Empire: Total War is a game I’d compare to the likes of Civilization, one of the first games we played in this class and a good throwback to the beginning of the semester (See here to read my Civ 6 review:https://jaydamuniz.wixsite.com/acester-s-reviews/post/the-domination-of-sid-meier-s-civilization-vi). Total War is a turn based strategy combat game where your goal is to dominate the surrounding world, including other nations and cities around you.
What differentiates Total war from Civilization is actually a few things. The main thing I noticed while playing was that during combat it was not turn based but rather it was live action combat in real time. This meant that when you entered the battle scene (such as Naval battle), the enemies will be moving and you have to strategize in time with their movements. With other turn based combat games, they would have each player confirm their actions before going through with the battle. However here, from the moment you step on the field, you are on your own with limited time to think strategically. Of course, you could always choose to let the A.I. handle the battle by choosing to have them automatically resolved.
Total War has a way of exploration and conquering that is unlike other games. With Total War, the focus is less on exploring and expanding over conquering near cities and nations that were around you. This I’d say could be considered a con to some depending on the way people like to play games like these. For me, I like the aspect of exploring more so than the conquering so I disliked how little they did with the exploration aspect.
On the side of pros, I will say that I loved how accurate to real life some of the game is. Not in terms of realism in the geographical sense, but rather in the societal and government sense. When playing, if a nation were to lose favor with the civilians, they may start an uprising or revolution. Not only that but there are some references to real life revolts such as if Britain is unable to maintain control, the United States will be created in response after a revolt. This is an example of an Emergent Faction. These are factions that only come about after a revolution in their home territory (I.e. United States Comes from Britain). Other examples are Ireland, Afghanistan, Quebec, and more. I think that this addition was great in a historical accuracy sense and a fun kind of reference to see. They even have Britain own parts of the Northern land of the United States.
Speaking of historical accuracy, other than a general sense of “the way these battles go are accurate” there is much to be desired of these games. As mentioned earlier there is not really a sense of accuracy in a geographical sense. The maps are just randomly generated, similar to that of Civilization. In terms of historical events, they do a decent job. I can’t fault the game too hard for not being historically perfect. That would just make the game the exact same through every playthrough which makes the replay value plummet. This was also why I don’t fault the other games similar to this too hard. I do commend the subtle references and information we get that IS accurate though. They handled it rather well and in a way that wasn’t overwhelming to the player, having it have a dedicated screen with background information.
If I were to give a rating for this game it would be 7/10. Though I did like it at first, It quickly became rather boring for me. There was a certain charm that felt lost or lacking. I guess this is akin to what I mentioned earlier about the exploration aspect. For me, if they had a better exploration system then it would feel more lively to me. Once again though that is 100% based on how other people enjoy their games. The battle system also felt a bit dull. There was not much going on and the real time aspect made it feel much slower as the opponents did their actions in real time rather than inputting both of your actions and quickly having the battle.
Overall I wouldn’t say that it’s a bad game, just not my cup of tea personally. Had it had more personality, Like I saw in the previous games in the series (which I looked into to see if it was similar to the others), I would have enjoyed it a bit more.
Comentarios