Rome 2 total war

Ok so this is my first post... and review I guess, so I decided to make my first one  about my all time favourite game franchises, the total war series. Rome total war which came out in September of 2004 very quickly became the only game I played. Granted I would have only been 11 years of age when it came out and 14 when I actually got it, my standards of gaming were as follows, can it play on my PC, ok can I understand how to play it, yes, ok now I'll spend every spare moment playing it. However, looking back on my time playing Rome, I spend the majority of my time playing custom games, where it was me playing as Rome with a full army of Romans vs a very small army of Carthage, this took up probably 99% of actual game time played. But give me a break I was 14…

Anyway back to Rome 2. When I first saw the live action trailer[ Rome 2 Announcement Trailer ] way back when, I couldn't have been more exited. This only doubled when I saw the gameplay trailer of the creative assembly team showing of the Rome vs Carthage siege.[Carthage Battle Gameplay Demo](remember this is all of my Rome 1 memories) After a LONG wait they released the pre-order of the game with the Sparta/Greek culture pack, which I instantly bought.

Now when the game was released I was on vacation in Washington DC (I live in Washington in the UK.. weird) with only my little laptop on hand. But my excitement could not wait, I started downloading I think was the 6 Gb download, and a day and a half later it was complete. Unfortunately for me it could only play on the lowest settings possible and still had major lag.

when I got home I had heard noting but grief towards Rome 2, much to my surprise. After all I had watched countless game play videos from many lets players who didn't mention any distaste or hatred towards it. OK before I go any further I want to clarify I am a complete noob when it comes to in depth strategy games, so when I watched the "Angryjoeshow" Rome 2 review I could not be more angry at him…I think that's ironic[Rome II Angry Review]. he goes on the biggest rant about Rome being to "OP" and other glitches in the game and unit balancing, which apparently ruins the whole game experience. any way this is my review of Rome 2 not of his video review.

The first thing I did was play a custom game, Romans(me) V Carthage(easy AI) obviously. I was amazed with the amount of detail of the units and their armour, mesmerised with the map quality, the Rome sequel I had been waiting for. the user interface and the overall feel of the game is very reminiscent to Shogun 2, which I was first pleased by, but I now wish they hadn't as for some reason I dislike it as I now wish they had created there own. Furthermore this game now forces you to choose a general unit(again takjen from shogun 2), whereas in all games prior to Shogun 2, the first of any unit tagged the general onto, which I preferred. However as much as I would like to complain to gratify other review'ers, I simply love everything else, or have not found fault. I have played 150 turns into the roman campaign, 50 turns into the Iceni/Britain campaign, and have loved every second of it so far. The map looks beautiful and is so nostalgic to the first Rome game and medieval 2 total war (another favourite of mine). The game also offers a technology tree and a simplified city management system. The diplomacy is simple and historically accurate with the Greek states and Gauls hating you for your "cultural aversion" to theirs, harsh but fair as you can win them over fairly easy. I will also add is that when playing the land battles the unit animations are so immersive I lost many battles simply looking at a small skirmish between to sword units.

The last thing I will say to my perfect and completely bias review of Rome 2 is this, DON'T listen to the angry reviewers who look at this game with a microscope and pick menial things to complain about, of course its going to have problems, what game doesn’t. but with its third patch on the way, the team at creative assembly have, in my opinion, successfully delivered a compelling and immense continuation to the total war franchise. If you don’t believe me, play the game yourself or watch lets plays online(I will post my favourite YouTuber's down below), thank you for reading...I promise I will improve with later reviews, thanks.

I will be reviewing GTA V next week, goodbye for now,

Matty