Empire: Total War Review Part 1

Hi Everyone,

Today i am reviewing Empire Total War, possibly one of the best strategy games around at the moment (That's the Total War series as a whole). I have only played one campaign so far, Road to Independance, but it is really engrossing and hard to stop playing. I've also been having loads of fun playing random battles, primarily naval battles. The introduction of naval battles has been key in this game. Particularly if you don't like auto resolving battles, which was the only choice you had in previous Total War games. Naval battles are extremely varied in the way they play out. One tactic which is effective in one fight, probably wont be as effective in another. Land battles also work out differently from previous games, which is an obvious statement to make considering the difference in technology (rifles), but i found it quite surprising, just how different it is. It's more fun though, i think. They don't seem to last as long, which isn't a bad thing if you're more into the political side and moving armies around the map.

Naval battles aside, the gameplay is generally very different, which takes some getting used to if you used to play the other games. But it doesn't take all that long to get used to. One example is the tax system, which is different becuase you can't change individual towns and cities tax, you can only change tax in relation to the rich and the poor. You can however exempt individual regions from tax, you just have to remember to change it back after a turn or two.

This game is definitely one of my favourites at the moment, It's like a history lesson, but played out in your own way. I give it 9/10, for sheer awesomeness. I know i haven't covered expansions or multiplayer in this review, but don't worry as i will be reviewing them in exactly one week from now( and i actually will do it on time this time) in Part 2 of this review! I will also give them individual scores. The reason i'm doing it this way is, of course because of university, so time has been hard to find. But i leave for the holidays in a few days, so i'll have my life back for about a month!

So until then, peace out,

Pointman