Ten iterations in, and only now are Creative Assembly meshing high fantasy and licensing with their legendary Total War franchise.
Total War and Warhammer seems like the perfect marriage, but is it?
Check out our full video review below to find out, or read our byte-sized impressions after the jump.
Total War: Warhammer in Byte-Size
- Extensive Mod Support through Steam Workshop, in addition to the DLC and the fact that it’s the first of an intended trilogy will ensure the game’s lifespan will go for months, even years.
- First time a license used for the franchise, but a great lead-in for the future. Familiar Total War theme, but feels so fresh due to the high fantasy setting.
- Campaign split between factions, each one has variance of difficulty. Also means that you can jump into the game as a veteran or a newcomer with relative ease.
- Warhammer humor so prevalent. Even though it’s a serious strategy game, trademark quirkiness is evident in the art, the writing, animations, and even the music.
- In addition to campaigns, there are self-contained story quests to bolster game’s longevity which feature legendary battles in the Warhammer universe. Also feature legendary lords and heroes with varying skills to use in battle.
- Still such a tactical, thought-provoking game. Need to use terrain, weather, and environment to your advantage, in addition to military placement and tactics. The game forces you to think rather than charge in blindly. You will not win every battle with ease.
- Outside the real-time battles, the game feels like a direct competitor to Civ with the various factions, potential for alliances and wars, keeping up morale, creating buildings, and developing technology.
- Can also be compared to Monopoly in that you’re capturing different areas, achieving supremacy over the board. Influence increases if you own all encampments in one area, making you much more admired by other factions. However, you can never be too overconfident and always have to be wary of internal conflict as well as external strife.
- Multiplayer plays wonderfully. Silky smooth online play and the ultimate test of skill, endurance, and game knowledge. As competitive as you’d expect, but perhaps not as intimidating as you’ve been led to believe. Opportunities for newcomers to prove their worth as much as veterans to showcase their dominance.
- You will lose hours playing this. A five minute session can just as easily turn into five hours and still be enriching, surprising, and rewarding.
You can also purchase a Chaos Warriors DLC pack for the game. It was available with pre-purchase, but can also be grabbed seperately. To see our impressions of the content, go check out our review over here.
Final Analysis
Total War: Warhammer has been totally worth the wait. This is the best of all Total War games, brought together in a deep, involving fantasy world, rich with lore. Whether you’re a Warhammer nut, a Total War fanatic, or an inquisitive first-timer to both, Creative Assembly and SEGA have managed to deliver a great strategy game that will appeal to everyone. Total War: Warhammer is the dream marriage of a rich, high-fantasy universe with Creative Assembly’s expertly honed real-time warfare. A must.
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