14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at The Creative Assembly and publisher SEGA announce that they are getting ready to launch an entirely new campaign pack for Total War: Rome II, called Hannibal at the Gates, on March 27.
The new content will allow players to take control of a variety of factions during the Second Punic War, as Rome and Carthage face off over the Mediterranean Sea and are getting ready to fight over the right to rule all of the known ancient world.
The entire game map has been redesigned in order to focus on the areas that were the most important during the war, including Italy, Northern Africa and Spain and the company is aiming to re-create the conditions that forced Hannibal to launch his famous attack through Northern Italy, crossing the Alps with his elephants.
There are five playable factions in Hannibal at the Gates for Total War: Rome II: the Romans, Carthage, independent Syracuse, the Lusitani and the Arevaci.
The Creative Assembly will make Hannibal and Scipio, the two leading generals of the era, the main characters for the expansion.
Factions will have an entirely new civil tech tree that focuses on diplomatic actions and gamers will also be able to control armies made up of new, powerful units.
Hannibal at the Gates for Total War: Rome II will be launched on the PC via digital distribution on March 27.
Mike Simpson, creative director at The Creative Assembly, states, “Rome II was hugely ambitious for our studio. We do regret that some reviewers and core fans didn’t get everything they wanted from it. We are committed to improving and adding to the game over the coming months; we very much want ROME II to be remembered as one of our best.”
The company also says that it has plans to launch a big free update at the same time, which is designed to offer big changes to the core gameplay and better balance the overall campaign.
More details about it will be offered in the coming week.
Total War: Rome II has already received one campaign pack focused on Caesar’s battle in Gaul and many fans of the strategy game believed that The Creative Assembly was interested in following his career through the Civil War and his later conquests.
The game was troubled on launch, with many players unable to actually enjoy it, but since then, the development team has delivered a lot of patches and the experience is now solid.