Medieval: Total War
2002
- real time strategy (rts)
- strategy
- turn-based strategy (tbs)
- tactical
- fantasy
- historical
- warfare
- 4x (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate)
- single player
- multiplayer
The story
Experience the middle Ages in all their blood-soaked magnificence. From the lush grasslands of Western Europe to the arid deserts of Northern Africa, from the first Crusade to the fall of Constantinople, implement diplomacy, utilize trade, espionage and assassinations, spread your religion and wage total war in order to expand your influence and secure your reign as you build a dynastic empire to stretch across four centuries. Total War is the follow on from 2000’s Shogun- Total War. As with Shogun the game is split into two sections – the turn-based campaign map wherein the player is required to make strategic decisions, recruit and move armies, besiege settlements, fight naval battles and employ agents such as emissaries, spies and assassins to aid with diplomacy, offer alliances or bribes, or execute rather more clandestine actions. Religion is important in the game and whether a faction is Muslim, Orthodox or Christian will affect allegiances and public loyalty – as a catholic nation the player must carry out the wishes of the Papal States, embarking on a holy war if need be or else run the risk of excommunication. If public order and loyalty should fall too low in a particular region a rebellion or a civil war may occur – in these situations the player may decide to side with the rebels or the current rulers to quell the rebellion or overthrow a tyrannous regime-
What it’s like
Dense, painterly strategy-map views of medieval Europe, North Africa and the Near East, rendered in muted parchment tones with banners, castles and marching units scaled small against a wide land. The battle sequences shift to a close, chaotic 3D field where hundreds of armed figures clash under overcast skies, and the sound is thick with clanging steel, war horns and shouted orders, the score mostly low and mournful drumming beneath the din. Its vibe is grim, deliberate and absorbing, the kind of game that suits a long evening alone with a hot drink, or a stretch of planning over several sessions. The pace is slow and turn-based on the campaign map, interrupted by sharp, bloody skirmishes, and the emotional register is weighty and procedural, following dynasties rising and falling through religious pressure, rebellion and holy war. Violence is frequent and stylised rather than graphic: battlefields are full of cut-down soldiers and fallen horses, with blood shown but not lingered on, and political treachery, assassination and executions appear throughout. It is for players who enjoy strategic depth, historical scale and the tension of managing loyalty, faith and supply, and who do not mind a steady undercurrent of war.
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