I remember once, Austria was my ally and Vienna got took over so I took it back and for the sake of role play decided to gift it back! I had to pay 300,000 for them to have their capital back
I've reinstalled Empire recently. Turn 1: Britain proposed to exchange Archangelsk and Ukraine for Jamaica, I refused. Turn 2: they declared war on me. Wut?
I liked Empire. It wasn't the best game, but it's certainly one of my favourites. Napoleon was even better. I just wish the map was bigger. One of my favourite moments was the time Britain offered to trade me Maryland for some money and technology, only to declare war and steal Maryland back in the same turn. Right after they took Maryland, they offered me peace terms if I gave them more money and technology. It was such an asshole move that I actually started laughing, right before I burned their whole empire to the ground.
Luke Smith Haha - What are you on? Firstly - Whats makes you think i'm American? Secondly - What couldn't I do? Whats going on? I only said "true"Lo! Random aggression based in ignorance, bery amusing I must say. You cheered my morning up. Cheers.
Medieval 2's soldier animations, I believe, were the best. Rather than a very long elaborate animation which wouldn't happen in an actual battle ever, there were the standard swings and stabs that might or might not kill their opponent and then maybe a cool finishing move where they might smash their axe right into their foe's chest even after they raise a hand to stop it, or whacking their head back with a sword. That system was the most realistic and cinematic.
i remember one kill animation in medieval ii where it would take the dude forever to kill an enemy while their buddies just stand around and watch him die
+quintus You know, when someone is fully clad in plate armour it's kind of difficult to kill them, and that game reflected this by simply making battles longer. Anyway, his buddies are probably standing behind them and in Medieval II you can't smush through someone to help them out, kind of similar to real-life physics...
well yeah but if ur playing the dutch on hard you need to capture some spanish galleons to compete in the mediterenenen also if u capture ships u acheive monney
tomcat912 the ship battles are the best! Also I like defending against AI when I have a fort because the AI always charge up the hill and get shot at and all for and run away instantly
Just to troll, I owned all of Western Europe, (except for the UK and Würtemburg) and I saved my game and offered Russia all of my lands just to see the trolliness, and they refused XD
My favorite Empire bugs: 1) Needing to restart my entire computer literally every time I "exit" the game (it never closes the application) 2) Enemies marching right past my garrisoned fort as if it's invisible 3) My troops falling dead after being jabbed in the chest by the barrel of a musket without a bayonette
You shouldn't have to reboot your computer every time you exit the game. Go to Windows task manager and stop (kill process) the game executable in the processes tab. Happens to me a lot with Firefox in Windows 7.
No, it just freezes and keeps running, although I can't get back into it. Task manager doesn't end the task. I need to reboot. But like I say, it isn't doing that since I installed Darthmod....deactivated, but installed. Whatever the issue was, it appears to not be occuring anymore...
I remember attacking a city in which the defenders are flintlock armed citizenry with NO bayonet and I don't get how they can still kill my professionally trained line infantry ( they didn't have any other weapons except plain muskets ) LOL
''The only reason Creative Assembly you still have friend is because Europa Universalis doesn't have battles and nobody knows about King Arthur.'' Priceless.
@@maksymalnybul6145 What makes the decision even more incomprehensible is that France was the single most populous state entirely within Europe. The only other state that was close was the Holy Roman Empire (which wasn't much of a state, considering that Frederick the Great was supposedly Maria Theresa's husband's vassal...).
@@maksymalnybul6145 I never play France in Total War: Empire more than one turn. Play them too much in Napoleon. When they made Empire, it does not seem to knew too much on what they are doing. What I loved most on Empire seem to be unintentional. When I got France in one big region: I just go to main menu after trying to think for five minutes on how to beat Spain, England, Austria and Prussia with only Paris.
I had a lot of fun in this game. While not as much fun as Napoleon, taking over the map as Naples, it was still fun to run a colonial empire as the Netherlands.
It's fun, just like any Total War game. However, all the bugs give me quite the headache. Napoleon Total War is equally annoying, too, but at least it feels a little bit more polished.
I confess it had it's moments and something it has going for it is there's nothing quite like it on this scale within this era in true Total War fashion. I always enjoyed playing it, especially after finishing Road to Independence. Building a continental superpower in the Americas, having a naval superpower that can't be beat, then landing in Europe to give them a case of Act Right whenever they fuck with me or my money just to let the territories go Independent or give them back in truly insulting fashion while the AI stands hat-in-hand before the Empire of Liberty or deciding instead to recarve the world map 1918 Treaty of Versailles-style never stopped being satisfying. What killed it for me a lot especially after patches and mods fix a lot of this was the raging inaccuracies with uniforms and aesthetics and tech after the early 19th century. I hated having to be stuck with Continental aesthetics in 18fucking75. Especially when the US had some serious military drip going on throughout the 19th century that unfortunately most people are ignorant of.
Anyone notic that, ever total war game with bad music, is a total war without Jeff van Dyck ! He is the music composer in ever good TW ( Medieval 1,2 Rome 1 Shogun 1,2 ) But not in Empire Napoleon and Rome 2 !
"Oh, Beddow sucks. Get van Dyck back so I can suck his cock some more" Fucking plebs who can't enjoy music unless they have a fucking army of drums banging off a repetitive rhythm into their hollow skulls, which still are barely big enough to contain the one or two anemic lines van Dyck decides to crap out into the score, and no, doubling the line to registers megahertz below the thresh hold of human hearing does not count, unless van Dyck is trying to compose for the dogs, which is all his music is fit for.
I'd say Empire had the best campaign map in all of Total War games. Because of trade resources, and the global scale of the game, it really felt like you were building an Empire. Unlike Rome 2 where there weren't any trade resources, so that there wasn't any real point in building an empire other than "just because". You really did feel like you were competing with other nations, and trades resources were critically important to do that because Europe barely had any resources, and it's tax income (while more than the Americas and India) would only fund a defense force. And while you mocked it's simplicity, I found that a very welcome change to it's competition like Victoria II, whose map mechanics are so complicated that they weren't intuitive, and at a glance, all the details are a clusterfuck. Even after the tutorial, I hadn't the slightest clue what I was doing. In Empire, it was very simple, make this a civil province with extra order and taxes, or make it a military one that can slowly recruit a large selection of military units. Bigger farms, mines, trade ports and plantations means more money, got it. They all have a set cost, a set income gain and didn't consume any damn resources that would bog me down and consult a chart. Build a factory, make a ton of money, and a moderate cry for revolution, got it. Napoleon even added a welcome layer of depth by making replenishing troops automatic, with the rate of replenishment dictated by farmlands and supply depots. Got it. The faction variety was incredible, I actually got to play as my own nation (the US), and you had the Indians, American Indians, Europeans, and Ottomans, each with their own distinct style of warfare. I remember playing as the Prussians with my strategy involving a desperate plan to take a province with a port, and starting a colony to get at that precious tea. And low and behold, I'd be able to recruit uniquely colored colonial units when I could, which I thought was pretty cool. I even remember an American campaign where I was able to turn the tables in the American Revolution against the British so hard, that England became the 16th state (with Ireland and Scotland making up 14 and 15). Or playing as the Maratha Indians, conquering India, driving out the foreigners, and colonizing the Americas by running down pirates with war elephants. Good times. The campaigns were just so memorable. You may disparage naval battles, but I thought they were mostly good, it was the moral system that was broken. A ship could have 0 hull hit points, and no masts left, and still not surrender, so you just had to sit there and grapeshot it...ugh. But I loved the prize system, you could capture enemy ships for income, or use them yourself, allowing you to use ships your faction couldn't build. In Napoleon TW, nothing was more awesome then capturing HMS Victory for the French, and making it their new flagship. Or as the British, capture the 140 gun Santisima Trinidad and have it painted in British yellow. (I'm going off topic). As for the kill animations, it does create this weird shifting along the units that's just creepy, on the other hands, it's a god send to machina makers like me. It allowed me to close the camera in on individual soldiers and showcase the brutality of war with some really good action. My Battle of Berezina and Battle of Waterloo videos wouldn't have been as exciting without them. In summary, I've logged in over 1000 hours, because there so much depth in this game. It's just crushed by the bugs and shitty battles. At least in Napoleon, line infantry was far more reactive and could fire before being fully in position. In may ways, I felt like auto-resolving nearly every battle I could in Empire, because there were so painful, the unit cards were scrambled, muskets were finkey, artillery could literally decide to do a 180 and murder your own general, and the fort battles make no damn sense. Defending a wall gives you like a 7% advantage to the line infantry of equal value/power that have to scale 30ft of rope. At least in Shogun 2, soldiers scaling walls would sometimes fall down and die, so they would engage the defenders at partial strength. I really do hope CA eventually comes back to Empire and remakes it, fixing the bugs, making the units more dynamic like in Shogun 2, giving diplomacy a brain, and give it a graphics overhaul. I don't know why, but after playing Napoleon, Empire's graphics feel shockingly bad, and I have no idea why because they are so similar. There's just so much potential in this game, and it's heartbreaking that CA abandoned it instead of patching it to greatness.
I can kinda see why you're coming from but i dissagree in the end, the scale you mentioned is somewhat there and the 3 separate theaters give an illusion of a larger map, but i don't see this as truly adding more content. I think they should have drastically increased the number of settlements in all theaters (just one city for sweden and norway, just 2 for the whole of france, lets face it this is not a big map for all the land thats included) I think they wanted the villages in between the big cities to serve as minor strategic points that was fought over pettily. But i never found this to be a thing. the only time I or the AI ever bothered with them was if the where i'm my path to the main city i was looking to conquer. With this system they should have thought of some way to increase there importance and force you to take them before just racing the province capital, or just made more settlements to begine with. Land based trade in epmier dident impress me, beside allowing trade routes to be raided all it changed was that if a province have a resources in it you needed to build a separate building for it. Compare that with medieval where you could build merchants and move them into positions to trade, you chould compete or straight out assassinate other merchants to get there trade. To decide if you wanted to trade close for a safer but smaller profit or ship them off to distant lands with no help but for a potential massive profit, so many more potions and possibilities Sea trade however was an excellent idea, to introduce navy only theaters with huge potential income from trade was excellent, it incentivised a large navy and allowed it to fill more roles than just troop transports,and in this game and time period that was a needed change, one i'm glad they got right beside the bugs.
dqwers I wasn't a fan of the of the Medieval II merchant system. It was a pain in the ass to recruit merchants and send them off, in what often took 10 turns to reach their destination, where you probably forgot about them. And the annoying thing was that there were so many resources everywhere, some I think actually completely unprofitable, making them just junk decoration on the map. I liked the Empire system because it was simple, you conquer foreign lands, and gain a significant boost in trade from have access to say cotton production. You'd want to diversify, because having too much of one resource would drive down it's value. I however, was not a fan of the sea trade nodes. Not only did they offer an absurd amount of cash, but these were non-upgradeable, had no land settlements from which to defend against invasion, and made the trade node sub-maps rather pointless to inspect, making each turn take longer, and bog the game down. At least with the plantations, a commitment of an army meant you had a reason to inspect that part of the world every turn. I'll say that having the 7 different maps was a pain the ass, and could have used streamlining, but then again, Rome 2 didn't do that, and the turns took an eternity to get through, so I'm not sure what the best solution was. As for the navy, there was a reason to have a good navy, because you could prey on other navies and make a mint off the prize money, and is a feature I sorely missed in Shogun 2. Also it's important to have enough naval firepower to prevent a strong blockade on your capital port. I hated the village system, from Empire to Shogun 2, I was kinda glad Rome 2 dumped it. I so hated when the remnants of a enemy army, usually made up of 7-20 men, could just raid the countryside, disabling all of the nations buildings with extremely minor vandalism. At least in Mount and Blade Warband, if a village was attack below a certain unit count, the villagers would form a mob and attack you. Even if your the best fighter in the game, it's hard to stop 30 farmers with pitch forks, clubs and rocks attacking all at once, so it feels unrealistic that say 7 line infantrymen could attack a factory, and not be outright killed off. And the AI really excelled at this suicidal terrorism, sending small raiding parties to do damage, all while in sight of my army so that they could be easily crushed. It was frustrating.
ltflak When you study the history of guerilla war far you will see that exactily that has happened. The Confederate Army loosing on all fronts, for exampfle, had been a pain in the ass of the Union in question of raids all over the country.
Roger Lynch Yes, but it's unrealistic for the tattered remnants of a destroyed army that is so small that they could be wiped out by a single mob of unarmed farmers to attack multiple major villages that have populations in the thousands. Is it realistic that a tattered regiment that is 7/160 attack and disable the town of Toulouse? A city with a population of 48,000? Rendering it completely incapacitated for an entire 6 months, all at the hands of an demoralized solders that barely escaped with their lives in the previous turn?
ltflak Not necessarily, we are talking GUERILLA WAR FAR here. The supported gangs or RAIDERS like the one from Jesse and Frank James realy had heart the Union, even after the WAR officialy ended in the so called BOARDER or GRAY States from Maryland to California. Politically the popuation inthose states had been devided in their opinion. Of course the more radical members of those confoederate supporters and the socalled Copper or Indianheads got internated. like the ones in California, they had been brought to Alcatraz. The Indian Haeds had been a movement against the equal rights for coloured peole ( The equal rights for them became a federal law not before 1968 by the way) But secretly there developed Military resistence groups sabotaging instalations and railroadtreks and wires or attacking Union army posts and assassinating Union supporters all over the North . I wasn´t talking of the line troops of the Army of Verginia or the regulary Mid-West Confederate Army that got choped at Shiloh. If you are really intressted there is a whole bunch of literature about it, starting with the CIVIL WAR Series of TIME LIFE.
My favourite moment in Empire was when I was marching a tiny relief force of like 3 Militia, 2 Line, and 2 Cannon to reinforce a fort, when we got ambushed by an army at least 3x my size with all this cav and cannons and all sorts of crap. I started running to the edge of the map to retreat, but then realised that I was very close to the corner and, even better, the corner of this map was at the foot of a very steep hill. This meant that I could arrange my forces with their backs to the physical boundaries of the map (no exposed flanks) and because I was at the bottom of the hill, the enemy would not be able to fire at me unless they mounted the crest of the hill, which exposed them to instant return fire and also limited the number of enemies that could attack me at a time because the units would physically block each other. The result of all this cheesing was about 40 minutes of the awful Empire AI mounting the hill, getting smashed by instant musket and cannon volleys, falling back, trying again, my Militia getting chewed up by friendly fire because everyone was packed so close to each other, nearly every one of my units running out of ammunition, and a decisive victory where I lost like 200 and the enemy lost maybe 1500. My most enjoyable Empire battle and it was despite the game haha
This guy surely knows nothing about wars back then according to history! Musceets had orders by their comanders when to shoot or not and then the first row leaves the time to the second row while the first one reloads! So, you must not consider the 15 sec as a fail of the game
Kind sir, the point being made was not of the muskets reload time, which I am fully aware of its slow speed, but rather as to how intensly frustrating that reload speed is when all of your soldiers fire into the side of a hill, rather than the dastardly enemy. Kindest regards, DrSane.
Reynold Sanity It's just a game! And it had evolved too much from the earlier game, like adding these guns or naval battle! And he is comparing it with Rome 2
Kelvi Bulku But that isn't the point of the complaint. His complaint is that the musketeers shoot into the hill rather then the enemy. By the way Reynold, will you review the newly announced Total war game, Barbarian invasion 2.0?
***** no the original game was like this... I have the Empire Napoleon joint pack collectors/definitive/game of the year/DLC/gold edition now and its sooooooooo much better in the way of lag or crashing!!!
I can't install mods because they are fucking complicated and also I don't see anything wrong with empire I have clocked 150 hours of gameplay and found no bugs
***** Why didn't you just smash the building with cannons? XD Did you not have any cannons on hand? if so, then that is a seriously funny, but disappointing loss
Honestly Empire is one of my favourite Total Wars, second probably only to Medieval 2. It made so many changes to the formula including a stupid number of improvements and with that sadly came on the release bugs. Many of these had since been fixed and while the AI is still bad (as is with every total war game I might add) the additions to the game far surpass that of later titles such as Shogun 2 which were to me a step backwards (It had a weaker research tree, it had less unit variety and less faction diversity, a smaller map and less differentiation between terrain and the annoying part about this is that it was heralded as a good game because it had less bugs, it had less bugs because they did less with it)
***** and I never faced nearly as many of them as people say, the only bug that ever got in my way was one where troops died when fleeing down ladders, which was annoying but didn't stay around long before being fixed. I loved the setting and many of its campaign map features. It also didn't have any annoying schizophrenic additions (the pope in medieval 2 for instance)
***** Not really, being a hipster I would be acting all superior because I enjoy something that others generally don't the only one acting superior here is you.
***** That's not acting superior...at all, that's just having a difference of opinion, you don't like it? Fine that's for you to not like but don't go around acting like a tool saying people aren't "true total war fans" because they like something you don't Bloody hell you seem like one of those guys at conventions that goes up to a cosplayer and claim they aren't a "true gamer" if they don't know everything about a character.
i got 330+ on Napoleon, Rome 2 trailing behind at around 260 but i never get very immersed into empire, probably because napoleon felt like a more polished version of empire.
Gist432 Even though the musket warfare era is one of my favorite periods, i haven't watched too many movies on it.If I had to recall a movie by the sorts right now i would probably say something like Patriot, but no i haven't. Is it good?
Gist432 Haha well yeah, i do enjoy the period and movies of the sorts, though if you could point me toward some that you could recommend i would be grateful :D
Reynold was a prophet when it came to the future of gaming with DLC. If only we as a consumer-base had listened and voted with our wallets. Oh yeah, big disagree with removing diplomats. I liked the roleplay element it added. Also there's tons of great instances in history where so many events happened just because of a breakdown in communication, especially in this era, or because of a logistical hiccup during travel. Having these summits form on the map or having to get a diplomat with the right chops to the right guy in the right moment added some depth to diplomacy, for me at least. Sending the right offer at the right time to the right guy was critical to pulling off certain deals geopolitically in Medieval 2. With George II and the Turkish Sultan apparently having Twitter it just took something away for me.
Well, I bought it on release, and it ran fine for me, my biggest complaint at the time was that the soldiers didn't had differences as they did in medieval
Well if you meant tech problems then your right, never had those too myself. But when it comes to other problems then holly shit this game was broken ... In MTW2 and Rome I AI at least TRIED to keep some formation, in Empire it is absolutely broken and without even semi competent AI all the other things dont matter coz its a strategy game ...
Wow this video really showed me how insanely well made rome 1 was. it felt so alive and epic. and this vid also showed me how incredibly liveless the new total war games are. I have a little bit of hope for Warhammer Total war, because hope dies last.
Emil Johansson in the end its a game, not a history book. but I agree that its too easy. it has no challenge to a player and a very bad AI like every total war has.
My problem is not with the battles. They work great-- PROVIDED you have some knowledge of 17th Century warfare. My problem is mainly with the diplomacy-- It seems you're public enemy number one at the very start of the game.
Yeah, you have to absolutely kiss ass to get any deal at all with the AI. Even when they're loosing the war, when they try for peace they have the balls to demand you give up land.
GamesLegitament Precisely! And every damn time I want to reach a trade agreement with another nation, they always demand land from me without fail. But overall though, I still have fun.
GamesLegitament HO HO I think that is a staple for Total war games. In Rome 1 I was at war with Gaul and they had 2 cities left (all the others were claimed by me) and i had fully stacked armies next to his cities. He sued for peace then he demanded i give him cities.......in Italy.......And in Medieval 2 I beat back the Spaniards as the Moors and they had one city left. They sued for peace and demanded 2 cities and about 10000 gold. They got war instead.
corvifred One time in Empire, Spain only had Gibraltar left and I had it blockaded and was marching towards the city. Spain then demanded indefinite military access and 2000 gold for peace. Needless to say, Spain doesn't exist anymore.
reynald sanity, I love your video, BUT, it has one problem. In the music segment you say that "this is the age of grand composure, like the 1812 overture". as a classically trained musician, I have to disagree. The game takes place during the classical era, (1670-1810-ish). Following this is the romantic era, which is what you refer to, likely. The 1812 overture was written by Tchaikovsky in 1882. The classical era is more Handel and Mozart's era. The music that existed then, would be a poor choice for battle. Though not for campaign, as darthmod proves. There is one way it could work, though. during that time, Highland Bagpipe Piobaerechd was getting very popular. having one play while you fight might work. kinda. but empire's music sucks haaard.
Yer my bad skipper, my grasp on music is pretty poor, certainly on anything from nearly 200 years ago. I wasn't so much arguing for strictly period music, but certainly something that, I dunno... jives with that period? I mean none of the music in rome 1 or med 2 had anything to do with music of that time, but romes had that bombastic imperial thrust to it and meds had its sombre and serious religious undertones. To someone who knows their history inside and out it won't be realistic no, but i feel to most people it would at least feel authentic, or at least exciting. Thats why I mentioned 1812, best example I know of thats exciting and bombastic and, in an incredibly blunt way, is related to that era.
Anthony Mack I disagree, I really like a lot of Empire's music, while I dislike the overly-cheery music of the time. Though, the loading screen music, which is spot-on, is based off some composer of the time. But I do like the dramatic approach they did with the music.
Anthony Mack I love nitpicking the particulars of classical music as much as the next person, but I think the point is well-taken. Something LIKE the 1812 overture (which is at least SET in the right time period) would have worked well. And you could get away with some early Beethoven like the third symphony which was written by 1804, or sneak in some other early romantics. The decision not to include Beethoven in Napoleon seemed like a missed opportunity to me.
Surprised how much hate this video is getting. Speaking the truth is always painful for the dumb-asses, comments are good though. Ha and 1 year on, I kinda feel stupid for saying that now. I can appreciate opinions for what they are. You can like a game that's shit but everyone else hates it, on the other hand you can not like a game that's awesome, while everyone else likes it. Opinions, Opinions. Apologies to anyone I offended but no apologies to the ones that were just looking to spew hatred and Malus. (No pun intended there) Have a nice day!
+Malus Thantos Videos usually get hate when people act like their opinion is fact.. I loved Empire and Napoleon. the only one that even comes close is maybe Shogun 2.
Malus Thantos Rome 2 or Rome classic or Rome Alexander? Medieval 2 or regular medieval? I prefer Rome 2 over the others. the ranged units in the game seem a Little too strong. but I spam cav so it's all good.
A fucking hate the AI in this game. Its so goddamn stupid. For instance, I decided to try and get a peace treaty with the Barbary States as Prussia because there seriously was no point for me to be at war with them especially because Prussia doesn't start out with any kind of military port and the Barbary states sent me a counter offer saying, "DUR! Give me East Prussia for peace!" A second example was during a battle when the AI brilliantly decided to place its cannons behind a hill. Whoever designed the AI for Empire should be fired and never allowed to work in the video game industry ever again
I actually do like the Empire settlement system, with the spread out buildings. It makes hit-and-run raids a viable option and forces you to defend the borders of your provinces rather than just huddling in the fortress all the time. In my experience (granted I played the fixed version of the game), the AI switches from being brilliant to being dumber than a rock - and this is true regardless of which Total War game. Sometimes it would, as you say, charge up and stare at my cannon barrels. Other times, they will attempt flanking maneuvers (lancer cavalry tend to do this) and shifting the battle lines. Naval battles are interesting, but in my opinion get more hectic once you engage in multiple-ships battles (I concede that part of it is because of the UI). One major mistake that they made (and I believe it was fixed by the time Shogun 2 rolls around) is that the campaign AI and the diplomatic AI are two separate things... that don't communicate with each other. The diplomatic AI can't see the world map and the relative balance of power, which leads to strange requests like half of your territories for a peace treaty, despite the fact that you just complete trounced their armies. Notably, Medieva 2 AI's can sometimes fall into the same mistakes. While tastes may vary, I still prefer this than the hot mess that is the diplomatic system in Medieval 2, where once your empire gets big enough you'll have dozens of diplomats and princesses and what have yous, each needs to be manually commanded just to speak to other factions. Empire is by no means a perfect game, and CA can certainly take some pointers from this video, but in general it's not as terrible as people make it to be.
Bob McBallSackNoodle Nope lol. Stainless Steel is a mod for Medieval 2. I personally love Stainless Steel AND Darthmod Empire, they both fucking own. I also love Paradox Interactive's grand strategy games, but all of these games are very very good. Yes vanilla Empire: Total War is not that good...but anyone who says it is still bad with Darthmod is lying.
***** Unfortunately, this is a review of a Game not of Mods... Shit, Rome II's unplayable without them. Doesn't make it a good game because some moders fixed the fucking game for the god damn company. It's not like with KOTOR TSL, where Corporate fucked over the developers and they left lines and unfinished shit in the game for modders to make Restored Content Mods or anything.
I like a lot of TW titles - even some of the newer ones like Rome2, Attila and Thrones of Britannia - but the lack of polish of basic battle mechanics is disturbing. Instead of fixing their system, they just cut features. And while the campaign map keeps getting better and battles, battles, at least the historical one, are only playable thanks to the modding community.
I agree on most points, but what the fuck was that thing about shogun's music not being good for battles? First of all, the OST was mostly made by Jeff Van Dyk (the one who made Rome 1's) and secondly the taiko drums are perfect at making a huge melee fight amazing.
Wow, so many dislikes... These are all valid criticisms of Empire that, when all considered together, show that it really was a step back in quality of game compared to Medieval II and especially Kingdoms. Are there really THAT many fans that think that Empire was any good? Are there THAT many that are blind to the glaring issues with Empire?
Honestly, I kind of prefer Empire Total War to Napoleon. Sure, Napoleon had better gameplay, but I prefer Empire's campaign. Then again, I'm using Darth Mod and haven't played the base game since it was released, and I'm pretty sure Darth Mod fixes most of the mentioned bugs to one degree or another(especially the over-sea invasions one - I distinctly remember flipping my shit when I saw a full stack Maharata army invading my colonies in the Americas). Edit: Just so it's known, Medieval 2 Kingdoms was my favorite of the Total War games(and expansions). Edit 2: The music in Empire sounds more like it belongs on a scrolling list of the names of dead soldiers than in the heat of a firefight. Edit 3: Final edit. Am I the only one that thinks that artillery in Empire and Napoleon is massively under powered? Artillery, in this period, was king - many battles were won and lost by virtue of superior artillery, but in Empire, artillery feels unnecessary - it barely does any actual damage to units, with models surviving cannonballs that landed right at their feet, and the morale damage it does is laughable when compared to cavalry. I mean, I still field it - and always will field artillery, for roleplay's sake...but it kinda sucks when you watch 3 batteries unload in to an enemy unit, and the enemy loses like 5 guys tops!
+Liberty Prime Same im not to picky with games if they have a couple of bugs im fine annoys me when people nit pick at the game for all the bad things and act like its pure shit
+antred11 Nah, the only main issue for me is that the AI can't carry out a naval invasion. Other than that, the base game is completely playable. But, why would you play the vanilla version anyway when Darthmod exists? In the end, Empire is my favorite total war, and a sequel is probably the most wanted Total War game by fans right now.
***** I didn't determine anything. I made an assumption, a guess that I base off of the forums on both Steam and the official website. It's highly requested as far as I can tell.
As much as I love Empire, I still can not get over the fact on the USA and main campaign, half of North America is lacking provinces, and in the War Path DLC it is filled in anyways, what the heck.
Not as bad but ya, its weird how they never managed to make LINE INFANTRY dynamic, as in they keep shooting while the troops reform, like is that REALLY so hard. Then again the Handgunners dont even have reload animations so....ya. in fact now that i think about it almost nothing has reload animations. Oddly enough i think they are more dynamic in Empire then Fall of the samurai, hell the light infantry in Empire are spaced out and all fire at once (some of them anyway others play like line infantry till you get light infantry tactics) something else fall of the samurai doesnt have. At least it has dragoons, But the Empire dragoons are still cooler since they adopt firing drills. Fall of the samurai is awesome but you can tell the depth is less, at least the Artillery in that game has an ammo limit.
22:00 makes me remember playing as Byazntium in M2tw with Stainless Steel.The music made everything so much more epic as my 5 spear levies and 3 generals cav held off waves of Jihads coming at Constantinople.Best total war game ever,no doubt
Only thing that really bugged me was the diplomacy. As soon as you finish off your enemies, one of your allies nearby declares war. Usually while most of your men are elsewhere. The only way to stop them from doing this is by keeping a line of enemy settlements between you and your ally.
***** Can't say I've actually noticed, but I haven't played that much Shogun 2. I'm still mostly playing Empire Totalwar, currently trying out the Empire Realism Mod.
Honestly, I absolutely love empire total war because it’s set in almost every single continent and I live the 1700s but yeah those glitches and bugs are horrid. At least every 30 minutes the game randomly crashes in the middle of a battle and the animations are so buggy. I totally agree.
Ship tactics: "No tactics to speak of" You really need to read up on some sailing tactics if you think there was nothing to do in Empire TW when it came to ship battles. Sure they were slow paced, and you're right to say aspects were really poorly done (the broadsides were disappointing to say the least) but you could take out a dumb opponent with several heavier ships than you if you used the wind and your speed to outmaneuver their guns with a smaller frigate. It took a lot of micro and some knowledge of how the wind and sails work, but in larger battles it gave you a significant advantage.
Ojoe2010 It may not bother you but it is a problem and needed to be fixed, even though half of it was solved a lot of the big ones still remain. You're going to resort to asking questions like that now? Of course i played it and it was completely broken, stop trying to deny shit, the games terrible and has been proven, you cant deny that when it has been proven it just makes you look like an immature fanboy.
I LIKED empire overall, but I can't deny a lot of these criticisms are spot on. The game is still broken as hell, I just like the base idea and setting so much that I can overcome it. But it does have crippling issues that almost ruin even that. I barely play the game today, but I know if it were executed properly I would still sink as much time into it now as when I first played. I mean, I have a swedish game I put a lot of time into recently-ish (started it after playing 9 hours of Rome II and walking away in disgust), but now I have a mini pirate army that if I attack, crashes the game upon finishing the battle and getting back to the campaign map (even if autoresolved it crashes) and russia's turn time is taking upwards of 15 minutes to complete. I even have Darthmod (and the AI is still horrible, but at least it's better than vanilla).
yeah.. for some reason, I like Empire as well, but I think the only reason is that there are no other strategy games like the total war series, or in those time periods. Overall Empire and Rome suck. Especially compared to previous releases.
Empire 2018: I played as the French and attacked the Dutch at a fort. It was gonna be a hard fought battle. Luckily the Dutch crammed 600+ Troops outside the fort, up against the wall, staring at said wall while I slaughtered them....
Matty Reynolds Too bad that Creative Assembly doesn't give a flying fuck about Shogun 2 now. Tried playing it once again after months and it keeps on crashing at its startup
Thanks man, I think the esf editor should work for that, I'll just buy anatolia so the land bridge won't slow down the turn. I ain't got time for no 2 hour turns
There is a simple solution...very simple.Put a ship at the "bridge" that connected to Istanbul. Well if you at war at them,this might a pain in the ass.But of you playing a campaign that didnt disturb the Ottoman to engage war with you.This is your solution.
Thankfully the Steam Version has most of these bugs fixed. When I played America, the AI has landed sea invasions at least three times in the Western Hemisphere (Austria, Prussia, and India all attempted one land invasion), though the land invasions were focused on the Caribbean provinces and one in upper Canada. I think line infantry now shoot at enemies with whatever section of the rank is actually facing the enemy too. However, musket infantry still have to wait until every single last soldier is in position before firing. To be honest though, all TW games have that problem (Ie archers) so I'm not entirely sure how the "formation does not do anything until every one is in place" bug stands out so much in this game. I guess that has something to do with how the main infantry unit is ranged whereas in other games the main infantry was melee, and how line infantry could get clobbered by melee infantry since melee infantry do not have this problem, but I think that's roughly historically accurate as well. The rigidity of formation often caused regular musket infantry to be sluggish in response to melee units. I say roughly because the line would not wait for ONE person to get in position before firing. However, again, this would happen to archers and other ranged infantry units in other TW games as well, so this bug is not that unusual and I do not think its as game breaking as he implies, especially since everyone in an online match would experience the same bug. The kill-action AI are stupid. He's absolutely right about that. It does make the game annoying and it can cost you a battle because a unit is taking too much time killing off a weak unit. But given all the latest patches, I think the game devs have redeemed this installation in the TW series, not that I'm saying its the best TW game ever (Diplo still makes no sense) but its certainly better than the state it was in when he talked about it in this video. I think ETW is pretty decent game now.
+Brian Liang I have the steam version. The game still has a crapload of bugs. The funny thing sis that there are some standard and well known bugs but I seem to regularly encounter new ones.
1: . . . wrong, E:TW actually has a significant group of followers who insist it is the best TW to date 2: I have never crashed in Empire. Considering I have owned it since release and put in thousands of hours it makes me wonder how this guy crashed it. 3: You need to play on difficulties higher then Easy to see armies fight in formation and utilize terrain. 4: Compared to Shoguns 2 diplomacy this game was a masterpiece. In Shogun 2 you can work towards friendly relations in every way only to have them declare war on you because of the "At this point in the game everyone has to be at war with you" mentality.
***** I LOVE Medieval 2 because its just as you said, especially the retarded A.I. its still dumb but its not as stupid as Rome 2s A.I. but Shogun 2 is the BEST one ever! So what its fucking samurai? The A.I. is quite good and it had the most detail! And it brought a LOT of features to the franchise! But CA should really re-purchase their studio in Britan, because it was after they sold it that empire was a failure, now rome2!
Harut Rehanyan Meta critic score of 90% and still selling strong 5 years after release. Yup a total failure. . . . en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire:_Total_War#Reception
I read it you fucking moron! What did I read incorrectly?!?!?! I thought that Wheatly was the biggest moron in the univers, but its you, your the moron king! Hey, don't feel bad! Your a king! Be happy! LoL No seriously what did I say that was wrong?
jaybe ill sorry, no. Difficulty changes exactly nothing except stats. And sometimes a cavalry unit will try to flank you. Sometimes. Oh, and 4) what?! Disregarding the realm divide, have you even played Empire? you know, the game where you seal an alliance only to have them declare war next turn and then offer peace the other? Diplomacy is absolutely bonkers in ETW.
I was a 4th rate ship of the line. My enemy was a brig. A 1x1 naval battle... And the games mecanics make me losse. My ship was just turning in 180° and when he was ready to fire... The ship turned for the other side.
I really like Empire and Napoleon, the most annoying things amongst quite a few for Empire is that you have no option to stop reinforcements coming on to the field of battle; if I am resting my troops and trying to get them back up to strength, and I am attacking the enemy close to my settlement they just blunder on to the battlefield. Most times I have worked out my tactics and don't need reinforcements, but on they come. I have to waste time keeping them clear of the fighting so that already weak units don't get totally destroyed, and as has happened, a good general gets killed. Also the A1 cheats, if you aim your cannons at an opposing general he will suddenly ride away out of range before a single shot has been fired at him. Also in naval battles if you suddenly switch from cannon balls to chain-link to take down an enemy's sails and rigging, they will suddenly drop their sails as soon as you hit the select type of shot button. I also wish it was more in keeping with the time period to give it a bit more of an atmosphere of the era, Napoleon is a great deal better at portraying the time period. I'm still playing it at the moment and I hope they bring out an Empire II like they did with Medieval II with all the glitches sorted out.
With DarthMod. Did you play it day one? It was a buggy mess, creative assembly makes good games but they're so god damn lazy. Also criticizing a game doesn't mean he hates it.
This game didn't fail i think i just install Darthmod for the game and if the game crashes its your computer not the game i've never crashed in this game ever and i've never had any bugs at all
There were numerous bugs in the initial release, some of which are mentioned in the video. I personally experienced most of them including the Trade Port Bug mentioned, and the bug that caused the game to lock when disembarking a general from a fleet. Most of these were fixed eventually by patches and those that persist, such as the smoke bug related to sieges have been addressed by the modding community. The game is at least playable now in it's vanilla format, but to get the best experience you really need to install a mod to overcome the inherent design issues such as poor AI behavior.
The game is very playable in its current vanilla version, ive played it and its fun but it doesnt have much else than bein able to conquer the world. Even though ive had to lose my Prussia World Domination twice cause of laptop problems (on my old laptop).
Empire is still the most mechanically rich Total War game to date -- trade routes, campaign theater, government and revolutions, colonization, noncentralized city building, etc. And considering the direction CA has taken this franchise -- appealing to causal masses -- I reckon won't see another title with the same level of depth as ETW in the near future.
Newsman4chon Not Good. Best Total War. Combine it with the SS Mod and its the greatest TW Ever made. It seems TW Series has been goin downhill nowadays..
FinestSeven I like M2TW better, mainly because in Rome 1 the soldiers more so *weird* and theres this ONE soundtrack that I hate and it plays over and over again! I know I can mute it but without music its shitty, and medieval 2 did EVERYTHING (except Naval battles and some diplomacy and A.I. stuff) GREAT! So yeah... M2TW BEST FOR ME!
Empire Total War was actually one of the best ones they made, it's still very popular and sold quite well. All I saw in this review was a whole lot of bitching and complaining over nothing that can be enhanced with simple mods.
But why with mods? Shouldn't that be in the fucking game or something? How about I don't feel like waisting like two hours looking for and testing mods to see if they actually make the game any better when it could have been in the fucking game! Also what if people DON'T mod any more? For like Medieval III when (if) it comes out? What do we do then?
Harut Rehanyan The vanilla gameplay was more than satisfactory and quite fun, if people had trouble adapting to it that's their problem. I saw nothing wrong with the engine for this game at all. There are also plenty of mods that improved gameplay and graphics beyond what they were in 2008 and mods are never put into games at release, the community of players is responsible for that and the game developers encourage it. That's why they're called mods, they modify the original gameplay to extend its replay value and performance. If people stop making mods for it (which I have yet to see for any game such as the original Starcraft) then use what's already out there or try making your own instead of bitching about it like a 5 year old.
No...! Napoleon (if i remember correctly) didn't have unit collition! Thats a bit bad, but anyway medieval 2 is best for me! Great graphics, optimized and less buggy than all other TW games! At least for me....
OMG! The negotiation stuff is SO true too! The average value I can sell a tech for is like 150 the average cost to buy it was 6000. Or research it in 2 turns.
Bought it in steam sale, love the gameplay, but it's unplayable now for me. 12 hours in the campaign map has started to lag immensly and I cannot play it. Googled around and most seem to think it's a memory leak, one never fixed. Should I just give up or is there a fix?
I've been playing darthmod empire lately and I freaking love it. Turned it into from a depressing mess into an incredibly worthwhile experience. Diplomacy is great, battles are brilliant, the game is punishingly hard, the effects and sounds and music and atmosphere are incredible, and it's a ton of fun. Empire's problems do occasionally rear their ugly head, but definitely not enough to spoil the fun or immersion. PLAY. IT. NOW. The modding community are my heroes. Screw CA and Sega.
I agree with that sentiment, but I have two objections: - The game is actually easier with DM. Not that it's a bad thing, getting ganked by turn 6 was no fun in vanilla and the higher gold income means you can have comfortably larger armies. - I don't know who of darth's team worked on the autoresolve tweaks, but he deserves to be shot. Case in point? 2200 army of men, cavalry and artillery vs 37 dragoons. I win, losing 650 men in the process. 650 men against some rookie dragoons in open field battle. And don't even get me started on naval battles. But yeah, other than that, DM is pretty much a requiement to enjoy Empire.
May I suggest the mod "A proper empire: Terra Incognita" it forces you to conserve you men’s lives because it has a manpower mechanic. It also costs 3000 gold to up keep schools.
Darth mod is just the ai spamming armies and god forbid your a smaller nation. Tried doing a road to independence campaign and could not even get one fucking settlement.
Empire really should have been the best total war game of all time. Unfortunately I find that their are only three total wars worth going back to and that’s rome 1, shogun 2 and medieval 2. Not even mods can save this catastrophe
so im curious, what is your opinion of Medieval II Total War? I personally think Medieval II was the best. Sure, it was outdated and honestly, the main campaign should have been centered around Europe, North Africa and the Middle East in stead of adding America to the game map but it is highly moddable and there are still plenty of mods for it, heck, Stainless Steel pretty much fixes all the problems Medieval II had but a since its a mod its going to crash alot.
Not all the problems, and for me the game seems to crash less with it (bizarre). It REALLY improved it though. What bugs of the new games is that they have quite clearly forsaken a lot of the things that made the games any good and worth modding in the first place. Medieval II was brilliant and it came into my posession at a time when I felt computer games were getting more and more dumbed down in order to "streamline". Games and sports are all about putting yourself to the test and improving yourself. If every place in the world you visited or worked at adapted itself to your current capabilities (which was the idea in Oblivion... ehm) why would we even bother putting thought into getting better at our skills? Which is what you do in real life. You don't get better at anything without a little tiny moment of personal reflection. Sorry for the rant but total war will never get any better until you can campaign with other players and actually face each other on the battlefield during the campaign. Any other addition to the game is to make it playable. And that is why Medieval II, in my opinion, was close to being the real deal (for my desires, of course).
Whenever he references Medieval II he talks does so to talk about what it did better then Rome II and Empire. He always talks about it in a positive light. I would say he likes it judging by that fact.
Actually in MTW2 just few factions sounded typicaly - French, Germans... there was general "southerner" accent for Iberians, Italians, Greeks and arab accent for islamic nations. Poles, Russians or Danes still sounded the same as characters of England. Empire has multiple languages. Anyway MTW2 was alive with that, great and far better.
Empire was the first Total War game I ever played, but having seen this video I think I'll try some of the other games in the series. Thank you for showing me the way.
This was my first total war game and I thought it was pretty good. Everything you said, I had complaints about as well. The overall game was a great experience. It makes me excited to get as in depth and involved with future total war games. I haven't played the earlier games but if those are even better than this one, I may purchase those as well.
Ever since they closed the studio in Brisbane and they changed publishers from Activation to Sega seem to have a huge impact on this franchise. The fact I used to respect this company and loved Rome and medieval 2 and to watch this company still get high scores from reviewers almost makes me cry. And WTF are they still getting BAFTA's for?
Sadly its not only these games which get high reviews. Its all those big companies EA, Activision, Sega, Ubisoft who pay for the reviews. Game companies know that common sheep trusts on game site reviews so they pay them to give good number. I blame companies and the sheep. Sheep (most of the people in the civilized word)
Jin- Absolutely, which is why many people turn to reviews on you tube and twitch these days. The old gaming media are way too corrupt these days and I really stopped trusting them about 7yrs ago. The problem continues to grow but I honestly feel many of the current gen gamers will get their game info from other sources as media outlets around the world worry more about their adverting and other revenue streams over the truth.
Grass hair I'm pretty sure it's since they created the Warscape engine. They've stubbornly stuck with it for 8 years and I have no idea why. Then there's Sega forcing CA to make a game every two years...
you actually can set your unit cards in a specific order but it is quite complicated to explain but i will try: 1: select your general and move him outside your town 2: select your army units and move them next to your general 3: starting with artillery ( i only use howitzers ) click and drag the howitzer unit card 1 at a time over to your general to merge 4: next do the same with your line infantry 1 at a time 5: next light infantry or snipers 1 at a time 6: next cavalry you can do the units in any order i just like it this way as it keeps your cav next to the general and the arty last. just be sure to do it 1 at a time or it wont work. and yes it is stupidly cryptic but there you go. i cant even remember how i worked it out
In the comparison of battles bewteen Rome and Empire, I just love the way the one guy from the routing Militia unit has to complete his kill move before running away.
I remember once, Austria was my ally and Vienna got took over so I took it back and for the sake of role play decided to gift it back! I had to pay 300,000 for them to have their capital back
Lmao
loool
😂 The AI never accepts any settlement m. You do have to pay them
I've reinstalled Empire recently. Turn 1: Britain proposed to exchange Archangelsk and Ukraine for Jamaica, I refused. Turn 2: they declared war on me. Wut?
+Damned Brother playing on hard difficulty i see?
Tavi so is this a thing that happens only on hard difficulty?
Damned Brother On hard difficulty diplomacy is 'harder' - nations are less likely to co-operate, and therefore more likely to declare war on you.
+Tavi This is not harder....it's retarded xD
+Damned Brother France offered me selective breeding in exchange for one of my regions. I declined and they instantly declared war.
I liked Empire. It wasn't the best game, but it's certainly one of my favourites. Napoleon was even better. I just wish the map was bigger.
One of my favourite moments was the time Britain offered to trade me Maryland for some money and technology, only to declare war and steal Maryland back in the same turn. Right after they took Maryland, they offered me peace terms if I gave them more money and technology. It was such an asshole move that I actually started laughing, right before I burned their whole empire to the ground.
LMAO
Red Judas So good haha
Luke Smith Haha - What are you on?
Firstly - Whats makes you think i'm American?
Secondly - What couldn't I do?
Whats going on? I only said "true"Lo!
Random aggression based in ignorance, bery amusing I must say. You cheered my morning up.
Cheers.
Nick G Was that aimed at me?
Ok - Kids, it's time to behave.
Medieval 2's soldier animations, I believe, were the best. Rather than a very long elaborate animation which wouldn't happen in an actual battle ever, there were the standard swings and stabs that might or might not kill their opponent and then maybe a cool finishing move where they might smash their axe right into their foe's chest even after they raise a hand to stop it, or whacking their head back with a sword. That system was the most realistic and cinematic.
i remember one kill animation in medieval ii where it would take the dude forever to kill an enemy while their buddies just stand around and watch him die
+Willam Joo i know, but sometimes there will be a little animation for whoever dealt the killing blow
+Willam Joo i love che "cinematic" style. but i think it's because i prefer spectular thing over realistic
+McBlemmen
Then _zoom in_.
+quintus
You know, when someone is fully clad in plate armour it's kind of difficult to kill them, and that game reflected this by simply making battles longer. Anyway, his buddies are probably standing behind them and in Medieval II you can't smush through someone to help them out, kind of similar to real-life physics...
For all the hype that they put into the ship battles, I just end up auto resolving them anyway.
i make them bcs i love to see the little guys all around the boat making something different the dude on the top firing on enemy
well yeah but if ur playing the dutch on hard you need to capture some spanish galleons to compete in the mediterenenen
also if u capture ships u acheive monney
tomcat912 the ship battles are the best! Also I like defending against AI when I have a fort because the AI always charge up the hill and get shot at and all for and run away instantly
Then you play the boring as *** land battles? Sea battles are WAY better.
tomcat912 sea Battles are actually pretty Nice and actually challenging and the ships are beautiful
This man caled it 10 years ago.
If only people had listened more back then.
I once offered the entire country of India to the Maratha Confederacy as a gift and they turned it down the fuck?!
Civilization Diplomacy logic
SkyCommander probably because India isn't a continent
***** the Maratha confederacy is located in India
@SkyCommander prove it.....Oh wait I've played the same game!
Just to troll, I owned all of Western Europe, (except for the UK and Würtemburg) and I saved my game and offered Russia all of my lands just to see the trolliness, and they refused XD
My favorite Empire bugs:
1) Needing to restart my entire computer literally every time I "exit" the game (it never closes the application)
2) Enemies marching right past my garrisoned fort as if it's invisible
3) My troops falling dead after being jabbed in the chest by the barrel of a musket without a bayonette
Just end the process via task manager.
Keeps running. Although I installed Darthmod and it seems to have fixed it, even though I have the mod deactivated.
You shouldn't have to reboot your computer every time you exit the game. Go to Windows task manager and stop (kill process) the game executable in the processes tab.
Happens to me a lot with Firefox in Windows 7.
No, it just freezes and keeps running, although I can't get back into it. Task manager doesn't end the task. I need to reboot.
But like I say, it isn't doing that since I installed Darthmod....deactivated, but installed. Whatever the issue was, it appears to not be occuring anymore...
I remember attacking a city in which the defenders are flintlock armed citizenry with NO bayonet and I don't get how they can still kill my professionally trained line infantry ( they didn't have any other weapons except plain muskets ) LOL
Shogun's music was flawless.
Because of the old composer from Rome 1 and Med II :)
''The only reason Creative Assembly you still have friend is because Europa Universalis doesn't have battles and nobody knows about King Arthur.''
Priceless.
I don't know but like to rewatch this once every month. Who else is on this same boat?
Yeet where tf did this dude go to
@@Zayn-kg4bu I have no idea pal
yes
@@JohnSmith-kn5xx Another Man of culture
Campaign map was garbage day. You take Paris or Madrid and both those countries become completely irrelevant while your game might as well be over.
I will never understand why they decided to make france one big region
@@maksymalnybul6145
What makes the decision even more incomprehensible is that France was the single most populous state entirely within Europe. The only other state that was close was the Holy Roman Empire (which wasn't much of a state, considering that Frederick the Great was supposedly Maria Theresa's husband's vassal...).
@@maksymalnybul6145 To balance out New France Colonies in North America, I heard. However, it screwed up the balance in the Europe theatre.
@@Account.for.Comment it's nor ever balanced cause the colonies gives not worthy income
@@maksymalnybul6145 I never play France in Total War: Empire more than one turn. Play them too much in Napoleon. When they made Empire, it does not seem to knew too much on what they are doing. What I loved most on Empire seem to be unintentional. When I got France in one big region: I just go to main menu after trying to think for five minutes on how to beat Spain, England, Austria and Prussia with only Paris.
I had a lot of fun in this game. While not as much fun as Napoleon, taking over the map as Naples, it was still fun to run a colonial empire as the Netherlands.
It's fun, just like any Total War game. However, all the bugs give me quite the headache. Napoleon Total War is equally annoying, too, but at least it feels a little bit more polished.
I confess it had it's moments and something it has going for it is there's nothing quite like it on this scale within this era in true Total War fashion. I always enjoyed playing it, especially after finishing Road to Independence. Building a continental superpower in the Americas, having a naval superpower that can't be beat, then landing in Europe to give them a case of Act Right whenever they fuck with me or my money just to let the territories go Independent or give them back in truly insulting fashion while the AI stands hat-in-hand before the Empire of Liberty or deciding instead to recarve the world map 1918 Treaty of Versailles-style never stopped being satisfying.
What killed it for me a lot especially after patches and mods fix a lot of this was the raging inaccuracies with uniforms and aesthetics and tech after the early 19th century. I hated having to be stuck with Continental aesthetics in 18fucking75. Especially when the US had some serious military drip going on throughout the 19th century that unfortunately most people are ignorant of.
Anyone notic that, ever total war game with bad music, is a total war without Jeff van Dyck ! He is the music composer in ever good TW ( Medieval 1,2 Rome 1 Shogun 1,2 ) But not in Empire Napoleon and Rome 2 !
how to solve: mute the Music and listen to something you like instead
i know it's hard but i Think you can try :o
Haha :D Nice idea! ^^ What a pitty that I only play Medieval anymore :D :p
totalmadnesman HAHA i know right.
"Oh, Beddow sucks. Get van Dyck back so I can suck his cock some more"
Fucking plebs who can't enjoy music unless they have a fucking army of drums banging off a repetitive rhythm into their hollow skulls, which still are barely big enough to contain the one or two anemic lines van Dyck decides to crap out into the score, and no, doubling the line to registers megahertz below the thresh hold of human hearing does not count, unless van Dyck is trying to compose for the dogs, which is all his music is fit for.
Napoleon was a fucking epic Total War with fucking epic music!
I'd say Empire had the best campaign map in all of Total War games. Because of trade resources, and the global scale of the game, it really felt like you were building an Empire. Unlike Rome 2 where there weren't any trade resources, so that there wasn't any real point in building an empire other than "just because". You really did feel like you were competing with other nations, and trades resources were critically important to do that because Europe barely had any resources, and it's tax income (while more than the Americas and India) would only fund a defense force. And while you mocked it's simplicity, I found that a very welcome change to it's competition like Victoria II, whose map mechanics are so complicated that they weren't intuitive, and at a glance, all the details are a clusterfuck. Even after the tutorial, I hadn't the slightest clue what I was doing. In Empire, it was very simple, make this a civil province with extra order and taxes, or make it a military one that can slowly recruit a large selection of military units. Bigger farms, mines, trade ports and plantations means more money, got it. They all have a set cost, a set income gain and didn't consume any damn resources that would bog me down and consult a chart. Build a factory, make a ton of money, and a moderate cry for revolution, got it. Napoleon even added a welcome layer of depth by making replenishing troops automatic, with the rate of replenishment dictated by farmlands and supply depots. Got it.
The faction variety was incredible, I actually got to play as my own nation (the US), and you had the Indians, American Indians, Europeans, and Ottomans, each with their own distinct style of warfare. I remember playing as the Prussians with my strategy involving a desperate plan to take a province with a port, and starting a colony to get at that precious tea. And low and behold, I'd be able to recruit uniquely colored colonial units when I could, which I thought was pretty cool. I even remember an American campaign where I was able to turn the tables in the American Revolution against the British so hard, that England became the 16th state (with Ireland and Scotland making up 14 and 15). Or playing as the Maratha Indians, conquering India, driving out the foreigners, and colonizing the Americas by running down pirates with war elephants. Good times. The campaigns were just so memorable.
You may disparage naval battles, but I thought they were mostly good, it was the moral system that was broken. A ship could have 0 hull hit points, and no masts left, and still not surrender, so you just had to sit there and grapeshot it...ugh. But I loved the prize system, you could capture enemy ships for income, or use them yourself, allowing you to use ships your faction couldn't build. In Napoleon TW, nothing was more awesome then capturing HMS Victory for the French, and making it their new flagship. Or as the British, capture the 140 gun Santisima Trinidad and have it painted in British yellow. (I'm going off topic).
As for the kill animations, it does create this weird shifting along the units that's just creepy, on the other hands, it's a god send to machina makers like me. It allowed me to close the camera in on individual soldiers and showcase the brutality of war with some really good action. My Battle of Berezina and Battle of Waterloo videos wouldn't have been as exciting without them.
In summary, I've logged in over 1000 hours, because there so much depth in this game. It's just crushed by the bugs and shitty battles. At least in Napoleon, line infantry was far more reactive and could fire before being fully in position. In may ways, I felt like auto-resolving nearly every battle I could in Empire, because there were so painful, the unit cards were scrambled, muskets were finkey, artillery could literally decide to do a 180 and murder your own general, and the fort battles make no damn sense. Defending a wall gives you like a 7% advantage to the line infantry of equal value/power that have to scale 30ft of rope. At least in Shogun 2, soldiers scaling walls would sometimes fall down and die, so they would engage the defenders at partial strength. I really do hope CA eventually comes back to Empire and remakes it, fixing the bugs, making the units more dynamic like in Shogun 2, giving diplomacy a brain, and give it a graphics overhaul. I don't know why, but after playing Napoleon, Empire's graphics feel shockingly bad, and I have no idea why because they are so similar. There's just so much potential in this game, and it's heartbreaking that CA abandoned it instead of patching it to greatness.
I can kinda see why you're coming from but i dissagree in the end, the scale you mentioned is somewhat there and the 3 separate theaters give an illusion of a larger map, but i don't see this as truly adding more content.
I think they should have drastically increased the number of settlements in all theaters (just one city for sweden and norway, just 2 for the whole of france, lets face it this is not a big map for all the land thats included)
I think they wanted the villages in between the big cities to serve as minor strategic points that was fought over pettily.
But i never found this to be a thing. the only time I or the AI ever bothered with them was if the where i'm my path to the main city i was looking to conquer.
With this system they should have thought of some way to increase there importance and force you to take them before just racing the province capital, or just made more settlements to begine with.
Land based trade in epmier dident impress me, beside allowing trade routes to be raided all it changed was that if a province have a resources in it you needed to build a separate building for it.
Compare that with medieval where you could build merchants and move them into positions to trade, you chould compete or straight out assassinate other merchants to get there trade.
To decide if you wanted to trade close for a safer but smaller profit or ship them off to distant lands with no help but for a potential massive profit, so many more potions and possibilities
Sea trade however was an excellent idea, to introduce navy only theaters with huge potential income from trade was excellent, it incentivised a large navy and allowed it to fill more roles than just troop transports,and in this game and time period that was a needed change, one i'm glad they got right beside the bugs.
dqwers I wasn't a fan of the of the Medieval II merchant system. It was a pain in the ass to recruit merchants and send them off, in what often took 10 turns to reach their destination, where you probably forgot about them. And the annoying thing was that there were so many resources everywhere, some I think actually completely unprofitable, making them just junk decoration on the map.
I liked the Empire system because it was simple, you conquer foreign lands, and gain a significant boost in trade from have access to say cotton production. You'd want to diversify, because having too much of one resource would drive down it's value.
I however, was not a fan of the sea trade nodes. Not only did they offer an absurd amount of cash, but these were non-upgradeable, had no land settlements from which to defend against invasion, and made the trade node sub-maps rather pointless to inspect, making each turn take longer, and bog the game down. At least with the plantations, a commitment of an army meant you had a reason to inspect that part of the world every turn. I'll say that having the 7 different maps was a pain the ass, and could have used streamlining, but then again, Rome 2 didn't do that, and the turns took an eternity to get through, so I'm not sure what the best solution was. As for the navy, there was a reason to have a good navy, because you could prey on other navies and make a mint off the prize money, and is a feature I sorely missed in Shogun 2. Also it's important to have enough naval firepower to prevent a strong blockade on your capital port.
I hated the village system, from Empire to Shogun 2, I was kinda glad Rome 2 dumped it. I so hated when the remnants of a enemy army, usually made up of 7-20 men, could just raid the countryside, disabling all of the nations buildings with extremely minor vandalism. At least in Mount and Blade Warband, if a village was attack below a certain unit count, the villagers would form a mob and attack you. Even if your the best fighter in the game, it's hard to stop 30 farmers with pitch forks, clubs and rocks attacking all at once, so it feels unrealistic that say 7 line infantrymen could attack a factory, and not be outright killed off. And the AI really excelled at this suicidal terrorism, sending small raiding parties to do damage, all while in sight of my army so that they could be easily crushed. It was frustrating.
ltflak When you study the history of guerilla war far you will see that exactily that has happened. The Confederate Army loosing on all fronts, for exampfle, had been a pain in the ass of the Union in question of raids all over the country.
Roger Lynch Yes, but it's unrealistic for the tattered remnants of a destroyed army that is so small that they could be wiped out by a single mob of unarmed farmers to attack multiple major villages that have populations in the thousands. Is it realistic that a tattered regiment that is 7/160 attack and disable the town of Toulouse? A city with a population of 48,000? Rendering it completely incapacitated for an entire 6 months, all at the hands of an demoralized solders that barely escaped with their lives in the previous turn?
ltflak Not necessarily, we are talking GUERILLA WAR FAR here. The supported gangs or RAIDERS like the one from Jesse and Frank James realy had heart the Union, even after the WAR officialy ended in the so called BOARDER or GRAY States from Maryland to California. Politically the popuation inthose states had been devided in their opinion. Of course the more radical members of those confoederate supporters and the socalled Copper or Indianheads got internated. like the ones in California, they had been brought to Alcatraz. The Indian Haeds had been a movement against the equal rights for coloured peole ( The equal rights for them became a federal law not before 1968 by the way) But secretly there developed Military resistence groups sabotaging instalations and railroadtreks and wires or attacking Union army posts and assassinating Union supporters all over the North . I wasn´t talking of the line troops of the Army of Verginia or the regulary Mid-West Confederate Army that got choped at Shiloh. If you are really intressted there is a whole bunch of literature about it, starting with the CIVIL WAR Series of TIME LIFE.
My favourite moment in Empire was when I was marching a tiny relief force of like 3 Militia, 2 Line, and 2 Cannon to reinforce a fort, when we got ambushed by an army at least 3x my size with all this cav and cannons and all sorts of crap. I started running to the edge of the map to retreat, but then realised that I was very close to the corner and, even better, the corner of this map was at the foot of a very steep hill. This meant that I could arrange my forces with their backs to the physical boundaries of the map (no exposed flanks) and because I was at the bottom of the hill, the enemy would not be able to fire at me unless they mounted the crest of the hill, which exposed them to instant return fire and also limited the number of enemies that could attack me at a time because the units would physically block each other.
The result of all this cheesing was about 40 minutes of the awful Empire AI mounting the hill, getting smashed by instant musket and cannon volleys, falling back, trying again, my Militia getting chewed up by friendly fire because everyone was packed so close to each other, nearly every one of my units running out of ammunition, and a decisive victory where I lost like 200 and the enemy lost maybe 1500. My most enjoyable Empire battle and it was despite the game haha
I have 800 hours on this game, and it's fucking awesome... specially with Darthmod
Whoa how dont you get bored?
I don't know man, first time in my life I play a game for a year straight not getting bored of it...
Il Magnus add me on steam 1 v 1 i bet 800+ hours of yours would not be enough to win against me ;)
Let's do it. What's your username in steam? I'll be Prussia ;)
So who won, im curious ^^ ?
This guy surely knows nothing about wars back then according to history! Musceets had orders by their comanders when to shoot or not and then the first row leaves the time to the second row while the first one reloads! So, you must not consider the 15 sec as a fail of the game
Kind sir, the point being made was not of the muskets reload time, which I am fully aware of its slow speed, but rather as to how intensly frustrating that reload speed is when all of your soldiers fire into the side of a hill, rather than the dastardly enemy.
Kindest regards, DrSane.
Reynold Sanity It's just a game! And it had evolved too much from the earlier game, like adding these guns or naval battle! And he is comparing it with Rome 2
Kelvi Bulku But that isn't the point of the complaint. His complaint is that the musketeers shoot into the hill rather then the enemy.
By the way Reynold, will you review the newly announced Total war game, Barbarian invasion 2.0?
Dude try to understand the entire video or understand any of his complaints or points, because your argument is completely invalid.
***** no the original game was like this... I have the Empire Napoleon joint pack collectors/definitive/game of the year/DLC/gold edition now and its sooooooooo much better in the way of lag or crashing!!!
Empire is only good with Darthmod. :)
Kacper Krogulski Sadly, yes.
Made a review on the vanilla game and with the mod.
Big difference
***** LOL.
I know, there are still bugs, but they are not so occurent in combat, like making stupid strategic decisions.
I can't install mods because they are fucking complicated and also I don't see anything wrong with empire I have clocked 150 hours of gameplay and found no bugs
Brayden Walker Darthmod has it's own installer. You literally have to do nothing except run it:) It makes Empire WAY better!
***** Why didn't you just smash the building with cannons? XD Did you not have any cannons on hand? if so, then that is a seriously funny, but disappointing loss
Empire was my fav total war
I know I love those mods
@@themysteriousgamers9616 darthmod?
Medieval 2! But Empire is awesome too!
Honestly Empire is one of my favourite Total Wars, second probably only to Medieval 2. It made so many changes to the formula including a stupid number of improvements and with that sadly came on the release bugs. Many of these had since been fixed and while the AI is still bad (as is with every total war game I might add) the additions to the game far surpass that of later titles such as Shogun 2 which were to me a step backwards (It had a weaker research tree, it had less unit variety and less faction diversity, a smaller map and less differentiation between terrain and the annoying part about this is that it was heralded as a good game because it had less bugs, it had less bugs because they did less with it)
By the way, you should try out Imperial Glory, it's a dated game but you may like it.
***** "You're not a true Total War Fan" please, i've played them all from Shogun 1. Empire had its flaws but it had improvements as well.
***** and I never faced nearly as many of them as people say, the only bug that ever got in my way was one where troops died when fleeing down ladders, which was annoying but didn't stay around long before being fixed. I loved the setting and many of its campaign map features. It also didn't have any annoying schizophrenic additions (the pope in medieval 2 for instance)
***** Not really, being a hipster I would be acting all superior because I enjoy something that others generally don't the only one acting superior here is you.
***** That's not acting superior...at all, that's just having a difference of opinion, you don't like it? Fine that's for you to not like but don't go around acting like a tool saying people aren't "true total war fans" because they like something you don't
Bloody hell you seem like one of those guys at conventions that goes up to a cosplayer and claim they aren't a "true gamer" if they don't know everything about a character.
empire total war is one of my favourite games!
I liked Empire, I have 133 hours on it... not much compared to Shogun 2 with 263 hours, but I liked it.
i got 330+ on Napoleon, Rome 2 trailing behind at around 260 but i never get very immersed into empire, probably because napoleon felt like a more polished version of empire.
Tempest and a Computer Did you ever like movies like "The Last of The Mochicans"? (Or pretty much any good movie around 17-18 century?).
Gist432 Even though the musket warfare era is one of my favorite periods, i haven't watched too many movies on it.If I had to recall a movie by the sorts right now i would probably say something like Patriot, but no i haven't. Is it good?
Tempest and a Computer It's one of my all time favorites, but my point was rather what you said, about it being a era/period you like.
Gist432 Haha well yeah, i do enjoy the period and movies of the sorts, though if you could point me toward some that you could recommend i would be grateful :D
Reynold was a prophet when it came to the future of gaming with DLC.
If only we as a consumer-base had listened and voted with our wallets.
Oh yeah, big disagree with removing diplomats. I liked the roleplay element it added. Also there's tons of great instances in history where so many events happened just because of a breakdown in communication, especially in this era, or because of a logistical hiccup during travel. Having these summits form on the map or having to get a diplomat with the right chops to the right guy in the right moment added some depth to diplomacy, for me at least. Sending the right offer at the right time to the right guy was critical to pulling off certain deals geopolitically in Medieval 2. With George II and the Turkish Sultan apparently having Twitter it just took something away for me.
I never had issue with Empire, I really liked it and never really had issues with it. As to the bugs, call me lucky, but I barely had any
This game is like saggy old faking tits
not for me, never had big issues, just minor things that i think could be changed
Well, I bought it on release, and it ran fine for me, my biggest complaint at the time was that the soldiers didn't had differences as they did in medieval
Well if you meant tech problems then your right, never had those too myself. But when it comes to other problems then holly shit this game was broken ... In MTW2 and Rome I AI at least TRIED to keep some formation, in Empire it is absolutely broken and without even semi competent AI all the other things dont matter coz its a strategy game ...
I never had formation issues, yes te AI wasn't great, but then again, it never had been.
Empire was fucking awesome
Wow this video really showed me how insanely well made rome 1 was. it felt so alive and epic. and this vid also showed me how incredibly liveless the new total war games are. I have a little bit of hope for Warhammer Total war, because hope dies last.
+Barbaren Baum IKR
+Afro Blasterman after watching all these videos they just really make me want to play rome 1
+Afro Blasterman I just hate that rome 1 is so historically inaccurate and very, very easy.
Emil Johansson
in the end its a game, not a history book. but I agree that its too easy. it has no challenge to a player and a very bad AI like every total war has.
+Afro Blasterman Shogun 2 had that life imo
My problem is not with the battles. They work great-- PROVIDED you have some knowledge of 17th Century warfare.
My problem is mainly with the diplomacy-- It seems you're public enemy number one at the very start of the game.
Yeah, you have to absolutely kiss ass to get any deal at all with the AI. Even when they're loosing the war, when they try for peace they have the balls to demand you give up land.
GamesLegitament Precisely! And every damn time I want to reach a trade agreement with another nation, they always demand land from me without fail. But overall though, I still have fun.
GamesLegitament
HO HO I think that is a staple for Total war games. In Rome 1 I was at war with Gaul and they had 2 cities left (all the others were claimed by me) and i had fully stacked armies next to his cities. He sued for peace then he demanded i give him cities.......in Italy.......And in Medieval 2 I beat back the Spaniards as the Moors and they had one city left. They sued for peace and demanded 2 cities and about 10000 gold. They got war instead.
corvifred One time in Empire, Spain only had Gibraltar left and I had it blockaded and was marching towards the city. Spain then demanded indefinite military access and 2000 gold for peace. Needless to say, Spain doesn't exist anymore.
GamesLegitament hilarious XD
Ah, god bless the DarthMod...
There was no bugs, at least from my experience.
You were one of the few to get no bugs in the first place. (You may have bought it post patch) Fortunately, so was i in a collectors edition. -.-
Raven Thor I actually bought it last year and I was thinking that would be possibility
How about frame rate dropping to single digits after breaching walls on high end rigs?
henoch44 can't you read the other comments you idiot.
Kazi Iqbal
reynald sanity, I love your video, BUT, it has one problem.
In the music segment you say that "this is the age of grand composure, like the 1812 overture". as a classically trained musician, I have to disagree.
The game takes place during the classical era, (1670-1810-ish). Following this is the romantic era, which is what you refer to, likely. The 1812 overture was written by Tchaikovsky in 1882.
The classical era is more Handel and Mozart's era. The music that existed then, would be a poor choice for battle. Though not for campaign, as darthmod proves.
There is one way it could work, though. during that time, Highland Bagpipe Piobaerechd was getting very popular. having one play while you fight might work. kinda.
but empire's music sucks haaard.
Yer my bad skipper, my grasp on music is pretty poor, certainly on anything from nearly 200 years ago. I wasn't so much arguing for strictly period music, but certainly something that, I dunno... jives with that period? I mean none of the music in rome 1 or med 2 had anything to do with music of that time, but romes had that bombastic imperial thrust to it and meds had its sombre and serious religious undertones. To someone who knows their history inside and out it won't be realistic no, but i feel to most people it would at least feel authentic, or at least exciting. Thats why I mentioned 1812, best example I know of thats exciting and bombastic and, in an incredibly blunt way, is related to that era.
Reynold Sanity Ya your right, but
THE MORE YOU KNOW!!!!!
I personally thought M:2 had the best sound track.
Jeff van dyck is all kinds of good.
Reynold Sanity dude but Shogun wasn t bad he was just fucking good if you don t feel this climat then go on Roma -.-
Anthony Mack I disagree, I really like a lot of Empire's music, while I dislike the overly-cheery music of the time.
Though, the loading screen music, which is spot-on, is based off some composer of the time. But I do like the dramatic approach they did with the music.
Anthony Mack I love nitpicking the particulars of classical music as much as the next person, but I think the point is well-taken. Something LIKE the 1812 overture (which is at least SET in the right time period) would have worked well. And you could get away with some early Beethoven like the third symphony which was written by 1804, or sneak in some other early romantics. The decision not to include Beethoven in Napoleon seemed like a missed opportunity to me.
I love how this guy perfectly predicted the Rome 2 debacle.
and now, warhammer 3
But Rome 2 Got Better After A Trash Start
@@empireofitalypsstimfromano5025 Matters not. Point is, he predicted it perfectly.
Surprised how much hate this video is getting. Speaking the truth is always painful for the dumb-asses, comments are good though. Ha and 1 year on, I kinda feel stupid for saying that now. I can appreciate opinions for what they are. You can like a game that's shit but everyone else hates it, on the other hand you can not like a game that's awesome, while everyone else likes it. Opinions, Opinions. Apologies to anyone I offended but no apologies to the ones that were just looking to spew hatred and Malus. (No pun intended there) Have a nice day!
+Malus Thantos Videos usually get hate when people act like their opinion is fact.. I loved Empire and Napoleon. the only one that even comes close is maybe Shogun 2.
Rome or Medieval for me.
Malus Thantos Rome 2 or Rome classic or Rome Alexander? Medieval 2 or regular medieval? I prefer Rome 2 over the others. the ranged units in the game seem a Little too strong. but I spam cav so it's all good.
+GrilledSoap Meh, no honour in spamming mate. Rome and all expansions except for Rome 2. All Medieval games. I love as well.
Cav spam worked for the mongols, works pretty well for me too.
A fucking hate the AI in this game. Its so goddamn stupid. For instance, I decided to try and get a peace treaty with the Barbary States as Prussia because there seriously was no point for me to be at war with them especially because Prussia doesn't start out with any kind of military port and the Barbary states sent me a counter offer saying, "DUR! Give me East Prussia for peace!" A second example was during a battle when the AI brilliantly decided to place its cannons behind a hill. Whoever designed the AI for Empire should be fired and never allowed to work in the video game industry ever again
I actually do like the Empire settlement system, with the spread out buildings. It makes hit-and-run raids a viable option and forces you to defend the borders of your provinces rather than just huddling in the fortress all the time.
In my experience (granted I played the fixed version of the game), the AI switches from being brilliant to being dumber than a rock - and this is true regardless of which Total War game. Sometimes it would, as you say, charge up and stare at my cannon barrels. Other times, they will attempt flanking maneuvers (lancer cavalry tend to do this) and shifting the battle lines. Naval battles are interesting, but in my opinion get more hectic once you engage in multiple-ships battles (I concede that part of it is because of the UI).
One major mistake that they made (and I believe it was fixed by the time Shogun 2 rolls around) is that the campaign AI and the diplomatic AI are two separate things... that don't communicate with each other. The diplomatic AI can't see the world map and the relative balance of power, which leads to strange requests like half of your territories for a peace treaty, despite the fact that you just complete trounced their armies. Notably, Medieva 2 AI's can sometimes fall into the same mistakes. While tastes may vary, I still prefer this than the hot mess that is the diplomatic system in Medieval 2, where once your empire gets big enough you'll have dozens of diplomats and princesses and what have yous, each needs to be manually commanded just to speak to other factions.
Empire is by no means a perfect game, and CA can certainly take some pointers from this video, but in general it's not as terrible as people make it to be.
it's funny that I just got empire now and I absolutely love it even without mods
Yeah the game is really good imo
You got it after like 20 patches though. This reviewed the game at release and trust me, you wouldn't of loved it then...
Geraud Sansom Seems to be a much wider trend with game developers lately.
Get DARTH mod
What are you talking about? Empire total war is fucking awesome, possibly the best especially with darth mod
I played medieval with stainless steel as Kingdom of Jerusalem. didn't complete the campaign cause it was hard as shit tho.
Bob McBallSackNoodle
Nope lol. Stainless Steel is a mod for Medieval 2. I personally love Stainless Steel AND Darthmod Empire, they both fucking own. I also love Paradox Interactive's grand strategy games, but all of these games are very very good. Yes vanilla Empire: Total War is not that good...but anyone who says it is still bad with Darthmod is lying.
*****
Unfortunately, this is a review of a Game not of Mods... Shit, Rome II's unplayable without them. Doesn't make it a good game because some moders fixed the fucking game for the god damn company.
It's not like with KOTOR TSL, where Corporate fucked over the developers and they left lines and unfinished shit in the game for modders to make Restored Content Mods or anything.
I'm not bashing the video at all and agree that the original Empire: Total War was not good enough...
total war empire is total shit not good at all played ewery total war game and empire is shit in late game all your people are angry I dont know why
thank god i bought this game when it was all patched up, i can only relate to like 2 things in this whole video
I am currently downloading empire off steam? will it already have the patches loaded on to it?
MegaRugby10100 i know this is 2 days late, but yes.
I appreciate that you changed your mind on Shoguns music in the later videos, because the music is flawless
In my opinion Medieval Total War II was the most memorable of the franshise, it just felt fucking epic. Not to mention the mods made for it
I like a lot of TW titles - even some of the newer ones like Rome2, Attila and Thrones of Britannia - but the lack of polish of basic battle mechanics is disturbing. Instead of fixing their system, they just cut features. And while the campaign map keeps getting better and battles, battles, at least the historical one, are only playable thanks to the modding community.
rome 1 is better but it's a matter of opinion tbh
well, in the 17th century everyone sort of declared war on eachother
*18th
If you play the game it says 1700
Yes, the beginning of the 18th century. Your point is?
samir colic 18th Century means 1700's. 17th Century would refer to 1600's.
Ok Jesus
I agree on most points, but what the fuck was that thing about shogun's music not being good for battles? First of all, the OST was mostly made by Jeff Van Dyk (the one who made Rome 1's) and secondly the taiko drums are perfect at making a huge melee fight amazing.
He also made Medieval II's
Wow, so many dislikes... These are all valid criticisms of Empire that, when all considered together, show that it really was a step back in quality of game compared to Medieval II and especially Kingdoms. Are there really THAT many fans that think that Empire was any good? Are there THAT many that are blind to the glaring issues with Empire?
And over a decade later still the same engine and tech debt issues.
Honestly, I kind of prefer Empire Total War to Napoleon. Sure, Napoleon had better gameplay, but I prefer Empire's campaign.
Then again, I'm using Darth Mod and haven't played the base game since it was released, and I'm pretty sure Darth Mod fixes most of the mentioned bugs to one degree or another(especially the over-sea invasions one - I distinctly remember flipping my shit when I saw a full stack Maharata army invading my colonies in the Americas).
Edit: Just so it's known, Medieval 2 Kingdoms was my favorite of the Total War games(and expansions).
Edit 2: The music in Empire sounds more like it belongs on a scrolling list of the names of dead soldiers than in the heat of a firefight.
Edit 3: Final edit. Am I the only one that thinks that artillery in Empire and Napoleon is massively under powered? Artillery, in this period, was king - many battles were won and lost by virtue of superior artillery, but in Empire, artillery feels unnecessary - it barely does any actual damage to units, with models surviving cannonballs that landed right at their feet, and the morale damage it does is laughable when compared to cavalry.
I mean, I still field it - and always will field artillery, for roleplay's sake...but it kinda sucks when you watch 3 batteries unload in to an enemy unit, and the enemy loses like 5 guys tops!
Empire is horrid vanilla.
Add in Darthmod, or North vs South, and its everything you wanted.
Damn all theese years CA never fucking changed.
Ten years later and you still can't repair a fort.
we need more of your videos dude!!
I think it was amazing.
+Liberty Prime Same im not to picky with games if they have a couple of bugs im fine
annoys me when people nit pick at the game for all the bad things and act like its pure shit
+Kris Rivera "A couple bugs"?? Damn, you must have fantastically low standards.
+antred11 Nah, the only main issue for me is that the AI can't carry out a naval invasion. Other than that, the base game is completely playable. But, why would you play the vanilla version anyway when Darthmod exists?
In the end, Empire is my favorite total war, and a sequel is probably the most wanted Total War game by fans right now.
***** I didn't determine anything. I made an assumption, a guess that I base off of the forums on both Steam and the official website.
It's highly requested as far as I can tell.
+Liberty Prime good for you. it still sucks :P
As much as I love Empire, I still can not get over the fact on the USA and main campaign, half of North America is lacking provinces, and in the War Path DLC it is filled in anyways, what the heck.
2:56 this bug is still exist in warhammer 2 and it's infuriating
Not as bad but ya, its weird how they never managed to make LINE INFANTRY dynamic, as in they keep shooting while the troops reform, like is that REALLY so hard. Then again the Handgunners dont even have reload animations so....ya. in fact now that i think about it almost nothing has reload animations.
Oddly enough i think they are more dynamic in Empire then Fall of the samurai, hell the light infantry in Empire are spaced out and all fire at once (some of them anyway others play like line infantry till you get light infantry tactics) something else fall of the samurai doesnt have. At least it has dragoons, But the Empire dragoons are still cooler since they adopt firing drills. Fall of the samurai is awesome but you can tell the depth is less, at least the Artillery in that game has an ammo limit.
@@jaywerner8415 There's mod that reintroduced reloading animation, I think it was backported from nappy
@@berthold64 Ya their is one on the steam workshop, i have it now.
22:00 makes me remember playing as Byazntium in M2tw with Stainless Steel.The music made everything so much more epic as my 5 spear levies and 3 generals cav held off waves of Jihads coming at Constantinople.Best total war game ever,no doubt
You are never happy right?
That would be boring.
***** raciest much :) ...
These complaints make sense but empire is my favorite
That doesn't make a lick of sense lol :P
Only thing that really bugged me was the diplomacy. As soon as you finish off your enemies, one of your allies nearby declares war. Usually while most of your men are elsewhere. The only way to stop them from doing this is by keeping a line of enemy settlements between you and your ally.
I'm I the only one who thinks Shogun 2 had the best soundtrack ever?
Agreed.
My personal favorite is the sound track the The Mongol Invasion expansion. Though The Viking Invasion soundtrack was pretty good too.
***** Can't say I've actually noticed, but I haven't played that much Shogun 2. I'm still mostly playing Empire Totalwar, currently trying out the Empire Realism Mod.
Honestly, I absolutely love empire total war because it’s set in almost every single continent and I live the 1700s but yeah those glitches and bugs are horrid. At least every 30 minutes the game randomly crashes in the middle of a battle and the animations are so buggy. I totally agree.
Ship tactics: "No tactics to speak of"
You really need to read up on some sailing tactics if you think there was nothing to do in Empire TW when it came to ship battles. Sure they were slow paced, and you're right to say aspects were really poorly done (the broadsides were disappointing to say the least) but you could take out a dumb opponent with several heavier ships than you if you used the wind and your speed to outmaneuver their guns with a smaller frigate. It took a lot of micro and some knowledge of how the wind and sails work, but in larger battles it gave you a significant advantage.
Not saying Empire has no flaws, but your bashing is right over the top mate.....
Ojoe2010 No its not, he proved everything he said and you cant deny it because it is proven, the game was garbage.
Proven? It´s a rather subjective story, nothing is proven.
Ojoe2010 Did you not watch this video? He showed you everything he said which means it was proven.
Half the stuff he mentions doesn´t bother me, the other half was solved long time ago. Let me ask you a question, did you even play the game?
Ojoe2010 It may not bother you but it is a problem and needed to be fixed, even though half of it was solved a lot of the big ones still remain.
You're going to resort to asking questions like that now? Of course i played it and it was completely broken, stop trying to deny shit, the games terrible and has been proven, you cant deny that when it has been proven it just makes you look like an immature fanboy.
I LIKED empire overall, but I can't deny a lot of these criticisms are spot on. The game is still broken as hell, I just like the base idea and setting so much that I can overcome it. But it does have crippling issues that almost ruin even that. I barely play the game today, but I know if it were executed properly I would still sink as much time into it now as when I first played.
I mean, I have a swedish game I put a lot of time into recently-ish (started it after playing 9 hours of Rome II and walking away in disgust), but now I have a mini pirate army that if I attack, crashes the game upon finishing the battle and getting back to the campaign map (even if autoresolved it crashes) and russia's turn time is taking upwards of 15 minutes to complete. I even have Darthmod (and the AI is still horrible, but at least it's better than vanilla).
yeah.. for some reason, I like Empire as well, but I think the only reason is that there are no other strategy games like the total war series, or in those time periods. Overall Empire and Rome suck. Especially compared to previous releases.
just get Darthmod mate
***** It improves the game remarkably. I didn't say it made it good.
+Dmitri Patronov Try telling them to circle around the building, that's what I do.
That would be out of the context since he's assessing CA's work not the modding community
yeah but its a mod, you can't review a modded game, he is reviewing it AT LAUNCH.
Charles Xll Darthmod doesn’t ever work for me sadly
Empire 2018: I played as the French and attacked the Dutch at a fort. It was gonna be a hard fought battle. Luckily the Dutch crammed 600+ Troops outside the fort, up against the wall, staring at said wall while I slaughtered them....
I love your shout out to Stronghold. Agreed - an old game, but one of those that understood the importance of audio appeal and visual appeal.
Empire TW is my fav total war I had 200 hours on it before I added darthmod but rome 2 TW did suck ass.
The. Prince Since I got it, I've spent roughly a twelfth of my life on Rome Total War. Bit much, really.
Good for you its your opinion if you like it or not.
The. Prince Me and my mate spent like 300 hours on it in total lol. Shogun 2 was pretty great but I just couldnt get into Rome 2
Matty Reynolds Too bad that Creative Assembly doesn't give a flying fuck about Shogun 2 now. Tried playing it once again after months and it keeps on crashing at its startup
anyone have a solution to the Ottoman Turn Lag?
Thanks man, I think the esf editor should work for that, I'll just buy anatolia so the land bridge won't slow down the turn. I ain't got time for no 2 hour turns
There is a simple solution...very simple.Put a ship at the "bridge" that connected to Istanbul.
Well if you at war at them,this might a pain in the ass.But of you playing a campaign that didnt disturb the Ottoman to engage war with you.This is your solution.
Thanks man, i didn't think that'd work
+Alicez Duponté one more idiot hater
???
Thankfully the Steam Version has most of these bugs fixed. When I played America, the AI has landed sea invasions at least three times in the Western Hemisphere (Austria, Prussia, and India all attempted one land invasion), though the land invasions were focused on the Caribbean provinces and one in upper Canada. I think line infantry now shoot at enemies with whatever section of the rank is actually facing the enemy too. However, musket infantry still have to wait until every single last soldier is in position before firing. To be honest though, all TW games have that problem (Ie archers) so I'm not entirely sure how the "formation does not do anything until every one is in place" bug stands out so much in this game. I guess that has something to do with how the main infantry unit is ranged whereas in other games the main infantry was melee, and how line infantry could get clobbered by melee infantry since melee infantry do not have this problem, but I think that's roughly historically accurate as well. The rigidity of formation often caused regular musket infantry to be sluggish in response to melee units. I say roughly because the line would not wait for ONE person to get in position before firing. However, again, this would happen to archers and other ranged infantry units in other TW games as well, so this bug is not that unusual and I do not think its as game breaking as he implies, especially since everyone in an online match would experience the same bug.
The kill-action AI are stupid. He's absolutely right about that. It does make the game annoying and it can cost you a battle because a unit is taking too much time killing off a weak unit. But given all the latest patches, I think the game devs have redeemed this installation in the TW series, not that I'm saying its the best TW game ever (Diplo still makes no sense) but its certainly better than the state it was in when he talked about it in this video. I think ETW is pretty decent game now.
+Brian Liang I have the steam version. The game still has a crapload of bugs. The funny thing sis that there are some standard and well known bugs but I seem to regularly encounter new ones.
2:30 only after a few years did i realize this part was completely sarcastic, before that i thought he was praising the game lol
1: . . . wrong, E:TW actually has a significant group of followers who insist it is the best TW to date
2: I have never crashed in Empire. Considering I have owned it since release and put in thousands of hours it makes me wonder how this guy crashed it.
3: You need to play on difficulties higher then Easy to see armies fight in formation and utilize terrain.
4: Compared to Shoguns 2 diplomacy this game was a masterpiece. In Shogun 2 you can work towards friendly relations in every way only to have them declare war on you because of the "At this point in the game everyone has to be at war with you" mentality.
***** I LOVE Medieval 2 because its just as you said, especially the retarded A.I. its still dumb but its not as stupid as Rome 2s A.I. but Shogun 2 is the BEST one ever! So what its fucking samurai? The A.I. is quite good and it had the most detail! And it brought a LOT of features to the franchise!
But CA should really re-purchase their studio in Britan, because it was after they sold it that empire was a failure, now rome2!
Harut Rehanyan Meta critic score of 90% and still selling strong 5 years after release. Yup a total failure. . . . en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire:_Total_War#Reception
did you even read my comment? Next time read before you type.
I read it you fucking moron! What did I read incorrectly?!?!?!
I thought that Wheatly was the biggest moron in the univers, but its you, your the moron king! Hey, don't feel bad! Your a king! Be happy! LoL
No seriously what did I say that was wrong?
jaybe ill
sorry, no. Difficulty changes exactly nothing except stats. And sometimes a cavalry unit will try to flank you. Sometimes.
Oh, and 4) what?! Disregarding the realm divide, have you even played Empire? you know, the game where you seal an alliance only to have them declare war next turn and then offer peace the other? Diplomacy is absolutely bonkers in ETW.
It takes a special kind of talent to remove tension from 100 men bravely charging in to the firing line of ofther 100 men
"The dlc whoring thats getting worse" and it did get worse
I was a 4th rate ship of the line. My enemy was a brig. A 1x1 naval battle... And the games mecanics make me losse. My ship was just turning in 180° and when he was ready to fire... The ship turned for the other side.
I love all your Australian casual swearing
I really like Empire and Napoleon, the most annoying things amongst quite a few for Empire is that you have no option to stop reinforcements coming on to the field of battle; if I am resting my troops and trying to get them back up to strength, and I am attacking the enemy close to my settlement they just blunder on to the battlefield. Most times I have worked out my tactics and don't need reinforcements, but on they come. I have to waste time keeping them clear of the fighting so that already weak units don't get totally destroyed, and as has happened, a good general gets killed. Also the A1 cheats, if you aim your cannons at an opposing general he will suddenly ride away out of range before a single shot has been fired at him. Also in naval battles if you suddenly switch from cannon balls to chain-link to take down an enemy's sails and rigging, they will suddenly drop their sails as soon as you hit the select type of shot button. I also wish it was more in keeping with the time period to give it a bit more of an atmosphere of the era, Napoleon is a great deal better at portraying the time period. I'm still playing it at the moment and I hope they bring out an Empire II like they did with Medieval II with all the glitches sorted out.
THE BUG WHERE INFANTRY KEEPS DOING LUNGES IS EPIC
can you link the battle you mentioned at @ 24.40? the name wasnt clear . Thanks and great vid!
It was one of the best Total War games I have ever played. Especially with Darth Mod.
Edit - You hate just about every Total War game don't you?
With DarthMod. Did you play it day one? It was a buggy mess, creative assembly makes good games but they're so god damn lazy. Also criticizing a game doesn't mean he hates it.
so its up to the modding community to make a game playable??
"Especially with Darth Mod."
That means it was playable without the mod. It was just better with the mod.
Do you even read the comments you reply too?
NEVER!
This is a buggy mess
This game didn't fail i think i just install Darthmod for the game and if the game crashes its your computer not the game i've never crashed in this game ever and i've never had any bugs at all
fatypants8 nope
freshpinpop I never ment Darthmod fixed the game for me the game works fine without it aswell
There were numerous bugs in the initial release, some of which are mentioned in the video. I personally experienced most of them including the Trade Port Bug mentioned, and the bug that caused the game to lock when disembarking a general from a fleet. Most of these were fixed eventually by patches and those that persist, such as the smoke bug related to sieges have been addressed by the modding community. The game is at least playable now in it's vanilla format, but to get the best experience you really need to install a mod to overcome the inherent design issues such as poor AI behavior.
The game is very playable in its current vanilla version, ive played it and its fun but it doesnt have much else than bein able to conquer the world. Even though ive had to lose my Prussia World Domination twice cause of laptop problems (on my old laptop).
Reynold I have to ask you a question which of the 2 musket warfare total wars do you like better napoleon total war or empire?
Empire is still the most mechanically rich Total War game to date -- trade routes, campaign theater, government and revolutions, colonization, noncentralized city building, etc. And considering the direction CA has taken this franchise -- appealing to causal masses -- I reckon won't see another title with the same level of depth as ETW in the near future.
Fuck it.. I'm reinstalling Rome
Newsman4chon Not Good. Best Total War. Combine it with the SS Mod and its the greatest TW Ever made. It seems TW Series has been goin downhill nowadays..
Why uninstall rome 1 in the first place?
UofM I was young and misguided.
FinestSeven I like M2TW better, mainly because in Rome 1 the soldiers more so *weird* and theres this ONE soundtrack that I hate and it plays over and over again! I know I can mute it but without music its shitty, and medieval 2 did EVERYTHING (except Naval battles and some diplomacy and A.I. stuff) GREAT! So yeah... M2TW BEST FOR ME!
Empire Total War was actually one of the best ones they made, it's still very popular and sold quite well. All I saw in this review was a whole lot of bitching and complaining over nothing that can be enhanced with simple mods.
But why with mods? Shouldn't that be in the fucking game or something? How about I don't feel like waisting like two hours looking for and testing mods to see if they actually make the game any better when it could have been in the fucking game! Also what if people DON'T mod any more? For like Medieval III when (if) it comes out? What do we do then?
Harut Rehanyan The vanilla gameplay was more than satisfactory and quite fun, if people had trouble adapting to it that's their problem. I saw nothing wrong with the engine for this game at all. There are also plenty of mods that improved gameplay and graphics beyond what they were in 2008 and mods are never put into games at release, the community of players is responsible for that and the game developers encourage it. That's why they're called mods, they modify the original gameplay to extend its replay value and performance. If people stop making mods for it (which I have yet to see for any game such as the original Starcraft) then use what's already out there or try making your own instead of bitching about it like a 5 year old.
No no no, Napoleon Total War, was the best, it corrected most of the mistakes from Empire Total War... (Napoleon 5*, Empire disappointment!!!)
No...! Napoleon (if i remember correctly) didn't have unit collition! Thats a bit bad, but anyway medieval 2 is best for me! Great graphics, optimized and less buggy than all other TW games! At least for me....
Your right empire total war had the best naval play and felt truly epic compared to shogun napoleon and Rome 2.
OMG! The negotiation stuff is SO true too! The average value I can sell a tech for is like 150 the average cost to buy it was 6000. Or research it in 2 turns.
Bought it in steam sale, love the gameplay, but it's unplayable now for me. 12 hours in the campaign map has started to lag immensly and I cannot play it. Googled around and most seem to think it's a memory leak, one never fixed. Should I just give up or is there a fix?
I have never experienced 90% of these bugs
Neither did I, I had Gold Edition for Mac and the game worked just fine.
yep too the only thing i hate is the finishers mooves and the incompatibility in online games
But when we got it on Mac most of these bugs where fixed I was able to code my way threw to get darthmod and i can't stop playing
I've been playing darthmod empire lately and I freaking love it. Turned it into from a depressing mess into an incredibly worthwhile experience. Diplomacy is great, battles are brilliant, the game is punishingly hard, the effects and sounds and music and atmosphere are incredible, and it's a ton of fun. Empire's problems do occasionally rear their ugly head, but definitely not enough to spoil the fun or immersion. PLAY. IT. NOW. The modding community are my heroes. Screw CA and Sega.
I agree with that sentiment, but I have two objections:
- The game is actually easier with DM. Not that it's a bad thing, getting ganked by turn 6 was no fun in vanilla and the higher gold income means you can have comfortably larger armies.
- I don't know who of darth's team worked on the autoresolve tweaks, but he deserves to be shot.
Case in point? 2200 army of men, cavalry and artillery vs 37 dragoons. I win, losing 650 men in the process. 650 men against some rookie dragoons in open field battle. And don't even get me started on naval battles.
But yeah, other than that, DM is pretty much a requiement to enjoy Empire.
May I suggest the mod "A proper empire: Terra Incognita" it forces you to conserve you men’s lives because it has a manpower mechanic. It also costs 3000 gold to up keep schools.
Cedie Austria Is the autoresolve "not" borked in TI? If so, sold!
Darth mod is just the ai spamming armies and god forbid your a smaller nation. Tried doing a road to independence campaign and could not even get one fucking settlement.
Every Year i come back 2 rewatch this
Empire really should have been the best total war game of all time. Unfortunately I find that their are only three total wars worth going back to and that’s rome 1, shogun 2 and medieval 2. Not even mods can save this catastrophe
I have most hours in empire total war after shogun 2 and medieval 2
so im curious, what is your opinion of Medieval II Total War? I personally think Medieval II was the best. Sure, it was outdated and honestly, the main campaign should have been centered around Europe, North Africa and the Middle East in stead of adding America to the game map but it is highly moddable and there are still plenty of mods for it, heck, Stainless Steel pretty much fixes all the problems Medieval II had but a since its a mod its going to crash alot.
Not all the problems, and for me the game seems to crash less with it (bizarre). It REALLY improved it though. What bugs of the new games is that they have quite clearly forsaken a lot of the things that made the games any good and worth modding in the first place.
Medieval II was brilliant and it came into my posession at a time when I felt computer games were getting more and more dumbed down in order to "streamline". Games and sports are all about putting yourself to the test and improving yourself. If every place in the world you visited or worked at adapted itself to your current capabilities (which was the idea in Oblivion... ehm) why would we even bother putting thought into getting better at our skills? Which is what you do in real life. You don't get better at anything without a little tiny moment of personal reflection. Sorry for the rant but total war will never get any better until you can campaign with other players and actually face each other on the battlefield during the campaign. Any other addition to the game is to make it playable. And that is why Medieval II, in my opinion, was close to being the real deal (for my desires, of course).
Medieval II isn't that outdated. The original Rome stomps pretty much everything though.
Whenever he references Medieval II he talks does so to talk about what it did better then Rome II and Empire. He always talks about it in a positive light.
I would say he likes it judging by that fact.
jakeford2 good point.
Medieval did have America in it :)
Actually in MTW2 just few factions sounded typicaly - French, Germans... there was general "southerner" accent for Iberians, Italians, Greeks and arab accent for islamic nations. Poles, Russians or Danes still sounded the same as characters of England. Empire has multiple languages. Anyway MTW2 was alive with that, great and far better.
Is this game now and have all the bugs been fixed? Been a total war fan for a few years but have not played them yet gonna start with Rome and so on
Empire was the first Total War game I ever played, but having seen this video I think I'll try some of the other games in the series. Thank you for showing me the way.
I enjoyed the game and it's by far my favorite.
Testing testing is he alive? Is he dead? No one will ever know
Bro he could be famous by now
6:38 The best deal I've seen since the LegendofTotalWar buying half the lands of Aragon for 100k gold xD
This was my first total war game and I thought it was pretty good. Everything you said, I had complaints about as well. The overall game was a great experience. It makes me excited to get as in depth and involved with future total war games. I haven't played the earlier games but if those are even better than this one, I may purchase those as well.
Empire is fantastic, agree with your Rome II video. But Empire after patches is amazing.
add darthmod and its excellent. Im playing that since rome 2 is a joke
***** It's okay to buy now, almost as good as promised, pretty well optimized.
MMYUMMY Gaming are you on crack ?
Ever since they closed the studio in Brisbane and they changed publishers from Activation to Sega seem to have a huge impact on this franchise. The fact I used to respect this company and loved Rome and medieval 2 and to watch this company still get high scores from reviewers almost makes me cry. And WTF are they still getting BAFTA's for?
Sadly its not only these games which get high reviews. Its all those big companies EA, Activision, Sega, Ubisoft who pay for the reviews. Game companies know that common sheep trusts on game site reviews so they pay them to give good number. I blame companies and the sheep. Sheep (most of the people in the civilized word)
Jin- Absolutely, which is why many people turn to reviews on you tube and twitch these days. The old gaming media are way too corrupt these days and I really stopped trusting them about 7yrs ago. The problem continues to grow but I honestly feel many of the current gen gamers will get their game info from other sources as media outlets around the world worry more about their adverting and other revenue streams over the truth.
Grass hair I'm pretty sure it's since they created the Warscape engine. They've stubbornly stuck with it for 8 years and I have no idea why. Then there's Sega forcing CA to make a game every two years...
FlipUltraHD Agreed unfortunately
you actually can set your unit cards in a specific order but it is quite complicated to explain but i will try:
1: select your general and move him outside your town
2: select your army units and move them next to your general
3: starting with artillery ( i only use howitzers ) click and drag the howitzer unit card 1 at a time over to your general to merge
4: next do the same with your line infantry 1 at a time
5: next light infantry or snipers 1 at a time
6: next cavalry
you can do the units in any order i just like it this way as it keeps your cav next to the general and the arty last.
just be sure to do it 1 at a time or it wont work. and yes it is stupidly cryptic but there you go. i cant even remember how i worked it out
In the comparison of battles bewteen Rome and Empire, I just love the way the one guy from the routing Militia unit has to complete his kill move before running away.