Recent reviews by Powerfulnnz Vikingcat

Probably the Total War game that most accurately portrays the warfare of the time period it's based on.

The historical battles are probably the most fun.

Campaign map gameplay is still lacklustre as in Empire, with the buildings annoyingly spread out over the place and a not so great UI.

Battles are fun except for that the AI is terrible at them and they can get slow (battlefields are HUGE in this) and somewhat repetitive.

However it's a complete game with historical narration, cinematics and some genuine tense / challenging gameplay and strategic decision making, so it's worth playing even this many years after it's been released.

Don't get it. CA has dropped the ball and considers you nothing but a cash cow for endless copy paste DLC's. They don't fix core issues with their games, they just keep on pushing out more and more 'kawntent'.

Notice: I have a lot of hours into this game, just not on Steam. I bought this game on Steam though I have it on disc (bought the original in the '90s in a grocery store if you can believe that, but I can't launch it from the disc on a modern pc) and on GOG. Before rebuying it on GOG I also played it on a website I forgot the name of.

I rebought it here to see if it would run better than on GOG, which has / had some small issues (music audio sometimes abruptly cutting off and screen being too sensitive). After playing the first two missions I'm glad to say that it appears to run perfectly.

For a time I had this game but could not run it and thought I'd never be able to play it again, which may contribute to why I like playing it so much. The coincidence of simply picking it up at a grocery store as a kid of course also makes it special.

However the quality of the game is still the most important thing. It establishes its atmosphere and tone immediately and maintains this throughout the game, only giving up snippets of lore through bits of text and events here and there. This makes you always want to find more about the world and use your own imagination to fill in the (many) gaps in the (admittedly simple) story, rather than being dogpiled by lore dumps of yet another fantasy setting.

While many elements (the typical fantasy races) are familiar the high fantasy setting does offer interesting (and often crazy) units to give it its own unique flavour: monstrous mech units that look like they belong in Doom, elephants carrying dual cannons, hawks with huge cannons on their backs, steam gunners, sharpshooters strapped to balloons, flying monkeys and a lot of other units that put the 'high' in high fantasy and might leave you bewildered, amused (or possibly a mixture of both).

The soundtrack is the first thing you'll notice. The tracks were performed by actual musicians and singers and inspired by classical music, and it is very unique and charming. After a long playthrough it may also become a bit repetitive to you but that's why you have the option to turn it off.

The game offers replayability because each of the four available characters plays quite differently. You can also play scenarios or generate custom battles if you just want to have a fight without committing to a campaign (personally I do not do this because I think the tension of the battle being part of a larger campaign is what makes it interesting).

The four characters Marcas, Mordra, Cales and Krell aren't exactly equally strong. The positive is that this is another way to challenge yourself (I have a lot of trouble playing as Krell even though he is really good in the right hands), the negative is that the worst (Mordra) isn't really suited to Hard Difficulty (but again, it can offer another challenge). The fact there are only four also means that if even one really doesn't appeal to you that already limits replayability quite a bit (though the game is long enough that most players will probably be satisfied beating it once or twice). I for example never enjoyed playing as Marcas because while really strong, he offers very little uniqueness in terms of gameplay options (which does make him a great character for learning the game!).

Difficulty offers replayability because while normal offers an adequate challenge, increased or hard difficulty gets really difficult and requires you to go in with a plan and build your army very carefully. You can save scum every move or turn, or you cannot. That is also up to you.

The combat system and other game mechanics are not explained in-game, but the manual is very comprehensive and can be found online or accessed through Steam. Learning through trial and error is also an option on lower difficulties. Suffice it to say that the inner workings of the game are deeper than they might appear on the surface and are worth exploring.

Each continent you fight through not only looks different but also has quite different terrain and you'll figure out how to take advantage of troop types and terrain as you go.

The reason why I still get excited to play this game is because it's a tactical game that's challenging in a good way, and it has that element of tension that modern gamers will recognize from a game like XCOM where you are leading your units and increasing their experience from mission to mission, but if they're gone, they're gone and replacing your veterans is a dear loss. The ability to rename your units to grow more attached to them (or remember which magical item you gave them...) adds to this. Playing with a bigger focus on beast or magic units can change this dynamic as these units are stronger than their mortal counterparts of the same tier, but unlike them can't be upgraded and will likely be sacrificed / disbanded to make room for higher tier units at one point. The RNG factor can be frustrating at times but also work out in your favour, it and the pretty competent AI can give you a good challenge.

It's a game made with love, as the individual hand drawn artwork for each of the units (a feature they could've potentially left out) shows. The 2D graphics are almost timeless, the animations are simple and rare (only certain actions are animated).

I do wish there was a remaster (or *gasp* a remake) that made everything look just a bit sharper and smoother, added some animations and updated the menus to be more intuitive for the (let's be honest, few) people who might rediscover this game many years after its original release. A remake that maintains the look and charm but expands upon the world, characters, gameplay etc. would be even more amazing, but that's of course unlikely to happen.

We did get Fantasy General II which is a nice sequel to this game (which says something about the cult following this game has), so there is a more modern sequel to explore once you've beaten this game. It also had some 'spiritual successors' which I have yet to check out.

All in all, I couldn't recommend it more even if you're a younger gamer unused to retro games. At worst you'll lose 5 euros, but more likely you'll find a gaming experience unlike any that will stick with you and inspire you for life as it has done for me.

It's sorta like a turn based Dawn of War.

The game is easy to learn, difficult to master. It's deeper and more complex than it may seem at first, at least when you're thinking about optimizing strategies.

Factions are fun and varied.

Some people made mods that add a lot of value to the game. Normally mods are something I wouldn't include in a review out of principle since the game has to be good on its own in my eyes, but there's a mod in particular that adds real production value to the game it would otherwise be lacking (voices for the units).

My small gripes are that weaker units and pretty much all infantry lose their value over time, you just build the biggest units available, there's not a lot of benefit to having a balanced force, though there are some specialists and you do usually keep your veterans around since units don't train very quickly.

The other small gripe is that once you start winning you rarely come across any tactical or strategic challenge, you usually just steamroll from there on because of how map control and infinite resources work (you don't 'mine out' parts of the map). Getting to that point is still fun though and wiping your enemies off the map with superior forces is too even if it loses the challenge.

It's great fun to play with or against friends too.

Best game ever.

Could be fleshed out more in certain areas (characterisation & storytelling in particular) but the core of the game is fantastic, the mechanics make sense, the battles are very tactical and lots of fun, the setting is also great, drawing from history but not giving us the same old map of Europe we've been fighting on our whole lives (if you're into grand strategy at all).

I could write paragraphs about this game, but your time could be better spent than reading reviews. Trust me, go play it!

EDIT: having played the game some more, I do have to point out that the game has late game issues. You can get stuck in a loop of conquering and then losing settlements again, endless war with seemingly no path forward. Why? Because conquering more land doesn't necessarily make you stronger, and losing land doesn't necessarily make the AI weaker. Conquered all their territories? They will probably go around now raiding all of your villages and there's no way for you to stop them indefinitely save executing them all, which ruins your relationship with everyone. You also reach a 'cap' on your own strength and get to a point where you need to rely on allied AI's to help you - and they're not very useful.

CA dropped the ball. Game released in a very unfinished state, riddled with bugs. Over the years we've learned they have very little grasp on or understanding of their own code, when they try to fix something usually more stuff gets broken in the process or they don't even fix it at all.

Campaigns are just a cheesy grind fest. Not strategic at all. The AI is still too stupid to make it interesting.

The first game in the series was released in 2016 and it's practically the same game now, with virtually no notable improvements in terms of how it plays, feels or what the mechanics are. In other words, it's a big DLC, not a sequel.

Diplomacy is better I guess and sound & graphics are still great but that's just the stuff that's on the surface to make you buy the game, it's not enough to carry it.

At least they're busy making an Overwatch clone microtransaction fest we'll all be able to enjoy.

One of the best Total Wars ever made.

It's AoE 2. Why haven't you bought it yet?

An excellent game with a great setting, characters and premise. The music responds to your combat moves!

8 years later... why is there no sequel?!

Pro's:

- A challenging campaign which requires you to really think out a solid strategy. It's a rare campaign where you don't simply become unstoppable relatively early on.
- The setting. Few historical conflicts are as epic and dramatic as Caesar's invasion of Gaul
- No politics to worry about
- Lots of turns per year so characters don't die of old age and seasons play an impactful and realistic role

Cons:

- May be frustrating if you're not looking for a challenge
- Lack of enemy variety, battles can get repetitive
- Not enough unique events, cinematics, units etc. to make the campaign feel 'alive'
- Only Rome is interesting to play for me, don't really care about barbarians (but you might)
- Not a lot of replayability

This campaign was a huge pain in the ass to me and I never finished it until very recently, but when I did it was a memorable, epic achievement and will probably remain one of my fondest and most memorable campaign victories.

I recommend this on sale.