It’s amazing what a year will do to a game. Well, not really, no, unless of course you care for a massively slashed price or you’ve managed to accidentally bury said game. Anyway, pseudo-humorous intros aside, Medieval II: Total War, a game released only a year ago and now available for the most modest of imaginable fees, is not only a brilliant game, but also an aptly named one too. It is you see a PC wargame in the Total War franchise and it is cunningly set in the medieval era; the second of its kind. It also still happens to be an excellent -nay, unsurpassed- game. A game console owners could only dream about. A sophisticated, smart, historically accurate and complicated game, that epitomizes PC gaming.

For the poor few souls among you that haven’t played any of the previous Total War games, let’s just say that Medieval 2 is a game that combines turn-based strategy with well-paced RTS tactics into a coherent and enjoyable whole, and of course immensely addictive and time-consuming, whole. This means that your Civilization-esque empire building strategic thinking is interrupted by pure RTS strategic battles, while you are constantly witnessing impressive visuals and experiencing a megalomania inducing atmosphere.

What’s even more interesting, and I’m still talking to you dear Total War virgins, is just how amazingly accessible and intuitively controlled this game is. And, please, do believe me, this is quite a feat for such a multi-tiered game. The two brief but enjoyable tutorials, the well-voiced and fully customizable advisors and the ever helpful… err… help buttons are more than necessary. Then again, there’s always the trusty 70-pages long manual, only I seem to appreciate.

On to the bit concerning Total War veterans then, who for some inexplicable reason have yet to grab the game. What’s new in Medieval II, I swear I can hear the infidels among your ranks ask. Is it any good? Really? Is it better than Rome? Well, to be rather blunt, yes. It’s definitely better than Rome, and even though it’s more of an evolution than a revolution in the franchise, it also is the best Total War game ever produced. The one offering the deepest gameplay too.

Most of the changes, besides the ones regarding the visual side of things, are on the subtle side and mostly regarding the now divinely enjoyable turn-based part of the game. The role of religion for example, be it obeying (overthrowing even) a Pope, or calling for a Jihad/Crusade, even though it’s an evolution of Rome’s Senate mechanics, plays like a totally new feature, as does the -admittedly 100% original- division of settlements into cities and castles. Non-combat units have also been expanded, now featuring princesses, priests, imams, spies, assassins, diplomats, merchants, whatnot, while the AI feels both better and more organic. Slight changes have also been added to the already brilliant RTS bits. The sieges remain absolutely fantastic, mind you.

And now for the more impressive feat of Medieval II Total War: the graphics. Well, a year’s passed and they still are bloody amazing. The game builds heavily on Rome’s engine, updating the strategic level’s visuals and making sure the 3D RTS parts are jaw-dropping by adding tons of special effects, shadows and quite a few thousands of polygons. The greatest improvement though is that each unit on the battlefield is no longer a stiffly animated group of clones, but more of a proper unit consisting of individual -thus quite different to each other- soldiers, fighting in an animated way that puts Dawn of War to shame. Yes, it’s that good, really.

Actually, my only complaint regarding this brilliant game is the multiplayer part of it. Still no online campaign option, only RTS battles. Tsk, tsk, someone better have a look at the turn-based multiplayer orgies organized by dear Civilization 4 methinks… Then again, Medieval II Total War does offer you the chance to fight with 21 factions and even be a Native American hero defending his homeland against European brutality. Lovely. Do get yourselves a copy.

Oh, and in case you’ve already played the game to death and have tried most of its pretty impressive freeware mods, you could do worse than have a look at its expansion. I hear it’s more than interesting…

Posted on December 27th, 2007 by konstantinos