Yawn
You can pick a bunch of different civs (a + in my book). All of the civs have different religions, cultures, armies, provinces, etc. The game starts out slow, but more or less right off the bat, you get SPAMMED and I mean SPAMMED by useless-ass messages. I think the only worth-while message worth looking at are the ones that give you gold or stability. The AI is a complete cheat in this game. With one province, the Aetolian League massed an army of 29+ troops (in other words, 29,000 troops as 1 = 1,000). Barbarian hordes are much too rampant in this game. The game is very in depth (which is basically why it got a 5.5). You can choose people who you want to govern cities, research, armies, etc. Combat is an abyss. THERE IS NO COMBAT. ITS JUST WATCHING TWO FIGURES STAB EACH OTHER AND DO DAMAGE LIKE AN RPG GAME. There is no combat element like Rome:Total War. I've lost many battles I should have run because of dice rolls that control combat like Risk. If you DO manage to get far in this game, your computer will lag out on you eventually, I guess because of the endless unit spamming. If that doesn't make you quit, the annoying messages and monotony of having to fight 3+ nations at a time will. People like to rebel a lot like in Rome: Total War. Good example was me playing as Macedon, I was doing great and just won a war, then suddenly half of my nation rebels and take 30,000 troops versus my miniscule 4,000. I quit the game after 6 hours, right when that started.
Honestly, don't buy this game. Get Rome: Total War.