Those effing capture points. What the hell? There is a hill
right there that I want to set up camp at - but I can't, because the game just decided where I am to defend. I like the idea - to counter redline corner camping - but the execution of said idea is bafflingly stupid and endlessly annoying. It works in siege battles, but not in open battles, at least not in its current form. Speaking of siege battles... why does the AI have to want to zergrush a capture points regardless of how much it will miserably lose the fight for them?
While the unrest system is fine, the revolt system is not. So the slaves rebel, a whopping 5 units of crappy t1 infantry. Oh no, better hope they dont... suicide... on my retainers... and get enslaved again?
But wait, you say... if unhappiness ensues, the AI will not attack you, but wait for the revolt to be strengthened (a great system). Yes! Brilliant! Except that half the original stack is dead from attrition. Make - rebels - in - their - own - province - immune, or this otherwise excellent idea is completely wasted.
The game is
hopelessly,
hilariously counter-intuitive. It is so difficult to understand why some things happen. What is this family system of which you speak? Took me forever to even remotely understand. I had no idea if units got the bonus from all the temples in a province, or from the one in the settlement that the Barracks is it, or what - and I couldn't look it up anywhere! The Encyclopeadia is
awful compared to Shogun 2's. No links, annoying interface, can't even run it out of game and I could go on. What does "run amok" do, exactly? Well, go and test it, because we, the developers, sure as hell aren't gonna tell ya! No sir, no nice, clean instruction in the various unit skills. Food bonuses are capped? Well, congratz for figuring it out. What, we should have a section about that under "Food" somewhere? Buddy... please.
Does the reseach that gives +50% missiles to units apply to Principles? Who knows! Boy, wouldn't you like a list of affected units! Well, you can't have one! Now research some more.
Okay, I did and now I have "modern" Legions. But its 250 BC. Okay then. Game was good.
Research is tiered poorly (aka not integrated cross-tech like Shogun 2 had it), there is too little of it, and reaching the end of a tier is
way too fast.
... which all leads to:
The game feels so unpolished. Shogun 2 had problems, sure, but it felt clean and ready and polished to a mirror shine at release compared to Rome 2. I don't even suffer from all the glitches and crashes and I
still feel like this is the case.
Lethality of units. I am fine with ranged units being less effective than in Shogun 2. I personally like having strong archers in a Total War game, but it fits Shogun 2 perfectly - Rome not so much. However, melee units kill eachother
absurdly quickly. At first I actually thought my Hastati died from my Velite attack through friendly fire, but no. Turns out an Italian Spearman is batshit crazy effective at killing. Too bad they're all dead, Hastati are even better at it.
No seasons! Yes, I get why the game needs to skip ahead a year per turn, due to the setting. Screw the setting! Shogun 2 nailed it - the map changed visually, which would fit Rome 2 wonderfully, and more importantly attrition was something you could plan for and around and it added something to the strategy of invasions. No longer the case. Also since the map hardly changes ever, the flow of time isn't really felt - snow was a great way of adding a feel of "flow" and I am surprised at just how much I miss it.
And finally a personal gripe of mine: While the
visual design is fantastic, the
audio design is
not. VA first. Now I actually like most of the voice work in Rome 2. But a mixture of having to say the Latin names "correctly in English" (which is stupid for obvious reasons) and a general laying lowness compared to Rome 1 just makes things less... engaging? Immersive? Epic? Im not sure. An example:
I dont care how you say Triarii in correct Latin. What I liked in Rome 1 was that they sounded like they meant business. Speak English and make me believe that you believe in victory! For Rome! (Yes, I can live without the charge trumpet, but that battlecry is
sorely missing).
Same with the music. Its so lowkey! Maybe they were trying to not come off as trying too hard? But it sounds like ambience! If you dislike the music, turn it off! Thats fine. But everything feels so much less... epic... without
Divinitus in the campaign map, and by Jupiter do I miss the gems from the battle maps:
Soldier's Chant
Journey to Rome
Mobilize
Shed out that money, hire Jeff van Dyck or Jesper Kyd or Michael McCann and give me epicness.