Empire: Total War

Moby ID: 39623
Windows Specs

Description official descriptions

Set in the 18th century, Empire: Total War puts the player in control of elven different nations including England, America, Prussia, Russia, Austria, France and Spain conquering provinces all over Europe, North America and India both through diplomacy or force.

True to the Total War-series, the game is divided into two parts: The turn-based campaign map and the real-time battles. While the former requires the player to manage his vast empire by moving troops around and upgrading his cities. But as opposed to its predecessor Rome: Total War, now only have space for up to six buildings like barracks. Everything else has to be build at specific places in the cities surroundings including coal mines, farms and such. This in return increases the wealth of a region and over time small villages scattered inside the province will advance to cities and once again provide the player with up to six buildings slots. Another addition are the three technology trees, allowing the player to research in the fields of military, economic or social and giving him access to new types of units, buildings or additional upgrades.

Once a unit, representing an army on the map, comes in contact with an enemy unit or settlement, the player can choose to either let the CPU decide the battle or go in himself on the 3D-terrain and order his troops around.

Besides normal land and siege battles, already present in the previous iterations of the series, Empire: Total War now also features sea battles. In these long and challenging battles, the player has the ability to control everything from manually firing the cannons of a ship to the striking or hoisting of the sails of a ship as well as choosing to board an enemy ship instead of destroying it to add it to his own fleet at the end of the battle.

The game features an tutorial campaign telling the story of the first American settlers to the Independence War, a Grand Campaign which gives the player access to the whole world and several different scenarios that depict real historical battles. In addition the multiplayer mode allows for up to eight players to fight land, siege and sea battles against each other.

Spellings

  • エンパイア: トータル ウォー - Japanese spelling
  • 帝國:全軍破敵 - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

461 People (450 developers, 11 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 89% (based on 60 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 19 ratings with 1 reviews)

The era of black powder, and cannon shot

The Good
The graphics are excellent, the game style good and historical accuracy very good. Epic in scale a time trap but excellent. Naval Battles adds an extra spark to the series, and the technology levels also add further character to each individual units as you progress through the game. eg. volley fire, better baynets, cannon shot etc... Diplomacy is easier and is done at a click of the button.

The Bad
All the bugs in the initial release!! Ahhhh!!. from lockups in quick saves throwing your entire campaign away, to slow downs, chucks out, terrible audio sound issues etc... The later patches released have helped out to make the game more playable.

Some of the balancing of unit skills is not very good and weapon effectiveness poor. In the early versions in siege battles your soldiers tend to face the opposite direction from where the enemy is coming from, so you have to quickly move them into better positions.

I enjoy the fact with gun powder, you all get to stand opposite each other and take pot shots until the opposite unit is obliterated or runs away or fixes bayonets and charges at you.

I did not like the "Steam" setup with this game, it took ages to get everything to actually work, with compulsory downloads that are painful if you have no broadband.

The Bottom Line
If you enjoy the Total War series then this is a must game. I have and am really enjoying it. I have weathered the storm, waiting for patch fixes and it has paid off. Looking forward to an expansion sometime.

This game should be played with a high end computer, with decent CPU and Graphics card. Without this the game will probably be irritating as there are thousands of things happening at the same time.

Windows · by Thekwane Black (30) · 2009

Discussion

Subject By Date
Silence... Indra was here (20760) Apr 30, 2009

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Empire: Total War appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2009 – #10 Best Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
    • 2009 – #2 Best PC Game of the Year
    • 2009 – Best Strategy Game of the Year
  • BAFTA Games
    • 2010 - Best Strategy
  • Game Informer
    • May 2009 - PC Game of the Month
    • 2009 - Best Strategy Game
  • GameTrailers
    • 2009 - Best Strategy Game
  • IGN
    • 2009 - Best PC Strategy Game

Information also contributed by Big John WV

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Sicarius.

Linux added by chirinea. Macintosh added by Sciere.

Additional contributors: Kabushi, Zeppin, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, Sasu, FatherJack.

Game added March 9, 2009. Last modified March 6, 2024.