Empire: Total War

Format PC

Developer Creative Assembly

Publisher Sega

Genre Sim / Strategy

8 Comments

War shouldn't be this much fun. War should be hell and suffering, the debasement of mankind. It should be scooping beans from a can with the rib of a dead comrade then swallowing it into your dysenteric stomach. But not fun.

Only Empire, Creative Assembly's most ambitious and epic Total War game to date, is just that. Fun. How do I know this? Because I've just spent two hours playing the latest code, and as my fingers fumble to strike the correct keys to type these words, I can't help feel that Empire has the potential to utterly eclipse its illustrious predecessors.

During my playtest, I sampled Empire's Road to Independence campaign: a series of bite-sized, story-driven episodes based on the American War of Independence. Divided into four chapters, The Road to Independence is likely to offer a more focused experience for newcomers daunted by the prospect of diving straight into the largest Total War turn-based campaign to date.

Episode one begins circa 1607, with you marshalling the British as they try to gain a foothold in the US and hold off the natives, who've impertinently lived there for many thousands of years without a letter of permission from His Royal Highness.

Chapter two sees the natives on the back foot, but augmented by the military might of the French. (Stop sniggering. The French were quite the military power back then.) As the Brits you must defeat this unlikely alliance in short order.

Chapter three tasks you with leading the Americans to victory over the Brits in the War of Independence, and it was this episode that provided the setting for my session.

Unlike the main campaign, The Road to Independence isn't just an open sandbox, as each chapter is punctuated by CGI cutscenes detailing the birth of the modern-day US. While purists may scoff, the cutscenes I witnessed were adequate proof that the plot should add an extra layer of depth and meaning to your actions. Also readily apparent was the more focused nature of these episodes, making them ideal for newcomers before they're thrown into the main campaign in the final fourth chapter.

Chapter three kicked off with a real-time 3D recreation of the Battle of Bunker Hill, an epic clash between the Brits and Americans on an undulating battlefield dotted with patches of forest. Playing as the sovereignty-seeking Yanks, my heavily outnumbered forces began atop a hill. The interface, familiar yet distinctively different from Medieval II, took just seconds to learn, allowing hostilities to quickly commence.

Calling upon nearly a decade of Total War experience I arrayed my troops at the hill summit, though one fundamental difference forced me to reassess my tried and tested tactics. While cannons and muskets featured in Medieval II, they were so wayward as to verge on useless. Empire's gunpowder weapons now have accuracy to match their power, creating a new set of variables when outlining your battle plan.

Horse-drawn cannons allow for the rapid deployment and movement of your artillery. Whereas shifting artillery was previously akin to pushing a bear up a downward escalator, cannons can now be moved to a new location in seconds. Placing them intelligently is also paramount. This became painfully apparent when I sent a cannonball scything through the spines of dozens of my own troops standing directly in front of my artillery. It was a flash of military genius to rival even Field Marshal Haig's brilliant WWI strategy of marching thousands of men towards German machine-guns.

With the Brits advancing up the steep gradient from three directions, I wheeled my cavalry around their left flank in a bid to drive a wedge through the heart of their forces. My men bayed a war cry that mingled with the stampeding hooves of their mounts, charging for glory with swords outstretched, racing past an abandoned farm before collapsing en masse as a group of garrisoned enemy snipers parted them from their brains as they rode past. This was going to be tougher than I thought.

Moments like these proved Creative Assembly's commitment to ensuring that Empire's AI is a marked improvement over the irritatingly predictable and moronically static opposition tactics we often witnessed in Medieval II. Where troops once attacked in a single tide they now spread out and probe, searching for gaps in my lines to divide my forces.

Still smarting from the loss of half my cavalry and with the advancing Brits tenderized by some well-placed cannon balls, I ordered my troops to open fire. A cloud of smoke formed from 500 musket puffs as balls of lead cut into the enemy ranks. Scores of Redcoats dropped. The bombardment continued, each volley reducing the enemy's forces by 10 and sometimes 20 men. The two armies traded salvos as they closed, each volley more devastating than the last. With a single mouse click I changed my troops' attack orders to melee and sent a sea of blue uniforms sweeping down the hill at the enemy.

Zooming into the action revealed a previously unmatched level of battlefield realism and detail, with each motion captured soldier actively seeking out an opponent before engaging in a mortal shoving and stabbing match. Men toppled into the mud, squirming with terror before receiving a deft bayonet jab to the windpipe. After a titanic, 20-minute struggle the tide turned my way with the enemy hightailing it thanks in no small part to a bullet to the British general's head that broke his men's morale.

With the real-time battle ended, it was time to test out the campaign map. Once again, while initially familiar to any Total War veteran, the first impressions proved deceptive with further probing revealing some subtle nuances.

One of the most fundamental transformations was how regions were pocked with settlements. While the capital city remains the heart of each one, a series of smaller towns also make up your holdings. A region can still only be captured by conquering the capital, but you now have other options too. With the Battle of Bunker Hill successfully navigated, I advanced my troops into enemy territory, only to find the Brits firmly entrenched inside the towering walls of the region's key city. But with the outlying towns only lightly defended, I channelled all my efforts into attacking them instead, strangling the region's income and forcing the hiding enemy into the open for a face-to-face confrontation.

In a clear attempt to provide greater flexibility, Creative Assembly have expended a great deal of effort in fleshing out Empire's non-combat features. The developer even claim that you'll be able to play the whole game with the minimal amount of conflict if you're canny enough, though sadly my playtest wasn't long enough to test this theory.

Empire's diplomacy system has been greatly streamlined, with a single diplomatic interface negating the tedium of micromanaging individual diplomats on the campaign map. Alliances have become far more complex affairs, and you can even try to manipulate other nations to do the fighting for you.

Attack an enemy and your allies will be reluctant to come to your aid, but goad your foe into an invasion and your allies will send reinforcements without hesitating. Ally with a faction sandwiched between you and your enemy, and the opposition will have to come through them, before they can get to you.

One of the best ways of needling the enemy is to use a new unit called the Gentleman. This loveable rogue can be sent into enemy territory to duel opposition commanders or assassinate dignitaries, allowing high rankers to be eliminated without the need for battlefield confrontation. Wipe out a number of a faction's generals and they'll declare war. The Gentleman also has several other key skills. Ensconce him in an enemy's university and he'll steal their research, or if he's placed in one of yours, speed your discovery of new technologies. The Rake is another debuting unit that acts as an all-in-one spy, diplomat and saboteur, making for a far more streamlined approach to subterfuge.

As my playtest drew to its inevitable close and with both the land battles and campaign map exuding the kind of potential that should have every strategy gamer palpitating, there was just enough time to sample Empire's all-new naval battles.

These watery conflicts proved far slower, more considered affairs than their terra firma equivalents. Wind speed and direction were major factors in determining the manoeuvrability of vessels, with ships battling the elements while exchanging cannon fire with a British fleet.

Turning each ship so that enemy vessels came into a hull's shooting range proved the greatest challenge, one made all the more difficult by the need to manually reload cannons after firing at the enemy.

A secondary challenge was gauging which of the three shot types to use. Besides the basic cannonball, you've got chain-shot - half-cannonballs linked together by thick chains. These take down enemy masts and leave ships sitting duck targets for barrages by standard cannonballs that knock gaping holes in enemy hulls. Finally, there is grapeshot. This a canvas bag full of metal balls turns a ship's crew into hunks of flesh, softening up the enemy in preparation for boarding.

While these battles were certainly tense and tactical, it's still too early to make any concrete judgements on them. We'll save that for the review. Make no mistake, Empire: Total War is shaping up to be one the most ambitious war simulations around. Not only is its scope superior to its predecessors, it's also promising to scale previously uncharted heights of accessibility. With land battles bolstered by some radically improved AI and the added tactical dimension provided by gunpowder weapons and the ability to garrison troops, along with a highly promising first attempt at real-time 3D naval warfare, Empire: Total War has the tools to take strategy gaming to the next level.

If the polish can match the vision then Empire won't just be another war simulation, it'll be pure, unadulterated strategy entertainment of the very highest calibre. Or in a word, fun.

Martin Korda