Empire: Total War Review

The other reason you’ll want to play out most battles in real time is that the real-time AI is weak and can be exploited to your advantage. Enemy troops often fail to engage you, even when under direct fire. It isn’t uncommon for your AI opponent to use only a few units at any given time and let you get an early upper hand, particularly when you have taken care with your formations during the deployment phase. This is especially true on settlement maps, in which narrow paths must be taken into account and buildings can be used for garrisoning. The AI is often confused by garrisoned troops, letting cavalry get pummeled by gunfire without taking any steps to reposition, even at higher difficulty settings. And at times the artificial intelligence is outright broken. On multiple occasions, we watched units refuse to engage or respond to attack commands, our own troops and the enemy troops milling among each other as if they were at a cocktail party rather than in the midst of battle. Other battle quirks–such as rare moments when movement across the map occurs in slow motion, as if troops are moving through mud instead of a grassy field–may also crop up.

Naval battles may not feature the most impressive AI, but they're sure awesome to watch.

Real-time naval battles are another new feature, and they are the most impressive visual offering here. The water is absolutely stunning and the ships are incredibly detailed, down to the movement of sails and oars, as well as the movement of troops on the decks. As ships take damage, debris falls from the hull and litters the water, all while fireships may be volleying flames into the air. It’s the best-looking naval combat in any game, and it is compelling when in top form. Like land battles, naval warfare benefits from smart positioning, and you can further micromanage by choosing different ammo types, firing your cannons manually, and even by grappling and boarding another ship. But as with land warfare, the AI seems incapable of managing the battle with much success on normal and hard difficulties. In dozens upon dozens of naval battles, the enemy deployed ships in the same exact manner and always focused on doing hull damage, but never on alternate strategies such as using grape shot to whittle down a crew and then initiating boarding. In a stand-alone naval skirmish using default deployments on normal AI settings, we won a battle after issuing a whopping two commands during the entire match; if you want a challenge in one-off naval battles, crank up the difficulty level to expert.

As problematic as the AI can be, both types of battles are fun to play, and the addition of oceanic combat fleshes out the package well, making for multifaceted gameplay that encompasses a lot more than it could be expected to. This includes a number of multiplayer options, both over a local area network and online. You can battle both on land and at sea in a one-off skirmish for up to eight players; take part in a one-on-one siege in which one player defends a fortress while the other attacks; or engage in a historical scenario, such as the battle of Brandywine Creek. Sadly, a full multiplayer campaign like the impressive 32-player extravaganza featured in Europa Universalis III is not yet part of this package, though developer Creative Assembly has announced that a multiplayer campaign mode will be added later.

The strengths of the core gameplay are far more apparent when you’re playing against real people. As with prior Total War games, you get finite resources to spend on units of your choice, you can customize weather, and you can narrow unit selections to early or late 18th century. Without the bizarre AI behavior, you can concentrate on real battlefield tactics and not on exploitation, and matches can be an absolute blast. The measured approach and attempts to flank, the intimidating presence of a rocket troop, the final standoff of two fatigued units: These moments make Empire: Total War’s multiplayer options worth returning to again and again. Naval battles are also much more fun when facing a human opponent, who will be likelier to slow your frigates by using chain shot, and to take advantage of tactical positioning and effective deployment.

Camels are never not cool in strategy games.

However, you may very well need to turn down your graphics options when entering an online match, lest the frame rate drop to a crawl under the weight of the game’s ambitions. Indeed, Empire: Total War requires a lot of horsepower to run, and it’s prone to peculiar behavior, even on systems that exceed recommended requirements. We experienced a few crashes on several machines, and the game tends to slow the longer that it has been running. On two test systems, the soft haze applied to distant objects also blurred out some ship geometry and the onscreen compass, and various other graphical bugs cropped up from time to time. At least within battle, however, it seems that this power is being put to mostly good use; hundreds if not thousands of individually animated troops can be onscreen at any given time. Pleasant weather effects, the din of clashing swords, the pop of gunfire–all of these elements make for an enjoyable audiovisual experience during battles.

It’s impossible to condense an experience as broad and as rich as Empire: Total War to a few thousand words. Its complex amalgam of turn-based empire building and real-time skirmishing is exciting and involving, and it’s both fuller and more streamlined than its predecessors. But like those predecessors, it inspires that compulsion to accomplish just one last turn, even when your eyes are bleary and your body longs for sleep. Although some rough edges are in serious need of sanding, this is a complex and rewarding game that will keep strategy fanatics tied to their keyboards for months at a time.

source: gamespot.com

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