The total war franchise has always been rich in deep content based on key points in history with a great balance of real time strategy combat and civilization style turn based empire building. Ever since their breakout title of Shogun total war in the 90's Creative assembly has constantly tried to keep pushing the envelope, but unfortunately sometimes these "improvements" have been a step backwards, and that is exactly what Rome 2 is a step backwards in the franchise.
Rome 2 is overly complicated, the AI is broken, and combat is plain boring, even the graphics feel like they were rushed and lacks refinement. This really is a major disappointment for a lot of fans of the total war franchise, after Empire flopped due to its overly complicated user interface, it seemed like creative got wise and went back to the basics in Shogun 2 which is considered by many (including myself) to be the best of the entire total war series. It feels like the developers were rushed by the publishers, and the game needed another 6 months of work before it was perfect and ready to go. Instead the game is a major disappointment even after several patches the title still feels broken. If you are looking to play a total war game do yourself a favor and stay away from Rome 2 and pick up Shogun 2 its creative assembly at its best , not its worst.