Total FRUSTRATION: Rome 2

Many people who are bought Total War Rome 2 have played at least one of the predecessor. Veterans of Total War series will agree well that there is hardly comparable games where you can take the lead in the form of real-time strategy battles in a turn-based table-top game if necessary even. Here Creative Assembly has always advertised with the authenticity and realism of battles and if you got it right when programming, it also makes quite long fun his group through the use of strategic tricks and the intelligent integration of the environment on the battlefield for victory to lead. Consider that the programmer but having to do their job, otherwise the game becomes a torment. As I write this review, I'm not exactly the best of moods. My computer consists of an AMD Phenom II with 6x2.7GHz, 24 GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti I played Rome 2 with patch 1.1 now for about 30 hours and can enumerate the following positive points with a lot of joy.:

- Good camera handling in the battlefield

Hmm? Something a little when you consider that it should be a review here or not? Well .. Damn right, because this ONE point is the only thing I ATTENDED THIS abysmal game for well-BEING ABLE. So much for my outburst. But honestly. Is the game really so bad? Well, yes, I do think and I can give it a whole series of points, which are:

- World map: particularly high in the bird's eye view you do not get the camera, which is why the index is not quite as good, which is, however, also made worse by the fact that it is impeded the higher you go on throughout the cloud fields at seeing and recognizing card details. Supertolles and totally counterproductive little feature.

- Satisfaction: any Total War player knows the event that it comes in the conquered and occupied regions to uprisings and rebellions. So here, too, but you can do whatever you want here, you will always have to fight at the end with massive riots. And the reason is phenomenal: There are various ways to influence the satisfaction. No taxes, various edicts and the construction of various types of buildings increase the satisfaction. However, they do so only minimally. In contrast, especially the construction of some specific buildings means that the satisfaction massively reduced. In my case, it was above all the most useful building. I can even understand, yes, if the expansion of military buildings fürht to less satisfaction, but that the construction of cultural institutions and agricultural / livestock systems reduces the satisfaction of citizens (and it comes up to -13 points per round and at -100 then to rebellion) is absolutely incomprehensible. I've done everything possible to raise the satisfaction of the citizens, have provinces exempt from tax, deferred military research and first took care of business, culture and food and have even demolished buildings that were obviously counterproductive, but could not prevent the rebellions because logically, the demolition of agricultural buildings leads to less food and thus lowers the satisfaction. This must be a bug, and it sucks when your whole empire simultaneously instigates a rebellion. Thus we will be punished for the expansion of cities through better buildings in the end with riots.

- Artificial intelligence: here there are three, even on the battlefield, in the diplomacy and the world map. The World Map KI is an unorganized Strunz stupid coward who barely making and almost never attack. This applies even to the highest levels. Diplomacy is also completely over in this game. Not only that, you will be constantly bombarded with requests for trade agreements and political groups that are to be wiped out just about any offer her vassal state to be. They demand even still exorbitant and unaffordable sums than adding it, even though they are the ones who have made a request to me. Fractions with whom one is at war almost never agree to a Friedensabommen, if you take even inquiries purpose trade agreements etc. and then makes offers immense sums in addition, they are almost always rejected. And also preclude a Confederate States basically military access to their regions, even though they have just accepted my offer to help them in a war they are losing just on. Diplomacy for world-removed. But the cake has the battlefield AI that simply is namely just brain dead. One of the worst AIs that I've ever seen in a Total War. I've never seen an AI that can piss so good, so little power that is so disorganized. As if you play with a three year old child chess. No tactics, no strategy, no clear advantage of benefits and so on, it just never ends with this virtual Penner. The AI ​​does not want anything, do nothing, and nothing can. From battles I will not even start, because there are often their own units despite repeated command not to attack and can be easily sunk by defeated opponents

- Lag and stuttering without end, especially when moving simultaneously on the battlefield too many units or play on the world map too many things in the field of view.

- Around the end: with more than 100 groups you often have to wait several minutes until you get back to it is, especially the more parts of the world Arte are uncovered.

- Conquest / Defense Flags in cities: these great little innovation, the introduction of quasi capture-the-flag-elements of multiplayer games in the single-player campaign has broken this game in my opinion the neck. You break anything the whole game and prevent you can proceed strategically in a strategy game. Sad. The enemy AI defends their own flags and hardly tried stupidly and without regard to losses to achieve my flags. And depending on the size of the defensible or conquering city there are even several flags that you have to conquer or defend, which the army has to be split. This can be fatal in reality, but no matter, because the AI ​​is already too stupid to profit from them. One can not take advantage of the terrain, because if you do not stationed his army at a flag and the enemy conquered then, it does not matter whether 100 men have conquered my flag, and I'm with 5000 men only a few hundred yards. If the opponent is holding my flag for about one minute, he wins the battle. Here you can take advantage of beautiful stupidity of AI, because this is just like zustürmen with blinders on this flag and often ignore your units on the way, which is why they then can shoot beautiful / parting in passing.

- In normal battles to conquer the enemy has no goals but simply has to defeat us only. That's why he always easy arises only in formation on and waiting for our attack, leveraging its distance advantage (because he has more often archers / slingers / javelin thrower as we) never run out. Once it comes to contact with the enemy thinks you observed an orgy. Soldiers race without formation or discipline to aufeindander and completely lose track because squeezing two armies with thousands of soldiers on 100sqm and trample each other to death. The unit collision is the purest botch.

- Although there are tooltips for everything, the design and explanation of the menu is absolutely inadequate and confusing.

(To buy Sparta must via DLC) Too much focus on hip fractions such as Rome and Sparta -

- Are not balanced units (War Elephants can turn entire armies without suffering losses / distance units like archers flee immediately when an enemy comes near her, although they can also fight with the sword)

- Difficulty: which are ridiculous, because even on difficult access to other fractions hardly and battles can be won by a threefold inferiority without incurring material losses call because the AI ​​is so incapable

- The music switches off, when you pause a battle goes to the menu or the strategic map turns. It also has a hint of East Asia too for my taste and would rather fit in Shogun (from where it was perhaps simply adopted) and overall it is rather boring and monotonous

- The graphics are unsatisfactory and looks like a throwback from. Screenshots from the game defy all description. The actual quality of the graph corresponds to the screenshots probably to 30%. The graph of Empire and Napoleon even made me like it better

- Popular fractions and a well-balanced unit repertoire you get only via DLC. As in previous Total War games have been here too subsequently removed parts of the game from the total product to them a later sell high again in small bites as DLC. If these rip-off like that has it otherwise deserves.

- In the battles there are hardly any obstacles in the terrain, which may loosen the premises or be used as a cover

- The game feels very empty and lifeless. There are hardly any more videos and faction intros

- Command Compliance: It often happens that units simply ignore their attack command or begun attack abort (mainly in cavalry, when the prosecution is simply broken)

- Many battles will take place in cities, which Total War never particularly well could (units can not be installed properly, constantly remain in streets / of houses depend, execute commands not only a few soldiers from a unit are attacking and the other just stand around like stuffed dummies and can kill)

- When your units on the battlefield no direct command of you get to attack an enemy unit, or even to defend themselves, then they can kill without comment

The times were the most important points of criticism. But what the game for me is absolutely kills the stupid AI that makes every battle to simple and boring and the beknackten flags that prevent any tactics and strategy. The genius who came up with this innovative feature I'd like to meet real-time. Even the eternal waiting on the world map, to each faction even think was gives you the feeling you'd sit there and wait for more than playing the game. And if someone tells me that I should not complain so and just play Shogun 2, because this is much better, no, not everyone is on Samurai and Japan and it is here solely to Rome 2. The practice of Sega and CA (which is also for many others, such as Electronic Arts, is considered) a game half-ready to throw on the market and want to gigabytegroße patches raushauen every week to fix a couple of bugs and flaws, I'm really slow on the pointer. However, all the patches will probably not change the points mentioned above, which make the game easily broken. Please what to do with a strategy game that does its best to make strategy and tactics impossible because you'll lose the game? I liked Rome 2 did not like and I do not recommend it. Previously (eg in Empire) I actually sat for hours on a single battlefield and that made me even fun, but at Rome 2 comes after a short period of boredom and frustration, and that is a death knell for every game. Set, Six.