We were in Rome and were in a historic setting, the upcoming Total War Rome 2 allude in detail. In our preview to the strategy we focus on a total of eight points, the Rome 2 does better than its predecessor. Total War: Rome 2 appears on 3 September 2013 for PC.
If someone has not noticed yet: Total War Rome 2 looks cool, has a bombastic sound and offers huge, epic battles in Roman times. For old fans of the series that is only incidental. More important: How well is the artificial intelligence of the enemies in the real-time battles? How time consuming is the management of cities, if you have taken only once half of Europe? And how long you play, to a desire for conquest and manage an ancient empire goes?
Prior to the release of Total War: Rome 2 on 3 To get some answers to these and similar questions september, the development studio Creative Assembly invited us for a day on a movie lot "Cinecitta" in the southeast of Rome. Its stunning scenes of the television series Rome were journalists from all over the world for several hours take a look at an early version of the game and chat casually with the attending designers. So much first: The trip was worth it!
I. Simple, But Useful: Research in Total War: Rome 2
In Rome 2 Total War is now also vigorously researched to unlock such as new types of troops or to improve road construction and agriculture. From the main menu on the strategy map, you will access the Technology menu and can set there with a few mouse clicks, what new technologies and achievements will be investigated. The research itself is divided into military and civilian research, where the military is split between the subregions tactics, management and siege again, and the civil research on philosophy, economics and architecture. The menu has quite simple, each option is explained sufficiently with tooltips.
In the present version we could explore all the technologies in the course of the game, the allocation of research projects in different areas within the menu is obviously just window dressing. The player only determines the time of the research and must not decide for or against a particular technology. This is a shame, because the question of whether you want to have better catapults and siege towers for Angri or boiling oil, larger and more powerful artillery ammunition for defending cities, is quite exciting for the further course of a campaign. The chance to get bogged down as a player and unlock the "wrong" technology, but is also quite high, which is why Creative Assembly has probably decided against it.
II bombast and blue Smurfs - The graphics of Rome 2
Writing in the age of Youtube about the graphics of the game is pretty old-fashioned. We do it anyway because the little details are often overlooked. And it's in Rome 2 lots as soon as you leave the bird's eye during a battle and the battlefield from close look. Units hop over market stalls, tents to tear, some buildings in the cities are half sunken, suspended between the houses - typical Italy - laundering of the linen.
This attention to detail also extends to the fully rotatable 3D strategy map does not stop in sieges of cities, small catapults hurl rocks at the buildings inside the city walls, while ravens circling above the heads of the generals and pull thick cloud over the land. Well, that indeed are all just gimmicks, but they make sure that you fall into the miniature world of Rome 2nd
However, some design choices do not really fit into the picture: Depending on the distance the troops are displayed during a battle with less detail, can be seen until sometime just colored pixels. While this facilitates the overview, but a bunch of bright blue spots on the screen somehow does not fit into the picture. Exemplary: Who knows a little about his PC, the 3dgrafik can tune precisely to the performance of their PC - even a benchmark function is built.
III. Generals are the key figures in Rome 2
Unlike in Rome: Total War Generals are now an integral part of an army. Who wants to dig a new army, therefore, must hire a general who leads the men only in a provincial capital. Once you have decided on a general, you click it then on the strategy map and can select from the main menu, select "Units Recruit": Only now you get access to all units that can be trained in the respective province. The loss of an army are automatically balanced way between battles. So chipped armies must not be moved, such as in the predecessor in cities far from the front, because not only trained in the settlements near the front of certain troop types and therefore can not be refreshed.
Just as armies have also generals in the battle experience and can learn special abilities: Our 4-star general in the preview version had, for example, the ability to identify weaknesses in the defense of a city and leached from combat units with "Second Wind" again to incite. These skills can incidentally also increase and become increasingly effective over time. Generals can develop naturally and negative characteristics, such as when you let go stale far behind the front - that has not changed compared to the first part.
Also new are the "Stances" (= conversation). Each army can take one of four attitudes: "Fortify" for example, gives special bonuses at the Defence • for the army can not move a round. "Ambush" is perfect for ambushes and makes an almost invisible army, "raiding" lowers the cost of maintenance of an army by almost one granted her the command to plunder the region in which it is currently located. With "Forced March" to increase the range of an army, but can not attack in the round.
IV tradition and honor: The Armies
Roman legions were no nameless armies, but had their own story, a coat of arms and famous generals at their head. In Rome: Total War, this point was still completely under the table, but fortunately the changes in the second part. Each legion in Rome 2 has its own name plus crest, accumulated over time and experience can learn so-called "traditions", that is to specialize in certain aspects of ancient warfare. For example, we were able to increase the combat effectiveness of ranged, melee or siege weapons of our "Legio I Italica" in our preview version.
Mike Simpson, Creative Director of Rome 2, explains: "If we choose the traditions of sent, you can put together an army in the course of time, which specializes in conquering cities or the defense of important key positions." From the main menu on the strategy map gets you all the information about an army on the item "Details". There, all the victories and defeats are listed in a "History" box, to see the current experience level and the selected traditions. Those who wish can change here the emblem of the Army and has two more buttons to access the detailed menu of the commanding general and the agents that belong to the army.
