RuleBritannia's Review (in-progress)

Before I begin, let me note I have been a critic of E:TW and CA alike for a while now, and this game has completely renewed my faith in both CA and the Total War series alike.


So far:




Graphics: 9/10

The graphics, simply put, are stunning as they can be. The soldiers no longer are clones, the maps no longer look extremely generic and uninteresting, and the particle effects are spectacular. I actually enjoy looking around at the beauty of the map now! Also, soldier faces look excellent. They no longer resemble mutant demons like they did in Empire.


The uniforms do look a tad bit cartoony in my opinion.



Sound: 10/10

Everything about the sound is better now, and I first noticed it at the menu. I was literally awestruck at how spectacular the music was. In Empire, we had some faint trumpet noises and the like, but in this, we have a full-fledged symphony! The music is very good as well, especially when compared to Empire.

The bantering among the soldiers is also a great new feature. The soldiers actually chat among each other at random (in their native languages of course, so no Russians chatting in English or anything), and they say a wide variety of things, from general chat to screams of panic. This may seem a bit insignificant, but this feature is revolutionary to the TW series itself. Before, in all games, it felt like you were throwing armed mannequins at each other until one side gave up, but now, soldiers actually have personalities, so it feels like you're leading actual troops rather than plastic Army Men figures. The fife music was beautiful, and I actually enjoyed listening to it.



Gameplay: 8/10

The AI, both campaign and battle, is much better overall. It still has its faults at times, but it acts well. It holds it lines, flanks, and puts up a good fight. The campaign AI also acts better and is more active.




Overall: 9/10

A grand improvement over Empire and now my second most-favourite TW game (second to Rome).

I'm not sure what issues you feel have been resolved. I agree that the graphics and sound are much better, but beyond that I see almost no improvements. The BAI is still completely crippled. I do notice there have been improvements, but what was once 1/10 AI might now be a 2 or 3/10. The enemy BAI STILL doesn't know how to react to cavalry charges (barely ever switch to square), it still doesn't know how to place artillery (artillery will stay out of range or behind a hill for entire battles). I still frequently see enemies letting themselves get pummeled to dust by artillery without moving. I still have infantry bunching up in front of my arty for canister slaughter.

As for CAI, they haven't improved it at all. From what I can see, all they did was remove most of the factions and make the maps smaller for a less complex game. Some problems are less noticeable now for simple virtue of not having as many chances to surface, but they haven't been solved. The CAI couldn't figure out trade routes or protecting them, so that's largely been removed. It couldn't figure out diplomacy, so that was largely removed. The CAI still leaves towns undefended and runs around with 4 unit stacks in the middle of your territory.

I'm being completely honest here. I've seen VERY VERY little improvement from E:TW. I lost my faith in CA with that mess, but this has shattered it completely.

*finished the review*