TotalWar:ThreeKingdomsembraces
the story it’s inspired by, Romance of
the Three Kingdoms by Luo
Guanzhong, rather than strict
historical accuracy. Soldiers can run
around the battlefield seemingly
forever without getting tired. Their
leaders are larger-than-
life figures with
complicated
backstories and
rivalries, who carry
legendary spears and
are able to defeat entire
units single-handedly.
Characters like Cao
Cao are cast as devious
opera-villain masterminds able to
manipulate wars into existence at the
drop of a hat, when the history books
suggest he was a decent ruler and
also quite a good poet.
There’s an option to turn some of
these things off at the start of a
campaign by engaging Records Mode.
With it, stamina plays a more
important role in unit repositioning,
and it also gets rid of the duels and
gives generals bodyguards to do most
ofthefightinginstead.The
alternative, Romance Mode, feels like
an honest embrace of what Total War
has really been all along, though. It’s
a version of history that’s closer to an
epic movie, where the broad sweep is
familiar but the subtleties are ignored
whenever they would
be inconvenient to
the action.
That said, it’s still
the kind of epic where
you’ll also have to
increase three different
types of income by
small percentages. The
systems that were
simplified for the Warhammer games
or the trimmed-down Thrones of
Britannia have returned to the party
and brought some new friends.
Espionage has its own menu full of
options so that embedded spies can
mess with trade or sabotage cities.
Characters have a satisfaction score
that will drop if they’re not promoted
regularly enough. Court positions
that are unlocked as you level up
have to be handed out carefully toprevent dissatisfied generals from
starting a civil war. (You can also give
them a nice water clock that will
boost their satisfaction.)making pacts
Diplomacy is one of the most
substantial and welcome areas to be
changed. Where before there was so
much guesswork involved that
dealing with rival nations felt like
passing notes in class and then
waiting for an answer (“Do you want
to form a defensive alliance with me,
y/n”) in Three Kingdoms it’s
completely transparent.
Whenever I ask a neighbour for
something there’s a button to
automatically figure out what it
would take to make that deal work. It
just straight-up tells you how much
money will guarantee this trade of
territory or food or even marriage,
rather than making you stab in the
dark then try again when it fails.
There’s a finer grain to the
diplomatic options as well. Between
non-aggression pacts and alliances
there are coalitions, unions that act as
a step along the path to confederation
without being guarantees of
friendship forever. They allow for
more than two members as well, so
my Confederation to Defeat the
Barbarians has new faction leaders
lining up to join it on the regular.
Everyone in the coalition gets a
vote on who is allowed in, so
frequently someone like the bandit
queen will rock up to the table and be
voted against by a majority even
before I get to make a decision,
leaving just a button that lets me
acknowledge her application while
sadly declining it on this occasion.
It feels like being part of an
exclusive high school clique everyone
wants in on but, my god, did you see
what Zheng Jiang wore to Brad’s
party? Request denied.welcome changes
Diplomacy has been a weak point for
Total War even as other systems have
improved, so these are welcomeNeedtoKNow
WhatIsIt?
Turn-based kingdom
management and
real-time warfare in
ancientChina
EXPECttOPaY
£45
DEVElOPER
CreativeAssembly
PublIshER
Sega
REVIEWEDOn
Windows 10, Intel Core
i7, 16GB RAM, Nvidia
GTX 1060
MultIPlaYER
Local and online, battle
orcampaign
lInk
http://www.totalwar.com/
games/three-kingdomsIt’s a version
of history
that’s closer
to an
epic movieT
wo of my generals dismount in the middle of a field to duel
with their opposing numbers. The rest of the battle continues
in the distance, but I’ve zoomed in to watch the flashy moves
as the generals kick and stab each other instead. Occasionally
a flurry of arrows or a riderless horse will pass in the
background, but for the moment I’m intently focused on something that
looks more like a game of Tekken.
True romance
Forgoodandforbad,totalwar:threeKiNgdoms
certainly is a Total War game. By Jody Macgregor
whiChwarlord? Some of your options
ZheNgJiaNg
Raised in poverty.
Historically, may
have been two
separate people.suNJiaN
The heroic Tiger of
Jiangdong. Beloved
by all. Likely to
be betrayed.liu Bei
Humble. Virtuous.
Inspiring. Also
quite likely to
be betrayed.goNgsuNZaN
Militaristic.
Unfortunate
nickname: “The
Iron Fist General”.Total War: Three Kingdoms
REVIEW