As most of you probably would have known by now, Rome 2 was released today so I thought I might as well start a thread of anyone's thoughts and first impressions on it.
I'm still working around the nuances of the game (I've finished the prologue and started the first few turns of a campaign) but my experience has been generally positive. The biggest improvement I saw was the load times. My laptop (yes, laptop) took quite a while to load battles and campaign maps in Shogun 2, around 30 seconds at the least. However, loading even large battles in Rome 2 seems to take a fraction of this time, rarely going over 10 seconds, which is a massive improvement in my eyes.
The same applies for starting up the game itself, which is very quick. You also get the option to continue your last player campaign from the launcher right off the bat instead going to the main menu, which is a great feature as it shaves off a lot of time and hassle having to launch to the menu and load your campaign. In Rome 2 you open the launcher, click 'continue campaign', wait maybe 10 seconds and bang, you're in.
The whole empire management gameplay seems to be more streamlined. And I don't mean that in a 'dumbed down' sense, but it feels more seamless and less tedious than in previous Total War titles. In battles, the gameplay seems to have been made a lot faster than say, Rome 1, which may please some but displease others. I didn't mind it but wouldn't mind if it was a bit slower and less frantic, either.
Rome 2 is also a lot more visceral than other Total War games in the past. Whereas Shogun 2 was largely about the individual combat of samurai, here you really get the sense of these battalions of men crashing against each other in blocks. Similarly, it's now more satisfying than before to charge your cavalry, elephants or chariots into the enemy, you really feel the impact as their men go flying everywhere. Seriously, just set up a defensive line with your infantry, bring your elephants round the side and watch them wreak havoc as they charge through the enemy line.
However, there do seem to be some faults, and most of these stem from optimisation issues or bugs, like pretty much every Total War game at launch. Look at the official or Steam forums and you'll see a plethora of reports stating low framerates (with high specs) and bugs. I haven't come across any gameplay issues myself, but the game does stutter and chop a bit, and I played Shogun 2 on medium-high settings without trouble. I used the benchmark tool and although I had a solid average framerate of 60fps, the graph showed my framerate plummeting down to single figures every few seconds. So there are some optimisation issues that Creative Assembly need to sort out in the near future.
Anyone else had some time with Rome 2? Thoughts?
I'm still working around the nuances of the game (I've finished the prologue and started the first few turns of a campaign) but my experience has been generally positive. The biggest improvement I saw was the load times. My laptop (yes, laptop) took quite a while to load battles and campaign maps in Shogun 2, around 30 seconds at the least. However, loading even large battles in Rome 2 seems to take a fraction of this time, rarely going over 10 seconds, which is a massive improvement in my eyes.
The same applies for starting up the game itself, which is very quick. You also get the option to continue your last player campaign from the launcher right off the bat instead going to the main menu, which is a great feature as it shaves off a lot of time and hassle having to launch to the menu and load your campaign. In Rome 2 you open the launcher, click 'continue campaign', wait maybe 10 seconds and bang, you're in.
The whole empire management gameplay seems to be more streamlined. And I don't mean that in a 'dumbed down' sense, but it feels more seamless and less tedious than in previous Total War titles. In battles, the gameplay seems to have been made a lot faster than say, Rome 1, which may please some but displease others. I didn't mind it but wouldn't mind if it was a bit slower and less frantic, either.
Rome 2 is also a lot more visceral than other Total War games in the past. Whereas Shogun 2 was largely about the individual combat of samurai, here you really get the sense of these battalions of men crashing against each other in blocks. Similarly, it's now more satisfying than before to charge your cavalry, elephants or chariots into the enemy, you really feel the impact as their men go flying everywhere. Seriously, just set up a defensive line with your infantry, bring your elephants round the side and watch them wreak havoc as they charge through the enemy line.
However, there do seem to be some faults, and most of these stem from optimisation issues or bugs, like pretty much every Total War game at launch. Look at the official or Steam forums and you'll see a plethora of reports stating low framerates (with high specs) and bugs. I haven't come across any gameplay issues myself, but the game does stutter and chop a bit, and I played Shogun 2 on medium-high settings without trouble. I used the benchmark tool and although I had a solid average framerate of 60fps, the graph showed my framerate plummeting down to single figures every few seconds. So there are some optimisation issues that Creative Assembly need to sort out in the near future.
Anyone else had some time with Rome 2? Thoughts?
