Total War: Rome II is a strategy video game created by Creative Assembly and released by Sega. It came out on September 3, 2013, for Microsoft Windows. It is the eighth game in the Total War series that stands alone and follows the 2004 game Rome: Total War.

Rome II received mostly good reviews from critics when it was released, but it had major technical issues. Despite this, it was a big success in sales and had more players online on its release day than any other Total War game. In September 2014, a special version called the Emperor Edition was released. This version allowed the game to run on macOS computers, fixed many technical problems, improved the computer's battle strategies, and made some graphics better. It was sold separately and given for free to all players who already owned the game.

Gameplay

Total War: Rome II is set in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Near East during the Classical antiquity period. The main story starts in 272 BC and lasts for 300 years. However, players can continue playing beyond this time because there are no time limits for winning the game.

Like its earlier version, Rome II combines turn-based strategy and civilization management with real-time battles. The Warscape engine controls the game's visuals, and new unit cameras let players see individual soldiers during real-time battles, which can involve thousands of soldiers at once. Creative Assembly said they wanted to show the human side of war, such as soldiers reacting to their fallen comrades and officers giving speeches to inspire troops.

Rome II includes more accurate portrayals of cultures and civilizations from that time, unlike the earlier version, which sometimes mixed up historical details. Creative Assembly worked to make each culture unique. Jack Lusted, a unit designer, said Rome II includes many small nations and city-states instead of using a single "rebel nation" for minor states. Each group has its own style of play. For example, Gallic tribes look and fight differently from Roman legions. Different factions use unique agents and technologies. There are over 500 land units, including mercenaries, and more than 30 city designs to avoid repeating siege battles.

The diplomacy system has been improved with better artificial intelligence. Creative Assembly fixed problems from earlier games, where the AI sometimes acted strangely, like small factions attacking large ones like the Roman Empire. The AI in Rome II is said to be smarter and more strategic. Whether the AI is a loyal ally or a suspicious enemy depends on the player's choices.

The political system in Rome II has been completely redesigned. The factions of Rome and Carthage each have three groups competing for power. Players choose to join one group when selecting their faction. Other factions have politics between a ruling family and nobles. A group's power depends on resources, which are influenced by the actions of generals and characters. If a group's power is too low, it may lose influence. If it becomes too strong, rivals might unite against it. In some cases, players can take over completely to become emperor or king, which requires starting a civil war.

As in Total War: Shogun 2, players make decisions throughout the game. Creative Assembly expanded this feature, so choices lead to different paths that affect how the campaign plays out. For example, the Roman Republic might become the Roman Empire through civil war. Instead of only assigning traits to generals and family members, players can assign traits to entire legions as they gain experience. Players can also customize legions by choosing their weapons and decide the makeup of individual units, even though they now build entire legions at once instead of creating units separately.

As with Rome: Total War, special units called agents play important roles. There are three main types: dignitaries, champions, and spies, with each culture having its own versions. When agents are created, they have a profession based on their background or ethnicity. Players can invest in their profession and skills. Agents can try to kill or convert other characters. When asked to complete a task, players have choices about how to do it, such as bribing, converting, or killing an enemy agent.

In addition to traditional battles, Rome II includes many other types of battles, such as:

• Combined naval/land battles: These happen when attacking a coastal city or when two armies are near the coast.
• Settlement outskirts battles: These occur near small regional capitals without walls. The goal is to capture the city, though defeating the enemy also counts as a win.
• Siege battles: These take place when attacking a provincial capital or a fortified city. Defenders must protect multiple points to win.
• Encampment battles: These happen when an army attacks another that is defending itself. The defending army builds fortifications like wooden walls.
• River battles: These occur when an army tries to cross a major river, and another army tries to stop them. Navies can help, and armies can build their own ships.
• Ambushes: These have been improved. The attacking army can set traps, and the defending army must escape or fight back. Ambushes also happen when an enemy is sabotaged.
• Port sieges: These occur when a navy attacks a coastal city with a port. The navy tries to land its army, while enemy ships fight back using weapons like catapults.

Navies are important in Rome II. The game includes mixed naval and land combat to reflect ancient naval strategies. Legions can attack enemy ground forces and cities, while naval units support or fight on the sea. Navies can conquer weakly guarded coastal cities alone. Naval combat has changed, with more troop carriers used to ram enemy ships, and land units can take over merchant ships for transport. Naval regions, first introduced in Medieval: Total War, return to block enemy invasions.

Armies and navies can have different stances on the map. Stances affect movement and abilities, like setting traps. The "Forced March" stance lets an army move farther but tires soldiers, making them weaker. The "Defensive Stance" allows building fortifications, and the "Ambush Stance" lets armies set traps. Armies and fleets can have up to 20 units and need a general or admiral to lead them. A faction's power, called "imperium," determines how many armies it can raise. Factions gain more imperium by conquering more regions.

Downloadable content

Like other games in the Total War series, extra game content that you can download has been added to Rome II. These additions include new groups, soldiers, and separate story missions. Any free content is shown in light green in the table below.

Special editions

Since its first release, Total War: Rome II has been released many times in special physical versions that include a group of DLC packs related by theme.

Novels

According to The Bookseller website, Pan MacMillan and Thomas Dunne Books bought the rights from The Creative Assembly in 2012 to publish a series of books based on the video game Total War: Rome II. Author David Gibbins was asked to write the series, and the first book in the series was published in October 2013.

Reception

Total War: Rome II has an average score of 76/100 on Metacritic, which means most reviews were positive. PC Gamer gave the game an 85% score. They praised the large, movie-like battles and the detailed graphics, calling them "stunning" and "the most amazing moments of the fifty plus hours I've played so far." However, the same review also mentioned problems with glitches on the game's first release, including issues with the AI, which was described as "not working well." Edge also praised the visuals and battles but noted bugs on release, saying, "even as it topples, it's glorious to look at, and to live through." Daniel Starkey of GameSpot enjoyed the variety of units and the game's "spectacular sound design and great attention to visual detail." However, he also noted "problematic" camera angles and controls, especially during siege and larger battles. Justin Clouse of The Escapist also liked the unit and visual variety, stating, "to its credit, Rome II does an excellent job of giving all the factions a unique feel," in what he called "impactful variations."

Outside of battles, GameRevolution called the campaign map "a treat to look at" while also praising new features and depth. However, they criticized the long wait times between player and AI turns, a view echoed by Steve Butts of IGN, who said, "a single turn can take as much as 10 minutes… those little inconveniences add up. Don't get me wrong; Rome II is a game worth savoring, but it also asks you to tolerate difficulties that don't need to exist." Paul Dean of Eurogamer enjoyed new additions to gameplay systems but felt "stagnation" reduced other aspects, concluding that "for all that the game may have promised, it isn't such a big step forward for the series. It's Total War done a bit bigger, a bit better and a bit different." Adam Biessener of Game Informer unfavorably compared the game to the previous title in the franchise, Total War: Shogun 2, calling it a "step backwards," in that "where Shogun 2 accelerated into the massive endgame war just as administrating your empire started to become tedious, Rome II slows down far in advance of a campaign’s finale," concluding by calling it a "disappointment coming off of the brilliance of Shogun 2." Mike Suskle of GamesRadar, however, called it "a worthy continuation of the franchise and an overdue update to one of the greatest strategy games of all time."

The Emperor Edition was released on 16 September 2014 as a standalone release and a free update for all current players. The update included all previous fixes while adding improvements to AI battles, the political system, building chains, and visuals. Softpedia, for example, gave the Emperor Edition a 90, saying that "it shows how much the title from The Creative Assembly has evolved since it was originally delivered and the way the entire experience has been updated based on the needs of the community and the cool ideas of the development team."

Upon the game's initial release, many users reported technical problems such as not being able to start the game after installation, crashes, issues with how textures looked, and broken artificial intelligence. Poor game performance was also reported often. In a negative review by Rich Stanton for The Guardian, he reported having to re-download the full game after problems with his own review copy, noting that his "PC runs Shogun II at ultra settings without any issues but Rome II on medium makes it 'run very slowly,' and judging by the developer's own forum, many others are having the same issues." On the official forums, an "anonymous developer" from another studio posted his own complaints, including numerous bugs and poorly implemented features such as "capture the flag" style battles, feeling that the game had "comprehensively failed" to be tested and blaming the publisher Sega for its state on release. A review by critic and comedian Joe Vargas (aka Angry Joe) also complained about AI problems and unit balancing, using in-game video examples, while also noting differences with preview builds. William Usher of Cinema Blend supported Vargas' review while questioning other reviews due to the number of reported problems on release before patching. Following its release, developer The Creative Assembly announced regular updates to fix the reported issues, with the first update coming the Friday of the same week as the release. On the Total War official forums, admins on behalf of Creative Director Mike Simpson issued an apology along with a statement, promising to further patch the game, encouraging players to report all problems given the variety and difference of issues between players. Simpson would later go on to state, in a second public announcement about new and upcoming fixes, about asking for further player input while also "hoping we can fundamentally treat our releases differently in the future."

Total War: Rome II sold more copies than any other game in the Total War series on its release day. By 23 August 2013, Total War: Rome II had achieved more than six times the number of pre-orders of Total War: Shogun 2, making Rome II the most pre-ordered game in the history of the Total War franchise. As of 31 March 2014, the game had sold 1.13 million copies in Europe and North America.