Medieval II: Total War

"Clearly One of my All Time Favorites."

Medieval II Total War is the sequel to the critically acclaimed, Medieval Total War developed by The Creative Assembly and published by SEGA. M2TW basically surpasses everything that the original had included with new features and replay value. I have yet to play such a game like this, until the longly anticipated, Empires: Total War, comes out.

Gameplay 10/10: Veterans of the Total War series are welcomed with a number of new features such as improved combat, combat animations, and even an challenging enemy AI. Combat consists of players producing various units such as archers, pikemen, foot feudal knights, heavy or light calvary, and siege equipment. Each faction gets their own selectable recruitable units that can be produced for battle while still using the common, rock, paper, and scissors gameplay. Unlike Rome Total War, units can actually perform different combat animations during combat. Instead of the common block and perry attacks, they can deliver fatal blows against other enemies. Enemies react realistically when they fall down after a fatal blow which is just awesome to watch. The enemy AI attacks intelligentally which adds a level of combat strategy level for veteran players. Siege weapons are simply amazing in this game for a few reasons. Even though most of them focus on the early aspects of siege weaponry during the later Middle Ages, it still makes an interesting concept to have and use during gameplay. Siege weaponry isn't as nearly accurate compared to the common Trebuchet but it still deals loads of damage. You have the common mortars, culverins, and the dreaded, Great Bombard to choice from during battle. All of the factions are represented as historically as possible which is another great plus on the Total War's development team. They have clearly done their research on what units were common and were used by countries throughout the Middle Ages. Various units have a special ability like flaming ammo for catapults and Trebuchet's, or even the common, Sharpen Stakes ability for Archers to ward off calvary attacks.

Campaign 10/10: Ah, there is nothing better than conquering your enemies with massive armies during the Middle Ages... The campaign has always been excellent in previous Total War games, and this is no exception. A number of new features include the ability to spread religion throughout regions, upgraded traits for spies and assassins, and even princes and princesses can be married to other factions to form an strategic alliances. Spreading religion is important while building your empire. The three religions that you would most likely have to deal with are Roman Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, and Islam. As common at the time, Paganism may spring up over cities that you own causing you to hire Priest or Imam to denounce them. Social unrest or another faction's influence over your own can cause major problems that need to be dealt with also. It is important for players to spread their faction's religion and maintain it over others in order to gain complete dominance. Catholic factions are constantly involved with, The Pope, who issues missions after each turn. Completing these missions earns favor with the while failing to do them can invoke the Pope's wraith against you and isn't pleasant to deal with.

Finally, you can take part in Crusades or Jihads, for both Catholics or Muslims. A religious leader may call this special mission for factions to take part in. Both religious armies work differently from normal armies in M2 TW. For once, it can only be committed by a general and eight units. Both styles of armies can move faster than normal yet can also face desertion if no progress has been made in capturing the target at hand. Worse, the army may fall apart if the General itself, is killed during the campaign costing you resources, time, and units all in the process. Special units for each religion can be recruited also. Winning a Crusade or Jihad can grant various rewards for the factions that took place.

Graphics 10/10: Wow, that's simply what I can say after playing Rome Total War and Medieval 2 Total War after a span of a few hours inbetween. Unlike Rome Total War's graphics, Medieval 2 does not use the typical clone armies for it's factions. Clone armies of Rome Total War consisted of having the same exact appearance of a unit for the entire group. In Medieval 2, units actually look different from each other which makes them unique. For example, a group of arquebusiers may have different noticeable differences for each solider in the group. One may have a symbol on the front and green pants while the next has only the green pants and a slightly different uniform. Some of them have caps while others don't. I truly enjoyed the little and minor differences that were put for each unit in M2 TW. It is far more better to look at compared to the ugly generic Rome Total War units.

Another shinning example of the upgrade from Rome Total War to Medieval 2 is the combat animation. Instead of units blocking attacks and generically attacking with their weapons, Medieval 2 goes one step further. It improves how each unit attacks the enemy unit. Some units may dash forward and take a quick swing with their weapon at the enemy while others use a heaver weapon and are rather slower yet devastating in terms of attack. Blocking and attacking is well animated to watch. Units also have blood on them than be seen during battle after defeating various enemies. A nice cool feature that had been lacking in previous Total War games. Finally, the sense of ragdoll physics has been implemented in this game. Calvary units that charge against the enemy actually sends them flying into the air realistically. Archers that shoot arrows and land on enemy units causes them to fall down realistically and tumble downward when they were charging up the hill. Minor features like theses grants a high score in this category.

Sound 9/10: Not much to say about this but I will try my best on why this deserves such a high score. Plainly put, factions speak their respectable languages during campaign and on the battle fields. There is a nice speech given by the generals prior to the battle to rally them to fight. The sound of arrows fluttering or metal swords slashing into human flesh of the enemy causes you to put the volume up as high as possible. Everything sounds excellent and not too generic. I enjoyed watching my infantry men screaming during a charge as they cut into the enemy. Playing as the Scotts for the first time against the English, it kind of reminded me of Mel Gibson and Braveheart.

Closing Comments: Medieval 2 Total War is what every RTS style game should be. Large scale battles during a certain time period, various factions to play as, and an excellent campaign mode that can last you months in terms of micromanagement of building an global empire. I truly was a bit skeptical of playing this because the Medieval Ages is not one of my favorite time periods of all time, but I was proven wrong on all accounts.

Final Rating: 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/18/07

Game Release: Medieval II: Total War (US, 11/13/06)