Creative Assembly, and specifically the Total War leadership team, posted a lengthy message to the series�community today recognizing their own missteps while promising adjustments and course corrections, especially in regards to Total War: Pharaoh and Total War: Warhammer 3.

I’m a fan of the Total War series and Warhammer 3 in particular, but I’m clearly out of the loop. I checked into what caused this and, wow, it’s quite the beehive. In terms of Pharaoh, the game has largely been seen as not really iterating on the series and generally being disappointing overall. For Total War: Warhammer 3, a lot of discontent has been brewing under the pricing scheme for the game’s terr??ifyingly a?bundant content packs.

However, with Warhammer, it seemed ?to come to a head in October when Creative Assembly posted â€?a href="//steamcommunity.??com/app/1142710/discussions/0/3873718133746831966/">Moderation Guidelinesâ€?in the Steam discussion board, which included such galling statements as the frequently quoted “The right to discuss is a privilege—it is not an entitlement you earn b?y playing the game.â€?Look, I get it. The Steam discussion boards are a horrible cesspit that will quickly cause you to lose all faith in humanity’s continued survival, but that statement is aggressively dismissive and offensively false.

In order to actually address—rather than dismiss—criticism, the team promises a free update to the Shadows of Change expansion to make its consent more meaningful and perhaps worth the price. They acknowledge that they “failed to meet your expectations of what a DLC should be�and are looking to address this. The update for the expansion is expected in February 2024, but they say, “That launch date is our ambition, but this isn’t concrete.�/p>

Because of this, Thrones of Decay, which was supposed to launch in Winter 2023, has been pushed back to April 2024. They also promise fixes to balance and bugs, stating that “over these last few months, we’ve released a game update roughly every two weeks and where we can, we’d like to stick to that through 2024.�/p>

For Total War: Pharaoh, the team has decided to drop the price for the game to $39.99 USD. To help make amends and smooth things over, they’ll b??e issuing a refund for the difference to everyone who already owns the game.

In addition to this, the team had planned on releasing paid DLC in Early 2024. Now, however, they are going to be releasing it for free. They also add that they’re “not closing the door on other, more ambitious updates to the game in the future.�/p>

Finally, the team states that they plan to b??etter communicate and respond to the fanbase’s feedback. The post states:

“Our goal is to invest more in our player channels moving forward, introducing more voices from the studio who can speak to you directly about their work and how that relates to what you want from our titles, and most importantly, to keep listening to your feedback. This will all be a work in progress, so do bear with us, but this is our direction moving forward.�/p>

There are a lot of promises here, but it’s going to depend on them to keep them. Managing such a large fanbase is a very tricky thing, and it’s plain to see that Creative Assembly and the Total War team haven’t been doing that correctly. At the very least, they’ve h??eard the outcry. I’m sure some fans will appreciate that over being told, “Doomsaying, calling for boycotts, or starting arguments based on misinformation contributes nothing to our community.�If they forgive will be another matter. A lot of goodwill has been burned, and it’s a difficult thing to gain back after you’ve lost it.

You can read the full release right here.

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It wasn't easy, but I've become the Great King of the Hittites as Kurunta the Usurper, named after the hunter god. Many soldiers died along the way, but all for a good cause. Leaders were assassinated as I worked my way up the Hittite court. Now over 100 turns of Total War: Pharaoh later, I had united the Hittites—united in a conquered sort of way—and it was time to set my ??eyes south towards Egypt.

But Egypt has faced its own struggles as well. Several leaders, including Ramesses and Seti, have also been fighting for control of the Nile. Seti reigned supreme, but unfortunately for him, I had already solidified my desire to rule the sands. With the colossal pyramids in the back?drop, my s??iege of Cairo began.

The Total War franchise has always succeeded in its main goal: massive battles on a grand scale. But for the first time in a while, Total War: Pharaoh tries new things—a?nd quite a? bit of them—to amplify the journey along the way.

Total War: Pharaoh (PC [reviewed])
Developer: Creative Assembly
Publisher: SEGA
Released: October 11, 2023
MSRP: $59.99

War in all its totality

In Total War: Pharaoh you take on the role of one of eight leaders ??from three different factions: Ancient Egypt, the Canaanites??, or the Hittites.

While previous entries in the series have focused almost entirely on gold as your resource, Pharaoh shakes things up in a big way. Gold is still a resource, but in Pharaoh, it's primarily used for trading with other factions or building the highest tier buildings and t?raining the ??best troops. Food is your most essential resource, as it's required to create and upkeep your generals and units. Stone and wood are needed to build most of your buildings at your settlements, and bronze is needed to recruit most units.

Each region that you can control focuses on producing one of the five resources. As such, the buildings you can build at the settlement in that region will increase your yield of that resource. Having to manage all the different resources is a big change for Total War, but it feels like a good one. I?t's one of the many changes that helps to create more entertaining gameplay outside of battles.

Another new addition is outposts. As per usual, each province is made up of 3-4 regions with a settlement you can capture. Occupying all the settlements in a province will allow you to issue a command over the entire province. However, each region also has two or three outpost slots. Once you control a region you can construct outposts in these slots that benefit you in some way. Some of the outposts even serve as sort of a buffing outpost, allow?ing you to direct your armies to it bef??ore heading out for battle to obtain various temporary boons such as increased march distance or reduced upkeep.

Deities plan

In previous Total War titles, you mostly focus on just building up your armies to conquer everything around you. But Pharaoh features a few new syste?ms to help aid you in your conques??t.

First are deities. There are over a dozen gods across the different factions that you can construct monuments and shrines to. Your generals can then pray to and worship these gods, granting you buffs in battle. Once your general devote themselves to the god, they will begin to accrue favor by killing enemies in their name. As favor increases, the general will obtain their own boons for worshipping the god, while also increasing the efficiency of all the shrines built in honor of that god. Like many of the new features in Pharaoh, it gives you the abili?ty to do more to influence your journey to conquer your enemies.

There's also a new Royal Court system, where the different leaders in your faction vie for positions on the court. Each position has its own unique benefits and actions that it can perform. You can also attempt to influence leaders in the different seats on the court, in an attempt to get them to do your bidding. Blackmail, bribery, and even assassinations are a few of the way??s to influence those on the court as you gain a currency called Regard with them. You can then use this Regard to force them to share their benefits with you or perform their unique actions at your behest.

Alongside the Royal Court is the Power of the Crown. As you win battles, conquer regions, construct monuments, and carry out court plots, you will gain legitimacy. Once you've built up enough, you can start a civil war in your bid to claim the throne. The other leaders in your faction will choose to support you or the existing king, as the fight for the crown unfolds. In previous Total War titles, this was often a one-time late-game event, but in Pharaoh, civil wars for the crown are commonplace.

All of the new systems and features in place in Pharaoh feel like fresh additions to the formula. Admittedly, it took me a couple of playthroughs to really comprehend and grasp the nuances of the new systems. It's not that they are difficult to understand or anything, it's just that there are so many it took me some playtime to understand each one and come to the realization that they are intended to be supplemental to the classic Total War experience.

Golden Sands

The setting of Egypt is just perfect for a Total War game, and Creative?? Assembly does it justice. All up and down the Nile there are beautiful landscapes, including North of Cairo where the Hittites begin. Of course, the Cairo area where the pyramids reside is the best. It's so cool charging into a large-scale battle with the backdrop of the pyramids.

Speaking of which, this may be the most optimized Total War yet. I'm currently using an i7-6700K with an RTX 2080 Super, both of which are certainly outdated at this point. But while I suffer from long load times in other Total War entries like Total War: Warhammer III, that's not the case with Pharaoh. The only time I see any sort of slowdown is when there is an absolutely garga?ntuan battle taking place. But ??once again, with my hardware, that's to be expected.

A visit to the Cairo-practor

Unfortunately, I did encounter a few bugs in my time with Pharaoh. Not an eighth plague worth of bugs by any means, but enough to notice them. Most of them were little things like my generals not being able to equip certain items. I also had an annoying bug where minimizing the game had about a 50-50 chance of causing my game to lock up when I would try to refocus on its window. Of course, I'm not sure if that's someho??w unique to my setup, but definitely an annoyance worth mentioning.

It's also worth noting that the core battle system in Pharaoh still has the faults of previous entries in the franchise. Often times, battles will end up in a ball of melee troops standing around waiting for the opportunity ??to move up and to the frontline and die. This isn't necessarily a new issue; fans of the franchise are surely used to this by now. But it's still there, which at this point feels like a problem.

There?? were also some weird AI quirks along? the way. One battle said I would lose, so I chose to fight manually. And, for some reason, the enemy chariots just did not respond well to my troop movements. If I would start firing on the chariots, they would flee. But as soon as I stopped, they'd turn around and beeline toward my archers. I was able to toggle between firing on and off while just kiting the chariots back and forth. Dirty, I know. But I wanted to be king.

Also, the lack of troop diversity is worth mentioning. Most of the troop types are your basic infantry. Swordsmen, spearmen, archers, and the like. Perhaps a chariot rider or two. But I can't really fault Creative Assembly for that. After all, they are sticking to the historical accuracy of the time period. The insane amount of troop variety in Total War: Warhammer III has probably spoiled me, if anything.

In the end, Total War: Pharaoh stands atop the pyramids of grand-scale RTS. It takes the franchise in a bold new direction, adding a slew of new systems and features that enhance the gameplay. Despite choosing to play it safe with battles, the new systems are a big step forward. And while it has its flaws, Pharaoh features one of the best campaigns yet in an exciting and beautiful? setting.

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Does that matter?

I’ve put hundreds of hours into Creative Assembly’s Total War series, starting way back with Rome: Total War. I haven’t played all the titles, but more than a few. Getting to try out the next game in the series, Total War: Pharaoh, was a tantalizing proposition. The new ?features? they’re showing off sound pretty appreciable.

I was given the chance to preview three different battle setups within Total War: Pharaoh. Mainly, they highlight the new ??weather systems, but the third battle option had me defending against a siege on a ci?ty; the perfect playground to watch burn.

Having conquered the battlefield, I can tell you that this is the same Total War experience, at least when it comes to battles. Neat little rows of dudes with different stre??ngths and weaknesses and a lot of micromanaging on the field. That’s not exactly a condemnation. The added features are noticeable and integrate so well with the established mechanics that it’s hard to believe they weren’t there in the same form before.

//youtu.be/lLlD650ZBFQ

Dust in the wind

Total War: Pharaoh takes the series to the ??earliest period it has seen, the end of the bronze age. The thing about that period is that they still had swords, shields, and bows, so from a combat perspective, it’s not much different.

In the first battle, where I used the leader Ramesses against Seti, I used the same tactics that had always worked for me. I put bows in front of my line and advanced slowly until they were within range. Once I provoked the AI, I drew them back behind my lines and intercepted their charge. After a shor?t time, Seti joined the fray. I prioritized taking down the general while maintaining my lines. Once the general goes down, it isn’t difficult to break the morale of the various groups and send them fleeing, which is exactly what happened.

Midway through the battle, however, a sandstorm rolled in. This reduces visibility but had little effect on the difficulty of the Total War: Pharaoh demo. There’s an active pause, so reduced visibility just meant using that more frequently to check on the overall battle p??rogression.

[caption id="attachment_383333" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Creative Assembly[/caption]

It's a fun name to say

N??ext was Ramesses versus Suppiluliuma. Whi?le the last battle played out between open sand dunes, this time around, there was a little more vegetation. No time to test out the fire mechanic, however, as the battle starts in the rain. It only gets worse from there, progressing to a thunderstorm.

The briefing let us know that the mud would affect troop movement. However, if this was the case, it was kind of difficult to tell. I’m not sure how intimate you are with individual troop movement, but I can tell you that I don’t pay that much attention. When you h??ave hordes of troops, ?you can't find much time to become really acquainted with a particular type of them. I did notice that the mud spatters on the troops, which is pretty cool.

The other feature of this battle that wasn’t in the previous entries was chariots. I was always kind of terrible with mounted units. They require too much attention to use effectively. Whenever I’d play co-op campaigns, one of us would take control of mounted units, while the other would take everything else, just so that more focus could be given to their movements. As such, even in Total War: Pharaoh, I think I sucked with the chariots.

[caption id="attachment_383335" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Creative Assembly[/caption]

Standing in fire

Finally, we come to the siege. The Siege battles have always been both the coolest and most time-consuming features in the Total War games. This one took place in the city of Mennefer, and it featured stacked a??rmie?s.

The battle opens with the en??emy approaching on four gates. They’ve got siege towers ??and battering rams on each of these, so I had to keep the defense on all of them. Unfortunately, they quickly penetrated my southern gate, and despite my efforts, managed to get some siege towers on the wall.

Unfortunately for them, all the wall crawlers got repelled, which means only the south wall was truly breached. Weirdly, he chose to separate his troops to go to capture points. This would have led to a quick victory if I had been distracted, but I merely needed to redirect some of my units (my chariots, in particular) to kick them off the capture points, and eventually, they all broke. As the battle with the highe??st difficulty rating, I felt a little perplexed about why I had such an easy time.

On the other hand, I finally got to see fire at play. It, once again, wasn’t terribly impactful. It was cool to see stray fire arrows ignite the houses in the city and see them burn throughout, but I kind of feel this was a feature going back to, at least, Total War: Shogun 2. Mostly, it was a problem because one of my units was left standing in some vegetation that was lit on fire, but the AI also left a unit on there as well, so�/p>

[caption id="attachment_383336" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Creative Assembly[/caption]

A little more muddy

As I said, the battles in Total War: Pharaoh aren't anything majorly different. In the briefing, we were told that battles were slowed down a bit, but I honestly couldn’t tell. It felt the same to me, and it’s not like t??his is after a long period of not ?interacting with the series.

With that in mind, however, being the same from a battle standpoint isn’t a huge problem. It at least means they didn’t make a big change and screw everyt?hing up, and after over two decades of consistency, seeing that continue isn’t a surprise at all.

I’m always more interested in the campaign anyway. Creative Assembly hasn't shown off much of that yet, but it promises to be more dynamic than the ones in the past. I’m hopeful. The Total War series has never severely let us down, and Total War: Pharaoh is definitely on the right foot. I’m looking forwa?rd to jumping into another co-op ca??mpaign sometime later in the year.

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A before the O

Sega has announced the next game in Creative Assembly’s expansive Total War series, Total War: Pharaoh. The announcement comes alongside a teaser trailer and some details about the upcoming ?title.

Total War: Pharaoh brings the strategy back to history and presents the earliest time period yet depicted by the property. Set during the “cataclysmic�collapse of the bronze age, it places your faction in a race for the throne of Egypt. There are eight faction leaders scattered across Egypt, Ca??naan, and the Hittite empire.

//youtu.be/lLlD650ZBFQ

One of the new features of the se??ries is weather effects that shift during the battle, including sandstorms and rain. Fire will also spread, allowing you to flush enemies out of forests or set villages ablaze. The ?campaign will also be fully customizable, allowing you to randomize faction starting points or toy with the weather systems.

I’m not sure it’s even possible to pry me from Total War: Warhammer 3, but those who love the more historical Total War games should appreciate Total War: Pharaoh. I’ll be honest when I say that I don’t know much about ancient Egypt, and Total War: Shogun 2 was an excellent jumping-off point to learn mor?e about Japanese history. The weather systems sound fantastic, and I look forward to ?seeing how it affects battles.

Thankfully, it looks like the cooperative campaign mode will return. I put well over 200 hours into Total War: Shogun 2, and a lot of that i?s due to playing w?ith a friend. Those were swell times.

Total War: Pharaoh is tar??geting ??a release of October 2023 on PC. Deluxe and Dynasty editions have been announced, which include some of the upcoming DLC. If you pre-order now you’ll get to take part in an early access weekend.

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