I used to play this all day when I was 12 years old lol. I had no idea what I was doing, or who the people fighting were; I just saw cool uniforms, big guns and group fighting, and was totally sold. Fast forward a decade, and I was participating in the 2015 reenactment of the Battle of Waterloo.
Damn I also played it when I was a teenager, do not remember much but my experience looked something like yours did. Got this video randomly recommended and it did bring some fun memories. I had no idea what I was doing in campaign so I mostly had fun in custom battles.
Nice review. It's interesting to see that alternatives and similar games to Total War have existed before. Obviously Total War blew the competition away, but at this point, so many of us are begging new devs to enter the scene again and develop the idea further.
@@Birdy890 I've looked at the games, and they just lack more of a grounded and realistic feel in my opinion. Battles looks arcadey and the units don't behave like they should with firing drills and stuff like that.
My cousin was The Producer of Imperial Glory, he gave me a free copy of the game as well as a free copy of the original Lego Star Wars, he now lives in Japan with his wife I haven't seen him since 2005 since his wedding.
I agree. Very rarely does an alternative get released, but they almost never follow up upon it properly. King Arthur, the Role-Playing Wargame was really good, but the sequel unfortunately dropped the ball.
It's no surprise that having massive battles like Total war is hard to do. I still wish there was some competition so Creative Assembly would have to get their s**t together instead of coasting on a captive audience.
@@jimethota Pharaoh dynasties is actually very good - never played Shogun 2, but dynasties is by far the best bronze age strategy game ever made! (not that there is much competition in that department 😂, but it's honestly lots of fun and has plenty of unique features tied to the setting) So no, they're not dead at all given that this is a 2024 game... 🙄 By the same metric Bethesda would be mega-dead, as they promised TES6 some 6 or 7 years ago and it's not even in late stage development yet!
@jimethota I only talked about them because of your avatar, Fallout boy. I agree Starfield was a disaster at launch (just like some previous games of theirs, like the Fallout multi-player one), and they also take insanely long between releases, but people still buy their games... It's a completely different genre of course but, by comparison, CA just released a good succesful game (well, Dynasties was actually a free dlc for Pharaoh owners, but it's basically a whole new game from Pharaoh) this year, so they're clearly not dead...
You blew me away when you said this came out just 4 years before Empire. I played this game as a kid and I was sure I got it out of some sort of old games bargain bin. When Empire came out, I was already in highschool and had completely forgotten about Imperial Glory. Now I realize Imperial Glory must have just come out when I played it in elementary!
Oh this game, its amazing, in the end I still moved to Empire, the best thing with this one is the fog of war on the map and how the enemy can just emerge from it, you never really know what your up against until France goes full swarm mode
The easiest way to play this bug free today is via the Mac version unfortunately. I think the Windows version was just as buggy on release on the right hardware. This game was pretty good fun though! I do like the way campaign armies move around the map, similar to the first two total war games. The quests and diplomatic options for conquest were also fun mechanics. Thanks for covering, this game doesn't get much love!
Man, I used to love this game when I was a kid. Maps were so great! As to the crashes, maybe it is luck, but I never had any crashes. I understand it isn't a great game for today's standards, but at the time it was so amazing.
I made a Steam review (in french) several years ago, and my conclusions were exactly the same : - very interesting ideas about the campaigns. Plenty of options and the ability to craft our nation as we like (the starting year perfectly match for a french campaign by the way) ; - Battles are bad ; - Crashes after some battles. That was what killed the game for me. Even with mediocre battles, I wanted to continue to enjoy the campaign ; but constant crashes were too much.
Fair enough. I personally prefer the medieval era due to the various weapons and technologies involved of the time as well as the political struggle. Still, I don't mind the occasional bout into musket warfare.
This game was very ambitious for being such a small game with a small team and budget compared to Total War. And was heavily outclassed by Rome Total War which came out the same year, or the year before. I dont remember. The battles was very arcady and lacked features like a proper morale system, and it was impossible to disengage from melee. The AI also made some very weird and stupid army compositions on every difficulty. But despite all it's flaws it did the campaign much better than Empire, and Napoleon. And still to this day (mostly) does diplomacy better than any TW game except Three Kingdoms. I don't think Imperial Glory is a must play for most people in 2024 (having revisited it myself quite recently). Empire with mods, or Napoloen and fall of the Samurai is the overall better experience for gunpowder TW. But This game deserves a full on remake or a sequel to iron out the flaws and add depth where the devs didn't have the time or budget, and Imperial Glory could be a very strong contender against TW. It has some very strong ideas and mehcanics escpeically in the campaign department which would work very well even to this day. Sidenote. The crashes with the game is only the Steam and/or GOG version. The game installed from original disc works flawless 99% of the time. I have played for hours without any crash on Windows 10 and even Windows 8:)
That's interesting to note in regard to the crashes. Usually, the GOG version is supposed to be the more stable version optimized for newer hardware. I don't think I'll track down a disk anytime soon, but I will keep that in mind.
I used to play this all day when I was 12 years old lol. I had no idea what I was doing, or who the people fighting were; I just saw cool uniforms, big guns and group fighting, and was totally sold. Fast forward a decade, and I was participating in the 2015 reenactment of the Battle of Waterloo.
Damn I also played it when I was a teenager, do not remember much but my experience looked something like yours did. Got this video randomly recommended and it did bring some fun memories. I had no idea what I was doing in campaign so I mostly had fun in custom battles.
That is a legendary title. It was not like any other game we ve ever played back then. Way ahead of its time.
Nice review. It's interesting to see that alternatives and similar games to Total War have existed before. Obviously Total War blew the competition away, but at this point, so many of us are begging new devs to enter the scene again and develop the idea further.
Played Ultimate Admiral yet? It's made by guys that made Darthmod for Empire and from what I remember it was a pretty good game if a little short.
@@Birdy890 I've looked at the games, and they just lack more of a grounded and realistic feel in my opinion. Battles looks arcadey and the units don't behave like they should with firing drills and stuff like that.
Played this game so much when I was a child, It was my first game of this genre , those Naval battles were such high quality
I wouldn't be shocked if this was the inspiration for the naval battles in Empire. They play very similarly.
My cousin was The Producer of Imperial Glory, he gave me a free copy of the game as well as a free copy of the original Lego Star Wars, he now lives in Japan with his wife I haven't seen him since 2005 since his wedding.
This needs to be revived man. Total War needs competition
I agree. Very rarely does an alternative get released, but they almost never follow up upon it properly. King Arthur, the Role-Playing Wargame was really good, but the sequel unfortunately dropped the ball.
It's no surprise that having massive battles like Total war is hard to do. I still wish there was some competition so Creative Assembly would have to get their s**t together instead of coasting on a captive audience.
I haven't bought a TW game since Shogun 2. The last time they made a proper TW game was Rome 2. CA is dead
@@jimethota Pharaoh dynasties is actually very good - never played Shogun 2, but dynasties is by far the best bronze age strategy game ever made! (not that there is much competition in that department 😂, but it's honestly lots of fun and has plenty of unique features tied to the setting) So no, they're not dead at all given that this is a 2024 game... 🙄 By the same metric Bethesda would be mega-dead, as they promised TES6 some 6 or 7 years ago and it's not even in late stage development yet!
@@Vict0r1984 Bethesda was possibly the worst company to reference, they've lost their spark as well, Starfield is a dumpster fire
@@jimethota rome 2 sucks so much
@jimethota I only talked about them because of your avatar, Fallout boy. I agree Starfield was a disaster at launch (just like some previous games of theirs, like the Fallout multi-player one), and they also take insanely long between releases, but people still buy their games...
It's a completely different genre of course but, by comparison, CA just released a good succesful game (well, Dynasties was actually a free dlc for Pharaoh owners, but it's basically a whole new game from Pharaoh) this year, so they're clearly not dead...
I remember playing this game. It was fun, but limited. Even with all the bugs, Empire/Napoleon Total War are still superior games IMO
Imperial Glory was great in it's day. It won't even load anymore.
You blew me away when you said this came out just 4 years before Empire. I played this game as a kid and I was sure I got it out of some sort of old games bargain bin. When Empire came out, I was already in highschool and had completely forgotten about Imperial Glory. Now I realize Imperial Glory must have just come out when I played it in elementary!
Oh this game, its amazing, in the end I still moved to Empire, the best thing with this one is the fog of war on the map and how the enemy can just emerge from it, you never really know what your up against until France goes full swarm mode
Yep, which is why it's vital to get into alliances and protect your borders at all costs.
Imperial Glory was so much better than empire total war... Idk what you played but I thought it was far superior.
I still play this. Whatever you do, do not press windows button
The easiest way to play this bug free today is via the Mac version unfortunately. I think the Windows version was just as buggy on release on the right hardware. This game was pretty good fun though! I do like the way campaign armies move around the map, similar to the first two total war games. The quests and diplomatic options for conquest were also fun mechanics. Thanks for covering, this game doesn't get much love!
Glad you enjoyed it! I do wish the game was just more stable in general.
Man, I used to love this game when I was a kid. Maps were so great! As to the crashes, maybe it is luck, but I never had any crashes. I understand it isn't a great game for today's standards, but at the time it was so amazing.
The castle for the England battlefield is the Tower of London.
I made a Steam review (in french) several years ago, and my conclusions were exactly the same :
- very interesting ideas about the campaigns. Plenty of options and the ability to craft our nation as we like (the starting year perfectly match for a french campaign by the way) ;
- Battles are bad ;
- Crashes after some battles. That was what killed the game for me. Even with mediocre battles, I wanted to continue to enjoy the campaign ; but constant crashes were too much.
im glad there was competition, but i will be honest gunpowder era isn't my cup of tea
Fair enough. I personally prefer the medieval era due to the various weapons and technologies involved of the time as well as the political struggle. Still, I don't mind the occasional bout into musket warfare.
Developer behind Commandos
And Praetorians.
if you havent yet i recommend checking out "war leaders clash of nations" its a ww2 total war like game
I'll add it to the list. Thanks for the recommendation!
This game was very ambitious for being such a small game with a small team and budget compared to Total War. And was heavily outclassed by Rome Total War which came out the same year, or the year before. I dont remember. The battles was very arcady and lacked features like a proper morale system, and it was impossible to disengage from melee. The AI also made some very weird and stupid army compositions on every difficulty.
But despite all it's flaws it did the campaign much better than Empire, and Napoleon. And still to this day (mostly) does diplomacy better than any TW game except Three Kingdoms.
I don't think Imperial Glory is a must play for most people in 2024 (having revisited it myself quite recently). Empire with mods, or Napoloen and fall of the Samurai is the overall better experience for gunpowder TW. But This game deserves a full on remake or a sequel to iron out the flaws and add depth where the devs didn't have the time or budget, and Imperial Glory could be a very strong contender against TW. It has some very strong ideas and mehcanics escpeically in the campaign department which would work very well even to this day.
Sidenote. The crashes with the game is only the Steam and/or GOG version. The game installed from original disc works flawless 99% of the time. I have played for hours without any crash on Windows 10 and even Windows 8:)
That's interesting to note in regard to the crashes. Usually, the GOG version is supposed to be the more stable version optimized for newer hardware. I don't think I'll track down a disk anytime soon, but I will keep that in mind.
its more like Napoleon total war not empire. I loved this game as a kid, but not the campaign i focused on historical battles.
I played it back in the day - I did not like it a all even back in the day
Gosh this game looks absurdly stupid. I prefer not to waste time even installing it.
Yeah, nowadays it probably will feel that way, but at the time it was great. Campaing is really good, maps are great and it has amazing sound design
Why stupid? Looks unpolished and half baked, but stupid?
@@xdz1039 it's just bad, no polishing could fix this crap
@Juvelira I bet you haven't played nor listened the entire video.