To put it short TW:WIII should play to the heartstrings of all the previous Total War: Warhammer fans, for the third installment of the game is the epitome of perfection that all of us have been waiting for and the long anticipated completion of a genre. Now then, where to begin.
Gameplay:
The engine of the game has received a long awaited upgrade. No longer, can we make a cup of tea to wait for the turn order to come around, it is now blitz fast and it really makes the game experience a lot more fluent then what it once was. Whilst they’ve really improved towards the end of TW:WII in regards to this aspect, they’ve really polished it in the newest release.
But lets get to the actual meat of the game, which are the factions. We have a total number of 8 factions starting out; Legion of Chaos, Kislev, Khorne, Nurgle, Tzeentch, Slaneesh, Cathay and the Ogre Kingdoms.
Each of these factions has its own ‘personality’ associated with them and thus far from what I was able to tell, all of them were a lot of fun, but there is perhaps one that stands out the most amongst them in my personal opinion and that is the Legion of Chaos, with your own, customizable Daemon Prince. No longer are the stats the only things that increase, but there’s an abundance of ‘cosmetic’ changes to your Daemon Prince as well, once you deck him out in gear that you obtain through the Daemon Glory system.
Speaking of systems, this game has a lot of new fun ones, one of them being Daemon Glory. Daemon Glory is a key system of the Legion of Chaos, which allows you to assign glory to a god of your choice or undivided glory amongst all of them at the end of battles and the likes. Once you rack up a certain amount of glory, you obtain buffs and benefits from the gods that you’ve pursued, along with items that will deck out your Daemon Prince, a pretty cool system that feels very impactful in the game itself, making the Legion of Chaos a treat to play.
Each of the factions comes with a mechanic of its own in this aspect and if I was to write about all of them, I wouldn’t be done till the end of the day most likely, but what they all have in common is that they’re fun to play and you can spend dozen of hours just playing about, seeing what suits you the most.
The Troops of each faction also feel unique and play well. I’ve yet to see a unit that I would consider useless or boring in any way whatsoever and speaking of units, the design is on point as always.
A short note on diplomacy, its improved as well and thank Khorne that we finally have a way to tell pesky intruders on our territory to get out and if they don’t obey, you can attack without repercussions after a certain amount of turns passes.
Campaign:
The campaign in itself feels well paced, the campaign map is massive and before you conquer it all, you’re sure to grow old, but what matters is that you’ll enjoy every step that you’ll take on the map. The Chaos Rifts are also a rather fun mechanic that are certain to get your heart pumping with adrenaline, if its your first time entering one under prepared on your main lord. Definitely not speaking from experience…
Graphics:
A visual treat for what it is. It never grows old to zoom in on your units and observe all the love and detail put into them and that counts especially for all the new maps that have been made for the game as well. Whilst it is similar to the second installment, they’ve taken it up a notch and polished what was rough in the previous games, bringing it up to date.
Battles:
The AI has gotten a fair bit harder depending on your difficulty, to the point that battles are both thrilling and devastating at the same time. A strategic approach will need to be chosen if you wish to appease the gods that rule over you with many victories to come. Every action that you make counts, so spend your turns wisely and choose your upgrades well, for they’ll determine whether you are the victor or one amongst the many fallen.
Opinion:
Ultimately, whoever had enjoyed the previous Total War: Warhammer installments, is going to love this one. I rate it SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!/10.
Buy your own copy at balix.si