![]() It gives both the fighting and the campaign a whole lot more personality. You paid for those elite cavalry units that the treacherous bastard is sending against you, after all. Once more, this furthers the narrative aspects of the game. It also makes betrayals hurt doubly so since a rebellious commander will bring his retinue with him. This makes armies feel much more attached to their commanders as the only way to grow your army is to recruit more officers. They come with him when you recruit him and will stay with him until you dismiss the unit for something else. Not so in Three Kingdoms- here each unit is part of a general’s retinue. If one is wiped out you simply replace it. Total War games have always treated their armies more or less like anonymous mobs of soldiers. Three Kingdoms is a game that leaves you with these kinds of stories after each campaign you play.Įverything in the game design seems to fill this purpose as well. You will lament your biggest hero getting executed by the enemy, but you’ll also remember how you formed a coalition to punish them for their crimes. You will curse your general who decided you were too chummy with a perceived enemy, causing him to stab you in the back. You will look back at the time you formed a coalition with the Yellow Turbans to take out Lu Bu. I have fought both in and against coalitions and seen them turn on each other once a mutual threat seems weakened enough and personal ambition grows.Īgain, at the end of a campaign, you will feel like you lived through your version of the novel. Alliances will constantly be shifting and characters will backstab each other multiple times over the course of a single campaign. In Total War: Three Kingdoms this theme is shown in the way diplomacy and relations work. To fight some greater evil or achieve a greater good, only to see this bond and coalition crumble in the names of ambition, greed or circumstance. Though I am far from a scholar in the field, my own interpretation of Romance of The Three Kingdoms is that it is a story about people who come together for a common cause. It works well and although the campaign doesn’t follow the book completely as you are free to shape your own story, it is littered with events taken from the book and above all it nails the overall theme of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. This is, however, the first time they have opted to use an already established epic narrative as the basis for how the campaign is played and laid out. After all, that is what they have always been about. Being able to tell your own story and depict your rise to power is nothing new for a Total War game. Indeed, Three Kingdoms can be played in two distinct modes, with the default Romance Mode more or less letting you retell your own Romance of the Three Kingdoms, filled with epic heroes, betrayals, and rebellions. The story, as well as this game, is filled with larger than life characters such as Lu Bu, the master spearman, Cao Cao, the strategic genius, or the tyrant Dong Zhuo. ![]() People might be familiar with this ancient story from games like Dynasty Warriors, and Creative Assembly sure has done their homework. The epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms serves as the backdrop to this game, and it shows. However, Creative Assembly has done extensive work under the hood of Three Kingdoms to renew and revitalize the series after many years of diminishing returns. So far, everything looks familiar to any other Total War game. Your goal is as simple as it is daunting: unify China and create your own imperial dynasty. This was when I knew that I loved Total War: Three Kingdoms.Ĭhina is in turmoil, the corrupt Han dynasty has made a mess of things and now warlords, rebels and chieftains are vying to replace it. I lost one of my best fighters and a good portion of my best soldiers went with him. After a few more battles, his dissatisfaction had grown so much that he left my service. He was none too happy about it and it sowed the seed that would prove to be my undoing. All was well, except that one of my Generals and his retinue had paid a very steep butcher’s bill for the victory. ![]() An old foe who had been a thorn in my side since the beginning of my unification of China was finally vanquished. The city was burning, its gates smashed and dead defenders littered the streets.
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