Rome II total war: discussion about the total war series!

[Headshotkill]

With the upcoming release of 'Rome II total war' I'm really excited, it's the second total war game that I'm buying. The first game I had was 'Empire total war' yet I felt like it wasn't really a total war game, I mean it's probably the only game in the franchise that nearly only uses gun-units and almost no melee.

 

I didn't buy 'Shogun II total war', I don't know why, it just didn't happen. And now after watching some LPs I think that it was a little bit repetitive, nearly no unit variation.

So now, if any Total war fans are here, what do you think of 'Rome II'?

 

And what was your favorite total war game in the series up until now? (Rome II not included)

 

For me I think it would've been 'Medieval II total war' I played the demo of that and I really enjoyed it, more than Empire. Might buy it for the nostalgia after Rome II.

[Pixel Bombs]

Medieval II total war with LOTR mod will always win for me. I remember trying to run that on my dinky little laptop and having the thing overheat constantly and run at 6 frames. Good times.

[Xydonus]

The only Total War game that I ever really liked was Rome. The others, not so much. I couldn't get into Shogun, I or II, despite my love of Japanese history and culture. The games just felt shallow.

 

Same for Medieval II Total War, which I did like but only due to the mods such as the LOTR mod or the Warhammer Fantasy mod.

 

I'm hoping Rome II raises the bar, but I'm not hyped up over it and I don't expect much surprises from what I've seen. I'm hoping they've honed their multiplayer network for the campaign after the disaster that was Empire TW, but judging by how smoothly Shogun II runs multiplayer wise (most of the time) I'm hopeful.

 

Still, I'm expecting poor battle/campaign AI to continue, I'm just hoping mod support is still there.

[Aricane]

I love it. I've played it since Shogun. It's awesome, but very easy to figure out how to counter AI

[EnigmaGrey]

I learned early on in the series that with the right armour, you could trounce anyone with half to a third of the force . . . Kinda took the fun out of it.

[harakka]

I started with Medieval 2 Total War, bought both Empire and Napoleon, neither which I enjoyed, and Shogun 2, which I didn't end up playing much either. What I enjoyed in M2TW was the variety of nation-specific units available, and general unit variety: lots of different armor and weapon types available, some partially or completely exclusive. It was possible to have a good mix of various missile, melee, and mounted troop types with some siege weapons thrown into the mix. Some countries also had vastly differing starting situations and thus made the game fold out very differently, say, playing as Portugal vs playing as Egypt.

 

Empire and Napoleon didn't score on any of these fronts. Shogun 2 was better but, as someone noted earlier in the thread, there was little variety between the clans. It mostly felt like you were fighting the same battle over and over again, despite the AI and fortification improvements.

 

I'm hoping that since technology level is closer to M2TW in Rome 2, we'll see a similar mix of unit types on the field again. If that happens, I'll probably end up buying it.

I'll probably end up buying it anyway because I'm a terrible person like that.

 

Edit: However I doubt Rome 2 hasn really improved on what I see as the series' biggest long-standing flaws: the campaign mode UI is painful, especially when you have lots of units to move. Diplomatic maneuvering is stupid or nonexistent. The gameplay doesn't progress as the campaign does, you're doing the same thing at the end that you started with, only more tediously.

 

Don't get me wrong, the meat of the series is really the battles for me, but once you get bored of those there's absolutely no incentive to keep playing. If the campaign mode was closer to Civilizations or Paradox grand strats in variety and complexity, there'd be a reason to stick with the game even once you just start autoresolving battles.

[Keepbro]

My perfect game would be to combine the world map of Shogun 2 with its chess piece style figures, the battles of Mount and Blade Warband (but optimised a bit to not be so easy) and the political intricacies of Crusader Kings to make an intense game of politics where the battles really count.

 

But yeah the Total War Games are a real laugh. The first Medieval was the best one IMO and in particular the Viking Add-on which was just nuts (BERSERKERS woo) 

[PK'EZ-54]

I'm just preordering it for the hats. They go up in price after the game has been released for a month or so. It's a really good way to make money.

[Xydonus]

I'm just preordering it for the hats. They go up in price after the game has been released for a month or so. It's a really good way to make money.

 

Pretty sure the hats don't cover your cost for the game itself?

[Keepbro]

Ok so Ive just spent all of last night nerding out big time playing the new Total War Rome 2 game and have figured out why people have been saying the whole "yeah its good BUT...." thing.

 

 

For my money its the view on the battle scenes. The zoom is too much. Its completely stupid for the zoom to go that high. Its almost like Supreme Commander with its strategic space view. It detaches the player from his army and you lose the emotional input of the army you have created unlike in previous total war games.

 

Thats my opinion - anyone else got any critiques?