Empire and Napoleon total war review

Empire total war is set in the 18^th century which was a time where guns were the main weapon in an armies arsenal and the tactics of warfare really changed it was around this time that the American revolution happened and the Napoleonic wars.

You in the game can control one of many superpowers in the game and lead them to greatness by completing specific objectives such as capture a certain number of cities before a certain year, it is pretty much the same formula that the total war games have followed for years with a few differences one being that the character such as Diplomats have been removed and only two remain Gentlemen and Rakes. Gentlemen help with research and can challenge other Gentlemen to duels; Rakes act as the assassins and spy and can infiltrate cities, assassinate a key leader or destroy certain buildings. Now things like diplomacy are done on a separate screen meaning diplomats don’t have to spend ages traveling. All of this is done on the campaign map until a battle begins where the view changes to a real time tactical battle where you control your troops, the battles are just as good as they ever were and the new tactics that you have to deploy using rank and file and utilising your gunmen to devastating effect. Now the few improvements to the battles are that your units can take cover in buildings and build fortifications like small trenches.

Empire also includes sea battles a first for the series and they are one of the best parts as the trade-off between smaller faster ships and the huge ones that are slower is really apparent, for different ship you will use different tactics for the faster ones you should destroy the sails and for larger ships you could target the hull to sink it.

The graphics are excellent and if you have the system to run it then you will love the visuals. The sounds are also very good with good voice acting and battle sounds.

The game has the typical problems associated with these games the Ai can be annoying not accepting proposals that would benefit them and the area in the main campaign is so massive that it can’t fit on one map meaning a lot of switching back and forth between maps which is tiresome. Plus the only way for ships to travel between maps is through these narrow corridors which a smart person could just blockade and stop all opposing ship travel, not that the AI uses the travel system.

In the end the game is great but the problems are apparent and will detract from the experience and with such as huge map managing your empire takes a long time meaning without anything really new and fresh I got bored after a few turns. The final rating is a 7/10 if you have the patience to play it you will enjoy empire if not you might find it hard to play for any prolonged period of time.

Now napoleon is different it focuses on the exploits of napoleon through the different regions he fought in, Italy, Egypt, Europe and ending with Waterloo, the core is still the same and outside of napoleons campaign the problems with the length of management time still stand, I just don’t feel that the creative assembly pulled out all the stops to improve and innovate, therefore Napoleon total war gets a 5/10 only for diehards total war fans.