To be perfectly clear I haven't played the game yet, I don't know if it's fun or not, if it's worth $60 or not, but as a long time and currently avid Historical Total War player I have watched all of the footage and gameplay so far, I've read all of the material on the game so far and I am simply not impressed. Maybe I'm being too harsh, and genuinely hope I'm wrong, and despite a ton of missing features and cultures I really hope Pharaoh is actually a decent enough Historical game. But I now seriously doubt it.
We have been given tons of material to look at, we are no fools, we can now discern very well what the game is gonna feel like and it is already something most will skip.
I think the sea peoples are those from say itially gaul or other cultures on the western side of the meddertrainian. who took to the sea and launched there attacks.
I simply don’t understand how they fail this hard, even when the fans of historical total war games tell you what they want, I’m just going to stick to my modders for Attila and Rome 2.
Rome 1 (the original, not the remake), Med 2 and now Attila have some of the best mod roster out of any game out there. Endless stream of content to have fun with
thing is i'm not sure that is possible in that it would still be a total war-like game. I wouldn't know where to really begin when it comes to what CA actually has copywrited/trademarked when it comes to their games
@@azoniarnl3362 Well, most Paradox games are super broad and "realistic" by the historic names and features used, but usually shallow and repetitive when it comes to the way of thinking needed to play and win... I generally prefer Civilization (V or IV), they seem simpler or more "gamey" in terms of the number of elements, but actually do require making tough decisions, carefully weighing different options for expansion, avoiding unnecessary wars, etc. Any of those is deprived of battles RTS, anyway... And for a pretty deep simulation of ancient strategy, you might check out Aggressors: Ancient Rome for instance...
Watching some of the gameplay from other youtubers I came away with the impression that both on the battle and on the campaign there is a lot of stat min and maxing going on. Like Ramses can quite literally just move across the entire map if planned right. Lots of potential for goofy exploits instead of meaningful decisions.
stat min and maxing started all the way in empire, was starting to show in shogun 2, and was made the main focus in rome 2 and onward. Attila had its stat min maxing reduced but that's about it. Their game cateres twards casuals that just want to accumilate as much stats as possible and paint the map.
Agreed. In the OG games you had one or two buildings, and maybe your general could pick up some traits to help with command stars or morale. Now we have to spend time coming up with templates for buildings in order to min-max the stats, which I could do without.
@@simpsondr12 They do, becouse it's far easier to stack buffs and look for units with better stats And fight battles where your army wins becose it's jacked on steroids rather then to make armies based on complex strategies. Watching numbers go up and winning based who got the stronger orc rather then who played it better is peak casual gamer.
You're not wrong. I've been around since the beginning and CA has really laid an egg this time! I play MTW2 with mods mostly. It's the best 'new' content out there
Seriously "new" still applies to Med 2 as many great mods are still being made and older one's keep getting updated. Even Rome Remastered is getting a boost from a lot of new top quality mods and ports of original Rome 1 mods .
I'll definitely buy this game once they release all of the map and culture expansions and when the game and it's DLC packs will be on sale in steam winter or summer sales. Not gonna pay 60 USD for an unfinished game on release.
Really wanted to play the Hittites Elam and Urartu and only 1 of these made it in. I can maybe understand them cutting out Elam but Lydia, Assyria, and Urartu really would add a lot to this bare-bones game with only 3 cultures
Can I also say how I hate that we no longer get differing starting positions in newer total wars? All factions start with 1-2 settlements, a small army, or they're a horde faction. In the case of Three Kingdoms this made some sense, as China was facing great decentralization at the time, but supposedly this game begins at the apex of the bronze age, before the collapse. The starting factions should be sprawling empires, it should be a sort of Attilla experience. Imagine playing as Dynastic Egypt and starting with an immense empire, sprawling from Lybia to Syria to Ethiopia, with massive armies and loads of money, and see it all decline over the following turns as natural disasters and conflicts begin to take their toll. Very powerful but costly professional armies of chariots become harder to replace. Then the sea people arrive, and it's a gruelling war of attrition as your elite armies are slowly destroyed, knowledge is lost and you have to rely on simpler technology and military units:, you pass your turns trying to barely survive the collapse - now that would be an experience. But if you do manage to survive the apocalypse, then the world is your oister.
I totally hear you. Having studied the very complex layers of the Bronze Age Collapse, and still very interrested by the work of people like Eric H Cline, I had high hope for this game once I heard about it. Now it just doen't make any sense to exclude the Minoens and Myceneans, and you also nailed it by mentionning the very intricate trade system that was the backbone of this era. Jeeezzzz...I'm disapointed, I was anticipating this game...Thanks Terminator.
Great video man, just one small correction. The minoans had already collapsed by the time that the game takes place. We could have had Mycenaeans though
You and Andy are normally so complimentary of the various DLC and mod content and now you both are voicing your discontent for Pharaoh really says a lot. I wanted to believe in the beginning that Pharaoh was going to have some sort of mind blowing new feature and that everyone was going to change their tune that it isn’t just a reskinned Troy. But now, all it looks like is a less impressive reskin of Troy which is really sad. I sure as hell didn’t preorder and won’t be buying at launch. I figure I’ll wait a year until the “Ramses Edition” comes out with the Mythos DLC so I can recruit Moses to part the Red Sea.
Man hearing about dynamic weathers makes me wish for the day we get Medieval 3 and mid fight with soldiers clunking around in there heavy armor a storm rolls in and bogs the ground. I wish they stopped with releasing a new game every year and spent multiple years making games the fans are asking for. The problem with these yearly releases is that they just abandon them after a year. Three kingdoms was actually good but they abandoned it. Troy they decided to go epic only for the first year killing of the majority it's playerbase despite the game imo being pretty decent like goddamn that world map was a step in the right direction but now abandoned entirely. Thrones was something I wanted for years but they did it in every wrong way possible and abandoned it instantly. I love the warhammer series honestly the best sandbox experience I've had but they're now killing it with there overpriced dlc. I know I'm ranting now but it's sad to see this happen to a game series I've invested so much of my life in.
I was playing Empire the other day and noticed that at the start of the battle it was raining but then it stopped part way through. Turns out "dynamic weather" has actually been a feature in Total War games for years now, just that like everything else in Pharaoh they're marketing a basic feature as "new".
@@kapitankapital6580 yeah dynamic weather has been but it has only been a cosmetic thing for the most part or had very rudimentary changes like to arrows if it was foggy. What he's mentioning above is something like Agincourt where you arrive at the battlefield and the ground has been wet from a weather effect and thus heavy armor struggles to operate in that mud.
I just wish we could get a HTW with a similar art style to Rome 2/ Attila and time period between classical-medival. I think a campaign that stretch’s from South East Asia, all of india and tibet and cuts off around the town Aria (in rome 2) would be super diverse and fun to play
Games companies got stuck in a wrong mindset when it comes to selling their games a long time ago, I think the issue started with the habit of calling customers fans or a gamers, there is an inherent assumption that a fan will spend money on a series they love regardless so why put in the effort, or listen to feedback or make any effort to engage. This worked well enough for a while, gamers ate a lot of shit, but now its coming round to bite them in the ass, there are a lot of other games out there and if they dont compete or give the customer what they want they can and will go elsewhere
Nah i think it has more to do with the culture now at gaming companies. many companies take the path of least resistance and less money which means reusing as much of their previous assets and mechanics as possible instead of developing new ones. The prime example of this is Assassin's Creed.
Just bought Rome 2 because it was on sale and I went straight back to Rome Remastered. I just want Rome 1 mechanics, with the updated graphics. The city viewer, tactical map and population systems were badass. Or if they would make an Empire 2 they’d have every Total War fan lined up to buy it, we’ve been asking for years lol. Idk what the higher ups are thinking at CA, but they definitely haven’t been listening to the community.
Literally never play Rome 2 vanilla. I got it near launch and that's the only time I've played it without mods. With mods it's pretty good though, Divide et Impera in particular.
Prob gon get alot of hate from this comment section but like as someone who buys a lot of total war, while yeah I do agree with some points but like just wanted to say some stuff. Respectfully like the gameplay features, yes the outposts could have been better, and the trading system, but I do appreciate sofias direction, listening to feedback, matched combat, dynamic weather, and I like the factions. Plus it's a work in development and just today they said they were fixing collision and stuff. Though I do believe it is a tad too expensive too. I think it should've been like $45, like total war attila, so yeah. And saying again, this is my opinion and respectfully. Cheers. At least IMO they seem to be taking a better approach compared to British CA in listening and adapting their gameplay to fan feedback.
Well shucks I was really excited for a good Bronze Age game. Like you I'm super interested in and study the Bronze Age a lot. Diplomacy and trade was a huge part of keeping civilization together and it looks like they almost totally ignore it. Lame, probably not going to buy it unless something changes or the DLCs are supercheap.
I feel exactly the same way and removed it from my wishlist about a month ago. I will not be buying it. Massively disappointed with everything about this game. I would have preordered an Empire 2 or Rome 3 😐
The thing about giving the game a "chance" is that you are ultimatly giving the corps what they want, your money (and if you cant refund the game even better for them), and thats all they care, they dont care about bad reviews as long as peple keep buying their games (and get dessapointed later by how this games are). By the time you leave your bad review, the corps already have the money in their pockets. It's better to just not buy it at all and just ignore it, so in that way they don't get money
You're pretty much entirely correct on all points, but the thing that really stands out whenever I see videos of TWP is just how ugly the UI is. It's like they went out of their way to make it unpleasant to look at.
The most exciting récent CA games was Empire 2... And it was made by modders for free. (Or give what you want to koffee) 60 bucks for a game with less scope than what modders Can Do is a Big no for me.
Completely agree. As a huge fan of the historical total war games. I’ve often gone back to the original games on my now beefy computer I’ve always wanted when I was younger. Played since medieval Total war. So jealous of the war hammer series. It took me awhile to jump into. War hammer is solid. Just wish the historical side would get the same treatment. Such as medieval total war 3. Or shogun or even a updated empire total war.
The problem about "unit diversity" isn't about how few units you can choose from , it's the problem of how SIMILAR units are with each other , we can take the example of Rome 2 , you can 4 of the same exact infantry unit , who have fuck all difference in terms of stats and cost , so essentially , you're bound to only choose one anyways Shogun 2 was great because even if you had a lack of "diversity" , a Yari Ashigaru is literally a swiss knife , you can use them as meatshield , anti cav , anti inf ( yari wall ) , best siege defenders ( yari wall facing the walls as the enemy climbs up the wall , just be sure to protect their flanks ) , and of course , better than Yari samurai ( no bias , fight me )
For sixty dollars you can either get what might be the best rpg title ever made (praise be to larian) or what is genuinely little more than a dlc. Hell total war napoleon had an egyptian campaign that was larger in size than this one. Until CA sort their shit out, vote with your wallets and dont buy products of embarrassing quality.
I just get the feeling that whoever ran CA back in the day was actually proud of what they created, and now they are just about rinsing the fan base for cash. I realize they sometimes over reached as with Empire, but that was a symptom of their ambition, and I for one kind of like that. I feel sorry for the teams who create these formulaic , production line games, I bet they dreamed of creating stuff like this but now have the corporate boot firmly on their necks. Shame. I didn't buy Troy and won't buy this. New management and a return to caring about the product please.
A mi personalmente me hubiera encantado que hagan un pike and shot con expansión hacia las Americas formato colonial. Centrado en la guerra de los 30 años y posiblemente expandiendolo hasta el siglo XVIII. Por eso yo si pagaría $100. Algo que realmente valga la pena a mi parecer
I don't understand how people expect CA to change they don't listen to their costumers, and they put as little as they can into their work. The only way we are going to get anything new or feature rich is if another company stands up to be a competitor to CA
The only reason I'm glad they didn't release medieval 3, empire 2 or even shogun 3 is because they no longer have the capability of delivering something good.
my hopes for the future of grand strategy games are in: Manor Lords Noble's Life: Kingdom Reborn Field of Glory: Kingdoms Voor De Kroon King's Orders Anvil Empires
My hope is that the map is smaller than usual on launch to help with performance for the game and each faction dlc that comes out will expand the map for free for players. CA Sofia doesn't want to be like Rome 2 on launch.
Oh man I wish they would add these customization options to older titles and all titles going forward. I'm always fiending for 10v10 unit card army max size because personally I just don't like managing 20 let alone 20+reinforcements.
And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. As upon release. No fucks were given.
The character system will allow for a civil war mechanics, where a different character from your faction can declare war on you, like in TW Rome II. I like that, let it stay. The map, however, is just ridiculous. That's not even half of bronze age world
I think the historical Total War games are dead, I don't think it's their focus anymore. Closest we get are Hero leaders now like in Troy, Warhammer and 3 Kingdoms. It's so they can DLC pack the hell out of them. Last Total War I was excited about was Rome 2.
Bro once i saw the map size and that we are still characters, not factions/countries, I was out. it hasn't been since 2015 when Attila came out that i have enjoyed a historical total war. I've pretty much given up hope. Ill just been playing the old games forever. :/
To be honest i wasnt interested in pharaoh to begin with but after watching the gameplay streams on total war live it has me excited for it,many nice features with sea people invasions and its a time period thats close to my heart being a Bible believer,just hope they dont mess it up on release lol.
To be expected with today's AAA games I can really see a AAA crash one day. Surprised a Indy dev has not copied the formula by now. Many of these companies needs competition to keep them giving value and innovation. The Sims model is what all these publishers want bare minimum base game with a huge library of DLC's.
Historical Total Wars have been so bad, that I can't even imagine one that might be worth a price tag of 60 bucks. Thats a really sad thing to say. I hope CA eventually gets their shit together. Murdering their cash cow Warhammer while simultaneously failing at other Total War titles might literally kill the entire company.
Part of the problem is how many total war youtubers, including the one you mentioned in the video, are willing to shill for CA in order to keep their early access privileges. CA have made it a point of denying early access to youtubers like Legendoftotalwar, and letting only content creators willing to overlook issues post; often this is enough to garner enough release sales to make their deceptive practices work. I'm hoping the latest lash back against Shadows of Change will carry on to Pharaoh, and CA will realise they can't keep releasing disappointments without financial reprecussions. Thanks for being an exception!
Bronze age is such a fucking boring time period. Nobody asked for this man, just give us what most players want. Medieval 3, maybe early age, Empire 2, not bronze age…
What's worst of all is, I still cannot find a TW title better suited to me than the original Rome in Remastered, let alone the RTR Imperium Surrectum, now that's a hoot, what I always hoped a TW game to be. Goes to show what CA is doing in as you point out, hearing their audience.
What is with strategy games and releasing with less and less options nowadays? Dawn of War 3 released with only 3 playable factions, Age of Empires 4 launched with 8 while the original released with 12 back in 1997 and Age of Empires 3 didn't even let you have more than 2 teams in multiplayer! Please, strategy game developers, remember that your game will only survive the test of time if there's enough variety to have people coming back over and over again with different and enjoyable experiences each time!
Great video. Your thoughts are shared by a huge portion of the community including myself. This is a SAGA game being treated with full game price. The battles in Troy are the worst aspect and everyone that I've asked about this game that has played it has said it's more Troy, which for me is a deal breaker. This game is going to be dead on arrival which means post launch support will probably get pulled very early. They'll deliver the deluxe package promised dlc and no more. Look at what happened with Thrones of Britannia. History is repeating itself, except this time they're charging you a lot more.
Thanks Legend! Appreciate you voicing your support. I’m such a massive fan of Historical Total War, I and you and this whole community only want the best for games like this. But this is just too far below all our years of requests for a far higher price than it should be. Big fan of yours! 🙏
When CA say that want to create a complete Bronze Age game with Pharaoh, they obviously don't mean at launch and for 60 bucks, you silly goose ! They mean once you paid for the 200+ bucks for the DLC, maybe.
This compound's the fact that the DLC is less and less well being more and more expensive. Now the games are less and less, with bits and pieces be handed back in 20+$ DLC.
Man I've been screaming about their ridiculous "DLC" offers since Rome 2 came out... And NOW everyone wants to get all up-in-arms about it. lol Writing's been on the wall for over a decade now.
To charitable to CA, I don't think they thought they would explode like they did with Warhammer. Now they are trying to balance multiple playerbases who each want different things. I enjoy both historical and Warhammer so if I were CA I would try and dedicate historical total wars to historical focused players, while focusing in fantasy stuff for more warhammer oriented players. Why try and make a hybrid and suffer the wrath of both sides when you can make a game thats targeted to one orientation of player. I really think CA needa to divide into a fantasy focused studio (CA Dreams of somethin) and a historical studio, not dlc aized teams but full game dev teams working with specific goals to delight and appeal to specific players, but still make each accessible for the people who like both styles.
Could've done a middle east inspired total war without having to rely on Egypt tbh. So much potential and history overlooked. Warlords like Sargon I in ancient history as well smh
Let's take the time and explore what an awesome historical title would bring. For example: It's 2023, why can't we have actually realistic army sizes that range in the tens of thousands. It would only make sense with settlements that big. The capabilities to make a game that we would be playing for the next five years with awesome immersive qualities are there. Why do they make crap like this?
Fall of the Samurai was a Shogun 2 dlc. Great game. Years later, CA called it a "Saga" game. All saga games made after FotS have been underwhelming, but at least cheap/free. Now Pharaoh here, screams "unused Troy dlc", as it's clearly a smaller game. However, it abandoned the saga moniker, as well as the saga price. CA clearly could have made a TWW3 style combined grand campaign, with Troy, and maybe a third game with nearby powers. But they won't. I see how they "support" TWW and thus have no desire to even see them release a Med3 or Empire 2. I don't think they remember how to make a great rts anymore. CA should just move on to hero shooters and mobile games.
To be perfectly clear I haven't played the game yet, I don't know if it's fun or not, if it's worth $60 or not, but as a long time and currently avid Historical Total War player I have watched all of the footage and gameplay so far, I've read all of the material on the game so far and I am simply not impressed. Maybe I'm being too harsh, and genuinely hope I'm wrong, and despite a ton of missing features and cultures I really hope Pharaoh is actually a decent enough Historical game. But I now seriously doubt it.
We have been given tons of material to look at, we are no fools, we can now discern very well what the game is gonna feel like and it is already something most will skip.
No eres tan duro con ellos, esta empresa esta podrida
I think the sea peoples are those from say itially gaul or other cultures on the western side of the meddertrainian. who took to the sea and launched there attacks.
I will no longer buy any melee focused title based on the warscape engine. 10 years and it still fails to depict formation combat or collision.
Welcome to the club not going to buy this.
I simply don’t understand how they fail this hard, even when the fans of historical total war games tell you what they want, I’m just going to stick to my modders for Attila and Rome 2.
Same here. Modded Attila over these lame saga titles
Rome 1 (the original, not the remake), Med 2 and now Attila have some of the best mod roster out of any game out there.
Endless stream of content to have fun with
and the biggest bullshit is they refuse to go back and optimize Attila.. :(
Don't forget Rome 2 with DEI and age of bronze@@RoulicisThe
@@fusrodah8627 Indeed, especially relevant considering the topic of the video ^^
Pharos were known for their dynasties, so lets forget about families and dynesties and make the leader imortal
The Bronze Age is a criminally underrated era. Sadly, it's looking like TW Pharaoh is going to continue underrating it.
CA needs a competitor to become a marketing orientated company instead of a prodct orientated company.
We need this sooner than later .
thing is i'm not sure that is possible in that it would still be a total war-like game. I wouldn't know where to really begin when it comes to what CA actually has copywrited/trademarked when it comes to their games
Exactly! They are in a too cofortable position to be creative.
I stepped over to Paradox games for my strategy needs, and have never looked back at Total War since.
@@azoniarnl3362 Well, most Paradox games are super broad and "realistic" by the historic names and features used, but usually shallow and repetitive when it comes to the way of thinking needed to play and win... I generally prefer Civilization (V or IV), they seem simpler or more "gamey" in terms of the number of elements, but actually do require making tough decisions, carefully weighing different options for expansion, avoiding unnecessary wars, etc.
Any of those is deprived of battles RTS, anyway...
And for a pretty deep simulation of ancient strategy, you might check out Aggressors: Ancient Rome for instance...
this game should be named bronze age and have 8 cultures at least.
CA is selling this game in pieces
Watching some of the gameplay from other youtubers I came away with the impression that both on the battle and on the campaign there is a lot of stat min and maxing going on. Like Ramses can quite literally just move across the entire map if planned right. Lots of potential for goofy exploits instead of meaningful decisions.
stat min and maxing started all the way in empire, was starting to show in shogun 2, and was made the main focus in rome 2 and onward. Attila had its stat min maxing reduced but that's about it. Their game cateres twards casuals that just want to accumilate as much stats as possible and paint the map.
Arcade fantasy and expensive small DLCs
Agreed. In the OG games you had one or two buildings, and maybe your general could pick up some traits to help with command stars or morale. Now we have to spend time coming up with templates for buildings in order to min-max the stats, which I could do without.
@@OrendizI kind of agree with you until you say "casuals"... buddy I don't think casuals are the ones looking to min max stats.
@@simpsondr12 They do, becouse it's far easier to stack buffs and look for units with better stats And fight battles where your army wins becose it's jacked on steroids rather then to make armies based on complex strategies. Watching numbers go up and winning based who got the stronger orc rather then who played it better is peak casual gamer.
You're not wrong. I've been around since the beginning and CA has really laid an egg this time! I play MTW2 with mods mostly. It's the best 'new' content out there
Seriously "new" still applies to Med 2 as many great mods are still being made and older one's keep getting updated. Even Rome Remastered is getting a boost from a lot of new top quality mods and ports of original Rome 1 mods .
I'll definitely buy this game once they release all of the map and culture expansions and when the game and it's DLC packs will be on sale in steam winter or summer sales. Not gonna pay 60 USD for an unfinished game on release.
I was actually quite excited to play some of the factions in the Bronze Age… unfortunately they were Assyria and Lydia -_-
Really wanted to play the Hittites Elam and Urartu and only 1 of these made it in. I can maybe understand them cutting out Elam but Lydia, Assyria, and Urartu really would add a lot to this bare-bones game with only 3 cultures
"I'm sworn to carry your burdens".
A shamefur dispray this game is!
Can I also say how I hate that we no longer get differing starting positions in newer total wars? All factions start with 1-2 settlements, a small army, or they're a horde faction.
In the case of Three Kingdoms this made some sense, as China was facing great decentralization at the time, but supposedly this game begins at the apex of the bronze age, before the collapse. The starting factions should be sprawling empires, it should be a sort of Attilla experience.
Imagine playing as Dynastic Egypt and starting with an immense empire, sprawling from Lybia to Syria to Ethiopia, with massive armies and loads of money, and see it all decline over the following turns as natural disasters and conflicts begin to take their toll. Very powerful but costly professional armies of chariots become harder to replace.
Then the sea people arrive, and it's a gruelling war of attrition as your elite armies are slowly destroyed, knowledge is lost and you have to rely on simpler technology and military units:, you pass your turns trying to barely survive the collapse - now that would be an experience. But if you do manage to survive the apocalypse, then the world is your oister.
That's a good point. Hadn't even thought about that.
Well done. I give you respect for broadcasting your opinion so strongly. And I agree with you on most of the points here.
I totally hear you. Having studied the very complex layers of the Bronze Age Collapse, and still very interrested by the work of people like Eric H Cline, I had high hope for this game once I heard about it. Now it just doen't make any sense to exclude the Minoens and Myceneans, and you also nailed it by mentionning the very intricate trade system that was the backbone of this era. Jeeezzzz...I'm disapointed, I was anticipating this game...Thanks Terminator.
❤️❤️
Great video man, just one small correction. The minoans had already collapsed by the time that the game takes place. We could have had Mycenaeans though
Yea I was thinking that too but they could throw the Minoans in too why not lol
Thanks for the correction ❤️
I will say I have greatly enjoyed Thrones of Britannia lately. If you love using heavy infantry like me you’ll have a great time😂
the battle maps and combat in thrones were some of the best, the campaign is why it failed
You and Andy are normally so complimentary of the various DLC and mod content and now you both are voicing your discontent for Pharaoh really says a lot. I wanted to believe in the beginning that Pharaoh was going to have some sort of mind blowing new feature and that everyone was going to change their tune that it isn’t just a reskinned Troy.
But now, all it looks like is a less impressive reskin of Troy which is really sad. I sure as hell didn’t preorder and won’t be buying at launch. I figure I’ll wait a year until the “Ramses Edition” comes out with the Mythos DLC so I can recruit Moses to part the Red Sea.
Andy is voicing discontent? Where?
@@TheTerminatorGaming check out his “Sins of Total War” video. The dude’s always so positive but damn I think even he’s fed up.
Thanks for this content. It's great that you're speaking out. It really does feel like they're asking more for less right now.
Seriously, I can’t play as the Mycenaeans? This is an outrage.
Man hearing about dynamic weathers makes me wish for the day we get Medieval 3 and mid fight with soldiers clunking around in there heavy armor a storm rolls in and bogs the ground. I wish they stopped with releasing a new game every year and spent multiple years making games the fans are asking for. The problem with these yearly releases is that they just abandon them after a year. Three kingdoms was actually good but they abandoned it. Troy they decided to go epic only for the first year killing of the majority it's playerbase despite the game imo being pretty decent like goddamn that world map was a step in the right direction but now abandoned entirely. Thrones was something I wanted for years but they did it in every wrong way possible and abandoned it instantly. I love the warhammer series honestly the best sandbox experience I've had but they're now killing it with there overpriced dlc. I know I'm ranting now but it's sad to see this happen to a game series I've invested so much of my life in.
I was playing Empire the other day and noticed that at the start of the battle it was raining but then it stopped part way through. Turns out "dynamic weather" has actually been a feature in Total War games for years now, just that like everything else in Pharaoh they're marketing a basic feature as "new".
@@kapitankapital6580 yeah dynamic weather has been but it has only been a cosmetic thing for the most part or had very rudimentary changes like to arrows if it was foggy. What he's mentioning above is something like Agincourt where you arrive at the battlefield and the ground has been wet from a weather effect and thus heavy armor struggles to operate in that mud.
I just wish we could get a HTW with a similar art style to Rome 2/ Attila and time period between classical-medival. I think a campaign that stretch’s from South East Asia, all of india and tibet and cuts off around the town Aria (in rome 2) would be super diverse and fun to play
Too good to be true
"BUt 1T'$ iNdUstRY staNdArD" - Quote CA somewhere, to someone
Greek will be a DLC... and Mesopotamia also... i can imagine...
Games companies got stuck in a wrong mindset when it comes to selling their games a long time ago, I think the issue started with the habit of calling customers fans or a gamers, there is an inherent assumption that a fan will spend money on a series they love regardless so why put in the effort, or listen to feedback or make any effort to engage. This worked well enough for a while, gamers ate a lot of shit, but now its coming round to bite them in the ass, there are a lot of other games out there and if they dont compete or give the customer what they want they can and will go elsewhere
Nah i think it has more to do with the culture now at gaming companies. many companies take the path of least resistance and less money which means reusing as much of their previous assets and mechanics as possible instead of developing new ones. The prime example of this is Assassin's Creed.
Just bought Rome 2 because it was on sale and I went straight back to Rome Remastered.
I just want Rome 1 mechanics, with the updated graphics. The city viewer, tactical map and population systems were badass.
Or if they would make an Empire 2 they’d have every Total War fan lined up to buy it, we’ve been asking for years lol.
Idk what the higher ups are thinking at CA, but they definitely haven’t been listening to the community.
Literally never play Rome 2 vanilla. I got it near launch and that's the only time I've played it without mods.
With mods it's pretty good though, Divide et Impera in particular.
In other news, Shogun 2 is on sale for cheap in the Steam store! 😉
Feels like this should've just been added to Total War Troy as a DLC..
This aged incredibly well. Absolutely spot on take. It's a shame CA doesn't have you on their board of directors.
Aged but its not optimistic. Things can change
Prob gon get alot of hate from this comment section but like as someone who buys a lot of total war, while yeah I do agree with some points but like just wanted to say some stuff. Respectfully like the gameplay features, yes the outposts could have been better, and the trading system, but I do appreciate sofias direction, listening to feedback, matched combat, dynamic weather, and I like the factions. Plus it's a work in development and just today they said they were fixing collision and stuff. Though I do believe it is a tad too expensive too. I think it should've been like $45, like total war attila, so yeah. And saying again, this is my opinion and respectfully. Cheers. At least IMO they seem to be taking a better approach compared to British CA in listening and adapting their gameplay to fan feedback.
Well shucks I was really excited for a good Bronze Age game. Like you I'm super interested in and study the Bronze Age a lot. Diplomacy and trade was a huge part of keeping civilization together and it looks like they almost totally ignore it. Lame, probably not going to buy it unless something changes or the DLCs are supercheap.
i always loved trading and it’s sad that trade is always so disregarded in games
I feel exactly the same way and removed it from my wishlist about a month ago. I will not be buying it. Massively disappointed with everything about this game.
I would have preordered an Empire 2 or Rome 3 😐
It should always be understood that the "sea peoples" thing is just a theory that some people seem to think is fact, when it is not.
The thing about giving the game a "chance" is that you are ultimatly giving the corps what they want, your money (and if you cant refund the game even better for them), and thats all they care, they dont care about bad reviews as long as peple keep buying their games (and get dessapointed later by how this games are). By the time you leave your bad review, the corps already have the money in their pockets.
It's better to just not buy it at all and just ignore it, so in that way they don't get money
pirate it.
if its good buy it
You're pretty much entirely correct on all points, but the thing that really stands out whenever I see videos of TWP is just how ugly the UI is. It's like they went out of their way to make it unpleasant to look at.
"total war nobody asked for..."
Seriously, give us Empire 2 or Medieval 3.
It's like they're tone-deaf.
CA just doesn’t know how to make Total War games anymore. Battles aren’t the focus like they should be.
The most exciting récent CA games was Empire 2...
And it was made by modders for free. (Or give what you want to koffee)
60 bucks for a game with less scope than what modders Can Do is a Big no for me.
Completely agree. As a huge fan of the historical total war games. I’ve often gone back to the original games on my now beefy computer I’ve always wanted when I was younger. Played since medieval Total war. So jealous of the war hammer series. It took me awhile to jump into. War hammer is solid. Just wish the historical side would get the same treatment. Such as medieval total war 3. Or shogun or even a updated empire total war.
The problem about "unit diversity" isn't about how few units you can choose from , it's the problem of how SIMILAR units are with each other , we can take the example of Rome 2 , you can 4 of the same exact infantry unit , who have fuck all difference in terms of stats and cost , so essentially , you're bound to only choose one anyways
Shogun 2 was great because even if you had a lack of "diversity" , a Yari Ashigaru is literally a swiss knife , you can use them as meatshield , anti cav , anti inf ( yari wall ) , best siege defenders ( yari wall facing the walls as the enemy climbs up the wall , just be sure to protect their flanks ) , and of course , better than Yari samurai ( no bias , fight me )
For sixty dollars you can either get what might be the best rpg title ever made (praise be to larian) or what is genuinely little more than a dlc. Hell total war napoleon had an egyptian campaign that was larger in size than this one. Until CA sort their shit out, vote with your wallets and dont buy products of embarrassing quality.
Did they seriously make a Total War game about a single tiny nation like Egypt? I hope you had fun moving armies between their two cities.
I just get the feeling that whoever ran CA back in the day was actually proud of what they created, and now they are just about rinsing the fan base for cash.
I realize they sometimes over reached as with Empire, but that was a symptom of their ambition, and I for one kind of like that.
I feel sorry for the teams who create these formulaic , production line games, I bet they dreamed of creating stuff like this but now have the corporate boot firmly on their necks. Shame.
I didn't buy Troy and won't buy this. New management and a return to caring about the product please.
A mi personalmente me hubiera encantado que hagan un pike and shot con expansión hacia las Americas formato colonial. Centrado en la guerra de los 30 años y posiblemente expandiendolo hasta el siglo XVIII. Por eso yo si pagaría $100. Algo que realmente valga la pena a mi parecer
I don't understand how people expect CA to change they don't listen to their costumers, and they put as little as they can into their work. The only way we are going to get anything new or feature rich is if another company stands up to be a competitor to CA
When I was asking for a tomb king dlc I wasn’t asking for this
The only reason I'm glad they didn't release medieval 3, empire 2 or even shogun 3 is because they no longer have the capability of delivering something good.
Im still excited for this game, i was a fan of troy and warhammer
I hope you enjoy it :)
Seriously unsure why this was the game we got. Glad you mentioned historical fans BEGGING for Empire 2 or Medieval 3.
my hopes for the future of grand strategy games are in:
Manor Lords
Noble's Life: Kingdom Reborn
Field of Glory: Kingdoms
Voor De Kroon
King's Orders
Anvil Empires
They put the Bronze Age collapse but without the Sea People 😂
It is like going to Disney and not see Mikey Mouse
Seems like they’re trying to make a mesh of Civilization and Total War
It looked cool until you see it's not just CA with boss SEGA. it actually has SEGA's prints on the development itself.
My hope is that the map is smaller than usual on launch to help with performance for the game and each faction dlc that comes out will expand the map for free for players. CA Sofia doesn't want to be like Rome 2 on launch.
Oh man I wish they would add these customization options to older titles and all titles going forward. I'm always fiending for 10v10 unit card army max size because personally I just don't like managing 20 let alone 20+reinforcements.
Where are the Sarmatians, Mycene or even Minoans, Assyria, Babylon and Elam?
And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. As upon release. No fucks were given.
Ill be passing on this one, CA has gone off the cliiff.
They are releasing the absolute minimum to sell the rest to you as dlc later which should already be in the game! Especially at that price
Fucking Attila looking years ahead graphically, like wtf happened here...
Modern gaming happened
The character system will allow for a civil war mechanics, where a different character from your faction can declare war on you, like in TW Rome II. I like that, let it stay.
The map, however, is just ridiculous. That's not even half of bronze age world
I think the historical Total War games are dead, I don't think it's their focus anymore. Closest we get are Hero leaders now like in Troy, Warhammer and 3 Kingdoms. It's so they can DLC pack the hell out of them.
Last Total War I was excited about was Rome 2.
Nailed it unfortunately! When will they go back to their roots and listen to the player base!
Never just more of the same for decades
I'll get this in a couple years when a defintiive edition is on sale, maybe. I have bought every total war game full price on release, up until now
Bro once i saw the map size and that we are still characters, not factions/countries, I was out. it hasn't been since 2015 when Attila came out that i have enjoyed a historical total war. I've pretty much given up hope. Ill just been playing the old games forever. :/
The fact they made the Pharoah Nubian looking was enough to disinterest me.
umm they had nubian pharaoh you know, albeit a bit latter in the era but the 25th dynasty was nubian.
Imagine how great they could make this game if they made something like immortal empires with Troy and pharaoh
To be honest i wasnt interested in pharaoh to begin with but after watching the gameplay streams on total war live it has me excited for it,many nice features with sea people invasions and its a time period thats close to my heart being a Bible believer,just hope they dont mess it up on release lol.
To be expected with today's AAA games I can really see a AAA crash one day. Surprised a Indy dev has not copied the formula by now. Many of these companies needs competition to keep them giving value and innovation. The Sims model is what all these publishers want bare minimum base game with a huge library of DLC's.
great compliment to ca, there is no competition that comes close. great point ret#rd
I keep saying the same thing: Wake me up when they announce empire 2
Historical Total Wars have been so bad, that I can't even imagine one that might be worth a price tag of 60 bucks.
Thats a really sad thing to say.
I hope CA eventually gets their shit together.
Murdering their cash cow Warhammer while simultaneously failing at other Total War titles might literally kill the entire company.
CA really need some competition.
Crusader Kings 3 is a pretty good strategic game. No TW battles but there's a mod that uses Total War Attila for the battles
Reason they increased prices for WH3 DLCs is because they predict how shitty sales Troy's expansion Pharaoh is going to make.
Part of the problem is how many total war youtubers, including the one you mentioned in the video, are willing to shill for CA in order to keep their early access privileges. CA have made it a point of denying early access to youtubers like Legendoftotalwar, and letting only content creators willing to overlook issues post; often this is enough to garner enough release sales to make their deceptive practices work.
I'm hoping the latest lash back against Shadows of Change will carry on to Pharaoh, and CA will realise they can't keep releasing disappointments without financial reprecussions.
Thanks for being an exception!
True of course I’m well aware. Its just silly to not be honest about these things. Thanks for the support man appreciate it :) 👌❤️
Bronze age is such a fucking boring time period. Nobody asked for this man, just give us what most players want. Medieval 3, maybe early age, Empire 2, not bronze age…
What's worst of all is, I still cannot find a TW title better suited to me than the original Rome in Remastered, let alone the RTR Imperium Surrectum, now that's a hoot, what I always hoped a TW game to be. Goes to show what CA is doing in as you point out, hearing their audience.
What is with strategy games and releasing with less and less options nowadays? Dawn of War 3 released with only 3 playable factions, Age of Empires 4 launched with 8 while the original released with 12 back in 1997 and Age of Empires 3 didn't even let you have more than 2 teams in multiplayer! Please, strategy game developers, remember that your game will only survive the test of time if there's enough variety to have people coming back over and over again with different and enjoyable experiences each time!
I guarantee a crowd funded total war will make every single title they ever made, obsolete.
Great video. Your thoughts are shared by a huge portion of the community including myself. This is a SAGA game being treated with full game price. The battles in Troy are the worst aspect and everyone that I've asked about this game that has played it has said it's more Troy, which for me is a deal breaker. This game is going to be dead on arrival which means post launch support will probably get pulled very early. They'll deliver the deluxe package promised dlc and no more. Look at what happened with Thrones of Britannia. History is repeating itself, except this time they're charging you a lot more.
Thanks Legend! Appreciate you voicing your support. I’m such a massive fan of Historical Total War, I and you and this whole community only want the best for games like this. But this is just too far below all our years of requests for a far higher price than it should be. Big fan of yours! 🙏
DOWNWARD SPIRAL, DOWNWARD SPIRAL, DOWNWARD SPIRAL, DOWNWARD SPIRAL
The Denuvo cancer will also be in the game, so performance will most likely be bad until removed.
Hurry up and get this over - so CA can focus on ME:3. Which I hope they're working on.
When CA say that want to create a complete Bronze Age game with Pharaoh, they obviously don't mean at launch and for 60 bucks, you silly goose ! They mean once you paid for the 200+ bucks for the DLC, maybe.
I am losing my faith in the Creative Assembly and have lost it completely for the Sophia branch.
Sigh. Gonna have to wait a year or so for the DEI/Radious team to do their magic. And then I'll see how.
It is very evident this game was started out as a Troy DLC
The biggest headscratcher has to be ultra unit sizes at 120. Why?
This compound's the fact that the DLC is less and less well being more and more expensive. Now the games are less and less, with bits and pieces be handed back in 20+$ DLC.
Never trust any of the Total War channels that try and get you to buy this shit and pretend they're doing you a favour with discount codes.
Man I've been screaming about their ridiculous "DLC" offers since Rome 2 came out... And NOW everyone wants to get all up-in-arms about it. lol Writing's been on the wall for over a decade now.
The immersion is gone.
To charitable to CA, I don't think they thought they would explode like they did with Warhammer. Now they are trying to balance multiple playerbases who each want different things. I enjoy both historical and Warhammer so if I were CA I would try and dedicate historical total wars to historical focused players, while focusing in fantasy stuff for more warhammer oriented players. Why try and make a hybrid and suffer the wrath of both sides when you can make a game thats targeted to one orientation of player. I really think CA needa to divide into a fantasy focused studio (CA Dreams of somethin) and a historical studio, not dlc aized teams but full game dev teams working with specific goals to delight and appeal to specific players, but still make each accessible for the people who like both styles.
gamestar also said it's not what they expected :D
Could've done a middle east inspired total war without having to rely on Egypt tbh. So much potential and history overlooked. Warlords like Sargon I in ancient history as well smh
I have to absolutely agree - its a piece of crap nobody wanted.
probably a cheap cash grab
For me its obvious that CA "missed" protogreek and mesopotamian cultures only for them to be added as DLC for full price. Does it make sence?
How are we going to get medieval 3 when the standard is this?
Let's take the time and explore what an awesome historical title would bring. For example: It's 2023, why can't we have actually realistic army sizes that range in the tens of thousands. It would only make sense with settlements that big. The capabilities to make a game that we would be playing for the next five years with awesome immersive qualities are there. Why do they make crap like this?
Is it just me but aren't the unit graphics been a downgrade with Troy and now with Pharoah?
I just feel like the textures and details are simplified.
Simplified for a simple audience. They make games for the short attention span generation now. Screw everyone else apparently
Fall of the Samurai was a Shogun 2 dlc. Great game. Years later, CA called it a "Saga" game. All saga games made after FotS have been underwhelming, but at least cheap/free. Now Pharaoh here, screams "unused Troy dlc", as it's clearly a smaller game. However, it abandoned the saga moniker, as well as the saga price.
CA clearly could have made a TWW3 style combined grand campaign, with Troy, and maybe a third game with nearby powers. But they won't.
I see how they "support" TWW and thus have no desire to even see them release a Med3 or Empire 2. I don't think they remember how to make a great rts anymore. CA should just move on to hero shooters and mobile games.