Recent reviews by Banksy

Stop making blood a bought DLC. It should be an optional FREE DLC.

Loving this game - I've played all Total War series a lot - I really didn't like this at first but have given it another go and stuck with it. It's really grown on me, the theme, the stories/history (get the history mod to improve it). Battles have been super fun, as always though the battle AI is never good enough or does dumb things for very hard/legendary difficulties. Needs to be a lot smarter. It's too easy to mess with. Love how aggressive the Vikings are, and their melee is insane to defend against. Enemies seem to suck at siege defence.

Campaign map is beautiful, really well made - including the individual building types you choose to add to your settlements. Sound is very good, organised roars of the men is awesome.

AI has always been the biggest problem with the TW Series - Campaign AI is a lot better than previous games. However it can be sometimes obvious the game seems to not know what to do if you are doing well yourself. Allies seem to try to not help so as to not make your situation more powerful. (Game trying to auto balance) AI is doing some odd behaviours - Circern, my ally has been sitting on a Viking held island with 3 half stack armies just raiding them for about 15 turns now :P - They seem confused, move a tiny bit, then move back, their enemy has that one province left but they won't finish them off. Their large homeland is left unguarded while they're kinda bugged out.

Notes for buyers -

• Game runs a lot better than previous ones, and is fast.
  
• This game of the series has no trade treaties (Mostly automatic, not diplomatic) - It's a game about family/governors/generals management of loyalty, influence and traits. They removed the control percentage and government balance from Attila. It's more about the heroism of an individual.
  
• It initially appears as more of a cut down story version of TW, but once you play it longer you can get more into the depth.
  
• Not many clans to choose from but enough. Mod out there to get more.
  
• Faster turns

Love this game. But am a little bias as I loved the Dungeon Keeper Series. They've done well to redo this. Still needs a little bit of fine tuning (just bugs) but they've done well with the look, sound, the famous voiceover guy is back :D campaign is cool and some really tactical skills in the game now. Can cause some crazy RTS chaos. Soon to be a multiplayer lobby apparently.

Please someone do a decent JA or similar. That has COOP included. I think at the moment JABIA feels better. JA:F Feeks clunky, basic and fast paced. My mercs feel like they're in fast forward.

UI is weird, but some ideas are good like the squad inventory and backpacks, legbags. Graphics are kinda cool but not sure they suit this game. Feels like playing Jagged Alliance Tropico.

The Dev team for this has fallen apart sadly, but if it was fully completed it would be alright. Needs some adjustments to functionality/control/mechanics.

Definately not what I was expecting.

More to play before writing a complete review but so far if you're wondering what this 'expansion' is like here's some info. Creative Assembly is pumping out these and I'd almost call these mini expansions to Rome 2. Attila so far looks very much the same as Rome II, obviously a new setting though. So far it looks like they've improved on things, added more depth to politics. Is a little more complex. Shifted buttons around but it is very much just the Rome II game, muddled around with and improved. So far AI seems a bit better and not as much 'blobbing of units' going on in battles. Still much swarming ants style though, kind of a arcadey feel. The combat is essentially exactly the same as Rome 2, and not like Shogun 2. I preferred Shogun 2 style of combat definately. Swords clanging. Arrows felt like they were being drawn back and fired/lobbed and actually heard them fly, made an effect on each individual man within a unit. At the moment in this engine it just looks/feels/sounds like they're throwing lines of smoke at enemies that make no sound unless zoomed right in. That old engine is dead and done with, it was great for battle lines being held and individual fights going on, cool to watch but that engine had terrible performance. The Attila game runs very fast and well. It definately seems Creative assembly is going for a more arcadey feel like Rome 2 seemed (to me). I'm interested in the history of this Era and like it more so than the Rome era but, essentially I think this is going to be another cash cow for them with more mini exps like they did in Rome 2. They've done a good job of the Prologue(Tutorial) in this and I'm enjoying it.

This however will be the last Total War game I buy for a long time though. Just not happy with the battle map feel anymore. The campaign map is pretty good though.

Great game to play with friends. If you liked Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer, you'll like this. Waves of enemies, cooperative for the most part done in many different mission types.

Really enjoying this coop with my partner. Loving returning to the feel of these sorts of games. Reminds me a little of Neverwinter Nights 1. Looks great. Dialogue is a little weak in areas but still quite good. I recommend this one.

If you loved number 1, you will love this. Men of War games do tend to be a little clunky but the ideas and implementations are great. I'd definately recommend this, Assault Squad 2 has great Coop Scenarios.