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Product Description
Platform: PC | Edition: Standard
Amazon.com
Call the shots in epic battles all over the world and expand your realm of influence throughout the tumultuous eighteenth century with Empire: Total War for your PC. Set against the bold intellectual landscape of the Enlightenment, this extension of the Total War franchise brings you out of the middle ages and into a realm where guns, gunpowder, and naval warfare have a dramatic influence on the face of combat.
Historic Factions, Expanded Horizons, and an Updated Campaign Map
Total War's detailed, turn-based battle system has received some serious upgrades that will have an impact on both seasoned commanders and newly minted combatants. The UI has been streamlined, and the systems for handling trade and diplomacy have been updated. You have improved advisors at your disposal, and realistic espionage techniques can be carried out using agents.
 Realistic landscapes and weather add drama to your campaigns. View larger. |
 Dynamic, 3D naval warfare expands the combat zone. View larger. |
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 For the first time, North America is open as a field of battle. View larger. |
 Ships boast destructible sails. View larger. |
Historic Factions, Expanded Horizons, and an Updated Campaign Map
Total War's detailed, turn-based battle system has received some serious upgrades that will have an impact on both seasoned commanders and newly minted combatants. The UI has been streamlined, and the systems for handling trade and diplomacy have been updated. You have improved advisors at your disposal, and realistic espionage techniques can be carried out using agents.
Empire puts a variety of major political factions into your hands, including France, Spain, Great Britain, Sweden, the United Provinces in northern Europe, Prussia, the Ottoman Empire, and Russia. Detailed strategic elements come into play, whether you're fighting in the heart of Europe, warding off Mamluk horsemen in the middle east, or working to capture the wealth of India. Beyond all this, for the first time in Total War history, the continent of North America is an open field of play that portrays the unique strategic problems encountered by the founding fathers during the revolutionary war.
Dynamic 3D Naval Battles and Forces of Nature
Total War's signature 3D battle scenes are paired with a new graphics engine and improved technology, allowing war and conquest to take on an even more realistic feel. Advanced landscape and flora systems add both realism and depth to the world stage, while dynamic weather consistently threatens to throw a wrench in your attack plans.
Whether you're coordinating platoon firing or supporting a defensive square formation, the musket and the cannon take center stage as newly developed implements of war. And they're not just for use on land. Real-time naval battle set on dramatic seascapes help shape the balance of power and determine the scope of your Empire, and they're rendered in the same impressive 3D as battles on land. You may find yourself directing a vast fleet through intricate maneuvers, controlling the helm of a single tall ship, or grappling to the enemy's boat and dictating the course of hand-to-hand combat on deck.
New Multiplayer Action
Additional updates to the Total War model include a multiplayer component that provides player rankings for competitive commanders, leagues and ladders, and a selection of entirely new modes of game play.
Product Description
Control the sea, command great armies, forge a new nation and conquer the globe. Empire: Total War takes the Total War franchise to the 18th Century and the Age of Imperialism—a time of near perpetual war. This latest installation in the award-winning, multi-million unit selling Total War franchise introduces a host of revolutionary new features, including true 3D naval combat. Players will be able to command single ships or vast fleets upon seascapes rich with extraordinary effects. After pummeling enemies with cannon fire, players will close in to grapple enemy ships and prepare to board, taking control of men as they fight hand-to-hand. With an entirely new game engine, Empire will see further enhancements to the 3D battles and turn-based campaign maps. Empire lets players experience combat on the high seas, India, Europe, and, for the first time, the United States of America.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
462 of 512 people found the following review helpful
Platform for Display:PC|Edition:Standard
Fun:
2.0 out of 5 stars
(For the most recent comments see the updates)
Let me begin by pointing out that I am a HUGE fan of the Total War series. I started with Rome, continued with the Barbarian Invasion, segueyed into Medieval II and the subsequent Kingdoms expansion. Needless to say, I was eagerly anticipating this game. I even bought a top of the line Mach V rig with all the bells and whistles and a 30in monitor to take in the beauty of it all. My machine has no problem handing the graphics settings on Ultra and I can tell you that visually, this game has the potential to be stunning (provided your computer is up to the task).
Now the negative. The game comes with Steam software which introduces its own complications to the process of enjoying ones game. Granted that the auto-patching feature is pretty sweet, but almost everything else about this system is not (See other reviews here for more details). But thats not even the meat of my beef.
Creative Assembly (CA) released this much anticipated game KNOWING that it was a beta version. After reading countless posts on various message boards, it is more than apparent that this game was not ready for release but for some reason they went ahead with it anyway. This in effect made everyone who bought it an unwitting beta tester (with all the frustrations and none of the salary). As I see it, Creative Assembly has spent all of its credibility capital from the prior installments on this piss-poor shell of a game. Thats not fair, it is 90% of a game but that missing 10% makes it unplayable (frequent crashes to desktop, white screens of death, and corrupted save files are the major issues with a few minor issues sprinkled in for good measure).
This will be the last time I purchase a game from Creative Assembly within the first six months of launch and I would advise others to do the same. Not to send a message to CA (though they deserve a swift kick to the junk for this scam), but to save yourself the money and the frustration.
5/21/09 UPDATE: Two and a half months after release, CA is still frantically attempting to patch this game to make it playable. However with every step forward, it seems like they are taking two steps back. The Battlefield AI has gone from acceptably bad to unacceptably bad. Lingering issues related to crashes still persist though the White screen of death and save corruptions seem to have been resolved. The economy system has been tweaked to make the game more difficult, some prefer the change, some do not. Modders are doing their best to put a polish on this game but some fundamentals still remain broken. My original advice to wait for fixes before purchasing still stands, this game is still in post-market Beta testing but should be fun once its completed (probably 3 months from now).
7/01/09 UPDATE: A week after the 1.3 patch, it is time for an update. Personally, the game works much better now than before. This is subjective since some people have had new CTD issues with the latest patch that were not there before. CA released a hotfix tonight to address the CTDs introduced with their latest patch. While the game is generally more fun and playable now, there are still some elements of the game that will likely require an expansion pack-sized update to address (these issues include siege battles being totally broken and unrealistic still, no cross-theater naval invasions, crap diplomacy, and Campaign AI that never retreats EVER even when outnumbered 10 to 1, just to name a few). Adding to my concern is that patch 1.4 will seek to introduce a multi-player campaign (which, if you were paying attention, was supposed to come with the game 4 months ago). That's like building a house on a unfinished foundation, bound for more Failure. Additionally, CA has decided to tweak naval units so that the biggest/tallest ships with the biggest guns and best crews will have a shorter range, lower accuracy, and slower reload times than the smallest/shortest ships with the smallest guns, despite the overwhelmingly negative response from the hardcore community that would like at least some adherence to the laws of physics. CA hears but does not listen to its most dedicated fans.
Despite all of this (which is really just most of the negative points), If you cannot wait any longer, I think its worth the current price.
If I had to rate this game again, I would give it 4 stars for fun, and three stars overall. Too bad it took four months to achieve mediocrity. Oh well, new engine, new problems, I bet future installments will have much smoother releases. Still, I advocate hesitation when it comes to purchasing future CA/SEGA collaborations.
My next update will come a week after the release of patch 1.4.
Let me begin by pointing out that I am a HUGE fan of the Total War series. I started with Rome, continued with the Barbarian Invasion, segueyed into Medieval II and the subsequent Kingdoms expansion. Needless to say, I was eagerly anticipating this game. I even bought a top of the line Mach V rig with all the bells and whistles and a 30in monitor to take in the beauty of it all. My machine has no problem handing the graphics settings on Ultra and I can tell you that visually, this game has the potential to be stunning (provided your computer is up to the task).
Now the negative. The game comes with Steam software which introduces its own complications to the process of enjoying ones game. Granted that the auto-patching feature is pretty sweet, but almost everything else about this system is not (See other reviews here for more details). But thats not even the meat of my beef.
Creative Assembly (CA) released this much anticipated game KNOWING that it was a beta version. After reading countless posts on various message boards, it is more than apparent that this game was not ready for release but for some reason they went ahead with it anyway. This in effect made everyone who bought it an unwitting beta tester (with all the frustrations and none of the salary). As I see it, Creative Assembly has spent all of its credibility capital from the prior installments on this piss-poor shell of a game. Thats not fair, it is 90% of a game but that missing 10% makes it unplayable (frequent crashes to desktop, white screens of death, and corrupted save files are the major issues with a few minor issues sprinkled in for good measure).
This will be the last time I purchase a game from Creative Assembly within the first six months of launch and I would advise others to do the same. Not to send a message to CA (though they deserve a swift kick to the junk for this scam), but to save yourself the money and the frustration.
5/21/09 UPDATE: Two and a half months after release, CA is still frantically attempting to patch this game to make it playable. However with every step forward, it seems like they are taking two steps back. The Battlefield AI has gone from acceptably bad to unacceptably bad. Lingering issues related to crashes still persist though the White screen of death and save corruptions seem to have been resolved. The economy system has been tweaked to make the game more difficult, some prefer the change, some do not. Modders are doing their best to put a polish on this game but some fundamentals still remain broken. My original advice to wait for fixes before purchasing still stands, this game is still in post-market Beta testing but should be fun once its completed (probably 3 months from now).
7/01/09 UPDATE: A week after the 1.3 patch, it is time for an update. Personally, the game works much better now than before. This is subjective since some people have had new CTD issues with the latest patch that were not there before. CA released a hotfix tonight to address the CTDs introduced with their latest patch. While the game is generally more fun and playable now, there are still some elements of the game that will likely require an expansion pack-sized update to address (these issues include siege battles being totally broken and unrealistic still, no cross-theater naval invasions, crap diplomacy, and Campaign AI that never retreats EVER even when outnumbered 10 to 1, just to name a few). Adding to my concern is that patch 1.4 will seek to introduce a multi-player campaign (which, if you were paying attention, was supposed to come with the game 4 months ago). That's like building a house on a unfinished foundation, bound for more Failure. Additionally, CA has decided to tweak naval units so that the biggest/tallest ships with the biggest guns and best crews will have a shorter range, lower accuracy, and slower reload times than the smallest/shortest ships with the smallest guns, despite the overwhelmingly negative response from the hardcore community that would like at least some adherence to the laws of physics. CA hears but does not listen to its most dedicated fans.
Despite all of this (which is really just most of the negative points), If you cannot wait any longer, I think its worth the current price.
If I had to rate this game again, I would give it 4 stars for fun, and three stars overall. Too bad it took four months to achieve mediocrity. Oh well, new engine, new problems, I bet future installments will have much smoother releases. Still, I advocate hesitation when it comes to purchasing future CA/SEGA collaborations.
My next update will come a week after the release of patch 1.4.
29 of 32 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
After 1.6 patch: Three stars to un-modded, Five stars to modded.
December 25, 2009
By Skeptic
Platform for Display:PC|Edition:Standard
Fun:
3.0 out of 5 stars
February 7, 2010 UPDATE: Darth Mod is soon to be 6.9 or 7.0 version and I can freely say that ETW should have been Vanilla 1.6 + Darth 6.9 at release. Again to re-affirm my opinion: now that the game can be had for a bargain, I believe it is one of the best RTS/Turn based hybrids ever to exist. We will see how Shogun 2 will do ;-)
April 9, 2010 UPDATE: Great day for ETW community. CA has released 1.6 patch which fixes most of Battle AI problems like instant melee charge, inability to form battle line or constant priority switching. I tested several campaign battles and AI behaves much more sensible and presents nice challenge on Hard/Very Hard settings.
February 17, 2009 UPDATE: With Napoleon Total War release five days away, community learned couple of sad news about new game:
a) It will not integrate with ETW, so any fixes to engine and AI will not apply to ETW.
b) There will be no mod tools. Modders might get some supporting documentation, but CA confirmed that game design will remain closed.
c) Theatre is limited to Europe (no Mid-East and North Africa).
OK, I'm late with my review, that no one will probably read. Oh, well...
Empire Total War (ETW), the game we love to hate. To summarize my review - I recommend this game to anyone, go ahead and buy it, download one of the free mods I mention below and enjoy hours and hours of fun gameplay. Let me begin by saying that I tried going back to Medieval II Kingdoms after all 1.0, 1.2, 1.3 mess and I got bored instantly. Main reason I came back to ETW was that prior series had too much of siege battles and I am tired of them. The game overall has more positives, however it is in human nature to have stronger emotions about negatives. But I felt like it was important to note the issues still present in un-modded game.
The good about ETW:
++++++++++++++++++
+ Campaign map is finally pretty accurate geographically, no more need for Stainless Steel (SS) or Deus Lo Vult (DLV) mods from Medieval II Kingdoms
+ New regions added: India, South (Northern part) and North Americas
+ Naval combat could be fun with mods as long as fleets are small (see mod recommendations below)
+ Economic/industrial buildings are in separate settlements now, which adds more strategic depth
+ 18 century period
+ No need for diplomats to open negotiations
+ Much better graphics, 3D combat runs very fluid (see my PC specs below)
+ Expansion to colonies
+ Trade nodes and pirates
+ You can change government type by setting off actions that lead to revolution
+ Technology research is done in schools and universities
+ Very few siege battles, which is plus in my opinion
+ Cross theater and naval invasions by AI are finally working
Now about the bad:
------------------
- The game was released unfinished, which was confirmed by several developers on their blogs. It took over 9 months to bring it to 1.5, the last patch, and many things are nowhere near fixed. New patches had tendency to break things that older patches fixed. It was nightmare. Most disheartening news was the fact that sometime during late stages of development Creative Assembly (CA) lead Artificial Intelligence (AI) programmer had to leave the team, and what I could gather from CA's blogs, it was very hard to pick up for others and AI was doomed from the get-go. Google "Battle AI - By Mike Simpson".
- Steam required for retail boxed game to install and play even in single play mode. More and more games are following this suite. It sucks, period. If you were not careful Steam would patch your game automatically and mess things up for you big time. My biggest problem with Steam is that I had to pay the same amount for rental game as what I'd have paid for the game I owned and could have sold. Rental PC games should not cost $50, $25 is more reasonable price.
- Battle AI (BAI) in un-modded game is simply abysmal. You will face staggering zombie clusters roaming the battlefield in front of your artillery batteries while they shred them to pieces, they will often cross the lines and fall victims of their own fire. They will always choose melee even if they outclass your infantry in accuracy and reloading skill. Decision making is bad as well it's like AI has ADD - they seem to commit to one plan of attack just within second to switch their priorities, break formations and chase after CA knows what.
- Severely lacking ability to force fire. Your infantry will only commence firing when every single one of the soldiers fall in. They can't save their lives if Johnny Smith stuck while climbing fence and his company is charged by cavalry. Cossacks had this functionality decade ago.
- No mod tools. It was evident when first downloadable content (DLC) was released, that SEGA and CA will milk this thing for what's it worth by making silly new units and selling them $5 a pop. THIS IS MAJOR problem for community, because CA dropped further post-release development, modding community can not improve the game, and it still needs a lot of work. I'm amazed that modders could accomplish what they did without proper support from CA (TROM, DarthMod, APE:TI and others). I went straight to mods, because I could not tolerate vanilla game for four turns. But modders' hands are tied, there is only so much they can get done on the surface. What infuriates me is the fact that mod tools WERE BETA TESTED SOMETIME IN EARLY SUMMER, so they exist but solely for making DLC content. My only hope is that when Napoleon Total War (NTW) is released, CA and SEGA will come to their senses and give community that supported them for over decade what it deserves.
- Since strategic map has so many 3D bells and whistles it tends to run very choppy (see my PC specs below).
- Siege/fort battles are ridiculously broken. To sum it up: Enemy will either try to attack your fort with mounted units only, in which case you just let them come close to the walls and pulverize with cannons and musket fire, or if they are blessed with infantry, those lads will use Batman's grappling hooks and climb the walls Spiderman style. It is so easy to fool AI attacking your fort that modders came out with the mod that removes all forts from the game altogether.
- Unfortunately after several real time naval battles you will choose to autoresolve instead. AI can't hold battle formations for long even if their ships have range accuracy advantage. Battle after battle degrades into furball mess. You will find it interesting that sloops and brigs can transport huge armies across the oceans. Latest patch brought in really senile changes to naval combat. Somehow Campaign Artificial Intelligence (CAI) is unable to produce expensive high quality ships of the line and instead it spams dozens of sloops and brigs. CA can not fix this directly so instead they rebalanced navy by gimping ships of the line and giving extra range and accuracy to sloops and brigs. WHAAAAT? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Again thanks to modding community that knows how to revert this arcadish approach to things.
- There are no more missions that your government assigns to you.
- From diplomatic screen you don't know the intentions of the counter party. If you share a border with the nation it will automatically declare war on you. If war is declared on you, you don't know what the heck they want especially if you had very friendly relationship.
- Game no longer has grid on the campaign map (which developers hyped a lot), so AI armies often do stupid things and get stuck.
- You can't change the monarch.
- Regime change via revolution is convoluted and does not always work as planned.
- You can not recruit agents yourself anymore, they are spawned automatically based on the number and level of the buildings (school, church, bawdy house).
- If enemy army is severely outnumbered it will not try to retreat neither on campaign map nor on battle field. I understand this makes it easy on casual player, you simply don't have to chase marauding army engaged in guerrilla warfare. But it is simply stupid.
- I sure hope that CA/SEGA will release proper American Revolution campaign. They may also give us Civil War at some point (may be after Napoleon expansion?). Road To Independence (American Revolution) campaign is simply a joke in vanilla. I love that period of US History and I think it was neglected. I will see what folks at American Revolution Mod could accomplish without mod tools.
What gets most folks pissed off about this game is CA/SEGA attitude and buried potential in tangled mess of code and patches. This game also took several steps back from great concepts developed in prior series. Would I buy it again when it came out in March of 2009 knowing all the problems? Probably yes. There is simply no other game out there that almost well combines Real Time Combat with Turn Based Strategy. I'm not going to be so eager with NTW. I sure hope that Paradox Interactive would some day come out with worthy competitor. They have very solid strategic AI track record, now they need to venture into 3D real time combat.
Regards, and Happy Holidays!
- Skeptic.
MOD RECOMMENDATIONS: (generally go to twcenter dot net, then forums, empire total war, hosted modifications)
1. DarthMod. This is mega mod of mods and it incorporates many other submods. Read more ›
April 9, 2010 UPDATE: Great day for ETW community. CA has released 1.6 patch which fixes most of Battle AI problems like instant melee charge, inability to form battle line or constant priority switching. I tested several campaign battles and AI behaves much more sensible and presents nice challenge on Hard/Very Hard settings.
February 17, 2009 UPDATE: With Napoleon Total War release five days away, community learned couple of sad news about new game:
a) It will not integrate with ETW, so any fixes to engine and AI will not apply to ETW.
b) There will be no mod tools. Modders might get some supporting documentation, but CA confirmed that game design will remain closed.
c) Theatre is limited to Europe (no Mid-East and North Africa).
OK, I'm late with my review, that no one will probably read. Oh, well...
Empire Total War (ETW), the game we love to hate. To summarize my review - I recommend this game to anyone, go ahead and buy it, download one of the free mods I mention below and enjoy hours and hours of fun gameplay. Let me begin by saying that I tried going back to Medieval II Kingdoms after all 1.0, 1.2, 1.3 mess and I got bored instantly. Main reason I came back to ETW was that prior series had too much of siege battles and I am tired of them. The game overall has more positives, however it is in human nature to have stronger emotions about negatives. But I felt like it was important to note the issues still present in un-modded game.
The good about ETW:
++++++++++++++++++
+ Campaign map is finally pretty accurate geographically, no more need for Stainless Steel (SS) or Deus Lo Vult (DLV) mods from Medieval II Kingdoms
+ New regions added: India, South (Northern part) and North Americas
+ Naval combat could be fun with mods as long as fleets are small (see mod recommendations below)
+ Economic/industrial buildings are in separate settlements now, which adds more strategic depth
+ 18 century period
+ No need for diplomats to open negotiations
+ Much better graphics, 3D combat runs very fluid (see my PC specs below)
+ Expansion to colonies
+ Trade nodes and pirates
+ You can change government type by setting off actions that lead to revolution
+ Technology research is done in schools and universities
+ Very few siege battles, which is plus in my opinion
+ Cross theater and naval invasions by AI are finally working
Now about the bad:
------------------
- The game was released unfinished, which was confirmed by several developers on their blogs. It took over 9 months to bring it to 1.5, the last patch, and many things are nowhere near fixed. New patches had tendency to break things that older patches fixed. It was nightmare. Most disheartening news was the fact that sometime during late stages of development Creative Assembly (CA) lead Artificial Intelligence (AI) programmer had to leave the team, and what I could gather from CA's blogs, it was very hard to pick up for others and AI was doomed from the get-go. Google "Battle AI - By Mike Simpson".
- Steam required for retail boxed game to install and play even in single play mode. More and more games are following this suite. It sucks, period. If you were not careful Steam would patch your game automatically and mess things up for you big time. My biggest problem with Steam is that I had to pay the same amount for rental game as what I'd have paid for the game I owned and could have sold. Rental PC games should not cost $50, $25 is more reasonable price.
- Battle AI (BAI) in un-modded game is simply abysmal. You will face staggering zombie clusters roaming the battlefield in front of your artillery batteries while they shred them to pieces, they will often cross the lines and fall victims of their own fire. They will always choose melee even if they outclass your infantry in accuracy and reloading skill. Decision making is bad as well it's like AI has ADD - they seem to commit to one plan of attack just within second to switch their priorities, break formations and chase after CA knows what.
- Severely lacking ability to force fire. Your infantry will only commence firing when every single one of the soldiers fall in. They can't save their lives if Johnny Smith stuck while climbing fence and his company is charged by cavalry. Cossacks had this functionality decade ago.
- No mod tools. It was evident when first downloadable content (DLC) was released, that SEGA and CA will milk this thing for what's it worth by making silly new units and selling them $5 a pop. THIS IS MAJOR problem for community, because CA dropped further post-release development, modding community can not improve the game, and it still needs a lot of work. I'm amazed that modders could accomplish what they did without proper support from CA (TROM, DarthMod, APE:TI and others). I went straight to mods, because I could not tolerate vanilla game for four turns. But modders' hands are tied, there is only so much they can get done on the surface. What infuriates me is the fact that mod tools WERE BETA TESTED SOMETIME IN EARLY SUMMER, so they exist but solely for making DLC content. My only hope is that when Napoleon Total War (NTW) is released, CA and SEGA will come to their senses and give community that supported them for over decade what it deserves.
- Since strategic map has so many 3D bells and whistles it tends to run very choppy (see my PC specs below).
- Siege/fort battles are ridiculously broken. To sum it up: Enemy will either try to attack your fort with mounted units only, in which case you just let them come close to the walls and pulverize with cannons and musket fire, or if they are blessed with infantry, those lads will use Batman's grappling hooks and climb the walls Spiderman style. It is so easy to fool AI attacking your fort that modders came out with the mod that removes all forts from the game altogether.
- Unfortunately after several real time naval battles you will choose to autoresolve instead. AI can't hold battle formations for long even if their ships have range accuracy advantage. Battle after battle degrades into furball mess. You will find it interesting that sloops and brigs can transport huge armies across the oceans. Latest patch brought in really senile changes to naval combat. Somehow Campaign Artificial Intelligence (CAI) is unable to produce expensive high quality ships of the line and instead it spams dozens of sloops and brigs. CA can not fix this directly so instead they rebalanced navy by gimping ships of the line and giving extra range and accuracy to sloops and brigs. WHAAAAT? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Again thanks to modding community that knows how to revert this arcadish approach to things.
- There are no more missions that your government assigns to you.
- From diplomatic screen you don't know the intentions of the counter party. If you share a border with the nation it will automatically declare war on you. If war is declared on you, you don't know what the heck they want especially if you had very friendly relationship.
- Game no longer has grid on the campaign map (which developers hyped a lot), so AI armies often do stupid things and get stuck.
- You can't change the monarch.
- Regime change via revolution is convoluted and does not always work as planned.
- You can not recruit agents yourself anymore, they are spawned automatically based on the number and level of the buildings (school, church, bawdy house).
- If enemy army is severely outnumbered it will not try to retreat neither on campaign map nor on battle field. I understand this makes it easy on casual player, you simply don't have to chase marauding army engaged in guerrilla warfare. But it is simply stupid.
- I sure hope that CA/SEGA will release proper American Revolution campaign. They may also give us Civil War at some point (may be after Napoleon expansion?). Road To Independence (American Revolution) campaign is simply a joke in vanilla. I love that period of US History and I think it was neglected. I will see what folks at American Revolution Mod could accomplish without mod tools.
What gets most folks pissed off about this game is CA/SEGA attitude and buried potential in tangled mess of code and patches. This game also took several steps back from great concepts developed in prior series. Would I buy it again when it came out in March of 2009 knowing all the problems? Probably yes. There is simply no other game out there that almost well combines Real Time Combat with Turn Based Strategy. I'm not going to be so eager with NTW. I sure hope that Paradox Interactive would some day come out with worthy competitor. They have very solid strategic AI track record, now they need to venture into 3D real time combat.
Regards, and Happy Holidays!
- Skeptic.
MOD RECOMMENDATIONS: (generally go to twcenter dot net, then forums, empire total war, hosted modifications)
1. DarthMod. This is mega mod of mods and it incorporates many other submods. Read more ›
61 of 72 people found the following review helpful
Platform for Display:PC|Edition:Standard
Fun:
1.0 out of 5 stars
I started with TotalWar back with Shogun, did Medevil 1, Rome, and the new Medevil. I look forward to the new TotalWar Game every few years and I always buy a new computer at that time just to play the game. I did this for Shogun, Rome and recently for Medevil. This should tell you that I am a rabid fan.
I have been looking forward to Empire TotalWar for a few years. As much or more than I was waiting for Rome. BUT..........I hate to say this, and I can't believe I am going to write this, DO NOT BUY this game!!!!!!!!!!!
It is terrible. The worst part is, I do not have internet except at work. I do not want it at home. But if you do not have internet, you cannot play this game! You cannot even start the game. I like TotalWar game as I can take it with me anywhere, and play it on my laptop at my leisure. On a plane, train, or other. To download the damn game took me 9 hours!
Creative Assembly what the heck is wrong with you? Do not realize that a large portion of your audience is not the online gaming type? Many of us are old fashioned wargammer types that just want to buy the game and never see you again? I am 39 and not at all unfamiliar with technology but this is terrible.
The next issue....the bugs! The AI is terrible! How hard is it to beat an opponent that shoots its cannons into the backs of its own troops, or in a seige fires cannons to knock down its own walls? The thing that makes a game boring is when it is easy to win.
Creative Assembly, I am sad to say, but my 6+ year relationship, and automatic loyalty with you, to where I would buy every new TW game you release has now ended. It is sad, as I was hoping you would follow up this effort with a TW based on the Victorian Age. But I have no confidence you can pull off any new endeavors and that I won't have wasted $[...] on a game that will not work.
What is wrong with you? How can you destroy such a loyal fan base?
Richard
I have been looking forward to Empire TotalWar for a few years. As much or more than I was waiting for Rome. BUT..........I hate to say this, and I can't believe I am going to write this, DO NOT BUY this game!!!!!!!!!!!
It is terrible. The worst part is, I do not have internet except at work. I do not want it at home. But if you do not have internet, you cannot play this game! You cannot even start the game. I like TotalWar game as I can take it with me anywhere, and play it on my laptop at my leisure. On a plane, train, or other. To download the damn game took me 9 hours!
Creative Assembly what the heck is wrong with you? Do not realize that a large portion of your audience is not the online gaming type? Many of us are old fashioned wargammer types that just want to buy the game and never see you again? I am 39 and not at all unfamiliar with technology but this is terrible.
The next issue....the bugs! The AI is terrible! How hard is it to beat an opponent that shoots its cannons into the backs of its own troops, or in a seige fires cannons to knock down its own walls? The thing that makes a game boring is when it is easy to win.
Creative Assembly, I am sad to say, but my 6+ year relationship, and automatic loyalty with you, to where I would buy every new TW game you release has now ended. It is sad, as I was hoping you would follow up this effort with a TW based on the Victorian Age. But I have no confidence you can pull off any new endeavors and that I won't have wasted $[...] on a game that will not work.
What is wrong with you? How can you destroy such a loyal fan base?
Richard
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Game, Confusion over 1 Star Reviews.
I have been playing this game for some time now. The Creative Assembly has finally finished patching it so the gameplay is smooth and the combat, while not as solid as seen in... Read more
Published 5 days ago by Stormtrooper49
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fun Game
Recently got this because I've missed playing strategy games. So far, I'm quite pleased. Download was easy, gameplay is smooth, and the battles are pretty awesome.
Published 1 month ago by Alex Adams
4.0 out of 5 stars
Flawed but still fun
Ok, first off, I have been playing the Toatal War series since Medieval 1, through Rome and Medieval 2 and now Empire. There is a LOT to love about this game. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Amy Curtis
4.0 out of 5 stars
awesome game
the graphics, and entertainment that i get from this game is next to none. I have always liked tycoon games, and total war games. I think better and more is to come. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Andres Andrade III
5.0 out of 5 stars
ppl r liars this games epic
this game is amazing, I play rome and all the t w games. If u like rome this game makes it look dumb. I was on the fence from all the bad review but there wrong. Read more
Published 2 months ago by kingkongbooey
1.0 out of 5 stars
Don't work
I could never get it to work tried several time just wasted my money need a refund I heard it does not work with windows 7
Published 2 months ago by Ty
1.0 out of 5 stars
Steam issues
Cannot get the game to work due to an issue with Steam, when installing the game steam times out and will not upload the game. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jan Zimmermann
1.0 out of 5 stars
Total War series turned from gold to junk in a few short years
1. While the graphics are pretty, the Total War series seems to have abandoned its old strategy gamer audience and started focusing on dumbing their games down for the larger/newer... Read more
Published 2 months ago by D. A. Galloway
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Game
Empire: Total War is an example of Total War at its best. I played and loved Rome: Total War, and this game basically blows Rome: Total War out of the water.
Published 2 months ago by Anonymous
5.0 out of 5 stars
Strange reviews for this game
This is simply one of the best games I have ever played.
I see other top rated comments complaining about non-play issues, and quite frankly find it odd. Read more
I see other top rated comments complaining about non-play issues, and quite frankly find it odd. Read more
Published 2 months ago by socokid
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