First off, this game is simply amazing. The graphics are great, the gameplay is top notch and the fun fa
Yes Dune2 blew me away and had me up till 4am numerous times when i was a young lad, Warcraft1 and 2 where a blast aswell, then of course Starcraft, Age Of Empires and Company Of Heroes i enjoyed.
I have played the Total War series in the past and enjoyed them, but was never BLOWN away by them so to speak. There just seemed to be something missing in the earlyier games to push it into AAA or AAAA status. Im not sure what small things where missing from the earlyier games in the series, its hard to pin point it exactly. But what ever the series was missing before, now has it and CA has finally made the total war series a total package.
First off, if you tried the demo for Empire and where a little underwhelmed like myself, dont worry, as the loading times,etc are fixed in the final version. The demo was a old version and the waiting times are fixed now for me at least in the final version.
Also if you dont have a fairly good PC then you might ahve some troubles with runnign this game.
I have played over 35 hours of the game and not 1 single freeze or crash. Im not sure if people are trying to play this game on 5 year old labtops that barely meet the requirements or what, but this game runs great on my pc and my 3 friends pcs. Clean your computer, check for new or older drivers, defrag, upgrade, do one of those things if not all and see if it fixes anything. Like i said above, im over 35+ hours into the game and not one save curruption, crash or freeze (things ive been reading about online from people having issues with the game). So overall it runs great for me and my mates.
The gameplay in empire is top notch, with epic battles going on in the WAR/BATTLE part of the game, and the strategic "risk/civilization" part of the game where you decide who to trade with, what ot build, who to recruit and where to send spys to destroys enemy citys. The game might be a bit overwhelming for some people at first, but try teh Tutorials first and then do the "Road To Independance" game, followed by GRAND CAMPAIGN later on. There is also teh addition of the new OCEAN/SHIP battles for this game in the Total War series.
The only negative things i have to say about the game are very small issues at least to me. Once in awhile there are some problems with the AI and how they handle situations, that is more annoying then a game changing issue though. Also sometimes pathfinding can be a bit annoying (once again a very small issue that doesnt happen all the time). And lastly, the SEA BATTLES, while a nice addition, are a little on the basic side, i would like there to be more options on the ships personall. But once again that is just a very small issue and not a big problem.
Overall this is the best singleplayer game ive played in ages, its got epic gameplay, strategic planning, great graphics and is just a ton of fun to play.
This game is a beast though, so i advice people to make sure you have a good enough computer to run it (not just meet hte minum requirements). This game is on Crysis's level as far as graphics and how tasking it is on some systems, so make sure your computer is way above the minimum requirements and that your not trying to play this game on a 5 year old labtop. I dont advice people with labtops that have on board videocards to try playing this.
The only negative things in this game are the average AI, which could be ALOT better and also the ship battles could get improved. Also the game takes awhile to do each turn in later rounds.
Awesome game that i am addicted to like no other. Get ready for late nights of epic battles trying to take over the world! I cant wait for an expansion pack and the user mods!