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144 of 151 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
When Portugal Attacks, November 18, 2006
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
When I first got this installed and running on my middle-of-the-road system I was expecting it to be a chugging, slow mess. I was happily surprised to find that except for battles against larger cities or against thousands of foes, it runs just fine. I have yet to have a crash, something which in this day and age of "shove it out the door broken and patch it later" game releases is to be commended.
The graphics are beautiful but are not the amazing leap forward like occurred from Medieval 1 to Rome. Think of it more as putting an extra coat of shiny polish on your car. The effects of firing flaming arrows and the pageantry of heraldric colors on the knights and other troops are beautiful to watch. The little movies showing events like weddings and your assassins' antics are often genuinely hilarious (until you've seen them all 100 times). But all that is also just eye candy, there's very little NEW here that wasn't in Rome. Also, the medieval setting has now been done to death in this game's predecessor and other games in the last few years and I'm praying that the next title WON'T be a remake of the original Shogun but will move the series squarely into the gunpowder age, culminating with Napoleon. Enough with the primitive and medieval weapons and tactics.
The AI has been improved marginally, but I am still attacked for ridiculously random reasons no matter the difficulty level I play on. As England I had developed into one of the largest powers on the map and Portugal inexplicably attacked me without provocation despite our neutral relations (not "poor" or "abysmal", mind you) and trade rights. Needless to say they were immediately squashed, but why would they even bother? This is not intelligent AI, it's just annoying AI. Alliances seem to be equally meaningless when they are made with the human and are difficult to achieve unless the AI brings it to you. I have yet to ever form one when I initiate the offer even when it would be a massive advantage to the comp.
Battle AI is more clever at using its archers as harassment and has no hesitation in squashing yours if you leave them unguarded. When outnumbered it does tend to sit there passively as one other reviewer wrote. I have nearly obliterated an entire force with archers while they just sat there in the corner before the general turned tail and withdrew.
Overall, it's a small step forward and the Rome engine is certainly beautiful to watch in action. The Total War series still is unparalleled in strategic enjoyment on both levels but the next offering in the series needs to be groundbreaking in both time period and AI complexity.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Rome: TW with a Medieval twist, November 18, 2006
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
Medieval 2 is a good game, but considering the last big technological break through already happend with Rome: TW and the fact that its been years since it came out means to me that the makers of Medieval 2 should have been striving a little harder to make the game more than what it is. There are some great new features, just as IGN's review explains, but I think IGN gave the game a little too much credit. I've been waiting for this game to come out for some time now and I am happy I purchased it, but for those of you who already have Rome: TW, expect pretty much the same thing with better graphics and slightly different interface. However, the strategy map is absolutely identical, no time put into that. Taking turns between the different factions will be just as tedious and mind-numbing as it was in all the other Total war games, something they really need to address before the next release.
Game itself comes with some nice features, like an audio CD including all the music from the game and several DVD's from the History Channel's "Crusades" series on TV. Enough to get you pumped to play? Yes. But not an excuse for some of the hangovers from Rome: TW to still exist. Over all good buy, just getting into my second day of play, ain't bored yet but not exactly stunned either.
8.5 - Presentation
Good classic Total War presentation, what else is there to say? Oh a few bugs do exist but nothing a quick patch won't fix.
9.0 - Graphics
Deffinately an improvment over the last Total War game, however I did experience a performance issue while running high anti-aliasing and Ansotropic settings with a NVidia 7800 BFG (256mb) card.
8.5 - Sound
Classic Total War game sound and music, however not my favorite soundtrack out of the series.
7.5 - Gameplay
Gameplay falls short of what it should be. While Med 2 builds on some key principles, I just didn't have that "wow" factor there was when Rome first came out. More of a Rome: TW with a Medieval mod.
8.0 - Lasting Appeal
Second day of play and still interested. Although I can see myself on to something else within the next few weeks. Questionable if its worth $50 for those of you who already have Rome.
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27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Makes me want to read Machiavelli..., December 3, 2006
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
I loved Rome:Total War like little kids love Christmas. I just got done with Medieval II playing the Spanish Grand Campaign and...well, wow.
Rome was a definate step-up in terms of the fun factor and graphics, but there was always those elements of the original Medieval that I missed - Namely, the diplomatic features and perhaps the era itself. The map is reminiscent of Rome: Total War, but it is broken up to reflect the medieval period. Starting off you can only choose five factions - England, France, Spain, The Holy Roman Empire and ummm...Milan I think. However, when you beat the game it unlocks all the playable factions which is around 15ish.
I won't really go into what is better over Medieval I to Medieval 2, because there is a large technological leap. It is better to make a comparison to Rome. The graphics, by and large, remain the same with minor tweaks like making the trees sway on the campaign map, and the terrain will actually change as you farm and irrigate the land in your provinces.
The most notable difference to me was it is harder than Rome. No matter what faction you play, it is going to be a challenge. Any catholic faction you play puts you into contention with the Pope. Most of the popes don't like catholic countries fighting each other, so when I was at war with Portugal in the beginning I had them on their last province with my armies approaching and here comes his Popeness, "Ahem...Spain, you need to stop. You are doing too well and might have an increased economy as well as hegemony over the Iberian pennisula. Sooo, stop or i'll excommunicate the lot of you!" You can ignore his Popeness, but you recieve a severe penalty to the morale of your cities, you can have a crusade called against you (REALLY not fun) and generally upset every other catholic nation. This might not be such a big deal in the later stages of the game, but if you do it when you are starting out then you get a bunch of nutty crusaders at your doorstep (Thank you Saved Games).
The time period is static. That is to say, you start in the 12th century and ends with the conquest of the New World. So, if you want to play with the later muskets, cannons and all sorts of goodies you need to play a very long game to get to the time period where the "trigger" comes into play of discovering gunpowder and its practical application to firearms.
All of the playable factions are distinct, with their pluses and minuses. Each playable faction has a equal shot at conquering Europe, Asia and America. It really depends on your play style. If you like whittling away the enemy with arrow fire then England is a good choice. If you like slow, powerful calvary then France is a good choice and so on, and so on.
It does have some minor flaws; some techinical hiccups here and there, but nothing game killing. I have a 3.2ghz Pentium IV, 1 gig of ram and a 6800 GT Nvidia graphics card. No major problems.
The AI is improved over Rome, but there is a few things to improve on such as the computer not charging you if he lacks missile troops. For example, I have 6 units of archers and 4 units of infantry and he has 8 units of infantry and no archers. I hammer him until he has barely 100 guys and i'm out of arrows before he will make a move on me. Now, this is good for me because I win, but I really think the computer should say to itself, "Hey, I have no missile troops. I'm going to charge him now!"
To wrap it up, let me just say one final note. I...Love...Cannons. This game is worth it to buy just to watch a row of cannons go off, the ground shake and men get thrown around like rag dolls at your volleys. It is most choice...
Pros:
- Solid Graphics
- Fun Gameplay
- Great tutorial (Just like Rome)
- Distinct and varied voice-acting.
- Lots and lots of replayability.
Cons:
- Minor AI tweaks needed
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