This game is a mere shadow of its predecessor. It had so much potential, but unfortunately the game is currently broken.
The first hours of gameplay, I wasn't dissappointed though. I played the campaign loved it. I played online co-op campaigns, loved that as well. I played multiplayer battles and loved that even more! Although, when the time passed, something happened.
The glamour of the new Total War game wore off and I started to see some drawbacks. The Victory Points on land battles, for example. I really couldn't understand why Creative Assembly put this element in the game. Who gives a shit if the enemy forces capture some stupid flag? I mean, I understand the use of it during a city assault (it has always been the case in this series), but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find myself loving this new feature.
Then the irritations started to stack. There was never a moment where I didn't like defending a city with (fully upgraded) units who were outnumbered by the enemy. It's fun to let the waves of enemies clash upon the spears of well trained Spartans. So no matter how old I became, I always liked that. But in this game, it is absent. The A.I. seems having no interest at all capturing my city. Sure, they send 4 ladders to my wall, but once they have died (usually because of my towers on the wall), they cease the hostilities. I waited 40 minutes watching an Mexican Standoff (or in this case; a Roman-Macedonian Standoff). No matter how strong I made the enemy (even on legendary difficulty), they still waited outside the city, scratching their balls.
Thirdly, I found something to criticize about the campaign gameplay. Don't get me wrong, I always loved the management aspect in the game. I am simply ECSTATIC about the whole legion element the creators implemented. But the city administration is shitty, to say the least. There is a balance between public order and food you must seem to find between the provinces and factionwide. This fella wasn't entertained one tiny bit, no sir!
And yes, ofcourse, I did like some thing. As I have said, the legions. It really made you care more about the wellbeing of your soldiers. Also, the technology system was well adjusted. Diplomacy was fun and the provincial edicts were a blast to issue. But it was also countered by the uninteresting political system (booooriiiing!) and the NUMEROUS factions in the game. Personally, I find it fun to follow the A.I. and spy on them what they were actually doing. But it became a sore when I had to wait too long for my turn to come.
So, the conclusion. Let's be honest here folks, I can't grade this game as unsufficient. It is simply a wonderful game, and even if it wasn't what is has cracked up to be, it's still towering above other games in this genre. However, there is a huge BUT. Because of many gameplay elements that just didn't catch on, I can't give it an 8. It has too many bugs and broken features that irritate me. On the other hand, it's a beautiful game which I enjoy to play (truly, I am). I just hope it can be fixed with a lot of patches. Only then would it deserve its place in the Total War series.