History repeats itself as CA dishes out another excellent and addictive game.
As I have a decently strong system, I can play everything on high or above and it truly brings out the beautiful graphics of the game and the removal of clones is nothing short of awesome. The sound on the other hand, is slightly more lacking. While it does occasionally heighten or alleviate tensions on the battlefield and is fairly good; it is not on par with the graphical level. It's also not as good as the sound of Rome: Total War where I occasionally just stopped to listen to the music. It's still good but doesn't play nearly often enough, leaving many silent minutes.
It isn't exactly revolutionary compared to the rest of the games in the series but it still remains largely unrivaled in terms of the epic proportions in this game. The addition of merchants as well as the re-introduction of princesses and priests makes the game different from Rome for those who like to use their agents frequently. Another new addition I enjoyed was how they changed the mechanisms of a cavalry charge, making it more complex as well as making them weaker in melee to add more depth.
The game on the whole is addicting and immersive. I often sit down to play for one hour and realize that I have instead played for four. The replay value is immense as there are many factions to play as and each gives a different unique experience. There are also a plethora of mods that a player can try and multi-player for the adventurous. It is easily worth the $50 you have to shell out.