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Outstanding

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: February 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Had given up on this genre years ago due to poor/unrealistic gameplay. Got this because it happened to be on special for 1/2 price that day and thought I'd give it a try for something different as I am a bit of a European Mediaeval history buff. Since that time (and I kid you not) I have derived 60+ solid hours of pleasure out of the product, and only completed 2 campaigns and a few "historical" battles) - so it has a lot more shelf life to offer (cheap thrills on an hourly basis!)

Good things - graphics are simply superb, the battles are not easy and different unit's strengths and weaknesses have to be borne in mind constantly to win, allies are often untrustworthy (just like real ones), it takes a long time to build things in your cities/castles (just like it used to), and various environmental forces (including heretics, storms, and the season) have various effects on your settlements. Absolutely engrossing gameplay that will have you hitting the end turn icon and hanging around "just one more turn honey" to see what happens over and over.

Things I wish were different (bearing in mind I gave it 5 stars) - Armies move much too slowly sometimes (it didn't take 2 years to sail from England to Italy for example), Princesses are often worthless - if they're not "charming" you can't marry them off, and they can't negotiate well as diplomats, and there's nothing you can do about it (like send them to charm school), sometimes in battle the troops get in each other's way and don't go where you tell them, being excommunicated has always had little effect - almost to the point where it is irrelevant, and finally I wish it had some way of showing me units in the field that I have forgotten to move (life gets complicated when you own all of Europe and much of North Africa)

Stuff that was driving me nuts that got fixed in the 1.1 patch - inquistors have much less power to kill your generals, when attacking cities with two armies and one is under AI it doesn't just sit there passively anymore, as well as a bunch of minor things.

On my old machine (P4 HT 3.4, 2gb PC4200RAM, SATA1, nVidia 6800 256mb) everything worked fine except the individual battles took some time to load (not outrageous, but not fast either) and grpahics were fine except on a couple of occasions where I had 2000 or more troops on the screen all doing their own thing - frame rate got bogged down.

On my new machine (PD945 3.4 Dual Core 2gb PC6400RAM, SATAII, nVidia 8800 GTS 640mb) load times are MUCH faster and I have had no frame rate slowing.

Buy this game if you have a decent machine and you don't mind getting really engrossed and "wasting" many hours of time taking over the world and wreaking havoc on those who attack you. Along the way, if you read all the detail text on the various buildings (armouries, alchemist labs, abbeys, docks/wharves etc.) you'll actually learn quite a bit about the period 1080-1520: they've done a good job of historical accuracy IMHO.

How's the Multiplayer You Ask?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: March 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

the game is a bit of a letdown if you prefer multiplayer games to single player games. for starters, the campaign mode in M2TW is single player only. you can play campaign mode multiplayer on the same computer via hotseat, but not over the internet.

so when you read about the Pope, Inquisitors, Spies, Generals, Bloodlines, Priests, Princesses, etc etc... you will only get to use these concepts in single player mode. when you see screenshots of a Risk like battle map of the world, with cities and unique units, again, single player only.

multiplayer is strictly made up of skirmish matches, for which there are around 20 maps. there are also about 6 scenarios, which are just skirmishes of famous historical battles, such as Agincourt. there are only 2 modes to choose from, a regular battle, or a defensive battle with one side defending a castle or city. you can choose from 17 factions, and have a nice variety of units to choose from. you can also make minor tweaks to the maps to change things up: summer or winter, morning, noon, night, and clear skies, foggy, or thunderstorms. it is also worth mentioning here that in skirmish mode you cannot play with a mix of live players and computer AI. its either one or the other.

the skirmish mode is very nice, and if thats all you want for online play you cannot go wrong here. i find the skirmish matches to be great fun in multiplayer, but at the same time it is not a game i would play all the time. without the campaign mode available for multiplay, the best part of the game is left for single player only. if you are looking for a good conquer the world type game with a rich and robust set of multiplayer options, i suggest you try the excellent Sid Meier's Civilization IV.

overall, i would say M2TW is a fantastic game, but the best parts of it are single player only. multiplayer is skirmish only maps, and while there is plenty of material to keep you occupied, you might find yourself wanting more for challenging online play.

a 5 star game, but i give it a overall 3/5 for lacking in multiplayer.

Massive, realistic battles, that is, if you have a Massive computer

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: December 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Overall this game is pretty good, with the huge number of units on screen as well as the realistic animations of each troop. But as always, a flaw comes with this. And that is if you do not have a very fast computer with alot of memory and a good graphics card, you're gonna end up taking this game back after the first day. I would have, but game stores can't accept used pc games. I remember vividly when i first entered the game into the computer and began playing. I didn't have 1,000 units on screen, and the gameplay was so choppy i could barely see what was going on. To put this into perspective, it took about 5 long minutes to get the camera turned 360 degrees to see the battle going on. Also, with the weird camera controls, it seemed like an eternity. I could see how this game would dominate all other pc games on a great computer, but if you do not have on, heed this warning. Just to let you know, I have a graphics processor with Radeon 128 mb card, which is a very good graphics card, and still, my computer could barely run it. If you like small wars(for some odd reason) then you could possibly have fun with this game.

Customer/Tech Support DOES NOT Exist

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 22
Date: February 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I wish I could write a review of the game. However, I have not been able to get it to work. Whenever I try to start the game, it reverts back to the windows desktop. I have uninstalled/reinstalled it. I have updated everything that can be updated. I have sent NUMEROUS emails (you can't actually talk to a person). I did recieve one response; telling me i used the wrong email address (the one given as the tech support address). No response from the new address. It sounds like a good game, as long as there are no tech issues.

Not CA's best work but still a good game.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: February 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you like the History of the middle ages you will like this game. This game made by C.A. uses the Rome total war engine so there is little change in game play just a little different style of play. It is a major change from MTW1. Less historical game play events more siege battles that produce lag time.
There are improvements in the game over RTW. Landscape graphics and buildings look fantastic better than RTW. Naval amphibious invasions occur more often. Units look good up close and explosions rock your computer screen.
Now for the bad, Units do not have cohesion when attacking, Cavalry units are hard to control and unit graphics seem quite blurred from a distance. The A.I. is just not very good period. Diplomacy is a farce and the A.I. cheats. Only computer savvy people can mod the game.
This is not C.A.'s best work. Be that as it may, when it comes to historical war games with strategic and real time battles the Total War series is still the best.

DVD rom disc 2 install trouble

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: November 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I am giving this game one star in the hopes that I will eventually get to play it. I have a cutting edge PC, but DVD disc 2 of Medieval 2 will not install. Upon putting disc 2 into the dvd drive, I get a message that a certain file cannot be found. The only way out of this installation cul-de-sac is to cancel the installation. Great job, Sega!!! I should take the time to mention that no other games that I've purchased have had ANY installation problems. I've looked online, and have seen that others have had this same problem, yet nobody seems to have any idea how to get around it. Of course, on the games' official homepage, there is no mention of any installation problem. Anybody out there know how to solve this bug?

No CD Key Included

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 11
Date: December 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This looks like a very enjoyable game, but I wouldn't know.

After recieivng this for Christmas I tried to install but there was no installation key in the package. Assuming there was a packaging problem as the card titled "Important Information" and "CD Key:" is blank where a key might be printed. If the key is normally somewhere else, well it's not there either.

I contacted SEGA by email but they are away until 3 Jan 07. I'll update this rating once I have resolved the CD Key issue and played the game.

Solid Title

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: November 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Another great title from the creative assembly. Yes, it is a lot like Rome: Total War, but why drastically change what works? If the creative assembly had reinvented the game then people would be complaining that medieval II *isn't* like rome. Thank dog they didn't screw it all up.

Anyway, if your a fan of the series (or just love a good RTS) then this is it. The IGN review pretty much says it all: rich detail during battle (each warrior moves and looks slightly different, fights look more convincing, better shading, gently waving grass, etc. etc.), and the campaign strategy portion includes more variety over Rome. The "Cresent and the Cross" history channel documentary (DVD) included in the box was a nice surprise. It was interesting to correlate game features with the show.

I was surprised to find that this game performs on my machine about the same as Rome (a little better in some cases and a little worse in others). They must have put in a lot of effort to get all the visual extras rendering that fast.

Medieval II hits the spot for this reviewer.

Not perfect but still the cutting-edge

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: January 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It seems as if most of the improvements since Roman Total War have been in the graphics. As far as cosmetics go, the game is amazing.

As for substance, I find MTW slightly unsatisfying. I had hoped for better AI. Even at the "very difficult" setting, the game is a little too easy. The political dimension seems to have less impact than it should, especially when you marry into a faction through a princess. Also, the other Christian factions seem pretty disinterested when you're excommunicated (or even capture Rome, for that matter).

The idea of heretics and witches is cool but under-developed. I had hoped that religion would have a more significant part to play in the game.

Also, all the factions are pretty much the same. They all have comparable units and the "unique" units aren't really all that special. Roman Total War did a better job as far as each faction having a unique aspect to it. Choosing a faction in this game is little more than a matter of geography.

The whole "discovering the New World" aspect is interesting but doesn't really have any strategic impact (which is realistic for the time period in question).

Overall, the game is beautiful but slightly lacking in playability. I've only had it since Christmas and, already, I'm starting to lose interest. Roman Total War has more long-term playability to it. Personally, I'd rather have simpler graphics and better game design.

Really good game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: May 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is a lot of fun. Diplomacy is an improvement on Rome Total War(rtw).
Battles: Graphics are better, and the soldiers are no longer clones. they have different faces, different coats of arms on their shields, and wear slightly different armor. The fighting is still similar to RTW, i didnt play the tuitorial, and im doing fine.
The pope: Dealing with the pope, which you have to do if you are a catholic faction, can get tedious. It is hard to expand in europe, because whenever you are at war with another catholic faction, you often receive a command to stop fighting with them. it also lowers his opinion of you, which could lead him to excomunicate you. when you are excommunicated, other catholic fations can attack you with his blessing.
agents: the merchants are cool, and are another source of income. the princesses are also useful, as you can use them to steal generals from your enemy.
Family Tree: What i dont like, is (im playing as the english) i can;t name my own faction heir. this gets annoying. In RTW, you could pick your faction heir, which was useful. They did away with that feature in M2TW.
Video clips: some events have really cool videos that go with them.
performance: NO CRASHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! no bugs that i have found, no laggyness.
Crusades: Crusades are really cool. Its a good way to improve your generals, since if they succeed, they gain like 3-5 command stars and chivalry and piety shoot through the roof. Unfortunately, you can only have a crusade once in a long time.

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