PC Gamer - UK (2022-04)

Creative Assembly has crammed
plenty of surprises and oddities into
this final act, clearly saving up its
strangest experiments for the
cataclysmic confrontation between
mortals and Chaos. It goes in some
strange directions, but
always goes big, fully
committing to
Warhammer’s
wonderfully over the
top brand of fantasy.
The impetus for the
conflict is a
bearnapping. Ursun,
Kislev’s hairiest deity,
has been imprisoned by the daemon
Be’lakor. To make matters worse for
the furball, he’s also been shot with a
cursed bullet by a corrupted Kislev
prince. His roars of anguish open up
rifts between realities, letting armies
cross over to the Realm of Chaos,
where they can fight to reach Ursun

• some to free him, some to request a
  boon, and others to steal his power.
  It’s a setup that leads to a very
  different style of Total War campaign,
  where conquering the map is still

encouraged but isn’t quite as

important as reaching Ursun’s prison.

Every 30 or so turns, rifts open up all

over the map, spewing out daemonic

armies and inviting mortals to enter

Total War’s weirdest locations,

culminating in massive

survival battles against

a daemon prince. The

reward? The prince’s

soul. Collect four and

you can unlock the way

to the big bear.

HELLBOUND

Each section of the

Realm of Chaos reflects the

personality of its patron god. Nurgle’s

realm is a pestilent, toxic nightmare.

Slaanesh’s ream is a purple-tinged

series of rings connected by portals.

Tzeentch’s realm is a maze of floating

islands connected by magic. Khorne’s

realm is the most straightforward: a

hellscape where you simply beat up a

lot of daemons and rogue armies

until you’ve earned enough glory.

You’ll likely spend around ten

turns in each, but they loom over the

whole campaign. You know you’re

going to need to be ready to jump

into the next one, so you need to

prepare by rapidly expanding and

building the toughest army that you

can. But since your best army is going

to be in a different reality once the

rifts open, you need to make sure

your territory is still protected from

daemonic invasions.

Things can get hairy, especially

when the finish line is in sight. If it

looks like another faction is going to

get their fourth soul before you, you’ll

need to act quickly, wiping them out

before they get it. If that plan fails,

though, you’ve still got a chance to

claw back victory from the jaws of

defeat. You need to immediately drop

what you’re doing and wait for them

outside Ursun’s prison. Defeat the

army, and then you’ll have another 15

turns to catch up.

That was one of my biggest

concerns before the review: how do

you win if you’re behind? Beating up

your opponents is a nice,

straightforward answer, and very

Total War. But doing this also creates

new wrinkles. In my first campaign, I

was good friends with Nurgle’s main

faction. But when we both entered

Slaanesh’s realm, and it looked like

Nurgle’s lot were going to beat me to

the final battle, I had to make a

difficult decision. This wasn’t the last

soul either of us needed, so I could

have let my pal win this round, but

did I really treasure our friendship

that much? It turns out I did not. I

got the soul, but the war against

Nurgle lasted for a long time.

It’s by far the most unusual and

involved campaign Creative

Assembly has ever designed, and all

this novelty made my first

playthrough a treat. It has

diminishing returns, however, and

now that I’m more familiar with the

Realm of Chaos, privy to its nasty bag

of tricks, I sometimes resent dragging

myself back there when I could be

gobbling up settlements, putting it at

odds with the sandbox.

I

t would have been very hard to predict the trajectory Total War
has taken. It’s grown from feudal Japanese battles and a simple
board game-style campaign to this, Warhammer III, where armies
can hop between realities, where daemons and ogres clash, and
where troops are led by flying monstrosities – including one that’s
as customisable as an RPG protagonist.

UTTER CHAOS

TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER III is a bold, experimental final act

By Fraser Brown

Each section of

the Realm of

Chaos reflects

the personality

of its god

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT?

A sprawling fantasy

RTS that serves as the

conclusion to the Total

War: Warhammer

trilogy

EXPECT TO PAY

£50

DEVELOPER

Creative Assembly

PUBLISHER

SEGA, Feral Interactive

REVIEWED ON

RTX 2080, Intel

i7-9700K , 16GB RAM

MULTIPLAYER

Yes

LINK

bit.ly/3JyNyBq

DRESS FOR SUCCESS

The many looks of the Daemon Prince

KHORNE

If your look is repping

Khorne, you’ll be perfectly

suited to charging into the

fray and tearing up the

opposition.

NURGLE

Nurgle gear will make

people cross the street to

get away from you. And just

like the diseases you

spread, you’re hardy as hell.

SLAANESH

If you’re shopping in the

same place as Slaanesh,

expect to be invited to some

parties – the best place to

show off your scythe arms.

TZEENTCH

And finally, if you’re copying

Tzeentch’s style, you get to

flit around the battlefield as

a big, magically-inclined

bird.

Total War: Warhammer III

REVIEW