Napoleon: Total War Impressions - First Look
We get our first look at the next Total War game, which will put the glorious career of Napoleon under a microscope.
For years, the Total War series has offered enormous, epic strategy on a scale that has only become greater over time. That's about to change. The next game in the series, Napoleon: Total War will, in the words of developer Creative Assembly, "put Total War under the microscope" because it will focus on the somewhat shorter, but legendary, career of one Napoleon Bonaparte instead of offering lengthy campaigns that last through decades of time. We recently had a chance to take a first look at the game and see some of its new features in action.
While Napoleon: Total War was originally intended to be an expansion for Empire: Total War and will still offer the distinctive combination of real-time battles and turn-based strategy in the series, Creative Assembly apparently felt over the course of its development that the game would simply be too different to shoehorn into Empire's current systems. While previous games in the series let you assume the role of one nation's ruler and attempt to conquer the known world over campaigns of many years, Napoleon will focus much more heavily on a single story: M. Bonaparte's glorious rise to power. However, representatives from the studio were quick to point out that the game will absolutely build on the progress made by Empire to date--up to and including all content in the version 1.5 patch. This includes, among other things, numerous artificial intelligence enhancements that make computer-controlled enemies much more aggressive and realistically challenging.
The demonstration we watched began with the Battle of Austerlitz, which was a historically crucial victory for Napoleon. This battle will be part of the campaign, which is primarily intended to showcase the extensive story (and history) of the titular general-turned-emperor, but like in previous games, you can play as any other nation in the game if you prefer. The demonstration we watched showed the Russian armies perched on a hill with rifle-bearing militia, cavalry, and a handful of heavy-duty unicorn cannons. Unlike previous games in the series, Napoleon will offer some 355 different types of military units. Every single unit will also be unique with distinct statistics, abilities, and firing ranges--even analogous units from different nations (for instance, British militia will have totally different statistics from Russian militia or French militia). This change adds more depth to the game and encourages players to more fully explore the individual strengths and weaknesses of their forces. The studio has also increased the number of random unit faces in the game to a minimum of 64 for low-end systems on up to "a non-infinite but extremely high number" for state-of-the-art computers, so it's less likely than ever that you'll see two soldiers that look identical.
Over the course of the battle--which played out on a wintry, hilly Russian map--the hundreds of virtual soldiers died horribly in the name of their respective rulers as you'd expect. During the carnage, we had a chance to see some of the game's new features, such as enhanced particle effects, which will come in the form of weather effects, such as snow. This effect also has a morale effect on units and obscures visibility. And we saw cannon smoke, which also obscures visibility, as well as, in the words of the representative from Creative Assembly, "somewhat deformable terrain" that includes smoking craters left by errant cannonballs. The overhauled engine will also include enhanced height maps that more clearly indicate which units have high ground (an important tactical advantage that adds to visibility and to unit morale). The user interface, while not final, was much smaller and cleaner, as well as took up only a portion of the bottom of the screen.
There will also be more visual feedback in general during battles--units that have gained experience levels in battle will now be marked with hovering chevrons above them to indicate their progress. You can even expect to see more subtle details that are intended to clarify things for newer players and to simply liven up the game. For instance, if a cavalry battalion is sent to charge a densely packed counter-infantry unit, the cavalry's horses will rear back and attempt to toss their riders--an alarming development that will hopefully drive home the folly of the tactic to new players. And if your cavalry begins taking heavy fire, you may see the rider of one horse die in the saddle and be dragged around with his foot in the stirrup by his panicked horse.
The battle also gave us an opportunity to see some of the new gameplay and visual feedback features that will be added to the game. For starters, the game will feature on-field generals (to reflect Napoleon's own propensity to ride out on the field, rather than hang back in a manor house as most aristocrats did during the turn of the 19th century), which will emit a command radius that offers a powerful morale bonus to any friendly units nearby. Generals can also use special "general powers" on friendly units within range--these powers must be used judiciously because they can potentially turn the tide of battle. For instance, Napoleon has both a "rally" ability, which can immediately reverse the broken morale of routed units, and an "inspire" ability that provides powerful combat bonuses to target friendlies. While these bonuses will definitely come in handy in battle, the obvious trade-off for bringing your generals to the front line will be the danger in which you put them.
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