Quick Look: Total War: Rome II

woah

All hail Roricus!

Also:

WhyAreYouCrouchingSpock

Never forget.

Early Saturday morning surprise quick look!

I still need to play Shogun 2.

Woah, I just got first comment!

If you're a Total War fan, you're probably going to hate me for this one! I didn't have a lot of time with the game before recording this and I haven't played many of the recent installments, so apologies if I missed stuff that should be super obvious to veterans of the series. Still kinda proud of that sneak attack on the Egypt map, though!

So, I actually bought this, but then went back to Europa Universalis IV. So is this playable now?

Still haven't played the first one despite owning it for like 5 years on Steam.

SHOUT OUT TO ORANGE MEN!!! SYRACUSE!!!

@rorie: I haven't watched it yet, but did you make an entire army out of the dog unit and try to conquer the world with them? Could be a fun experiment. See how far an army of nothing but dogs can take you. Think of it as the prequel to the Tokyo Jungle series. Rome Jungle.

Always install a Total War game to a SSD if you can.

Always.

Reduces the load times significantly.

it can't possibly be as bad as the other Total War quick looks in that regard, I wouldn't worry too much. thanks for taking the time to quick look this at all.

I Totally love War

Hey Vinny, those triremes were really fast and agile, managing to go at the dpeed of around 10 knots. if you gonna make a big hoel in the enemy ship, you gonna row hard.

Are you guys playing this with the 1.3 Beta Patch? It really makes a difference to the game.

Oh shit! Is that why that burning program was called Nero? That's kind of genius in a way that doesn't actually make sense if you really think about it

@rorie: The combined naval & ground battles are the new thing in the series BTW.

@bistromath said:

Yeah, I had no problems with loadtimes on a SSD.

Totally spies, totally war

Oh I really want this game! It's funny that this game would be the reason I would update my computer for. Not into fancy graphics but tactics!

The boat ramming was making me laugh hysterically, especially when the little people were abandoning ship.

I'm a monster.

@ilikepopcans: there are video and audio content on the site without any comments on them. Just go digging :)

@rorie: As a big strategy fan, I don't expect you guys to break down mechanical changes and additions. It's all about the chemistry and attitude you guys have producing these videos, and for the most part, showing off a game without reviewing it on the spot.

I know full well that someone's probably broken down all that stuff elsewhere, and that kind of thing interests long time fans, but makes for pretty dry commentary when your guests (and many viewers) dont share that level of interest.

The game is actually quite good with the new Beta patch 3.

bought this game day one, havent played it since day two lol

has it got any better?

Man, I've loved Total War in the past but that sneak attack in Egypt reminded me way too much of playing the game in the past. @rorie just curious (sorry if I missed it) was that on an easy setting, with the AI turned right down, because surely any modern game should be able to understand an attack from two sides?

Oh and if you're curious about the history - This was the battle where Cleopatra fought against Ptolemy XIII (her brother/her husband). He lost and she ruled for another 17 years until her death following the defeat of Mark Anthony by Octavis/Augustus. To be fair they never settled there in the same ways the Greeks did but they kept it as a vassal state for the huge agricultural resources Egypt could provide.

So given you stopped watching Rome because it got a little incestuous, here you're fighting between a brother and sister (along with the support of her lover and soon to be baby father Caesar), who were married, with kids...

Bet they don't simulate that on the world map

The full name for the first few versions of the program were named Nero Burning ROM, so, yeah, it was a really punny name.

Seems the problems with all the Total War games at the moment is they release them before they're properly patched. Plus the AI can be rather moronic.

Tch, Rorie showed the Battle of the Nile, i.e. the thing The Total Assembly has been showing before the game came out for ages. And his tactics leave less than to be desired. ;)

I love the QL's of these games, but I never buy them. I'm glad others do. This is supposed to have problems, but I am a bit impressed, not including the faltering AI in that one battle it seemed.

Cool! Rome II gets a quick look! Still want this game, just not now because the launch problems. Also, Rorie did pretty good commanding the battles up until Tuetoburg Forest (don't worry Rorie, the real battle was one of Rome's greatest military disasters, its suppose to be brutal).

And Drew is right, Decisive Battles was a cool show. Liked the shout out!

Nice to see you in the 'drivers seat' Rorie! Fun video

I heard people say that's probably because Sega wanted it on the shelves as fast as possible.

@jarowdowsky: Rorie said it was on normal.

@ilikepopcans: Ah cheers, that's disappointing to hear. Still, one to try after a year of patches when it's on a five dollar sale on steam then.

Actually, yes, taking in a lot of slaves often did make the population of Rome unhappy - because it meant that the rich folks could use slaves to do all their work and so they didn't hire people. More slaves often resulted in more unemployment.

What did the 3rd one fix?

So far ive seen (but not tried) fixes to the campaign AI, turn times, annnnd, forgot what else

Cool watching Rorie do Quick Looks but he needs to slooooow dooooown.

@rorie: It's cool, the video was entertaining (as usual).

I will say that your "formations" really made me cringe though - just a line of all your units... AH!

Still, nerd-rage aside, good one.

Really funny quick look

@warxsnake: Fights are much longer now, units don't rout with half of them still alive. They rebalanced food/squalor usage of buildings, boosted perfomance, and fixed some AI issues.

AI is still bad, just today i bombarded an enemy army with my slingers, and all they did is just stood here and died. Granted, they had no chance in melee against Macedonian phalanx. If they fix that and siege battles, Rome 2 will be on par, if not better, than any other Total War games.

Ctrl + G, Rorie, ctrl + G.

@korolev said:

Wow, really? I thought that people complaining about foreigners taking all the work was a recent thing. I guess everything new is old again, or something to that effect...

@vinny Syracuse is central NY not upstate. Wouldn't care but I'm from there. Always good to hear my team's chanter though! Go Orangeman. Thnx

@rorie Awesome job taking the helm of this quicklook. Looking forward to more with you.

I bought the entire Total War Grand Master Collection during the summer sale, but still haven't played a single Total War game since Shogun: Total War back in 1999.

I am not so sure Rorie is playing with the latest patches, because they fixed a ton of stuff like load times, speed up turns, framerate, and better pacing of battles. AI is still dumb as bricks though. Its a really fun game even though it still has some issues and there really is nothing quite like Total War

Rorie could've made an army entirely out of puppies

Somehow I don't think the best use of archers is charging them into a troop of elephants. :D

ROMANES EUNT DOMUS

Nice to see TotalWar AI at work. Nothing so far has beaten a single swordsman (admittedly highly advanced in the Shogun series) beating an army of spearmen because the AI kept thinking they were being completely flanked by 100% of the enemy force and slowly eaten down like a bait ball.

@rorie: Nah you did fine. The AI is always going to be wonky. In the Shogun series you could beat an army with a single high leveled swordsman constantly outflanking the enemy.

Totally War, Totally Party

This joins the quicklooks for Company of Heroes 2 and Payday 2 in giving a horrible impression of a good game.