The Wargamer

Medieval II: Total War

Few games enjoy the privilege of being both great and remade. Medievel: Total War, however, will get that opportunity. It was one of the games that made the Total War franchise such a gaming icon. Sandwiched between Shogun: Total War and Rome: Total War, it cemented The Creative Assembly as a first-rate strategy game developer. 

After the success of Rome: Total War, it might seem curious to some that The Creative Assembly decided to revisit Medieval: Total War as opposed to exploring a new period. At E3, they explained that good as Medieval: Total War was, there were aspects that could still improve on the game. From the peek of Medieval II: Total War we were given they are indeed doing exactly that.

The most obvious improvements are cosmetic. The campaign map will be in 3D and looks similar to Rome: Total War’s map, though while some game code from Rome: Total War has been reused, much of it has been re-written and the heart of the game is new. The graphical changes are impressive. Troops at the tactical level will have more personality. Their moves have been motion captured; charging cavalry now looks like live horse movements and, in fact, an effort was made to motion capture equestrian movement to lend a realistic feel to the game. Richer vegetation has been added to the tactical maps and impassible terrain will be included. Troops now will visibly turn and fight attackers on their flanks and rear – a change that lends additional realism to the visible behavior of the troops. Perhaps most pleasingly is the fact that the video clips that made Shogun: Total War so enjoyable will at last return!

Underneath the graphics, however, is where the real changes of the game have taken place. The AI has been improved. Enemy AI will now take greater account of the tactical terrain of the battlefield and will deploy and fight accordingly. Settlement have been changed so that players can develop them either for commercial or military purposes. The role of Princesses has been expanded so that a player can marry off a princess to an enemy general with the strategic goal of bringing that general over to his side or at least make him neutral and thereby weaken an enemy. 

The diplomatic AI has also been improved so that other countries now have longer memories of how the player treated them. Attacks or broken promises will be remembered for much longer. The role of merchants has been expanded and they can now be used to “attack” trade supplies and capture them without risking military intervention and the corresponding baggage that military conflict with a neighbor brings. 

The role of religion has also been expanded. Players can now send priests from their side into the College of Cardinals in order to “stack” it in favor of getting one of their elected men as Pope. Combined with a timely assassination of a sitting Pope, players may find that they can more easily bend the religious aspect of the game to their favor, and correspondingly more easily enjoy the benefits of declaring crusades on their enemies.

Overall, Medieval II: Total War looks like a steady improvement on the already great franchise. It may be a remake of an older title (that doesn’t seem that old) but there are more than enough changes to the game to suggest that even fans of the original Medieval: Total War will want to keep up with it.

About the Author

Jim Zabek has been playing wargames for over thirty years. He still has his first copies of PanzerBlitz, Starship Troopers, and Tobruk, amongst others. In fact, his closet can’t hold all the boardgames in it. That doesn’t stop him from buying more even if he can only rarely play them. PC games don’t help the situation. He loves games so much that his wife has to periodically remind him that the rest of the world doesn’t necessarily love games as much as he does. He’s not sure he believes her, though.