Recent reviews by Cao Cao

fun

[original review only around 100 hours in]

10/10 would conquer Yuan Shao again
_______________________________________________________________________________

Okay, so, I wrote that little joke almost two years ago, and as funny as I found it back then, I still find it funny now. I played this game so many times, for so long, that I managed to figure out Chinese reunification by turn 25 on the World Betrayed timeline as Liu Bei. Ever wanted every character in the game without fighting for a single one of them? Been there, done that. I loved this game so much that I literally changed my profile around one of my favorite leaders.

So, having said all that, I wish to address some of the problems people reviewing the game have with it. Imperial Influence barely makes the difference anyone complaining says it does, you just have to learn to play around it. Does no one trade and give +5 food to the faction the emperor says you should feed? Like, in every other campaign, I'm told specifically to get the faction of Mi Dan up to +10 food. After doing so, you get 10 free Imperial Influence for 2-3 turns, as well as a possible recruitment/replenishment/upkeep buff from the emperor for being at high influence and listening to his decrees. The system only sucks if you're playing someone like Lu Bu where you almost can't stop conquering because every major and minor faction wants to declare war.

Want a fix for that, by the way? Sink the major factions! Any time you're in a bad couple of wars, simply vassal yourself to the strongest faction. Either everyone declares peace, or suddenly, your larger faction has to intervene and help. Even if the holder of the vassalage frees you next turn because they don't want to fight your wars for you, you can simply just revassalize. This works especially well on Liu Biao, who will take you and your money for as long as he can before the game makes him the next imperial fodder.

The next problem I see people talking about is unit AI. I used to have unit AI problems before I realized the specs of my PC and laptop. My PC can easily run the game on 60fps with max settings, while my laptop has to sit at medium. When I play on max on my pc, even then, sometimes things don't work the way they're supposed to. However, this is limited to units, not heroes. Increased FPS showed me results in unit function, while heroes are a whole different story.

For example, every single ranged Hero can get glitched. I don't mean when you put a bow or crossbow on them, I mean specifically when you use their abilities. I've lost plenty of important battles to simply using a ranged ability too close to the enemy, and I've had my hero, whether it be Liu Chong or Taishi Ci or whoever else, just freeze on the spot. Even if they started routing, even if they were on or off a horse, they would just cease all function. Couldn't even use an ability. This bug was tested across multiple different playthroughs, and it seems the biggest cause of it would be either cancelling the ability too many times, or using the ability while being charged by cavalry.

Sometimes these glitches are minor, sometimes they're absolutely gamebreaking, but personally speaking, it's never warranted enough complaining that I'd just move on and not simply...refight the battle. Coming from a spoiled consumer, 90% of the people complaining about this game, sound like spoiled consumers.

That said, as much as I will bend over backwards to suck this game's ♥♥♥♥, I will never do so for CA, and I don't think I will ever do so again for any one of their games, and here is why;

I hold no nuance when I said this; ♥♥♥♥ CA.

How are you going to release the best content in a game, solely through DLCS?
Why is it fair that some of the best characters are literally locked behind buyable doors?

-Different timelines
-Lu Bu/Sun Ce
-Nanman
-Liu Yan


Why was this game cancelled for a different Three Kingdoms project, when this project barely has the woodwork attached to it historically?

-Very few historical battles, and for some reason, NO NAVAL OR BATTLE OF CHIBI
-Still almost no point playing records, it's like playing Yuan Shao and only using captain retinues. The tactics are fun, but generals feel pointless, and their levelups feel majorly irrelevant.
-Still no actual 3 Kingdoms starting point (why title it "3 Kingdoms if you aren't even going to have a start when they become the three kingdoms...)

And, this is unrelated in a minor way, but why does it feel like they gave up on the game halfway through? Why is it still not fixed that, when a general loses in a battle but doesn't die, and loses their armor in a fight, their picture frame from every portion of the game disappears?

Say you beat Zhou Tai, you get to capture him, but you already took his armor in another fight. You get "Zhou Tai" with his abilities and it's definitely him, but you won't see him. Not in the family tree, not in battle, not when you view his character details; nothing. He shows up as an empty template, and in a battle, he literally looks like your average vanguard.

Let's not forget how if you play on into certain campaigns, they just stop working.

This is not an FPS issue. It is not a "my computer is a potato!" issue. Even upon setting everything everything to low and overclocking the living hell out of my PC, that one Kong Rong campaign is never coming back.

So, as much as I have always loved this game, and as much as I will continue to love it until it burns out on me, I give a recommendation to play, but not to indulge. Do not touch this company, who is more burnt into hype and the idea of "what can we make everyone think is cool and then flop on". They literally ended up doing this with Troy, and I don't want to hear you say "A DIFFERENT TEAM MADE IT" or "IT WAS PART OF A TRILOGY"-

you can't beat a dead horse for hype and give 30 different excuses when you can't follow through. that was my parents job, thank you very much.

pirate this game if you really want it, just do yourself a favor and don't put any hard money into CA knowing what they do with games they can't hold up. get it on sale or something. most fun thousand gaming hours i've spent, most disappointed in the money i've spent as well.

cheers

Call your sickness "I think it"
"I think it started in china"
"I think it is spreading around the world"

Joins game, team's bad and gets offlines until enemy scores.
Joins another server, same thing.
Process goes on for an hour.
Team is finally good.
We get destroyed because noobs join.

10/10, would lose again.