|
|
Empire: Total War – PC Game ReviewLarry Levandowski | May 19, 2009 | Single Page | 10 comments | Print | E-mail
Passed Inspection: Exciting mix of strategic and tactical game-play. Gorgeous battles. Failed Inspection: Campaign AI can’t cross water. Historical accuracy takes a holiday. The result is history-flavored cotton candy: great to look at, wonderful to taste, but don’t expect a meal. Creative Assembly’s Total War is one of the most venerable strategy game series in PC land. The games have always combined cutting-edge production values with a high-octane mix of tactical and strategic game-play. Now Empire: Total War, the latest release in the series, takes the gamer to the often bloody and turbulent 1700s; the Age of Enlightenment. At a high level, the interface and flow of game-play have not changed much since Rome: Total War. For those who haven’t played games in the series, there are really two games in each box; a campaign game and a tactical game. At the campaign level, the player moves armies and navies on a 3D map of Europe, North America, and India. These units represent groups or ships, a commander, and/or ground units such as cavalry, infantry or artillery. The player also has agents, who are spies, religious leaders, or gentlemen. Once the player has moved, the AI will move all other major and minor nations in a standard sequence. Turns on the campaign map represent half a year. Empire: Total War starts in 1700, with a short 25-year campaign and long 100-year campaign. There is also a Road to Independence campaign that is story-driven. During his turn, the player moves units, conducts diplomacy, and can upgrade his cities through the purchase of buildings. The interface is very well polished, and highly intuitive. When you add in the context-based pop-up help screens, experienced players will rarely need to go to the manual. The game is also accessible for new players, despite the number of options. New to the Total War series is research of new technologies. The player can build schools and universities and assign gentlemen to do research. Technical achievements like copper bottoms for ships and firing by rank have visible effect on the tactical battlefield. Other improvements, like crop rotation, increase income and population growth. While technical supremacy is not a major thrust of the game, the side with better-outfitted troops will definitely have an advantage on the battlefield. Along with research, the player can also manage his government and economy. The population of each region is rated for the happiness of the upper and lower classes. If taxes are too high, the population can become rebellious, and the player may find himself marching against his own people. One area of the campaign game that feels right is the importance of trade. Establishing trade routes and then defending them is what makes the difference between a strong empire and a wanna-be. The player can purchase East Indiamen and other types of armed merchant ships and send them out to Africa, Asia and South America to generate trade income. These trade lanes can be intercepted by enemies and pirates, so stationing strong fleets in far-flung waters is a necessary part of keeping your empire afloat—pun intended. On the campaign map, when the player’s armies meet an enemy force, a battle results. These fights can also occur when the player is tired of besieging an enemy city and is ready to roll the dice and assault the city walls. At the start of a tactical battle, the player has the option of automating the result or playing it out. If the odds are close, the player’s best bet is to guide the battle himself. Once he accepts the general’s baton, the game shifts to a 3D map of the battle area, where he can deploy his troops or ships. There is a great deal of diversity in the battle maps; they are all highly detailed and offer plenty of opportunity to structure a battle plan around the terrain. Pages: 1 2 3Help Armchair General by bookmarking to
            Tags: PC game, review, wargame
|
|
|
|
||
What is Armchair General?Armchair General (ACG) and ACG online feature a unique, interactive editorial approach that invites the reader to decide the course of action in challenging historical scenarios, to step into the shoes of a battlefield commander. Leading historians and contributors lend integrity and credibility to this fresh presentation of historical and contemporary events. Armchair General is the INTERACTIVE history magazine where YOU COMMAND and decide the course of action! |
What We Write About
|
Our Other Magazines |
Weider History Network: HistoryNet | Armchair General | Great History | Achtung Panzer! Copyright © 2004-2010 Armchair General L.L.C., All rights reserved. |
||
.jpg)
10 Comments to “Empire: Total War – PC Game Review”
Who gives a —- if it’s “historically accurate” or not if it’s fun? It’s a GAME made to be FUN not a textbook. Would you want to play a WWI game and just see who could sit in a trench longer?
Stop reviewing games.
By Headfoot on Jun 13, 2009 at 12:41 pm
save your cash and wait for histwar to come out
By daren on Jun 23, 2009 at 12:10 am
I think when it comes to games, its purely subjective. A review is meant to be ensightful, dealing two sides of a compass. Sir your article delievers the goods.
By Cambell on Jun 24, 2009 at 9:57 am
While I enjoyed the game in some respects such as the story driven campaigns, this title left a lot to be desired for me. CTDs happened often on my machine and while I don’t have a top of the line machine, I do have decent specs and yet the game would freeze at times, especially when clicking on a navy.
This title needs numerous patches, in my opinion. And in many others, as well. I have de-installed the game and chalked it up to a lesson learned. I keep buying numerous titles as soon as they come out only to be overwhelmed by bugs.
I would have given it a 68%.
By KN Cybulski on Jun 24, 2009 at 8:38 pm
some games shuld have description “made only for money” that one was one of them. I love total war series but that was last one i bought
By peryskop on Jul 16, 2009 at 2:03 am
Often after beating the ^%$! out of another major country, they refuse to accept a proposal for peace. They do this even when I offer to return conquered territory; even the district including their capital!
The diplomacy aspect of this game needs work for this and other reasons.
By Tommy on Jul 19, 2009 at 6:41 pm
It’s a game that plays good. Ok, it lacks some historical accurateness, but the trick is to make the game playable, and they succeeded, although rather dull after a while.
At daran, histwar maybe a good game, but coming from battlefront i start to worry a bit. I got Combatmission ShockForce+marines, it is lacking on al fronts, hack they don’t even portray modern battle operations, but they covered their asses and say, well it’s just a invasion game, portraying large scale army based game mechanics in an invasion type of simulation. Rather disappointing, and lacking community support also, the game-engine is dog slow…
Hope histwar won’t be a screw-up game like CM:ShockForce, reading from http://www.histwar.com/ it looks promising.
By godparticle on Jul 26, 2009 at 5:14 am
I don’t know how they can say “highly recommended” about a game with so many flaws and bugs still in it after 1.5 patch? This is the sloppiest release of any total war game to date and seriously reigns supreme as the worst of the bunch. I don’t even have to go into great detail how sloppy it is just take a jump over to the official forum page and you’ll read thousands and thousands of complaints and rants about this one. Armchair general reviewers need to get their noses out of CA azzes and start reviewing honestly and telling those that depend on these reviews for purchase the truth and quit sugar coating it because they got their palms wiped. This is just another one of those romper room kiddie clickfest games like the rest but this time it’s not even complete and remains very unfinished and buggy.
By ravinhood on Oct 15, 2009 at 10:30 am
I agree that this was the most buggy release yet – I found it extrodinarily frustrating. With the patches it has all been fixed – good thing about this game is how much time you get playing it for $ value. 100’s of hours of gameplay. As for it being a “romper room kiddie click fest” – well, correct me if I’m wrong isn’t it a game. Yes – the diplomacy is a mystery, and the series has always struggled with this, in fact all games have. I could criticise lots of little bits of the game, but overall it was a good effort by the developers. It was released a bit too early, with a few too many starting bugs, in particular the confusion over using Steam and account problems. However they still support this game, and that is to be commended that there is still a developer working to make the experience more enjoyable. Perfect? Far from it. Recommended (in its current form)? Absolutely for an absorbing “game.”
By Matty on Oct 18, 2009 at 4:08 pm
You’ll be happy to know that CA has released many patches since release, including a lot of DLC (downloadable content, extra bits added to the overall game). These include special faction-specific units (IE Death’s Head Hussar’s for Prussia) and so forth.
The game is much improved over the last few months, including rampant fixing of crashing issues and improving the AI. Be warned; island nations are no longer safe.
For those who complain of historical accuracy; it’s a game! If you want to just railroad then go watch the History Channel. If you want to actuall shape history, play ETW. Nothing is as awesome as Prussia pushing out the Maratha Confederacy from the Bahamas.
The vanilla game itself is extremely fun and addictive, but aside from offical DLC, the player can add further to the experience. Check out the massive community that develops and posts mods for the game, changing everything from the loading screens, to music, battle noise, uniforms, even much of the gameplay. There’s something for everyone.
If you like strategy and tacical battles, this game (indeed, the entire series) is great.
Highly recommended.
By Grindstone on Dec 9, 2009 at 4:08 pm