The future of real-time strategy will arrive in October

Dec 29, 2012 18:01 GMT  ·  By

I have loved the Total War series ever since The Creative Assembly launched the very first game in the series, the original Shogun, but the series has always offered me disappointment in equal measure to the joy it provided.

Total War: Rome 2 might just be the first game in the series that has no critical weakness that leads me to abandon it after two months and then only occasionally return in order to try out new mods and see what the community is doing.

I am very aware that I had a similar feeling before each Total War launch, but it seems that the developers at The Creative Assembly finally have the resources, the time and the technology they need in order to create the ultimate blend of map-based strategy and battlefield tactics.

The biggest selling point for Rome 2 is that, for the first time in the history of the series, both ground and naval assets will be included on the same battle maps, which means that players will be able to use a small naval force as a distraction before hitting enemies hard with their infantry or use disembarked troops to storm a city.

This is revolutionary and shows the evolution of the core game engine, which is close to being able to support actual historical numbers for some of the battles.

Total War is also returning to the Roman period, featuring the great conflicts with the Greek city states that defined the early Republic, the fight with the Carthaginians and the later invasions against the various Germanic peoples.

My excitement is compounded by the talk about choices and consequences, with the team finally understanding that generals and diplomats were powerful people and their minute decisions often changed history.

Total War: Rome 2 will be offered on the PC during the fall of 2013.