Comments on: Total War: Rome II

By: Brian Mardiney

Brian Mardiney — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 00:17:31 +0000

I tend to agree with you, but that’s not the way the industry works. Because Western schools views 70% as “passing” (80% as good, 90% as great, etc), that mentality has been applied to game rankings. Does it make sense? Not even a little. But that’s just the common perception now. It’s like language – sure you can tell someone that the phrase “begs the question” doesn’t mean what they think it means…but if everyone uses it the wrong way, the language has changed to make it the “right way”.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 02:50:20 +0000

But I thought you understand how a basic review scale works. 5, for example, shouldn’t be unplayable, it should be average. Because nobody is paying you or controlling you like, say, folks over on IGN, you shouldn’t take their review scale to use on your reviews.

By: Brian Mardiney

Brian Mardiney — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 22:34:40 +0000

Hah, it has less to do with me keeping a job and more to do with keeping a bit of perspective. Yes the game is a let down with major flaws, but it still basically works. I can see someone giving a lower score, but if you go too low, you are letting your negative emotions overwhelm everything.

By: Brian Mardiney

Brian Mardiney — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 22:33:04 +0000

I agree, a 75% for me reads as “pretty average” or “great concept, poorly executed”. Rome 2 is the latter.

By: Brian Mardiney

Brian Mardiney — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 22:31:59 +0000

I bashed the game with the understanding that “Yes, it’s a game that basically works, basically does what it says it does. It just does it poorly in comparison to what came before it.” If I were to give it a 60 or less, I would basically be saying “It’s fundamentally broken and unplayable. It isn’t that.

By: Grady James

Grady James — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 16:03:55 +0000

Creative Assembly is a bad developer. Seriously, they need to hire some new programmers. They also need to fire their entire game design staff wholesale because of the very questionable design decisions in Shogun 2 and Rome 2 – you know, capture points in field battles, units pulling pikes out of their butts, and Create-a-General®. Finally, they I think need to murder their UI designer.

By: Tiger

Tiger — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 20:52:29 +0000

Come on guys. He wants to keep his job. 75%for AAA title allows that. Going on his slams this game is in 40s-65 range. Especially from a TW VET

By: Redleg

Redleg — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 13:44:05 +0000

I agree with the previous comment. Your score does not match your review. I found your review through Metacritic and they list your score of 75% as favorable. (I don’t think anyone would consider this a favorable review) Metacritic appears to use a cut off of 60% to 74% for mixed. Somewhere below 60% becomes unfavorable.

I realize that these scoring systems are highly subjective, but given your well written critical observations the score should have been at least in the “mixed” range if not lower.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 12:59:35 +0000

Thanks for a review, but I get a feeling that your score doesn’t match the review. You blame and bash a game for it’s mistakes, and it gets what, 75%?

By: Karl

Karl — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 17:48:22 +0000

Thanks for honest review. Interesting to say that metacritics is not linked on Steam for Rome 2.

Missing in the review is that they made false advertising.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?623087-Intentionally-false-advertising-How-far-will-you-go-for-Rome-2

Here is a list of cut content compared to Rome 1 as you mentioned you never played it:
http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.php/95854-Cut-content-from-Rome-1

Read yourself, perhaps add this to your statements and rating.
Cheers, Karl