I'm not liking this trend of unnecessary streamlining in Total War. I wish CA would take more cues from Paradox, since while their DLC policy is grating they're at least trying to add more onto their games rather than chopping them down more and more.
I'm not sure where they're getting the feedback that the series needs to go in this direction. I have three assumptions: It's may be in the player data they gather that players don't understand the mechanics well enough. It could be that marketing research shows that people are turned off by the apparent complexity of Total War. Or it could simply be the budget is so tight they cannot flesh out systems in the time they're given. Either way, hopefully the low-ish reviews of this title will steer them back in the right direction.
Ya, while I give alot of grief to paradox when it comes to their content policy. At least its deep enough to keep ya coming back to it. Maybe CA just needs to branch into another form of Strategy game and let total war rest for a little while until that next big project comes along. And I mean a new strategy game as in a new IP entirely, not halo, or aliens or anything like that. Just a sit down and idea generating session of a new strategy game in a new setting with just new ideas.
The only thing that saves Total War franchise as a whole is it's real time 3D battle map. Other than that, this series is finished. It's a shame none could make that battle engine, Paradox can't make it as well..sigh. Imagine Paradox games with real time massive battle, not only it will sold millions, it will be nail in the coffin for CA!
Personally, I like the ideas of Saga series being snacks between the main dishes, and they could try new things in them. But when I go to a restaurant where main dishes are priced at £40, I would expect the snacks to be priced at around £10-15 instead of £30.
They're bonkers haha,i think for rebellions you should be severely punished,loss of supplies/soldiers for a few turns so armies are harder to recruit due to public opinion,little events where rebellious stuff happens to add story and lore like them kicking over barrels and stuff,yanno just more story.
It's like the director of this game was completely out of touch with what the player base wants and pretty much did the opposite at every opportunity. Kinda sad to see a total war game fail so bad.
Glad that I hold back on buying this. This Total War clearly isn't for me: I like settlement management and moving lots of armies around on the map. What about Battles? I like using ~ 60% infantry, 20% archers and 20% cavalry, with cavalry being absolutely crusial in my strategy to surround the enemy and break them up from their flanks to the center. I hate city battles, though defensive ones are fine. Offensive sieges are terrible for me, as i seem to stay completely incompetent at them after years of Total War. I wasn't looking forwars to Three Kingdoms because i am not interested in the area it focuses on, but after this i guess thar game will be our only hope for a good TW game in the next few years... :(
I held off this due to interviews where the lead dev would say something like " We won't be having that feature from Warhammer because it's a different team". The more this was used as an excuse, they convinced me they had the best team on Warhammer and all other history titles will therefore be lesser games. I am still loving TW W2 in Co-op and single player I think CA has peaked here and no other titles will come close, until the Warhammer team move to another project. Better battles, better campaign, newer titles will always be 1 step forward and 10 steps back, unless they work as hard as they have on Warhammer.
Also I think the market segment of people that want to ride dragons into battle against armies of vampires is probably significantly larger than the segment getting their kicks from playing through very specific historical settings. I'm absolutely loving ToB. WH will be their most successful titles until their next fantasy setting regardless of polish, because it appeals to more people.
Thanks, share the video. Nobody really shares my stuff or posts links on sites to it, so I never really grow. In fact I lose a lot of subs, but only ever have very good comments so I'm not really sure what's up.
I watched you until you joined CA. Then i felt i won't be getting your usual insight so every video you were in felt like sponsored promotion. When you came back from hell. I automatically subbed and i check for new videos daily.
I'm moving away from Total War in general, this used to be a Total War channel, but is now focused on Strategy games as I havent enjoyed the later games as much. I'll still review new ones, but won't be uploading TW regularly. As such, I removed all my old TW videos. Here's my Divide Et Impera video: ruclips.net/video/nAbMi0pLb6M/видео.html
I really like the idea of creating and managing my own powerful empire. But Total War games are more about battles, and it makes me sad... So what do you think about the paradox EU and CK games? For me, they provide a grand strategy experience that I wanted from TW. Also, do you still enjoy TW online battles?
Personally never enjoyed TW online, its more micro intense than it is about tactics and positioning. I did enjoy it in Shogun 2 but only for a limited time. CK is a game I couldn’t ever get into and I’ve only just started playing EU:Rome recently, which I like a alot, will be trying EU4 this week at some point. I really love Stellaris though and enjoy HOI4 quite a bit!
Unwalled settlements. Marauders and bandits including many knights were the curse of Europe for a thousand years. Palisades around villages was standard. Except in low budget movies and TV dramas. And this game.
Rome TW, Medieval II TW and shogun 2 gave me such a love for the series. Now, with every new launch, I feel like a battered victim, staying with their partner because they once had such great potential. My love keeps dwindling...
Some of what you consider as a drawback, I would consider as an advantage. For me a strategy game is about battles, the civ type features like building chains are a burden. Their main interest is in improving immersion, such as the saint cults, etc, which are a plus. Also the colour coding you mentioned is not everything because you can unlock chains such that allow you to train your men, which you would want in military cities, regardless of colour coding. The problem with sending a stack of marauders that cost as much as what you are sacking per turn would not be a problem if you sent a solitary general, because you are sacking just civilian homes and churches and the like, and you do not need an army for that. I also feel that by the time you have enough food and money to raise more than 2 full stacks, the campaign is over. You can choose to play longer but it is obvious this is going to be pointless, victory will be assured and the only real point would be to face the Normans. Whether you think it is justified to wait for so many turns and having to go through the tedious land grab for that, that's down to personality. The experience is different. If you expect long campaigns and a buildup similar to the more traditional games, I guess you would be disappointed. I think you will feel better, if you are expecting a different kind of game than what you're used to. I also disagree that playability is low, I think it's high in the sense that every campaign develops differently the next time, even if you are trying to develop it the same as the previous one. Many random events change how your campaign develops.
I also disagree with his comments about the building colour matching, it’s much deeper than that. For example the Arena (Red), Forge (Black) and Granary (Green) synergise well to create a military province. This works even better with an Ironsmith (Black).
@RepublicOfPlay Well I feel you, and mostly because I have noticed how simple minded fans act towards those kind of criticism : but at the same time, the game is a part of a franchise and therefore it's more than deserving to be inspecting and comparing it to previous titles. You can't talk about Battlefiled 1 without talking about Battlefield 4 ... both are great but there is legit up and does that can only be talked upon while inspecting the previous title. When talking about titles in the same series you'd expect at least 2 step forward and one backwards at the worst case and in the best case just steps forward you can't comprehend what a step forward or backwards without reference point and since you review a title which is part of a series and people might be familiar with the series - its only fair and honest for you to be doing this comparisons. IF CA would have released a new game that wasn't a Total War and called it Thrones of Britannia - then you should have made the review as much as standalone as possible without reference to former games of the company - but that is not the case.
Hands down the best review of the game I have seen, good job sir. I found the province building section completely eye opening, would love to see a let's play if your up for it.
Have you read their recent apology letter? It Seems like they somehow think the game wasn't streamlined enough lol. They are gonna dumb down the next one even more. A hearts of Iron 4 situation. I honestly think they aren't even trying to listen to us at this point.
Tripp Fields we'll literally have a game where we place a pin on a map and get a dialog box asking if we should win or lose and do we have to ask our mommy first.. ...
bresk1 well for die hard fans we've seen the game drop features that made the game a pure strategy based thought provoking game that requires you to think ahead and make critical decisions or replay through a save after getting ten more so turns past because things went to shit...... What we've seen of late it the games getting dumber and have less strategy based features on order for dumb people to play them as arcade / casual type games. Making them linear so basically they don't have to think they just have to click this click that and the outcome will not be affecyed incase it got too hard for them........ Strategy in Rome 1 is far more difficult than strategy in Rome 2, and no game was more complex and full of features than medevil 2..... Although empire was good..... I think After Warhamner no total war game will ever be a strategy game ever again
Yea i get that man, but no one said that ToB is the next total war, it's a spinoff experimental project and should be thought as such, the next one that historical fans everyone should be hyped about is Three kingdoms, this one is just a passion project i guess, my point is that you should look at Tob Differently from other total war titles, because it is not one, getting bashed for it is ridiculous.
bresk1 I haven't played this title..... Sort of basing it on other titles in which rather than games getting more advanced more strategic more in depth..... I feel like I need less and less braincells to play them..... Chuckie egg had more strategy than Warhamner
Finally a long review. Not 4 min long. That is why i like yours and ACGs reviews. I bought the game and i am loving it but i DID enjoy your review. EDITED to say that i am not keen on the changes they did and how they dumped it down. I just like it because at this point, after Warhammer 1 and 2 i wanted a simpler TW game with RT battles.
Spot on. Only thing I disagree on is naval battles. They still feel the exact same as they did in Attila, Rome 2 was all about ramming, Attila was all about boarding, here it's the same again, nothing new but sounds. The ships are different and bigger which provides slightly better and less clusterfucky combat, but ultimately it's the same. I feel like they had some cool ideas, but were half ass implemented, not extensively tested, plus relied too much on recycling, even when the community I feel is sick of recycling. I don't know if CA will ever understand they need to stop streamlining, I feel like their games are aimed to a complete different audience and not to the people who initially bought the very first games. They need to start adding complexity and stop playing it super safe, the community is constantly giving them feedback, it's not even that hard. Warhammer worked because the audience was bigger and it relied a lot on WH fan base. However in historical titles you're not bringing anyone new into the franchise by dumbing down games even more.
"Rome 2 was all about ramming" Personally I have always utilized ships with artillery with factions that allowed that, more then ramming tactics. Which was you usual navy composition if I may ask?
Darren you have to be one of the greatest game reviewers I've ever had the privilege of watching. I've agreed with almost everything you've said on every mod or game you have reviewed. I got to watch you live stream this for a few hours in your Insight was amazing. Thank you for putting us up.
Good review, I appreciate the sense of humor. Too bad about TW ToB but it was to be expected, haven't played any TW since Rome II and at least just by looking at ToB I just see Rome II complete with all its faults.... Hoping CA makes good use of what they learned from Warhammer (haven't played it but everyone says its good) and put it into Three Kingdoms. You mentioned in the review that there's a lot of empty space in the campaign map and that its not worth a full army to defend most of it, I think this calls for a change on armies. How about make two types of army? A traditional 20 unit army group, and a new disposable 10 unit one for defending and attacking these places of lesser importance and raiding? Each type of army would have a limiter on how nanny could exist, different types of commanders and maybe even units (lesser armies having somewhat lesser units but easier to replace), just a thought. Or, you know, go back to traditional armies like Rome I...
While it was extremely simplified and pretty redundant, a few mods really make this game polished off. Can easily bring it up a few points with mods, but a fair review on the base game indeed.
Sad to see another medicore Total War game :( Guess I'll just stick to Shogun 2 for now then. Great informative video though! Really put the whole game into perspective with some good critique.
not only rise,we got medieval Kingdoms 1212ad and the Ancient Empires mod thats comming out around late May 2018.We infact will got Rome 3 and Medieval 3
Great video. I've played every total war game since Shogun 1. Love them and am generally open/enjoy all. After a 20 hour head to head campaign on hard and two 20 hour single player campaign on very hard (I never keep playing once i've 'won', so sue me) I found the following: Head to head has 0 balance (duh) and suffers from whichever player learns to manipulate the AI first (Which is also kinda fun, but only at first). Don't play southern Anglo Saxons vs anyone, they start surrounded by vassals and very very strong. a Good player will snowball easily and just play money-hungy economy untill they crush you. I palyed two factions of vikings and found that I was fielding 3 20-stacks of mid class axe units at the time he was fielding 6-8 and had a protective layer of vassals. Overall game PROS: cool atmosphere Awesome sounds/visuals in places New changes to campaign mechanics are interesting. I love supplies for raiding (so if you want to raid you should tech that way and build accordingly) I actually likes the building system fine, especially the special buildings and color coding. If you don't like building management it's great to not have to focus on it so much, the problem to me was...the other things you can focus on don't seem to make that much of a difference either. Build better army, have more food, take more stuff without fighting more wars than 1. If you start to win, you can snowball easily. early mistakes and your done for just like always. Who doesn't love a good campaign restart at turn 4 after moving main army north, and being attack from the south immediately? ;D I like the unit upgrade and weapon/armor upgrade in this game. nice and simple and doable after construction again. I always hated the must-have-on training mechanic. Give the sword dude a new better sword for gods sake, he doesn't need to be killed and then re-trained for just that... Cons: AI on campaign map. - allies are useless completely. They will steal your unguarded provinces instantly cutting your territory gain down to 0 or 1/2. - You cannot stop this easily, even after I began fielding single general units to land-grab instantly it makes having allies or vassals more of a problem than otehr total war games...if you can even believe that lol. 20-stack AI will rally out to fight a 10-stack of viking warriors every. single. time. and lose a crushing defeat. as vikings I just send out 10 units of viking axes to patroll a coast line, bait out the 20-stack destroy it, land, build 5 more units, then attack the capital in 2 turns. Rinse, repeat, you own all of X anywhere town. Not having the ability to easily compare troops/stats, hide trees, remove icons/fast cinematic mode, and general engine deficiencies that were addressed beautifully in warhammer 1 and 2 makes going "back" to this engine FRUSTRATING at first. Gone is the excitement to build and have elite or combat-altering units. You just get more pseudo-indistinguishable axe dudes with boring artwork and slight stat upgrades. Ai in battle - average, freak out when trying to land boats always. Battle - Archers take a new backseat role as mostly useless sometimes moral debuffers that counter any enemy dumb enough to bring skirmished calv to bear. Every unit having expert charge defense, combined with how a generals bodyguard will charge THROUGH and INTO an enemy axe unit so that getting them out is completely impossible makes using Calvary a poor-and all-in tactic against any infantry, even from the rear. Since archers are so useless, why even field Calvary? Not bad, just limited. I completely agree that sieges have HUGE cities that don't seem to fit the number of troops. Shogun franchise did a much better job at these. I can't click on my damn units when i hide that stupid faction flag. absolutely on point with that. Everything is so real feeling, except the icons and flags. thumbs down to that dev team... Conclusion: If some of these new mechanics are tweaked and balanced for future total war games I will be happy. Fix the AI and UI and balance head to head and I might even play one of these games to completion. An interesting take on total war that did exactly what it set out to. Make an average total war game in a specific time period. My next campaign before 3-kingdoms is not going to be the Celts or trying out another faction here, it's going to be more Warhammer.
Good tone, great feedback. Very measured and objective. I liked that you explained how the the mechanics worked in practice, and what they contribute or detract from the gameplay. Much better than when reviewers just bag on the game and act like Total War is ruined forever.
Legend of Total War indirectly brought me to this review. I see potential but I’m getting the feeling that the team behind Saga is inexperienced. Better luck next time for future sagas.
Appreciate the in depth review; I was umming and ahing about this title but given they seem to have done little to fix issues that have persisted for almost a decade now I think I'll pass.
Even as part of the much derided newer fanbase, I mostly agree with the points you make, I think Attila is the best Total War has been and love Warhammer more for its fantasy (if only sieges...), and Thrones feels like a mini expansion to Attila, with fun new additions that wear off after a limited amount of time. To be fair I guess that explains a reduced price tag of 25-ish, since usually DLC doesn't give you more than one or two playable campaigns, but you'd expect an expansion to not loose most of the challenging aspects of Attila.Still you probably should have mentioned that they are rolling out patch today that aims to rebalance difficulties, I thought it was very big of the game director to say they are going to be re-balancing mechanics and AI so soon after launch,
Another fantastic in-depth review, with excellent editing and real game play examples. It demonstrates your knowledge and time with the game, which is a credit to your fairness when giving a final verdict. Well done again.
its not complicated at all, its just not for retards. also regarding graphics, no superviking, flying 300 ft from their ships, horses floating through pikes and dudes sticking their heads through their shields so I call that a plus. and this is the third title in the series that looks exactly the same (Rome 2, Attila and this piece of shit)
Thanks for the complex, informed review of this. Ive been on the fence as a superfan of total war, despite the series' flaws. Ill look into this once mods have changed it into something worthwhile for a longtime veteran, assuming and hoping that actually does happen!
Thinking about buying the game... Can anyone tell me if the rebellion system makes any sense or is it like in Rome 2 where huge parts of my empire just decided to rebel (despite being very high in happiness) a turn before I was supposed to control the entire map and win? Really felt like a cheap and unnecessary shot.
for a brand new beginning Player that had I hard time understanding this game I for once am keeping up thanks to the way you broke it down I now know more, and have a better chance at playing it TY. Yes LoL I do hate city management maybe cuz I just got into gaming more since 2017 so as you can see I am totally new to all games on PC
I considered buying this game but after this review and Legends "10 things that no more in ToB" I simply won't... So much missing and cut out content, waste of time and money
When a general's loyalty drops to 0 why does it suddenly spark a civil war? What ever happened to "Rebel armies"? It doesn't make sense. Wouldn't he just take his men and desert? Go off to conquer something himself and carve out a home? It's not so much a *civil war* as it's just a rogue army. It lead to some amazing emergent stories in Rome and Medieval 2.
I noticed the AI will commit forces if you give a 2/3 or better advantage. I don't cluster my armies, and can still at least get the AI to attack one each. I know I can beat two 20 stacks with one of mine anyway, so it's still fun.
CA should use these Sagas to feed the casuals and make the full games for their real fans. You know, full games where you actually have to think about what you're doing.
I have really been enjoying TOB after being highly critical of it on forums. But it really is just an expansion for Atilla. To call it anything more is overselling it. Hats off to CA though - they got the equivalent of 2 Charlemagnes from me for it!
Maybe CA will upgrade the AI and other mechanic shortfalls in future updates just as they did with Rome II. I'll wait for that--or when it goes on sale for $7--whichever comes first.
I enjoyed my coop as the Mide and Gwynedd, although when we won we didn't get any achievements on steam... The biggest problem of this game is the price, really... Most of the complaints I have of this could be forgiven if it was a cheaper experience... because it's not like this game has real replayability. I've been playing a Rome 1 Pontus campaign recently and it's so much more immersive as it feels like every city and army I make is completely custom-made and truly mine. Plus generals have real character. I don't get why they don't bring that back
Very good review. - RE the simple buildings. I think we're giving it a hard ride. Back in the day, there would only be a few things which it would make sense to build. Life was pretty streamlined. And if there's a mine settlement, it's probably built in a place that's no good for farming. Or if there's a church, it might not be any good for mining. It is streamlined, but I think that just promotes the War concept, rather than the economy concept. Economy and life simply wasn't as complicated as later centuries and wasn't as strained as earlier centuries, or as diverse as continental culture contrasts. They're all British after all. Cheers.
I never really see much point talking about performance when I've only got one PC to test it on. It runs better than Total War: ATTILA by about 20% I'd say.
RepublicOfPlay Attila performance is game breaking for me and it's never been fixed. Even on a single pc it will give everyone an idea on how it runs . Would appreciate if you would add a little section in your future videos for performance if possible?
Pretty much spot on. Thrones of Britannia is just a massive disappointment. On top of that it looks like a massive asset flip of total war Attila which gives it a really cheap feeling in my opinion. On top of that it's a massive simplification of a already oversimplified franchise ever since total war war-hammer. Also I'dcheck out their blog post addressing thrones of Britannia I'm eager to hear your opinion on it. Here is the link to the blog www.totalwar.com/blog/thrones-of-britannia-whats-next
I noticed that the more you conquer in this game the less income you have, not sure why. I did try the color matching tip you gave, it worked, but it looks like if I build an army then I cannot focus on my economy. I was playing as East Angle, I expanded through the whole middle of England but I went bankrupt anyway. Weird, really weird
Good review, unfortunately I brought TOB before watching. The streamlined build attracted me initially, but after conquering most of Ireland in under 10 hours I was pretty bored with the game. If this was on mobile or tablet for half the price it would be cool; but on PC? It’s made me wonder what the new 3k historical release will be like. It’s certainly not even close to Warhammer in replay ability.
I think they fixed things in the newer titles(3 kingdoms and Troy to an extent). They seem to be heading in the right direction, and I hope they continue.
it feels like now that the warhammer games have been a thing, most of the other games pale in comparison. it also makes me wonder what CA will do going forward after warhammer 3 is done. what fictional world setting they may move onto next? Or will they move to the futuristic warhammer games? personally now that EA has lost exclusivity, I'd like to see a star wars total war game.
Hey has any of this changed since this video? I've been hearing better things about it lately, but being CA, haven't been too sure. Graphically and historically i love it
Nice one mate. Objective and comprehensive review. This game could have been something engaging like expansion pack to Medieval II - "Kingdoms". Instead they opted out for cash grab attempt implementing smoke and mirrors marketing campaign. Luckily community is awakening and they will have to put up some quality work to regain our trust. This troubling system of creating media be it games or movies is anti-consumer at it's core. I admire your patience and posture when dealing with such products. Best regards.
Why would you want a rebellion? I try to avoid it in total war Rome but sometimes it happens anyway when u expand aggressively. Do you think this is a good game? I’m considering a purchase but it’s more expensive than Rome and shogun in steam. The graphics n battle scenes look much better than Rome or shogun.
When CA tries to fix the game by taking away features and making the simpler mechanics more streamlined and much more difficult to use. The sadness in me aside, this was a well-done video, an instant sub!
Great, I've been thinking the campaigns have never been as good as Shogun 2 since that game and now this one is somehow more shallow than ROME II and Attila...smh
Shogun is quite boring tbh. Well made but boring. Every faction literally looks the same. Units, everything. Over rated game. It's good but it's still over rated.
I'm not liking this trend of unnecessary streamlining in Total War. I wish CA would take more cues from Paradox, since while their DLC policy is grating they're at least trying to add more onto their games rather than chopping them down more and more.
I'm not sure where they're getting the feedback that the series needs to go in this direction. I have three assumptions:
It's may be in the player data they gather that players don't understand the mechanics well enough.
It could be that marketing research shows that people are turned off by the apparent complexity of Total War.
Or it could simply be the budget is so tight they cannot flesh out systems in the time they're given.
Either way, hopefully the low-ish reviews of this title will steer them back in the right direction.
Ya, while I give alot of grief to paradox when it comes to their content policy. At least its deep enough to keep ya coming back to it. Maybe CA just needs to branch into another form of Strategy game and let total war rest for a little while until that next big project comes along. And I mean a new strategy game as in a new IP entirely, not halo, or aliens or anything like that. Just a sit down and idea generating session of a new strategy game in a new setting with just new ideas.
This "trend" has been going on since Rome 2. The AI has not been upgraded since the original Rome. The CA is shitting on our heads.
Paradox' DLC policy is terrible for most of their games. It often changes the base game so you need to buy the DLC.
The only thing that saves Total War franchise as a whole is it's real time 3D battle map. Other than that, this series is finished. It's a shame none could make that battle engine, Paradox can't make it as well..sigh. Imagine Paradox games with real time massive battle, not only it will sold millions, it will be nail in the coffin for CA!
Personally, I like the ideas of Saga series being snacks between the main dishes, and they could try new things in them. But when I go to a restaurant where main dishes are priced at £40, I would expect the snacks to be priced at around £10-15 instead of £30.
It’s as I feared, really well constructed review Darren!
gets negative feedback originally when dumbing down settlements, decides to dumb them down some more -.-
I can't wait until they remove public order. "I hated rebellions anyway" will be the fanbases reaction.
Really wouldn't be surprised if that's been pitched at a CA meeting at some point ahaha
They're bonkers haha,i think for rebellions you should be severely punished,loss of supplies/soldiers for a few turns so armies are harder to recruit due to public opinion,little events where rebellious stuff happens to add story and lore like them kicking over barrels and stuff,yanno just more story.
the most important kind of feedback always was and will be sales. Warhammer simplified settlements and sold well. Enough feedback for CA.
Adanedhel how did warhammer simplify settlements? It's the same style as atilla/rome2 and has things both lack like climate construction costs etc
Now, hearing about the 'king distributing fiefs' thing..Can I rename my king to King Harlaus?
Only if you make a feasts after every turn.
Gosh darn Swadians.
King Harlaus has decided to confer Knudarr castle on King Harlaus
Bring back the team who made Medieval 2 to fix this franchise.
#word
Medieval 2 is probably 10x more simple than this game. So I assume you like the dumbing down.
The Australian studio only made the Kingdoms expansion.
SmedleyDouwright it's better now
farm- biger farm -bigger farm
barracks-bigger barracks- bigger baracks etc.
Medieval2:Total war was a great game but the building was way more simple.
It's like the director of this game was completely out of touch with what the player base wants and pretty much did the opposite at every opportunity. Kinda sad to see a total war game fail so bad.
3:37
Hey, I saw that!
*Hint:* Look to the bottom-left.
Benjin I saw nothing
looks like roman monsterface from Rome 2
The cracks are still there...
Very good in-depth review, and a great sense of humour in this, too. I look forward to more reviews :D
Glad that I hold back on buying this. This Total War clearly isn't for me: I like settlement management and moving lots of armies around on the map. What about Battles? I like using ~ 60% infantry, 20% archers and 20% cavalry, with cavalry being absolutely crusial in my strategy to surround the enemy and break them up from their flanks to the center. I hate city battles, though defensive ones are fine. Offensive sieges are terrible for me, as i seem to stay completely incompetent at them after years of Total War.
I wasn't looking forwars to Three Kingdoms because i am not interested in the area it focuses on, but after this i guess thar game will be our only hope for a good TW game in the next few years... :(
Keizer Van Enerc ancient empires mod is out this week. Its basically a better version of Rome 2. Worth a look
You got a sub as its so refreshing to clearly get an honest review. Well done and keep it up!
thanks :)
"Women act as modifiers to men." Yeah, no kidding
Permission to be dissapointed regarding this game...
Not allowed.
can he be disappointed instead of dissapointed though?
Sebastian Snow too late cause I am...
I held off this due to interviews where the lead dev would say something like " We won't be having that feature from Warhammer because it's a different team". The more this was used as an excuse, they convinced me they had the best team on Warhammer and all other history titles will therefore be lesser games.
I am still loving TW W2 in Co-op and single player I think CA has peaked here and no other titles will come close, until the Warhammer team move to another project. Better battles, better campaign, newer titles will always be 1 step forward and 10 steps back, unless they work as hard as they have on Warhammer.
Also I think the market segment of people that want to ride dragons into battle against armies of vampires is probably significantly larger than the segment getting their kicks from playing through very specific historical settings. I'm absolutely loving ToB.
WH will be their most successful titles until their next fantasy setting regardless of polish, because it appeals to more people.
I personally think warhammer team should take over every team in CA to make more games.
This is spot on. You should work for CA, keep them right!
Oh wait a sec......
your review as always, is extremely well done and enjoyable, cheers for this!
Thanks!
I like how no one is asking for simplicity or stream lining buts it's all the devs do. Starting to think the devs are really lazy
They are not. They just aren't given that many hires. The money keep rolling in and always get hooveted up to the top by execs and vps.
You seriously need waaaay more subs. You are very professional in your reviews but I guess this generation just watches BR games on twitch.
Thanks, share the video. Nobody really shares my stuff or posts links on sites to it, so I never really grow. In fact I lose a lot of subs, but only ever have very good comments so I'm not really sure what's up.
Will do
I watched you until you joined CA. Then i felt i won't be getting your usual insight so every video you were in felt like sponsored promotion. When you came back from hell. I automatically subbed and i check for new videos daily.
"It's basically good to sell a woman if she has no benefits"
RepublicOfPlay 2018
Just found your channel. Great and clever work! I hope for more TW content. What about big overhaul mods (like Divide Et Impera or...Radious) reviews?
I'm moving away from Total War in general, this used to be a Total War channel, but is now focused on Strategy games as I havent enjoyed the later games as much. I'll still review new ones, but won't be uploading TW regularly.
As such, I removed all my old TW videos. Here's my Divide Et Impera video: ruclips.net/video/nAbMi0pLb6M/видео.html
I really like the idea of creating and managing my own powerful empire. But Total War games are more about battles, and it makes me sad... So what do you think about the paradox EU and CK games?
For me, they provide a grand strategy experience that I wanted from TW.
Also, do you still enjoy TW online battles?
Personally never enjoyed TW online, its more micro intense than it is about tactics and positioning. I did enjoy it in Shogun 2 but only for a limited time. CK is a game I couldn’t ever get into and I’ve only just started playing EU:Rome recently, which I like a alot, will be trying EU4 this week at some point. I really love Stellaris though and enjoy HOI4 quite a bit!
Unwalled settlements. Marauders and bandits including many knights were the curse of Europe for a thousand years. Palisades around villages was standard. Except in low budget movies and TV dramas. And this game.
Rome TW, Medieval II TW and shogun 2 gave me such a love for the series. Now, with every new launch, I feel like a battered victim, staying with their partner because they once had such great potential.
My love keeps dwindling...
Normie total war
Plot twist: TW was always normie.
MelancholicThug compared to what?
Ken Rudd EU4, Victoria 2... hell, even CK2.
Those, and not even taking into account "real" wargames (Slitherine, Matrix, etc etc).
Man, imagine unironically saying "normie"
Some of what you consider as a drawback, I would consider as an advantage. For me a strategy game is about battles, the civ type features like building chains are a burden. Their main interest is in improving immersion, such as the saint cults, etc, which are a plus. Also the colour coding you mentioned is not everything because you can unlock chains such that allow you to train your men, which you would want in military cities, regardless of colour coding.
The problem with sending a stack of marauders that cost as much as what you are sacking per turn would not be a problem if you sent a solitary general, because you are sacking just civilian homes and churches and the like, and you do not need an army for that. I also feel that by the time you have enough food and money to raise more than 2 full stacks, the campaign is over. You can choose to play longer but it is obvious this is going to be pointless, victory will be assured and the only real point would be to face the Normans. Whether you think it is justified to wait for so many turns and having to go through the tedious land grab for that, that's down to personality. The experience is different. If you expect long campaigns and a buildup similar to the more traditional games, I guess you would be disappointed. I think you will feel better, if you are expecting a different kind of game than what you're used to.
I also disagree that playability is low, I think it's high in the sense that every campaign develops differently the next time, even if you are trying to develop it the same as the previous one. Many random events change how your campaign develops.
I also disagree with his comments about the building colour matching, it’s much deeper than that. For example the Arena (Red), Forge (Black) and Granary (Green) synergise well to create a military province. This works even better with an Ironsmith (Black).
Well done on the review ! Think some more comparison to old TW titles would have been nice
I try to avoid that as much as I can. I prefer to review what’s there, rather than what’s not. Else I just sound “salty” that it’s just not Rome 1. :P
@RepublicOfPlay Well I feel you, and mostly because I have noticed how simple minded fans act towards those kind of criticism : but at the same time, the game is a part of a franchise and therefore it's more than deserving to be inspecting and comparing it to previous titles.
You can't talk about Battlefiled 1 without talking about Battlefield 4 ... both are great but there is legit up and does that can only be talked upon while inspecting the previous title.
When talking about titles in the same series you'd expect at least 2 step forward and one backwards at the worst case and in the best case just steps forward you can't comprehend what a step forward or backwards without reference point and since you review a title which is part of a series and people might be familiar with the series - its only fair and honest for you to be doing this comparisons.
IF CA would have released a new game that wasn't a Total War and called it Thrones of Britannia - then you should have made the review as much as standalone as possible without reference to former games of the company - but that is not the case.
Totally fair assessment. I think if you are a veteran TW fan and unbiased it's hard to not agree wholeheartedly with this review.
Great review. Could you do it with the Radious mod instlled and let us know your thoughts?
Potentially at some point, busy reviewing other games right now!
Hands down the best review of the game I have seen, good job sir. I found the province building section completely eye opening, would love to see a let's play if your up for it.
Don't enjoy the game enough to play it. I did stream 2 campaigns, so if you ever want to see my gameplay -> www.twitch.tv/darrentotalwar
Have you read their recent apology letter? It Seems like they somehow think the game wasn't streamlined enough lol. They are gonna dumb down the next one even more. A hearts of Iron 4 situation.
I honestly think they aren't even trying to listen to us at this point.
Tripp Fields we'll literally have a game where we place a pin on a map and get a dialog box asking if we should win or lose and do we have to ask our mommy first.. ...
they are increasing the difficulty.... what are the going to dumb down more ?
bresk1 well for die hard fans we've seen the game drop features that made the game a pure strategy based thought provoking game that requires you to think ahead and make critical decisions or replay through a save after getting ten more so turns past because things went to shit...... What we've seen of late it the games getting dumber and have less strategy based features on order for dumb people to play them as arcade / casual type games. Making them linear so basically they don't have to think they just have to click this click that and the outcome will not be affecyed incase it got too hard for them........ Strategy in Rome 1 is far more difficult than strategy in Rome 2, and no game was more complex and full of features than medevil 2..... Although empire was good..... I think After Warhamner no total war game will ever be a strategy game ever again
Yea i get that man, but no one said that ToB is the next total war, it's a spinoff experimental project and should be thought as such, the next one that historical fans everyone should be hyped about is Three kingdoms, this one is just a passion project i guess, my point is that you should look at Tob Differently from other total war titles, because it is not one, getting bashed for it is ridiculous.
bresk1 I haven't played this title..... Sort of basing it on other titles in which rather than games getting more advanced more strategic more in depth..... I feel like I need less and less braincells to play them..... Chuckie egg had more strategy than Warhamner
Excellent review as always. Think I'll give this one a miss, fortunately Ancient Empires takes the strain! Keep up the good work Darren.
Thanks! 🙏
This was a really good review. I just clicked a link somewhere and ended up here and now I'm subscribed. Keep up the good work! :)
Finally a long review. Not 4 min long. That is why i like yours and ACGs reviews. I bought the game and i am loving it but i DID enjoy your review. EDITED to say that i am not keen on the changes they did and how they dumped it down. I just like it because at this point, after Warhammer 1 and 2 i wanted a simpler TW game with RT battles.
What a fantastic review. Enough for me to know that, personally, I wouldn't be too impressed with this game.
Thank-you
24:35 Unit colision was litteraly better in Rome 1 before they changed the damn engine
I just bought it because there was supposedly a big update for estates and other things :) looking forward to it :) and its on sale for 20 euros :)
A 5 is very generous
Much needed review, cheers! Was waiting for someone to go into depth analysing the game
Spot on.
Only thing I disagree on is naval battles. They still feel the exact same as they did in Attila, Rome 2 was all about ramming, Attila was all about boarding, here it's the same again, nothing new but sounds. The ships are different and bigger which provides slightly better and less clusterfucky combat, but ultimately it's the same.
I feel like they had some cool ideas, but were half ass implemented, not extensively tested, plus relied too much on recycling, even when the community I feel is sick of recycling.
I don't know if CA will ever understand they need to stop streamlining, I feel like their games are aimed to a complete different audience and not to the people who initially bought the very first games. They need to start adding complexity and stop playing it super safe, the community is constantly giving them feedback, it's not even that hard.
Warhammer worked because the audience was bigger and it relied a lot on WH fan base. However in historical titles you're not bringing anyone new into the franchise by dumbing down games even more.
"Rome 2 was all about ramming" Personally I have always utilized ships with artillery with factions that allowed that, more then ramming tactics. Which was you usual navy composition if I may ask?
123456gordon Both Rome and Attila are about ramming. Naval battles are an easy win
Darren you have to be one of the greatest game reviewers I've ever had the privilege of watching. I've agreed with almost everything you've said on every mod or game you have reviewed. I got to watch you live stream this for a few hours in your Insight was amazing. Thank you for putting us up.
Thank you, that's a really really nice comment.
Good review, I appreciate the sense of humor. Too bad about TW ToB but it was to be expected, haven't played any TW since Rome II and at least just by looking at ToB I just see Rome II complete with all its faults....
Hoping CA makes good use of what they learned from Warhammer (haven't played it but everyone says its good) and put it into Three Kingdoms.
You mentioned in the review that there's a lot of empty space in the campaign map and that its not worth a full army to defend most of it, I think this calls for a change on armies.
How about make two types of army? A traditional 20 unit army group, and a new disposable 10 unit one for defending and attacking these places of lesser importance and raiding? Each type of army would have a limiter on how nanny could exist, different types of commanders and maybe even units (lesser armies having somewhat lesser units but easier to replace), just a thought.
Or, you know, go back to traditional armies like Rome I...
Good review, Darren. I agree for the most part. There were certainly some aspects they could have retained.
people playing Age of empires II HD edition right now 8.637
people playing Thrones of Britannia right now 4.079
While it was extremely simplified and pretty redundant, a few mods really make this game polished off. Can easily bring it up a few points with mods, but a fair review on the base game indeed.
Yeah havent tried any yet, but I've heard some good things with Radious and Dresden's mods.
Mods should _never_ be any sort of excuse
Bitmarck I agree, with the exception when the developer makes an effort to produce mod toools.
24:38 that horse at the bottom charges through 50 men lol
Best review I've come across, well done! I am enjoying my time with this game but it could be much better also.
Excellent review. Not being able to trade for regions can ruin the campaign in Total war games.
Sad to see another medicore Total War game :( Guess I'll just stick to Shogun 2 for now then. Great informative video though! Really put the whole game into perspective with some good critique.
Well back to Attila i guess so with its mods.
FrozenmenBG yeah rise of Mordor
not only rise,we got medieval Kingdoms 1212ad and the Ancient Empires mod thats comming out around late May 2018.We infact will got Rome 3 and Medieval 3
Great video. I've played every total war game since Shogun 1. Love them and am generally open/enjoy all. After a 20 hour head to head campaign on hard and two 20 hour single player campaign on very hard (I never keep playing once i've 'won', so sue me) I found the following:
Head to head has 0 balance (duh) and suffers from whichever player learns to manipulate the AI first (Which is also kinda fun, but only at first). Don't play southern Anglo Saxons vs anyone, they start surrounded by vassals and very very strong. a Good player will snowball easily and just play money-hungy economy untill they crush you. I palyed two factions of vikings and found that I was fielding 3 20-stacks of mid class axe units at the time he was fielding 6-8 and had a protective layer of vassals.
Overall game PROS:
cool atmosphere
Awesome sounds/visuals in places
New changes to campaign mechanics are interesting. I love supplies for raiding (so if you want to raid you should tech that way and build accordingly)
I actually likes the building system fine, especially the special buildings and color coding. If you don't like building management it's great to not have to focus on it so much, the problem to me was...the other things you can focus on don't seem to make that much of a difference either. Build better army, have more food, take more stuff without fighting more wars than 1. If you start to win, you can snowball easily. early mistakes and your done for just like always. Who doesn't love a good campaign restart at turn 4 after moving main army north, and being attack from the south immediately? ;D
I like the unit upgrade and weapon/armor upgrade in this game. nice and simple and doable after construction again. I always hated the must-have-on training mechanic. Give the sword dude a new better sword for gods sake, he doesn't need to be killed and then re-trained for just that...
Cons:
AI on campaign map. - allies are useless completely. They will steal your unguarded provinces instantly cutting your territory gain down to 0 or 1/2. - You cannot stop this easily, even after I began fielding single general units to land-grab instantly it makes having allies or vassals more of a problem than otehr total war games...if you can even believe that lol.
20-stack AI will rally out to fight a 10-stack of viking warriors every. single. time. and lose a crushing defeat. as vikings I just send out 10 units of viking axes to patroll a coast line, bait out the 20-stack destroy it, land, build 5 more units, then attack the capital in 2 turns. Rinse, repeat, you own all of X anywhere town.
Not having the ability to easily compare troops/stats, hide trees, remove icons/fast cinematic mode, and general engine deficiencies that were addressed beautifully in warhammer 1 and 2 makes going "back" to this engine FRUSTRATING at first.
Gone is the excitement to build and have elite or combat-altering units. You just get more pseudo-indistinguishable axe dudes with boring artwork and slight stat upgrades.
Ai in battle - average, freak out when trying to land boats always.
Battle - Archers take a new backseat role as mostly useless sometimes moral debuffers that counter any enemy dumb enough to bring skirmished calv to bear. Every unit having expert charge defense, combined with how a generals bodyguard will charge THROUGH and INTO an enemy axe unit so that getting them out is completely impossible makes using Calvary a poor-and all-in tactic against any infantry, even from the rear. Since archers are so useless, why even field Calvary? Not bad, just limited.
I completely agree that sieges have HUGE cities that don't seem to fit the number of troops. Shogun franchise did a much better job at these.
I can't click on my damn units when i hide that stupid faction flag. absolutely on point with that. Everything is so real feeling, except the icons and flags. thumbs down to that dev team...
Conclusion:
If some of these new mechanics are tweaked and balanced for future total war games I will be happy. Fix the AI and UI and balance head to head and I might even play one of these games to completion. An interesting take on total war that did exactly what it set out to. Make an average total war game in a specific time period. My next campaign before 3-kingdoms is not going to be the Celts or trying out another faction here, it's going to be more Warhammer.
Good tone, great feedback. Very measured and objective. I liked that you explained how the the mechanics worked in practice, and what they contribute or detract from the gameplay. Much better than when reviewers just bag on the game and act like Total War is ruined forever.
Legend of Total War indirectly brought me to this review. I see potential but I’m getting the feeling that the team behind Saga is inexperienced. Better luck next time for future sagas.
Very helpful, thanks! I was on the fence before, and your video helped me make the decision to pass on this one.
Wish we could play as the Normans.
I wouldn't know which faction to play as.
Awesome review as always. Very informative and professional
Appreciate the in depth review; I was umming and ahing about this title but given they seem to have done little to fix issues that have persisted for almost a decade now I think I'll pass.
Even as part of the much derided newer fanbase, I mostly agree with the points you make, I think Attila is the best Total War has been and love Warhammer more for its fantasy (if only sieges...), and Thrones feels like a mini expansion to Attila, with fun new additions that wear off after a limited amount of time. To be fair I guess that explains a reduced price tag of 25-ish, since usually DLC doesn't give you more than one or two playable campaigns, but you'd expect an expansion to not loose most of the challenging aspects of Attila.Still you probably should have mentioned that they are rolling out patch today that aims to rebalance difficulties, I thought it was very big of the game director to say they are going to be re-balancing mechanics and AI so soon after launch,
Another fantastic in-depth review, with excellent editing and real game play examples. It demonstrates your knowledge and time with the game, which is a credit to your fairness when giving a final verdict. Well done again.
meh, rather play Crusader Kings II
Marcelo Carvalho Paradox really hooked me after they gave it away for free.
Yeah Paradox atleast knows what's the demand for the gaming market.
Uhmm, no, if that was true they would stop with their stupid DLC policy.
Enjoy your shitty fucking graphics and needlessly overly complicated shit of a game 😂
its not complicated at all, its just not for retards. also regarding graphics, no superviking, flying 300 ft from their ships, horses floating through pikes and dudes sticking their heads through their shields so I call that a plus. and this is the third title in the series that looks exactly the same (Rome 2, Attila and this piece of shit)
Thanks for the complex, informed review of this. Ive been on the fence as a superfan of total war, despite the series' flaws. Ill look into this once mods have changed it into something worthwhile for a longtime veteran, assuming and hoping that actually does happen!
Chase H ancient empire mod 18th May 2018
You sound exactly like the Real Engineering guy.
Thanks for the review - saved me from wondering any further if I should give that thing a whirl.
Thinking about buying the game... Can anyone tell me if the rebellion system makes any sense or is it like in Rome 2 where huge parts of my empire just decided to rebel (despite being very high in happiness) a turn before I was supposed to control the entire map and win? Really felt like a cheap and unnecessary shot.
This seems like a good game for those new to the Total War series who want to focus more on the rts combat battles..
I'm not buying another TW until Medieval 3 or Empire 2
Best, most honest review thus far.
Nice username
for a brand new beginning Player that had I hard time understanding this game I for once am keeping up thanks to the way you broke it down I now know more, and have a better chance at playing it TY. Yes LoL I do hate city management maybe cuz I just got into gaming more since 2017 so as you can see I am totally new to all games on PC
Excellent review as always.
Very good and constructive review I guess I’ll wait for total war three kingdoms
I considered buying this game but after this review and Legends "10 things that no more in ToB" I simply won't... So much missing and cut out content, waste of time and money
Thanks, Darren!
Will you make a review of Medieval 2?
Nope. You already know it's good.
Indeed it was the peak of Total war in my opinion. What's your opinion on the game, as one who has seen CA fall firsthand?
When a general's loyalty drops to 0 why does it suddenly spark a civil war? What ever happened to "Rebel armies"? It doesn't make sense. Wouldn't he just take his men and desert? Go off to conquer something himself and carve out a home? It's not so much a *civil war* as it's just a rogue army. It lead to some amazing emergent stories in Rome and Medieval 2.
I noticed the AI will commit forces if you give a 2/3 or better advantage. I don't cluster my armies, and can still at least get the AI to attack one each. I know I can beat two 20 stacks with one of mine anyway, so it's still fun.
CA should use these Sagas to feed the casuals and make the full games for their real fans. You know, full games where you actually have to think about what you're doing.
Watched it on legends stream,but had to come over and watch it again. Also give you a thumbs up and watch an ad
I wanted this game to be good but it disappointed me since I love the era, I shall continue to play mount and blade viking conquest then :(
I have really been enjoying TOB after being highly critical of it on forums. But it really is just an expansion for Atilla. To call it anything more is overselling it. Hats off to CA though - they got the equivalent of 2 Charlemagnes from me for it!
Maybe CA will upgrade the AI and other mechanic shortfalls in future updates just as they did with Rome II. I'll wait for that--or when it goes on sale for $7--whichever comes first.
This is a good review, well done.
I enjoyed my coop as the Mide and Gwynedd, although when we won we didn't get any achievements on steam... The biggest problem of this game is the price, really... Most of the complaints I have of this could be forgiven if it was a cheaper experience... because it's not like this game has real replayability.
I've been playing a Rome 1 Pontus campaign recently and it's so much more immersive as it feels like every city and army I make is completely custom-made and truly mine. Plus generals have real character. I don't get why they don't bring that back
Joker so would it be fair to say this should just have been a DLC for Attlia at half the price?
Stephen Keely yes
Haha I see you're using the freshest memes. Great review.
Also, when will CA stop reselling the same game over and over?
Very good review. - RE the simple buildings. I think we're giving it a hard ride. Back in the day, there would only be a few things which it would make sense to build. Life was pretty streamlined. And if there's a mine settlement, it's probably built in a place that's no good for farming. Or if there's a church, it might not be any good for mining. It is streamlined, but I think that just promotes the War concept, rather than the economy concept. Economy and life simply wasn't as complicated as later centuries and wasn't as strained as earlier centuries, or as diverse as continental culture contrasts. They're all British after all.
Cheers.
very good in depth review but you missed out performance
I never really see much point talking about performance when I've only got one PC to test it on. It runs better than Total War: ATTILA by about 20% I'd say.
RepublicOfPlay Attila performance is game breaking for me and it's never been fixed. Even on a single pc it will give everyone an idea on how it runs . Would appreciate if you would add a little section in your future videos for performance if possible?
Pretty much spot on. Thrones of Britannia is just a massive disappointment. On top of that it looks like a massive asset flip of total war Attila which gives it a really cheap feeling in my opinion. On top of that it's a massive simplification of a already oversimplified franchise ever since total war war-hammer. Also I'dcheck out their blog post addressing thrones of Britannia I'm eager to hear your opinion on it. Here is the link to the blog www.totalwar.com/blog/thrones-of-britannia-whats-next
I noticed that the more you conquer in this game the less income you have, not sure why. I did try the color matching tip you gave, it worked, but it looks like if I build an army then I cannot focus on my economy. I was playing as East Angle, I expanded through the whole middle of England but I went bankrupt anyway. Weird, really weird
Great review mate! Very spot on imo.
Good review, unfortunately I brought TOB before watching. The streamlined build attracted me initially, but after conquering most of Ireland in under 10 hours I was pretty bored with the game. If this was on mobile or tablet for half the price it would be cool; but on PC? It’s made me wonder what the new 3k historical release will be like. It’s certainly not even close to Warhammer in replay ability.
I enjoy your reviews mate, cheers
For every dollar I've misspent on post-Rome I Total War games, I will donate one dollar to your patreon, sir!
I’ll hold you to it! :P
I think they fixed things in the newer titles(3 kingdoms and Troy to an extent). They seem to be heading in the right direction, and I hope they continue.
it feels like now that the warhammer games have been a thing, most of the other games pale in comparison. it also makes me wonder what CA will do going forward after warhammer 3 is done. what fictional world setting they may move onto next? Or will they move to the futuristic warhammer games? personally now that EA has lost exclusivity, I'd like to see a star wars total war game.
Hey has any of this changed since this video? I've been hearing better things about it lately, but being CA, haven't been too sure. Graphically and historically i love it
34min review, *grabs popcorn. THIS IS GONNA BE GOOD!!
Very nice review. I appreciate the honesty.
Nice one mate. Objective and comprehensive review. This game could have been something engaging like expansion pack to Medieval II - "Kingdoms". Instead they opted out for cash grab attempt implementing smoke and mirrors marketing campaign. Luckily community is awakening and they will have to put up some quality work to regain our trust. This troubling system of creating media be it games or movies is anti-consumer at it's core. I admire your patience and posture when dealing with such products. Best regards.
Hi, Darren. Have you tried TOB latest beta update ? What do you think of it ?
Why would you want a rebellion? I try to avoid it in total war Rome but sometimes it happens anyway when u expand aggressively. Do you think this is a good game? I’m considering a purchase but it’s more expensive than Rome and shogun in steam.
The graphics n battle scenes look much better than Rome or shogun.
When CA tries to fix the game by taking away features and making the simpler mechanics more streamlined and much more difficult to use.
The sadness in me aside, this was a well-done video, an instant sub!
Great, I've been thinking the campaigns have never been as good as Shogun 2 since that game and now this one is somehow more shallow than ROME II and Attila...smh
Santiago Diaz Neither has multiplayer...
Guys to be fair it is a saga title so it wasnt going to be as indepth
Shogun is quite boring tbh. Well made but boring. Every faction literally looks the same. Units, everything. Over rated game. It's good but it's still over rated.