A World Apart - Large overall maps have never been an issue with the Total War series. However, it does feel nice to get off the cramped island of Japan and get back to Europe and see for myself how big the world really is. All the cultures that predate the millennia before the birth of Christ, as well as a few that show up afterwards, are represented, which means a large landmass is populated.  The best part is, you don’t even realize how large that landmass is at first because you’re a tiny tribe that’s too busy beating the piss out of your neighbor with clubs to realize what’s in front of you.

As Much Detail as a Warhammer Army - If you ever get a hold of BYU’s super computer, go ahead and install Rome 2 on it. The battles are so big, and the units so detailed that my buddy who is dual-threading 2 GTX 660s complained about the lag that occurs when he zooms in on highest settings and watches 2,000 guys cuddle each other in the mud with spears. This, for anyone who’s had their head in a ditch somewhere these last 15 years, is a common theme with the Rome series. However, it makes me chuckle that Sega is still pumping out games that ruin PCs that can handle 3200 zerglings on Ultra graphics.

Fun Outside of Combat - There are two things that a Total War game needs to accomplish for it to be fun.  The first is good RTS action, and the second is good turn-based gameplay. I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge fan of Total War’s combat as I’ve never owned a computer from 3 years in the future and can’t stand five minute loading screens. That being said, the turn-based gameplay is a lot of fun.

In my first ten turns I had conquered another civilization. After that, I had to fund an army while dealing with a civil revolution because the guys I had conquered didn’t like my culture despite us being next door neighbors. Shortly thereafter I had to march on that culture’s capital while two of my smaller armies held off a western invasion from my neighbors who didn’t really appreciate me picking on the other guys. On top of all this, I was trying to figure out how to marry one of my general’s to a Roman politician’s daughter despite not having discovered Rome yet as my Germanic tribe was too busy quelling a civil war. Put simply, it’s awesome!

So Many Choices - Rome is a title, not a requirement, and hardly a recommendation. There are over a dozen of total cultures to play as in Rome 2, making the aforementioned Title seem like a joke. I mean, who wants to play as a bunch of fools who got sacked by their own mercenaries when you have barbarian tribes you can play as? Realistically though, the variance in cultures is nice, especially when you consider that who you choose has a completely different goal than everyone else. The sheer difference between each culture adds hours of gameplay to an already huge game.

SMALLER THAN LICHTENSTEIN

Unnecessary Process Use - So far Rome 2 has seen 2 major patches to improve gameplay. Among other things these patches have decreased load time, gameplay lag, and overall performance. Correct me if I’m wrong here, but aren’t these issues that should be addressed in the beta? I get that you have a launch date, but think about it. If this game had come out in 2002, there would be no easy process to patch millions of copies of the most anticipated strategy title of the last decade. Even then, the game is still suffering from an army of bugs and can barely run on anything but the most durable of PCs.

I Don’t Wanna Fight - I made it clear in my positives section that I don’t care for Total War’s combat. The problem is that the controls have a relatively steep learning curve, and unless you’re this generation’s Napoleon, winning a battle you should clearly lose when the troop count for either side exceeds 1,000 units is time consuming and insanely difficult. Yes, that’s realism to an extent, but it’s not fun. Fun is beating a Terran siege force with burrowed roaches and well placed hydralisks. Fun is not trying to micro-manage 30 different unit groups with some of the most awkward and clunky controls I’ve ever experienced in a game. I’m not saying it can’t be fun, I’m just saying that it takes forever before it’s fun, making the RTS sections fall behind the turn-based sections.

Total War:  Rome II is the best installment in the Total War series since Medieval. It has great politics, fun factions, and probably the least painful RTS combat I’ve ever endured in a Total War title. It’s only weaknesses are the fact that it was an incomplete launch that has done nothing to make the RTS sections more tolerable for players who aren’t grand strategists. It is without a doubt the best single player RTS I’ve played in a while.