Customer Reviews

Medieval: Total War

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

I've been playing computer strategy games for more than 20 years, played my first one on a green-screened Compaq with 64k of RAM, played them by the dozens, and for my money, this is the best one so far. The amount of detail is incredible, the battle scenes feel amazingly real -- you feel transported to another place and time. The strategy, role-playing and tactical aspects of the game all work together pretty flawlessly, creating a credible feel of following your regime through hundreds of years of struggle. There are some downsides -- some of the strategy aspects and diplomacy don't seem to affect gameplay much, for instance -- but the incredible attention to detail is amazing. I played Shogun Total War and thought it was cool, but this really takes the game to another level. Requires quite a bit of computer horsepower to run, by the way, when you've got 2,000 or more men battling it out. Some amazing battles, with the tide shifting back and forth, the issue undecided for hours, sometimes, the weather changing, etc., rallying troops, sending for replacements, making desperate last-ditch bids in the final minutes with your king. If you like wargaming, strategy games or if you're a history buff, this game will keep you interested a long, long time. Lots of replay value -- I've played probably 100 hours and feel like I've only scratched the surface. Haven't tried multiplayer yet. Anyway, this is guaranteed fun. The learning curve is somewhat steep, but I find the interface really intuitive. Great stuff.

Don't walk or even run to buy this game - sprint. I really have an aversion to throwing a casual 5 stars at a game, but this one commands the highest rating. For six years I have scoured the turn-based and RT strategy world, having played most of the popular standards (e.g. Shogun,Shogun:Warlord Edition,AOE, AOK,Civ 2&3), and have not found a more synthesized, well-designed, and most importantly, fun game. Why am I so stark-raving excited about this game? A short list:

1. Incredible detail and depth - dozens of military types and units, options for nation-building, trade, diplomacy, sabotage, seige, etc.
2. Excellent, adaptive AI. What we want....
3. Vibrant graphics - landscapes, buildings, tips/tools screens.
4. No sloppiness or cut corners: impeccable clarity of story, instruction and playability.
5. Detailed and accurate depiction of religious, cultural and societal distinctions (Muslim, Christian, Orthodox, European, Arabic, etc.).

But the most important strength: That undefinable, undeniable feeling of immersion that only the best games create. IOW, MTW takes you there - Medieval Europe. You feel the heat of the Algerian sun on your bronze Spanish helmet as you brace, spear in hand, as the Mamuluk camel warriors descend upon your unsuspecting platoon from out of the dusty desert hills. You hear and feel the tremble and terror of 180 fierce horse warriors outflank your archers. MTW taps into the reason most of us play these old world war games: It brings that sense of complete escape and excitement that makes the price of the game a sound investment.

Medieval: Total War is a worthy follow-up to its predecessors, Shogun: Total War and Shogun: Warlord Edition (both of which I played and enjoyed for months). The next generation truly is better looking and more talented in this family tree.

The guys of the epic Shogun: Total War games have really gone for ultimate perfection with their European version. Medevil Totalwar is a truly worthy heir to Shogun (a game I recomend you try before MTW). Shogun made the gamer truly think like a Japanese Warlord. Something games like Warcraft, Starcraft, Age of Empires, ect. just don't do. It is the same for MTW in which the gammer must balance subterfuge,with all its sabatoge and murder,and the empire building grunt work of VAST armies battling over EPIC 3D battle fields(think Bravehart)! MTW takes what developers did with STW and adds SEVERAL improvements. Inquisitors from all the cultures search and destroy any heritics and any antisentement to your rule, much like the Shinobi of STW. Assassains kill rival generals and diplomats, like the Ninja of STW. But this is were things pick up were STW left off. Siegies are fought for real. Artillery pound castle walls to dust as up to 10,000 warriors, under your every order, battle it out on a real time 3D battle field were snow, rain, heat, wind, and down right nasty nature, effect the morale of your army. To control your land completely, your shores must be patroled for enemy invasion. To do this you have to build great fleets of warships, something STW completely ingnored in Japanese history. The Pope himself in Italy may call for money from you, or to crusade against other "hethen" cultures. Following his demands will ultimately throw you into the Great Crusades, but not following his holy order may also land you in some serious [trouble] when he calls for one of those crusades against you! Your blood line must be kept going if you want your empire to last forever! Marrying off your children will produce those needed heirs to your throne, but even more intrigueing is marrying them to rival factions. Doing this will open up those, "Huge...tracks off land!", when they die. It will also keep your generals from starting a civil war for your throne. Keeping track of heirs isn't automatic like in STW. If you dont keep youngins in the family a 70 year old king isn't going to have the energy to suddenly "make some heirs". Medevil Totalwar WILL be 200 times better then Shogun so if you liked Shogun you will like Medevil Totalwar. If you haven't experienced Shogun Totalwar you deffinatley should check it out. Medevil Totalwar IS going to be the best TBSG (turn based stratedgy game) and the best overall SG (stradegy game) for years to come. There is a true replay value on this one. Not even Richard the Lionheart could play this one once and master its epic size intregue and Medevil warfare simulation(that almost perfectly recreates the way war was fought all those centuries ago). Oh, and for the gammer with the "lagging software" MTW's 3D engine is absolutly incredible. The revolutionary engine makes it very easy for computers with only 64 Megs of RAM to keep up with the games HUGE battles. Battles that can sometimes take up to 45 minuets when all 10,000 max knights are running around out there! As you can see I give MTW 11 out of 10! Way to go Creative Assembly! You're the developers realy behind all of this awesomeness!

Make no mistake, this is a great game in every sense of the word. Being a huge fan of Shogun Total War, this was the only strategy game I really wanted and I'm mostly pleased. The graphics look really good, although the map screen can be rather crowded or look too "busy". The sound is ok, voices take a back seat and music wise it's rather sparse. The front-end presentation is brief and kinda weak. As for the gameplay, it really does expand greatly on Shogun's features. More varied units to train/build, more playable factions, more complex castle seiges, more espionage intrigue, stronger alliances; in other words, lots more options and features. However, it is far from perfect and there are some things that bother me about the game which is why I give it only 4 stars.

Some things I've noticed since playing it:
* I usually play the European/Catholic factions, and I noticed that if you don't keep an eye out for Egypt, they can be like this games version of the Hojo Clan(Shogun fans know what I'm refferring to)
* I played it on easy and expert. The only noticeable difference is the amount of money you get at the beginning, while the manual stresses that the difficulty level affects the loyalty of conquered provinces.
* This brings me to my biggest gripe, even on the easy level it was EXTREMELY difficult to retain consistent loyalty from conquered provinces. I understand Muslim territories won't accept Catholic rulers, but considering I had these provinces for decades, had about 1,300 men garrisons guarding them, and took into account tax rates, natural disasters, and deaths of my ruler(which can all affect loyalty) I still had trouble maintaining loyalty in certain provinces.
* This brings me to another sore point. To maintain large garrisons in rebellious provinces takes up a lot of your money(florins). You can find yourself running out of florins right before your total conquest, if you even get that far.
* Which brings me to another sore spot. This game ends no matter what at 1453. So if you choose to win through domination(take at least 2/3 of the provinces) or glorious achievements(have the highest score over other factions by accomplishing certain tasks), you better do it fast cause the game gives you only a certain amount of time to accomplish it(1 turn counts as a year, whereas in Shogun, 1 turn was a season which gave you 4 turns a year basically).
* There seems to be some bugs in the game. There's a recurring situation where, in the same turn, I had a Muslim province at 100+ loyalty, which is good. I went to check on other provinces, then came back to that same province(in the same turn) and noticed it went down below 100 loyalty(which makes it a prime candidate for rebellion). It's that inconsistency I'm talking about that make it frustrating and annoying sometimes. For those who like total manual control rather than letting the pc take over for you, this can be a real headache.
* Calling up a Crusade or Jihad is really entertaining, and you have to be careful when and who you call it against. This new option is arguably my favorite of the game(however, I do recall being attacked once by the French, then I attacked back...yet the Pope ex-communicated me for aggression towards fellow Christians! The Pope tends to be over-protective of the Frenchies so be careful).
* There are some great units in here, but some of the best can be too costly to train and pay for year in and year out. Couple that with having to maintain large garrisons, and i find myself settling for cheap spearmen or feudal seargents instead of the cool but costly royal knight types.
* I've beaten the game on easy(one by total domination with Spain, one by 'lesser victory' or 2/3 domination with England, and one by edging out all the other factions through glorious achievements with the Italians). You get personalized endings depending on your faction, but it's just a static screen with a voice-over, hardly exciting. I'm thinking it's because I chose the easy level so I'm currently attempting total domination with Turkey on the expert level.

Anyway, that's just a few things I've come across while playing this game. I have yet to try any new cheat codes(although .matteosartori. for full map view works in this game too), multiplayer on-line, and have yet to use the auto-tax/train options; but nevertheless I feel this game is a worthy successor to Shogun, a must try/buy, and comes highly recommended for fans of real-time/turn-based strategy fun, despite any potential frustration and in-game bugs you'll most likely run into.

The stategic element of the game is very well done! The 3-D battles are merely a bonus. The turn based map can best be described as Defender of the Crown meets Civilization. There are pre-defined territories that are based on real medieval lands. The strategic gameplay is deep enough to be to be fun, but not so complex that it's tedious. There is really too much to talk about to go into detail, but it's really fun.

The 3-D battles are much more realistic than real time games like war craft and age of empires. Medieval takes things such as Morale, dicipline, leadership, weather and fatigue into account. The graphics are fine, but they are not great. Naturally, the each soldier is going to be kinda small in order to fit so many guys onto the field at once. But this doesn't detract anything from the game IMO, but it may disappoint those who just want eye candy. As one whose been disappointed with recent medieval strategy games, Medieval: Total War was a very pleasant suprise!

Imagine 10,000 troops coming over the nearest hill. Archers, Footman, and many siege engines start flooding to your walls. Just as your army is assembling, your foes catapults deal a fatal blow to a nearby arrow tower, causing it to collapse upon a large gathering of your troops...and that's just the tutorial.

This game is nothing short of incredible. If you are sick of the rock, paper, scissors RTS games, that don't take any strategical thought into account, then this is your game. You have the high ground, well then your archers can fire further and your troops will fatigue less, as they are walking down hill. Badly outnumber by an invading Germanic army? Set up an ambush in so trees and ride your calvary hard to flank your enemy's ranks. Then after the battle, you can view the battlefield full of carnage because all the pathetic soldiers that fell to your army remain where they fell...all 3000 of them.

Seriously, with 200 different units, this is the game that actually takes knowledge of warfare into account, as well as more than a little bit of planning in the deployment of your troops. Though the game is not due until later this year, pick it up when it becomes available.

Make no mistake. This game is not Command & Conquer. I'd compare it more to Risk. In the Campaign mode, you have a map of Europe, you have to juggle such matters as infrastructure in your provinces, taxation, religion, trade, maintaining armies, marrying off princesses to assure alliances, keeping generals happy and loyal by giving them posh or glorious commands, all while fighting off assassins and heretics. Oh my!

Of course, when two armies occupy the same province bad things happen. The warfare takes place on full 3D battlefields where every possible condition, from high ground to wind, to concealment in trees, plays a factor. Battles are fought with up to one hundred different unit types including special units for each culture (the Brits get longbows, for example), and up to 10,000 individual units onscreen. The battles are spectacular, and using strategy to flank and ambush pays off in spades.

This game has completely sucked me in since it released. I can't really think of a more complete, fulfilling game. The only one on the horizon that I could see being as involving as Medieval: Total War would be the next iteration in the Total War series.

Buy it. With most games $50, $40 is a steal for the game of the year. If you are a doubter, download the demo first. This game is not a let down!

Where Civilization (plus all it's sequels and rivals) have failed (and they have) - Medievil: Total War suceeds with an addictive game. Example #1: In Civ, I always dreaded when my populations became unhappy, because it was ridiculouosly difficult to sooth them (do I hire an entertainer??). In MTW, most happiness is based on the tax rate (very low, low, normal, high, very high) and later on the leader's (that's you) religion versus the population you lead. Example #2: In Civ, micro-managing each city through the SAME purchases became a nightmare. In MTW, the creators have made city management both - interesting and simple. If you want an enjoyable super-intuitive strategy game - buy this game! Strategy game of the year!

Boy, what can I say? From what I have experienced in the demo, I can hardly wait for the actual game's release. The graphics are tremendous, considering the massive amounts of units that flood the game. And unlike most other RTS games, where the people soon just disappear like they sunk into the ground or something, this game has every fallen man stay were he was killed. Every battlefield is 3D, with realistic buildings, trees, shrubs, you name it.

And this game takes castle sieging to a whole new level. With the walls crumbling under the heavy barrage of your mutiple types of siege weaponry, it is truly a wonderful sight. The shots of your siege weapons bounce off the ground, gouging holes in the earth and decimating any troops that get in the way. Blow holes through the lines of enemy troops before you assault with your own. There are so many options in this game, with so many tactical elements, it is mind-boggling.

And keep in mind that I am only referring to what I have experienced in the demo. And if I am this astounded by the demo, then when the game comes out, call 911 because I've had a heart attack. The game goes beyond just battlefield carnage and in the single player campaign you must build your empire not only through might, but through diplomacy, trade, and your economy. There are also multiple objectives for each campaign, and many different kingdoms and cultures that you can play.

I have a 900Mhz AMD Athlon, 256MB RAM, and a GeForce2 Ti, and this game runs like a dream. While some smaller computers might have to turn the graphics down a tad, it is amazing how they kept the framerates stable even with all of that action.

This game is a must buy. Way to go, Creative Assembly!

I like this game, as I liked Shogun before it. The Total War games have the best tactical (battle control) interface I have seen. Each battle can take hours with shifting fortunes. The types of troops you field and match against the enemy really matter. For the battles, the game is worth the time and money.

The game is weak at the strategic level. The territories of the Europe map are too large for medieval Europe. There are too few active governments for an age in which innumerable feudal barons and kings contended with each other. The idea that any medieval prince could have conquered, and held, Europe in the medieval era is absurd. Diplomacy is stilted and irritating. Army movements pay no attention to the relationships between travel time, distance, army size and supplies. All in all, the strategic level is not a serious part of the game. It serves as a transition point to the next battle. Buy the game for the battles if you can ignore that your need for strategic challenges won't be met.