Why this game is second most played game on Steam?

[Zenky]

Insulting remark removed
You want facts?
Fact number:
1- Rome II was released very poorly optimized
2- There isnt a family tree
3- there is no cutscene videos what so ever, besides generic death.
4- turn times are horrible
5- AI is far from good and that is a fact, wacth angryjoe videos if you want.
6 - political system is very limited, and a copy paste of a the Game of thrones facebook game, only worse.
7- No tactical or strategy elements on the battles, at all.
8- 5 minute battles everytime, other TW titles had it much better.
9- no unit coesion
10-lack of guard mode
11- fire javelins...lol realy?!
12 AI armies with hordes of slingers...
13- stupid, badly implemented flag objectives in battles
14- torches bring down gates no use for siege stuff
15- the agents are all the same, they play the same, and they mostly do the same, besides, given diferent beneficts.. lame lame lame. Even M2TW was better in this
16- magical nonsense abilities in the units, with cooldowns
17 did i mentioned the battles are just mosh pits?
18- 1 unit of general elephants can destroy an army of 2000 men, without having casualties ( wacth angryjoe video)
19- house hold system is crappy.
The truth is some people are easly amused or fan boys take your pick. I have no problem with other people enjoying this game, i do and did, despite the game being very boring, and bland. But dont you tell me this is even a good total war game. Its mediocre, or ok at best imo.
They streamlined, and riped alot of great mechanics, that made the previous titles very good. And what they improved, doesnt realy make up for it.

This, game feels, and plays half finished and half baked.

Ill take shogun 2 anytime then rome II.
Im not saying i hate the game, im saying i hate what they did to this title overal. Even without the performance issues, and bugs, the game is very bland, and superficial, without much detail. About 60 turns, and im bored. I think i pass more time wainting then actual playing....
Can it get better, in some fronts? i belive so, but from my experience in this kind of games, it wont change much.
Hope it gets better with mods though.

The only things that are good are the new provincial system, the diplomacy, is actualy an improvement, even with its current flaws, and the graphics, i guess, but even that they arent that much of an improvement.

They are mostly opinion not fact and please stop with Angry Joe video he even said it was a collection of bug from other player , this kind of glitch collection can be done with any game.

Lol at one unit of elephant taking over 2000 soldiers, I destroyed all elephant unit I encounter. that remind rome 1 phalanx spartan taking over 2000+ solider , im sure the video is still on youtube.

The only fact I agree is terrible AI , stop saying game play decision / change YOU don't like = a fact the game is bad .... the only fact is you dont like those game design but some other like them ( not saying I like all of them)

Oh and btw guard mode is in game , its just set on auto right now if you don't tell a unit to attack it will stay on guard mode even after getting attack. same goes with formation , my cohort keep formation I just don't ask them to charge

[need help]

As the title says: Why despite all the bashing of the game on forums and elsewhere on the Internet, this game is the second most played game on Steam and was so since the release date? Am I missing something?

Because even the bashers still play the game, ironic isn't it? Also there are alot of people who like the game, like myself.

[Pedalos]

^{When I am not playing rome2 I am playing dota2. I must have fantastic taste in games}

[ozzylaos]

I'm playing the game since release. Every days for 2 hours each. i'm lucky, with 'normal' pc config (i5, nvidia 550ti, 8Gb ram) i can play with ultra setting at 22 FPS (low/little unit).
Of course i've encountered some bugs during my campaigne with Rome. For example allies standing motionless at the boarder of map or enemy waiting in mass out of villages...
But but... The game is nice for the most battles and during campaigne.
Hope all of this complain in this and official forum will put pressure to CA for patches.... (meanwhile i continue to play....)

[Caesar_1991]

Because Im thoroughly enjoying it

[Humble Warrior]

They are mostly opinion not fact

Oh, man, the blindness of some is overpowering! they`d take a turd and play with it and if someone said "that`s not a football," they`d reply:

"They are mostly your opinion, not fact."

[The_Dude]

Because even the bashers still play the game, ironic isn't it? Also there are alot of people who like the game, like myself.

true enough...theres a ton of people on steam that keep on ranting yet on average play the game for 4h+ a day ... must be schizophrenic or something.

[Silent_Bob]

^{When I am not playing rome2 I am playing dota2. I must have fantastic taste in games}

I want to play dota2 SO bad... a lot of my friends are playing but im 7300 in the queue and its been standing still for a weeks. So its just rome2 for me now, and world of tanks.

[scivian]

I am the most critical and play it alot...why?
-paid for it
-waited years for it
-getting better with fixes and mods
-summer
-etc...

[alQamar]

Dropped to 8/9 within a month

[daelin4]

As the title says: Why despite all the bashing of the game on forums and elsewhere on the Internet, this game is the second most played game on Steam and was so since the release date? Am I missing something?

Yes you are missing something: you are assuming that a game that is on the top charts somehow automatically means it is fun, great, popular and is the next thing you should buy...when in reality it just shows that it is the second most played game on Steam on the date of whatever you just looked at.

I've played the game quite a lot of hours, and it is NOT because I thought it was fun or great or something a friend should buy. It was slow, bloated, and I had to spend a lot of time tweaking things here and there to figure out which does what and why should I bother doing it again. Loading times I bet took a large chunk of the time spent in the game, which is ironic.
The other half of the time spent is likely trying out mods and staring new campaigns because recent patches override them.

[Muffin Top]

Why is Justin Bieber at the top of the charts all the time?

end of story.

[Karnil Vark Khaitan]

I would say those who play it is not the most vocal part of the community.

[Adamwestisgod]

Because its fun. I love this game, I havent been having any of the game breaking bugs that everybody else has been having. I try to play at least a few hours a day, until the gf kicks me off the comp. Also a few of my buddies who have been playing TW games since shogun love this game too. Im getting a little sick of the whole "only seasoned TW veterans know whats wrong with this game compared to the casual crowed". So pretty much if I like this game im not a "real" TW player? Good lord this forum has fallen since 2004. One more thing im starting to think people look back on the old TW's with rose tinted glasses...somehow this game is more "simple" then previous TW's? Because really the TW games have always been such a COMPLICATED game to pick up and play....I mean come on guys theyve always been simple.

[GnaReffotsirk]

Ah, the masses. Do not trust them masses. They will follow on blindly, most of them.

[Humble Warrior]

Ah, the masses. Do not trust them masses. They will follow on blindly, most of them.

Absolutely.

[B. W.]

There are tons of disco songs that made the top of the charts and are now faded into oblivion while country songs made in the fifties and sixties still have a wide audience. Same goes for classic rock. People are still buying it. When the "let's see what's new crowd" is done with R2, then sales and playing time will drop unless CA can reform the game to suit its longtime fans. Rome 1 had over 25,000 sales last year. Quite remarkable for a PC game that came out in 2004. I wonder how many 2004 PC games topped that sales figure? It would be interesting to know.

[EternalSilence]

As the title says: Why despite all the bashing of the game on forums and elsewhere on the Internet, this game is the second most played game on Steam and was so since the release date? Am I missing something?

Believe it or not: there is a problem with the hours that are counted when playing Rome 2.
Some people report they have over 70hours of gameplay, however they did not play 70 hours of rome 2.

So steam has a bug with the hours for this game (and other games).

[fws2468]

The number of hours played on steam do not reflect how good a game is. Many things contribute to long play time like long turn wait times (thankfully fixed by now), playing over 100 turns only to realise you were playing it wrong and restarting because the tutorial does not tell you about it, multiple reloading of the campaign map because of poor pathfinding etc. As a TW veteran, I find the game playable but not entertaining enough like the ninja fail cut scenes in S2 and not very enjoyable as the stupid AI rather ventures out to take a cheap shot at your settlement without caring if its capital is about to be invaded that same turn.

[vietanh797]

Insulting remark removed You want facts? Fact number: 1- Rome II was released very poorly optimized2- There isnt a family tree3- there is no cutscene videos what so ever, besides generic death.4- turn times are horrible5- AI is far from good and that is a fact, wacth angryjoe videos if you want. 6 - political system is very limited, and a copy paste of a the Game of thrones facebook game, only worse. 7- No tactical or strategy elements on the battles, at all. 8- 5 minute battles everytime, other TW titles had it much better.9- no unit coesion10-lack of guard mode11- fire javelins...lol realy?!12 AI armies with hordes of slingers...13- stupid, badly implemented flag objectives in battles14- torches bring down gates no use for siege stuff15- the agents are all the same, they play the same, and they mostly do the same, besides, given diferent beneficts.. lame lame lame. Even M2TW was better in this16- magical nonsense abilities in the units, with cooldowns17 did i mentioned the battles are just mosh pits?18- 1 unit of general elephants can destroy an army of 2000 men, without having casualties ( wacth angryjoe video) 19- house hold system is crappy.

1- Some systems but not all, I am enjoying the game with one of the first i3 second gen and a HD7770. still it is hard to optimized the game for every system in the world of PC2- Design decision, not really a problem. It is better if there is a good one but it didn't really hurt without one since back then a lot of factions don't use family member as general and if you look at the ETW and NTW both of them don't have family tree3- Err sorry but most people never watch a cutscene second time so spending budget on those things is a waste if you ask me.4- For you not me and I not even have a SSD5- AI have flaws and it always will have some. But you can enjoy the game by play battle that AI can function instead of exploit AI at battle that they unable to work well.6- Political stuff need rework for sure. 7- What? I kinda want to have a multiplayer battle with you to see your "no tactic"8- 5 mins in open field can become 50min in siege battle which already over the limit 30mins battle how the hell you expecting people to win a siege battle in 30 min if you need 30min to win it on open field? 9- are you sure?10- not a problem for me11- it happened in history12- how long has it been since you last play the game? and historically slinger was very popular even legionary carry sling13- again how long has it been since you last play the game?14- Siege AI isn't working properly. They said they will patch it and I am waiting.15- Did you really use agents? because it sound like you never even tried to use them over more than 1 target and 1 option16- I hate this things too but it isn't a problem as long as I don't use them right?17- err? you are a bad player I guessed?18- just a problem of balancing and luck if you are targeted with missiles you general will still die very fast.19- personal's taste, no comment