videogamescritic
← all games
Total War: ROME II - Emperor Edition

Total War: ROME II - Emperor Edition

CREATIVE ASSEMBLY, Feral Interactive · released Sep 2, 2013

StrategyPC

Emperor Edition is the definitive edition of ROME II, featuring an improved politics system, overhauled building chains, rebalanced battles and improved visuals in both campaign and battleEmperor Edition contains all free feature updates since its release in 2013, which includes bug fixes, balancing, Twitch.

81
VGC Score
Stablehigh confidence
74%
At launch
88%
Steam all-time
n/a
Press
76%
Player sentiment
93%
Recent sentiment

Screenshots & trailers

What players say

Why the number is what it is: aspect mentions counted across 300 sampled Steam reviews (276 positive / 24 negative), recent and most-helpful. Plain keyword counting, fully reproducible; nothing here is written by a machine.

What positive reviews talk about

Positive reviews don't converge on specific aspects.

What negative reviews complain about

  • Bugs & crashes13% mention it
  • Controls & UI13% mention it

Satisfaction by hours played

Same score, different games: see how sentiment holds up the longer people play.

Under 5h

64%

28 reviews

5-15h

92%

53 reviews

15-40h

97%

33 reviews

40-100h

97%

60 reviews

100h+

94%

126 reviews

Review sentiment over time

Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.

How this score was computed

The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.

ComponentPositiveQuality (0-100)Weight (pseudo-reviews)
Press reviews (Metacritic)0
All-time Steam reviews88%811000
Metacritic user ratings766
Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted)93%87105
Calibration prior (typical game)7250

Scoring window: last 30 days (no significant patch detected) · 300 reviews sampled · 295 total reviews in window · weighted 224 up / 17.6 down · computed 10h ago · full methodology →

Press & Creators reviews (2)

Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.

  • 89
    trust 69Oct 13, 2014

    The technical part remains somewhat problematic, but the rest of the game is of outstanding quality. In terms of grand strategy, it's one of the best games and it can deservedly stand next to its ancestors in the same series. Too bad that, as it seems, the publishers did not give the appropriate time frame to the developers. The potential was there, only more time was needed.

    read full review ↗
  • 90
    trust 51Sep 17, 2014

    Emperor Edition really shows how much the title from The Creative Assembly has evolved since it was originally delivered and the way the entire experience has been updated based on the needs of the community and the cool ideas of the development team.

    read full review ↗

Patch history