Medieval 2: Total War Heaven

Phillistine's Gold Code Day Report

By Phillistine

Creative Assembly very kindly invited two people from HG and two from Total War Centre for their morning session to play and get our impressions of the upcoming Medieval II: Total War. Armed with a camera, a train timetable and a map of the London Underground, I set off to meet them and Ben, the winner of our competition at RTWH, to see what's what.

The train is on time, the tube isn't too packed and I get there with ten minutes to spare. The SEGA building is a little further behind the roundabout than the map suggests, and I'm given wrong directions to the SEGA building from the roundabout - by two traffic cops! Maybe they should talk to a cabbie or two and pick up some of the knowledge.

The SEGA Europe Office.

This minor hiccup made me about ten minutes late but I'd guessed they would give it about half an hour for everyone to show and was greeted by CA's Mark O'Connell and Richie "The Shogun" Skinner, CA's front line to the online community. Ben was already there, with Jack Lustard and Tom Laverick from Total War Centre, and Alex Friend drifted in and out;

Getting Down to Business

A few minutes later, with introductions made and the brief explained, we were shown through to the game room. This wasn't intended to be a Q&A session so any questions we had we asked as we went along - the main objective was to play as much as possible for 3 hours and explore as many aspects as we could.

The Game Room was an impressive setup in one of the offices, the PCs were all high end but you'll be pleased to know you don't need it to run this game. Everything was set up and ready to go, so off we went.

Left to right - Mark Sutherns (Movie Creator), Tom, Richie, Mark O, Ben, Jack.



Left to right - Ben, Phillistine, Jack, Mark O, Tom.



The impressive cornerpiece!

Jack, Tom and Ben played a quick battle against each other while I made a few notes, then the larger part of the session was spent sounding out other aspects of the game. Jack was particularly interested in the AI, Ben was experimenting with the impressive new range of siege weapons, Tom was looking at different unit combos and terrains, and I chose to evaluate the campaign mode as a whole.

Improvements have been made over Rome Total War in every area we looked at. The Campaign Map, like all other aspects of the game, seems to flow much more smoothly, with enhanced graphics that are very slick. As the heart of the game the map itself is gorgeous, with more detail than ever before - zoom down to an island and watch the trees blow gently in the breeze, watch the ripples in the water as the ships go about their business, it's all lovely stuff. It's not just more of the same thing with better graphics and a few more options, though. All aspects of Campaign play have evolved.

Spies and Diplomats are here from RTW but new characters such as Merchants and Priests mean you are fighting on all the levels of RTW and more, as you must overcome your enemies on the political, trade, military and religious fronts and succeed in all of them. These important characters develop their personal power as valuable assets in your path to conquest. Merchants secure resources and can try to eliminate each other. Your Holy Men must overcome the different beliefs of those you conquer, playing a more active role in quelling rebellion than merely destroying and replacing temples. Religion is a much more important part of gameplay now. Crusades, Excommunications and Reconciliations, Inquisitions, Heretics and Witches - all have been added, under the watchful eye of the Pope.

The most interesting new character for me is the Princess. Wars have certainly been fought over beautiful women in power, and by them too, so it is a logical aspect to introduce to the campaign. As with everything in this game it feels like a natural development of previous ideas, in this case finding a new use for the women in your faction. The Princess is a very powerful character. The most obvious way she works is to marry someone, for example, marrying another Faction Leader creates an instant and extremely powerful alliance. Even without going this far, though, there are plenty of career opportunities for a girl in this man's world. With her not inconsiderable charm she is a better natural Diplomat than any you make in your settlements. If she remains unmarried, she will only have a few years as a Diplomat because she will go into a Convent as soon as she is past childbearing age.

Every improvement builds on the gameplay of its predecessors, takes the best of the best and takes all that to the next level. Every area of the game has been improved like this, building on previous concepts while taking them further. Graphically the improvements are phenomenal. Short movies play when your Spies infiltrate settlements or get caught, a feature revived from Shogun. Improved animations add a new dimension of interactivity to the map, but hardcore gamers will probably turn them off after a while to get down to the serious business of giving the enemy a good kicking.

And there's no shortage of that! Of us all it was Jack who had focused the most on the AI, frequently commenting on how much it had improved over RTW. While I didn't explore it as deeply, I felt as I played that the difficulty levels have been balanced very well. Even on Medium the CP is no pushover - take it for granted and it will punish you for it. The levels of difficulty have vastly improved in intelligence, each one feeling like a well balanced progression with no disproportionate jumps between levels. AI is one of the hardest things to judge since a good MP will always batter it, and obviously there was not enough time to fully evaluate the scope of the improvements made, but gone were the sometimes silly pitfalls enemy armies used to fall into in RTW and it is challenging without swamping you with relentless attacks. This would be a pain, especially with the other aspects of the game to manage as well, but on each level the balance seemed right, with enough pressure to keep you actively defending and attacking at all times without being overwhelmed. Anyone of any skill could get into it and increase the difficulty as they improve, showing the impressive progress CA have made over other games in this area. The pitching is as good as it gets.

Battles and City Sieges are fantastic. I glanced over at Ben's screen in time to see an incoming boulder from a catapult take the chimney off a building, the animation amazing as it fell apart. The improved graphics and AI suck you in and make it more enjoyable than ever. The losing army in a battle in Campaign Mode can be ransomed, another new addition to this part of the game. Outside Campaign Mode, selecting a Quick Battle produces a plethora of imaginative and well matched fights - plenty to keep even the casual gamer occupied for months.

The new things in this game have been implemented so smoothly, in such a natural progression from the previous titles in the range, that they can easily be overlooked. However, as previously stated, this is not just more of the same. These are genuinely new, usable features that directly impact where it counts - in gameplay. It is a compliment to how well this has been done that once you begin using the new characters and abilities it feels like you always have been. Gameplay has been kept paramount in all things and it shows.

On a personal note I would like to thank Richie, Alex and the two Marks for making us feel welcome and relaxed, for the food and for the unexpected gift of the Collector's Edition (I know my jaw wasn't the only one to hit the floor at this point). Great setup, great guys and with a solid game to match, CA have settled into their stride with this series and put everything they know into Medieval II. Old fans and new ones will love it.

Nice one.

Promotional Sword and Shield - only two sets made.