GUEST POST

Napoleon Total War


I have recently purchased Napoleon Total War since I am a fan of the Total War series of games.

Empire: Total War

Having enjoyed the other release of Empire Total War, the new strategies and feel of the ranged based game,  while playing both as the Great British Empire ( woo go Britain! ) and the Prussians. I spent roughly 4 days straight trying to complete the game and failed time after time so I decided to buy the new game.

The first thing that I noticed when buying it was the price, as with all PC games these days the prices are unbelievably low but I believe I was lucky to not only find it on sale but also to get the Imperial edition for less than the normal edition, (ask Smokey, he was there) at £15 .99.

Secondly I noticed that, once I had finished the long process of installing all 20+ gigs of the game, the fact that the developers have used an enhanced graphical engine in game. It delivers the same detail of graphics but runs A LOT smoother on my system than Empire Total War allowing for lower end rigs to run the games new massive battle system.

As I stated about the new massive battle system, new edits to morale, and the effectiveness of units now make it very hard to have a army of a single line infantry as you could on Empire, particularly  if you expect to win. Now you have to use more than one unit and vary your troops with line, light, cavalry and artillery for any chance of winning against the new and improved AI.

Finally, to keep this blog from extending into 40 pages as I describe every single detail , is the campaign. With the new campaign you have the option to follow in Napoleons footsteps or to oppose him as one of the great empires of the time such as Britain. This allows you to take your own steps to see if you could do better than the generals of the time or to follow them directly and re-live there war.

There are also parts of the campaign that are good to see introduced such as the environment effects on the squads and how morale and money in the region can determine deserters etc. This allows for a more in depth consideration of the strategy involved in completing the campaign. Another good introduction is the new list of diplomatic options that there are such as trade embargoes adding yet again another layer of atmosphere to the game.

There are also old aspects returning to the game that were left out in empire, such as the sacking or occupying of cities, but even these have been revamped with the ability to form protectorates and new nations in regions you have captured.  To save you having to defend and control another population and region, you can let the AI do it for you without any direct implications to you.

Another good aspect to see returning is the missions that are presented to you for extra income such as "take this settlement or get a trade agreement with this empire", allowing you to have some variety in the game, rather than the simple ideals in Empire Total War where missions were very few and far between and did not supply any benefits to your game.


There is also a final note to add about the units in game and in downloadable content that add historically accurate units and descriptions, division names, ships names such as the elite troops of Napoleon and the ship HMS Victory.

9/10

Ninebreaker