Total War: Pharaoh Review
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- čas přidán 1. 06. 2024
- Blake's Takes gives his review of Total War: Pharoah . Is Total War: Pharaoh worth a buy? Is it worth the price? Today we'll find out.
We'll be discussing Total War: Pharaoh gameplay, and whether it matches up to current competition.
We look at Total War: Pharaoh vs. other Total War games to see how the competition stands out.
No BS, No drama, just an honest opinion on whether you'll like this game.
===================
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
01:45 - Sound design and graphics
04:10 - Unit diversity and rosters
07:22 - Outposts
08:26 - Immersion
12:05 - UI
14:00 - Tech Tree
15:11 - Unit class comparisons
16:57 - Weather system
18:49 - The Sea People
21:57 - Naval battles (or lack thereof)
22:47 - Dynamic battle map system (or lack thereof)
23:50 - Bugs and glitches
24:26 - Conclusion - Hry
Always enjoyed your TW videos
Thank you so much for your generosity my friend! Glad to be of service, and thank you for your viewership!
I miss being able to field armies without generals. Sometimes a provisional commander does well and gets promoted to a General character and that was hype.
That was indeed hype.
"man of the hour events" RIP
The most disappointing thing is that they didn't make chariots good. Chariots were such an important part of warfare in this period that the strength of empires was often calculated in terms of the number of chariots they had. They've never been good in TW, and this was their chance to really put in the effort to fix them. It's a damned shame they didn't.
They're very clunky, and I don't think all the terrains dotted over the map have made them better to use!
Chariots in Rome 2 were extremely scary. The damage potential was insane. However they were extremely vulnerable to projectiles. It was a really good chariot design. Wish they kept it like that. Now they’re vulnerable but no damage lol
I agree with you but I always thinking when they input original chariot function in small army it will be very OP because 1 charge can destroy all army at once
I think the best way I’ve heard it put was another CZcamsr that described war chariots as “historically regarded as p2w bullshit”. I want to say Sseth was the one who said this, but I could be misattributing.
I feel like because if the one v one combat system CA seems so obsessed with, it makes targeting janky. Even Rome 1 had issues with experience you can find different methods to make them functional.
I just don’t get it, why are they cutting costs this much? I understand that they have a lot of projects (Warhammer, Historical, sometimes even other games) but it’s so confusing how every game (even the historical games) can do quite well commercially and yet it has fewer features and less support than older games. Sometimes I go back to FoTS Shogun 2 to experience *innovative* game design compared to the new releases, which is just completely wrong
would someone please think of the shareholders?!
with CA I think it's lack of focus, they've got their fingers in too many pies and it shows in the quality of what they've been producing since warhammer 2.
They know people will buy regardless of state of game
Watch, now they wont make historical games and only do fantasy because lack of support
Just my opinion
@@Bakarost Your statement contradicts itself.
if people would buy no matter the state then why wouldn't they keep making them?
The games being supported through all of these people buying the game which you said in the sentence prior.
Nevertheless they didn't buy Pharaoh - 3,650 players on launch night as of right now. Very low number.
Sounds like the most impressive part of Pharaoh is dynamic fires, a feature that has been dug up from its initial development in Attila.
This is looking like I thought it would, rather sad to see that CA just can't get it together. Wonder how long CA can keep this up at this point and they get gutted or sold.
Can only hope they'll pull something out soon. it is sad to see.
As long as they can raise the WH3 dlc prices :D
Great UI is a true lost art.
It's so true it hurts.
Man, not having boats on the bronze age is a huge disappointment. It'd be a wonder to see Tremes go at it in a naval battle, ramming each other for huge damage and peppering each other with arrows. That could've been a good selling point for a game like this, different naval warfare from previous titles.
Also chariots not being good is something I sadly kind of expected given how bad they are in Warhammer. I was hoping it'd be something they would subvert my expectations with since it was a different studio working on it.
The UI being sterile is a damn shame, there is so much vibrance to the cultures of that time, especially in their iconography. Though from the little I have seen of the game I do like that the unit's flag act as a morale indicator instead of it being a gray bar.
The range units well range being so short really threw me the first time I watched the game being played. Taking away the main strength and purpose of a unit and turning into a weakness is counter productive to say the least, that should be remdied quickly.
I agree that 60 bucks doesn't seem worth while for this game, though I might pick it up in the future as I do love that time period in history, it's fascinating to see what peoples were up to so far back in history.
the flags and banners are really good - good spot. I should've included that.
I don't think that Triremes existed in this time period, but I agree that naval battles would've felt more immersive.
Making well working naval combat would have bloated the games budget way too much.
theyre not making a game people will play years on end, theyre making a game that can quickly turn some money into a little bit more money.
Naval warfare in the bronze age wasn't the same as in the Classical Age. Ships didn't ram each other. It was more, as far as we are aware, boarding actions, turning boats into mini-floating islands so warriors/sailors could fight each other hand-to-hand. I don't think that would be very entertaining.
@@dasvildanya I'd say it would be just as entertaining as the combat we have in this iteration of total war.
You would have to manoeuvre your ships correctly and use different formations to break the enemy.
Despite our disagreement on how entertaining the naval battles could be, surely you must think it's bad that CA didn't even try to implement any kind of Naval combat and implemented the Warhammer 2 solution?
Imortal faction leader and no family tree is a real dealbreaker for me. The IGN review did not mention those things at all and gave it and 8/10. I really trust smaller and/or more honest reviewers like this guy.
Love unfettered opinions
And I love you, random citizen.
Are you planning on making more of the "why you suck with" series? i love having it on in the background, even if i don't play the games. your voice is very soothing
You're very kind for saying so sir, I sure am, I've got another one bubbling up soon.
thats actually what brought me to this channel
Weird new direction for the Tomb Kings rework..
Haha
Nobody played long enough to encounter the Secret ending in which Nagash appears.
Great review. I'll be holding off with this one...
Thank you sir!
I'm glad the game sounds like a great package overall, but it does not outweigh the disrespect and damage CA has done to the community trust. Maybe I will buy it one day on sale, if CA can earn my respect back.
That would be my advice. Expensive for what you're getting.
As a gamer that played Troy and also was a tester for Total War Arena i can't get over the fact that battles in Troy and also Pharaoh (which i dont consider as a DLC like the majority of the CZcamsrs, but as a mod) are extremely arcadey and very shallow, reminding me of Arena which was a bad, bad, very bad mobile game. Also the lower polygon count models of Troy and Pharaoh + the dumbed down physics and mechanics of battles in these games remind me more of those 2D like unit models in Medieval 1 or Shogun 1 - ok, I'm exaggerating a little but taking into account it uses the same game engine as Warhammer 3, the difference in unit model quality and physics is insane and corroborated with the asking price for it i can't really wrap my head around it. Guess they are asking double for it to recover some of the costs after giving Troy for free on EGS. And even though i got Troy for free I didn't played it not because it was bad per se, the campaign was pretty good while the battles were lacking, but i preferred wasting my free time on better total war games like WH2, Rome 2, Britannia or Attila...And this will also be the bane of this game too, way way lots of better games for lower the asking price of this one.
P.S.: also the lack of sea battles is inexcusable! Basically almost all the drawings of the battles that the Egyptians fought against them are naval ones or landings! SMH....
Give me boats or give me death.
i was with you until you said "better total war games like WH2, Rome 2, Britannia or Attila" these are literally same engine, same gameplay, same game in its core and even nearly every aspect, only thing that changes are textures and style (biggest exception being heroes and warhammer fantasy units), all of these are shallow carbon copy of each other, that people for some reason like. First time i had real fun with Rome Total war 2 is last week through - of course - a mod!
@@Enkabard divide et impera?
@@Perturbed5kumbag.69 Medieval 1100 AD, the battles just feel way longer and just more impactful and i love that i feel constantly threatened by different tribes and raider groups, etc
@@Perturbed5kumbag.69 And Rome (i kinda like they call them what they called themself, and not Byzantine Empire) is way more impactful for orthodox factions, when they ask you for something, you have to think deep and hard what is your answer (at least at begining). Dont remember having any interactions like that in vanilla game or dlc.
Since Rome 1, chariots are just not fun to micro manage. At least cavalry can last a few moments in melee. I would have hoped that CA would completely revamp chariots with this release. I loved playing Egypt in Rome1, but i NEVER built chariots. The only chariots in the history of TW that come close to being fun are Slaanesh chariots, and even those require too much micro.
Love the way you review games. The focus on immersion and explaining why that's so important and why this game lacks immersion was cool.
Thank you my friend, I hope to review other games outside the total war sphere soon.
Great review. Did you had problems to distinguish units during battle? From what I saw they look a bit 'samey'.
I use the bar at the bottom most of the time when selecting units. Double click on it and it takes you right to that unit, so I didn't have trouble in that way, but it'd be hard to tell them from a high level view.
Always interesting to see your take - and glad to see that you gave it a more real review/shot (your hot take video that was more about all the things that *might* go wrong with it was one that seemed quite premature / clickbaity ).
Thank you sir - glad you found it interesting.
Thank you for this bud! Great video
You're welcome sir.
Thanks, Blake. This is what I was expecting. Just a mediocre game with some good ideas. Nothing that was allowed to be fully realized, sadly.
We can always hope for the next one.
I think they desperately need a new engine really, something fresh to work with. Warscape engine has been trundling along since empire.
@@BlakesTakes420Warscape could handle musket battles reasonably well, but it never did melee as well as the rome 1 or medieval 2 engine. Which would be forgivable if not for the fact that the vast majority of total war historical settings take place during times when melee combat dominated. In Rome 1, you can actually see the soldiers push against each other and try to break each other's formations apart. It looked so exciting. Melee in Warscape has always just left me cold. It doesn't feel as physical as it did in the older titles.
@@DjeauxSheaux agreed - Thats why I think the next title will be empire 2 - then they use that money to develop a new engine.
Ooooorr they queef out some more bronze age shite nobody asked for... you can never really tell with CA. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@11:00 In Rome 2 DeI the general traits are really important and you have to dance around what you'll give to your political enemies, so that they won't grow bigger in political standing too fast, but still keep them growing and winning battles, so the faction won't revolt. Also there's a lot of choices depending what kind of army you are using, so commanders leading different types of armies, or leading them in varied areas of the map, need to skill up differently, or just use that commander to govern and get research, control, growth, trade and diplomatic buffs in a province. Love the system.
This "game" should have been a Troy DLC/update becouse that's what it looks like and I'm sure also how it feels like.
I can't attest to Troy, as I never played it. But I will give you my thoughts
With Total War, in it's current state I think of it similarly to the final seasons of Game of Thrones. Where the series was streamlined to make it more accessible to a mainstream audicence.
Spectacle over substance.
Pharaoh I think is a testament to that. A glossy veneer over a game that lacks any real strategy. It's a nice veneer, don't get me wrong, but I need more.
In warhammer cutting naval battles made some sense because each faction would have such different navies that it would basically double their workload but with historical games that doesnt apply
I love a staunch line of critiques.
I am a scummy cheeser.
I remember in Rome 1, when I played it I could see the nearby town in the distance.
Me too, why they got rid of that system is beyond me.
2 things
1, this video deserves WAAAY more views. Even if it is about Pharaoh.
2, something you didn't mention that I'm curious about: How were the siege battles?
I actually thought about it today and thought "bollocks, I didn't mention sieges"
They're better than warhammer 3 by a large margin, but that's a low bar.
Units cluster on top of the walls like a great mosh pit. They're nothing groundbreaking.
2 capture pints per city, hold both to win...
Bland gameplay that's why I probably forgot to include them. , spam armoured swords and you'll beat them.
The cities look pretty though.
One thing I have to object. The cavalery part. In bronze age horses could not carry a full weith of an armored man, almost not a man at all, that s why they used chariots so much. So... they canno t put horses, just new type of mele units
This is a fantastic review and general overview of Total War. Great job
Thank you sir, appreciate your kind words!
"Pharoah!! Let my people go!"
Will there be a Moses??
Moses DLC confirmed.
Preorder now to receive the Moses in the bullrushes limited edition skin.
That is unbelievable! Thanks mate! @@BlakesTakes420
i cant tell if this is sarcasm or real XD @@BlakesTakes420
Honestly? I think a TW with a mash of historical-fiction related to the heroes and factions in the real world would be great! Ie: Moses gets an ability to carve through watery terrain which makes him a difficult enemy to out-maneuver, Ghandi just gets nukes, Stalin can turn his Pops into food, etc…
@@sickbozo8152 now you got me thinking 🤣
Here we go, the highlight of my week, another Blakes Takes video.
This take was hawt - If it were measured in Nando's spice levels this would be extra hot.
My like took it to 420 #blaze it
Hahaha 💚
Is it baltic herring? If that is the case it ages well
How unfortunate, i have a soft spot for the Ancient Egyptian settings. Looks like I'll wait for a sale
Great review, always a pleasure when you upload.
Thank you for your lovely comment. 🫶
Now we need a Clark's Take TW channel.
I don't get it :(
20:13 great point you brought up! During the weekend release as ramasees I controlled the whole sinai and I literally had a libyan army invade me from the east lol made absolutely no since it just spawned in my southeastern settlements it took me 4 turns to get a army to confront them
Nothing you can do, they'll just spawn there. Enjoy your crispy settlement. 🔥
@@BlakesTakes420 surprisingly the Libyans actually settled into my settlements I was shocked when a lot of reviews said Libyans/sea peoples just raze because that isn’t what happened to me I lost tons of resources and I passed 60 turns before I could fix it
@@BlakesTakes420 chariots were ass as well I had infantry catching my chariots lol they were mad slow other than that I enjoyed it
What difficulty were you playing on?
I did both hard and Veteran campaigns.
a reasonable take yeah. I'm not surprised with the conclusions you came to. Disappointed, but not surprised. I was never going to buy it myself, but having watched this i at least feel vindicated that my gut instinct was correct
Some good things in the game. Some bad. Definitely not worth $60.
Maybe next year's summer sale mademoiselle?
@BlakesTakes420 ehhhhh maybe. If its particularly cheap. Mostly I don't have much time for historical anyway, I'm a fantasy girl at heart
I like how Sophia had to bail CA out again. They brushed up Rome 2 so its not surprising the game turned out the way it did.
Ironically, the developers spent so much time marketing unit stances and ive yet to hear one thing about it from anyone trying out the game. If anything, CA should have giving cavalry different stances/positions too. Imagine having an entire wing of attack position cavalry that sweeps through a path, rather than target a specific group. It would make charging more risky as they can alter the direction of battle for better or worse. And yet again they refuse to improve or do anything with functional command tools. Like drawing paths since ai picks straight line worse path possible, ignoring other units like a flock of black birds. No symblance lkke in rome 1 or medieval where troops had to wait for others to move in front. Simple, but it goes to show the engine doesnt mesh well with unit behavior. Or better yet, its not addressed at all.
The game looks stunning, but very arcady. Lime what Amazon did to Tolkein, prestine, gender fluid, diverse and modern. Its like a happy person painting depressing artwork, sure it represents darkness and ancient times, but i no way does it actually capture the soul of someone who actually knows what depression feels like, and then paints something real.
The stances are very low impact. I basically went through the entire game without using them once.
@@BlakesTakes420 I knew it'd be sheit...they'd have to animate coordinated marching in formation, holding a position without breaking stride into the actual unit behavior. That'd be a miracle even for NASA apparently.
at least in rome 2 and attila you can see the buildings you build in your expanding cities which was so cool
Yeah I really miss that feature
A very good review. As a fan of the series, I originally planned to buy this game. But given the points you mentionted I will refrain from it. Especially as I agree: I expect way more differences between the fractions and not a simple copy and past. The end game scenario sounds really frustrating,- I know from previous games here that you cannot keep too many top-notch armies e.g. chasing than randomly spawing doomstacks is just getting on everybodys nerves.
Tech Tree was already bad in Warhammer and I never really cared what I did researched (as in the end it never really mattered).
The only thing I slightly disagree with are the naval battles,- the game play function was never really well implemented. The choices of warhammer III where no the worst ones,- but I agree: especially for game where you will fight against a sea people this solution is just cheap.
Nerfing the ranged units looks also as if they simply used their learnings from the Warhammer series. But if a whole unit class cannot be really used,- what is the used to implement it at all?
So tl;dr: Thanks. Will not buy this game in the current state and the main reason is that CA did apparently applied mostly cheap solutions.
Thank you for your comment. I agree naval battles in Rome 2 left a lot to be desired, but Empire had excellent naval battles.
Tbh it's not even really about the battles, I'd like to build boats and have them autoresolve at the very least.
Chariots were such a big deal in this time period, they'd just spam whole armies of them, the fact they're useless here is a slap in the face
Agreed.
That review deserves a sub man. Great job summarizing your thoughts and feelings into a coherent and easy to understand presentation. I also appreciate being sober minded and reasonable about it and not being a CA apologist or a CA consumer Karen.
Thank you sir. Appreciate your lovely comment.
We can be rigorous in our critiques but polite whilst doing so. 😉
If this game gets a decent amount of support, I could see it going from good to phenomenal pretty quickly. Unfortunately, I doubt it will receive any support beyond two or three dlcs (if that).
I can't imagine it getting even the Pre order pass DLCs if I'm honest. Interest in the game is pretty minimal. Time will tell, but I can't see it happening.
@@BlakesTakes420the fact they have already sold those makes me think they will have to pump them out.
Otherwise refunding everyone who bought dynasty edition through keysites and such would be an absolute nightmare.
They could cheese it by releasing some really halfhearted stuff I suppose but still.
yep, your last statement - they'll do that, probably.
I've only ever played Warhammer games, so I had no idea this existed. But the fire-by-rank thing at around 14:35ish is incredible. A perceivable change to the games animation based on a tech upgrade is awesome
My friends, if only you knew how good the old TW games are ;')
if you think this is good... well
Family Trees were so well done in 3K its a shame its geting backtracked to warhammer again :C
@@cathulionetharn5139 i just think historical TWs worked better on a larger time scale, spanning 100+ years to allow generations to die and grow, these small scale event-centric TW games are just not feeling great to me, its Saga title, not full-pledged game
@@sanderkiki yep, but the sea people invasion started and ended in the lifetime of ramasses the 3 (dude you can play) and afterward was still a troubled time but a time of rebuilding, and yeah this is Saga
@@cathulionetharn5139 problem is they sell it as "full pledged TW" not a Saga,
and yeah i know the history of collaplse of the civilisation of that time and 19th dynasty etc, just really dunno, for me such TW games just dont work, even 3K need to span for 50+ years, starting much before actual 3K period to evolve and grow on you to immerse in it. and im having so much more fun in heavily modded 3K than in any modern or post M2 historical TW game rn...
@@sanderkiki agreed, although to me 3k was always best for it's cavalry, it's the best at representing that heavy shock cav that charges a unit of unarmored archers rides them down and barely slows.
For me the best (and very unlikely to happen) way is to dlc-in greece, which fell before egypt and hittites, that way the game could start decades earlier, give time to set up for everyone as greece collapses, than the greeks could be part of the sea people and also try to rebuild from ruin and we could have family trees.
Me personally think this is a pretty good historical. I like the features campaign and stuff but i do agree that the scope is a bit small and the price is iffy. Should’ve been like $45-$50 Ngl but yeah that’s my opinion
That's it, it's your opinion, totally subjective. Just like mine.
I think this could've been a great game if they added ships, tweaked combat and made generals more personable.
@@BlakesTakes420I mean for naval combat it would be boring back then naval was just men shooting arrows and boarding
😂😂😂
@@cringeaclops56 You forgot ramming as well sir. but no I don't think it would be boring at all - I really like ancient naval warfare, and Ancient Egypt was particularly skilled in the craft. They were effectively a maritime naval superpower back then, so not having anything to do with that, is just appalling in my opinion.
I loved the EA weekend. Have played every TW game that has been released and I can feel some dev love in this release. Having used chariots a lot in TWWH i find them devestating in this title, usually getting 200+ kills, but i sure do love my micro. I agree that the naval combat is a missed opportunity and that the court system needs to be further fleshed out however.
Personally I got the game for 30 bucks and at that price I'm definitely happy with what I got, but man this release feels barebones as hell.
The new systems mostly lack impact, combat is effectively a far more basic version of what we used to have and in general there's just nothing to really latch on to long-term for me. Three Kingdoms has its diplomacy systems, Warhammer has combat variety, Attila the constant decay of everything around you, but this game?
I suppose there's the resource spread, but that was Troy's defining feature first, so ultimately this game just evokes nothing of its own for me and that's a bummer.
I hear you man.
Immortal generals actually started with Napoleon, not Rome II - Napoleon could not die, only getting wounded when he "died" on the field. I think it worked for that game, especially since it's named after him.
I was referring to the cookie-cutter, every general has the exact same traits that you spend skill points to unlock system.
Not the immortality.
very surreal seeing the driller pop up when im playing DRG on my other monitor
Rock and stone to the bone.
Blake, you are right that the immortal leaders ruin immersion. Total War was much better with random characters for generals and faction members. I would often become quite attached to them, even the rubbish ones, and mourn their eventual passing. Also, the fact that naval battles are missing from Pharaoh is a strange decision, as you say, given the setting. Hopefully they will make a return in future titles. As for Pharaoh, I played for a couple of hours a few weeks ago and quite enjoyed myself. While the game has its faults - as most games do - it is at least a decent attempt at a historical title. I think that a lot of the sniping at Pharaoh has been a little unfair. Hopefully Pharoah will serve as the basis for a really good bronze age campaign. Who knows with a few patches and DLC? Paradox use the same strategy of releasing a basic game and then building it up to greatness, and nobody has criticized them for it. Even the much maligned Thrones is now a good game after a bit of attention over the years. Whatever becomes of Pharaoh, you can be sure that CA now knows what the historical community does not want to see, and takes it all on board for the next historical title.
I still got 50 hours of game-time on it, I wouldn't have spent time on it if there weren't redeeming qualities.
Thanks for your comment sir, appreciate you!
I once imagined everyone in the UK speaks the way you do. Flegmatic & specific playful with words. A classic british humour
You are one rare specimen I won't hesitate to call a true treasure trove
Good review btw
And I still am a bit ashamed that you got defeated by a watermelon. A damn fruit. What a disgrace to the TW community. Hide that video pls
What a lovely comment, I thank you for it sir.
Regarding the watermelon - the cucumber-esque rind was just far too dense, for my portly, middle-aged body. As Lao Tzu famously said "There is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent".
The tech tree being copy pasted is just the icing on the cake. Remember the Marian reforms in Rome 2? Or the invention of Gunpowder in Medieval 2? New technology should be exciting! Or at the bare minimum, distinct from culture to culture. Rome 2 had that, Attila had that.
It's a damn shame.
I hope you do something similar to Warhammer 3, specifically the sound design and the soundtrack.
Chaos warriors war horns, voice lines like "SACRIFICE THEM!!" while charging... Hell even the "next turn" sound effects and battle start sounds are fucking dope and live rent free in my head.
Great review and thank you for not being led by the vocal Karens and just formulating your own opinion and giving a good, honest account.
Hoping CA can get some quick wins over the shorter term with things like chariot pathfinding/weight/impact, general unit retuning, weather system tweaking, morale effects in battles to bring this up to a 7.5 or 8.
Interesting generals and varied tech tree are something I'd like to see real improvement upon over the medium term too at the very least. Could add hugely to playthrough diversity.
But I really like the setting and faction diversity so far - lets get vocal on the forums and make the above happen!
For me, the TW franchise ended with the fall of the samurai. Atilla and the brittain one where ok but for me a downgrade on Shogun 2. Got me three kindoms but when i saw spearmen losing on cavalry without them having heavy losses, i was done. No tactics where needed anymore. just blobbing units and hope for the best.
That's a damn shame.
Hopefully they learn from this.
Unfortunately its a half assed release. Might have been better received with a lower price tag or as a DLC for troy. Sofia did great with what they had to work with but didn't get a lot of time or resources. "On the verge of greatness" but let down by greed.
16:55 didn't use chariots much in my ramesses campaign but from experience with total war autoresolve if you have many type1 units (melee infantry) and very few type2 units (cavalry), type2 gets obliterated in autoresolve a lot.
And yeah sea people suck to fight and it kinda is supposed to be
To the egyptians it was literally: one day an army arrived from the northern sea/western desert/southern desert/ eastern desert and sacked the city of xxx than left to wherever they are from.
Still unfun
Naval battles weren't really a thing against them Ramasses first beat them on land them hit them with a fleet while they were fleeying on the Nile delta.
Also no rams, no artillery so only ships with ranged crews pelting the enemy, and melee crews doing a boarding.
Btw, I heard suggestions this may have originally been an attempt at a mobile game, turned into Sega title, turned into full title, but couldn't find a source, I presume it's just a "it kinda looks like a mobile" feeling creating a rumour.
One thing I like is the technology conditionals, tech that emphasizes stone mines increases stone income from mines not just all stone, experienced artisans give a lot of bonus stone in prosperity era (because then you have them), very little in collapse (as the degradation of society prevents labour specialization), it's a nice concept and could have more done with it.
The Sea people tho didn't disappear, they actually settled.
Specifically in the case of the Egyptians they defeated 2 Sea people tribes and then the Pharaoh decided that they'd actually make useful subjects and allowed them to settle in Canaan in exchange for their loyalty.
@@boomerix yes and no, we know they eventually stopped raiding, some of them like the two tribes you mention were defeated and settled, most hovewer were not defeated, they sacked cities, then left, then come back later to sack other cities, then they just stopped raiding, and to the raided egyptians it was as if they disappeared.
There is also the fact that while there are many theories about which exactly tribes were sea people (and some are named and even known to us) and what happened to them. One egyptian pharaoh left a carved writing which listed a bunch of tribal names and some of these names we don't know anything about, as it is basically the only survivng writing were they are mentioned.
@@cathulionetharn5139Well the theory that they settled comes from depictions and description that they had women and children accompanying them, which suggests they weren't just looking for plunder but were looking for new lands to settle. Tho the motivation as to why (sparse resources, natural disasters, rivals tribes etc.) are unclear.
A lot of it is simply unknown as there is just a severe lack of information. What we do know is that the defeated tribes were allowed to settle in Egyptian territories. From the other cultures we only know warnings of them and destroyed settlements, but if Sea people there got back in their boats or tried to settle anywhere in the area is unclear. (At least as far as I know).
This enigma in history is what makes them fascinating. Also I find it funny how in modern depictions Vikings are often shown with horned helmets, despite them never having worn horns, while some tribes of the Sea people did wear helmets with ornamental horns.
I wonder if those are related in anyway to the old European that had something bovine related in their religion before Indo-Europeans like the Greeks conquered them and brought their polytheistic pantheon with them.
the worst part is that CA already made their best games with rome 1 and medieval 2 and its been downhill ever sense. all I want is a medieval 2 remaster like rome everything else I dont care about because I know they will fuck it up, I hate the new building system... actually everything except graphics and maybe diplomacy is worse
Total War: Attila still reigns supreme and was the pinnacle of the TW CA games. Nothing will beat it for some time.
I disagree with you on that. I couldn't get into it because of its terrible optimisation.
We've been asking them to bring back so many of the things that made the old games great but they never listen
Maybe after this commercial flop they'll listen.
HOMM style city interface. I wish.
Drooling thinking about that.
Haribu😂raiders lol that’s Abraham’s boys
CDKeys £25… is it worth this? Fan of total war for years but idk
Id say yes, but not a hyper enthusiastic yes.
i got it for £22 from cd kays.. i wouldn't have paid full price though.... but i rarely do anymore.... i'm certainly not paying £70 for the new spiderman game
CA would have been better off just marketing this as a SAGA story and charging £30. People wouldn't have been happy because we didn't ask for/want another SAGA, but it basically is and they would have benefited in sales from people knowing what it is. The fact that we're still comparing this to 10/15 yr old Historic titles says everything. Until they use a new engine and give us a proper, large scale, Historical epic, CA will be in this constant limbo between SAGA and fantasy titles, trying to please everyone and ultimately disappointing everyone.
Couldn't agree more.
Blake: complains that the UI isn't immersive
Also Blake: uses the boring generic 21st century unit cards
Tbh, I prefer the "boring" unit cards because it's easier to tell which unit is which at a glance.
Both unit card varieties are fine imo.
The cost-cutting shite is especially annoying given their egregious price-rices in other areas recently
Pharoh: A DLC for Troy that CA are trying to con people into thinking it's a full game and charging full price.
I won't be buying it until it goes for £10 on Steam, like I do with all TW games since the Rome 2 debacle.
Rome 2's release date, shall forever be a day that live in infamy.
200 players currently online. Speaks for itself
Shocking performance.
I wonder if the devs play this and I wonder if they genuinely enjoy it
Tbf for the first 30 hours or so I enjoyed it, but I think that because I hadn't played a historical title in ages.
There's just a lot of missed opportunities in the game. It's absolutely flopped. Hopefully CA learns
Thanks for the takes🙏🏽
You're most welcome.
13:32 I have seen what you did there ;)
(;
Troy is a good game
I never played it.
What a disappointment. I had zero anticipation for this game, and still don’t. As having played Troy a couple play throughs, it is without a doubt, a planned DLC that was morphed into a stand alone game, with its own DLC soon to come and then abandoned a year or two down the road. They don’t seem to care at all what people want, they’re like the Joker in the Dark Knight. “I don’t have a plan, I just do..things”. It’s quite ridiculous at this point. I won’t be getting this, even on sale. I learned my lesson with Troy.
This is an excellent review. Thank you.
The game leaves me completely cold.
I didn't buy Troy and I won't buy this.
Thank you for your lovely comment friend. Much appreciated.
"In its current state, it feels more of an artificial speed bump... rather than a fun threat to deal with."
Sounds like literally every CA difficulty mechanic ever. It beggars belief how they come up with cool ideas (e.g. the Vortex ritual incursions of WH 2 or the daemon portals in in WH 3) but end up with an utterly shit, tedious, gamey implementation.
I think the Mongols were done right in Medieval 2. something you could prepare against. This teleporting in of armies is just really cheap imo.
Just no. I am tired of CA sh*t. They made last good TW game more then 10 years ago. After shogun they stop innovating and improving their games. They only streamline and remove old features. This province system should never appear after rome 2 yet it is in every single game. It would be more bearable if they let us design which cities will create province. Also army limit. This dynamic weather feature marketers were so excited about is feature that was in TW since medieval 1. No family trees. Like seriously every single TW game until Rome 2 had functional family trees. No longer we can make our own garrisons. Playing CA games feel like chore nowadays. You are right CA need to look into titles of the past this may not be their worst game but it is another disappointment in 10 + years series of disappointments.
The biggest drawback of this game is the setting, the number of people who are actually into the Bronze Age is miniscule and that's for good reason.
Have to say, it's not my favourite setting either.
Get out. The Bronze Age is where it all started. Truly a unique time that many are passionate about.
Very sticky units
Is it a joke that you mispelled pharaoh in the title?
No - I'm just an idiot.
Thank you for pointing that out.
Is it bad? or is it really bad?
Neither, it's mediocre.
Bland and expensive for the price point.
There's some good stuff in there though, so don't fully discount it.
Ill get it on sale just cuz how many games are in the bronze age.
You'll have fun. It's not a bad game.
Am I the only one that hate small settlement like that? Empire, shogun 2 and Napoleon had this useless things spread out.
What strikes me is how much this ... kind of looks like a warhammer3 mod. Not great, from the dev studio that created the games, for their work to be looking like it was amateur-created.
Re: the sea peoples, yes that's basically how they worked irl; they kept appearing all over the place and ravaging whatever they found, destroying a bunch of empires and kingdoms and only actually being stopped by the egyptians themselves at horrendous cost.
Agreed, but it's really not fun to play against when your garrisons suck. If you could recruit troops into a garrison directly it wouldn't be such a chore.
@@BlakesTakes420 true. I remember from shogun 2 being able to recruit units into general-less armies via your city's recruitment panel, made for excellent garrison supplements. You could even send them between cities or out on campaign, though without a general they can't replenish etc so it wasn't without risk.
That simple feature would fix so many issues around sieges and defence.
IMO a Total War Troy expansion with small improvement and changes at a full pledge game price... No Ty
Don't blame you.
This game should cost 30 euros.
Agreed.
I feel bad, no matter how good the game is i probably would never get it simply because i'm just not interested in the period it takes place in. at least not for 80 CAD
What if they did the whole of bronze age Europe and had that as well?
@@BlakesTakes420 I'd be more interested if it involved more, or a different area during the bronze age.
@@Slyslug imagine if they multiple ages like civilization. 🤤
@@BlakesTakes420 actually, that's a really neat way to look forward to late game and freshen up the game every couple hours. You're onto something
Just play Tomb Kings.
I am not really a follower of Total War anymore as I am not into Warhammer so was surprised when this came out but this is a hard pass from me
Shame isn't it
total war troy 2.0
Don't care, I'm not buying a historical TW unless it's Empires 2 or Medieval 3. Get to work CA!
🥺 Small indie company, pls understand 🥺
I was confused by this review until dude said he didn't play Troy so this makes since. Game is practically copy past
Yeah I boycotted Troy due to exclusivity with Epic.
A fundamentally anti-consumer decision, which I wanted no part in.
Pitiful game for 2023. How can they sell the most expensive total war game in history and its just a bunch of repetitive land battles with simple infantry. I mean, I understand if cavalry would not be historical and therefore not added, but man... Naval battles. Hello?.
This is just such a disappointment. Why not do a Bronze Age game with babylon and other regions like rome but make it right this time. Pharao feels like 1/20 of a complete bronze age game, a single faction fighting itself
Because they want to sell you the rest of it, peacemeal as DLC.
Shameful display.
I knew this game was going to be garbage from the moment they announced it... let's be honest, it was never more than a poorly designed Troy DLC.
Can't believe how bad these games have become since Shogun 2 and Empire... no thank you. CA lost me as their customer until they make an actual good game...
I'll let you know when a good one is out in 2032.
@@BlakesTakes420 2032? ai ai ai that's a long wait innit
Good sound design is absolutely irrelevant if the game isn't worth playing long enough to listen to it. Point null.
just because other areas of the game are weak doesn't mean I can't point out strengths.
It is dead on arrival? Im confused? 99% hate it.
You're not wrong.
It's a deeply mediocre game, with a small scope. There are some good elements but not enough to redeem it.
This all just seems like a $60 reskin.
This seems like a game to keep the share holders happy so that's why I won't be buying, looks trash and Costs too much
What a load of rubbish, a backward step for CA, two of the most popular games could have been given the upgrades they and we deserve, Empire and Medieval, so disappointed in this subject matter and not interested in this game, it won't be getting my money.
bro plays on pentium 4 still kek
Pardon?