Total War: Rome 2 Developer Responds to DLC Backlash

Creative Assembly has responded to accusations that it is holding back existing content in Total War: Rome 2 so that it can charge gamers for its use in paid DLC later on.

This week, players on the Total War forums alleged that the Camel Cataphracts and Mercenary Naked Swords units, included in the paid-for Beasts of War and Caesar in Gaul DLCs respectively, were already in the game - and can be seen in promotional videos predating the DLCs' release.

Brand director Rob Bartholomew has responded to the criticism via a wordy rebuttal at Eurogamer, saying that the camel issue was a "misunderstanding of what's being shown combined with a marketing error which I certainly appreciate doesn't look good, but wasn't our intent to mislead."

Bartholomew claims that the camels in the early videos are not the same as those later released as DLC. "At the time of this video's recording," he says, "these units were not finished in terms of art, gameplay or design and as a marketing team we should have double-checked the likelihood of them making it into the final game."

"That's our basic human error and I apologise for letting that through... We've put checks in place now that should prevent that in the future."

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Total War: Rome II - Caesar in Gaul Trailer

Bartholomew has also addressed modders' concerns that Rome 2 contains on-disc DLC that is simply "switched on" by Creative Assembly when the player pays for it; he says that the content in question is included so that multiplayer games can work between players who do have the DLC and those who do not.

"We've done this with previous titles (as do other game devs)... We think it is the best solution all round to ensure that everyone's game is up to date."

The Beasts of War DLC sells for US$3 on Steam, while Caesar in Gaul costs US$15.

SEGA made Rome 2's official Assembly Kit available to modders last month. In our September 2013 review, we concluded that Rome 2 contained some of the "most satisfying and visually striking tactical battles" we've ever seen, even in spite of some persistent flaws.

Katie Williams is a freelance writer and games journalist. You can follow her on IGN. She also tweets at @desensitisation and hopes that one day, a bird will tweet back.

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