Darth Napoleon Review (7.5/10)

[Blofeld2k]

Yeah, but waiting a decade for them to wonder across the map is hardly fun.

Time compression anyone?

[Gorrrrrn]

Interesting review Darth.

Official modding tools may appear once the ETW/NTW game engine has run its course and a new one is ready.

One aspect I noticed in my limited gameplay so far: re-inforcement armies still emerge in single file and march to the centre of the battlemap.
Now this is a slight improvement on M2TW?Kingdoms where they can get stuck on the map edge trying to find a formation that allows them to deploy completely, but now CA (and this is true of ETW as well)
have jumped the other way.
Is it really beyond the ability of their programmer/s to advance reinforcement armies halfway to the centre of the battlemap from where they emerge and then deploy in their proper formation?

Not played enough battles to state anything definite but in the few i have played I definitely saw the blobbing Darth refers to. the cavalry attack any artillery it can, then the infantry piles into the centre
irrespective of terrain, or where your general is, and gets into a shambles. It's only the speed at which everything happens that stops the human player responding effectively sometimes.

Artillery has the old M2TW "feature" of firing 1 long and 1 short most salvos. In reality the artillery should get more accurate each salvo.

Not tried multiplayer battles - could be fun?

[Xelathur]

Nice review, I like your sincerity. I have experienced the same problems you describe at a regular basis, aswell as perfect battles. I really hope that you will create a DarthMod for NTW!

[Basileos Leandros I]

Now, I don't want to be a spoilsport, but I want to chip in to the discussion.

Darth, while I do appreciate your efforts to the community and I want to praise you for the excellent mods you make (DM FTW), I do think your review is a bit bitter.
I took a shot at Napoleon last night. Played everything on medium so it can go smoothly - not interested in the graphics at this moment. I wanted to see the AI. Well, I played on VH/VH. I had my backside handed to me, and while I did manage to hold up, I got smashed by the enemy army. Playing on normal/normal is obviously easy to rout from a TW veteran who knows the ins and outs of this game just as CA does, or even more.

A true review can stand only after a through VH/VH campaign, not after a normal/normal one.

Come on, normal is for casual gamers and not for the TWC audience! Or maybe that's my high expectation. But still, although your review raises some very good points I do think it's too personal sided and less objectively-viewed.

Morale of the story - try the game and make your own decision.
Nobody can tell you what to do. In the end it's everyones own opinion.

And I want that SDK too!!!

[caratacus]

- This, is total BS. Perhaps you should not pull condescending crap out of your ass before you post about people whom have purchased and are enjoying their product, eh?

I agree with your intelligent comment dude! this game is MOST EXCELLENT!!

[Basileos Leandros I]

Hmmm. Fantastic that this self-styled principled 'highly respected man' waited until 10 days after the press embargo and five days after most early buyers will have spent their money to reveal that "yes, well, from my free copy I come to the conclusion this game is not worth buying - by the way, I won't be putting any effort into improving it either."

I admire Darth's work and DMUC was the best thing to happen to E:TW. However, I bet that Mr. Brigden couldn't be more pleased with Darth's timing in releasing his review.

There are some bum notes in the review, too. Did we really want a review of CA's company practices and only how their new game compares to a particular mod?

Probably an unpopular post; possibly an erroneous one. It's only my reaction to this review.

I cannot agree with you more. Review is too bitter for me to take into consideration.

[Giovanni7]

Giovanni7: you just want to play Napoleon TW game with no real tactics that was used in that time? most people play TW games because they want to see how war looked like in those times... i'm affraid, ETW and NTW are absolutely wrong in portraying the tactics of 18-19.century... i would like to see what would you say if in N2TW English longbowmen just stood, and only 1/3 of unit would fire the arrows....

Napoleon battles were not just a bar fight in the middle of field CA wants us to believe... there was a lot of field tactics in. and if you dont want to portray it at least semicorrectly, then dont do it at all....

I was clear i think.i want to play as close to reality as possible.i just tried to explain why the developers didnt make the game to look like that.if you ask me except all these disadvantages Darth wrote- that all of us would excpected to see and we did not -is the abcence of the variety of countries.in napoleonic era i think except the major powers a lot of other nationalities took part.unfortunately they are not playable and i wonder why.with this kind of diplomacy a smaller nation could join the crusade at the side or against France.this happened in reallity anyway.i would like to see a game like europa universalis style in campaign map(though not so complex)with the total war style battles.

[LT Mor]

I think that we all waiting for darth to mod this game.
CA just gave as the "sand box" to ply with.

[VINDIC]

1. I find the review slightly bizarre. While I love what he's done with Darthmod it seems slightly unfair to compare it to Napoleon in a review, particularly when a lot of the points (unit size, speed, ai) were all the same in vanilla Empire. I also find the BAI better than Empire (any version) and on a par with Darthmod, in fact I'd say I've seen less blobbing in Napoleon at the moment than in Darthmod, but I'll reserve judgement until I've put more time in it.

2. Shame he's not going to look at modding Napoleon at the moment.

Agree with the first point...not the second...he's free to do what he wants...

[YassirX]

Hey Vader,
first I would like to say that your review is very good. I've noticed your opinion but need to disagree, compared to Empire the BAI is by far better. This is caused by the new firing system. Historically only the first line in this time period fired, but with a higher rate that in the last period. The BAI can handle the new system better than the system used in Empire:Total War. Of course, now there is a way to use this to the own profit by placing the infantry in a long line with only one line depth but thats not the way it was intended, its no wonder that you've found the battles boring when you use such tactics.

Of course, the speedment of the units is a little bit fast, expecially when they are running, anyway, the Empire:TW were to slow. I think its an increase compared to Empire. Altough the AI is now attacking you at different sides, tries to flank your artillery and your infantry, seeks for the general... and much more.

________________________________

I've only played Napoleon for 3 days now, but as far as I have noticed the behaviour of gameplay, it is by far better than Empire which did get mostly very good ratings. Napoleon:TW is better than Empire... which should mean that its rating is higher... but it isn't.
I think that your review is not neutral, you've played Empire:TW and it's "non existend" AI. You've put in a lot of work to change it to a better ocassion, what somehow worked. Now you did play Napoleon while you had the "bad" Empire in mind. I think Napoleon should be seen as a brand new game from creative assembly.

I would give it a 9/10. Empire should get 6/10. Thats my opinion, I really like the game. Its by far more fun that Empire.

_________________________________

What altough bothers me is that you didn't mention the technical coding of the game. Napoleon: Total War fully support multi cores and the most bugs from Empire have been solved. I was not able to play Empire at maximum settings with everything toggled... now I can play Napoleon with the same specs at Ultra and everything toggled on with a frame rate of 30+. The coding of Empire was very bad... but CA managed it to optimize the engine properly.

It seems like you like Empire more than Napoleon, what I can personally not understand.

[shock33]

Of course, just meant that I think he could do a lot with it. I'm quite happy to continue with DarthMod for my global domination needs!

[Blofeld2k]

@Basileos Leandros I: Increasing the difficulty to VH/VH only makes the AI cheat more, it does not make it do more intelligent decisions (unless I'm entirely mistaken). So looking at BAI behavior increasing the difficulty would make it harder to beat the AI, but it would not make the AI perform better.

[Syntax]

Hi Darth - congratulation! - this is even more critical as I myself saw it in the few hours [14 at all] I played - but to summarize the review - there is everything said which is true and may be observed by all of us - and there is nothing added in as emotional or political aspect by Darth . I may only applaud to this perfect preview.

And the once who criticized that they never seen the melee bug - Darth is talking about (I respect your different opinion) but of course you may not witness it, that often that easy if you have so small units on such big battle field - but if they accidentally touch they not try to separate or avoid each other - they are going into melee!!! [even they have amo and have very bad infighter abilities?] - no strategy at all is needed to win a battle - which is definitely proved - or do some think by moving and playing with own skills the BAI will show his real potential? - I would be happy it would be like this - but the opposite is true!

And the one person who criticize the pictures brought into the report - and made clever commends and tried to make this review looking bad and unrealistic (I think the person knows who is meant) - congratulation - so do it better and make a in your eyes objective description - what you point out is ridiculous, and history repeats again and again in the web - no further word on this politic....it's just that people in the meantime realized that DarthMod stands for realism and BAI, CAI improvement since RTW series and there is no argument against it!!!...why just can't stand the reality?, and Darth did that not alone he always mentioned the big influence of all the fans, so there is no self-consciousness to see either?

This is a very detailed and fair game review and in my opinion well pointed out the "good" and all "bad" issues which some would have believed they should be addressed by a development time of one year on the same battle engine -and by having a lot of ideas and solutions found in these forum - and all tools available for them - for me not understandable this 'bugs" are still in. A graphical perfect and nice game doesn't make a strategy game for me!

And now CA tries to cover this by implementing scripted, arcade battles, and unrealistic battle balance to give the gamer the impression of an improved strategical BAI?
Hat's off Darth - that is one the best review I read so far and I have the game myself! - The game is build up to sale a lot of DLC!!! [okay the company have to make its cash - accepted - if the result is good and acceptable] - so at the end this game will cost you nearly 100$ and that is just not worth the result and the effort they but into NTW until now. Like said in CA seems to be divided into two groups the one they with us fans and try to implement history and know about what they are speaking and would have the skills - but the business focused other part - destroyed all the brilliant game idea - and will further move CA into loosing customer by customer - and I'm not talking of only the hard core fans....that's how I see it, I am not very impressed by this work implemented in NTW and CA's customer handling (DLC's).

PS: Darth did mention the better Navy balance - but still there is a lot to do!

The company runs with full speed and good skill into their disaster....its their coffee I know - and it is our free decision to buy and pay the prize mentioned - but its just sad having such good guys in the company , a brilliant engine and good ideas brought to the market over many years and see it developing like this? - that just hurts every history and strategy gamer fan and customer.....I'm sorry it wasn't worth the 49 $ I invested - until some modders would make it again a playable and enjoyable game!

Thank you all Syntax

[Donkeycow]

so apparently Darth is just a bitter old man... who would've guessed

(btw to anyone basing your purchase on this review, don't. this game is fantastic and is very enjoyable right outta the box with no mods... although some mods in the future would be nice.)

[Oafus Magnus]

I had a chuckle when he said the menus didn't look period enough. This from the man who put DARTH EFFING VADER onto splash screens.

[Basileos Leandros I]

@Basileos Leandros I: Increasing the difficulty to VH/VH only makes the AI cheat more, it does not make it do more intelligent decisions (unless I'm entirely mistaken). So looking at BAI behavior increasing the difficulty would make it harder to beat the AI, but it would not make the AI perform better.

There's no way in hell or heaven that CA will make a game that will beat the gamer on Normal in a battle. Equal armies, level field. No way the player is going to lose. Let the AI gain an unfair advantage, it makes it more interesting then.

[Blofeld2k]

I cannot agree with you more. Review is too bitter for me to take into consideration.

It's often like that when you find yourself not agreeing with the result.

@Donkeycow: So we should base our buy/no buy decision solely on the reviews that agree with what you think?

[Grimreapo]

A true review can stand only after a through VH/VH campaign, not after a normal/normal one.

Hmmm, I cant agree with that, all what VH does is give the AI massive cash bonuses and makes you toops so much worse next to the AI. VH is just a headcache with the kill rates and the swarms of camel warroirs...

[GaMMwl]

Darth is the Techno Viking of TW!

[Basileos Leandros I]

Hmmm, I cant agree with that, all what VH does is give the AI massive cash bonuses and makes you toops so much worse next to the AI. VH is just a headcache with the kill rates and the swarms of camel warroirs...

Yeah but you either choose to play like that or you can simply steamroller over the whole world by playing on normal. What's the enjoyment then?

I lie it to be challenging, no matter what. Fine, make them more powerful, but I want them to challenge my brains and think of different places where to place my troops.