Hyper – August 2019

(^201918)
It’s a long time
coming
It’s already been six long years since the
release of Total War: Rome II. If you too
have been eager to see Creative Assembly
return to its historical roots after so many
years of dealing in fantasy, then you’ll
want to pay attention to Total War: Three
Kingdoms. The studio is breaking new
ground here, ushering in huge revisions to
its classic formula, drawing from its recent
experiments and rich legacy in the genre
to deliver a Total War that feels fresh and
emboldened to usher in sweeping change.
Three Kingdoms is pushing the series in
a new direction, taking bold strides to
deliver a Total War game that could quite
easily surpass what we believed it was
capable of.
A first for the
series
Three Kingdoms is the first Total War
game to be set in China, with the tactical
action framed around what Creative
Assembly describes as, “one of the most
turbulent times in Chinese history.” It’s
difficult to believe that it has taken this
long for the studio to get here; China is
unquestionably one of the most requested
locations for the studio to settle on,
offering an aesthetically diverse array of
battlegrounds, a roster of rich, historical
characters to become acquainted with,
and a host of well-storied conflicts that
can be easily leveraged for Total War’s
typically large-scale battles. It is, as lead
writer Pete Stewart told us, “sort of the
perfect Total War setting.”
What’s in a
location?
Three Kingdoms picks up in 190 CE, just
as the notorious Han Dynasty is on the
verge of collapse. Senior game designer
Leif Walter describes it to us as a “very
exciting period in history, where this
long-lasting dynasty of almost 400 years
is crumbling. And then, in the ashes of
it, you basically have all of these new
warlords emerging,” he says, talking
about the 11 different characters you have
the opportunity to take command of
across the campaign and in multiplayer.
“It just made for a perfect sort of
battleground for a Total War game.” In
the Three Kingdoms campaign you have
the opportunity to fill the void of power
quickly emerging, forged in the fires of
conquest as other powerful warlords plan
their own ascent to regional dominance.
Drawing from a
mixture of sources
It might, on the surface, feel as if Creative
Assembly is asking for trouble with Three
Kingdoms, its story taking influence from both
historical record and a work of fiction to inform
its action. But Walter maintains that this actually
gives the studio the flexibility to deliver a truly
epic Total War game. “We have these two
amazing sources to draw from. We have the
historical account, which is very factual, and
then we have Romance of the Three Kingdoms,
the novel where all of these personal stories
of bravado, revenge and friendship are all tied
together into a nice narrative. It’s not like Three
Kingdoms is pure fiction, it’s historical fiction
and we certainly spent a lot of time making
sure that anything from the novel is presented
authentically,” says Walter, with Stewart adding:
“The novel mostly follows the facts, it just kind of
embellishes them in a nice romantic way.”