Rome Total Fantasy Immersion - Absentis

So Total War Rome 2 is out, it’s unfortunate shortcomings widely known even beyond the player base. I won’t go into the many obvious things that are problematic, but from personal realisation and scouring message boards, a key issue stands prominent in my mind. These issues have to do with ‘fantasy’ and ‘immersion’. These words can be easily ridiculed as PR buzzwords and they are often used under such circumstances. Regardless, they are two elements that are vital in the make-up of a Total War game.

I am reminded of a post-mortem video where Warren Spector and Harvey Smith frankly talk about the mistakes they made in Invisible War. I’ll paraphrase, but Smith briefly gives an example of where in an attempt to streamline the skill/augmentation system, the design team took mechanically similar skills and augs from the first game and combined them into one augmentation in Invisible War. A decision that was economically sound, as both implementations resulted in the same mechanical outcome. But Smith stresses that despite this streamlining which simplified the user interface and the gameplay, it fundamentally affected the player’s ability to pursue a fantasy. In this case a player would look at the skill and augmentation tree and decide that they wanted to pursue the ‘aquatic guy’ fantasy. So they would pick the swimming skill and pair it with the aqualung augmentation. Boom – fantasy realised – and the player feels all the more invested and inclined to play.

Skip to the last minute for Harvey Smith's remarks on player fantasy.

Now if we look at Rome 2, on one hand Creative Assembly have actually taken this realisation to heart. In one sense, the game has increased our ability to achieve particular fantasies. These come in the form of customisable army and navy characteristics and skill trees for Generals. Never before in a Total War game have we been able to create personal histories and traditions for entire armies. If we wanted to re-create Caesar’s infamous 13^th Legion, we can. Raise an army under a Julii family General, re-name the army ‘Legio XIII Gemina’ then over it’s lifetime give them the ‘inexorable conquerors’ and ‘barbarian subduers’ traditions and subdue Gaul itself. In this case the fantasy to replay a series of historical events has been allowed to flourish. This fantasy and almost any other similar fantasy can be created thanks to the army traditions system. Given the historical subject matter of the Total War games, it is fair to assume players will pursue their own historically inspired fantasies.

It goes to show then, that in a grand historical strategy game that spans entire continents, the more humanising, grounded and personal the experience can become, the greater the investment by a player can become. In all other respects outside of the army tradition system, Rome 2 has taken a step backwards in allowing players to fully realise their immersive classical era fantasy. Some examples of how:

Family trees were present in the first Rome game. Now they are not. The reaction to this omission is mixed. It has been brought up that the family tree in Rome 1 in no way affected any part of the gameplay itself. Correct! At a fundamental mechanical level, current and past family details had no affect on gameplay outcomes. However, one should not underestimate the power of the player’s imagination. Entire stories and character driven accounts could have been conjured from the inclusion of a family tree. A simple series of gameplay events could influence the way someone plays. A very simple Example: Brother Generals Romulus and Regulus come of age from the marriage of a previous General; they both lead legions. Romulus takes his to Illyria, whilst Regulus marches his legion to North Africa. Years into the campaign, Romulus is killed in battle by a vicious Thracian army near Greece. Regulus, in uncontrollable rage, vows for personal revenge and pulls his legion out of Africa headed straight for Illyria. From here, depending on the player's actions, perhaps Regulus is also thrashed in battle, or perhaps he successfully manages to stomp the barbarians into Illyria’s fossil record. This decades-spanning narrative could end in a brotherly love tragedy or a tale of revenge. A touching personally engineered character driven story within the wider story arc of the Roman Empire's expansion.

Another missing feature is the beloved agent cut scenes, giving us humorous and mild historical insights into assassinations and acts of sabotage, but also a method of creating empathy for our lonely on-screen agents. Although I do understand why they are only apparent in the Shogun games. The asset requirements of the cut scenes would most likely be too grand with such varied and distinctive cultures in the Medieval, Rome and Empire periods.

Finally, the removal of informative and educational pop ups that used to occur after social/military reforms and the research of new technologies are missing. Another opportunity to connect with the player through the game’s prominent technology tree. An opportunity for depth and learning wasted, as technologies are simplified to a mere set of statistics. Let's not reduce one of the industry's more thought provoking historical strategy titles to a mere conquering simulator, why not take the opportunity to educate a user with relevant information in a setting that makes absolute sense?

Historical education in a game driven by human history? Brilliant!

In the grand scheme of things, none of these missing features are extreme deal breakers. But it is rather bemusing for Rome 2 to be missing so much of what has given previous Total War games their flavour, particularly when they existed in the direct prequel. There really is nothing quite like the Total War franchise. For me it represents the ultimate escape. To a time often documented in books, TV and film. But a time that could NEVER be so truly appreciated and experienced from a grand world scale to the minutiae of the individual warrior’s experience. Every tool previously made available to fully realise and re-create our own stories and history should be brought on board, not left to the cutting room floor.