I Reviewed EVERY Historical Total War Since Rome
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 มิ.ย. 2024
- Now this is an accomplishment I'm proud of! In my almost two years of being a TH-camr, I have reviewed every single 3D historical Total War. This is a series close to my heart, one I've played for a very long time, and one I wish to see flourish in the future. Just in time for Christmas, I've decided to make this all-in-one video featuring every one of my historical Total War reviews, meaning Rome, Medieval 2, Empire, Napoleon, Shogun 2, Rome 2, Attila, Thrones of Britannia, Three Kingdoms, Rome: Remastered, AND Troy are all here.
In short, WELCOME to this TOTAL WAR MEGA REVIEW!
If you've played all of these, just some, or none at all, do let me know what you think of both Total War as a series and what you think of this video in the comments below.
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00:00 Introduction
00:50 Rome
12:26 Medieval 2 + Kingdoms
43:28 Empire
55:55 Napoleon
1:10:35 Shogun 2 + Fall of the Samurai
1:35:45 Rome 2
1:52:06 Attila
2:04:16 Thrones of Britannia
2:11:02 Three kingdoms
2:29:21 Rome Remastered
2:39:28 Troy
2:49:13 Outro
#totalwarseriesreview
#totalwar
#totalwarreview - เกม
Empire seriously deserved better than it did, I hope they do Empire justice in a remaster or sequel
Agreed!
Empire was definitely CA's most ambitious TW title, t's sad that it turned out the way it did, and sadder still that they never fixed it or tried again.
Even in the state that it's in, it's an OK game, even vanilla, mods do improve the experience a bit, but there are some fundamental problems with the AI and the tactical battles that mods cannot fix.
@@21Arrozito Definitely. We really just need a remaster or even an Empire 2 to fix it. And I hope it comes sooner rather than later! Sadly it’s been like 13 years already
yeah i think the era makes for the best total war games instead of just bashing armies against each other you see nice line battles with art and cav charges. i also liked the way areas were decentralised with buildings on the map you upgrade not just in the city. with new game engines i think the tech is now there to really do the game justice but with the current state of total war not sure they'd pull it off
I really loved the setting and the game had a lot of cool features and elements - but then the combat AI was so ridiculous that there was no point even playing the combats.
I miss the liberty and the realism of the cities system of Rome and Medieval 2 Total War
Me too… I really hope they bring some of that back
i also missed the decentralized provence system of empire. i wish they could find a way to marry these systems.
@@AndysTake they probably won’t because of all the casuals that are now apart of the community would bitch and moan if something like that was added again
I can tell you this much. I don't miss the awful squalor mechanics of Rome 1.
@@SplendidFactorsqualor is a simple mechanic and is only there to keep cities from getting too big too quickly
0:50 Rome total war
12:26 Medieval 2 total war
43:28 Empire total war
55:55 Napoleon Total war
1:10:35 Shogun 2 total war
1:35:45 Rome 2 total war
1:52:06 Rome 2 total war Attila Total war
2:04:16 Britannia Total war
2:11:02 Three kingdoms total war
2:29:21 Unremastered servers.
2:39:28 Troy total war.
Thank you good sir!
A hero emerges
I know this post is a few weeks old, but I had to let you know that you’re the real M.V.P. For this! 🎉
They made a Britannia Total War?!
@@NinjaSushi2
Actually two. A great version in Medieval 2 Total War: Kingdoms DLC, and later an inferior mess called Britannia Total War.
One thing I appreciate about Shogun 2 is that regardless what stage of the game you're in every unit is still viable. It's not like how it is in newer titles where units at the early game will never get used again later. People like to detract from Shogun 2 by saying it lacks unit diversity, but I feel like if many of your units are just reskins that aren't useful 30 turns in (such as in Warhammers case) then your roster isn't that diverse
I play TW: Attila only, and the Fall of the Eagles mod really does that well in my opinion. Old units don‘t get replaced as they usually would when researching newer technologies, you just unlock more expensive units. Which makes perfect sense as the global economy in game isn‘t developed enough to maintain high tier units anyways. If you own Attila, try that mod out, it‘s so immersive
@@rurak2727 Thanks for the recommendation I'll give it a try
I mean technically speaking, Attila legio and legio commitatentes are so good on their own that you can bascially win the entire game by just spamming them and then auto resolve / outnumber everything. In fact its the higher tier unit that are useless since you cant have that mainy of them which you kinda need against the Huns,
@@sentryion3106 I know. That‘s what I have mods for. But you‘re not 100% correct, as the lower tier units get replaced by higher tier ones which are more OP but also expensive. You can‘t choose the cheap spam forever
Should play Vampire Counts on Mortal Empires then. Basic zombies are the best line holders in the trilogy, and you can summon them with magic mid-battle. In general, Monstrous Infantry work best interspersed with cheap infantry to soak up hits and keep the monsters from being surrounded. It's best not to underestimate the effect of tiring out the enemy, it's a serious debuff. I found playing defensive sieges in WHII that cheap units can definitely pull their weight, though how much so depends on the faction.
if they were to combine all the best features of every total war, you'd have an absolute masterpiece.
realm divide, sturdier politics, jeff van dyck soundtrack, an engine similar to the old one that had better combat animations, unit models changing when upgraded, the ability to upgrade generals, naval battles etc.
Sounds like a dream
Watchtowers 😥
Its impossible every game excels at one thing by design. Attila's mechanic wouldnt make sense outside of that particular game. Combining all the best features would make a mess of a game.
@@AndysTake was It Freud or Jung who said the name of a dream come true is Nightmare.
@@gerardotejada2531
fair. but way too often CA practices a sort of "clean slate" game development, where games dont nessecarily feel like they are building upon the last one.
This was probably the first time I’ve seen someone actually give Troy a chance. Which is awesome I always thought it was unique.
It definitely is! Thanks for watching!
Troy holds a soft spot for me because it was the first total war I played because of it being free to claim for a week on epic games, and I always felt it got a harsh wrap. It’s visually stunning, the setting is awesome, and the atmosphere is incredible. Also it was good enough to make me experience the other total wars and now I own almost every historical one, and am in love with the franchise
@@xannymanny9754 dude, almost exact same thing here. Troy was my intro to TW and it was an awesome game.
@@xannymanny9754that game is ass
I will always appreciate Troy because I love the Iliad/Odyssey/Aeneid and whatever flaws the game has it is at least good enough to enjoy a campaign or two.
Something I LOVED about the Peninsular campaign was playing AS spain almost forced you to adopt guerilla style tactics, especially early on. I'll never forget using my 3 stacks of skirmishers and 2 hussars to ambush a superior force of line infantry, actually utilizing the skirmish ability in the trees to constantly pressure french while my light Calvary harassed their flanks. I utilized the speed of my infantry to constantly reposition whenever the French thought about trying to close the gap. It was such a fun experience that I've never replicated in any other total war and it's why I still go back to the Peninsular Campaign from time to time.
I think 3 kingdoms feel of 'no real borders, just a giant block of land' helps with the feel of infighting and helps the civil war vibes.
I was so confused by 3 kingdoms and stopped playing
I already installed the game three times, but never can pass turn 5, I have the feeling that this game is so overwhelming
It can get confusing and complicated but that's part of the fun imo
For 3k you need to read and watch the novel/ film of romance of three kingdoms you will get attached to the characters ، so you can enjoy 3k game
@@boumezanouar Total war 3k is what got me interested in the period. And i enjoyed the game before i started watching vids about the history
I miss the classic total wars like Rome 1 and Medieval 2, I loved that in Rome 1 you could view the city and see the tangible changes as your settlement grew, I'm glad they kept that in the remaster, I hope they remaster Medieval 2 and bring that in.
Also, I don't know the specifics but it was a HUGE mistake to let Jeff van Dyck leave, he is part of the reasons the games upto Shogun 2 were amazing, the work he and others did on the soundtracks were divine, since then the music is pretty lacklustre tbh
Yeah I’m really sad Jeff left.. don’t know why either
Factssss man. A lot of people praise the warhammer Playlist, which you know, are good. But when you listen to the Van Dyck tracks, they blow the newer ones to smithereens. Not even a competition.
Rome 1 my personal favorite, although they could've done so much more with the remaster, for example improve the braindead 2004 AI, they didn't.
@@Casketkrusher_That's literally the most important thing they should have worked on, and they didn't touch it. Classic CA
@@Casketkrusher_ this, and expanding on unit rosters or even adding a few more factions to the map. that would've been great.
I really appreciated the fact that you were openly willing to talk about how little you knew about the Three Kingdoms time period going into the review and didn’t just blatantly criticize some of the game’s elements out of ignorance.
The way I see it, Total War Three Kingdoms is really just a love letter to people familiar with the characters and the story. To give you a sense of scale, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and its associated media are quite literally ubiquitous in all of Eastern and Southeastern Asia, even outside of China. I have yet to meet a single person raised in those regions who hasn’t at least heard of the period, and many learned it as part of their actual curriculum. Students to this day still study the poetry and essays actually written by the people of the time, such as those as by Cao Cao and his children. Story anecdotes are still told to children much in the way Aesop’s fables are used today. Even my Korean immigrant parents have read the novels and have since imparted their enthusiasm to me.
Every single character in this game with a unique portrait was instantly recognizable to me without seeing their names (except maybe some yellow turbans, bandits, and some nanman), and I doubt I’m an outlier on this. I knew their stories, how they interacted with each other, what happened to them in the end. Hundreds of characters, and even more that didn’t get their own portraits. The same went for every province, landmark, and most of the cities.
The game’s systems are really good, arguably in my opinion some of the best in the series. But what really carries the game is the immersion. It’s very understandable however that someone with virtually no prior knowledge of the history would get overwhelmed, which I think is fair, but also what I think poisons a lot of the wider western perception of the game, simply because they haven’t been informed of the history since childhood like they were with the Frankish knights or Roman legions.
One last thing - the reason why factions in this game are literally just the names of their leaders is for a very good reason, although I do understand the frustration. As the Han Dynasty was falling apart, the factions were basically led by a slew of local governors who went rogue and had private armies, but still largely paraded themselves as loyal subjects of the Han. To call themselves entirely different polities would have damaged their legitimacy and branded them as traitors (this actually happened to Yuan Shu, who decided to declare his faction the Dynasty of Zhou, which lasted for only about a couple years before its destruction by Han-loyalist factions).
Cao Cao’s faction wasn’t really known as “Wei” until Cao Cao had declared himself king of his own vassal state (Duchy, which eventually became a Kingdom/Dynasty) and this was only after he controlled over half of Han China. “Shu-Han” was established by Liu Bei in retaliation to the establishment of Wei after the last emperor of Han abdicated, and “Wu” was established basically because Sun Quan didn’t want to be left out. This your Three Kingdoms, some 30 years after 190 AD at the start of the game.
Sorry for info dumping here, I hope it wasn’t too much. It’s just a period of history I’ve fanboyed over for basically my entire life.
Ty for this last paragraph, it totally makes sense now. Because I ve never read the 3K romance, I was really confused by the astronomical number of factions involved during my first playthrough, but deduced the cause to be something like what you described. Guess Im just too lazy to research and read about it lmao. Love the game and culture tho
Three kingdoms actually got me interested in chinese history and the three kingdoms period. I'm not a fan of reading but there are some great videos about it and even a couple chinese drama series based on the period.
I wanted to like 3k but even the battles where bad
Shogun 2 is my favorite, imho. Some people did not like the lack of unity variety. Personally, I liked how there was not an overwhelming amount of units. Some TW games it feels like there are so many units that it sometimes boils down to just knowing which unit beats which unit. Shogun 2 felt like you had to rely more on other things to win, like terrain, positioning, timing your attack, etc. I know it has its flaws, I wish the campaign had a little more variety and realm divide was just stupidly broken, but overall its still my favorite.
Love the game, Hate Realm Divide. It starts too soon.
@@gerardotejada2531 it's stupid that it only happens to the player
Shogun 2 has unit variety in the sense they're each different and have a role that'll make them be useful at any stage of the game.
And it only includes Japan, so similar unit availability makes sense
Shogun 2 was a real keeper, that's for sure. Probably the most polished of the Total War games, at least in the battles.
I find it incredible that people are STILL, to this day, making mods for Medieval 2. I love scrolling through the Med2 kingdoms forums and looking at what everyone is working on. I have a weak spot for the Late Roman Empire mods in particular. The song at 31:44 is my favorite from the soundtrack as well.
Medieval 2 is worth buying for the Third Age: Divide and Conquer mod alone, IMO. One of the best total conversion mods for any game IMO.
@@JurzGarz Call of Warhammer is almost as good as Third Age. For me personally it's way better than Total War Warhammer, I still remember battles that I took in that mod almost 10 years ago, because they were so epic(some of them took over 1 hour, with multiple armies). Meanwhile average battle in new games take 3 minutes and is just annoying(especially if you lord is low level, your melee gonna break in 10 seconds after fighting with their counterparts, or how enemy units CONSTANTLY break and go back to fighting, so after a while battle is a disjointed mess of individual unit fights, and not a proper battle). Oh, and replenish system in new games is awful, it you win you win if you lose you lose, and nothing in between. I remember in nonmodded Medieval 2 when I did tremendous damage to a big army using just some few bad units on my border, halting invasion. In new game after heroic fight which you lose enemy just gonna have full army after 2 hours.
Can you recommend any late roman mod for Med 2 in particular?
@@MrRandalFlagg Sorry but no. Only one I can think of is Europa Barbaroum 2 but it's set in early roman era. But still I recommend it, it's a very good mod.
@@Kozas15 rome 2 witch dei mod has long fights
Actually for 3K I feel quite the opposite probably because I'm chinese, the mountain ranges and location are basically carved into my mind and the fact that I know the back story to each faction adds much more historical flavor to the game (like which faction was pro imperial restoration, demographics and traits of each region, the six northern expeditions of Shu han which was just as challenging as Belisarius's reconquesta or hannibal's campaign across the alps etc). it's just that the player base is mostly white or at least Eurocentric which is totally understandable. unfortunately Chinese gaming industry has been cripped by censorship and corporation greed so we could only hope for Japan to make historical games set in Asia, or else it'll be colonial era or crusaders all the time.
Also the game does have the potential to expand quite a bit, adding Austrionesianic tribes in the south was only the first step they could've expanded the north to make the most devastating nomadic invasion in Chinese history since it happened only a few decades after 3k ended, Korea was even already on the map. besides this would've made the game much more diverse if new mechanics could be introduced for those factions
@@jack8805 I'm Chinese too, but the earliest Eurocentric games were better. The gameplay felt down to earth whereas everything after Empire was nothing more than blobbed masses. Chinese deployments were all about good formations as it is with every sedentary culture, but 3k fails that because units mosh and are entirely stat based.
I think another factor in some peoples confusion with the landscape of China is not only that many are from the EU or NA, but that the vast majority of Total War games take place in europe with some north africa and near east thrown in. You just get so used to that landscape that it feels natural to you, and so China being so comparatively open is a bit of whiplash. I don't even remember if there was much in the more heavily mountainous, desert, or steppe regions in 3k because I spent all my time in Sun Jians' immediate area, which probably happens to a lot of players.
I really enjoyed the game, switching all the voices back to Mandarin (I assume it was all Mandarin anyway) for full immersion, and how game events like to follow the Romance story. Problem for me was that often events would just not fire, locking me out of characters or faction changes in one run but not another. I'm blanking on his name, but the guy that starts with Guan Yu next to Cao Cao, I tried every way I could to get the confederation event with the other faction but it never worked.
My wife is Chinese, but europe all the way. Eurocentricism all the way baby! I do love Chinese history too though.
no one cares chink
I still feel that the sound design of both ambiance and music are way better in rome 1 than recent TW
Yeah, sometimes the newer titles fall prey to 'generic orchestral' compared to the earlier titles, which sound a lot more distinctive.
medieval 2 manages to get the feeling of apocalyptic war across better than TW warhammer. gregorian chants and war drums intermixed with burning projectiles, as thousands of men clash on the battlefield.
Medieval 2 is sooo damn good. One of my favorite aspects of medieval 2 is that when you upgrade farms, farms begin to appear on the map! And as you upgrade armor, the units gain a different skin and look more badass as time goes on! Something I always found truly awesome about that game. And the fact that units had a town cap that regened fairly slowly made it feel more real, forcing you to draw on peasants to fill out your ranks. There were a lot of buggy problems, and the graphics arent amazing, but there are aspects that I really miss from that game, and I've played it often even as we are in the era of WH3.
it felt like you were moving from the 11th-14th centuries
This is the Super Bowl of total reviews! Drinking game: take a shot every time he says total war
Think we would die if we played that game 😂😂
Haha, someone likes to live dangerously!
I take a shot everytime someone shoots a gun while I watch Westerns. I cant tell you how any of them end.
I played the game with water and got drunk
Holy shit, I passed out at the 37th mention. Lmao!
Three kingdoms was my first total war game as as someone who knew absolutely nothing about the series or romance of the three kingdoms. 1000 hours later I must say the abundance of factions combined with the depth of diplomacy made the world feel so real. Yes, it is a massive pain learning where each faction is but the game rewards you the more knowledge you have of its mechanics and the time period. Faction leaders and their personalities feel real, Cao Cao is almost always a pain if you rival him militarily, whereas other opportunists are far more willing to negotiate but the risk of treachery may or may not be there depending on the individual. You can even get the most powerful factions as your vassal if you know how to exploit certain leaders.
this so much
The amount of mods for Medieval 2 is just insane, most any mod for a campaign, you could find a mod somewhere that would at least somewhat decently work.
Something I massively think is missing in newer total wars is your troops actually mattering. In medieval 2 you could dispatch an elite fully armed army to the holy lands but with each victory or a particularly bloody battle it'd be worn down, those men aren't magically going to come back. two powerhouses fighting a war of attrition would leave them vulnerable to smaller neighbors as they wouldn't recover their entire force on the march over to you.
I also think gluing all troops to a general totally ruins many layers of strategy such as garrisoning important outposts, or building a fort blocking a vital pass or river crossing and leaving behind a few units to lose or slow down a pursuing enemy. Hell you could even detach cavalry and use them to scout ahead or come in on a flank in a battle. the modern design of total war is to have one primary doomstack you battle the other doomstack with, winner of that initial battle takes the others territory.
Meh. All it took in Medieveal 2 was a lot of busywork recruiting new units and sending mini-stacks after your army every turn. Replenishment from Shogun 2 onwards if at all made minimising casualties matter MORE, just because you couldn't replenish in enemy territory and because it'll take much longer to fix a unit that's lost most of its men, meaning a stack that had a really bad battle will be extremely vulnerable for multiple turns after.
And "gluing" units to a limited number of armies means strategy requires MORE forethought, rather than just more fiddly busywork to reliably avoid any and all risk whatsoever.
@@magni5648 except those ministacks require resources and time, you can't magically build 7 units at a time from a single region. and also, it adds a whole level of complexity and planning when deciding what and where to reinforce when fighting on multiple fronts.
regardless of what you're trying to say, the new system is way more forgiving in regards to the losses, especially since nowdays it's much harder to completely lose a unit as most will retreat well before that. if you were to compare the old vs new system. "a stack that had a really bad battle will be extremely vulnerable for multiple turns after" - those stacks would not exist in the old system as they would've been wiped out completely.
lastly, the limit on the army number is just handcuffing the player. this limit is necessary specifically due to the fact that the new system is far more forgiving, being way less likely to completely lose units, the ability to raise full armies much much faster and especially the fact that units now heal back to full strength after just a few turns.
@@jonsnow7092Meh, cost of that is miniscule with how even more busted anything beyond early game economy was in the old games. And wow, time. Sure, a lot of player time spent on unfun busywork. There is zero complexity or need for any real planning in doing this. You could have a fucking rudimentaty AI script do it like 90% of the time.
The new system is if at all much LESS forgiving. Wreck your army and you'll be highly vulnerable for multiple turns or downright forced to sacrifice high-rank units to speed up replenishment via combining and recruiting. And no, those stacks would have survived just fine and been nrepleniwshed back to virtually full strength within a turn in the old games. Nor were units then more prone to getting wiped out wholesale. If at all, they were LESS so given auto-disband thresholds have gotten harsher.
LMAO, "handcuffing". Why not com,plain about being "handcuffed" by having to pay for units next? The new system is less forgiving, being MORE likely to lose units whoelsale when they get wrecked, raising newe armies takes in fact MUCH LONGER givne you cna't jsut perma-spam multiple units out of multiple cities to shit out a whole fullstack in a turn, and units taking multiple turns to replenish is SLOWER than the effectively INSTANT replenishment anyone with half a braincell and enough real-life time to waste was capable of in the old games.
Tl;dr: You're litertally doing nothing but regurgitating the same downright dishonest nonsense that is both objectively wrong and has been disproven already like a broken record now. All over your insanely idiotic nostalgia for games you probably haven't played in a decade, given how rose-tinted your glasses are. That, or you're straight lying to yourself just do salve your ego.
@@magni5648not really sure of your idea here. Back in the day you needed the correct building to retrain your troops, now I just click "encamp" and replenish half of my army in a single turn while invading someone. It's way too easy now.
@@BillyBob-kj4qqBAck in the day you could just build a new unit back in town and send it to the front all by its lonesome, and replenishing an army post-battle was trivially easy by just having reserves marching in behind it. All it took was pressing the recruit buttons some more and moving abunch of microstacks every turn. braindead busywork, way easier than it is now if you were willing to put in said busywork.
I'm so glad you mentioned the medieval 2 main menu. It's weird to have something so forgettable for most games give me such nostalgia for medieval 2, but it's just beautiful. The main menu for the game, of all things, feels like a genuine art piece.
Three kingdoms citys do have unique buildings but they are inside the city wall so they can be hard to see.
Shogun 2 was the best and the peak of the series. So much content, a wide variety of eras, and with Fall of the Samurai it was the perfect blend of the sword and bow titles with the gunpowder and line strategies of the other side.
Downhill ever since, such a pity.
@@elih9700 warhammer 3 is so good
@@whybother7632 About $300 for the full experience.
You know thinking on it now in regards to M2TW and the kingdoms expansion pack CA missed a really good opportunity to include the Italian Wars during the Renaissance. I think it would have been neat to have 3 powerhouses like France, the Habsburgs and Spain initially fight for control of the Italian peninsula but then boils over into the Rhineland and Flanders regions.
Agreed! We also have no Reconquista theatre, no hundred years war theatre etc :)
@@AndysTake Thank the mod gods for those!
@@HerrLindstrom any recommendations?
@@AndysTake Actually yes. On the note of a Hundred years war mod look up "La Guerre de Cent Ans". For the Italian wars theres "The Italian Wars" mod. For people interested in Chinese history theres "Rise of Three Kingdoms". For Pike and Shot lovers 1648 Thirty Years of War and With Fire and Sword are good mods with loads of content. I'm also aware Potop 1648 also exists which focuses on Europe immediately after the 30 years War with an emphasis on Ukranian Cossack uprising against the PLC
@@AndysTake tsardoms Total War
I really love how Medieval 2 allowed you to upgrade the armour and weapons of your troops so clearly. It also made it possible for simple units as spear militia to become mighty opponents on their own right. Hope they bring that back
3k records is still my go to for a modern historical and runs so much better than WH2/WH3, it still stings how CA killed it before giving us the actual Three Kingdoms period, having 3 large kingdoms starting out with much larger armies would also help it be more interesting to people who dislike the huge faction numbers, awesome video!
Thank you, Lord! Yeah I’d definitely be more interested in the ACTUAL 3K period!
Its a Crime they didnt optimze Attila.
I personally think that making a Three Kingdoms campaign scenario starting at the actual establishment of the three titular kingdoms would have been dull and uninteresting. The meat of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms story actually lies in the warlords era depicting the decline of the Han and its division into dozens of smaller realms, the complex diplomacy, hidden ambition, and the individual characters that were forged in the absolute chaos the resulted from it. The Kingdoms era signals a complete turnaround of focus and themes, focusing more on court intrigue and the handling of legacies. They are in effect entirely different stories.
The warlord era is what the game’s system was ultimately designed around and I really do believe that a significant revamp/remake of the game’s systems would be necessary to do the kingdoms period justice. This is also why I believe they stopped development on the current game and will revisit it down the road. They have to transition the series from Warlord era to Kingdoms era, which were again clean different things.
@@ChiRonChiaren exactly. the actual three kingdoms period is actually pretty boring and most of the Iconic characters that people associate with the "Three Kingdoms Period" are the ones from the romance of the three kingdoms. I think they should have called the game Total War: Romance of the Three Kingdoms to really hammer home the fact that it's not about the three kingdoms period but the time the novel is set in.
I actually bought Total War 3 Kingdoms, my first in the series, after reading the original book, and it's a masterful adaptation. Every leader is lore accurate, with a lot of references to the plot in their campaign events. Factions feel unique, with different conflicting philosophies just like in the source material. Even overpowered generals and epic duels are straight from the book
Please send help I can't stop playing this game
i think the UI of Three Kingdoms is far better than all the other total war games. when i started playing three kingdoms i never had any issues finding what i was looking for because everything was clear and nothing was cramped (especially the diplomacy section in the other games are shit). UI has never been a strong point in total war games but in three kingdoms it's really easy to navigate.
Yeah Andy's on crack. Literally a skill issue here.
It probably has the sleekest UI and most beautiful campaign map. I don't understand why its so hard to combine that and the diplomacy with the features of medieval to make a medieval 3. It's like all the pieces are already there but CA and Sega seem to have some personal vendetta against their fans 😂
Empire was way ahead of its time and super rushed, but the darthmod made it super fun
If you still want to play empire, look into empire total war 2 mod. Just recently released a new update. Iv been playing it for a week now and its exactly what I have been looking for. Introducing tons of amazing mechanics, also mix in the HD texture mod and re shade and its a perfect blend of nostalgia with sprinkle of new.
Midevil total war 2 needs a remaster with multi-player campaign.
Absolutely!
That would be sick idk why they couldn’t make multiplayer campaign for Rome remastered than you could play the chivalry mod
absolutely excellent coverage of all these titles. thank you for taking me down memory lane.
Great summary. This took a lot of work, thank you!
Thanks a lot for this excellent overview. I was in particular interested in your take on the newer TW titles (Britannia, 3 Kingdoms, Troy) because there are mixed and sometimes conflicting reviews circulating in the web. So, your reviews on them was very helpful.
One thing that I I wish they had done better in Napoleon was the general cards and characters.
It was an age of such amazing and distinctive characters and I wish they had reflected this in campaign and battle
True! I really long for an Empire/Napoleon remake, dude
@Andy's Take yeah it really deserves it as the period was so diverse and vibrant.
I use darthmod to expand on the original but it just gives a hint of what could be.
I totally agree with you on the limitations of the grand campaign map, how could they leave out Africa and the Levant?
@@the_uglysteve6933 no idea… it’s actually insane that especially Egypt isn’t on the map when it was a such a prominent Napoleonic theatre.
All I wish they did was make it to where you can play anyone.
Darthmod let's you, but if you could Vanilla I guarantee more people would play it.
Napoleon was a HUGE upgrade from Empire but it didn't have the map/scale of Empire TW and so is limited once you complete France. I wish they had the world map similar to Empire but with Napoleon mechanics. I also always felt the Empire TW map should have included some of South Asia on land (Singapore, etc.) as well as South America. Most of the rest of the map is fine to keep as trade zones but those areas felt missing.
Incredible detail.. incredible video.. well done Andy.. keep it up..
I can't go through communion at mass anymore without thinking of Napoleon Total War because a number of the songs used in the soundtrack for the European campaign are communion chants and hymns that I hear almost every Sunday.
im honestly convinced that empire devs saw "Imperial Glory" from 2005 and decided to make a better version of it (and did) but had too little time
Other day went through your channel watching the historical TW reviews. Was wishing you had more content of the type, so thanks a lot for this!
My pleasure Mace, glad you’re enjoying the content! :D
For the love of God make the next total war Victorian era 🙏
Could be good indeed!
Great reviews Andy. I've had the same journey as you in total war and agreed with most everything you said and experienced. What a great time to grow up as a teenage history nerd.
thank you, my friend :) and agreed, what a great time!
even tho I wasn't there for old total war games and have played very little of them, I love all them deeply, old and new
the amount of care and effort that goes into these games is honestly mind boggling, so many people poured their hearts and souls into every one of them and it shows
Thank you for the long style video your voice is really relaxing to listen to and love the reviews!
Thank you so much, that’s kind of you to say! :)
I admit there is a high bar to appreciate 3ktw. I had to seriously watch guides and lore from Serious Trivia to enjoy 3ktw, so many of your criticisms are solved when your familiarity with the period and game are increased.
I have to admit as someone who's heavily invested in Chinese ancient history and a huge nerd for anythinf about chinese chronological history, Total War Three Kingdoms would be so frustrating TW enthusiast who didnt invest themselves in those topics.
Though heavily lending themselves toward the Romance of 3K, most of the stories and events in the real history were true or at least confirmed by several historians. The major characters that were highly confusing because they shared the same name etc were actually related but has different agendas thus character specific factions, opportunist who carved themselves in the walls of history were written in the records, but those who fought and lose also credited in similiar manner.
I hope you can review 3K faction wise after you read a bit about the history since i highly recommended it ! It was full of intrigue, twist and so many opportunities from unique characters, even the major players were highly remarkable people from the early period until the late period
Rome Total War was my first, and Medieval 2 was my second. I was originally put off by how dark the aesthetics of Medieval 2 were compared to those of Rome.
Nowadays, I have a much better appreciation of Medieval 2. I played it as recently as last year!
Thank you for your great work here. These kinds of videos are really important to preserve the history of games and check how they evolved. And also for all fans of the series and new players who want to know what they can find. Thank you very much.
Can we just take a minute to talk about the Rome:Total War soundtrack? Literally makes me cry from the nostalgia.
After all these years I remember every track by heart, it's without competition the best soundtrack of the franchise. Soooooo good
Epic video. You really like this genre. Liked and subscribed.
I feel like Troy’s Mythology mode would be the perfect basis for a Lord of the Rings mod
My only real gripe with the TW franchise is that the diplomacy system always sucks and I wish for once they would get it right without me needing to use mods. Throw away alliances, other factions dogpiling you, enemies choosing certain death over becoming vassals. Granted I haven’t played any of the later games as my computer won’t run them but I’d love to see a TW title fix this in the base game in the future.
Your comment's a year old, but I feel like Three Kingdoms has the most solid diplomacy in the series.
As a massive 3 Kingdoms Fan I gotta say I wholeheartedly agree with you when it comes to unit models. Some of them are really well done to differentiate like the Ji Militia vs Heavy Ji Infantry, but dear lord at a glance, Archer Militia and Onyx Dragons for instance are way too similar, both of them look really peasant-y. The only thing I'd really disagree with you on was in regards to how the cities work, where you mention how they should have done it like Shogun 2, I'd argue they kinda did in a sense as far as gameplay is concerned, I think merely a reduction in the size of the banners for towns that aren't the commandery capitals would do wonders.
Also when you mentioned the music being really good I literally was able to name the song that was playing at the time... maybe I've played too much 3K.
Haha glad to hear it, Sicily! Who is your favourite character in 3K?
@@AndysTake I've got a few I'm fond of but Liu Chong takes the cake there. Not only does he look awesome, but he has what are, in my opinion, the best unique units in his Chen Royal Guard and Chen Peacekeepers. Is it good that I literally just spam those two units in all my armies? Probably not, but maybe CA should have thought of that before they made them the coolest looking units in the game.
Great video, what a huge undertaking!
I'am one of the few who actually like ToB and still play it😊
Happy for you! :)
Thrones of Britannia kicks ass with Shieldwall and a few other QoL mods.
@@MattZahariasI just hate the army movement range in that mod it takes forever to get armies Where they need to be but I love shield wall
Congrats! Hope to see another historical Total War game for you to review at some point though.
Thank you, Evan! :) I hope so too!
For real. As much as I love Warhammer, I am really starving for some historical titles
1:06:55 "virtually every bug from Empire is gone"
**Random cavalryman flies across the bottom of the screen**
I think he died and flew because if the rider dies he can fall from the horse leaving the horse free.
30:32 Honestly thought it was an ad for a moment. LOL. Great vid. as always
This was the greatest historical review montage I've ever seen. Make another one in twenty years when we have Empire 2, Medieval 3, Rome 3, and much more.
I’m currently preparing “version 2” ;)
I honestly crave a Medieval 3. It’s combat and campaign phases all feel genuine and a graphic upgrade would make it even more immersive. Add to that updates to the general game mechanics so it isn’t as rigid and we would have a visually stunning, immersive and accurate battles and none of that bs arcade/esport oriented tw we have now. Not that I hate them. But I also loved that M2TW felt that you could actually have huge power spikes, just like when a crusade happens and boosts your army, your first canons, killing a known king in combat was way more impactful. Last but not least, fortresses actually felt like a tough nut to crack with multiple layers to go through
Love to hear talk about Med 2. Really miss the old individual settlement building customisation.
I like the province idea as a way to view a region and make edicts but I think it would work better containing 8 or so settlements in each province and being able to issue lots of different edicts in different provinces. It would be a massive new aspect to the game.
Instead it became some balancing act between which buildings you can build.
I can't believe how awesome the fighting in Shogun 2 looked. The kill animations were so awesome. With the blood effects it looked like real samurai battles. I would burn the world for Shogun 3
This is Total Review!
Man the first time Venice shows up to absolutely wreck a completely unprepared Constantinople broke my fucking heart!
i love your passion also all my taste is like yours!
Rome 1 & medieval 2 & Shogun 2 & Empire - Napoleon were the last great total war in order and non repeatative again!
(also you didnt add that Rome2 Attila afterwards building mechanic and horrible AI!)
+ (for three kingdoms you should had played DYNASTY WARRIORS 1-6 so you would love that age and era )
Blue roman gang here. Dtopping the green guys advancements on the sea taking a sea route monoply, just great fun
Napoleon Total War had such a good intro ngl
Ah the best my dude
I love the gunpowder era.
I wish they would do another. Either by revisiting an established time period, like the 18th or 19th century. Or perhaps by making a Renaissance game in which armies increase more and more on pike-men, musketeers and canons.
Great video!
As someone who has not played the older titles when they came out due to my age, it feels hard to get into them after 3k.
In my opinion it is easily the best looking and running Game of the series as well as a really good Diplomacy System and sacrificing this just does not feel right to me, even if older games are better in other aspects. Also, I do not feel the nostalgia you do.
Which of the games you mentioned do you think would fit me best?
Rome still holds up imo, you don't need fancy pants graphics, only praetorian cavalry crashing into your opponent's flank.
Great video i didn´t even feel the 2 hours, i love total war!
1:38:00 *I really appreciate that you used Paradox's Imperator: Rome soundtrack instead of CA's Rome 2 soundtrack.*
The former was brilliant and beautiful; the latter was a poor successor to its predecessor.
I'm a little late to the discussion here but, if you enjoyed empire, the time period or scope of the game - I HIGHLY recommend checking out a mod called "Empire total war 2" its such an awesome mod (that also recently just updated) it introduces 4000+ units, 48 playable factions, reworked multiplayer and COOP campaigns, new religion system, new ai, new ballistics/projectiles and combines a bunch of other much loved empire mods into one. I had been having the itch to play empire again for years and every time I tried I just couldn't enjoy it even with darthmod. But Empire II mod is amazing and I have been having a blast with it. I also added in a HD texture mod and reshade to touch of the graphics and its been so nice to sit down and play.
Man, the nostalgia in this video is giving me goosebumps!
“Empire plus, but also Empire minus” is probably the best summary of Napoleon I’ve heard
Thrones was my introduction to Total War and I loved it but everyone seems to hate it. I just started Attila a couple weeks ago and I’m enjoying it
I agree to everything except three kingdoms I adore three kingdoms. Great video Love it!
My first Total war was Rome 2, i'm a newcomer to many but to others a veteran, I have of course played both newer and older games since.
I have to say first of all, the reason I got medieval 2 was to play the LotR mod for it, this was a lot of fun but I also decided to play the game itself. Being fairly new to TW I found it hard to stick to as it's graphics weren't as good as R2 which I liked to zoom in and watch the people fighting but the grand campaign was very interesting to me and while perhaps the Rome setting suited me as I like uniform armies with no standout units or playstyle, Medieval history is one of my favourite periods. I played it and realised it may look terrible but it is quite fun.
I soon asked my friend who introduced me to TW:R2 what TW he would recommend I get and he told me Napoleon, so I got it and... pretty good. It wasn't anything crazy but the different combat styles and tactics were enough to keep me playing for hours as you'd expect. I then played a lot of the newer games, Warhammer, Thrones of Britannia, even Troy when it came out. They were ok, I liked ToB, the Saxon time period was really cool but still none had 'beaten' Rome 2 as it had been vastly updated and fixed and still graphics were the best in the most interesting time period.
I then played Empire and it is still the best TW game I have EVER played. To this day, the setting, the map, there are some great mods for it. All of that, maybe my favourite. Still not sure as R2 sticks with me as it was my first and most played but would recommend to any new players, play EMPIRE.
Subscribed purely for the amount of work out into this video
Appreciate it, mate!
Third Age Total War Reforged was the best thing to ever happen to Total War.
2:43:46 this clip shows that Troy wasn’t designed to do big monsters. It always struck me as a desperate attempt to save a sunk project
Honestly it feels like CA should’ve made Napoleon into an expansion of Empire and just revamped Empire with more polish
Attila total war is very likely the most realistic altough it has many problems its still my favorite tw game.
I like Attila, but the only downsides I have with it are the visuals. Game has this dark like misty effect to it that just makes it kinda overwhelming sometimes. Plus the constant smokey effect seems to impact performance, so kinda makes it frustrating lol
Age of Charlemagne fixes a lot of that tho, game seems to run smoother on that campaign and looks better visually imo
I remember playing Centurion: Defender of Rome back in the early 90s, so I was so excited, and loved Rome when it came out. I began TW with Shogun and Medieval, but Rome was definitely my top 2.
The fact that Rise of the samurai was never mentioned in the video or the comments shows how 'popular' it is.
Andy:"Empire keeps the realistic population numbers from the last game"
France in empire with a pop of 125 Million😐
When you do so many Total War Reviews you compile it all into a single video, nice. A nice Timelapse of how total war has changed over the years. For better AND for worse.
Agreed! :)
@@AndysTake It goes without saying that Total War WORKS BEST in Eras of Transition. Rome, Med 2, Fall of the Samurai, and Attila capture this well. Also Napolion and Attila DARKENED foreboding campaign maps truly set the scene of "this is total war".
Sad to say that Total War is in a BAD state as of the last....5 years or so? If Rome 2 was the Start of Total Wars decline (recoverable but going down hill) then Warhammer was KINDA where it fell right off a cliff. Warhammer Total War isn't the problem though, its the fact their the "historical" games that have been release since then SUCK and the AI is WORSE then earlier generations!
Rome 2 and Attila where the last TRUE total wars, and i will die on that particular hill if necessary. Warhammer is its own thing, 3k is more "phantasy" then "historical", same with TROY. Thrones of Britannia (CAs MODERN KINGDOMS CAMPAGIN!) they kinda just Abandoned it.
Meanwhile, Oh god the AI....CA what have you done? When your having to spell out in the patch notes AI BEHAVIOR depending on difficulty, instead of just making the AI smarter.....thats says alot. The AI in Rome 1 could prioritize targets, but on "normal" difficulty Modern AI can not, and i have to ask WHY?
Safe to say the AI needs a major update/overhaul for future games, so it can have adaptability. Sorry for the wall of text.
Its still an absolute crime that the second total war engine only got 2 games and 4 years (Rome 1 & Med 2), but the following TW3 engine ("Warscape") has been going for nearly 15 years and countless games. The relative ease of modding and editing, despite the plethora of mods for RTW & MTW2, meant that there were greater heights that could've been reached, imo.
I initially grabbed Troy when it came out on Epic since it was free, so why not. Felt it was very so so, and didn’t ever come back to it. The Troy section of this video makes me want to go back and give it another chance after hearing how it was changed
Loved the video and while opinions will vary I was on board with most of what you said but had major disagreements about three kingdom. I thought the map and landscape were gorgeous. I took over some areas simply because of the natural beauty I wanted to own for myself regardless of its strategic value. While flawed its diplomacy was more engaging than any other history total war I can recall. A lot of what you said had validity but the scope
And the factions I loved. Not knowing or understanding faction groups had me using Wikipedia as a companion as I played and I’ve always loved these history behind it all. So when figuring out who a faction was who the leaders were lead me down many rabbit holes of finding out and falling in love with this era of Chinese history. Also led me to finding a Chinese series of the three kingdoms. Which is highly recommend for those of us who don’t mind subtitles I believe it was available on TH-cam. On top of being an amazing reality based game of thrones type series it really put the people factions and conflicts into perspective. While three kingdoms was initially hard to swallow it became one of my most cherished total war games.
But thanks so much for the content! Loved it!
1:32:14 *Wow, that was indeed legendary bad aim.*
None of the enemy got hurt!
11:58 Damn! Good old Bellona's chant! Always sends shivers down my spine
Gillar att du fick in en liten förolämpning mot danskarna. En riktigt bra och underhållande video!
Empire the most un-utilized game in the series. We need an Empire 2. It is total war over the total planet. Also its the best starter for anyone getting into TW, it just plays easy!
Would love an Empire 2! Even an Empire remaster that fixes the bugs and unlocks its potential would be awesome!
Coming from medieval 2 to empire was horendous. Weird campaign camera feeling, many little buildings spread everywhere instead of centralised in cities, map divided in many submaps, unclear tech trees... There were many problems that must be fixed for a potential empire 2.
Bravo! Great video. You've gained a subscriber. :)
Thank you so much, Needa! :D
Seriously, what a masterpiece ❤
I think you should do more videos with a camera. I found the Medieval 2 Kingdoms review the most interesting and engaging.
1 little thing was how you could edit the desc_strat file of Rome 1 to play as unplayable factions adding to the challenges you can face as the rebels around the world
for me most underrated feature is first person mode i want in future total war series have mix of controlling a single unit independently like FPS game or similar with it. if they make Empire 2 please make coastal battles that you can fire enemy units with your line of ships (with in first person mode) also make a better siege historical maps/cities (overall just a big maps)
This video made me want to play every single one of them again... at once !
Shogun 3, medieval 3 and 40k Warhammer are definitely on my wishlist, in that order.
Maybe a second attempt on Empire ?
Pharaoh seems neat
ur reasoning for disliking 3k was very different compared to ur other game reasonings showing how good 3k really is
you can see the buildings in cities you just never noticed it
the reason your always surrounded by factions is because thats accurate based on the time period
the straight forward systen attila has is used in the late start date of 3k
the large cities for 3k was because there were many power bases for many different people irl
i personally prefer more factions over less and most fans feel this way so im fine with the many factions as long as a good portion is playable
edit: even more the people in 3ks factions names are this way because many warlords had the same family(in chinese the first name is the family name not the last name), they all claimed to be china, claiming to be another country in itself would make you lose your claim
liu bei, liu biaa, are both family members and actually 1 of liu beis quest is to merge his faction with his family members
Man I absolutely loved Rome when it came out. It reached it's best a few years later with RTR platinum which took it to another level. Rome 2 at release was a bit hhhmm. After installing mods and tinkering with my own mods I've got a Rome 2 game that is brilliant, which I still play today and is what the original release should have been.
My favourite of the series is Medieval 2, I spent so many hours playing with the SS mod. I'm really hoping for Medieval 3 is the next release but at the same time I'm a little worried.
Fingers crossed.
Great vid, thank you keep up the great work.