So, Total War: Eras is a collection of all of the Total War games released to date (Shogun: Total War, Shogun: The Mongol Invasion, Medieval: Total War, Medieval: The Viking Invasion (all of which now work well on Windows XP), Rome: Total War, Rome: The Barbarian Invasion, Rome: Alexander), a thick instruction manual, five post card type things, a soundtrack of the music from each of the Total War games, a book entitled The Art of Total War, a Medieval: Total War II poster, and a bonus DVD containing a 40 minute documentary with a retrospective look at the series, an in-depth look at the upcoming Medieval: Total War II and a bit on the future of the series. All of that for the price of a standard game – which is amazing value.
With seven games released over the last 6 years, it makes sense to start by playing Shogun: Total War, since the other games are, frankly, completely and utterly superior – which makes it pretty hard to be fair when assessing each game. Shogun: Total War made a big splash when it was released in mid 2000, mainly because it dared to be different. In a market which was filled with real time strategies with a distinct lack of tactical depth, Shogun brought together a turn-based world map component not unlike Civilization with massive real time ground battles seen in epic movies like Braveheart. Shogun also had a distinctly different historical setting – 16th century Japan, which was a rich departure from legions of real time strategy games based on modern warfare. The main objective of the campaign mode was to unite the factions of Japan through gaining territory via alliances and declarations of war. Shogun was successful both critically and commercially because it managed to bring all of these elements together into one cohesive package.
Shogun has aged a bit, but it's still fun
The Mongol Invasion add-on followed in mid 2001, and took the action back 250 years to Mongolia in something of a “what if?” scenario, as well as introducing a whole horde of new units. The Mongol Invasion campaign did seem relatively sped-up in comparison to the Shogun campaign, but the add-ons, tweaks and fixes made the experience all the better.
Medieval: Total War followed in August of 2002, taking the play mechanics of Shogun into a more familiar European setting. The rich history and cultural diversity of the people’s of Europe during the Middle Ages provided for a much more hostile environment when compared to Shogun’s 16th century Japan setting. Medieval boosted the strategic options available in the game, boosting the number of factions to 12 and allowing you more options off the battlefield in terms of family legacies and religion. Religion is a very divisive component of life, and the differences between popularist religions really comes into play; a Christians and Muslims don’t get along quite well, which can cause tension within your territories should you take over one of the other’s lands. You can also assign territories and titles to your more faithful servants and soldiers. While it enhanced the off field strategy and brought all new units to the board, Medieval was somewhat disappointing in its graphical presentation, with no significant upgrade over Shogun, which was showing a little age at this point. Regardless of technical shortcomings, Medieval was another big success with all parties.
Religious influence makes Medieval a much more tricky game than Shogun
The Viking Invasion add-on for Medieval followed in May 2003, which saw the focus go from the Middle Ages to the Dark Ages, with the new campaign centred around taking control of the British Isles. As the title suggests, a new Viking faction was added to the game; their task being to seize control of the British Isles, while the other factions (including the new Hungarian, Aragonite and Sicilian factions) must seek to unify the isles against the Viking threat. With the game going back in time, the religious aspect of Medieval: Total War was toned down, with only two distinct religions (Christianity and Paganism) featured in the campaign. The British landscape was also undeveloped at this point in history, so players would literally have to clear the land and build new towns from scratch. This greatly expanded the tech tree, and caused Medieval fans to have to adjust their strategies in order to compete effectively.
September 2004 saw the release of the definitive Total War game; Rome: Total War. Rome took the Total War series to new heights, with layer upon layer of new strategy and a beautiful, fully 3D rendered battle engine which allowed you to see each individual soldier on the ground in glorious detail. Rome: Total War starts in 250 B.C. and gives players the task of uniting the three Roman houses and establishing the greater Roman Empire. The Roman senate functions as a fourth house of Rome, handing out missions to each house, completion of which raises your standing and power within the senate.
Rome wasn't built in a day
The senate is only a small part of what is a much greater emphasis on family legacy – members of the three Roman houses are all related, and each family member will be unique in their attributes; it is important to find which family members are best for each role, be it leading an army or governing a small agricultural town. Family members can eventually attract an entourage who will influence their development and attributes throughout the game. Many of your agents such as spies and diplomats will be able to grow in the same way as family members; performing dangerous tasks and leading Rome to glory will earn them bonuses and make them stronger or better at what they do. Diplomacy was completely overhauled, making it a much more vital part of the experience (even though it was overshadowed by the 2005 release of Civilization IV).
What Rome: Total War did best was overhauling the battle system. The new graphical system was amazing to begin with, but the way it brings the battles to life (especially when compared to Medieval and Shogun) has to be seen to be believed. Distinguishing units and the flow of a battle is so much easier than the other games. Roman units have a variety of special techniques available which strengthens the strategic depth of the game. There’s also a skirmish mode and siege mode for players who just want to hop into a battle straight away without the extra fuss of the campaign.
The Barbarian Invasion thrusts players into the other end of the Roman era; the civilisation’s decline. Players can chose to take part in the destruction of Rome with the Barbarian campaign, or seek to defend the civilisation’s legacy and change history with the Roman campaign. It’s a lot more difficult than the original Rome title, as each side starts with a distinct disadvantage, not to mention the greater need to balance diplomatic relations with your plundering, and the reintroduction of religion that was such a big piece of Medieval. The game’s AI is significantly boosted, which makes for a much more challenging campaign.
The battles in Rome and its add-ons are amongst the best in existence
Alexander is the final game featured in the package, which sees players take control of Macedonian leader Alexander the Great. While the add-on was initially download-only, it is included on a disc for this package. This add-on features much more fearsome difficulty than any other Total War game – you almost need Alexander himself sitting next to you in order to stand a good chance of winning the campaign. The add-on does tend to favour the guns-a-blazin’ style of play over the more diplomatic approach of Rome and Barbarian Invasion largely due to the fact that the campaign has to be played within 100 turns. In that time, you have to control 30 provinces and make it to India, which is a pretty mean feat. For a pack that was relatively cheap upon release, Alexander packs a lot of meat – outside of the campaign, players can challenge themselves with some of Alexander’s early battles, which are hosted by British actor Brian Blessed.
The supplementary content provided in Total War: Eras is very satisfying. The documentary on the DVD is surprisingly well put together, and gives a lot of perspective into the level of work that has gone into the series. The soundtrack disc is handy if you like the music provided in the game, and the cover has a few amusing anecdotes about what the lengths the composer had to go to in order to effectively capture his wife’s singing from within their Gold Coast home. The artbook has lots of neat sketches and stuff in it, though we were a little disappointed at the book’s dimensions (about the same size as a DVD case). All of the bonus stuff and the games are housed in a sizeable box, which could have been a little more solid (our copy arrived a little beaten up).
With Total War: Eras, it seems as though our previous cries for better special edition games have been heard. It’s probably a tough sell for someone who already owns the games, but if you’ve been looking to get into a war game with more depth than your standard real time strategy game, then Total War: Eras is a pack which you must not miss.
Loading...
