A Total War Saga: THRONES OF BRITANNIA
I really enjoy the historical setting of this game, however Britannia is no where near as well crafted or as engaging as most of the other titles in the Total War collection. It is slow-paced and the battles are a cakewalk, even on Legendary difficulty. Look to Shogun II or Rome for a challenge. Marginal recommendation.
– Real player with 394.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Historical Medieval Games.
A nice little total war game. I appreciate that the game is quicker to play than standard total wars while keeping the main game play. You can play a campaign through in an evening when you know what you are doing (as oppose to a week with some other games in this series). I like to play this as a pallet cleanser between Total Warhammer campaigns. Their are a few annoying quirks with the game (like building guardposts makes your govenors disloyal) and some of the mechanics are not well explained, especialy around estates. But the key charm of this game is planning ahead and building effective armies from small pools of warriors, then leveraging those units to best effect using formations and combined arms tactics.
– Real player with 71.5 hrs in game
A Total War Saga: FALL OF THE SAMURAI
Forewords.
I can’t believe how petty some people are. It’s a good thing that these people are only a minority and don’t represent Total War community as a whole - seeing some people raging and trying to review bomb a game over something like this is just downright sad: not even allowing comments on their spam reviews and hiding behind private accounts. “Forcing us to buy the game again! Stupid naming the game again! Prince increased!” First for the people going on about “price thieves!”, Total War Saga: Fall of the Samurai includes the DLC that originally had to be purchased separately - the price takes this into account and isn’t more expensive than previously purchasing them separately with the game. It would help if you would actually bother checking what you are going on about instead of just riding along as some sad meme: no one is forcing you to buy the game again. If you already own Fall of the Samurai you will still own it - the rebranding does not affect you. Fall of the Samurai was always a standalone game - it did not require Shogun 2 to be played, and being a standalone game set in a more constrained time period (like Thrones of Britannia) as opposed to a more open-ended experience like the mainstay Total War titles, rebranding it under the Total War Saga is actually fitting. That some people are raging like this without even knowing what they are on about is simply ridiculous. Fortunately Steam now has a system in place to disregard raging kids like this with their attempts at review bombing.
Read More: Best Historical Multiplayer Games.
Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai is one of the best Total War games. The game has most of the positives of the base Shogun 2 game, The game looks great, performs well and has late game difficulty. Unfortunately, the game’s multiplayer can be extremely unbalanced at times. However, the game’s innovation and experimentation make up for any flaws or roughness it may have from being a stand-alone game made between major releases.
Fall of the Samurai does not look as amazing as Shogun 2, but it still looks great. The modern units look dignified but still rough in a realistic way. The old school samurai look traditional and plain, but their simplicity is oddly intimidating. The campaign map is a 19th century styled geographic map that places less emphasis on beautiful mountains and more on the great plains and seas that can be traversed by rail and steamship.
American Conquest: Fight Back
I remember playing this game a long time ago, when I was a kid. I really enjoyed it back in those days and I still do now. When I was younger, I almost exclusively played random skirmish maps since I did not always fully understand the mission objectives in the campaigns.
After some years I picked it up again and I decided to finally give the campaigns a try. After completing all the campaigns and some of the extra missions and battlefields, I feel the time has come to express my thouhts in a short review.
– Real player with 436.6 hrs in game
After feeling the old times again, I thought i help the interested people with this review, a bit out.
Alright let’s begin with the basic informations about this game.
American Conquest: Fight Back is the standalone add-on for the “American Conquest” the RTS succesor in year 2002. (Fight Back was published one year later [2003]). The Ukrain developer “GSC Game World” (Who also developed the famous Cossacks games) set a great step towards the massive fights in RTS games, we currently play. With a limit of around 16.000 Units on the map, a big step was made.
– Real player with 112.0 hrs in game
American Conquest
When it comes to strategy games, this is probably one of the best you can find. For its time the graphics and gameplay are amazing. The different civilizations you can play require different kinds of skill levels. Though it can sometimes feel like the game is a bit unbalanced. (Britons fight with guns and mounted musketeers, Aztecs fight with bows and spears). By having the opportunity to mass up a huge army of spearmen as a native American against a Briton that can only have a limited amount of musketeers, you can still fight quite a fair battle. The campaigns are also really well made. The maps look absolutely beautiful and the kind of strategy you’ll have to apply to each campaign can get you some more variety than just a random map game. There’s definitely plenty of stuff left for you to find out when you’ll start playing this game. You’re going to love it if you’re into strategy games (like me ^^).
– Real player with 94.7 hrs in game
American Conquest!
American Conquest. Back when it first showed up around 2003; I was quite young and I didn’t understand “strategy” games but somehow this game kept me playing it, if It was the campaign or fighting against the A.i and even on the editor mode. I never made maps, I just spawned Units and played for hours and hours on end
Skip to a few years later(this year) I’ve came back to love this little game again after all this time.
Playing the Campagin is all fun and it helps you get used to the controls and different units. Options are there for you to change your mouse and scroll speeds and the Game/Music volume sliders are serviceable but has no options for re-binding keys.
– Real player with 72.1 hrs in game
Cossacks: Art of War
It’s difficult not to appreciate the class of Cossacks. Its gameplay focus is well split into all the aspects that characterise an RTT game: game rhythm, upgrades, buildings, unit variety and relevance, population realism, battle simulation… One has got to admire the effort put into crafting the unit functioning and overall building management in this one. Superb.
Cossacks offers plenty of pleasurable elements. First, there’s the outstanding number of nations, each with its own architectural identity (wonderfully done, by the way); as well as the outstanding number of unique units and their precise importance on the battlefield or in the development of one’s domains. Second, there’s the realistic representation of population growth, with civil infrastructure costing you more as your settlement expands, although there is no set limit for your population. Third, there’s the artillery/infantry details, amazing to watch as they engage in battle. Fourth, there’s the customisable gameplay, as the options for a skirmish match are reasonable (type of terrain, type of elevation, game speed, resources, etc.), gathering all the good and fair choices everybody should have when playing a free-build or skirmish game mode in any RTS/RTT. Last but not least, the naval conflicts: it’s just too exciting to watch your territories and riches grow and have to formulate quick strategies with your coffers and coal reserves so you can build a solid, fearsome fleet that can outrun the enemy’s.
– Real player with 41.1 hrs in game
I think the game is an all time classic rts with an old school feel & some dated mechanics. Pathfinding can be unreliable & frustrating especially when marching a large army, also occasionally you will encounter some strange AI behavior. Other than that there are many positives in my opinion, 8k population, good soundtrack, cool civs even if some are quite similar, great artillery & naval battles, enjoyable single player skirmish & campaigns. Good times with retro feel for strategy fans
– Real player with 39.0 hrs in game
Cossacks: European Wars
BEFORE YOU BUY THIS GAME THERE ARE KNOWN PROBLEMS WITH PERFORMANCE, YOU SHOULD LOOK AROUND THE WEB FOR SOLUTIONS IF YOU HAVE THEM YOURSELF
Once I managed to get the game working it was great to re-live the experience of playing one of the best RTS games I know of, nice graphics and simple enough to pick it up, though with some bugs in the game that the programmers never corrected. Cossacks European Wars is great for 1-2 hour sessions, the campaign is pretty tedious and unforgiving however, a simple mistake or a bug from the game could cost you the entire match (Though they do give you the option to load and save whenever you want). It’s great to build up your colony with peasents, extract resources, form a big army (Building one of these asap is crucial for defending your small village so it can grow into a major threat to the enemy) and it’s a great historical game that can really teach you about the many facts about wars in the past couple of hundred years, the strategies they used and what each nation looked like back then.
– Real player with 395.3 hrs in game
Much like Shogun 1, there was nothing quite like Cossacks when it first came out. An RTS in the age of pike and shot (still an EXTREMELY rare setting for games) where you could have literally thousands of troops on the field. I played this one a ton because it was so much more interesting and different than anything I had played before it. I don’t even think I ever got into the single-player campaigns of this games, too wrapped up as I was in setting up random matches with the AI and engaging in great battles.
– Real player with 50.7 hrs in game
Cossacks II: Battle for Europe
Overall this game seems to be an unfinished project. Sure, it sometimes can be fun (probably why I still managed to play 100 hours (although divided over 4 years :P )).
There are so many bugs, Enemy AI running across the map, own soldiers walking in slow motion (5 minutes to like walk 2 meters!? da fuq, do some cardio). Peasents will often do anything else, than what you command them to do. And the crashes, ohhh,… everytime a new music track starts, every time you click somewhere, every time something happens, the game may crash!
– Real player with 207.4 hrs in game
Attention: From what I’ve read on the Steam Community, a lot of people have been having trouble running this game on computers with Windows 7 or later. Fortunately this game is listed at the price of $4.99, so if you want to take a chance with it the price isn’t that steep. For me, this game is running on my computer (which has Windows 10) with very few problems.
SHORT REVIEW:
Pros:
This is a game that I’ve had a lot of fun with over the years playing both the retail version back in the day and the Steam version now. It has a decent amount of content, including an excellent “Battle For Europe” risk-style game mode. The tactical battles can become very involved and get very exciting, especially when you avoid pausing to give orders and let it all play out. It is really enjoyable to create battle formations on the fly while you are under pressure from the enemy. The game simulates basic Napoleonic warfare pretty well, and the AI is competent and can challenge you in almost every battle you fight it in. The game’s graphics are really bright and look good, and the music is decent.
– Real player with 59.1 hrs in game
Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars
Despite all of this disappontment by small maps and less number of features, on which complains fans to, i am enjoyed by this game. It is real hardcore strategy where skirmish battle may continue for a two hours and more on easy mode. Because computer uses skilful tactics and advantages of landscape. Because you must think about resorces constantly: in any moment you may deplete gunpowder and your brave infantry will be beaten. Many fans moans about graphic, it look good for 2D nonetheless and game have perfect animations, especially of reloading infantry weapons - it is awesome
– Real player with 11.6 hrs in game
About all the negative commentars, I would say one thing, thats right! THANK yOU STEAM FOR SUCH A GIFT… . It was a buggy game on a CD and on the Steam its the biggest crap. The game doesnt have the internet server anymore. Skirmish: the combination by Russian (I played) vs England is broken. They are friendly, and you cannot attack them ._. Well at least the campagn doesnt work: first mission ok, second, The game says no ^^. The game crash, and after you try to get in again, your saves are all lost. Well 10 point for such a full game. No seriesly patch that online button out, and dont give the players the game-codes, or even dont sell it^^.
– Real player with 11.5 hrs in game
Imperial Glory
This is basically Empires: Total War. I had never played any of the total war games until steam had a total war weekend, and although I definitely would choose to play a total war game before i’d choose to replay this one due to the wider maps and stronger gameplay, this game does not lag behind. I’m not sure who developed this, but when i play Total War Empires, there isnt a single element of the game that doesnt lead me to believe that Total war blatantly plagarized this entire game. For being made 3 years before Rome and about 6 years before Empires, Imperial Glory beat the Total War series to the punch in Naval RTS. I see no significant difference between the Naval element of this game vs Empires Total War’s Naval battles, except maybe asthetics. Even at 5 bucks this is a bargain, but if u’re pinching pennies, this goes on sale often at anywhere from .99 to 2.99.
– Real player with 133.8 hrs in game
Imperial Glory has been out for awhile. This was my first game I played, purchased the CD. Its pretty straight forward, no complications. When I saw this on Steam, snapped it for $4. and some cents, It has multi-player but I have not used that aspect? So can’t comment! But the game is very addictive, with plenty of action. You are given several countries to lead. If you have never played game, don’t choose, Austria. It is the most difficult country to defend because it is surrounded by enemies. Which love to gang up on the about the first 3-4 turns of the game. Once you have played the game and get the hang of it, try Austria. Each country or empire has a special strenght, the British, their Royal Navy and industry. France, professional armies and cannon. Prussia, military tactics. Russia, population and plenty of territory to retreat from their attackers! Plus u get to gobble up all of the secondary countries! But watch out, they may be allied with a more powerful empire or two. The key is to develop your country as quickly as possible and form alliances with others in order to survive! Plenty of action, naval battles, army battles, foreign policy action, trade, industrial growth and political structure. All must be monitored and nutured in order to afford those huge armies and navies. You can even foster political unrest in other countries, once you develop a huge budget! So, yes its an oldie but a goody! Recommend this action game!
– Real player with 115.6 hrs in game
Rome: Total War™ - Alexander
Oliver Stone’s Alexander Revisited being one of my favorite sword and sandal epics, I was looking forward to playing this standalone expansion after having finished Rome: Total War.
Big mistake; should have played Alexander before Rome’s Grand Gampaign, as this feels like another tutotial campaign with many limitations compared to the Grand Campaign.
Not only is the world map smaller (in the sense that there is only Asia to conquer but this is something we all expected), no, even the Asia part is SMALLER than its size in the regular Grand Campaign of Rome Total War!
– Real player with 37.1 hrs in game
I finally got around to playing this 2006 expansion (11 years old) to a 2004 game (13 years ago) that at the time was a true gamechanger and a “game of the year” level historical RTS game. The age is important to note because from my experience, the lack of recent patches has made the game buggy on, say, Windows 10. There was a particular bug which sometimes (maybe 33%?) led to game crashes in the transition from the battlefield back to the world map. What that meant (and because the battlefield can take a while) is that I had to do frequently crazy saves (some 2-3 minutes apart). And that’s because there’s nothing quite as annoying as pulling off a brilliant battlefield win (that you easily could have lost)… and then have to do it all over again !
– Real player with 37.0 hrs in game