Now Playing: Total Warhammer

Total War: Warhammer isn’t another Rome 2. Let’s get that out of the way first. This is easily one of, if not the best Total War release yet in terms of stability, performance and polish. In nearly 70 hours of play, with two campaigns completed, I’ve experienced no more than a single crash and bug.

Performance is very good – although there’s clearly still room for improvement – with an average of 40-60FPS on the default Ultra settings. I’ve uploaded a lot of Warhammer videos to my YouTube channel over the last few weeks, including some performance tests in which I attempt to ‘break’ the game. So if you want to see Warhammer in action, and see how the game performs, go check them out.

This means we don’t have to spend half of this review talking about stability, bugs or performance. Which is a nice change, for a Total War release. Instead, we can focus entirely on the game. We’ll begin with AI.

AI in Warhammer isn’t perfect, but I didn’t expect it to be. I’ve always thought it important to set realistic expectations of how well an AI can perform. With this in mind, I’d rate the Campaign and Battle AI in Warhammer as the best it’s ever been in the series. It still has its quirks and issues, but overall, across two campaigns and 70 hours of play, it’s performed at a consistently competent level.

 

And honestly, I don’t think I expect much more than ‘consistently competent’. It’s never dazzled me. It’s never made my jaw drop. But it’s solid. In battle, it reacts quickly, uses it units appropriately, makes good use of magic and attempts to flank and overwhelm the player. It understands how to cycle charge with cavalry for maximum impact and, somewhat annoyingly, is very good at harassing your lines with ranged skirmish units.

I’ve seen some criticism of the AI for how it can throw its Lords (Generals) into battle early. But I think this criticism stems more from the perspective of how Generals functioned in previous titles, where it was necessary to keep them out of the thick of the action. But a Lord in Warhammer is a ridiculously powerful unit. During my second campaign as the Dwarfs, one of my Lords racked up 400 kills in a single battle alone.

That said, there are times when the AI can be a little too overzealous with its Lords or Heroes – and this is especially true of the Vampire Counts – where if the Lord falls, the entire army goes with him. The AI also has a tendency to reposition and reform its lines when a reinforcing army arrives on the field, as it attempts to merge the new units into its existing formation. Most of the time, this is the right call, but at other times, it does leave the AI vulnerable and open to exploitation by an aggressive player.

But yeah, overall, the Battle AI is pretty good and I don’t see it needing more than a few tweaks here and there to iron out the few issues. Siege AI is also pretty good, both in attack and defence, primarily thanks to the more ‘simplified’ siege system and map layouts. But hey, it actually works this time, so I see it as a plus. What’s really impressed me in terms of AI in Warhammer, however, is the Campaign AI.

 

Warhammer probably has the best Campaign AI in the series to date. I began playing Warhammer on the Very Hard setting as the Empire and promptly got smashed. This was a combination of the bonuses the AI receives on the higher setting, but also because I’d extended and expanded far too rapidly.

And regardless of which difficulty you play on, the Campaign AI in Warhammer will punish you if you overextend. It targets you where you’re weak, striking at unprotected settlements and sacking or razing them to damage your economy. It also attacks in force, sensibly positioning its armies to reinforce if you move to retaliate. And, whether by design or not, I’ve often been ‘lured’ by a retreating army into a situation where the AI suddenly brings 3 or 4 reinforcing armies into range, completely surrounding me and cutting me off.

Diplomacy, somewhat surprisingly, is a big part of the Campaign and actually works as it feels it should. This is helped by some scripted, artificial boosts to relations between factions during the campaign, as Chaos arrives on the scene to f**k everyone up.

It uses its Heroes (agents) very effectively to block armies, damage settlements and assassinate Lords and Heroes. Perhaps a little too effectively, in fact. I didn’t have too much trouble with AI Heroes during my two campaigns, but that’s because I was aware of how irritating AI agents could be in previous games, so I made sure to counter them with my own.

That said, they probably do need toning down in the campaign, because even I was able to assassinate the most powerful Lords of Chaos and remove them from the game before they’d even attacked. I actually reloaded after doing this, because it seemed a bit shitty and anticlimactic and I really wanted to face them in battle myself, even if it put me at a disadvantage.

 

Speaking of Chaos, the ‘invasion’ is a little underwhelming, and if you get the majority of the other factions into an ‘anti-Chaos coalition’ (which is pretty easy thanks to the scripted diplomatic boosts) Chaos will get utterly wrecked. I didn’t even finish them off in my first campaign, as a couple of the Dwarf factions swept in and smacked them down before I had the chance. It wasn’t exactly the glorious final battle I was hoping for, as the ‘Faction Destroyed’ notification popped up without any cinematic or special message.

So that’s something I’d definitely like to see improved. I do wonder if Chaos being made playable has actually resulted in them being far too toned down – so they’re more balanced to play as. But right now, they’re far too easy to play against, and I’ve actually had far more trouble with the northern tribes than Chaos itself.

There are five races in this initial release if you count Chaos, which may seem small compared to previous titles, but given how each race has an entirely unique unit roster, technology tree, Lords, Heroes and campaign mechanics, I think it makes sense. Because the biggest issues currently in Warhammer are balance issues, and if there were even more races and unit types running about, those issues would probably be even worse.

I said in my First Impressions post that this release is something of a ‘foundation’ upon which the developers can now build. It may feel a little more restricted compared to previous titles, but the result is a far more polished and stable release – one which really doesn’t need much more than a few tweaks, fixes and balance adjustments, rather than any ridiculous Rome 2 style patch extravaganza.

With this solid foundation in place, the develops can now add, expand, adjust, polish and further optimise the title the over next few years without spending all their time trying to fix the initial release. Because honestly, the balance issues aren’t too bad either. It’s just a matter of making small adjustments to certain units, some of which are currently too strong, and others too weak in terms of unit roles or cost/upkeep.

 

I’ve already written a lot about some of the ‘controversial’ changes in Warhammer with regard to sieges and regional occupation, so I won’t go over these again here. Yes, it’s a different way of doing things, but I don’t see that as a bad thing. I’ve said several times that I wanted Warhammer to shake up the series, and I’m pleased to say it’s done just that. I’ve mentioned how certain aspects of the campaign are more streamlined compared to previous games, particularly in terms of region management. But these changes all make sense to me within the context of a Warhammer themed Total War.

Actually, saying it’s Warhammer ‘themed’ isn’t entirely fair because, in many ways, this is Warhammer: Total War, as opposed to Total War: Warhammer. It embraces the licence and builds the game around it, rather than attempting to crowbar the licence into the existing formula. And I think it’s a better game for doing so.

We’ve never had factions with such diversity or personality before. As someone who knew sod all about Warhammer going into this title, it’s been a real joy exploring this world for the first time. The developers have successfully and thoughtfully blended the best of both worlds into an engaging and enjoyable mix. It could have very easily turned into a completely unbalanced clusterf**k, but by showing restraint and placing limitations upon this initial release, they now have a firm base upon which to build.

Modding is supported in Warhammer, which came as something of a surprise, and although there are restrictions upon licensed content, there’s already a growing number of mods available to enhance, change or add new content into the game. Developers supporting and promoting modding from Day 1 is always good to see.

Okay, so is there anything else, positive or negative, I’ve not yet mentioned? Underground battles/sieges are pretty weak visually, with very flat lighting, so I hope that’s something they improve. And although I like the new siege system, I do hope we see slightly more elaborate maps in the future. What’s here is, once again, a solid base, so hopefully they can build upon it.

Magic isn’t quite balanced yet, particularly on high unit sizes, with many offensive spells being rather useless – although ‘augment’ and ‘hex’ spells are f**king amazing if used appropriately, even if they’re not quite so flashy.

 

The music and audio in Warhammer is fantastic, and the game looks incredible at times thanks to its highly detailed units. Combat feels like the perfect mix between matched and non-matched animations, with a real sense of weight and mass, which plays a key role during battle. As I said in my previous post, I’ve had more fun with the battles of Warhammer than I have in any previous game in the series thanks to its diverse unit rosters, powerful Lords and magic.

It’s exciting to think that despite completing two campaigns, there’s still three other races I’ve not yet played, with entirely unique rosters and campaign systems. For the first time in the series, I think I’m actually going to play and complete a campaign with all of them. Sure, Attila had like seven barbarian tribes alone, but I never felt any great desire to play as more than one or two of them.

When it came to scoring Warhammer, I was a little torn between an 8 and a 9. I was leaning more towards the 8, because as great as the game is, there are minor issues (primarily with balance) and this release does serve more as a foundation than a ‘complete’ product. But then I think about how much damn fun I’ve had playing this release and how excited I am to keep playing and experience the other races.

Because even if there wasn’t more content to come, Total War: Warhammer stands as one of the best in the series, an almost perfect blend that breathes new life into the franchise in just the way I hoped it would. Before Warhammer, I’d felt Total War was growing rather stale. But now, to me at least, it feels as fresh and exciting as it did all those years ago with the release of the original Shogun or Rome. That’s an incredible achievement, and that’s why I’m awarding Total War: Warhammer a very deserved -

9/10