Recent reviews by Kalvix

It starts out enjoyable, but you quickly get the feeling that you're going to be grinding for a while to get basic gear, and you can't afford to bring much with you as you'll be grinding out that money as well so you can afford things when you finally level up. Basically to cater to the twitch crowd they REALLY added a mega grind which is just not fun unless you plan to make this game your job.

So ye if you're on twitch give it a go as it'll take a few months to grind out all the stuff giving you content for a while, but as a normal player? nah you'll feel like you're time isn't appreciated at all.

Honestly wouldn't recommend it, playing it again I see why Salt and Sacrifice is bad as I feel like this game was a fluke more than anything. It has a lot of potential, but SO many annoying things in it, making it feel like the fact it had a lot of good as well was just pure luck.

Some of the bad decisions are mind boggling, like the hanged men who can stun lock you, Tree of Men being the most boring fight ever with mass RNG, general RNG all over really with things like traps that SHOULD have a set patter, but when you reload an area that pattern changes so sometimes you just can't get through without being hit.

So so many massive holes to fall into with the ability to be knocked in by the lightest touch of an enemy, who attack pretty fast to the point that you really need to choose a weapon with a longer reach as anything shorter will just get you screwed over.

I-frames almost don't exist honestly, the only option for a dodging play through seems to be specifically making sure you light roll to roll WAY past the attack, as timing to not get hit is ridiculously hard.

Overall its just not worth it, it had potential, but ye I really don't think it was skill that made the bits that do work work.

It's alright on normal, though still annoying when you get enemies with different colours that make you clang off them in annoying ways, but in harder difficulties that happens so often it becomes purely frustrating to play.

Time to kill is so short you may as well just ignore all crafting and buying stuff and just grab things in missions anyway, this then means that losing anything doesn't matter, and indeed nothing really matters, it becomes a death match with a huge gap between the fights, which is what all of these games end up becoming in the end.

Also big cheater issue, not been playing long but still been running into a LOT of people snapping instantly to my head, the other day for example killed a guys friend while he was looting something, he then INSTANTLY snapped to my head and 1 shot killed me, and today killed a guy, only for his friend to kill me and mate who weren't even standing close with single head shots with an automatic weapon within a second of each other.

The lack of any kind of killcam just lets people cheat as they want, which encourages you further to not waste time getting money for the shop or materials for crafting as you could spend ages getting loads of good stuff only to instantly get head shot the second somebody sees you.

So ye don't bother, its just not worth it. Could have been good but cheating ruins it, time to kill is so short no skill expression exists, and both these things combined make crafting and the trader pointless.

Honestly the best thing this game does is highlight why modern RPGs aren't good. The original wasn't full of side quests that constantly dragged things out so much you forgot what was happening half the time, it didn't drag out things with pointless characters that don't matter (I'm look at you orphanage).

At first I was enjoying it, but then I realise that the combat isn't as good as something like Dark Souls, but by filling it up with all these side quests that are nothing but fetch quests or combat quests it's basically putting the story onto the back burner, making it something that isn't that important and focusing more on the game play, and that was a terrible idea.

It's not that the game play is terrible, it's just not as good as something like Dark Souls or Devil May Cry, while the story also suffers. It's the worst of both worlds

Starts fun, but bosses that require you to shoot them become tedious quickly.

Fun even in this early stage, there are some times towards the mid-game it becomes a bit of a grind but overall it's still enjoyable and will likely keep getting more and more fun.

Finally finished an 112% run, and couldn't recommend it more. There are time's it drove me insane with annoying bosses (I'm looking at you PV...) and theres some things I decided not to do like Pantheon of the Hollownest, but I had an incredibly time completing this to 112%, and the fact it has more to do if you want to dig deeper and go beyond just makes it even more worth your time and money.

Team Cherry you did an awesome job and I can't wait to see what you do next.

Won't go into huge detail, but at 400 hours I don't really need to as it clearly shows how enjoyable the game is.

Ok.. first off a lot of bugs have been fixed but overall its still not comletely fixed 7 months down the line, the AI will still sit outside your cities in sieges, when you attack towns with ranged units the AI will sit while you kill them all and never try to charged your ranged units, the huge bugs have gone but theres STILL issues.

Now onto things which can't be fixed as easily as bugs... well the factions are all very samey, they have different skins yes but they all feel the same with the odd 1 or 2 units to differentiate them (such as elephants and chariots, which are really just reskinned horses).

The combat itself is just not very engaging.. this one I sadly can't quite put my finger on but I just don't enjoy fighting battles in rome 2, I've spent the last 3 days play fall of the samurai and loving it including the battles despite the fact that normally I have guns in TW games as you just sit watching people fall over.

City management is just not fun either, they've tried to add more complexity to it but all it does in the end is make you hate having to manage your cities. The squalor and food system forces you to build certain buildings giving you far less freedom and overall is just a pain which I'd rather not have to deal with.

Then theres a few other minor things... in fall of the samurai each turn is 1 month so generals have time to develop, you can end up with 1 general you've been fighting with for years and has won many a battle for you! it also allows for seasons each which gives a different benefit or downside. In rome 2 each turn is a year so generals drop like flies before they have time to do anything helpful and seasons are completely lost. The skill tree is completely done as well meaning you either need a website open with a skill tree or just pick random skills when you level up as theres no way (easily at least) ingame to find out what a certian skill path will get you further down the line (not that generals live long enough for it to matter).

Personally I'd definitely NOT recommend this, I'd recommend shogun 2 and the dlc fall of the samuria, they are both great games, I've never liked TW games with guns yet for me fots is proving to be the BEST TW game yet, all the systems on the campaign map just make it a pleasure to use and city management while definitely simpler than in rome 2 is FAR more fun.

So to cut it short... DON'T buy rome 2 DO buy Shogun 2 and the fall of the samurai dlc, trust me even if you don't like guns in TW games theres so many great additions to fall of the samurai you'll love it, and of course you CAN just go for full on old school mode using only katans and arrows trying to fight back against modern times!