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Thread: Aaaaand finally reviews

  1. #1
    Daruwind's Avatar Citizen
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    Default Aaaaand finally reviews



    Scores 6-7 basically..a few 7+
    https://www.ign.com/articles/a-total...ga-troy-review
    https://www.pcinvasion.com/total-war-saga-troy-review/
    https://www.pcgamer.com/a-total-war-saga-troy-review/
    But now that I'm done with this review, I'm already planning to head back to Warhammer 2 and Three Kingdoms instead of starting another Aegean war. Sorry, Troy.
    https://culturedvultures.com/a-total...a-troy-review/
    https://www.gamewatcher.com/reviews/...y-review/13201

    So overall i´m getting vibe from people it is little more polished ToB in their eyes. Which is bad in my eyes. There will be huge influx new people grabbing it for free but the staying potential is probably low especially as majority will move to next free stuff once it hits the shelves next week...

    Good point is, CA probably is getting enough money that a few DLCs is paid off in advanced and that we will get some ironing of bugs (rembember ToB). So the optimistic in me is expecting Troy to be in better shape once it hits Steam.

    So I´m grabbing game too just won´t install it ever via Epic. Instead I will wait till lower comment is true...hopefully in time Troy is hitting Steam.
    https://www.totalwar.com/blog/dev-blog-july-2020/
    A long planned for goal and major feature for Access we’re working on is the ability for you to link your different store accounts through it, so TW games and DLC you buy in one store will transfer to the others. This means that, for example, you can buy a game in one place, and then take advantage of a DLC sale in another. Plus, play multiplayer with people on different platforms. We’re working on it with our retail partners at the moment and we’ll let you know when we’ve more to share.
    Last edited by Daruwind; August 12, 2020 at 07:01 PM.
    DMR: (R2) (Attila) (ToB) (Wh1/2) (3K) (Troy)

  2. #2
    Anna_Gein's Avatar Primicerius
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    Default Re: Aaaaand finally reviews

    But now that I'm done with this review, I'm already planning to head back to Warhammer 2 and Three Kingdoms instead of starting another Aegean war. Sorry, Troy.
    That's an horribly brutal review conclusion

    I kind of dislike how Troy appears to be a mediocre and intentionally average TW game. I guess that's the problem with so called "Saga" title. I mean, who likes to play an average, dumb down video game ? Better stick to full games like Warhammer and Three Kingdoms.

  3. #3
    Daruwind's Avatar Citizen
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    Default Re: Aaaaand finally reviews

    I have very same fear. There will be influx of new players, which will as soon be gone due to next free game and before the game got mod support and multiplayer, it might be too late. And by time it hits steam....Hopefully it will be in okayish state as ToB was year after launch with all reworks and updates. But how much traction it will gain after all that time? It will be yet another TWs competing for attention among other sales vs Rome2, Attila, 3K, Whs... :/
    DMR: (R2) (Attila) (ToB) (Wh1/2) (3K) (Troy)

  4. #4
    Anna_Gein's Avatar Primicerius
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    Default Re: Aaaaand finally reviews

    Okay I played the game a little bit. Well ... honestly, I find the game a little embarrassing.

    The campaign gameplay is underwhelming, settlement management is needlessly over complicated. You know the formula "easy to learn, hard to master" ? Troy feels like the opposite. The campaign gameplay feels both complex yet without depth. For example you can build around a dozen of temples, each with the same model, to different deities. Each of theses temples trees gives a very small bonus to an obscure parameters. Given the number of settlements on the map it ends up taking a lot of time for nothing. And it does not improve roleplay.

    The battles are worse. Republic of Play (aka Darren) was right to critizises the graphics and the gameplay. They are not good at all.

    My feeling after a little over 2 hours playing Troy is the same as the PC Gamer reviewer. I rather play an older, full, TW game. Warhammer, Three Kingdom, Medieval 2 or really any other TW game (excpet ToB).

    It is not so much that Troy is a bad game (although some aspects of it are really bad). Instead it is that the game feels anecdotal, pointless. It is a shame to end up with such a sub par experience given its original material. War of Troy scenarios from classical RTS are some of my best childhood memories with gaming. Games like Age of Mythology and Empire Earth.

    A final point : I do think CA should slow down their speed of game & DLC release. Imho they are selling to many products too quickly.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Aaaaand finally reviews

    Quote Originally Posted by Anna_Gein View Post
    A final point : I do think CA should slow down their speed of game & DLC release. Imho they are selling to many products too quickly.
    Here, you gave the answer yourself as to why CA are a DLC and rushed-games factory these days (and not only CA, sadly).

  6. #6
    Euryanax's Avatar Laetus
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    Default Re: Aaaaand finally reviews

    Played Achilles for roughly 140 turns. Enjoyed it to a point. Like a lot of CA releases, this one seems fraught with problems. Like CA game releases in the past, I've been eager to buy them right away, only to feel disappointed. Which leads me to walk away for a few months, wait for the game to get patched or fixed by modders, and then come back.

    I am a Trojan War history fanatic. I probably have about a dozen different translations of the Iliad, everything from Alexander Pope's rhyming version to Princeton professor Robert Fagle's prose translation. In college I read Robert Fitgerald and Richard Lattimore's and loved them all. Reading Homer lead me to reading Virgil, Herodotus, Thucydides, Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Aristophanes. So I know a fair amount about Greek history.

    In that regard, I like how CW did their homework on the character names and the place names. From what I've seen so far, they look pretty good. Achilles' heroes are made up of characters from the Illiad like his charioteer Automedon, which I like. They get the name of his troops, the Myrmidons right, and the symbol of his kingdom, the ant, is accurate, as the word Myrmidon means 'ant.'

    Some things that are not historically accurate are of course the mythological units like the giants and centaurs, as well as cavalry. Cavalry did not exist in the Bronze Age. They used chariots, which the game gets right. There was gold during the period, but coins would not be invented for hundreds of years. I like the way the game uses bartering. This is accurate.

    Bronze was actually fairly scarce, so there were not a lot of elite units running around. In the Iliad, Odysseus' troops from Ithaca are primarily armed with cheap pikes, because they were a poor country. Heroes were as powerful as they were because they were the only ones that could afford a full panoply of armor. Nobles got the good stuff. Everyone else, not so much. You could make 10 spear heads with the bronze that it took to make one sword, so you don't read about sword units running around. They didn't exist. Shields were rarely made of bronze either. They make a big fuss about Achilles receiving his shield from the gods, because bronze shields were rare. Ajax the Great's 7-layer bull hide, figure-8 shield was more common.

    That all said, it's not the historical inaccuracies that are doing me in and making me walk away from the game (for now). It's things like the AI agent spam. On my last two turns in the game all of my agents were assassinated by crap countries with only 1 province who had multiple 20+ level agents running around constantly poisoning my armies. Would love to seen a no AI agent spam mod. Till them, there is not point in playing. Have some other gripes with the mechanics, but this post is getting long, so will close here.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Aaaaand finally reviews

    That all said, it's not the historical inaccuracies that are doing me in and making me walk away from the game (for now). It's things like the AI agent spam. On my last two turns in the game all of my agents were assassinated by crap countries with only 1 province who had multiple 20+ level agents running around constantly poisoning my armies. Would love to seen a no AI agent spam mod. Till them, there is not point in playing. Have some other gripes with the mechanics, but this post is getting long, so will close here.
    I haven't played long enough to encounter the typical TW agent spam yet, but I've seen enough complaints about it in a few forums to do as you have done and put the game down until it has had a couple of balance patches. I've also heard about the op chariots and the AI bee-lining the human player, further reasons to wait for patching. I will say that I have enjoyed it a lot from the little I've played. I just don't want to ruin that by playing until the game-breaking stuff starts happening. It's just a bit frustrating that the release date of TW games doesn't indicate when the game will itself be playable. It merely starts a waiting period of unknown length until the game is patched to a playable state.

  8. #8

    Default Re: Aaaaand finally reviews

    So you've enjoyed a lot based on what you played so far in a game that you seem to be implying to unplayable? Interesting...
    The Armenian Issue

  9. #9

    Default Re: Aaaaand finally reviews

    Why is that "interesting", PointOfViewGun?

  10. #10

    Default Re: Aaaaand finally reviews

    Quote Originally Posted by WibblyWWonder View Post
    Do you doubt that what I wrote is true? If so, which part is untrue?
    The part where you seemingly enjoyed a game you deemed unplayable.
    The Armenian Issue

  11. #11

    Default Re: Aaaaand finally reviews

    That's not at all what I said:

    I haven't played long enough to encounter the typical TW agent spam yet, but I've seen enough complaints about it in a few forums to do as you have done and put the game down until it has had a couple of balance patches. I've also heard about the op chariots and the AI bee-lining the human player, further reasons to wait for patching. I will say that I have enjoyed it a lot from the little I've played. I just don't want to ruin that by playing until the game-breaking stuff starts happening.
    Could you explain how you came to your conclusion?

  12. #12

    Default Re: Aaaaand finally reviews

    Quote Originally Posted by WibblyWWonder View Post
    That's not at all what I said:
    Could you explain how you came to your conclusion?
    This part suggests you've enjoyed the game:
    Quote Originally Posted by WibblyWWonder View Post
    I will say that I have enjoyed it a lot from the little I've played.
    And this part suggests you think the game is unplayable:
    Quote Originally Posted by WibblyWWonder View Post
    It merely starts a waiting period of unknown length until the game is patched to a playable state.
    The Armenian Issue

  13. #13

    Default Re: Aaaaand finally reviews

    Do you think isolating sentence fragments from their context accurately communicates their full meaning?

  14. #14

    Default Re: Aaaaand finally reviews

    Quote Originally Posted by WibblyWWonder View Post
    Do you think isolating sentence fragments from their context accurately communicates their full meaning?
    It often can, yes. Not sure what context could change the meaning of those sentences. Were you not referring to Troy? Your train of thought suggests so. Given your initial question to me it was obvious you intended to mean both those statements.
    The Armenian Issue

  15. #15

    Default Re: Aaaaand finally reviews

    No other context is relevant. It's all there in the paragraph.

    Given your initial question to me it was obvious you intended to mean both those statements.
    My initial question was subsequent to your "interesting..." remark, so how were the meanings "obvious" before I'd asked the initial question?

  16. #16

    Default Re: Aaaaand finally reviews

    Quote Originally Posted by WibblyWWonder View Post
    No other context is relevant. It's all there in the paragraph.

    My initial question was subsequent to your "interesting..." remark, so how were the meanings "obvious" before I'd asked the initial question?
    It was obvious alright. Are you now suggesting that you think the game is actually playable and that you were referring to some other game?
    The Armenian Issue

  17. #17
    Lifthrasir's Avatar "Capre" Dunkerquois
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    Default Re: Aaaaand finally reviews

    Can you stay on topic Gents? Thanks.
    Under the patronage of Flinn, proud patron of Jadli, from the Heresy Vault of the Imperial House of Hader

  18. #18

    Default Re: Aaaaand finally reviews

    You know, I really enjoyed "Troy" so far. Yes, it has problems, and I hope they will be solved. But the game is certainly not "BROKEN!!!1", "UNPLAYABLE!!!1" or something similar. Don't let YouTube's professional outrage peddlers keep you from having fun.
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  19. #19
    valky's Avatar Ducenarius
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    Default Re: Aaaaand finally reviews

    Quote Originally Posted by Gromovnik View Post
    You know, I really enjoyed "Troy" so far. Yes, it has problems, and I hope they will be solved. But the game is certainly not "BROKEN!!!1", "UNPLAYABLE!!!1" or something similar. Don't let YouTube's professional outrage peddlers keep you from having fun.
    I compare EGS to an open-beta, it was free for that matter if you were "lucky" or read some news every now and then. (similar to XCOM:chimera)
    people always complain, either it's free, or cheaper or being full-priced....I stopped wondering, what the heck is wrong with them. Am a stupid as well, sometimes, but I was QA a while back for a German publisher (CDV) and had some tiny insight of how things are done. I even dare to say, that they built exactly on the fact, that player criticism weights in more than having an actual decent in-house QA. I discovered in WHII:Greenskin DLC nearly all bugs in 40 minutes of playing...maybe I play too much as well *cough* (2.600 hours 'only' in WHII)
    Some of them were so easy to spot, that it actually hurts...

    I just balance the game to my own pleasure without giving me too much of a leeway, or so I think and having fun on my own way. (reduced supply-chain & 25% AP cost of the cheesy forced march-stance)

    edit: lol forgot to actually reply to my quote: it's actually a pretty decent game, in that you are right! 100%
    It has minor issues, that could be fixed by modding it, once the tables can be changed (ie Fletcher-building chain)..but it's far from not-playable and alike. In fact I enjoy it myself - given the changes done described above
    Good old tactical gameplay still applies....and the recent increase in TW:youtube-influencer can xyz! They actually wanna tell you, how you should use a heavy shielded spear infantry unit! common sense is lost in humanity....

    For reference: Codename: Panzers I (credited; major QA), Blitzkrieg I & II, Suddenstrike II + addon, Silent Storm II (& Alien Shooter - side-project of one of our programmer, cool game) - it just feels good to pose every now and then; couldn't resist.
    Last edited by valky; August 28, 2020 at 09:00 AM. Reason: stuff, non-kitten related
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