Now Playing: Warhammer 2

Warhammer 2 is exactly what it needed to be. It’s more Total War: Warhammer – but even better. It likely won’t win over any new fans because at heart it’s just more of the same. But as I said in my First Impressions post – it’s a very polished, refined and upgraded version of the original. If you liked Warhammer 1, you’ll like Warhammer 2. It really is that simple.

My only concern prior to release was the price. Is there enough new content and mechanics within Warhammer 2 to justify its status as a fully priced ‘sequel’? After more than 80 hours of play, I’d say the answer is yes.

There are four new races – High Elves, Dark Elves, Lizardmen and Skaven – fighting on a large, entirely new campaign map which covers the ‘New World’ of the Warhammer universe. The map is split into four quite distinct continents – the jungles of Lustria, the deserts of the Southlands, the bleak wastelands of Naggaroth and the beautiful island of Ulthuan.

Each race has distinct, varied and extensive unit rosters and unique campaign mechanics. They each have two Lords to choose from and, aside from the Dark Elves, these Lords are split between different areas of the map, ensuring very different campaigns even when playing as the same race.

The campaign of Warhammer 2 is exactly the improvement I was hoping for. It’s the most narrative heavy Total War campaign released, based around a magical Vortex that has the power to contain or unleash the forces of Chaos upon the world.

Although you can ignore the Vortex ‘story’ and simply focus on a domination victory, I don’t think it’s worth playing the Vortex campaign if you do – you’d be better off sticking to the Mortal Empires campaign (more on that later) if all you want to do is expand and conquer.

I said in my Impressions post that I can see some fans really hating the Vortex mechanics because it does somewhat remove the ‘sandbox’ element from the campaign. As you progress you’ll unlock five rituals, each of which must be performed to unlock the ‘final battle’. Rituals take time to complete and spawn random Chaos armies which will rampage through your territory in an attempt to halt your progress.

The other races can also spawn ‘intervention’ armies to send against your ritual sites – and you can do the same to them. The Vortex campaign is a race and there can only be one winner. It’s not only a more narrative heavy campaign (with the welcome addition of animated cut-scenes advancing the story for your chosen race) but also a far more objective focused campaign.

Controlling ritual resource sites becomes key if you want to stay a step ahead of the pack, and completing missions is a great way to boost your ritual ‘currency’. It’s a great way of keeping you engaged through the entire length of your campaign – always an issue in previous Total War games – but that’s not to say it doesn’t raise new problems of its own.

The first is campaign replay value. Once you’ve beaten the ‘story’ as a race, there’s not much excitement for playing through it again, even with the different start locations for each of the Lords. I suppose that’s where Mortal Empires steps in – a sandbox ‘mega map’ which combines the content of Warhammer 1 & 2. But Mortal Empires isn’t strictly Warhammer 2 content as it requires ownership of Warhammer 1 – so I won’t be factoring it into my review of the ‘base’ Warhammer 2 experience.

The Vortex campaign also has a problem with repetition. Despite the unique races, units and mechanics, beating the campaign is achieved by each race in exactly the same way. Once you’ve taken at least three of the ‘resource’ sites, you should be able to pull ahead in the race quite easily – but once you do, there’s very little reason to continue to expand.

The Chaos and Intervention armies that spawn mean you’re better off playing turtle within your own territory once your borders are secure. If you’re ahead in the race, it’s far easier to sit tight and simply defend what you have.

This can be fun, in the sense that unlike Warhammer 1, you’ll actually get to fight some large, enjoyable siege battles against varied armies not only of Chaos but the other major races, but it also means that you’ll likely approach every campaign, regardless of race, in a similar manner. As I said, the Vortex campaign is more of a story and objective focused campaign than a sandbox – which won’t be to everyone’s taste.

That’s not to say you won’t get good value from the title. Because if, like me, you enjoy this style of campaign, you’ll want to complete it with all four races to see how their story plays out. At the time of writing, I’m coming to the end of my second campaign with over 80 hours played, and I intend to play at least two more campaigns.

Warhammer 2 features a lot of quality of life improvements over Warhammer 1. Things like the new end turn customisation options, or the end turn notifications custom options – there’s a lot more ways to customise your UI and how much or little information you need.

Other new additions to the campaign (which will also roll into the Mortal Empires campaign) include treasure hunting within ruined settlements – although I never found this particularly worth the time – and sea based discoveries – which are very much worth your time, especially in the early game for the financial boosts they can provide.

Campaign and Battle AI seems fairly on par with Warhammer 1. There’s no noticeable steps forward, but none back either. It’s a competent AI which does a decent enough job to provide an enjoyable experience.

Magic seems to have been seriously boosted in Warhammer 2, which is a very welcome change. Magic in battles, though fun to use in Warhammer 1, never felt very effective beyond the unit augments or hexes. But now, the visually spectacular spells such as vortex attacks, finally do the kind of damage their cost deserves.

A ‘climate’ system has replaced the occupation restrictions of Warhammer 1, and seems like a decent compromise, although I’m sure some players still won’t be happy. It seems like some just hate the notion of any penalties at all, or being forced into making tactical decisions regarding their expansion.

All of these improvements and alterations will feed directly into Mortal Empires which for many will become the primary way to play Total War: Warhammer. It certainly seems like it will render the Warhammer 1 campaign redundant, which is why I appreciate that the Warhammer 2 Vortex campaign will still offer a different experience for those looking for a smaller, more focused campaign.

Siege battles are still mostly the same, despite more variety to settlement design, and this remains an area that could use further improvement. The lack of naval battles or even dedicated naval units (outside of the Dark Elf Black Ark) is also disappointing considering the extensive sea regions between continents. But I’ve heard there may be licensing issues regarding the naval component of Warhammer Fantasy, so this may not be within their control – but it’s something I’d still like to see in the future.

Overall, Warhammer 2 is another fantastic entry into the Total War series, and an excellent sequel to an excellent game that unfortunately also renders that game somewhat redundant. Between the new Vortex and Mortal Empires campaign, there’s really no reason to return to Warhammer 1 at all. I’m actually quite surprised by just how much new stuff is packed into Warhammer 2 in addition to all of the small improvements.

Warhammer 1 felt like the shake up Total War needed. It breathed fresh life into the series. It was a ‘revolution’ title, just like the original Rome, Empire or Shogun 2, because it set a new course for the series to follow. That’s why, despite thinking that the release build of Warhammer 2 is better than that of Warhammer 1, I’m giving it a slightly lower score.

Because it’s an evolution, rather than a revolution. But it’s exactly the kind of evolution I wanted to see. Highly recommended.

8/10