'Total War' is totally fun

The game can be accessed from distributor Steam.

By Erin Kaplan

Published April 2, 2009

Diehard strategy fans, rejoice. The latest installment in the "Total War" franchise has come, and it's a shining diamond of tactical depth and complexity.

The "Total War" games have always resided somewhere between Ancient and Medieval times, and with "Empire," The Creative Assembly has made the jump all the way into the late Gunpowder Age, entrusting you with the control of one of many empires at the dawn of the eighteenth century. Major empires range from the British, Spanish and French to the Ottomans, Prussians and Mughals.

The draw to the "Total War" series has always been the combat systems; controlling brigades and platoons of soldiers that operate as one single entity, building complex formations in which you, much like an actual general, try to flank, demoralize, rout and defeat your enemy forces. The series has long been hailed as the most realistic battle simulator, and this one carries that tradition over to the time of colonization with great pomp and fervor.

"Empire: Total War" expands from its predecessors in ways much beyond simple history. Campaigns have taken on a near "Civilization"-like quality, with complex technology trees, smaller farms and mines to manage and upgrade and a multi-theatre map system that involves the whole world in your economic, military and diplomatic conquest.

The game is certainly not without its faults, though they fail to distract too much from the strengths. The game can be taxing on some machines -- the largest battles were choppy when zoomed out, almost impossible to navigate when viewing the action up close. One of the hallmarks of the game, the naval combat, is confusing at first; whenever you field a fleet of more than one or two ships, the game starts to play as choppy as the seas you're sailing on.

The game is beautiful, but it comes at a cost for laptops and older computers. Finally, with the addition of the multiple theaters, the new technology tree and extensive empire management, a single round in the campaign mode can take much longer than in past games; it took me 30 hours of game play to finish a 50-year "short" campaign. And the computer AI isn't anything to scoff at anymore either; after those 30 hours at the default difficulty level, I still lost.

One of the most notable shifts in the game was the change in distribution method. "Empire: Total War" just the latest in a long list of games now being distributed through digital game distributor Steam, and the game is much better for it. Multiplayer is now handled through the Steam community, brand new achievements are implemented and tracked through the client, and you can install the game on any computer you want, without any physical discs. I had tried to run with the multiplayer in past "Total War" games, yet always found myself with shoddy connections and terribly mismatched opponents. Both of these problems have been satisfactorily resolved with this game, and multiplayer is now both easy to work with and enjoyable to play.

The "Total War" series has always been about historical accuracy, and not a single leaf was left unturned in programming the most realistic recreation of the eighteenth century anyone has ever seen. The game is chock full of so many possibilities, so many options and events, that it's almost overwhelming. I'd venture it's safe to say that "Empire: Total War" offers so much to the player that they should almost never find themselves bored within the game, which is what truly makes the game so good.