Empire: Total War Review

Land battles are just as challenging as naval conflicts. The inclusion of firearms creates an entirely new perspective during massive battles. Players are required to take friendly fire into account, which apart from augmenting the realism also puts emphasis on further tactical approach in real-time clashes. For some odd reason though, the AI sometimes gets confused and may even refuse to respond to your actions on the battlefield. This happened quite a few times during gameplay. On the other hand, enemy forces have proved skillful in making the most out of the terrain (taking advantage of higher ground, using buildings for cover, etc.).

The hell with this, I'm walking the plank!

Well done, lads. An extra ration of grog for all of you!

The low point of Empire: Total War is the amount of technical problems, most of which were present when the game launched. Performance issues make for another obvious hindrance and were regarded as one of the game's greatest flaws. Patches and updates were released to address the many issues. It's safe to say, that Creative Assembly made a choice to let this one out the door a bit too soon. Still, I'm sure most of you won't object to a patch or two. There's so much to enjoy in this game.

Empire: Total War would've have made a serious Game of the Year candidate if it did not exhibit so many technical hitches. If you are prepared to go around this, as we were, and if you can stomach some of the AI downsides (as we have), there's a whole lot to discover. Overall, this is a very engrossing strategy game. If at some point you grow tired of the single-player, there are numerous multiplayer modes for LAN and online matches (with the long-awaited multiplayer campaign mode on its way as well). Either way, the incredible depth and sheer scope of the game should keep players occupied for days.