For me personally, Total War is the same trigger that makes you go crazy and buy an unnecessary device in principle. Like an ancharted for Sonya, like an apple on the phone, like special effects in the Avengers, you look and give money without even thinking if you need it. So I, seeing the next system requirements for TW, go and update the computer.
2004 is our first meeting. As I remember now this night, in a computer club, I squeeze past drunken and chopped players and out of the corner of my eye I notice her! An incredible picture- two huge armies, much more than accepted in strategies, converge in perfect order, not a crowd, as usual- on the edge of the forest. Everything is beautiful, in detail, and most importantly, epic. I come closer and start peering. The player, noticing my interest, begins to explain, simultaneously joining the battle.
-Look, seven hundred fighters, mostly heavy infantry, because the Romans, there are few spearmen, so, to scare the cavalry. I almost never took archers and slingers, a couple of detachments of everything. And cavalry is also a little, there was not enough money, we will run on the rear and retreating.
-But their archers went out what to do?
-Light cavalry, just in such a case. She drives them until the infantry is approaching the center.
-And this is what they have? Elephants?! These are elephants?!
-Yes, fighting elephants, but everything is simple with them. We set fire to pigs and throw it on elephants, only carefully, so that they would not run up ahead of time.
Archers, cavalry, fighting elephants and burning pigs are no, this game cannot be so shocking. I am running to my computer, forgetting why I went, find a shortcut and start. Fast battles, historical battles- there is also a global map, companies for dozens of countries, the development of cities, diplomacy, trade, pumping, development … I get up with red eyes in the morning, and with shaking hands, and in my head there is only one desire to return and finish.
Next year we sit tightly on Rome Total War. It was a time of delightful stories about grandiose battles, about long sieges, about the dead military leaders, brilliant tactical decisions and shameful defeats. It was a time of great conquests and heavy thoughts. It was a time when you created the empire overnight, captured the whole world, and then woke up in the middle of the audience on the second pair. There was almost no Internet then, I had to reach everything ourselves. My inner commander did not shut up for a minute.
“Come on, let’s whisper to me, to pick up archers, forget it on the infantry and cavalry, we will shoot them like rabbits”
“Cavalry, cavalry is the key to victory. A couple of units of light cavalry, a pair of horse shooters, and for the rest- heavy cavalry, to trample the ears into the ground "
“You have legionnaires! Everything, urgently drive out of the armies the remaining detachments, the residents of the military leaders, forget the troops to the troops with the legionnaires "
And I tried, recruited, reorganized, and at the same time learned to use everyone and at once. Rome for me has become the input point, a turning point, and since then I have not let go of.
Distinctive feature of Total War – Personal Participation. Not only global policy and development depends on you, but also the outcome of specific battles. Due to its brains and skills, you can drag the battles in which the computer would lose with a crushing account.
2007, I almost quit, but they https://gamblingdata.net/casinos/kaboo-casino/ dragged me back. It so coincided that a powerful computer fell into my hands, Medieval II: Total War and the opportunity to play how much I want and when I want. It was stronger than me. I fought with someone again, built something, developed, destroyed, concluded agreements, marriages, fought off my neighbors and tried to capture the whole world. Warriors- knights, piceners, archers, swordsmen, Slavs, francs, Turks, Arabs- all were cool painted, various, with a bunch of animations,. On a global map, life beat with a key. Crusades, raids, invasion of hordes, spies, inquisitors, merchants, there were more and better.
“Declare a new crusade, it was advised by my internal strategist- to pick up more of these homeless people in the army! Capture all the cities that are on the way to the goal. And then, abandon the kingdom of heaven and dumped the sunset!"
“Your mother, Timurids! Scatter around the cities, lure them under the walls, use the stupid AI, go through the arrows, and then achieve the remains in the clean field!"
“So, for example, against whom to send our pumped killers-inquisitions or enemy generals? Inquisitors or generals? We will somehow get off the enemy’s armies, but the Catholic Church will not be so simply behind us."
This part was exhausted along and across. Company for those, for these, the company for dispute, the company is temporarily. Around this time they began to say to me that I play a lot. Pfff, don’t laugh me. 24 hours in a day, and I do not spend even half of them on the game! I have no idea how much I played in Rome: Total War, but in Medieval this figure has doubled. Thank God, then there was no Steama and a watch counter, so I can now poke Doters at 2000 hours with shouts "Fuuuu, Territories"
A problem that accompanies almost any strategy, from heroes to generals, the lack of a worthy enemy. At some point, you became so strong that the game lost meaning. And all the accumulated armies, resources, built cities and fortresses are all that you have prepared for the latter became absolutely unnecessary. Army on duty, scattered through the cities to prevent uprisings, easily destroyed the remaining opponents. My dream is an adversary who, having accumulated resources and strength by the end of the game, will arrange a grand war, so that until the last it is not clear who will be faded who. Eh, dreams, dreams ..
2009- Empire: Total War. This was the same when it was necessary to prepare for the exit of the game. Having updated the video card and percent, I decided that it was worth it to go bankrupt and the license. The name "Steam" did not say anything to me (probably something like DirectX), and the inscription "requires the Internet" I did not take seriously-I have a disk, I can start the game! As it turned out – no. After several unsuccessful attempts, I figured out the disposition- a difficult computer, but the desired game and friend with access to the network at a distance of three kilometers, drawn up an action plan (we pack the computer, connecting, set, activate, drag back and enjoy the game) and I was able to play- three hours. It turned out that if you run any game with a broken Steam (for example, Half-Life 2), then the license must be activated again. At this stage, I gave up and went back to Medieval. I still had all the impressions of the new part – an awesome picture, a strange fighting, hatred of Steam (sorry, Gabe, I have never been so mistaken) and the sea battles that Creative have tormented for the seventh year and still can’t bring to mind.
Much later, I managed to play this part normally, but somehow I did not hook. All this diplomacy, science, a tree of development and, most importantly, battles with firearms, it turned out to be enough for my inner Starper to declare a solid “I am too old for all this shit”. The fuss on the global card liked much more, but this was not enough for a comfortable game.
(I put it in the process of writing and tried it again, what if he came in! Still beautiful and stupid. Seriously, tactics- upset chain against each other and shoot until someone runs, this is not Total War. Yes, there are cavalry, constructions, and guns that do not allow to sit in one place, but still dull.)
2011 YMPire: Total War cooled my love for the series, so I reacted indifferently to the news about the development of Total War: Shogun 2. Well, it will come out and come out, maybe somehow I will appreciate. But somehow it happened that I again updated the percent, the video card, added my memory and in the morning on the day of exit I ran to the computer store. 2 disks of 500 rubles were purchased (to a friend and a friend) and …
This game has the best multiplayer who knew humanity. The capture of the provinces for the sake of new types of troops, the battles of clans on the global map, build-up of the character, satellites who completely change the tactics of the battle, the optimal number of detachments, when there is a choice and eyes are not scattered, and the cherry on the cake is the cherry.
Every battle you set up detachments and make great plans. Start- and you begin to slowly converge. The first thing you do is to look at the enemy’s army and calculate the cost, trying to estimate how many detachments are in ambush. Then, in accordance with new knowledge, you begin to feverishly rearrange your fighters. Along the way, you try not to give out your ambush and break out of the desire to divide the army and go to seize control points (this is not provided for in terms of this, but you can allocate a couple of detachments). And suddenly you notice how on the left flank his archers advanced too far, throw a light cavalry with the desire to bury slightly, then the spearmen run out, you can no longer stop and throw the swordsmen at them, simultaneously bringing up the archers, the enemy’s cavalry begins a bypass maneuver, you reveal the ambush, hoping to keep your plan … and suddenly you understand that there is no plan, that is, that it is, that it is, that it is fighting, that it is fighting. It began that the schemes flew to hell, and now only attention, reaction and improvisation will save you from defeat. You change places three times, the detachments are constantly attacked by new goals, the generals are hunting, someone is trying to break into the rear all the time-on the battlefield, you simultaneously follow a dozen things, and these are indescribable sensations. After a good party, even the loss was perceived adequately. And the victory even caused a storm of emotions.
Of course, the multiplayer had its own shortcomings, the main of which was a long search for an opponent (and find two for two this is generally from the field of fantasy), but still he is magnificent. I went to the company for exactly twenty minutes. I have nothing against the Japanese, but to mess with the seizure of the islands, after the empire was bending, it is not interesting.
With the release of the “Fall of Samurai” additions, the number of players fell sharply, and interest in the game faded. It was impossible to fight with those who purchased the addition (they clearly showed you how and why the samurai bent), and I did not see the point. The memory of Empire was alive.
Total War is famous for its advanced, but completely unnecessary graphics. You enjoy a beautiful picture and thorough study at the very beginning of the game, and then you spend all the time at the height of a bird flight, where the appearance of the figures does not matter.
2013- announcement of the new Total War: Rome II- The best that was in the series, plus a larger scale, plus incredible graphics plus updated multiplayer and all this, taking into account the most modern game standards. On September third, the game was loaded, the day off was taken, and the refrigerator is filled. I was preparing for a game binge.
On the first day I played for six hours. In the second, four more. About twenty hours in a week, and I could still not decide on the attitude to the game. On the one hand, all promises kept. Scale, epic, graphics, many changes and innovations- all this was present.
On the other hand, there were a murdered multiplayer and inadequate AI. I still do not understand who in Creative Assembly thought of a swing to remove all Shogun developments and return 10 years ago. Here you have a dozen nations, here is a rival, here’s the battlefield, fight. And all! Yes, you can go through the company with a coope, but this is a completely different story. None of the gaming publications and in a word did not say about the murdered network mode. I understand that it is not available in Demo Belief, but you could write for those who buy games!
The second question is artificial intelligence! The illogicality of his behavior has long been the hallmark of Total War, but this time they surpassed themselves. For each player, they prepared some of their own, individual stupid. It was a long time to describe, but in my case I had to carry out a manually (manually, fucking, because the losses on the machine had the same as I had a suicide legion) up to four battles. These two disadvantages and a pile of smaller jambs thoroughly spoiled the impression of the game. Steam says I played a hundred hours, but I suspect that this is the first time he tries to deceive me. Purely spent about thirty hours, and does not pull back. Total War brought me up a second time. Of course, this is not “shut up and return my money!", But still disappointment.
After that, I naturally ignored Attil, although according to reviews the series moved in the right direction.
The next step was Total War: Arena. 2015- I am launched in Beto, and I, obsessed with doubts and hopes, rush into it. In words, it looked like a revived dream – twenty players, each with their own army, are battles on a dozen cards. Several parties, the possibility of pumping generals, all types of troops, additional bonuses for capturing points, several modes of the game. In reality, it really turned out to be a dream, but some kind of crooked. The main plus and at the same time last ten players. Looking from the side of how everyone steers with his three detachments, drowning in micro -management (which gives real scope for maneuvers) a complete sense of the reality of the battle. How not to turn, one such a variety of actions and tactics is not provided. But a team of ten strangers in strategy is a complete out. It comes to the point that you start to think about whether the bots are playing with you? Someone is stomping at the base, someone plays in ambushes, while there is a fight nearby, someone is trying to break into the enemy base alone. One, if you are at least Macedonian reincarnation, to do something unrealistic. But if there is a couple of friends, then the quality of the game takes off sharply. But here is the second problem. No matter how cool the battles are, in Total War they are always a means, not the goal. The moment was on any company when all the battles forgiven on the machine, and you completely went into a global strategy. The seizures of captured supplies captured by soldiers and resources of the conquered cities became more price and more interesting than the battles of many thousands. Even in Shogun multiplayer, where the battles are paid to central attention, did not leave that you were building your own empire. All this is deprived of the arena, and therefore is unable to captivate for a long time.
And finally, 2016- Creative Assembly goes crazy and releases the game through the Warhammer universe. They promise a completely new setting (this is understandable), new gameplay chips, magic, monsters, artifacts, unique heroes, a changing landscape, a huge map, amazing plot companies … and not a word about a network game. What am I personally waiting for me? Nothing specific. I just want the game to cause the same emotions as Rome, Medieval or Shogun. So that I sit at night and not take off. So that the moment I start playing from work when I start playing. So that in the network mode with trembling hands enters. So that he plays a hundred hours in a week and not spare at all at all. In general, let it be the coolest Total War in history!
P.S. Judging by the last reviews of journalists, my expectations are close to the truth. And now my inner adherent of strategies yells with delight:
Ave Warhammer! Ave Total War! Forever, Creative Assembly!