Empire: Total Review

Last week I got my paws on Empire: Total War by continuing my trend of waiting until games are affordable (really cheap, that is). After all, whether a game is good or not, is unrelated to it's age or purchase price, as long as it runs on your computer.

I was particularly careful with Empire, since I've never really gotten into the whole Total War franchise until now.

Years ago, I tried the first Medieval: Total War (the 2^nd game in the series), and I got absolutely nowhere, fast. I just didn’t get it. The only memorable thing that happened was when the Pope declared my ruler “Christian of the Year” and then promptly tried to have him assassinated. I still fondly remember that. Sneaky old bastard!

With that in mind, I waited until Empire: Total War (the 5^th in the series) was dirt cheap on Steam, just in case I would get just as far as I did with Medieval. You could ask why I bought it at all considering my track record, and the answer is I love the 18^th century. So much of interest happened during that time, and besides, I get to play with cannons and tricorne hats!

So it was with some trepidation that I fired it up, and delved into my first campaign. I chose a short one, and jammed the difficulty sliders down to easy, both on general and combat. After all, I have to learn the game first before challenging myself. Training wheels, and all that.

I chose to play as Sweden, in part because that meant I controlled Finland as well (rooting for the home team, as they say), and because I avoided dealing with any colonies from the start.

Initially things went well. I invaded Norway and handily stole it from Denmark, before ultimately destroying the entire Danish nation. Russia gave me some trouble early on, but my Baltic armies beat them hands down.

After mopping up the last remains of Denmark on Iceland, I turned the full wrath of my army on Russia. Considering the size of it, I had a pleasant walk in the park there. The locals gave me more trouble with occasional uprisings, then the Russian army did when I conquered them to begin with. In fact, it was so easy, I gave serious thought to upping the difficulty.

Luckily, I didn't. Next on my list of campaign goals was Poland-Lithuania, who being allied with Russia was already at war with me. They were a lot harder to squash than Russia, but squash them I did, and finally all I has to do was conquer Prussia, which I just managed before the time ran out in 1750. I won my first Total War campaign ever!

Today I tried a new campaign as England, with the same settings as with Sweden, but things went south quickly due to some silly mistakes on my part. So even with the difficulty sliders down low, it's not an easy game.

Do I like Empire: Total War? You bet I do. The atmosphere is great, the sounds are awesome, the possibilities are practically endless, (particularly if you install a mod that lets you play as the minor nations) I have no complaints at all, at least for now. The Swedish troops even speaks Swedish! I was rather blown away at that. I have to say. if you like strategy, the 18^th century, and history in general, this is an absolute must for you. The turn based system really let's you take your time, and the built in advise works great.

It's well worth getting, it really is!