I've beaten the tutorial campaigns, and a bit of my own campaign. First impressions? The seem to have streamlined the fun out of the game. You can't build armies, capture settlements, build diplomatic relationships, or do anything without tons of micromanagement and heavy punishment for doing anything interesting. I literally can't even begin the campaign without running into a wall (my strategy is generally to stack tons of cheap units on all my starting settlements and attack everything around me right at the start; You can't do that in this game). Overall, I could see how the game would have unique mechanics and balance of its own, but as for myself, I just can't play it.

Been on a long road with this game.

If you'd asked me my thought's in 2013 I would said it was one of the worst total wars ever made. In whats now close to 2021 my feelings have changed a lot.

After years of patching expansions and even use as practice for a new developer (CA Bulgaria made an expansion before working on Troy). Total War Rome 2 (Hate that name change) is a fine strategy game. Still a bit buggy and with some core design weirdness but a fine game none the less.And with some of the mods out there Rome 2 is even a good game. While I still am not a fan of where this game and Warhammer took the Series.

The expansion's that were released are all a little lack luster. They all just zoom into a part of the map and add a "story" focused campaign that at their best can be considered "fine".

I have a hard time not recommend this game in its current state. There still hundreds of hours of gameplay here. How much you like it though is going too depend on your previous experience with the franchise.

i like making plans, minmaxing the hell out of every minmaxable situation, jumping over mental hurdles, and solving problems in general, but i don't like doing it with too many variables around. therefore, grand strategy games have never clicked with me. be it a paradox game or any huge-scale resource management sim, i could never keep my ropes together. i was sucked in by the cold futuristic vibes of stellaris and loved connecting things in factorio, but my skill could not keep up with them, so they both ended up more frustrating than enjoyable. i did well in games like sid meier's civilization series, but then i felt as if the game was not giving me enough options to carry out all of my plans.

as you can see, i'm a bit hard to please, but total war games are the ones that hit the sweet spot, and rome 2 was my most beloved one. it walks the line between casual and complex, never straying too much in either direction. you keep your eyes on a couple of gauges, and you get a handful of options to keep them in line. it's turn-based, so no panic-inducing commotion is happening behind your windows while you are adjusting sliders, deploying spies, and declaring wars. speaking of wars, that's all this game is about. the research tree is a slave to raising an army, and there is no cultural victory. in total war, you win with your swords.

another thing i love in these games is the real-time battles. controlling your units on the battlefield adds an entirely new skill curve to the game, and i enjoy it immensely. depending on your taste, you can reenact historical battles or bravely bring an experimental army to the battlefield.

in the end, while i acknowledge that this may not be the game for you, it absolutely is a game for me.