A personnal impression

Kokonut`s Review

First impression

As a young TW fan (since METW 2 only), I would like to give my own impression, not a professional review, of this new release. I wouldn’t say NTW is an expansion since there are so many new features nor a new game because of the facts that most basic elements come from ETW. After 15 hours of game play, I’ve tried most of the NTW different game play options, I like the game so far.

The good

Stability and technical issues
The good thing for me is that I have nothing to complain. The game is pretty stable. I myself have not experienced a lot of problems system wise in ETW except enduring the same amount of bugs like everyone. In NTW, I had nothing to report. I have an average double core and descent graphic card so I was able to run the game on mostly ultra without any problems. And by reading reports in this forum, it is save to say that NTW is much better than ETW on release since I remember to much grieving and suffering of hard core TW fans when ETW came out. One minor thing is that my victory parade cinematic sound still stutters.

Graphic and music
Stunning! What can I say more? TW has the best and, most noticeably, unmatched 3D dynamic graphic environment in the gaming industry for its scope and richness in details. NTW brings it to a new level which exploits the latest hardware. Contrary to some, I like the base color, which is kind of a dark, sad blue. I am personally a Napoleon fan. I’ve read a lot of historical materials about him and his battles. And I think the color suits very much the historical mood of Napoleonic France. It was a time of revolution, turmoil and extreme violence. France was facing menaces all around and within. Only extreme nationalism can save it from annihilation. Blue is France’s color. Darkness was the feeling of that faithful period. And the music: have you heard that female soprano? If that doesn’t make your blood boil and get up at 4 in the morning to play NTW to the death, than you have no reason playing this game J

Historical concept
As much as I like grand campaigns, sometimes I had the feeling of lost of focus. That’s why in either METW 2 or ETW, I’ve started numerous grand campaigns to conquer the world but stopped before the 100 turns because there was no more purpose. It seems adventurous but there is no historical content to stimulate my imaginations of being a conqueror. This feeling is not intrinsic to our psychic. It can not be duplicated by pure imagination. We had to relate it to a certain images in the past. That’s why us human was, is, and will always be fascinated by history. When Kingdoms came out, it gave a new breath to METW 2, not because of the generosity of CA (well 4 was pretty generous), but it gave contexts to the game, making it a lot more engaging. I’ve never went back to the original METW 2. In NTW, we are blessed with Napoleon’s glory. It makes the mood of the game so much better. I agree that the campaigns are a bit too mission oriented, but we have to balance historical accuracy and game play flexibility. We have to make a choice. And since this game is called Napoleon TW, I will opt for the former. This historical concept will remain the basis of this release. I personally prefer not to deviate from it.

Campaign AI
I’ve observed a better AI behaviour in terms of both aggressiveness and decision. Maybe the mission oriented script makes it perceived like making good decisions. I’ve made some tests to see how it behaves. Per example, in the Italian Campaign, I restarted the games several times by making the same moves on my side, the AI, although keeping the same strategic objective of defending Turin, had totally different opening moves. It kept constant pressure on my supply routes and defended key objectives vigorously. In all, I have a feeling that it is better.

Multiplayer
This could be the single in game feature that can make this title fun to play for a long time. We have options of campaign, battle and drop-in multiplayer. I like especially the drop-in battles which are the most interesting. This made my campaigns very rich in experience. I have to plan better and organise good strength and composition of my campaign armies. Once I go through all the SP campaigns, I’ll certain try a multiplayer campaign.

The not so good

Battle AI
It has made some progress indeed but sometimes, a lot of the times, it still sucks. It is still very easy to trick the AI into charging, bobbling and being idle. It is good for us to win but not in a gentleman like fashion. Again, what save the day are the new options of drop-in battles. No more stream rolling, especially the autosolve results often in Napoleon being wounded or dead. I don’t need to add more since a lot of ink has been spent on this issue.

Less firing drills
Somehow neither Line Fire nor Platoon Fire, both drills that I like, is avaiable. They leave the much puzzled Fire and Advance that really sucks and is useless. I would like my preferred drills back and make them selectable modes in battle for the better.

Fort and city battles
I’ve posted a number of times about this but it seems nothing has been done to improve the play in forts and in city battles. Path finding, manning guns, climbing and fighting on the walls, garrisoning and fighting in buildings, and above all, the absence of added defensive value of forts, all these are issues already raised in ETW and none has been solved. It is true the most key battles in this era were fought in the field but solving these issues can add significant playing value.


Nice to haves and overall score
More historical battles will be nice. There are plenty of archives to dip up and design more of these. Playing as a minor nation of Napoleon’s multi nations army would be a good experience. More units selection.

On a personal impression from a casual but dedicated TW fan, 8,8/10.