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Anyone got this baby yet? It's getting remarkable reviews.

Got it today at 9 a.m

I've put about six hours into it so far. As someone who has played all of the previous titles, I've noticed many points which differ from say, MTW:2. Here's a rundown.

Little things that I like...

1. Language. At long last, your forces do not talk in a patrionising accent. All of the talking done in the game is race specific, which adds a really nice shine to the proceedings. I've even picked up a little French, all because I stomped over northern Italy with King Louis's boys.
2. Cover. I can imagine the idea of cover being out of place in past Total War titles; I can really see Teutonic Knights battle from behind a farm wall. Happily, our Napoleonic forefathers had no such qualms and a new facet to the land battles is born. Everyone has their favourite Total War battles from days gone by, and one has already happened for me. I was commanding Sweden against some dangerous Danes, and the fighting took place around a large enclosed farm. I managed to funnel the bulk of the enemy army into a square section of land, from where my Line Infantry (the Hastasti of this age) peppered them with fire. It was a massacre, but their reinforcements arrived and hit me in the flank. What ensued was a Naked Gun style shoot out, with two armies taking massed pot-shots at each other from behind two walls, about 10 feet apart. In the rain. At night. It was very Black Sabbath, and it was very, very good.
3.Itty-bitty kingdoms. I like the fact that there are a large numbers of satellite states around the major powers. Far from being total pushovers, they can normally hold their own and will fight like cornered rats at land and sea (more on that later). It's nice to be able to expand your borders without upsetting the local superpower. And yet everything has consequences... which leads me nicely to...
4.Diplomatic Mind Games. Unlike the previous games, the campaign starts with a complex web of alliances, as well as a snotty tangle of mistrust and casual racism. As ever, the French and the British are at each others throats, which is a dated but historically accurate picture of events. How this translates into the game is quite interesting. If you invade a country, there are sure to be half a dozen other nations which will back it up, turning your surgical strike into something more akin to Operation Barbarossa. It works both ways though; the Spanish have had my back since day (turn?) one. There's an unspoken agreement that we share out Europe between ourselves.
5.Rakes. Gardening uses aside, Rakes are assassins and spies rolled into one. Twice the skills, and twice the fun. They can be used to demolish enemy mines and so on, and can also bring the pain to enemy characters. I haven't had much success with them yet; it seems to me that Creative Assembly have tightened up the difficulty with abusing agents. However, an enemy Rake did set fire to EVERY SINGLE BIT of my industry in eastern Sweden, so they must work well in the right circumstances. And no, I never caught the bastard.
6.Clever Fellows. The other agents are Gentlemen, who can greatly aid your faction in researching, diplomacy, work output, and other right-on stuff. Interestingly, they can also challenge Rakes to duels (!), which seems a little strange. Imagine a judge from here in the UK (big white wig?) versus a sort of Kal Jericho-esque highwayman. Needless to say, I made my own wig wearing maniac after the first Rake I could find (see above). There was a nice cut scene, before wiggy fell over and was prpmtly given the business end of a rapier in the guts. Lame!
7.Personalised Schools Of Thought. This has to be my favourite part of the game. Instead of being all punk and making all your armies mounted, just to stand out, you can mould your factions growth through selected research. This is a staple part of many RTS games, but it really brings something new to the table here. Gun nuts can get there fix but researching all sorts of gribbly ordnace, as well as improved muskets, bayonets etc. But this could leave you poor due to low arable farming technology, or mentally backward because none of your gentlemen have figured out the concept of diplomacy. It's a matter of choice, and that is a good thing.

Little things I don't like...
1.The Sea. Naval battles are an enigma. Your ships are hard to control, they have a tendency to dither around and ships size makes only a little difference. Trying to line up a perfect broadside shot means that you have to ignore the rest of your boats, who are busy sailing off into the sunset or doing wave doughnuts. It's frustrating, and very difficult to succeed in. A shame, but not essential.
2.Siege. Everyone remembers the slowed AI of TW attackers. Legions gazing admirably at your citadel o' doom whilst you dropped a rainforest of arrows, bolts and javelins onto them. Things have been tweaked here; there's no more fannying around with ladders - every unit can use grapnel as far as I know, and the enemy do get stuck in. But there was a battle where I defended against an army that, quitle literally, tried to get in the back door of my fort. It exhausted itself running around my walls; all the time getting shot by my troops who casually followed them round to the other side, before booting there raggedy arses off the wall when they finally made their ascent. It's better, but not quite there.
3.It's a lot to take in. More than anything else, ETW is complicated. Not only do you have to deal with the political nightmare in Europe (which I'll call home, seeing as I'm English), but you have to think about the car crash of colonial interest that is America. The first time as I played as the British, I was expelled from US lands not by Americans, but by some insanely violent Huron! I felt a bit like a red clad extra from Last Of The Mohicans except it wasn't the French who brought the beef. Instead of putting down the insignificant American uprising with her majesty's finest, I got scalped early and missed all the fun...

So there you go. I've only scratched the surface today, but I'm starting to figure it out. As with any TW game, a few experimental campaigns are a must. Finding your feet in this game can be difficult, so take your time. It looks great, but I've had graphical juddering in some of the larger battles, as most people will. It took about 15 minutes for me to install, so the Steam business didn't really affect me personally too badly. I'll try and answer any questions people might have, but I know many of you will be playing it now anyway.

Sorry to ramble Olympia, hope it sheds some light.

Right, I'm off to bed. It's 2.30 in the morning and I've been shooting men in funny hats since early this morning. My eyes feel like they've been punched by an irate Ewok.

Anyone else had good/bad experiences?

Cheers Anti-Mag!

This is SO being bought.

Trading in broken 360 games FTW.

sA

Thank s for the review anti!

Nice review,can't wait for my local pc game place/shop thing to get it I am going to check this weekend(I hope).Anti I have a query for you,how many countries are there to play in the game?

http://www.totalwar.com/empire/index.php?t=EnglishUK


Theres the sites homepage for those who want to take a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx8yuoNIOnc

and heres a cool youtube vid.

The countries are pretty diverse. I'm still spending time finding one that suits me. Whenever I play one of these games I like to be in a corner, so that I can concentrate on one direction instead of yelling ''barbarians at the gates!'' every single turn. So by default this rules out most of central Europe.

I'm tinkering with India; the potential is there to crush the major power and become on yourself, with little outside influence to hinder your plans. I'd suggest everyone plays as Britain on their first go; the sea is a perfect buffer whilst you figure things out. Just don't mess with France or Spain. They are very difficult to... pacify.

Somefactions are very small, such as the Dutch, but have outside colonies which provide outside currency. All in all, it's a matter of taste. I've found conquering islands in the Bahamas to be quite successful, if you can get past the pirates.

Any other questions, just ask. Sage advice on tap.

I'm off to put down an insert Sith Lord voice here INSIGNIFICANT REBELLION which seem to happen every other turn for me at the moment. Don't these people know when they've got a good deal?!

@ Smiling: Traded in Left 4 Dead myself And returned the new My Morning Jacket album, which is awful. Sad times.


@ Everyone: Don't bother with the special edition. I've taken one for the team with that one.

I think the game is awesome, Anit-Mag seems to have covered most the points.

Though i am playing the british at the moment and seem to be doing well, i made the mistake of starting on france early by attacking her american colonies, this led to some major trade problems and france and spain starting to block the trade routes in the channel etc.

But by tens years down the line i have siezed all new france america is all but mine, i have captured gibraltar of the spanish and forced both of them into peace.

And this is mainly thanks to the brilliance of my allies who as soon as i found my self at war started to give france a bit of a kicking in europe.

A damn good game with alot more depth then pervious ones.

I guess you were one of the lucky few who didn't get caught by one of the many bugs in the game. And not just the crash-to-desktop or graphics card bugs. There are numerous reports of corrupted save files preventing you from starting or even continuing a campaign. That one's the worst.

EA claims it'll have a patch within a week. I'd be surprised if it came within a month.

I'm still having a few faults here and there. When the game crashes, it occassionally causes my computer to freeze up and resets the resoulution of my screen (and, weirdly Eve Online). Very strange.

You'll all be happy to know that my glorious Maratha kingdom in India has fallen to pieces, thanks to a vicious rebellion

Perhaps beginning as a European power is in order...

Looking forward to a patch; should iron out some problems. It would be nice if they removed the computer movement phase all together, as it takes an age. I cannot see my high court of Hindustan giving a monkeys about the troop movements of Pueblo natives.

You could set the computer turns to take place faster in the earlier games, I'd be surprised if you can't in this one. Haven't played yet, but it's disappointing to hear that they've come out with another buggy engine. Oh well, should be fun if I ever have the time to pick it up...

Anti-mag,

You can turn off AI troop movements. Granted you still have to watch them when they are in your line of sight but other than that they don't show anything else. Saves a ton of time.

Has anyone else gotten to witness the joy of seeing 3 units of 45 strong cavalry charge your artillery, begin to crap your pants and then go "Oh yeah....Grape Shot FTW"? Man oh man...up close one battery of artillery (12pnrds I beleive) shatter 1/3 of the AI's force....

Anyone else have one of these moments?

Look, shut up, ok? I have enough university work that I haven't painted in three weeks, and I'm distracted enough by my regular online shooters that I DON'T NEED TO BE TOLD HOW GREAT THIS GAME PROBABLY IS! STOP TEMPTING ME!

I could buy 4 boyz boxes for the price of this game anyway.

burb1996 wrote:Anti-mag,

You can turn off AI troop movements. Granted you still have to watch them when they are in your line of sight but other than that they don't show anything else. Saves a ton of time.

Has anyone else gotten to witness the joy of seeing 3 units of 45 strong cavalry charge your artillery, begin to crap your pants and then go "Oh yeah....Grape Shot FTW"? Man oh man...up close one battery of artillery (12pnrds I beleive) shatter 1/3 of the AI's force....

Anyone else have one of these moments?

Discovered to my annoyance that cannon are absolutely useless in the defence of an artillery fort, because they can't shoot over the walls. Discovered to my delight what grape shot can do to troops reforming after climbing the walls and reaching the inside of the keep.

As Prussia, I've been building stacks of nothing but line infantry and cannons. Building trenches is awesome.

Woot.

I instigated a Prussian Revolution, and then worked out the people wanted to link up with their East Prussian brothers. Hey ho, declare war on Poland.

I forgot to check the Alliances, I have 6 nations eating my toes now. All trade's blocked, running out of cash fast.

sA

My workers just instigated a rebellion and I sided with them so I could have the working classes work again. But now I have to fight in the city where I just hired a few Hussars and mortars. Whee.

SEGA/CA firmly believes in the GW shouting man theme.

I bought the game and I'm waiting for the patch. I never took the time in Medieval II: Total War to get to the New World, so I'm going to finish that before starting Empire.

Finally after waiting for 3(rather painful,really boring)days the steam updates are done(no my computers not that slow I just have a Gig limit and can't buy more than 3 in the same day,but anyway).I am just starting the game have been playing for 4 to 5 hours and most of my empires have crumbled into dust,I am now starting a eother a french or swedish one.I think its an ok addition to the series at the very least.

I'm pissed i cant play, i cant connect to steam to start the game. I dont have i bad computer i have an obscene computer, but i'm running on dial up cause i get it for free. I wasted 100 bucks buyin empire and dow2 and i cant start them.