Darth Napoleon Review (7.5/10)

[Okuto]

good to hear a honest review lord vader

[TheJohan]

The ai in darths review was super dumb, especially compared to what i have played, it appear much smarter when i play, except for those random cavalry charges

[redcoat22]

People like Darth need to complain about the game, its job security for their work and ego.

Furthermore, everyone needs to buy this game.. if you don't, then they will stop making them and we would not be better off.

[PlacidDragon]

So walking line infantry, and a few more seconds of a ship turning will dramatically change your view of the game? Give me a break. They make it semi-historical, and semi-not to make the game more accessible to a larger market. True war gamers make up a tiny portion of the gaming market. And frankly, a company like CA would not make it marketing games like you describe, exclusively to war gamers.

No offense, but you're never gonna get what you want. You may want to try websites like this one: http://www.battlefront.com/

Congratulations on misreading my post entirely

[Donkeycow]

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?

Short Answer: Yes (just kidding)

but in all honestly this review is not professional, it goes out of it's way to ignore the improvements over E:TW i find, and it is insulting, especially towards the end. It insults anyone who likes this game and is overly critical. Here is an example, "For me, it is unplayable and boring". To call this game "unplayable" is just stupid, this game is IMMENSELY better out of the box then E:TW, a game that Darth apparently found enthralling enough to want to spend much of his time working on. Further more this review comes with a HEAVY bias, of course the guy who wrote it is gunna say the mod he spent dozens of hours of his life on is better then another product (this was in no way meant as a slur towards Darth MOD, i love Darth MOD, but this review still stinks of bias hahaha).

that all said and done, i don't think N:TW is perfect, in fact i would give it the same overall score as Darth, a 7.5 outta 10, but what Darth wrote screams 2/10. To me this review was whiney and elitist, and many of the people who support it in this thread also came off as elitist and insulting (such as your self good sir and Luis Daoiz y Velarde)

so my comment that you apparently did not agree with was simply stating this review is overly critical and not at all a good way to decide whether or not you should make this purchase. If you like total war, were disappointed with E:TW then this is the game for you, it's solid, playable outta the box, and CA did a commendable job. And i assure you many of the problems are likely to be fixed with patches (look how much E:TW was improved with patches, N:TW will only get better.)

and concerning "arcade" gameplay, Total War is a GAME not a simulation. The battles are fun, enjoyable, and although not the most realistic are well done IMHO and carry an authentic although not historically accurate feel.

[BemusedHorse]

Good review mate.
At least you spoke your mind.

[M2TWRocks]

Congratulations on misreading my post entirely

Congratulations on congratulating me. I disagree. I pointed out that it was highly unlikely that those particular subtleties you mentioned, if resolved in the manner you mentioned, would do anything to actually change your view of the game. It seems as though you want perfect historical accuracy, which I also pointed out you're not gonna find in a game like this. That is why I directed you to a website that has games with the perfect accuracy you require.

If you have something more detailed, or clear to say, perhaps you should be more detailed or clear.

[Basileos Leandros I]

In CA's dreams, im sure. In reality..uuuh.. not anywhere close by the sound of it.

It was for the sake of comparison. If we're talking real, ETW is a Trabant or Yugo, and NTW is maybe more of a european Chevrolet.

Human skill ? What skill does it take to deploy in default formation and then sitting there ? A trained monkey could do that, skill has absolutely nothing to do with the review Darth made. He just sat there making observations on the AI behavior (at least for one of the battles).

I was talking about winning a battle, and seeing the AI watch its moves. It all goes down to skill on how you enjoy the TW games. Obviously the TWC audience will whine and gripe over it because 90% of them are experienced TW players and want more out of the game. The people who are casual gamers arent that concerned with melee bugs and AI performance.

Well, we're only the minority, and while we voice our concerns and many times we make a big fuss about it, nothing much has come out of it.

[GasMask]

I think his review is fair after all he worked on empire so much maybe he was not impressed with CA,S work after he did everything for them with the AI ?

[Vanillamarine]

I really hope darth is going to mod NTW. Afterall darthmod is the only real way.

[M2TWRocks]

I think his review is fair after all he worked on empire so much maybe he was not impressed with CA,S work after he did everything for them with the AI ?

I played Darth's mod and had similar casualties as I did when playing Vanilla.

[JL Chamberlain]

Haha... It was really good review by you, Dark Vader. I loved your nice comments and pictures during your playing. It is still sad see headless chicken-action in the battlefield. Like I see it many times. I think, it is better take those "lasers" off on mob. :p I wont see even my guys if they using 3000-century's weapons

Never had the melee bug in NTW. Played since it was released on the 23rd in US. Played a ton of hours on it. most of the other player reviews i've read on these forums show no melee bug.

[René Artois]

This is unusual, even playing on easy battle AI, I get attacked with flanking manouvers, cavalry being sent in to exploit weak spots etc.

[The_Fan]

All Hail Lord Vader!!!! While I did ignore your advice not to buy the game (can't help myself) I do agree on all counts with you. I have logged 100 plus hours on different campaigns and have seen the melee bug crop up quite a few times. Without mod tools (official or unofficial) this game will grow old rather quickly with the limited number of countries you can play as and the europe only map.

Commenting on the speed, I was shocked when I deployed my troops at the back of the staging area (taking advantage of the terrain) and the enemy troops almost seemed to teleport right to my lines and without firing a single shoot went right into melee with my troops. The silliest part of this (even greater than the insane speed) is that they had mostly militia against my fusiliers. They broke in under 30 seconds and the battle was over in less than a minute. My cannons (which I agree fire much to quickly) fired only 2 times before the enemy lines met mine.

Another ridiculous thing I have noticed is the light infantry firing rate. HOLY CRAP!!!! It makes sense that light infantry have a little more range (ie better rifle and aim) but I was not aware that semi auto machine guns were around in this time period. I have faced light infantry armies (austria seems to spam them) and they take a serious amount of micro-management to fight against. This does make them more challenging but in a silly way.

Long story short I am enjoying playing the game with its improved graphics and the improved diplomatic features but I am disappointed that the ai could not have also had the same attention to it as the graphics. If you are a total war addict (and I freely admit to it) I think you will have the same love/hate response that Lord Vader and others are having.

[♔GrinningManiac♔]

I respectfully disagree.

I realise that the AI often looses cohesion, which needs to be adressed in mods or patches, but I disagree that the melee bug continues to exist

It has already been found that outgunned enemies will favour their chances in melee, as will units such as Grenadiers and Highland Foot who had high melee skills. In your own test-battles, you show that the melee enemies manage to break your line. Not one to jump to conclusions, but are you implying that the one thing the AI managed to suceed in is a bug?

[Mythman]

I thought I would wade into this conversation

I should state straight away that I am a so called 'casual gamer' and therefore my opinions don't count on TWC but oh well

I brought NTW recently and I have to say I quite like it. It is a better, more rounded game than Empire ever will be.

I find that it runs miles better on my computer than Empire and it looks a lot nicer. The AI, particularly the CAI, is better and has at times given me a decent challenge. The CAI has managed to keep me on my toes and has even surprised me at times. I moved my Prussian armies into Bavaria to crush them. Whilst they were away Denmark landed troops into Mecklenburg and marched straight down into my capital I was shocked to say the least


I disagree with Darth about the melee bug; the AI seems to prefer to just shoot at me instead of charging but then again it may just be me. I also felt Darth's review to be a bit bitter and is quite bias but that is understandable after Empire

Overall, I think NTW is a good game; it will keep me occupied for a while yet

[aus-rotten]

About African Negroponte pc computers:
Negroponte is a Greek-American scientist who created the first 100$ laptop. http://www.slate.com/id/2131201/
It is not a "Negro-Pontus man" if you understood that (lol). Ok this surely would be insulting but not what I have written. This 100$ dollar laptop may host a NTW battle with very low settings... maybe.

even this explanation doesnt make clear for me, why you use the word "African" in this context.
So PLEASE take the word "African" out of your review.
describing something negative with the word "African" is not very reasoned.

Especially when you think, that the rich european countries bring 90% of their old, toxic computer garbage to the so called "third world".

[The_Fan]

Donkeycow, When you have contributed to the community the way that Lord Vader has, spending countless hours with no financial reward you too can feel whiny and elitist. I am not trying to start a flame war here but come on. Darth is a respected community member who was asked for his opinion and gave it. I am flabbergasted why anyone would or could think that is being whiny or elitist. Remember if he did not have such high standards then were would Darthmod be? And all the other mods that have used his ai fixes to make empire playable. If you disagree with someones opinion that is fine and good, but lets leave off with the comparisons of whiny or elitist ok............. After all Darth wants what we all want and that is a perfect total war game! What is perfect will be different in almost everyone's eyes.

[tommyd]

Um, what? A big advantage to the player over the AI if the player is just standing still? You might want to rethink that logic.

If your units are standing still, and the AI is walking towards them, your units do have the advantage. Namely, because they can fire as soon as the enemy comes into range, getting one, maybe two or three volley's in before the AI units have stopped moving and prepared to fire.
In those volleys, the players units could have killed maybe 1/3 of the opposing enemy, or possibly more before the enemy has fired even a single shot.

[agent 47]

Darth was spot on in his review I just wish it came before I bought the game. I remember him saying he was buying NTW regardless and that why I bought it hoping for he would be modding.

I just don't understand how people don't see the melee bug or bad AI. When playing defensively you get the melee bug when playing offensively the AI will get confused and line up facing the east when my units are coming from the south. AI enemy reinforcements will march in front of my lines ignoring my linemen that are picking them off while they walk to the middle of the map the only way to get there attention is to charge them and engage in melee.

Artillery units should pack up and escape when all the infantry are dead I have no clue why the mount up and try to run my linemen over. On top of that whats funny is most of the time they are invulnerable until they deploy. Which means you can fire 8000 shots at them and not kill them even sending cavalry won't fix it. I just chased one with a group of lancers for 5 minutes until it set up on the otherside of the map and became vulnerable.

Stakes- Just like in darth pictures I see that every few battles for some reason they decide to plant stakes while being picked off by linemen.

Square formation- Just place one on each end of your lines and all the cavalry that isn't on guard duty protecting the Artillery will charge to it. Its like fishing in a barrel. You can send Napolean over and they will Ignore him and go after the square.

Honestly, I think people are mistaking the fast speed which can make you pay harshly if you make a mistake as some kind of advanced AI. However, because I nation build with the new liberating feature I'm still having tons of fun.

Yep, spot on.