All things considered, I am disappointed
Why?
I have played all the previous TW games a part from Shogun. In RTW and MTWII I soon looked for Mods, which I found some great example of, which means that I haven’t played a lot of the vanilla games after MTW. This time around I have started 3 grand campaigns with respectively Sweden, France and UK. I have played mostly on h/h difficulty since vh/vh is just stupidly impossible (if that is an expression). I would estimate my total playing time to be about 60 hours.
My major objections, at least so far, are:
1. The game does not give me enough excitement, and I believe the reason is a passive and predictable AI that makes everything too easy for the human player. As an example I have as UK conquered Cuba and Hispaniola from the Spanish within the year 1705, and the resistant has been next to nothing. With my “base” on Jamaica I can recruit as many line infantry units that I like and invade other islands without being halted by their navies. The only serious opponent I have met is pirates. The AI does not make many smart moves in general, making everything so predictable and thus removing the magic excitement.
2. Talking about magic, the game totally lacks atmosphere. No music and sound that even pretend to give the gamer an 18 century feeling, a real shame and a major mistake in my mind. I am so glad someone out there has made mods to remedy the problem.
3. The bugs and in particular the CTD bugs have ruined all my campaigns. The last one, UK, ended in 1707 when the Iroquois declared war on the 13 states and I choosed to support the latter. As always the CTD is impossible to pass by and now my campaign is spoiled and I must start all over again for the fourth time. I will probably leave the game and play something else though.
4. The lack of surprises, variation and rewards are just like the previous games. Every city is the same giving no unique challenges or rewards. The victory conditions are much more varied this time, and that is great, but there is still a lack of incentives to conquer the designated provinces. It does not give the gamer rewards, it does not matter in which order the conquest are done, and the depth many talks about are in my mind absent. There are just not enough rewards that make the game interesting to the bitter end. The good old repetitiveness is absolutely still there. I would love a change on that area.
5. The graphics both at sea and on land are stunning, just marvelous. The sad thing is that it is too hard to get a close look at the forces and ships to observe the units behaviour. At least on my computer I do not seem to get close enough to really enjoy the details without pausing the game or very carefully maneuver the camera to the wanted position.
6. The game is not close enough to history. I have seen Denmark-Norway and the United Provinces be crushed just like that while historically none of these nations never was conquered. This is a game, and therefore this should be possible in the game but it should be very hard to do so. Iceland was the only province left of D-N and no less than 25-30 units was stationed there. I wonder how an island with almost no resource at all could keep such a garrison? It’s just far out, and it never stops to puzzle me why such crazy things happen in every TW
As I have said earlier, this game has a huge potential but since less is more, I believe the game have to focus more on the finer details if it should keep its fans. Further improvements in diplomacy and behavior of the different countries would help. It should be harder to make progress in the game, and when doing so there should be interesting rewards. It might not need a big change but a short video clip here and there, some unexpected happenings that spices up things, and rewards that keep the gamer going would help.
Just some thoughts from a dedicated lover of TW games, now wondering If the TW era is soon to be over
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Originally Posted by Barser
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not to enjoy? If you don't like it, don't buy it...
