Overall my impression is that instead of topping the original RTW, CA went ahead and severely dumbed things down for the console playing masses (Devs call this "streamlining"), thus ruining a game that was once synonymous with intelligent gaming. I could live with the textures and other graphical issues, or even with one or the other bug if it wasn't for the deeply flawed gameplay issues. Hopefully CA addresses the issues or someone comes out with a decent mod soon.

 I did not want to write this before to give it a try to like the game. I played this game for around 11 hours so far. I could not play any longer. This game has many issues. I am NOT talking about performance issues, surprisingly I did not have many, but I have high end rig (i7, 7950, 8GB operative etc, I played on Extreme). I am talking about generally flawed and illogical gameplay issues: 

-A.I. (Both battle map and campaign) A.I. in campaign would attack a 15+stack army with a single unit. Also in some cases A.I. will simply stand outside of City Gates when besieging a City until the Battle Times runs out, even if another of it's units managed to burn down the gates.
-A lot of features from the original Rome have been removed. (assassination videos, family trees, unable to toggle use of pila on roman units)
-U.I. is simplified (probably for consoles). This is a minor point for me, but it does add to the overall picture of CA having dumbed things down severely (again probably for the console playing masses). 
-No season change (One year - one turn) Because of this agents and generals dying like flies, no point to upgrade
-Capture points make no logical sense in the game. Terrain advantage is thus mooted (needs to be removed)
-Campaign end turn times are LONG even in single player (again, something I could live with if the rest of the game was up to par)
-Battle speed needs to be slowed down. All my battles have been under 10 minutes (Usually averaging 6 minutes.) 2 of those minutes are spent walking to the battle, 3-4 mins for the entire battle.)
-AI Defend or AI attack doesn't seem to do anything. Nothing that can be observed anyway.
-Naval battles are buggy
-Graphics need an improvement (textures, horrendous faces, etc.)

I don't know if this can be fixed in future patches, I hope so, but for now this game will go on the shelf for some time.

As for AI, here is what I have observed:

When outnumbered by the enemy and besieged (the enemy attacking one of my controlled towns) and fighting the battle on the battle map, here is a trick I learned within the first battle.

I keep one or two units within the walls and move the rest outside through the gate to meet the enemy. My outnumbered units fight, loose and route. Now all I have left are the one or two units in within the city walls. Well, guess what happens next? After the enemy defeats the troops I sent out, the enemy units simply stand there in the same spot where I was defeated until the battle timer runs out without ever entering the city and a Close or Pyrrhic Victory is mine.

How's that for improved AI?

It seems more and more like a generic mmo. The world has the generic grindy one monster every five square feet design, which is nothing like Elder Scrolls. It was designed with third person and action bars in mind, which is nothing like Elder Scrolls, and it sounds like there's gonna be generic fetch quests, also nothing like Elder Scrolls.

It also doesn't seem very immersive. I doubt we will be able to steal items off counters and get caught and go to jail, or attack villagers, then steal a horse and run while being chased by the guards.

Hopefully the class system will be like previous ES games, where you still have a skill system and can level your skills up, since it won't be like Skyrim's classless system.

I'm really not suprised that it's not going to play like a "real" Elder Scrolls game, but one can hope. I just wanted the Elder Scrolls experience. but with friends. That would have been awesome.

 I have no idea what the loot system will be like, but I seriously doubt we will be able to take all the weapons and armor off people and until were overencumbered. It'll probably just be worthless junk loot. Sell all your spider carapaces and rough pebbles and bug eyes to the junk vendor to get 6 gold.

 

In short, this just doesn't look like an Elder Scrolls game.

Sanligo

Agreed. Most likely it will be as much a disapointment as Skyrim was. Morrowing and Oblivion were made for a good game, Skyrim and likely ESO purely for the money.

[QUOTE="Viliny"]

 I don't know, maybe these sort of games don't do it for me anymore after playing them for so long.

erMonezza

This is it.

As you get older and more experienced your tastes change.

People have to realise that you can't please everybody and that people tastes differ. It's not like if there is a guy that doesn't like a game that everyone does, means that he is a troll. That guy just has a different taste and prefers other things.

"Then, why did he post here if he doesn't like the game?" You may ask.

Because it's a forum and not everyone is a young kid who trolls for fun. ;)  

People like to express their oppinion and get oppinion from others about same hobbies they have.

cheers

Kudos! You are obviously very mature. Too many people take it personally when someone posts an opinion that is opposed to their own and react with sarcasm instead of participating in a constructive discussion.

i beat the game in about 6 hours.  Game is have very basic mechanic and short.  Great story, but fail in execution. I don't see how Editor gave it a 9.0.  Unless someone is getting paid.   

charlievo

I agree 100%. The story is kinda cool but the simple and repetetive gameplay ruin the experience. And as for reviews and scores, the review world is full of bias, hype and gullbible readers.