issues
DEI Rome 2 is up there with Shogun 2 and Medieval 2 as the best historical Total War experiences ever.
DEI is a gem indeed!
you have to be babysitting your general all the time, you go somewhere on the board to view a battle and zoom back to your general and voila, he took off after the toughest meanest unit on the board and is now surrounded and gets killed...this is by far the biggest issue in R2 for me
Hey Andy! Can you say which soundtracks you used in this video?
Look up the Imperator: Rome soundtrack ;)
@@AndysTake thank you so much :)
@@yakantolga My pleasure!
NOTE: The game engine is really old. It only neutralizes a single core, which means if you have an average or below average cpu you are going to experience lag on campaign maps and in large battles. Although this is a relatively old game, but if you want a great experience out of it you still need a pretty darn good cpu.
Yeah that’s the problem with these older Total War titles… Attila especially
@@AndysTake Yup I was playing Total War Saga Britannia which runs on the same engine as Attila with my i5-9400F, it was laggy as hell...
@@ShawkyJames Exactly. It’s so sad because performance like that really ruins the overall experience. But I think they’ve learnt now for the most part. 3K and ESPECIALLY Troy has amazing performance, so we can only hope it continues into future titles!
@@AndysTake Did they optimize 3K? I was playing 3K like a year ago with my i5-9400f and gtx 1660 super. I could run it on medium to low settings on big battles at 30fps-ish. The issue was still there that when u zoom in during big clashes that my fps dipped hard. In fact, at one point soldiers went into slow motion. The only reason I uninstalled the game.
@@ShawkyJames Well, 1660 Super isn’t the most high end card, so that’s understandable. I get better frames and stability in 3K than I do in in Attila, so that’ll tell you something at least.
Just built my first PC any recommendations on what total war game I should play first?
Rome 2 with this mod is definitely amazing. Troy is amazing. Three Kingdoms is amazing if you like the time period and setting. Warhammer is amazing if you like that series. Attila is the best TW game if it likes your specs (it's notoriously badly optimized), and also has the best Medieval mod perhaps ever made. Shogun 2 is perfect if you like Japan and samurai. So much choice :)
Rome 2 suffers from major nations being too weak from the start... The greeks die early, Carthage also dies early, Rome dies early... The game evolves to the degree that no faction becomes a huge issue. Major nations needed perks over minor nations that favors major nations to become more of an issue.
You're talking about vanilla. With the proper mods the major factions are actually superpowers.
@@alejandrop.s.3942 I agree if they ever update the mods. The developers keep making changes to the game (till this day) for some reason rather than just letting the mod community fix things... Its causing all the mods to break.
@@kevinshirley9344 The latest patch already has a couple of years if I recall correctly. I don't think they'll update it anymore.
I disagree with the building icon thing. How does it remove immersion? Did actual governors look at a picture of the building when making decisions on documents and not visiting In person? No it woulda been just written down or a symbol
Very good review. As a fan of the series but someone that waited back then when I saw the disastrous launch I think I'll get out now.
I also was never much into the Rome and Greece of the past, so I was more inclined to Shogun, Medical and Empire, that is until 3k and warhammer came along.
I played Rome I excessively back in the day. I mean, EXCESSIVELY. :D I’m only now really checking out Rome II, and the fact that not all towns can have walls is absolutely confounding to me. This is so laughably implausible, it borders on a dealbreaker to me...
Rome 2 certainly holds up, obviously on launch (and several patches afterward) it was A SHAMEFUL DISPLAY! (so many patches adding in things that should have been their from the START, maybe they should have delayed the game.) Now though id call it a average game (grate game, the little things drag it down a bit), you have the Grand Campaign, 3 mini campaigns, and 2 other campaign periods. Their is certainly ALOT of Content on offer and that isn't even counting the mods (none of which i have tried yet), which is one of the reason Rome 2 is still so popular after all these years. Rome 2 is also a very good "Sandbox" Total War, while you do have "chapter objectives" which give you free money to guide you, you can basically go anywhere and do anything.
Rome 2 also has grate battle variety and unit balance. You have Field battle, Minor settlement (i too wish you could give them basic walls), Walled settlement, Ambush, Fort (though lets be honest its a TEST MAP), Naval battle, Navel invasion, Coastal battle with Army/Navy. The Garrisons can actually hold off armies and navies provided they aren't massively outnumbered. Goes without saying but Rome 2s navel combat turns into a cluster F of ramming and being rammed.
While their is Cultural diversity aplenty, when you have as many factions as Rome 2 does (in the Grand Campaign at least) it can feel like your playing the same faction just with a different start position, some of them have units to differentiate themselves but their is ALOT of sameness (Carthage can feel like another Hellenic faction with a different culture for example, or German/Britain barbarians and Sparta have renamed units).
Also just checked steam charts, ROME 2 IS STILL NUMBER 2 on the player count only surpassed by WH 2 (soon to be WH 3).
I agree with basically all your points! Thanks for watching and leaving such a good comment :D
But why does Rome II graphics picture growing cities like a fungus spreading across the landscape. This bothers me.
Let’s hear Paul Allen’s opinion.
Jk lol, but I agree to a certain extent! I love that the cities actually grow, I just wish that they were generally smaller in size, but that they grew more organically, and this would perhaps require a population system the city could grow little by little with, or just have more smaller settlements become available like in Empire.
@EightFootSativa I know, I love People’s of Rome. Excellent mod and inclusion in DEI.