Amazing review! I recently purchased the game, while I like the game, it can't capture the feelings I had playing Rome 1 when I was 11-12 years old a decade ago hahaha Any recommendations for Rome 2 mods?
@@teaser6089 actually, like I said in the video, I like Rome 2's music quite a bit. However, I don't think the Rome 2 ost is as good for youtube videos as Rome 1's haha
I know it's all personal preference, but I for one absolutely love the stylized, "Greek vase" style art on the Rome 2 unit cards! For me, the when that art is replaced by more realistic portrait style units cards, it just makes me kind of sad..
For me it just made it hard to tell units apart. Many units look to similar. I actually really like the stylised unit cards from Attil's AOC and Thrones
couldn't disagree more. I want to look at a unit card and intuitively understand it's function. Rome 1 accomplished this while the Rome 2 unit card leaves the user resigned to read a bunch of stuff they dont feel like they should have to. take the "Iberian Infantry" unit card from Rome 1, the picture of the unit combined with it's short description of "fast moving light infantry" with a list of it's abilities is perfect
You forget to point out the trade system in rome 2,which work only from capital to capital,faction to faction,in relation to older games which was settlement to settlement
For people who d find the unit cards difficult to keep track of during battle, I'd recommend the Coloured Unit Cards mod, where unit cards are colored by their unit type. (Non-spear Infantry are light blue, archers are green, spear/pikemen red, ect. Still keeps the art style, but makes it easy to tell units apart in battle.
I love your retrospectives and they were how I found this channel, so this video was a welcome surprise. I'm not really a big fan of the new army management system because it makes reinforcing so inflexible. They most likely had to do it to make the army traditions and army stances mechanic work. But tradition buffs were, I felt, ignorable since high xp armies are all you need to wipe out the enemy, and I think stances could have been tied to a general instead of an army. The tiny armies in the old games were frustrating though, but I felt like Shogun 2 was moving in the right direction since the ai always seemed to form and maintain several fullstacks depending on their territorial size. I agree regarding the ai, but campaign ai can still be too passive; even on legendary I declare more wars than the ai does (which, granted, is probably a bit more realistic than an all-out Mediterranean free for all). In any case, this is a great and in-depth review!
You're welcome! Glad you enjoyed the review (and I'm glad someone likes my retrospectives haha). Perhaps I'll do more Rome 2 videos, taking a more in depth look at each campaign separately perhaps since doing that in this video would have taken up too much time. Imperator Augustus and Empire Divided definitely deserve more in depth reviews.
Co op or against campaign are massive in Rome 2. I once played the Hannibal at the gates campaign with a friend (Rome vs Carthage of course). It was a grind and It really kinda felt like an ancient world war. Invasions at Sicily, Africa and Italy. Bribing everybodys allies was exactly how I imagine the actual events in history. Another reason why I love Rome 2 are beautiful cinematic battles and troops. Just watch the latest Machinimas made by the RUclipsr Kaisa and you will understand what this game has to offer
Good review for a game that I've always loved, despite it's flaws. I tried the DEI mod thanks to your review of that and it's reignited my love for this game. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed the review, and I'm glad I was able to convince you to try out DeI! It's truly an excellent mod, I really like it. I don't want to compare DeI to mods like EB or RS for Rome 1 - totally different beasts.
@@GudeaTW I really enjoy the atmosphere and setting of Rome 2, I just felt it was missing the complexity that I've come to prefer of Paradoxes strategy games. With DEI I feel like I can have the best of both XD
I feel like what they really missed out with this game is letting the player build up regions and provinces rather than having everything there by default. Customize your region depending on the geography and resources. Plan the layout of your own regions defense. Having a simple city builder that is cohesive with campaign map and integrates with the player. Idk how the AI would function but that's always a major issue with total war games is that it will always focus on beating the player. Like ai will never attack another rebel settlement until you take it. Ai unit comps was a huge issue as well either nothing but skirmishers or tons of siege weapons
I actually really liked the unit cards... the 2D art assets were probably my favourite aesthetic touches in Rome II and the pretty menus often got me hyped to reinstall, but the drab, ugly-looking campaign map elements (and the fact it isn't Rome 1!) usually put me off quickly.
For hoplites, you just gotta make every battle a defensive one by goading the enemy to attack you and backing yourself into the map corner while your supporting range units whittle away the enemies charging your hoplites, the only worry is an enemy's ranged units, but more often than not they target the hoplites who can soak the hits up. I've literally cheesed multiple campaigns doing this as the various Greek factions.
First of all thanks for the review, it seems that it took a long while to do considering the lenght of the video. I agree with most of your points but i consider thar Rome 2 works best with her mini campaigns( the latter 2 being the best ones). Also i hope to see an Attila review on the channel one day, your insights are quite good.
You're welcome, my pleasure! Yeah this was a tougher long form video, but hopefully it was enjoyable for everyone. By mini campaigns do you mean the regional ones like Wrath of Sparta and Rise of the Republic? I enjoyed Empire Divided quite a bit as well, despite its issues.
Thanks so much! I appreciate it. I reached out to them regarding the DLC and they very kindly provided me with the code that made this full review possible. :)
I played Rome 2 properly for the first time on the back of this. I’d always been a RTW and M2 player but decided I needed to try the modern games. I’m really enjoying how different it is. A few things irk me but I think you’re summary is spot on. Love your vids, you’re my favourite TW RUclipsr always watch your vids!!!
Hi ScottishBaker, thanks! Glad you like the vids. Yeah definitely, while I have a lot of nostalgia for the old games and I still play them on average more than the newer ones (I suppose my most played games are RTW, Med 2, and Shogun 2), I don't agree with all the extreme hate the newer ones get. They feel different and have their own strengths and weaknesses, no doubt, but I still enjoy what they bring to the table.
I was thinking about to buy Rome2 for me and i search a long time for the question that it it's still worthy or not so where is the 75% discount ^^? I really like that video
Don't give your money to steam lmao. G2toplay, Kinguin are two of the best sites to buy games, you just go to steam and activate the product. Rome 2 Emperor edition costs like 11€
Something I really enjoyed in Rome II was the politicking. The constantly trying to appease different parts of your government, while also dealing with your incredibly limited allies really gives it a political drama vibe that honestly few other total war games have pulled off, if any.
It's always been hard for me to get past the absence of walls. It just doesn't feel real without the defenses that people in cities everywhere depended on from prehistoric times all the way into the gunpowder age.
It's tough. I get where they were coming from (I mean, not every settlement engagement was in a walled settlement), but their solution was too heavy handed
The main problem of Rome 2 is snowballing. Once you get a good start the AI can't stop you in any way and you just auto resolve every battle because why bother. First 20-50 turns as Seleucid Empire are one of the hardest things to survive in the game but when you finally take out Egypt and most of your singe province neighbours you can just crusade against the Parthians that have no better idea that to spam low level horse archers and EASTERN SPEARMEN against your lvl2 armourer and blacksmith buffed armies of heavy infantry, archers and mega armoured elephants.
Unfortunately, I'd say this is an issue in a lot of Total Wars. Luckily there are mods (for pretty much all of them) that at least attempt to rectify this issue (Extended Realism, etc.)
Not true. I have my fastest win record with seleucid on impossible. 41 turn military victory as I could have done it in 40. Reason being that I forgot to buy boats at the proper turn. The snowball is true for sure. Thats why I have many starts and far less campaign finishes.
I approve of the constraints Rome 2 places on the player. Limiting a player's options forces them to make tough decisions which results in more satisfying gameplay. Yes, it is more arcadey, but for me at least, more interesting to play.
IMO, big problem with Rome 2 is that armies MUST have a commissioned general attached to them: no more splitting your force up to finish off battle survivors while the main detachment goes on to other targets. But really, I rather like Rome 2 and still play it regularly today (just finished a Legendary Arverni CiG campaign)
I talk about this in the review. I like the idea behind it (reducing AI stack spam), but I wish the solution didn't have to be so heavy handed. However, it does reduce AI stack spam...
It also makes sense historically, a big problem Rome faced was troops being loyal to their general, not to Rome, giving some general funny ideas, like creating an empire from a republic
Right, well I get that it’s all tied into the family and politics, civil war/cessation, and military traditions side of things, and it also just happens to kind of reflect the idea of consular armies and such...it’s still a frustrating loss made worse by feeling like they didn’t have to ax the mechanic, and that there is lots of other missing little things like it. Progress for CA very often looks like big steps forward in obvious areas while completely stumbling in the subtle areas that they used to excel at.
Good/balanced review overall. It’s refreshing to see someone who can criticize Rome 2’s weakpoints while still acknowledging that the game has made a massive leap of improvement from its original launch. And I fully agree that the DLC’s really enhance the player experience - I tend to enjoy the DLC campaigns over the main campaign. I place Rome 2 as one of my favorite in the series. Medieval I/II Shogun I/II and Rome I/remastered we’re good in their time, but too often get placed on a pedestal. 3K, Troy and Pharaoh just seem a bit too arcadey for my tastes, and the Warhammer titles, while decent for their own reasons, just don't align with my preferences. For me Rome 2 and Atilla are the peak of historical TW gaming, though each title has some inherent drawbacks. DEI really increases the immersion and challenge, and I’m glad that you referenced that mod! One note regarding cavalry units - they really weren’t as impactful during that period antiquity as compared to later periods of history. Even during Alexander’s campaigns, cavalry were employed as a supporting arm to the main arm (heavy/medium infantry). So it would make sense for Rome 2 to emphasize infantry’s prowess at the expense of cavalry’s. Now, I can certainly acknowledge warscape’s limitations with unit collision and overall charge jankiness. But I still consider Rome 2’s portrayal of cavalry to be decent, though perhaps not awe inspiring.
Thank you very much for this informative review of Rome II. I've been trying to decide which older TW game to check out until I get my GPU repaired. (Currently playing with a 1gb card Nvidia GTX 650)
I just got into Rome 2 a few months ago after only having played Warhammer 1 & 2 in the TW series. Had tried Atilla a bit, and Rome 2 a bit before the last set of DLC's and couldn't get past a few of the things that they were missing in comparison to Warhammer. But now I've been playing Rome 2 constantly and love the things it has on the WH series. The sieges are actually a lot of fun. You have to buy ladders other then the set of 4 you start with. Not unlimited range towers. Pikes! I love using pikes, and Warhammer has pikes in the army books but yet to come in the game. You commented around 18 mins in about minor settlements not having walls and I really like the balance this game has of sieges, town battles, and field battles. Makes them all more fun when its a variety all the time. Maybe there could have been unique structures like in WH that give specific settlements walls (if thats moddable, I assume not or it'd likely be done). I really like the Imperium system as opposed to Warhammer's punishing you for making more armies and not really any way to track if your empires big enough to set off a premature chaos invasion. Battles themselves take longer because there isn't all the aoe and flying units going on. It feels really well balanced for the most part. The AI for the most part doesn't blob up and plays rather well. Even in sieges they usually put up a decent fight. Anyways loving Rome 2. And tons of good mods for it. Just waiting for the next sale to get the last few dlcs
Yeah sieges are definitely an improvement in every way... I get so frustrated with Rome 1 (and Med 2) sieges.... I actually like the Imperium system as well! Good points.
HATG is the best DLC in my opinion, I've played it plenty of times, especially as Carthage, which it's not so enjoyable in GC if you ask me. Nevertheless, I've not purchased RoTR which Indeed seems awesome. In regard of DLC faction packs, some of them are close to be a scam. I've purchased Pirates & Raiders (for Tylis), Greek factions (for Aspis Companion and Agrianian Axemen) , Black Sea Colonies (I don't know even why) and Desert Kingdoms, which it's in my opinion the only one that deserves to be bought.
I highly recommend trying the dei mod, i cant play the base game now, dei just makes the game so much more enjoyable for me, it makes the game a real challenge
I really can't understand a lot of the criticism about the artistic style. The unit card design, for example, is one of my favourite things about this game. They feel so *Roman* to me. The first RTW on the other hand, while I've had a lot of fun with the game over the years, looks pretty awful to me in retrospect.
For me the Rome 2 art feels good... but only for Greek city-states. It feels off for everyone else and especially barbarians and nomads. It’s immersion breaking when playing Suebi or Massagetae. Neither is it best when applied to Roman units - ancient Roman wall-graffiti may have suited it much better than Greek vase painting. In the end, when they’d decided to go for artsy unit cards, they should have gone full in and create distinct art style for each culture, eg. Eastern factions getting Persian stonework, Romans getting wall-graffiti, and Barbarians getting perhaps some Gaul-inspired sculpture carving. Egypt would also do much better with something unique. Even diadochi factions may have used something much more akin to wall fresco-mosaic of Alexander from Pompeii than some Greek vases from a bygone era. It fits only Athens, Sparta and other Greek cities and even then it’s not an ideal choice.
Then this is an issue of familiarity with ancient art. To those who know that this art style was exclusive to the Greeks and their colonies, that its peak was around the *6th century* BCE, and that Roman art didn't resemble it in any way, it doesn't feel Roman but entirely out of place with most factions that aren't Hellenic, with the exception of the Etruscans who were the biggest lovers of Hellenic pottery anywhere.
The Greek Cav in Rome 2 imo is more like teanage boys riding donkey into battle rather than soldier on horseback. They are bad, slow and need constant micro.
@@GudeaTW yeah in vanilla. The greek cav is so bad in my recollection i just cant find any use for them in higher difficulty. Rome 2 will always be bad in my mind cause its launch was so bad i still find it funny that CA release it at that state.
I actually have tried to get into Rome 2 before, but found it completely overwhelming. My experience with Total War is only with the original Rome and Medieval II, so going into Rome II was very daunting, with almost everything having been changed and unfamiliar. I've been meaning to give it a second shot, and was wondering what campaign and faction you'd recommend to start with, to ease into the game and get used to everything that is different from the classics.
As my Personal opinion, start as Either Rome,macedon, or Egypt. they are the easiest to get into. The macedonians are hold and then hammer. Roman's just plain attack everything
Yeah I see your point about it being overwhelming! Everything plays quite differently, both campaign and battles. I think mustang restoration is right, those factions are probably the most straightforward and as egypt or Rome you have fairly secure borders. For a new player I'd definitely go for the grand campaign, but Caesar in Gaul might be a good introduction as well. After testing all the campaigns, I have to say I personally found Empire Divided quite engaging.
@@GudeaTW Yes, I was leaning towards Caesar in Gaul, as you said it was a fairly linear, goal driven campaign. That might be a good way to learn the mechanics of the game before jumping into the large openness that is a grand campaign. Thanks for the response.
@@blakeprocter5818 Canonically that is pretty unwise though. If you got the DLC play rise of the republic, then the grand campaign, then after finishing it, only then Caesar in Gaul and then the Imperator Augustus campaign that is practically the endgame phase of Rome 1. Atleast that would make sense most historically if you care about that and gets you used more to the units. As in my Oppinion Rise of Republic is just a big tutorial and has the Early game units of grandcampaign as their mainunits. Otherwise if you want to play grand campaign, just go for Athens. You can just sit out and send emmissaries and moneygifts to macedon and sparta until you got your city and trade build up, then just put your armies right next to macedons cities while Macedon is away fighting Epirus or Ardiai or Galatia... and then declare War on them and storm the cities...voila you got a huge instant empire and now have enough time to dick around with the game I used sparta to get used to get game, are you are pretty isolated but still have professional units, all these fancy citybuilding trees, diverse units on the greek isles, are near to rome and pretty much have all the features you have as rome without playing rome. Rome is just too easy as soon as you upgrade your infantry to imperial units Btw I advice you to use the Parabellum Combat mod for more realistic and longer combat and the Parabellum population mod that brings population feature from Rome 1 back. You can just DL it over steam workshop. If you want more realistic campaign AI and diplomacy with Treaties and Alliances and Satrapies that actually matter, then also download Parabellum Campaign AI. I use all 3 and cant play without them anymore. Also ballistas and scorpions as well as dogs are still overkill and get me 200-350 kills per units each fight, no matter what anyone says
Rome 2 is by far my most played TW game. The mods I have for it are purely to make the game look better, nothing that changes the overall gameplay mechanics. Too many people hear of Rome 2 and instantly judge it on its vanilla release. Which is a shame as this game did make a comeback.
I like the unit ui images, it feels like a greek metholodgy art but on other factions that are not the romans greeks or hellenic nations it feels incompatible. but even besides that i like the art on the gauls units even the art and cultures dont match at all
I think the style of unit cards they used in Empire Divided should have been used in all the grand campaigns, and the black Greek style ones should have beenn used in Wrath of Sparta
@@GudeaTWPersonally, I think Empire Divid's unit cards are pretty ugly. Looks like someone slapped the 3d model with paint on a bleak background. In that case I prefer to use the overstylized Vanilla Unit Cards, even if they don't fit every nation. As for beautiful unit cards, for me it's Total War Warhammer 2, closely followed by Shogun 2.
I love Wars of the Gods... however as Axum, Kush and/or Blemmyes the diplomacy is borked IMHO with every faction hating you and/or declaring war. It is very hard to make any decent headway against Ptolemaic Egypt which is very gamey too me and not historical. Other than that the mods for Rome 2 such as DEI, the aforementioned Wars of the Gods and now 1100 AD are great. I have also played New World which has some good aspects as well.
I enjoyed New World a lot. My issue with Rome 2 is the samey feeling of the map in basically every mod, as well as gameplay aspects, but modders have done a great job all things considered.
If you wanted to be really cheeky you could simply remove the "paid-DLC" factions from the map via modding and add clones of them :P. However this would not work with a lot of mods
@@GudeaTW probably not, CA I assume would take them down if they noticed such mods on the workshop, though as said before, doing such a thing would mean you wouldn't been able to use a lot of mods, even basic unitpacks for those factions (unless you go and edit them yourself to make them compatible)
extreeeeeme nostalgia, Total War's future was looking very iffy before Warhammer. Rome 2 was a trainwreck on release and wasn't really a good game until some years later after a lot of really good changes to the game. The historical games post Warhammer 3 I imagine will overall be much better games than Rome or Atilla, especially when compared to their releases.
Rome 2 really made me hate the campaigns in TW games since the design decisions make no bloody sense. The amount of limitations or the workarounds really feel like the game has removed all sandbox elements from it. Really hate it, especially love it how the province system only made the battles be around towns with just garrisons in them while there's still pretty much no battles. What I also don't understand was your point about the recruitment from generals, wouldn't the units be trained from barracks in the city and then put in the army? I don't know how the recruitment worked exactly but that makes more sense to me. eeeh I still can't defend the game after their numerous patches, if anything, I'm even more disappointed knowing that the game is still lacking what made the previous games great.
@@GudeaTW mmm it just didn't make much sense to me but fair enough if it worked like that. I'd kinda like a system like in Empire to S2 where the generals can recruit from armies but instead have to wait a turn extra than while being in the capital city idk or maybe how far they are from it I really dislike how it's just no difference between army being actually present in the city or just somewhere random on the field
Do people really had an issue with the constant siege battles in Rome I and Medieval II? Because I loved them, and that's historically accurate. People have had walls in their villages since the bronce age. And walls is what made open battles such an important part of war back in the day. An open battle could make a town concede defeat in order to not suffer a siege, or it would break a standing siege and liberate the town. One thing I never liked about the new games was precisely the lack of walled settlements and how dumb it was to have a frontier town without a wall. And the lack of buildings, I loved building all the buildings in the classic games. It doesn't even makes sense that a town with no walls cannot expand and build new things.
I'd say if you haven't played too much Rome 2, it's better to start off with some vanilla in order to get the hang of it and the new mechanics, and then go for a mod like DeI.
I only play with mods because despite the game being MUCH better than at launch (last time I pre-ordered a game), the core of the game remains infuriating. I think if anyone asked me to describe the feeling of Rome 2 in one word it would be frustrating. There's always something, be it a bug, a mechanic, or ai randomness that will stain your fun at some point. Also, the voice acting...SUH-LINGERS, SPARE MY ARSE
Haha actually this is the last time I pre-ordered a game as well! It was a cool pre-order pack though, with the buildable catapult and the card game that was actually kind of fun...
Compared to Empire, Napoleon, and even Medieval 2 it noteworthy that the AI makes big and varied armies (tho not always good ones), walled sieges feel like more significant events (tho walls are still buggy), and unwall settlement battles are quite fun. It's too bad that this is achieved through artificial restricitons on what the player can do, but it does the job. It's too bad they didn't add more detail to the eastern kingdoms in the DLCs though.
I actually feel that Empire Divided does the eastern factions (Sassanids and Armenia) more justice than the other campaigns, even in other Total Wars (the east is done well in mods for Attila, but is a bit bland in vanilla, same for Barbarian Invasion). But yeah, in general that is true!
Empire Divided is one of the DLCs I haven't tried, but I agree with what you said about the unit cards in it. They look how I wish Rome 2 cards had looked: stylised and polished, much like Shogun 2. In vanilla Rome 2 some of the eastern unit cards don't even reflect their unit (Bactrian Hillmen have rectangular shields on their card but oval ones ingame etc.) so I ended up making a mod just try to get the eastern units to look better (Eastern Overhaul on the workshop), but I still think their unit rosters are too limited, especially in MP, even when compared to the Britons or Iberians.
@@andeve3 I like rome 2s unit cards, as they look as the paintings on amphoras and walls from that time. It fits the timeline. Shogun 2 has great ones too. Atillas which were changed due to all the blind complainers who cant differentiate one unit from another, have the most ugly unit cards in the entire total war series
I think the idea behind the rome 2 unit cards is good, and that they could have been great with some more polish, so that they looked even more like the black-figure style. On the bright side, they're very easy to edit, and they're more interesting than pictures (like Attila). @GudeaTW I hope you like it! I tried to keep it authentic and close to the aesthetic of the the rest of the game.
Good review. I remember looking forward to the release of Rome 2 and was devastated when early reviews showed it to be a broken mess. Decided to wait till it was fixed. Still haven’t bought it.
Luckily they brought it up to snuff and then some with the Emperor Update a few years ago. Just about every single performance and balance issue was fixed, it now runs better than Rome 1 on my laptop. It's a true shame the greedy rushed launch keeps people away to this day
This game without a plethora of mods is worthless and can get you on your nerves... anyway, it still is my favourite game. Superb review, keep up with the great work.
@@GudeaTW I bought Shogun II a few months ago since I had seen the complete game really cheap in a key codes web, but I only have played a battle so far. I guess the historical time and location don't attract me too much, aside from the fact that I mostly play Rome II and I haven't got tired of it yet. The game engine seems different, I mean, Shogun II units seem to move really fast, it's difficult to switch from a game to the other. Moreover, I can't be bothered to learn its metagame, what units are better than others, good army set up... learning Rome II's was a hard experience, I don't want to get through it again for the moment.
I never played Rome 2 because the battle maps are not based on the campaign map. The Rome 1 map is far more detailed and strategic when you consider that all of the battles are fought on a map based on the tile that the defending army is standing on, and the direction of the attack further changes the battle map. In Rome 2 the campaign map is prettier but your army placement and field battles are pointless. And the cities are still copy paste just like Rome 1.
This is indeed true and a point in Rome 1's favor. However, someeetimes this can lead to very strange battle maps in Rome 1 (well, newer mods are aware of the issues so they design the maps to avoid these problems)
I just picked this game up actually on a sale. Only six quid. The graphics always were very impressive, but a lot of the reviews at the time slated the game. I’m wondering has it improved? Hence watching this review
@@GudeaTW Did they fix everything by and large? A lot of bugs, bad AI etc Just shows you how taxing these Total War games are on your system. I have HP PAVILLION laptop RYZEN 5 4500 GTX 1650 16GB RAM 256GB SSD I have the graphics on extreme, and it’s running in the 20-30fps... on a game that game out in 2013....! Looks good tho.
Rome 2 I have 16mods enabled all for historical and graphical purposes. It's really great. Also CA didn't made the aqueducts appear on IA and ED map so install a mod for that.. My favourite campaign is Imperator Augustus as Regnum Antonii (yes I have historical names mod too for every campaign) also I love Empire Divided especially as Roman usurpers (Aurelian's Rome) and the Palmarene Empire. CIG is great to just conquer and don't do anything stupid during winter buy instead planning what you will conquer next. Then HATG I like but playing as Rome I like it once I have Italy for myself. I really like to play as Rome. It really is a great game now especially with historical mods and some graphical mods. Also people if you don't like the unit cards download Nordo's 3d unit cards. There are also a lot off better buildings mods. Better UI mods. Also better wattter 3 HD is a must have and a better textures mod too. And historical mods is a must have for this game imo. For grand campaign just use DEI. For the other campaign(s) install separate historical accurate mods. I don't have wrath off Sparta, and Rise off the Republic because that time period doesn't interest me. I have all other campaign packs, and blood dlc. Now excuse me Antony wants me te build a fleet so he can start the invasion off Sicily. I sided with Octavian against Pompey and Lepidus declined I'm still defensive allied with him. I only took Palmyra with Mark Antony as the general and let Armenia took Hatra and Dura and helped them. Also I have to put him back in his legion in Greece and let Bassus take command in Syria again. I'm 10 turns in, and my wife Cleopatra does well too. Once I have Sicily Corsica and Sardinia Octavian will like me and Lepidus probably too because the dumbass will have war with Pompey too. But I don't know who to crush next Octavian or Lepidus? I don't know yet. My economy is very great my armies are strong (in a couple off turns). Parthia is pushed back. I fought all battles manual or would've lost at least 2 settlements very early because auto resolve gave my Garrison not a chance. And I crushed them both. Anyone playing right now? If yes what campaign, and what faction? Edit: if I have type mistakes it's very early am still tired. Also I play this game the graphics everything on extreme and boxes like SSAO and all that good stuff ticked ON. Have still average off 90fps. I wish Attila was optimised like this game. Attila refuses to use all my hardware. But it's still very nice looking especially if you put those ugly shadows on performance, and all the rest on quality with some things on very high quality and tick all the graphical boxes on. It runs without lag and it looks great. I have some mods for Attila I think 18 or so. But is there a big mod for Attila grand campaign that overhauls a lot to make it more historical? I want to play as WRE or ERE on hard. But historical accurate so that I don't have to go to paganism everytime for example. So please anyones a big overhaul mod for Attila??
hmm I know it's possible to recruit quite a few units at the start as Armenia in Empire Divided, but not in the grand campaign no... which part of the video are you referring to?
@@GudeaTW I'm not referring to your video, but great review btw! I just figured you'd be able to help me out here. Last I can remember you used to only be able to recruit 3 units a turn, from the start, playing as Rome.
Yeah, your review is really deep and accurate. I also think Rome 1 had more spirit and vibe feeling than Rome 2, also the Unit Card is sure a big stepback for Rome 2, in my opinion
I find the campaign interesting, the battles are ok... I don't like battle with heroes much, they get old quickly. I think it looks very nice.... I'm not a huge fan of the UI. I was definitely more positive about it closer to its release. I think it's ok. I might do another Total War games ranked video once I get to 4000 subscribers
@@GudeaTW the main menu theme is enough to win me over by itself but i just prefer how rome 2's soundtrack sounds like those old movies from the 60s about this time period but i admit rome 1's soundtruck is more fun sounding
@@scringle2844 Rome 2 music is very epic and orchestral. Battle music is intense. Rome 1 has very great and hypnotic campaign music that I like more, but the battlemusic is just aggressive drumming. Even tho cool to especially playing as the free tribes of europe
Unit rosters for a lot of factions is an issue. Need bigger map ( more settlements and more movement like Wrath of sparta, and Rome 1's politics; building. Still love the game....but thinking of what could have been makes me thirsty for a Rome 3. But let's be honest....I haven't liked anything they've put out since Rome 2 so....tho I think Attila has great mechanics like raze/abandon and horde mechanic.
I think unit rosters are, in general, better than vanilla Rome 1, but they could have been done a lot better. Well, I suppose my views are clear in the review :)
Maybe I'm out of the loop with Total War: Rome 2 updates, but I don't recall seeing or hearing about the capture point system to supplement the AI's issues. Did CA patch them out, or are they not as much of a big deal as I heard from launch?
You are criminailly underated. RUclips buries your video at bottom of the suggested list but i came across your channel on repost on reddit. I like how you Dont have false Impressions or try to be unbiased, its refreshing. My biggest complaint, Armies require generals (They should allowed just you to do that,freedom for the player but no AI). No town palisades ruin the realism. Rome 2 lacked civilians like in attila.And the simplfied building system and Simplfied unit cards i hate. Alot mods fix my complaints though
nice vid, thanks. and totally agree on settlement fortifications. they should have at least made it possible to unlock them as it works in Attila. wall-less settlements on such grand scale map look downright silly. you're right many issues in Rome 2 being addressed heavyhandedly indeed. and yeah, cities are way too large and thus immersion breaking imho, not to mention make introduction of more settlements impossible (like you mentioned)
Thanks! I know there are a few points about the game I missed, but the video was dragging a bit. I still enjoy Rome 2, esp multiplayer, but it does have its issues
@@GudeaTW having never played a total war past medieval 2 until rome 2 recently . It was rather to easy to be strutting around with multiple gold gold stacks, Weapons and xp. In the prior games. Maybe if I was lucky in rome 1 or medieval 2 I'd have a stack of ten units who make it to gold xp or maybe an entire army if things worked out well but never multiple stacks lmao. Oh great review btw
The only thing i hate in this game is diplomacy! After destroying the hole Army of arverni they still dont agree to Peace, i also want Client kingdoms that arent completly useless.
honestly i do not like the unit cards in the EDivided campaign. I really like the unit cards in grand campaign. maybe there should be different unit cards based on the civilization. I really really enjoyed the rome 2 unit cards :D
Well I'm happy you enjoyed it, but personally while I have tried over and over again, with mods too, just cant have fun with rome 2 for very long. I dont like the new army system, I dont like limited building slots, and the battles just lack oompf. To be honest, I havent been truly satisfied with an historical TW since Medieval 2. Empire was a mess without lategame, and asian stuff doesnt interest me.
For me honestly, vanilla Rome 2 is better than Rome 1, yes Rome 2 has problems, but Rome 1 too, and when compare historical accurcy, gameplay and overall structure, i prefer Rome 2. Of course, nothing beats Medieval 2 haha
I would definitely rank it above vanilla Rome 1, and actually above vanilla medieval 2. Mods of course are a different story, but DeI and even vanilla are quite fun
Personally I have a love hate relationship with Rome 2 I really wish CA would of upped it's fort game I really wanted my based Roman fort system but it is what it is
This was a good video man, Rome 2 gets a lot of hate from people who played it before patch 20 (i think) and never played it again. I really appreciate that they fixed the game some, I still play every Friday with my friend on the coop campaign. There was a few things I feel like you missed out though. Firstly, the family traits/cards that you apply to your generals are pretty woeful and mostly useless, a big disappointment. The 1 year per turn is a too much as well as your generals and agents drop like flies, it makes the mostly useless level up skills pointless as I find the only one that really matters is campaign movement and then they die. Second, the AI is mostly pretty good but has a few major problems. In land battles the AI has one tactic, rush, they rush your army like a spearhead and there's almost no point in making balanced armies as you won't be using tactics much. On the flip side the AI loves a good cheat on the campaign map. I started as the Boii and Suebi managed to field 2 and a half full stacks within a few turns, stack them outside the province and somehow have an 11 unit garrison yet have buildings that would actually provide 5 or less. They also know exactly how much movement you have and will often raid right on the edge of it and then retreat before you can get to them, it's so bull... and the same on the sea, you often need two fleets to chase a navy down as they can just flee forever. I think some of the DLC is still a rip off even at 75% off as it's base price can be £13 or so, which means you're still paying a fair amount of money for what is essentially reskinned units. I really like what they did with the politics and I'm surprised you didn't have more to say on it. It's too basic and often punishes the player more than it can be used as positive. I would love for it to be more complex and have greater uses. You mentioned some newer total wars but Troy is a disaster and 3 kingdoms doesn't look a lot better. I really don't have a lot of hope for newer total war games, all CA care about now is money and I think they whatever comes next is not going to be pleasing for historical fans. And for that reason I am happy you made this video, I think Rome 2 still plays and looks good enough for people who hate the new games to have something to enjoy. Would recommend it, especially coop, and would also recommend shogun 2 and fall of the samurai, that was a truly masterful expansion. I regret that this comment became an essay but I've wrote it now and I'm not cutting it back. Respect the Palpatine line too.
Haha thanks! Glad you enjoyed the video. I do have things to say about the rpg traits system for characters and the family/politics system, but actually I felt the video was dragging on a bit too long. I might do a separate video about how I feel about the rpg traits introduced in Shogun 2 vs the older traits system (which is still partially in Shogun 2). I'll be taking some deeper looks at Troy and 3K at some point as well, maybe do some comparisons.
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
Hope you enjoyed this review! Looking forward to making some more content on Divide et Impera and other Rome 2 mods.
It was very good and methodical. good job!
Thank you very much! I appreciate it
Now do an Attila review!
Amazing review!
I recently purchased the game, while I like the game, it can't capture the feelings I had playing Rome 1 when I was 11-12 years old a decade ago hahaha
Any recommendations for Rome 2 mods?
Hmm perhaps!
Reviews Rome II, puts Rome I music in the background
What a madlad
Heheh
Rome I had such good music hehe
@@teaser6089 actually, like I said in the video, I like Rome 2's music quite a bit. However, I don't think the Rome 2 ost is as good for youtube videos as Rome 1's haha
@@GudeaTW True, I like both, but Rome 1 just has that flavour that makes it great for in the background of more than just games! :D
TEAser ewe you’re nasty lol 😝
I know it's all personal preference, but I for one absolutely love the stylized, "Greek vase" style art on the Rome 2 unit cards! For me, the when that art is replaced by more realistic portrait style units cards, it just makes me kind of sad..
I love them too! It's a very nice touch imo
I agree.
For me it just made it hard to tell units apart. Many units look to similar. I actually really like the stylised unit cards from Attil's AOC and Thrones
Yep, love them too.
couldn't disagree more. I want to look at a unit card and intuitively understand it's function. Rome 1 accomplished this while the Rome 2 unit card leaves the user resigned to read a bunch of stuff they dont feel like they should have to. take the "Iberian Infantry" unit card from Rome 1, the picture of the unit combined with it's short description of "fast moving light infantry" with a list of it's abilities is perfect
You forget to point out the trade system in rome 2,which work only from capital to capital,faction to faction,in relation to older games which was settlement to settlement
Good point, Danny. Settlement to settlement is definitely a better system.
For people who d find the unit cards difficult to keep track of during battle, I'd recommend the Coloured Unit Cards mod, where unit cards are colored by their unit type. (Non-spear Infantry are light blue, archers are green, spear/pikemen red, ect. Still keeps the art style, but makes it easy to tell units apart in battle.
I love your retrospectives and they were how I found this channel, so this video was a welcome surprise.
I'm not really a big fan of the new army management system because it makes reinforcing so inflexible. They most likely had to do it to make the army traditions and army stances mechanic work. But tradition buffs were, I felt, ignorable since high xp armies are all you need to wipe out the enemy, and I think stances could have been tied to a general instead of an army. The tiny armies in the old games were frustrating though, but I felt like Shogun 2 was moving in the right direction since the ai always seemed to form and maintain several fullstacks depending on their territorial size.
I agree regarding the ai, but campaign ai can still be too passive; even on legendary I declare more wars than the ai does (which, granted, is probably a bit more realistic than an all-out Mediterranean free for all). In any case, this is a great and in-depth review!
You're welcome! Glad you enjoyed the review (and I'm glad someone likes my retrospectives haha). Perhaps I'll do more Rome 2 videos, taking a more in depth look at each campaign separately perhaps since doing that in this video would have taken up too much time. Imperator Augustus and Empire Divided definitely deserve more in depth reviews.
Co op or against campaign are massive in Rome 2. I once played the Hannibal at the gates campaign with a friend (Rome vs Carthage of course). It was a grind and It really kinda felt like an ancient world war. Invasions at Sicily, Africa and Italy. Bribing everybodys allies was exactly how I imagine the actual events in history. Another reason why I love Rome 2 are beautiful cinematic battles and troops. Just watch the latest Machinimas made by the RUclipsr Kaisa and you will understand what this game has to offer
Hi Kilian, I totally agree - coop and vs campaigns are my favorite features in Rome 2. Super fun
Rome 2 unit cards look the best with the original version.I always love the original unit cards in Rome 2!
Good review for a game that I've always loved, despite it's flaws. I tried the DEI mod thanks to your review of that and it's reignited my love for this game. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed the review, and I'm glad I was able to convince you to try out DeI! It's truly an excellent mod, I really like it. I don't want to compare DeI to mods like EB or RS for Rome 1 - totally different beasts.
@@GudeaTW I really enjoy the atmosphere and setting of Rome 2, I just felt it was missing the complexity that I've come to prefer of Paradoxes strategy games. With DEI I feel like I can have the best of both XD
I feel like what they really missed out with this game is letting the player build up regions and provinces rather than having everything there by default. Customize your region depending on the geography and resources. Plan the layout of your own regions defense. Having a simple city builder that is cohesive with campaign map and integrates with the player. Idk how the AI would function but that's always a major issue with total war games is that it will always focus on beating the player. Like ai will never attack another rebel settlement until you take it. Ai unit comps was a huge issue as well either nothing but skirmishers or tons of siege weapons
I actually really liked the unit cards... the 2D art assets were probably my favourite aesthetic touches in Rome II and the pretty menus often got me hyped to reinstall, but the drab, ugly-looking campaign map elements (and the fact it isn't Rome 1!) usually put me off quickly.
For hoplites, you just gotta make every battle a defensive one by goading the enemy to attack you and backing yourself into the map corner while your supporting range units whittle away the enemies charging your hoplites, the only worry is an enemy's ranged units, but more often than not they target the hoplites who can soak the hits up. I've literally cheesed multiple campaigns doing this as the various Greek factions.
Literally just use the tactics of Alexander and victory will never be far from your grasp
First of all thanks for the review, it seems that it took a long while to do considering the lenght of the video. I agree with most of your points but i consider thar Rome 2 works best with her mini campaigns( the latter 2 being the best ones).
Also i hope to see an Attila review on the channel one day, your insights are quite good.
You're welcome, my pleasure! Yeah this was a tougher long form video, but hopefully it was enjoyable for everyone. By mini campaigns do you mean the regional ones like Wrath of Sparta and Rise of the Republic? I enjoyed Empire Divided quite a bit as well, despite its issues.
I've been actually thinking whether it's worth playing today for a while. Thanks, Gudea!
You're welcome, Guilherme! Hope you like the video :)
same, kinda stopped playing it but now I feel like loading up Rome again.
@@uri_9158. Actually had the same feeling in January... this video was the result!
Unpopular opinion here.
I loved Rome 2 unit cards. I couldn't get into other total war game because of their unit cards.
Another great video. My personal favorite TW game :). PS. did CA reach out to you or vice versa?
Thanks so much! I appreciate it. I reached out to them regarding the DLC and they very kindly provided me with the code that made this full review possible. :)
@@GudeaTW that's awesome to hear! Love your content brother.
I played Rome 2 properly for the first time on the back of this. I’d always been a RTW and M2 player but decided I needed to try the modern games. I’m really enjoying how different it is. A few things irk me but I think you’re summary is spot on.
Love your vids, you’re my favourite TW RUclipsr always watch your vids!!!
Hi ScottishBaker, thanks! Glad you like the vids. Yeah definitely, while I have a lot of nostalgia for the old games and I still play them on average more than the newer ones (I suppose my most played games are RTW, Med 2, and Shogun 2), I don't agree with all the extreme hate the newer ones get. They feel different and have their own strengths and weaknesses, no doubt, but I still enjoy what they bring to the table.
I was thinking about to buy Rome2 for me and i search a long time for the question that it it's still worthy or not so where is the 75% discount ^^?
I really like that video
Thank you very much!
G2A
Don't give your money to steam lmao. G2toplay, Kinguin are two of the best sites to buy games, you just go to steam and activate the product. Rome 2 Emperor edition costs like 11€
One of the best total war games imo
It is fun!
Great review and I like your presentation style!
Thank you very much! appreciate it
Something I really enjoyed in Rome II was the politicking. The constantly trying to appease different parts of your government, while also dealing with your incredibly limited allies really gives it a political drama vibe that honestly few other total war games have pulled off, if any.
It's always been hard for me to get past the absence of walls. It just doesn't feel real without the defenses that people in cities everywhere depended on from prehistoric times all the way into the gunpowder age.
It's tough. I get where they were coming from (I mean, not every settlement engagement was in a walled settlement), but their solution was too heavy handed
A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.
Great video for a timeless game like this.
hello there
@@GudeaTW General Kenobi, you are a bold one.( Heavy breathing)
The main problem of Rome 2 is snowballing. Once you get a good start the AI can't stop you in any way and you just auto resolve every battle because why bother. First 20-50 turns as Seleucid Empire are one of the hardest things to survive in the game but when you finally take out Egypt and most of your singe province neighbours you can just crusade against the Parthians that have no better idea that to spam low level horse archers and EASTERN SPEARMEN against your lvl2 armourer and blacksmith buffed armies of heavy infantry, archers and mega armoured elephants.
Unfortunately, I'd say this is an issue in a lot of Total Wars. Luckily there are mods (for pretty much all of them) that at least attempt to rectify this issue (Extended Realism, etc.)
Not true. I have my fastest win record with seleucid on impossible. 41 turn military victory as I could have done it in 40. Reason being that I forgot to buy boats at the proper turn.
The snowball is true for sure. Thats why I have many starts and far less campaign finishes.
I approve of the constraints Rome 2 places on the player. Limiting a player's options forces them to make tough decisions which results in more satisfying gameplay. Yes, it is more arcadey, but for me at least, more interesting to play.
I'm actually ok with Rome 2's limits, I just feel like at times the limits are a bit heavy handed
IMO, big problem with Rome 2 is that armies MUST have a commissioned general attached to them: no more splitting your force up to finish off battle survivors while the main detachment goes on to other targets. But really, I rather like Rome 2 and still play it regularly today (just finished a Legendary Arverni CiG campaign)
I talk about this in the review. I like the idea behind it (reducing AI stack spam), but I wish the solution didn't have to be so heavy handed. However, it does reduce AI stack spam...
It also makes sense historically, a big problem Rome faced was troops being loyal to their general, not to Rome, giving some general funny ideas, like creating an empire from a republic
Right, well I get that it’s all tied into the family and politics, civil war/cessation, and military traditions side of things, and it also just happens to kind of reflect the idea of consular armies and such...it’s still a frustrating loss made worse by feeling like they didn’t have to ax the mechanic, and that there is lots of other missing little things like it. Progress for CA very often looks like big steps forward in obvious areas while completely stumbling in the subtle areas that they used to excel at.
On the other hand, Attila has Age of Charlemagne, which is set further in time than Empire Divided.
That's true
15:40 what happened here?
Good/balanced review overall. It’s refreshing to see someone who can criticize Rome 2’s weakpoints while still acknowledging that the game has made a massive leap of improvement from its original launch. And I fully agree that the DLC’s really enhance the player experience - I tend to enjoy the DLC campaigns over the main campaign. I place Rome 2 as one of my favorite in the series. Medieval I/II Shogun I/II and Rome I/remastered we’re good in their time, but too often get placed on a pedestal. 3K, Troy and Pharaoh just seem a bit too arcadey for my tastes, and the Warhammer titles, while decent for their own reasons, just don't align with my preferences. For me Rome 2 and Atilla are the peak of historical TW gaming, though each title has some inherent drawbacks.
DEI really increases the immersion and challenge, and I’m glad that you referenced that mod!
One note regarding cavalry units - they really weren’t as impactful during that period antiquity as compared to later periods of history. Even during Alexander’s campaigns, cavalry were employed as a supporting arm to the main arm (heavy/medium infantry). So it would make sense for Rome 2 to emphasize infantry’s prowess at the expense of cavalry’s. Now, I can certainly acknowledge warscape’s limitations with unit collision and overall charge jankiness. But I still consider Rome 2’s portrayal of cavalry to be decent, though perhaps not awe inspiring.
Very, very good review. Instant like+sub.
Thank you!
Nice review man, I really liked it and how you really disected the game, plus that music really pumps me for playing the remaster!
Heheh glad you enjoyed the video!
you did a great work
Thank you, I appreciate it!
Very good review! I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Thank you very much, I appreciate it!
So many problems could be solve if they just cared about making a good AI
Loved the video!! got recommended to me!
Thank you very much!
Just bought the Emperor Edition. Thorough review... thanks!!!
You're welcome, hope you enjoy it!
Thank you very much for this informative review of Rome II. I've been trying to decide which older TW game to check out until I get my GPU repaired. (Currently playing with a 1gb card Nvidia GTX 650)
You're welcome! Hmm I'd say with that card you might want to try medieval 2 or napoleon... But Rome 2 on low settings might be ok!
@@irgendeinname9256 lol warhammer 2 does not run well for me at all. Every other one is ok
Since finally getting my 4gb rx 570, warhammer 2 runs ultra on 60 fps, and I'm really happy with it.
@@allthatisj8900 nice!
Thanks for the in depth review
You're welcome!
A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one
:)
I just got into Rome 2 a few months ago after only having played Warhammer 1 & 2 in the TW series. Had tried Atilla a bit, and Rome 2 a bit before the last set of DLC's and couldn't get past a few of the things that they were missing in comparison to Warhammer. But now I've been playing Rome 2 constantly and love the things it has on the WH series. The sieges are actually a lot of fun. You have to buy ladders other then the set of 4 you start with. Not unlimited range towers. Pikes! I love using pikes, and Warhammer has pikes in the army books but yet to come in the game. You commented around 18 mins in about minor settlements not having walls and I really like the balance this game has of sieges, town battles, and field battles. Makes them all more fun when its a variety all the time. Maybe there could have been unique structures like in WH that give specific settlements walls (if thats moddable, I assume not or it'd likely be done). I really like the Imperium system as opposed to Warhammer's punishing you for making more armies and not really any way to track if your empires big enough to set off a premature chaos invasion. Battles themselves take longer because there isn't all the aoe and flying units going on. It feels really well balanced for the most part. The AI for the most part doesn't blob up and plays rather well. Even in sieges they usually put up a decent fight. Anyways loving Rome 2. And tons of good mods for it. Just waiting for the next sale to get the last few dlcs
Yeah sieges are definitely an improvement in every way... I get so frustrated with Rome 1 (and Med 2) sieges.... I actually like the Imperium system as well! Good points.
I hope you could do a review for Roma Surrectum 2.
hmm at some point!
@@alenpetkovic i like it. Please do at some point
Isn't there Roma Surrecta III already?
Romas errectum
@@arhexirthesnake yes. With custom settlements
What is missing is civil war between Cezar,Crassus and Pompei! For me whas great.
Definitely true, would have been nice to see such a campaign
That will be fun to watch
love my Empire Divided cataphract charges xD
HATG is the best DLC in my opinion, I've played it plenty of times, especially as Carthage, which it's not so enjoyable in GC if you ask me. Nevertheless, I've not purchased RoTR which Indeed seems awesome.
In regard of DLC faction packs, some of them are close to be a scam. I've purchased Pirates & Raiders (for Tylis), Greek factions (for Aspis Companion and Agrianian Axemen) , Black Sea Colonies (I don't know even why) and Desert Kingdoms, which it's in my opinion the only one that deserves to be bought.
Yes I'm not a huge fan of the faction DLC, I feel that those should have been free dlc patches, but the campaign DLCS are very nice indeed.
I highly recommend trying the dei mod, i cant play the base game now, dei just makes the game so much more enjoyable for me, it makes the game a real challenge
I have a review of it
I really can't understand a lot of the criticism about the artistic style. The unit card design, for example, is one of my favourite things about this game. They feel so *Roman* to me.
The first RTW on the other hand, while I've had a lot of fun with the game over the years, looks pretty awful to me in retrospect.
For me the Rome 2 art feels good... but only for Greek city-states. It feels off for everyone else and especially barbarians and nomads. It’s immersion breaking when playing Suebi or Massagetae. Neither is it best when applied to Roman units - ancient Roman wall-graffiti may have suited it much better than Greek vase painting.
In the end, when they’d decided to go for artsy unit cards, they should have gone full in and create distinct art style for each culture, eg. Eastern factions getting Persian stonework, Romans getting wall-graffiti, and Barbarians getting perhaps some Gaul-inspired sculpture carving. Egypt would also do much better with something unique. Even diadochi factions may have used something much more akin to wall fresco-mosaic of Alexander from Pompeii than some Greek vases from a bygone era. It fits only Athens, Sparta and other Greek cities and even then it’s not an ideal choice.
Then this is an issue of familiarity with ancient art. To those who know that this art style was exclusive to the Greeks and their colonies, that its peak was around the *6th century* BCE, and that Roman art didn't resemble it in any way, it doesn't feel Roman but entirely out of place with most factions that aren't Hellenic, with the exception of the Etruscans who were the biggest lovers of Hellenic pottery anywhere.
The Greek Cav in Rome 2 imo is more like teanage boys riding donkey into battle rather than soldier on horseback. They are bad, slow and need constant micro.
In vanilla?
@@GudeaTW yeah in vanilla. The greek cav is so bad in my recollection i just cant find any use for them in higher difficulty. Rome 2 will always be bad in my mind cause its launch was so bad i still find it funny that CA release it at that state.
I actually have tried to get into Rome 2 before, but found it completely overwhelming. My experience with Total War is only with the original Rome and Medieval II, so going into Rome II was very daunting, with almost everything having been changed and unfamiliar. I've been meaning to give it a second shot, and was wondering what campaign and faction you'd recommend to start with, to ease into the game and get used to everything that is different from the classics.
As my Personal opinion, start as Either Rome,macedon, or Egypt. they are the easiest to get into. The macedonians are hold and then hammer. Roman's just plain attack everything
Yeah I see your point about it being overwhelming! Everything plays quite differently, both campaign and battles. I think mustang restoration is right, those factions are probably the most straightforward and as egypt or Rome you have fairly secure borders. For a new player I'd definitely go for the grand campaign, but Caesar in Gaul might be a good introduction as well. After testing all the campaigns, I have to say I personally found Empire Divided quite engaging.
@@GudeaTW Yes, I was leaning towards Caesar in Gaul, as you said it was a fairly linear, goal driven campaign. That might be a good way to learn the mechanics of the game before jumping into the large openness that is a grand campaign. Thanks for the response.
@@blakeprocter5818 Canonically that is pretty unwise though. If you got the DLC play rise of the republic, then the grand campaign, then after finishing it, only then Caesar in Gaul and then the Imperator Augustus campaign that is practically the endgame phase of Rome 1. Atleast that would make sense most historically if you care about that and gets you used more to the units. As in my Oppinion Rise of Republic is just a big tutorial and has the Early game units of grandcampaign as their mainunits.
Otherwise if you want to play grand campaign, just go for Athens. You can just sit out and send emmissaries and moneygifts to macedon and sparta until you got your city and trade build up, then just put your armies right next to macedons cities while Macedon is away fighting Epirus or Ardiai or Galatia... and then declare War on them and storm the cities...voila you got a huge instant empire and now have enough time to dick around with the game
I used sparta to get used to get game, are you are pretty isolated but still have professional units, all these fancy citybuilding trees, diverse units on the greek isles, are near to rome and pretty much have all the features you have as rome without playing rome. Rome is just too easy as soon as you upgrade your infantry to imperial units
Btw I advice you to use the Parabellum Combat mod for more realistic and longer combat and the Parabellum population mod that brings population feature from Rome 1 back. You can just DL it over steam workshop. If you want more realistic campaign AI and diplomacy with Treaties and Alliances and Satrapies that actually matter, then also download Parabellum Campaign AI. I use all 3 and cant play without them anymore.
Also ballistas and scorpions as well as dogs are still overkill and get me 200-350 kills per units each fight, no matter what anyone says
I think its still good game after all these patches and dlc
I think it's a much better game now.
@@GudeaTW 100%
And thx for making this video
you're welcome!
Rome 2 is by far my most played TW game. The mods I have for it are purely to make the game look better, nothing that changes the overall gameplay mechanics. Too many people hear of Rome 2 and instantly judge it on its vanilla release. Which is a shame as this game did make a comeback.
Definitely agree, the game is much better now and I enjoy it. Everything I don't like I cover in this review, but there is a lot to like here
I like the unit ui images, it feels like a greek metholodgy art but on other factions that are not the romans greeks or hellenic nations it feels incompatible. but even besides that i like the art on the gauls units even the art and cultures dont match at all
I think the style of unit cards they used in Empire Divided should have been used in all the grand campaigns, and the black Greek style ones should have beenn used in Wrath of Sparta
@@GudeaTWPersonally, I think Empire Divid's unit cards are pretty ugly. Looks like someone slapped the 3d model with paint on a bleak background. In that case I prefer to use the overstylized Vanilla Unit Cards, even if they don't fit every nation. As for beautiful unit cards, for me it's Total War Warhammer 2, closely followed by Shogun 2.
I love Wars of the Gods... however as Axum, Kush and/or Blemmyes the diplomacy is borked IMHO with every faction hating you and/or declaring war. It is very hard to make any decent headway against Ptolemaic Egypt which is very gamey too me and not historical. Other than that the mods for Rome 2 such as DEI, the aforementioned Wars of the Gods and now 1100 AD are great. I have also played New World which has some good aspects as well.
I enjoyed New World a lot. My issue with Rome 2 is the samey feeling of the map in basically every mod, as well as gameplay aspects, but modders have done a great job all things considered.
Really liked the video, great content! Do you know the Hegemony games? I would really like to hear your review on the series.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! Hmm can't say I've heard of those.
If you wanted to be really cheeky you could simply remove the "paid-DLC" factions from the map via modding and add clones of them :P. However this would not work with a lot of mods
heheh interesting... has it been done?
@@GudeaTW probably not, CA I assume would take them down if they noticed such mods on the workshop, though as said before, doing such a thing would mean you wouldn't been able to use a lot of mods, even basic unitpacks for those factions (unless you go and edit them yourself to make them compatible)
yeah I figured, I hadn't seen anyone do that before
Those were great times for the TW series, unfortunately since the TW war hammer came out everything changed and normal TW will never be the same.
let's see!
@@GudeaTW hopefully
rome 2 sucked ass back in the day and atilla was´nt good either
extreeeeeme nostalgia, Total War's future was looking very iffy before Warhammer. Rome 2 was a trainwreck on release and wasn't really a good game until some years later after a lot of really good changes to the game. The historical games post Warhammer 3 I imagine will overall be much better games than Rome or Atilla, especially when compared to their releases.
Rome 2 sold extremely well, it's future was not iffy
Rome 2 really made me hate the campaigns in TW games since the design decisions make no bloody sense.
The amount of limitations or the workarounds really feel like the game has removed all sandbox elements from it. Really hate it, especially love it how the province system only made the battles be around towns with just garrisons in them while there's still pretty much no battles.
What I also don't understand was your point about the recruitment from generals, wouldn't the units be trained from barracks in the city and then put in the army? I don't know how the recruitment worked exactly but that makes more sense to me.
eeeh I still can't defend the game after their numerous patches, if anything, I'm even more disappointed knowing that the game is still lacking what made the previous games great.
There's a reason why the most historical mods don't have recruitment tied to barracks buildings. It was often much more decentralized than that
@@GudeaTW mmm it just didn't make much sense to me but fair enough if it worked like that. I'd kinda like a system like in Empire to S2 where the generals can recruit from armies but instead have to wait a turn extra than while being in the capital city idk or maybe how far they are from it I really dislike how it's just no difference between army being actually present in the city or just somewhere random on the field
Do people really had an issue with the constant siege battles in Rome I and Medieval II?
Because I loved them, and that's historically accurate. People have had walls in their villages since the bronce age. And walls is what made open battles such an important part of war back in the day. An open battle could make a town concede defeat in order to not suffer a siege, or it would break a standing siege and liberate the town.
One thing I never liked about the new games was precisely the lack of walled settlements and how dumb it was to have a frontier town without a wall. And the lack of buildings, I loved building all the buildings in the classic games. It doesn't even makes sense that a town with no walls cannot expand and build new things.
A lot of people don't like siege fest campaigns.
Rome 2 only with Divide Et Impera or War Of The Gods
They are both excellent mods. But vanilla can be fun too, despite it's flaws.
@@GudeaTW Divide Et Impera mod is only for nerds
@@lukaskovac6778 are you calling me a nerd? :P
I've never done a proper playthrough of Rome 2, and played a brief Selucid DEI campaign. Is it better to play with DEI than without?
I'd say if you haven't played too much Rome 2, it's better to start off with some vanilla in order to get the hang of it and the new mechanics, and then go for a mod like DeI.
roma surrectum 2,the best modded game ever
It's roma surrectum 3.1 now
Name of Rome ost played at the beginning?
arabic summer i think!
*Arabic Winter
I only play with mods because despite the game being MUCH better than at launch (last time I pre-ordered a game), the core of the game remains infuriating. I think if anyone asked me to describe the feeling of Rome 2 in one word it would be frustrating. There's always something, be it a bug, a mechanic, or ai randomness that will stain your fun at some point.
Also, the voice acting...SUH-LINGERS, SPARE MY ARSE
Haha actually this is the last time I pre-ordered a game as well! It was a cool pre-order pack though, with the buildable catapult and the card game that was actually kind of fun...
yeah, not the best voice acting xD
Compared to Empire, Napoleon, and even Medieval 2 it noteworthy that the AI makes big and varied armies (tho not always good ones), walled sieges feel like more significant events (tho walls are still buggy), and unwall settlement battles are quite fun. It's too bad that this is achieved through artificial restricitons on what the player can do, but it does the job. It's too bad they didn't add more detail to the eastern kingdoms in the DLCs though.
I actually feel that Empire Divided does the eastern factions (Sassanids and Armenia) more justice than the other campaigns, even in other Total Wars (the east is done well in mods for Attila, but is a bit bland in vanilla, same for Barbarian Invasion). But yeah, in general that is true!
Empire Divided is one of the DLCs I haven't tried, but I agree with what you said about the unit cards in it. They look how I wish Rome 2 cards had looked: stylised and polished, much like Shogun 2. In vanilla Rome 2 some of the eastern unit cards don't even reflect their unit (Bactrian Hillmen have rectangular shields on their card but oval ones ingame etc.) so I ended up making a mod just try to get the eastern units to look better (Eastern Overhaul on the workshop), but I still think their unit rosters are too limited, especially in MP, even when compared to the Britons or Iberians.
Will check out eastern overhaul!
@@andeve3 I like rome 2s unit cards, as they look as the paintings on amphoras and walls from that time. It fits the timeline. Shogun 2 has great ones too. Atillas which were changed due to all the blind complainers who cant differentiate one unit from another, have the most ugly unit cards in the entire total war series
I think the idea behind the rome 2 unit cards is good, and that they could have been great with some more polish, so that they looked even more like the black-figure style. On the bright side, they're very easy to edit, and they're more interesting than pictures (like Attila).
@GudeaTW I hope you like it! I tried to keep it authentic and close to the aesthetic of the the rest of the game.
Good stuff Gudea
Thank you very much!
Good review.
I remember looking forward to the release of Rome 2 and was devastated when early reviews showed it to be a broken mess. Decided to wait till it was fixed.
Still haven’t bought it.
Glad you liked the review!
I pre ordered that shit. Never bought anything from CA since
Luckily they brought it up to snuff and then some with the Emperor Update a few years ago. Just about every single performance and balance issue was fixed, it now runs better than Rome 1 on my laptop. It's a true shame the greedy rushed launch keeps people away to this day
How is landing ships still broken in 2021...
shrug
This game without a plethora of mods is worthless and can get you on your nerves... anyway, it still is my favourite game.
Superb review, keep up with the great work.
haha many Total War games are like that unfortunately... Shogun 2 is probably my favorite one without any mods.
@@GudeaTW I bought Shogun II a few months ago since I had seen the complete game really cheap in a key codes web, but I only have played a battle so far. I guess the historical time and location don't attract me too much, aside from the fact that I mostly play Rome II and I haven't got tired of it yet.
The game engine seems different, I mean, Shogun II units seem to move really fast, it's difficult to switch from a game to the other. Moreover, I can't be bothered to learn its metagame, what units are better than others, good army set up... learning Rome II's was a hard experience, I don't want to get through it again for the moment.
23:41 do you say you enjoy vanilla?
I enjoy vanilla
I never played Rome 2 because the battle maps are not based on the campaign map. The Rome 1 map is far more detailed and strategic when you consider that all of the battles are fought on a map based on the tile that the defending army is standing on, and the direction of the attack further changes the battle map. In Rome 2 the campaign map is prettier but your army placement and field battles are pointless. And the cities are still copy paste just like Rome 1.
This is indeed true and a point in Rome 1's favor. However, someeetimes this can lead to very strange battle maps in Rome 1 (well, newer mods are aware of the issues so they design the maps to avoid these problems)
I just picked this game up actually on a sale. Only six quid. The graphics always were very impressive, but a lot of the reviews at the time slated the game. I’m wondering has it improved? Hence watching this review
It has definitely improved compared to its first release, and it has a lot of excellent mods.
@@GudeaTW
Did they fix everything by and large? A lot of bugs, bad AI etc
Just shows you how taxing these Total War games are on your system.
I have HP PAVILLION laptop
RYZEN 5 4500
GTX 1650
16GB RAM
256GB SSD
I have the graphics on extreme, and it’s running in the 20-30fps... on a game that game out in 2013....!
Looks good tho.
Rome 2 I have 16mods enabled all for historical and graphical purposes. It's really great. Also CA didn't made the aqueducts appear on IA and ED map so install a mod for that.. My favourite campaign is Imperator Augustus as Regnum Antonii (yes I have historical names mod too for every campaign) also I love Empire Divided especially as Roman usurpers (Aurelian's Rome) and the Palmarene Empire. CIG is great to just conquer and don't do anything stupid during winter buy instead planning what you will conquer next. Then HATG I like but playing as Rome I like it once I have Italy for myself. I really like to play as Rome. It really is a great game now especially with historical mods and some graphical mods. Also people if you don't like the unit cards download Nordo's 3d unit cards. There are also a lot off better buildings mods. Better UI mods. Also better wattter 3 HD is a must have and a better textures mod too. And historical mods is a must have for this game imo. For grand campaign just use DEI. For the other campaign(s) install separate historical accurate mods. I don't have wrath off Sparta, and Rise off the Republic because that time period doesn't interest me. I have all other campaign packs, and blood dlc. Now excuse me Antony wants me te build a fleet so he can start the invasion off Sicily. I sided with Octavian against Pompey and Lepidus declined I'm still defensive allied with him. I only took Palmyra with Mark Antony as the general and let Armenia took Hatra and Dura and helped them. Also I have to put him back in his legion in Greece and let Bassus take command in Syria again. I'm 10 turns in, and my wife Cleopatra does well too. Once I have Sicily Corsica and Sardinia Octavian will like me and Lepidus probably too because the dumbass will have war with Pompey too. But I don't know who to crush next Octavian or Lepidus? I don't know yet. My economy is very great my armies are strong (in a couple off turns). Parthia is pushed back. I fought all battles manual or would've lost at least 2 settlements very early because auto resolve gave my Garrison not a chance. And I crushed them both. Anyone playing right now? If yes what campaign, and what faction?
Edit: if I have type mistakes it's very early am still tired. Also I play this game the graphics everything on extreme and boxes like SSAO and all that good stuff ticked ON. Have still average off 90fps. I wish Attila was optimised like this game. Attila refuses to use all my hardware. But it's still very nice looking especially if you put those ugly shadows on performance, and all the rest on quality with some things on very high quality and tick all the graphical boxes on. It runs without lag and it looks great. I have some mods for Attila I think 18 or so. But is there a big mod for Attila grand campaign that overhauls a lot to make it more historical? I want to play as WRE or ERE on hard. But historical accurate so that I don't have to go to paganism everytime for example. So please anyones a big overhaul mod for Attila??
is the online dead
Was it always possible to recruit 7 units from turn 1 in Grand campaign?
hmm I know it's possible to recruit quite a few units at the start as Armenia in Empire Divided, but not in the grand campaign no... which part of the video are you referring to?
@@GudeaTW I'm not referring to your video, but great review btw! I just figured you'd be able to help me out here. Last I can remember you used to only be able to recruit 3 units a turn, from the start, playing as Rome.
Yeah, your review is really deep and accurate. I also think Rome 1 had more spirit and vibe feeling than Rome 2, also the Unit Card is sure a big stepback for Rome 2, in my opinion
Thank you very much! I appreciate it
Nice review
Thanks!
It was meh. He needed to be alot more critical on the abomination of Rome 2.
After Warhammer 2, for me the best total war game. Dont know why, i just like to play Rome 2. With upgraded political system is pretty nice.
Rome 2 is not a bad game imo, I find it fun, especially multiplayer. Warhammer's campaign mechanics seem interesting
@@GudeaTW I agree. Not bad at all. I mean any game with ancient Rome in it is good xD
What are your thoughts on Total War Troy?
I find the campaign interesting, the battles are ok... I don't like battle with heroes much, they get old quickly. I think it looks very nice.... I'm not a huge fan of the UI. I was definitely more positive about it closer to its release. I think it's ok. I might do another Total War games ranked video once I get to 4000 subscribers
unpopular opinion but i prefer rome 2's music over the original
It's not a bad soundtrack! I like it. It is a longer and somewhat more varied ost
@@GudeaTW the main menu theme is enough to win me over by itself but i just prefer how rome 2's soundtrack sounds like those old movies from the 60s about this time period but i admit rome 1's soundtruck is more fun sounding
@@scringle2844 Rome 2 music is very epic and orchestral. Battle music is intense. Rome 1 has very great and hypnotic campaign music that I like more, but the battlemusic is just aggressive drumming. Even tho cool to especially playing as the free tribes of europe
I agree, I'd say the battle music overall is more varied and nice in Rome 2, but the Rome 1 campaign map tracks are more legendary.
And the Rome 2 soundtrack does indeed remind me of those epic movies, like the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire with Alec Guinness
Unit rosters for a lot of factions is an issue. Need bigger map ( more settlements and more movement like Wrath of sparta, and Rome 1's politics; building. Still love the game....but thinking of what could have been makes me thirsty for a Rome 3. But let's be honest....I haven't liked anything they've put out since Rome 2 so....tho I think Attila has great mechanics like raze/abandon and horde mechanic.
I think unit rosters are, in general, better than vanilla Rome 1, but they could have been done a lot better. Well, I suppose my views are clear in the review :)
Maybe I'm out of the loop with Total War: Rome 2 updates, but I don't recall seeing or hearing about the capture point system to supplement the AI's issues. Did CA patch them out, or are they not as much of a big deal as I heard from launch?
They were patched out
@@GudeaTW Much appreciated for the response.
rome 2 should be played with mods anyway, which makes rome 2 a great game.
Rome 2 does have some great mods!
Extraordinară istoria "Imperiului Roman"Războaie și asupra României ,pe atunci între Daci și romani !
You are criminailly underated. RUclips buries your video at bottom of the suggested list but i came across your channel on repost on reddit. I like how you Dont have false Impressions or try to be unbiased, its refreshing. My biggest complaint, Armies require generals (They should allowed just you to do that,freedom for the player but no AI). No town palisades ruin the realism. Rome 2 lacked civilians like in attila.And the simplfied building system and Simplfied unit cards i hate. Alot mods fix my complaints though
Thank you very much for the praise, I really appreciate it and I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
Is total war rome 2 going to get remastered?
They just released dlc in 2019 so I doubt we'll see anything like that anytime soon
@@GudeaTW naww man...if it's like another year for a potential remaster I'll probs wait. Thanks for your quick response!
I think it'll be about a decade or more before they think about remastering Rome 2
@@GudeaTW ohh wow okay dang! Haha that's sweet tho! Gimme a reason to get it then! Cheers 👍🏾
nice vid, thanks. and totally agree on settlement fortifications. they should have at least made it possible to unlock them as it works in Attila. wall-less settlements on such grand scale map look downright silly. you're right many issues in Rome 2 being addressed heavyhandedly indeed. and yeah, cities are way too large and thus immersion breaking imho, not to mention make introduction of more settlements impossible (like you mentioned)
Thanks! I know there are a few points about the game I missed, but the video was dragging a bit. I still enjoy Rome 2, esp multiplayer, but it does have its issues
Champions are the best in rome 2. Walking around with gold Chevron stacks
Yeah they are a bit... op xD
@@GudeaTW having never played a total war past medieval 2 until rome 2 recently . It was rather to easy to be strutting around with multiple gold gold stacks, Weapons and xp. In the prior games. Maybe if I was lucky in rome 1 or medieval 2 I'd have a stack of ten units who make it to gold xp or maybe an entire army if things worked out well but never multiple stacks lmao. Oh great review btw
The only thing i hate in this game is diplomacy! After destroying the hole Army of arverni they still dont agree to Peace, i also want Client kingdoms that arent completly useless.
It would be nice if they make Rome 2 remastered
Hmm I don't think that would come along for a loong time... Rome 1 needed a remaster due to the engine not even working properly on modern systems
honestly i do not like the unit cards in the EDivided campaign. I really like the unit cards in grand campaign. maybe there should be different unit cards based on the civilization. I really really enjoyed the rome 2 unit cards :D
I agree, having varied unit cards for the different civilization groups might have been a cool compromise!
I think the reason why the last campaign was made for rome 2 is because rome 2 simply has larger player base
That's quite possible!
Well I'm happy you enjoyed it, but personally while I have tried over and over again, with mods too, just cant have fun with rome 2 for very long. I dont like the new army system, I dont like limited building slots, and the battles just lack oompf. To be honest, I havent been truly satisfied with an historical TW since Medieval 2. Empire was a mess without lategame, and asian stuff doesnt interest me.
Limited building slots? So you want build a city that's as big as the earth with unlimited building slots?
For me honestly, vanilla Rome 2 is better than Rome 1, yes Rome 2 has problems, but Rome 1 too, and when compare historical accurcy, gameplay and overall structure, i prefer Rome 2. Of course, nothing beats Medieval 2 haha
I would definitely rank it above vanilla Rome 1, and actually above vanilla medieval 2. Mods of course are a different story, but DeI and even vanilla are quite fun
I wished they would still continue to add to the game though
@@AbuHajarAlBugatti would be unexpected and cool! Maybe a First Triumvirate campaign?
@@GudeaTW Or a Diadochi wars campaing or maybe a Bactrian/Indian camaping
Both of those sound cool indeed...
would love a review of rome 1 as well
You're right - I reviewed the remaster, but mostly talked about aspects that were changed or enhanced. I should do a retrospective on Rome 1.
@@GudeaTW Currently watching your remastered review, it's great but yes I would love a review of rome as a whole.
Why are there no Timestamps? :(
hmm I'll try to start doing that for my longer videos especially. I don't have an editor or anything so it's hard to do all that alone xD
Rome 2 is still my fav
it's not bad!
Personally I have a love hate relationship with Rome 2 I really wish CA would of upped it's fort game I really wanted my based Roman fort system but it is what it is
Ahh good point, that was a point I could have touched on
This was a good video man, Rome 2 gets a lot of hate from people who played it before patch 20 (i think) and never played it again.
I really appreciate that they fixed the game some, I still play every Friday with my friend on the coop campaign. There was a few things I feel like you missed out though.
Firstly, the family traits/cards that you apply to your generals are pretty woeful and mostly useless, a big disappointment.
The 1 year per turn is a too much as well as your generals and agents drop like flies, it makes the mostly useless level up skills pointless as I find the only one that really matters is campaign movement and then they die.
Second, the AI is mostly pretty good but has a few major problems. In land battles the AI has one tactic, rush, they rush your army like a spearhead and there's almost no point in making balanced armies as you won't be using tactics much.
On the flip side the AI loves a good cheat on the campaign map. I started as the Boii and Suebi managed to field 2 and a half full stacks within a few turns, stack them outside the province and somehow have an 11 unit garrison yet have buildings that would actually provide 5 or less.
They also know exactly how much movement you have and will often raid right on the edge of it and then retreat before you can get to them, it's so bull... and the same on the sea, you often need two fleets to chase a navy down as they can just flee forever.
I think some of the DLC is still a rip off even at 75% off as it's base price can be £13 or so, which means you're still paying a fair amount of money for what is essentially reskinned units.
I really like what they did with the politics and I'm surprised you didn't have more to say on it. It's too basic and often punishes the player more than it can be used as positive. I would love for it to be more complex and have greater uses.
You mentioned some newer total wars but Troy is a disaster and 3 kingdoms doesn't look a lot better. I really don't have a lot of hope for newer total war games, all CA care about now is money and I think they whatever comes next is not going to be pleasing for historical fans.
And for that reason I am happy you made this video, I think Rome 2 still plays and looks good enough for people who hate the new games to have something to enjoy. Would recommend it, especially coop, and would also recommend shogun 2 and fall of the samurai, that was a truly masterful expansion.
I regret that this comment became an essay but I've wrote it now and I'm not cutting it back. Respect the Palpatine line too.
Haha thanks! Glad you enjoyed the video. I do have things to say about the rpg traits system for characters and the family/politics system, but actually I felt the video was dragging on a bit too long. I might do a separate video about how I feel about the rpg traits introduced in Shogun 2 vs the older traits system (which is still partially in Shogun 2). I'll be taking some deeper looks at Troy and 3K at some point as well, maybe do some comparisons.
It's a different game compared to release. Nice review, not being too harsh on CA xD
Glad you enjoyed the review!
You didn't have multiple pathfinding and AI bugs during siege battles? For me, it was really frustrating.
Not really. I mean there are minor things, but it's not as bad as RTW or Med 2, not by a longshot
We need Rome 3 now
Hmm doubt that'll happen this decade since we're getting the remaster... perhaps once they build a new engine (a post-warscape engine)
@@GudeaTW Rome remaster is shit and a waste of money