*I waited to review this game until I conquered every territory in the whole world. Just saying, it took a while lol.
Originality: What started out as an infuriating start to this game ended up turning into one of amazement. I truly did not like this game at first, but then I fell in love with it. Why, for the life of me, Shogun 2 is considered one of the greatest Total war games ever is beyond me considering it dumbs so much down and why, in equal amazement, this game is considered one of the worst according to metacritic is beyond me as well. Total War is Total War, and this game sticks to that formula, while retaining some of the things that made the original Rome so awesome (the pressure to beat the Romans/survive as the Roman before/until their advanced troops can be built and slaughter everyone, having to deal with the politics both internally and externally, specific campaigns that follow historical accuracies as well as giving you rivals/allies that don’t go away from being those things easily, etc). The technology tree (and let’s just be honest here, it is a total rip from the Civilizations series) makes this game VASTLY better than its predecessors. Overall, this game perfects good things and eliminates bad things more than introducing new things, but the new things it does introduce are wonderful!
16/20
Graphics: I’ve yet to be blown away by a Total War engine (they are all beautiful, but blown away is something on another level) since Medieval 2 Total War. This game, finally, returns the series to glory in this category. What a stunning game!
10/10
Art Style: I’ll use the same thing I used on the Rome 1 Total War review here:
“The art style is one of realistic tone, which serves this game the best. The game feels very real (armies are actually 500-1000’s of troops and not 30 units like in warcraft) and therefore realistic graphics make it feel even more real. Brilliant move.”
15/15
Story: Story was never a strong point in this series, however, improvements have been made with more in depth trailers/videos in the game as well as history specific campaign modes which introduce famous figures. There still needs to be progress made here in this series, though.
17/30
Game Interface: Annoying or not? All good! 5/5
Controls easy and fluid or difficult and rigid? Loving the WASD in this game just like I have for a while J 5/5
Is it fun? Yes, and the online campaigns are glorious! Lot’s of replay ability with so many different campaigns/countries.
15/15
Total – 83/100
Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition – 100 + 5 = 105
Shovel Knight – 95 + 10 = 105
Shadow of Mordor = 95 + 5 = 100
Zelda Skyward Sword-98
Hyrule Warriors – 93 + 5 = 98
Batman: Arkham Asylum - 93
Zelda Minish Cap – 92
Portal – 87 + 5 = 92
Assassin’s Creed 4 Wii U – 86 +5 = 91
Zelda Windwaker HD – 86 + 5 = 91
Bayonetta 2 = 91 NR
Bayonetta (Wii U) – 91 NR
Zelda Oracle of Ages – 91
Metroid Fusion – 91
Mario and Luigi: Bowsers Inside Story – 86 + 5 = 91
Zelda Twilight Princess – 90
Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon - 90
Guildwars 2 – 89
Mario and Luigi: Dream Team – 89
Animal Crossing New Leaf – 84 + 5 = 89
Pokemon X – 88
Zelda: A Link to the Past – 78 + 10 = 88
Kid Icarus Uprising – 88
Darksiders 2 - 88
Fire Emblem Awakening – 88
Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark - 84
Paper Mario Sticker Star – 83
Rome 2: Total War - 83
Zelda: A Link Between Worlds-83
Super Mario 3d land – 72 + 10 = 82
Batman: Arkham Origins - 81
Trine – 80
Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze* - 68 + 10 = 78
Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D – 74
Rome: Total War-74
Red Alert 3 - 70
New Super Mario Bros. U - 66
New Super Mario Bros.Wii – 57 *
Assassins Creed 3 – 57 NR
Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition – 53*
Kirby Squeak Squad – 43
Donkey Kong Country Returns 3d – 42
* Means it was more fun than the score indicates. Scores judge the overall quality of the game (how fun it is only counts for 15% in my reviews)
NR means Not Recommended based on inappropriateness.
^Charm is rewarded to games that have an undefinable quality to them that makes them amazing and have high replayability value.
