Following complaints that the soldiers were simply clones in the previous entry in the series, Rome: Total War, the developer, The Creative Assembly, now has devised a system that will allow soldiers to look different from one another.
Picking randomly from many heads, bodies, and legs, no soldier will look the same. For instance, knights will have different coats-of-arms, some soldiers will have beards and others will not, and so on. Details will also be improved, over time armies' weapons will show wear and soon they will be covered with muck and dirt, adding to the graphical realism. It has also been said that the game's physics and animation system will be revised. For instance, a soldier who gets speared in the leg will fall realistically, and not simply roll over. The battlefield and city rendering system has also been overhauled. Per pixel lighting has also been mentioned as a feature in the new game engine by the developers. Also, to increase the fighting realism, units will choose from a variety of attacks and use parries and blocks. These actions will be strung together using motion-captured actions, making unique and realistic attack combos. Therefore, the fighting will be much more fluid and believable. "Troops block and parry attack moves and string together deadly combo attacks and finishing moves before scanning the battlefield for their next kill."
