I've played all three of its predecessors; Shogun, Medieval, and Rome, and their expansions. Shogun was fantastic for its time; Medieval was decent; Rome was okay after five patches, but by then I'd had enough of it.

I think I'm done with that series. Back in January, when I began to get the impression that M2TW was basically going to be Rome with prettier graphics, I quit even reading the forums for months. I took a peek recently, but even reviews based on advance copies don't make it clear whether there has been any actual gameplay improvement with the new release.

If you've never played RTW (and burned yourself out on it), M2TW is at least a more polished-looking game. If you've played RTW and the poor AI and lack of immersive atmosphere got you down, I'd advise waiting until the veteran players in the related forums have had a chance to hash it out before making your decision to buy.

If you've played RTW and the poor AI and lack of immersive atmosphere got you down, I'd advise waiting until the veteran players in the related forums have had a chance to hash it out before making your decision to buy.

Only problem with that is, most Total War veterans are waiting for other veterans to play the game before they'll pick it up. It's essentially going to go like this:

"You play it first."
"No, *you* play it first!"
"No, you!"
"No, you!"

Repeat ad nauseum.   

I've been a fan of the TW series for a long time, as well, having played all of them. Shogun and Medieval were fun but soooo unstable for me, I never did get rid of the CTD bugs completely... Rome and its expansion, on the other hand, have been totally flawless and I've always been fascinated with the ancient Roman empire, so I really enjoyed it. I for one will be purchasing Medieval TW 2 the day it comes out, without any worries, and expecting at least a few CTD bugs before the first patch, and I'm okay with that

M2:TW is quite a great game overall, and ushers in the look of the way a lot strategy games are going to start looking, i think ( RTS/Tactical and turn based hybrid).



The Gripes ? :

In the quest for more complexity and "balance", they broke a some of the battle mechanics that just "worked" in RTW. Charging is no longer as simple a matter as double clicking your target. There are convoluted undocumented instructions for getting a good charge off, but even so it just seems not to work as often as it does work. Theres either no penetration, or the charging unit just gets distracted by a shiny object 20 feet from the target and just starts walking. There are some general bugs/issues overall( distracting but not gamebreaking) with the AI in battles as well.


The AI on the turn based map is no GC2...its average at best , and deficient in a number of areas, especially diplomacy. The proliferation of new unit types on the turn based map can also make for maybe more unit micromanagement than RTW, which can be a good or bad thing depending on preference.


Buy it anyway ! :

All that being said, even with its flaws, its an awesome game. The battles are truly breathtaking. Each troop has its own individual look now, not just a clone of the others. They also sport a ton of individualized new animations, so zooming in on the battles is really rewarding, with scores of entirely unsynchronized troops engaing in dodges, parrys, and deathblows. The battle environments looks incredible...watching a hail of flaming arrows at dusk fly into the camera, lighting some troops on fire as they run around screaming is cool beyond description.

The scope of the game is truly impressive, as now the turn based component is approaching a game in its own right, in addition to the battlefield simulations which ARE a game on their own. There is a staggering number of historically based unit types to unlock with the handfuls of different nations you can play through the game with.


Based on the progress made and the direction that theyre going, I think the Next game in the Total War series, whatever it is, is going to be the best Strategy game ever. Now, if only they made something with spaceships and planetary invasions in the far future...

Ive played this game for 277 hours now and Im still not sick of it. Especially now that the massive 1.2 patch is here which seriously improves every aspect of the game.

Brilliant game.

bout a year late on that buddy. i imagine hes got quite a bit more. i couldnt even count my hours. i still cantstop playing that damned game