Total War Saga: Troy & The Epic Store

Let’s begin by talking about Troy as a game. Troy is the second ‘Saga’ Total War game following Thrones of Britannia – and no, I don’t really count Fall of the Samurai as a ‘Saga’ game despite the recent re-branding. I quite like the concept of the Saga series – games with a smaller scale or focus, featuring wars or conflicts that wouldn’t necessarily feature well in a ‘main’ Total War game.

And these smaller games with a smaller budget and therefore, presumably – less financial risk – are a good opportunity to experiment with various features and mechanics that can then feed into the next main title. So the concept is good, but what about the execution?

I liked Thrones as a game, but in my review I had a lot of criticism relating to what it was versus what it was supposed to be. Thrones felt like a decent expansion to Attila, but did little to define itself as its own separate product. It wasn’t just the reused engine or animations, but that Thrones – and the new ‘Saga’ series as a concept – lacked its own identity.

I suggested not only a lower price point for this new series, but also selling them as ‘feature complete’ – so no DLC. Blood could be included as standard. I had other suggestions, more specific to Thrones such as unique maps for every settlement, but the general point I wanted to make was that as a series, the Saga games needed to do more when it came to defining what they are and what they represent, both mechanically and commercially.

Which brings us back to Troy, the next Saga game. The question is, does Troy learn from the mistakes of Thrones? At the time of writing, it’s hard to say, because we’ve still seen so very little of the game in action. No campaign gameplay, and only a handful of details relating to campaign mechanics. All we’ve seen so far is a single historical battle and I have to say, it didn’t really get me very excited for the game.

Troy looks to be built upon a modified Warhammer 2 engine – at least judging by the reused Warhammer animations. Like with Thrones, I’m not going to criticise Troy – a smaller budget game – for reusing perfectly fine animations where they can be appropriately applied to the new setting – although seeing a human character walk, run, jump and fight like Grimgor Ironhide is a little weird.

But the battle didn’t really show anything new to get excited about. Units having different ‘weight’ isn’t very exciting if it doesn’t translate into meaningful gameplay – such as heavier units ‘pushing’ lighter units back. Units being able to ‘hide’ in long grass isn’t new or exciting, nor is ‘mud’ slowing unit movement. I guess the new ‘alternative weapon mode’ for some units is neat, but is that really the best Troy has to offer in terms of new battle features?

Considering this is a setting with such a heavy infantry focus, I expected to see more in this first demonstration that would clearly set Troy apart from other Total War games and deliver a unique and fresh experience. How about much larger units than we’ve ever had in a Total War battle? How about unit mass really playing a significant factor? How about more extensive unit formation options? In fact, the demo didn’t show any unit formations at all. How about a new system of army management, whereby the army could be split into smaller blocks and commanded by unique ‘captain’ units.

I’m just tossing out random ideas and maybe not particularly good ones. The point I’m trying to make is that Troy and the Saga series is supposed to be about ‘experimentation’ – but I’m not seeing anything in the current previews that is new or unique compared to previous Total War games. I might be wrong – maybe there’s a lot more to Troy than we’ve seen both in battle and campaign. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

But wait, there’s more! It’s now been announced that Troy will be an Epic Store exclusive for one year and will be free on the first day of its release. This does raise certain questions regarding the perceived quality and reception of Troy within Creative Assembly. Was Troy tracking to sell or review badly at release? Is that why, when Epic called, they took a deal that all but guaranteed Troy would at least break even in terms of sales?

If so, you could argue it was a pretty shrewd move – dump the game on Epic, take the cash and run. But maybe that’s not a fair assessment. Maybe Troy is going to be great and CA genuinely think this deal will help introduce Total War to a large and previously untapped audience. I’d you’ve read my previous post regarding the Epic Store, you’ll know I’m not exactly a fan – at least in the way they’ve chosen to do business.

But I’m not totally opposed to alternative platforms – I do use Origin and Uplay and more recently the Rockstar Launcher alongside Steam, even though they pale in comparison to Steam in terms of user features. I guess the question is, does this announcement persuade me to set up an Epic account? A free Total War game at release? What’s not to like?

It’s pretty clear what the intent of Epic here is, just as it was with all their other free game offers – to expand their user base. So will I be joining them? Right now, I can’t honestly say. I’ve not seen enough about Troy to decide if I even want to play it. But what little I have seen hasn’t left me very excited because nothing I’ve seen suggests it has learnt from the mistakes of Thrones.

And more worryingly, the developers – the new CA Sofia team – don’t appear (at least based on what I’ve heard in a few ‘influencer’ videos from people who spoke with them) very willing to listen to critical feedback. They seem pretty insistent that the game is ‘working as intended’ even when there’s clearly some pretty bad unit balance issues in the preview build they provided.

Overall, nothing I’ve yet seen of Troy has me very excited. I wanted to see something truly new and unique about Troy in terms of battles, but what I’ve seen so far, to be blunt, looks like a bad re-skin of Warhammer 2 with the ‘duel’ system of 3K shoved on top. Maybe there’s more to be revealed. Maybe the campaign will be truly unique and exciting. But I guess however it turns out, it’s going to be free, so why not give it a shot?