30.6.2008

Anyone familiar with the Total War series will have a pretty good idea of what to expect from Medieval II and its expansion pack. There are two "levels" of gameplay; the strategic map on which cities and castles are built, and the tactical map on which battles are fought. With a couple of minor adjustments, the gameplay here is virtually identical to the previous instalment, Rome, the primary differences being the greater variety of units, buildings, and options available. The graphics are also greatly improved, and the look of the maps and the armies is fantastic. You pay the price for this in hardware requirements, though,and even the best home gaming PCs will struggle to cope with battles slightly larger than the norm.The interface and gameplay is in some ways little changed since the first outing of the Total War series, and has now been polished to the point there is little to criticise. If anything, the weakness of Medieval II is that it tries to do too much. Some of the features it has added to the strategic map in particular- extra characters like merchants and priests- add little to the fun of the game and are much of the time simply pointless and frustrating distractions from the main gameplay. The strategic gameplay is solid, and challenging, but after a few plays it can become a bit predictable. There is a noteworthy bug in the strategic calendar, where characters age at six months per turn, but the calendar advances at two years per turn. This also leads to some ludicrous situations such as it taking sixteen years to cross the Atlantic... but these are details, and in any case this is all a sideshow. The true strength of the game is on the tactical battlefield.Frustratingly, though, the game has not fixed some of the more annoying elements of its predecessor. Units from the eastern end of the map are still overpowered; the non-player horde armies are still virtually impossible to defeat, and a single unit of horse archers can still waste hours of your life as you fruitlessly chase them around a battlefield trying to finish them off (there's still no "super-fast-forward" button as there was in Shogun and Medieval I). Again, though, these are small details in an otherwise excellent battle game. The AI is possibly a little on the predictable and passive side, but is still challenging enough for all but the most experienced players... and then there's always the multiplayer.(Players of Shogun will also welcome the return of short, entertaining videos illustrating the success or failure of assassination attempts.)The game is slightly schizophrenic when it comes to historical accuracy; on the one hand it still paints in the broadest of brush-strokes when it comes to the strategic map (controversially leaving Aragon out entirely), which will doubtless irritate any scholars of the period. However, when it comes to unit names and designations, it is entirely authentic, to the point where, to some English-speaking readers, the names of some units will be all but unintelligible. It is difficult to fault the game too heavily in this regard, though, and the variety of units available is amazing.The expansion pack, Kingdoms, fixes some minor bugs from the original, but, more significantly, introduces four new grand campaigns to play through, as well as new multiplayer factions. Of these campaigns (the Third and later Crusades, the British Isles c.1250, the Baltic Crusade, and the Spanish conquest of America) the only one to introduce anything really new is the American campaign, with its wide variety of native factions and units. All of the campaigns are fun to play, though, and their focus allows them to include historical details overlooked in the main campaign.Overall, the game is excellent. Anyone who is already a fan of the Total War series will love it, and anyone who has not previously played it would do well to give it a try. My criticisms above are nitpicks and do not seriously detract from the experience, although veteran players might be slightly disappointed that some of the details have not been fixed since Rome. The strategic gameplay is comparable with franchises like Civilisation, and the tactical, unit-based gameplay is still by far the best of any game on the market. The graphics are breathtaking, and the interface is completely intuitive for all the important elements of gameplay (and there is good in-game help for those who need it). Five stars are well-deserved.

16.9.2008

This compliation brings together Medieval total war 2 and the expansion 'Kingdoms'. It includes a thorough guide for each and if my experience is anything to go by then it loads and plays without flaws or fuss. This is very similar in looks and feel to Rome total war but this later incarnation is more sophisticated and complex.Rome is fantastic, quite possibly the best pc game of this genre so far which means Medi 2 (this game) has its work cut out if it is going to impress. And impress it does. On a 1650*1080 screen the units look absolutely amazing with layers and layers of detail. When units come together to fight on the battle field the little choreographed sequences look realistic and arethoroughly involving.Cities and castles too look really amazing with all the walls and towers you could ever wish for. This detail translates equally well on to the campaign map where you now have the ability to zoom in and out of the action according to taste (Rome had a fixed camera viewpoint).When cannons fire (over an increased distance) the earth shakes and caste walls are torn down...charge!!!So is it a great game and is this version value for money. The answers are yes and yes. I have been playing the Mayans in south america and my jaguar warriors have been making short work of the pompous technological spanish...who needs guns, not us!!! The expansions in Kingdoms appear to be well thought out and add some diversity to what was already an amazing game.However i have some criticicms that will not go away. For one, units now have the ability to ignore your orders as they please, so i now have to run around the battlefield like an old hen re-issueing ordrs to charge or engage. Tis is tiresome and detracts from the fun. it makes battles quite a bit more labour intensive without any increase in fun. At times when defending of engaging a settlement units get confused and start running around like headless chicken, the odd unit seemingly doing anything but obey the orders you just issued. They get stuck, confused and then just as likely mullered.My biggest criticism concerns the campaign map where the movement of units has been lets say s-l-o-w-e-d- down. Click on a merchant and click where you want him to go. Then go off and make a cup of tea. With fresh tea in hand, as you are sitting back down your merchant is just coming to a halt. So you get frustrated click on the space bar and everything zooms around the map. This is silly, poor and needless. In Rome you have about 550 turns to complete the main campaign, in Medi 2 you now have just 225 so you really have to get your skates on. No summer and winter turns as in Rome (and that worked so well) in stead each turn covers about two years. Sixhundred turns at 2 per year would have been much better and it seems that the slow speed of characters moving around the map serves no other purpose than to hide how short the main campaign is and how few battle will be fought.In conclusion this is an excellent game but my concerns are that the things that worked so well in Rome and were far from broke have been changed here for no gain. The game looks fantastic but it is alot less fun and as i have gone back to Rome i guess i have to say that for me Rome is the better game.

14.7.2009

Well, after issues with Securom (delaying my actual playing of the game for 48 hours until I had a new "exe" sent to me by their support team) I eventually got the game running.I very much enjoyed Rome:TW, so I was pleased to find that this game didn't differ too greatly in the mechanics and in fact added some nice new features. Gameplay wise it's enjoyable, with a fair mix of RTS battlefield shennanigans and some turn based overview map diplomacy and army movement.Diplomacy is a little limited, but functional, and resources are only of any purpose when developing your own trade i.e. they serve no bartering purpose. Actually saying that - very little appears to have any purpose during negotiations.The Medieval world is annoyingly fickle.Allies of 50+ turns will attack you for no logical reason, then act all butt-hurt when you give them a going over. Enemies of 100+ turns in comparison may never bother you. There really seems no great logic at play (especially when minor nations, or nations in extremely poor positions, make outrageously stupid moves - such as France declaring war on half of Europe, then in little more than 6 turns being annihilated due to the death of all their family members in 1 siege).If you can get over this weakness in the AI then you also have to deal with the stupidity of the Pope. Your own Catholicism is dependent on how corrupt you intend to be. The more gifts and tithes you hand over to the Pope, the higher in his estimations you will stand. To this purpose you can find yourself outcast very quickly if you retaliate against any of his "favoured" nations. If you play as the English you'll likely find the Scots are one such nation.Don't let my negative comments turn you away however. The game is extremely fun, even with its foibles. Fighting battles, choosing your preferred battlefield, taking advantage of the terrain etc are all key to your victory. The AI also uses some sense when approaching these battles - and you can find easy foes retreating themselves up a mountain in order to take advantage of the terrain, meanwhile you can perform the same maneouvre to change a hopeless situation into a victory against the odds.Developing a strong family line (with influential hereditary traits) is ultimately the key, as is the development of strong key Agent units (Merchants, Princess, Priests, Spys and Assassins). A good blade, or a kind word, can settle arguments or complete a mission that a massive army would struggle to achieve.The expansion packs each add new arenas and challenges - condensed and intensive campaigns, each are well worth trying out.The multiplayer is somewhat lacking. The option of either fighting each other or hot-seating a campaign is really missing out a trick. A co-op campaign would be a welcome addition.

30.9.2010

First off I loved this game and have got alot out of playing it both single player and online.The main game starts in about 1080 and has alot of the major powers you would expect to see of the period most of which are also playable. People have moaned about how similar the troop types for alot of them are, but to be honest Rome was no better in this score so I don't see why people complained like this was a new thing. The campaign map is a little larger and later comes to include the Americas though this comes quite late on into the game, so this doesn't play that big a part in the game overall. There are also the introduction of priests, princesses and merchants.The Princesses I liked though it did seem hard to actually get a decent one, yappy little dogs and smothering guards seemed to take their toll too often. That said they added nicely to diplomatic options and made possible marriage alliances, with their own set of perks which was a nice touch. the merchants and priests though were just too fussy and annoying and really I think just added a rather laborious layer to the game that could have perhaps been dealt with in another way. I also preffered the way the units performed in this game to Rome (No overpowered Roman faction). People have complained about how units tend to have difficulty engaging, this is a problem though not always. The cavalry charges for instance I think are spot on. They get broken up and deflected easily, but when they do hit the mark they can decimate whole units in a single charge, sometimes damaging a second to boot! However it is annoying when infantry units do not engage properly, which seems to be the case and can at times seem to hang back not doing alot.Another problem for me was that on very hard settings the game just chucks stack after stack at you often from multiple factions. I can play like this, but it forces you into fighting endless castle defence battles that after a while just get tiresome. Of course I want difficulty, but not merely by just the repetition of endless stacks being chucked at castles.The clincher for the Total War games is of course the battles and not withstanding some of the failings I've already described they are awesome and offer you plenty of tactical possibilities in terms of units to use and how you use them in conjunction with terrain. You can despite what some people have said turn aside large armies with a modest force, but it's not as possible as it was in Rome to do it with a single unit of cavalry. There simply aren't many games out there offering this style of tactical combat combined with strategy so this game and (some) others of this series are offering something relatively unique.So there you are it's not a perfect beast, but it does offer depth and originality in spades!

25.4.2009

Well, what can I say? This game is incredible. The map ranges from Finland to the Sahara Desert from North to South and Portugal to the Middle East from West to East, but as you go on further in the game you can discover the Americas, making conquests in new Pagan lands more fun. The campaign map is beautiful and brilliantly detailed. Battles have also been improved from the previous games meaning you can take prisoners. In the Gold Edition, the game comes with not 1, not 2, not even 3 but 4 expansion packs! Namely the Americas, Brittania, Crusades and Teutonic. In the Americas Campaign become New Spain and conquer these vast lands or become the Aztecs, Mayans, Apache Tribes and others to fend off Christian invaders!

15.4.2008

Medieval II is the successor to 'Rome' and the original 'Medieval: Total War', combining the best of the two games while adding a lot of great new features to the gameplay.It puts you in command as a Medieval King, Sultan or Emperor, where you must lead your armies to victory over Europe and Asia, while building and maintaining a sprawling empire. The game is essentially split in two, allowing you to command huge armies in real-time battles in one section, and a turn based empire-builder in another.The graphics are truly stunning, and the game is easily the best looking RTS on the market. The battle animations are also a wonderful new addition, allowing you to see your soldiers pull off some nifty sword work on the battlefield.

14.6.2008

Having owned and thoroughly enjoyed the first 'Medieval Total War' my expectations were quite high for this edition. Some reviews had also made me a little worried about the progression in game play and concept, but this was all dispelled upon my first play. Rather than armies simply being moved from region to region, mountains and lakes have to be negotiated as armies shape their way through the terrain. These paths can also be used as important strategic strongholds, or ambush locations for other unsuspecting passing armies. The first edition lacked terrain on the main campaign map and this is perhaps the biggest change when first playing the game.The main beauty of Total War II is how detailed both parts of the game are.

19.10.2011

I have to be honest I have the complete total war series. And I have always loved the way in which it mixes Civ style game play with battlefield rts. Their is something about Med 2 that holds dear to my heart that makes it even far superior to empire or Shogun 2 in my eyes. And that is simply that it is by far the most epic, and can only be rivalled in my opinion by Rome total war.The variation of units is vast, depending on where you are on the map varies the way the factions fight. The joy of this is that you must change tactics accordingly to suit the strength and weakness your faction posses. Not all factions are balanced either, some have early game advantages but trail off later (Byzantium)

11.9.2010

This game should be viewed more as the Rome: Total War game in different clothing rather than a direct sequel.Using the Rome: Total War engine to remake Medieval: Total War seemed an excellent idea at the time given the critical acclaim that the former received for its magnificent game play and epic scope.The problem with doing so was that it was always going to have a lot to live up to in terms of game play.Other reviews have already stated the general premise of the game and its similarities and differences to Rome so I'm going to instead focus on the downsides.Firstly is the absence of Arcade-Style Battles. While many people appreciate the Total War series for the realism in which it depicts combat,

20.11.2009

I bought this package in Jan 09 and 10 months later I'm still hooked!!!Best things about it:Fantastic GraphicsSuperb battlesBeing able to play Wales and giving the English a pasting!Not so good things:Diplomacy is very limited and even pointless when playing on 'very hard' as everyone just wants a fight - but I suppose it is 'Total War'Need to defrag computer regularly as it starts to run slow and sometimes freezes during battles (particularly when zooming in to see the death throes of a general)Staying up past 1am every night because I just had to fight that last battle and then some!Factions I've played:Holy Roman Empire (Main Game) - Gradually everyone wants a piece of you - even the Pope!Wales - always managed to 'save'

18.5.2012

Looking at the screenshots for this I knew it was going to be good, even though my interests tend to lie in the earlier medieval period covered in Medieval I...The graphics are amazing, the game has probably unlimited replays as you have a fair few factions to begin with and in addition to these you unlock any you defeat in the campaign, with the exception of certain factions such as the Mongols which you can never play in a campaign unfortunately (there is probably a mod for this somewhere).I stray away from map-based grand strategy games myself but the turn based map stuff in this is good fun, and a welcome lull in action, and is also great to look at (a lot more interesting than the maps in Medieval I and Shogun).

3.8.2011

Bring the world to the true faith.Of course this being Total War, you decide which particular faith that might be.The main game covers Europe, North Africa and the Near East with The Americas being "discovered" as the game develops. Amongst many others, play as a Catholic Spain and complete the Reconquista, as the Orthadox Byzantine Empire try to reclaim the glory Rome , as Muslim Egypt you can be Saladin. Of course you can be the English and have your longbowmen bring down an arrow storm on those pesky French knights.Develop you nation, build your economy, research new technologies. Build units, assemble them into armies which you move around a turn based 3D World Map.

3.5.2011

Medieval 2 seems to encapsulate the desired playing experience that the Total War series set out to achieve.This game keeps all of the momentum from the ROME series yet also delivers great touches on the Campaign map such as heretics and witches to rid from your lands, to being able to be part of a crusade/jihad or to influence the pope in your favour. The ability to be able to make your settlement a castle or city is a very nice touch.In game battle graphics are very very good indeed and way ahead of their time, very well detailed, and in my opinion, better than the more recent TW games such as Empire.Overall a very addictive game with much to offer and will demand plenty of hours from you,

5.8.2013

(First of all, I haven't played the in-game battle scenarios much so I won't comment on them. I was actually pleasantly surprised, however, that the battle scenarios played fairly well on my "surplus-to-requirements" laptop, and the map-based play runs as smooth as any game I own, so I wouldn't let requirement issues put you off too much if you're borderline, and aren't so interested in the battles like me).Not played this series before, but saw a friend playing it, and found this affordable bundle on amazon (purchased at £7.02).For that price-tag, compared to other similar products right now, this is essentially a gamer's must buy item!The gameplay is addictive, and 5-10 hours can flash by all too quickly.

3.1.2012

If you are reading this review having never played a Total war game then, my friend, you are one lucky man. Stop pondering if you should buy this, or Civilisation 4 or Call of Duty 76 and just buy this. If money is no object then you should the current Total War game which at this moment is Shogun 2 but Medieval Total War 2 is also a must at the bargain basement price you can grab it for. Why buy an older game when you have Shogun 2 you ask? One word my friend... Mods!Mods make it so that this game unlimited lifespan. Even now, in 2012 teams of people are producing dedicated mods for this game that currenlty can't be made for the later versions of Total War. My personal favourate,

Medieval II: Total War - Gold Edition (PC) - Reviews

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