I'm gonna start out with the good bits because they have listened. They have learned and some aspects of the combat design, campaign modes and hero systems are worth talking about.
The inventory system for heroes is a cool touch. I always welcome more variation. The ability to duel is great because its fun and not forced, player control to select our campaign mode is good.
The combat system is overall good. It maintains a balance of MTW2 combat interaction whilst trying to creative occasional matched lock-on kills when appropriate. It is not as good as MTW2, but it is definitely better than Warhammer based on what I have seen.
The music has its moments of beauty and good battle rhytm, but I wont say more because there isn't enough variation at all. the hero designs are quite interesting as well. Some look ordinary, others look fantastic, but graphically they are worse than Warhammer by a long shot. Nevertheless, points for good design work.
Representation of both male and female generals in quite cool ways, with unique inventory. I love this. And you can even gather the weapons or armors of the opponents you defeat. This should definitely evolve with the franchise.
I dont hate this game. And I actually expected I would. So I credit you CA for some great ideas. But you also made some very bad ones and Ill discuss those now.
You may want to get a drink. This is gonna be a long one and if you're a veteran of TW you're gonna get angry.
First of all, morale is too low. Everyone breaks immediately when flanked or hit by cavalry. Archers do too much damage. I dont get why they make melee centered video games when they make ranged units so OP they literally melt everything. This has been a problem since Napoleon Total War but namely Shogun 2, Fall of the Samurai. And why are the tracers so grotesquely large? Am i firing arrows or toilet paper rolls? Because I can't tell the difference.
Oh. Turn them off you say? Well then I can't see anything at all. So that isn't very well balanced. Unlike in MTW2 or shogun 2. Just saying. CA's damage balancing teams are completely clueless on how to do their jobs. And that brings me to a good example of this because Im going to prove it to you!. Next point!
Towers are hitting harder than when God annihilated Babylon. No i am not being hyperbolic. I opened the game files and arrow tower fire is as high in damage as a trebuchet. Hey. I told you you were going to need a drink reading this. Dont blame me if you're feeling sick. Lord knows I was when I saw this. And to anyone who thinks Shield Wall or shield block chance is going to matter. Hahaha. Yeah, no. That tower is a machinegun next equipped with Warhammer 40k Heavy Bolters. And to be fair, they have been for years now because CA dont care. Moving on!
Unit variation is atrocious. Hardly anything is interesting. Most things look the same. It may be historically authentic but this is a video game. Its very very boring. CA's excuse here is that modders will fix that but I'm honestly tired of this. It's super uninspired for 60 bucks.
Units are locked behind unlock requirements in custom battle. This is just... infuriating. I love to playtest units and see what they look like. Can't do that here for the best / elite units. Also the only units that actually dont look like peasants. Whoever at CA thought this was a good idea should be fired. No I dont think thats over the top. Its outright insanely screwed up. Its like selling you a freaking cellphone with lots of features but you dont get to actually use your mailbox, or apps for like 1 week until you used the rest enough.
I imagine looking at you now, dear reader. Seeing you find this staggering and absurd to the extent it sounds like I am lying. Good., I say. I would do too. Because what I am describing is anti-consumer friendly design on steroids and has never been in any total war up until 3K. Which is exactly why I'm mentioning it. This... should NEVER return. Last time I saw this was in EA/ Dice's Battlefront 2. You'd think a developer would know better especially after that backlash.
The graphics are bad. But the steam screenshots do not. How do we explain this? Yes, it was a mystery to me too. Because it is not a Rome 2 situation exactly, although close. The issue here that Creative Assembly screwed up the lighting in the game.
So that means whenever you see battles at night. The game looks absolutely beautiful. The colors, contrasts, correct shine and saturation is on point. But then daylight comes... and we are teleported back to 2007 in terms of graphical fidelity because the color balancing isn't taking the light change into account at all.
No, I dont know why or if this is intended. Only thing I know is I'm running this game max on a strong PC with everything updated and the only time my game looks 90 % similar to the steam pics are during night battles or in afternoon fights with less sun exposure.
Some things worth bringing up as well are the bad interface changes, stupid garrisons and AI not wanting to attack you if you fortify your bases. I am so insanely tired of this. Garrisons break the game because it is boring, and extra fortification means no attacks ever. I get that CA want to make a "smarter AI" but I personally think the AI should never ever ask for peace until its at 1 base left. I spent hours on very hard fortifying my bases and nothing ever happened in my major cities with walls.
Its incredibly boring.
Generals not being able to recruit all units is the most annoying in-game restriction I have ever seen in a TW game. In a game with duels and cool outfits and all these customizable things, you forcing me to use a boring general who's afk on the battlefield is infuriating. Stop telling me how to play and let me do what I want.
And why are there so few generals armors and weapons to go around? Its stupid stuff like this, let alone the tower complaint that is exactly why I dont play Total War games online anymore. Your games are freaking unplayable without mod assistance.
And this is where I will move unto the next part of this massive review. A recent controversy that has lead me to boycot you again.
Not too long ago a chinese modder decided to make portraits of female generals more interesting and uniquely distinguishing to look at. Because this is gaming and the internet he decided to make them extremely attractive. Emphasis on extreme. I'm using that word because I dont want to risk this review not being approved. This is news to noone. We've seen it in all games. Just part of the internet. People enjoy making all sorts of funny mods.
But where this player creation becomes a controversy is when CA decided to freak out over this because of a single employee's opinion. They made this opinion their policy and I dont really care too much about that. What I care about is how they began a witch-hunt and have officially censored the modder in question. Ordering him to remove his mods or change them through Steam.
Bear in mind, dear reader. This is a game where you can literally dismember men, women and animals. Arms, legs, heads, etc. I just want everyone to keep this in mind when being presented with this information that CA went full 12th century Crusade over a female general being made look more revealing in a 2D portrait alone.
No matter your opinion on that, what I wish to emphasize is the final outcome. Not the company's policy. CA is within their right to dislike what they want. But I am strongly opposed to them censoring harmless community creations.
I do not like them suddenly trying to boss us around. We have been keeping their game alive for years because 90 % of the time when CA releases a game its broken and unplayable. For them to now attack us and play the morality game is the last straw for me personally.
If you're going to allow us to mod, then you can't just begin complaining about us modding afterwards, let alone censoring us and actually cracking down on the guys steam account so hard he can't upload for a while.
Its absolutely childish and outrageous. This is a paying customer who spend his hard earned money to buy your product and you're punishing him and censoring him after you allowed him to be creative.
Disgust... is not a strong enough word.
3K is a very large, mixed bag. And there are things I didn't talk about because they didn't overly affect me to the same extent the things I mentioned did. There are things I like, things I love, things I hate and revile.
But I'll simply end this colossal review in this way here. Modders have fixed 90 % of the things I complained about. That is important to highlight.
But I am personally going to rate this game a 4 out of 10 just the same because the baseline is bad. The game is lacking, it is very backwards and has atrocious ideas that weren't thought through properly. For ever 2 steps forward, it takes 3 steps backwards. And that is my golden rule by thumb when it comes to dealing with this developer.
Because its always the same. Everytime. I'm not going to let the controversy affect my rating however. if it did I'd rate it an outright 1 out of 10. But I'm not going to do that.
3K is a 4 / out 10. Below average. A good game held back by too many bad ideas and stupid problems. With mods its easily a 7-8 depending on your point of view.
But as for me personally, I am just done. I have always loved modding. I've made a lot for Shogun 2 myself. Loved exploring my ideas, potential concepts with both men and women alike. Loved combining things and going in crazy directions to be original and fresh when adding to our great community.
If CA is gonna begin dictating and censoring us now, then I have officially had enough. You haven't learned a thing from Rome 2's era. And about Rome 2. Sieges are still laggy to boot. Its ridiculous.
And on that note:" 2 steps forwards, 3 steps backwards" GG, CA.
- The Good
The inventory system for heroes is a cool touch. I always welcome more variation. The ability to duel is great because its fun and not forced, player control to select our campaign mode is good.
The combat system is overall good. It maintains a balance of MTW2 combat interaction whilst trying to creative occasional matched lock-on kills when appropriate. It is not as good as MTW2, but it is definitely better than Warhammer based on what I have seen.
The music has its moments of beauty and good battle rhytm, but I wont say more because there isn't enough variation at all. the hero designs are quite interesting as well. Some look ordinary, others look fantastic, but graphically they are worse than Warhammer by a long shot. Nevertheless, points for good design work.
Representation of both male and female generals in quite cool ways, with unique inventory. I love this. And you can even gather the weapons or armors of the opponents you defeat. This should definitely evolve with the franchise.
I dont hate this game. And I actually expected I would. So I credit you CA for some great ideas. But you also made some very bad ones and Ill discuss those now.
- The Bad
You may want to get a drink. This is gonna be a long one and if you're a veteran of TW you're gonna get angry.
First of all, morale is too low. Everyone breaks immediately when flanked or hit by cavalry. Archers do too much damage. I dont get why they make melee centered video games when they make ranged units so OP they literally melt everything. This has been a problem since Napoleon Total War but namely Shogun 2, Fall of the Samurai. And why are the tracers so grotesquely large? Am i firing arrows or toilet paper rolls? Because I can't tell the difference.
Oh. Turn them off you say? Well then I can't see anything at all. So that isn't very well balanced. Unlike in MTW2 or shogun 2. Just saying. CA's damage balancing teams are completely clueless on how to do their jobs. And that brings me to a good example of this because Im going to prove it to you!. Next point!
Towers are hitting harder than when God annihilated Babylon. No i am not being hyperbolic. I opened the game files and arrow tower fire is as high in damage as a trebuchet. Hey. I told you you were going to need a drink reading this. Dont blame me if you're feeling sick. Lord knows I was when I saw this. And to anyone who thinks Shield Wall or shield block chance is going to matter. Hahaha. Yeah, no. That tower is a machinegun next equipped with Warhammer 40k Heavy Bolters. And to be fair, they have been for years now because CA dont care. Moving on!
Unit variation is atrocious. Hardly anything is interesting. Most things look the same. It may be historically authentic but this is a video game. Its very very boring. CA's excuse here is that modders will fix that but I'm honestly tired of this. It's super uninspired for 60 bucks.
Units are locked behind unlock requirements in custom battle. This is just... infuriating. I love to playtest units and see what they look like. Can't do that here for the best / elite units. Also the only units that actually dont look like peasants. Whoever at CA thought this was a good idea should be fired. No I dont think thats over the top. Its outright insanely screwed up. Its like selling you a freaking cellphone with lots of features but you dont get to actually use your mailbox, or apps for like 1 week until you used the rest enough.
I imagine looking at you now, dear reader. Seeing you find this staggering and absurd to the extent it sounds like I am lying. Good., I say. I would do too. Because what I am describing is anti-consumer friendly design on steroids and has never been in any total war up until 3K. Which is exactly why I'm mentioning it. This... should NEVER return. Last time I saw this was in EA/ Dice's Battlefront 2. You'd think a developer would know better especially after that backlash.
The graphics are bad. But the steam screenshots do not. How do we explain this? Yes, it was a mystery to me too. Because it is not a Rome 2 situation exactly, although close. The issue here that Creative Assembly screwed up the lighting in the game.
So that means whenever you see battles at night. The game looks absolutely beautiful. The colors, contrasts, correct shine and saturation is on point. But then daylight comes... and we are teleported back to 2007 in terms of graphical fidelity because the color balancing isn't taking the light change into account at all.
No, I dont know why or if this is intended. Only thing I know is I'm running this game max on a strong PC with everything updated and the only time my game looks 90 % similar to the steam pics are during night battles or in afternoon fights with less sun exposure.
Some things worth bringing up as well are the bad interface changes, stupid garrisons and AI not wanting to attack you if you fortify your bases. I am so insanely tired of this. Garrisons break the game because it is boring, and extra fortification means no attacks ever. I get that CA want to make a "smarter AI" but I personally think the AI should never ever ask for peace until its at 1 base left. I spent hours on very hard fortifying my bases and nothing ever happened in my major cities with walls.
Its incredibly boring.
Generals not being able to recruit all units is the most annoying in-game restriction I have ever seen in a TW game. In a game with duels and cool outfits and all these customizable things, you forcing me to use a boring general who's afk on the battlefield is infuriating. Stop telling me how to play and let me do what I want.
And why are there so few generals armors and weapons to go around? Its stupid stuff like this, let alone the tower complaint that is exactly why I dont play Total War games online anymore. Your games are freaking unplayable without mod assistance.
And this is where I will move unto the next part of this massive review. A recent controversy that has lead me to boycot you again.
- The recent controversy.
Not too long ago a chinese modder decided to make portraits of female generals more interesting and uniquely distinguishing to look at. Because this is gaming and the internet he decided to make them extremely attractive. Emphasis on extreme. I'm using that word because I dont want to risk this review not being approved. This is news to noone. We've seen it in all games. Just part of the internet. People enjoy making all sorts of funny mods.
But where this player creation becomes a controversy is when CA decided to freak out over this because of a single employee's opinion. They made this opinion their policy and I dont really care too much about that. What I care about is how they began a witch-hunt and have officially censored the modder in question. Ordering him to remove his mods or change them through Steam.
Bear in mind, dear reader. This is a game where you can literally dismember men, women and animals. Arms, legs, heads, etc. I just want everyone to keep this in mind when being presented with this information that CA went full 12th century Crusade over a female general being made look more revealing in a 2D portrait alone.
No matter your opinion on that, what I wish to emphasize is the final outcome. Not the company's policy. CA is within their right to dislike what they want. But I am strongly opposed to them censoring harmless community creations.
I do not like them suddenly trying to boss us around. We have been keeping their game alive for years because 90 % of the time when CA releases a game its broken and unplayable. For them to now attack us and play the morality game is the last straw for me personally.
If you're going to allow us to mod, then you can't just begin complaining about us modding afterwards, let alone censoring us and actually cracking down on the guys steam account so hard he can't upload for a while.
Its absolutely childish and outrageous. This is a paying customer who spend his hard earned money to buy your product and you're punishing him and censoring him after you allowed him to be creative.
Disgust... is not a strong enough word.
- Conclusion
3K is a very large, mixed bag. And there are things I didn't talk about because they didn't overly affect me to the same extent the things I mentioned did. There are things I like, things I love, things I hate and revile.
But I'll simply end this colossal review in this way here. Modders have fixed 90 % of the things I complained about. That is important to highlight.
But I am personally going to rate this game a 4 out of 10 just the same because the baseline is bad. The game is lacking, it is very backwards and has atrocious ideas that weren't thought through properly. For ever 2 steps forward, it takes 3 steps backwards. And that is my golden rule by thumb when it comes to dealing with this developer.
Because its always the same. Everytime. I'm not going to let the controversy affect my rating however. if it did I'd rate it an outright 1 out of 10. But I'm not going to do that.
3K is a 4 / out 10. Below average. A good game held back by too many bad ideas and stupid problems. With mods its easily a 7-8 depending on your point of view.
But as for me personally, I am just done. I have always loved modding. I've made a lot for Shogun 2 myself. Loved exploring my ideas, potential concepts with both men and women alike. Loved combining things and going in crazy directions to be original and fresh when adding to our great community.
If CA is gonna begin dictating and censoring us now, then I have officially had enough. You haven't learned a thing from Rome 2's era. And about Rome 2. Sieges are still laggy to boot. Its ridiculous.
And on that note:" 2 steps forwards, 3 steps backwards" GG, CA.
