The Dynasty Warriors series by Koei Tecmo, often derided for the way it treats with history, is actually closer to the tone of the book than many who haven’t read the book would assume. In other words, in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the generals of various armies and nations are effectively like a bunch of Marvel heroes – all capable of wiping out entire units single handedly, and the really interesting battles are the one-on-one duels between these monumental men. As far as we can tell (given the general unreliability of records from back in those days), the book treats with the basic historical reality, but as a novel it’s much more interested in elevating the drama and excitement of what happened. See, Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a historical novel in the truest sense. You’ll need to build spy networks, and before you even start playing, you’re going to need to make a critical decision: do you want to play a more “historically authentic” mode, or do you want the fantasy of the Romance mode? You now need to manage the relationships between your own nation’s generals, and make sure that only those that get along command armies side-by-side. The diplomacy system is even deeper and more demanding. Unfortunately for Total War: Three Kingdoms, the changes that have been made from previous titles make it even less accessible for the newcomer. There is a lot to manage in this game as a result, and initially Total War titles can feel overwhelming to new players. You also raise up armies, which you’ll use to participate in the second half of the Total War experience: The battlefields where, in real-time fashion, you command units to move, attack, flank and retreat. You improve cities, build economies, and engage in diplomacy with those around you. One is the grand strategy, where, just like as in Civilization or Europa Universalis, you concentrate on developing up your nation. If you’ve never played one, what you need to know is that Total War is a true merging of two very distinct strategy genres. If you have played one of these before, then Three Kingdoms is going to be instantly familiar and accessible. What’s important to know is that the base game hasn’t really deviated from the popular formula that Creative Assembly has been fine tuning for close to two decades now. There’s too much going on under the hood to discuss at detail in a review. I’m not going to get into specific systems and tweaks of this Total War in comparison to what has come before. We have it now, and it has delivered on every level. As a conflict that spread across the entirety of China, and brought together so many notable leaders, battles, and so much political and social intrigue, it’s one of the eras of military warfare that I would have assumed would be a natural and instant attraction to anyone working on Total War. It surprises me that it has taken the talented group at Creative Assembly so long to take a swing at bringing its Total War formula to the ancient conflict depicted in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
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