Total War: Rome 2 to be more "realistic", "brutal"

The Total War games have been some of the greatest strategy games with their massive scale and gigantic battles with huge armies. The latest game in the series, Total War: Shogun 2, was set in 16th century Japan after a series of games set mainly in Europe during different Eras. Then came the announcement for Total War: Rome 2.

According to a report by Eurogamer, the lead designer for Total War: Rome 2 Jamie Russell said at Rezzed that the game would deliver “a darker vision of war”. He said some interesting things about how the game will be. "Close-up, we want the men to feel more human. We've got facial animations, emotional interactions between men; so that if the guy next to me gets hit by an arrow, I'll react to that. It's all about a darker vision of war. We want the combat to feel more brutal, more visceral. And we want the form-combat to really get a sense of that Roman war machine, that unique fighting style of the Roman meat grinder legions," he said.

One of the bigger changes announced was that the land and sea battles won’t be separate things; they can be part of the same giant battle. You could have your soldiers jump out of their boats to help support your cavalry. Russel stated that their aim for Rome 2 was to "deliver some of the most spectacular sights you've ever seen in a video game."

The next great RTS

Revealing other details about Rome 2, Russell said the campaign map is to be “much larger” than in Rome 1. The northern forests will have barbarian tribes and there will be the “exotic” Eastern kingdoms in the desert, not to mention Rome will also be there. That will amount to a "huge variety of fighting styles, cultures and environments".

There will also be political intrigue and rivalries in the Senate and within families. "We want the player to be thinking things like, do I save the Republic or do I play to become Emperor," said Russell. "This was a time when the personal decisions of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra shaped empires, they forged history with their personal decisions." However, he added that the code on show was "super, super early" and was "way, way, pre-alpha".