Introduction:

Many of you will remember my rave review of Medieval 2: Total War, which scored no less than a 9.5, back in the day. And all Total War fans can rejoice, as Sega and Creative Assembly are once more teaming up to create a title in the Total War series: Empire - Total War .

Features:

From the press releases, we can ascertain that the game will start in 1700, and will therefore focus on gunpowder units, and from the screenshots and the videos we can conclude that the game will look extremely spiffy. As usual, Creative Assembly nor Sega seem all too eager to give too much information about the game, with even the exact release date being somewhat of a mystery, and in discussions I've seen the rumored number of playable faction go as high as 50. So far, the developers have only told the community about a grand total of 9, which includes France, the United Provinces, Great Britain, Prussia and a few others. Notably missing from that list is the United States, but rest assured: they are in. However, the Unites States will focus on a campaign type titled: "Road to Independence" in which the player - you've guessed it - battles Great Britain.

What has always been extremely disappointing to me, in the Total War series, was the lack of Naval units. Well, no more! Empire: Total War features epic naval battles, and from the in-game footage so far released we can indeed see the cannonballs roaring over the stormy seas.

A few notable other features:
- The ability to garrison buildings
- Deployable structures (barricades)
- Dynamic weather

But that's not all!

Multiplayer:

When it was announced that Empire's release date was moved from February to March, it was also announced that the game would feature something all Total War fans have been shouting for: a Multiplayer Campaign Map option. As you might recall, I said about Medieval 2: Total War that it did not offer much in the realm of multiplayer, which was it's biggest weakness. That has been resolved, and when I shared this news with some of my friends, most of them responded with: "We have to buy this game the moment it comes out".

March 2009, guys. Meet you on the battlefield.

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites