After waiting forever for the sequel to the awesome Rome Total War, Rome Total War II is a complete and utter let down!
Rome Total War II is neither beautiful nor fluid. My review comprises of a short custom battle. I was so annoyed with my initial experience of the game that I turned it off, so I have yet to try the campaign. First and foremost the interface is confusing, your initially welcomed by strange and nonsensical icons that seem to have little bearing on their function. Why change what wasn't broken. The unit card icons are atrocious, I did not have a clue who I was picking and what they did, only by annoyingly having to separately open a new tab could a get a run down on who I was picking. The old Rome Total War had pictures of the units so you could easily identify with them.
Jumping straight into a custom battle with everything on extreme (I am lucky enough to have a rig that could handle it) I was met with a blurry, colourless, washed out mess of a battlefield. The units from afar looked like a garbled mass of jaggedly blackness and when zoomed in close the units revealed their true nature. Even with anti aliasing of full the detail was horrendous! For example the Roman Legionary shields, in the first Rome Total War you could easily make out the winged design and lightning bolts, the colours were crisp and sharp. In the follow up you have a jaggedly yellow eyesore smeared on a blurry shambolic excuse for a shield. I know it's not much but the little things are important right? The units in the Total War series make the game for me, and without them looking spectacular, what exactly is the point? I don't want to try the campaign mode as who wants to fight with crude, ugly looking legionary's who don't even have proper shields!
The battle itself was stuttering with a terrible frame rate. (despite running the earlier bench test and receiving an excellent score) I had random slowdown on some sections for no apparent reason, especially when zoomed in close on the salmagundi of soldiers. Patches my later fix these problems but why not have them sorted from the beginning?
I hated playing Rome Total War II and I have only just bought it. I will give it another chance having forked out the silver. I just wish the developers could have just gone back to the first and repeated that success, instead of offering this sorry excuse for a Rome sequel. No, no, no! I mean come on, why is this game getting such high reviews? Graphics are not everything I know, but if there not even as nice as the previous incarnation, are they not going backwards?
Confusing, complicated, slow and ugly.
Very disappointed!