PhilBowles
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- Nov 20, 2011
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http://www.pcgamer.com/review/total-war-rome-2-review/2/
It actually sounds as though most of the changes are likely to prove disappointing - I was actually holding out particular hope for the politics element that the reviewer slams.
I'm also not enthused by the changes he praises - it seems as though battles have only changed graphically (and not in the AI's tendency to chuck armies away against cities), and the strategic layer has regressed somewhat in its removal of farms etc. as raidable parts of the landscape (touted in Empire, not unfairly, as that game's big innovation to the series). I was saddened that the 'Man of the Hour' system was removed from Shogun 2 - with forced generals for every army, it seems it can't happen in Rome 2 either (and we still have the unfortunate skill tree instead of the older games' organic character development, only now for armies as well as generals). Improved interface for selecting areas where buildings are needed is great, but that's just a UI improvement (and, incidentally, something that Empire had which was removed in Shogun 2 for no good reason).
Having said all that, there are two key positives that still have me anticipating tomorrow as the most exciting game release of the year: longer campaigns, and much reduced naval battles. It was a real drag in Empire, and even moreso in Shogun 2 with its AI that was obsessive about raiding trade routes and its longer, closer-range battles, that naval battles were so common since in Shogun 2 particularly there just weren't opportunities for interesting or varied naval battles, and the AI was appalling. Add to that the greater unit and faction variety - which is key to the TW experience - and I'm sold (just as well since I pre-ordered over a week ago...)
Many of my above concerns of course depend on how the campaign as a whole is structured; for the most part, Shogun 2's shift towards more simplified mechanics and less micromanagement was an improvement, and it may be that the scale of the new campaign demands something like the province system - perhaps there will be other ways of raiding (maybe back to the R/M2 system where just having enemies sitting in your province reduced income and caused damage).
It actually sounds as though most of the changes are likely to prove disappointing - I was actually holding out particular hope for the politics element that the reviewer slams.
I'm also not enthused by the changes he praises - it seems as though battles have only changed graphically (and not in the AI's tendency to chuck armies away against cities), and the strategic layer has regressed somewhat in its removal of farms etc. as raidable parts of the landscape (touted in Empire, not unfairly, as that game's big innovation to the series). I was saddened that the 'Man of the Hour' system was removed from Shogun 2 - with forced generals for every army, it seems it can't happen in Rome 2 either (and we still have the unfortunate skill tree instead of the older games' organic character development, only now for armies as well as generals). Improved interface for selecting areas where buildings are needed is great, but that's just a UI improvement (and, incidentally, something that Empire had which was removed in Shogun 2 for no good reason).
Having said all that, there are two key positives that still have me anticipating tomorrow as the most exciting game release of the year: longer campaigns, and much reduced naval battles. It was a real drag in Empire, and even moreso in Shogun 2 with its AI that was obsessive about raiding trade routes and its longer, closer-range battles, that naval battles were so common since in Shogun 2 particularly there just weren't opportunities for interesting or varied naval battles, and the AI was appalling. Add to that the greater unit and faction variety - which is key to the TW experience - and I'm sold (just as well since I pre-ordered over a week ago...)
Many of my above concerns of course depend on how the campaign as a whole is structured; for the most part, Shogun 2's shift towards more simplified mechanics and less micromanagement was an improvement, and it may be that the scale of the new campaign demands something like the province system - perhaps there will be other ways of raiding (maybe back to the R/M2 system where just having enemies sitting in your province reduced income and caused damage).