The Total War series is known for being a little on the punishing side of things, but if you take the time to learn the game you are rewarded with an experience unlike any other. Rome II takes that fact to heart, that if you know the game you will be granted an amazing time. But is that enough?
Gameplay
So, when you get down to brass tacks, Rome II is very much part RTS and part Turn based games. With the RTS parts taking place in the battles, and the Turn based when you’re at the world map level. Each part has a pro and a con that don’t hurt the game, but if addressed could have made it so much better.
When viewing the world map, you are shown the Italian country side, with various towns and cities around as well. Looking at the mini map, you can see which regions are led by which faction, and while you do get a sense of this when you approach the border for your lands, you need to check the mini map to see if others have changed. Having this feature outside of the main view is a little distracting, but it does not break the game.
Controlling the camera of the RTS portion of the game is a little confusing to begin with, but after almost no time at all it becomes second nature. However, playing on multiscreen does pose a slight problem as there are no boundaries for the mouse to stop, which loses your ability to use the sides of the screen. Controlling multiple units is easy, using the common word, or text document shortcuts, and getting the units to move is just like other RTS games, which is good.
As this was my first ever play with the Total War Series, I was impressed at the simplicity of the unit controls, however there are so many facets to the gameplay, including micro army management, city reconstruction, upgrading cities, units and your generals that the game does a pretty bad job of explain most of it. There are in depth tutorials in there, however they are not presented at the time of each introduction to a new element. You are presented with a synopsis of each function, but anything other than that requires you to look it up yourself.
There was one moment, where I was feeling quite cocky and thought that I would be able to swamp the opposing army, so I sent some units to the right, some to the left and the bulk up the middle. However, the Fog of War kicked in and I was shown the error of my decision. The opposing army was massive. Thankfully, I was able to split some horse units away and send them around the back and managed to take the city, but it was that moment that I realized I can’t take this game lightly.
Presentation
Graphics in any RTS to me have always been hit or miss. Sadly in Rome II they are both. In the overview map, the graphics are quite beautiful, with lots of detail on the cities and world map. It is in the battle maps that the graphics suffer. And I know what you’re thinking, who really cares. Looking at the battle from the highest point and you will see some fine textures and some great lighting effects, however zooming all the way in shows some spotty textures as well as some really bad animations, in that they are almost identical between the armies.
Of course, this does not distract from the overall gameplay, but as you can zoom all the way down to the battlegrounds, it’s a real shame that they did not put more effort into that part of the presentation. The detail on the actual characters is quite plentiful, but again suffers when you’re watching them fight.
Thankfully the sounds fares a lot better than the graphics, and should you have a very nice sound system, zooming all the way in, allows you the chance to hear the battle raging all around as if you were right there. The world effects are quite great, in one level the storm raged and the sound of the rain and thunder sound great, and the whole thing is brought to life by the advice and shouts of your advisers and generals. However a downside to that is all the voices are British. And while that’s not a complaint on the voice of the British people, it does irk me that in almost all of the historical games the people are British.
Overall
Is this game worth your time… Yes. Without a doubt this game is worth it whether you’re like me in hat you don’t play RTS games, or you do and you’re looking for the new thing. While playing it I was finding surprising moments that made me smile, and that’s the point of a good game.
