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Napoleon: Total War
Preview from Starks - Thursday, 31 December 2009 @ 9:20am
Napoleon: Total War
Reviewed on: PC
Genre: Strategy
Release: 10 February 2010
Developer: SEGA Creative Assembly
Starks don's his beret and meets with Kieran Brigden in a preview of Creative Assembly's new instalment to the Total War series. Meeting in the SEGA offices of Pyrmont, he is impressed by the new features, innovation, improvements and evolution of a much loved series.
Empire: Total War is one of my favourite games for 2009. The game itself, which I learnt yesterday was in development since Rome was finished, is one of those titles that comes along and demands your attention for weeks and months at a time, not just hours. The involvement you, as the player, have in turning your small nation into, as the name suggests, an Empire in the 18th century, ranges from the political direction, economic management and leading the charge in battle.
I was given the opportunity to take a look at Napoleon: Total War the other day, which is Creative Assembly’s current title in development. To say the game is looking to step into big shoes is an understatement as the precedent set by Empire means any follow on title will need to be very, very good in order to top the previous experience.
And yet, I think they might just do it.
Developer Beta showings are often difficult from a reviewers point of view as you don’t get that ‘hands on feel’ nor the opportunity to flesh out finer points on your own. However, it was a pleasure to meet the communication manager of Creative Assembly, Kieran Brigden and have him introduce Napoleon in a very professional and well thought through manner.
Napoleon is, as the name suggests, a game focused around the 18th and 19th century revolutionary; Napoleon Bonaparte. The French general, who stands in the same company as Alexander, Julius Caesar, Sun Tzu, Rommel and Montgomery in the pantheon of elite tactical masterminds, revolutionised the French army, had most of Europe on the back foot, provided innovation to tactical troop movements and was overall clever, if short, man.
Napoleon surveys his frogs
The focus of the new Total War is one that is different to the previous instalments of the franchise. Expanding upon the popularity of the story-driven ‘Road to Independence’ that was part of Empire, Creative Assembly have sought to introduce more story to their latest title. By this, there will be three specific campaigns; The first two, focussing on Napoleons Italian campaign in 1796 and his Egyptian escapade in 1798, are designed to give the player a historic replication of the situations Napoleon went through in order to achieve the victories he accrued.
The Mastery of Europe campaign, equivalent to the Grand Campaign of other Total War titles, will remain, although with specific national focus on achieving various historical goals that defined the late 18th and early 19th century, as well as defining the European theatre for years to come.
Some of the more significant changes that players will notice immediately is a changed UI for the campaign and battle elements. CA have looked to streamline the approach and have less text based indicators and more visual prompts for key battlefield elements. For instance, the importance of morale in Empire was quite large, yet it was difficult to adjudge whether a unit was close to routing or looking for more killing as the interface required you to physically review the units status. Now, small morale bar’s sit across the top of the unit to indicate the status of your men.
Some of the other noticeable differences you’ll pick up on straight away is the change in the campaign movement and the mechanics behind it. Where in previous Total War instalments the terrain on the campaign map was ever considered for troop movements, Napoleon is looking to add another small dose of realism by creating routes for the player to move through. In essence, you will have three or four ways to reach a specific destination, however these can be blocked by enemy armies by simply moving troops being moved into a specific route and blocking off that avenue of movement. In this manner, you can box in armies with several of yours and in essence corner them.
Adding to this is the creation of supply lines for your specific armies. No longer will your troops carry an infinite supply of bread and water; they now need to be supplied their various resources to ensure they can continue to operate. Food, water and new recruits to add to your depleted forces require a clear channel of supply. A fantastic method of sabotaging a retreating army is to impair their supply lines. This will eventually whittle away the remaining troops as they starve, thirst or bleed after combat.
Wars get nasty, especially when they close the pubs early
From an economic point of view, the game now moves in two week increments, changing from the 6 month time frames that the previous titles were utilising. Such a dramatic change was done to give the player more realism and involvement in the time period of Napoleon; Considering the French General was only around for 30 or 40 years, 6 month movements from a time period would see him dead in about 60 odd turns. In addition to this the weather will play a much larger impact, with winter and summer having an effect on the troops in the battle but also your movement through specific regions. But more on this soon.
The economic element itself has also been improved, along with the political scene. We didn’t get to focus quite as much on the economy as I wanted, as in reality this is one of the more complicated elements to the game and there was a lot to get to. Suffice to say the supply points are one of the new upgrades you can convert your town to.
Politically, you will now have many more options available to you, especially when wheeling and dealing with different monarchs and governments. Requesting alliances with new factions will also allow you to specify clauses such as ‘Ally with us, but you need to cut your ties with the dirty and join us in a war with them!’ The diplomacy engine has also been slightly tweaked to make enemy reactions more realistic, although this will be more apparent when playing.
Moving more to the actual battle sequence, there are a great many changes that I personally am looking forward to. Immediately, you’ll notice that the amount of variation in the individual units of a regiment has been looked at. Something in the vicinity of 300 different faces and uniform possibilities for a single regiment are possible, meaning each and every regiment of minions you’ll be commanding will actually look like a group of different people each time.
From a visual point of view, the game looked better. Not so much from a graphical point of view, but more from a realistic area. Cannon balls now created major divets in the ground, explosive mortars left craters, scared horses flee the battlefield with riders being dragged along on the ground while their foot is caught in the stirrup, bodies are thrown or drop to the ground in a realistic manner; The sheer realism of the battlefield makes it look a great deal better, and also immerses you more in the game.
Adding to this is the jolts to the screen whenever something dramatic occurs, such as a mortar explosion or building blows up. Yes, that’s right. If you mortar or cannon a building enough, it will collapse and kill any units inside. Kieran told us that supposedly, in the Egyptian campaign, you can blow the nose off the Sphinx. This type of realism is enhanced even further by in game rain, snow or dust storms which affect both the fatigue and sometimes morale of the units you command.
I'm pretty sure whomever inveted the ear plugs had experience with artillery
For example, in the Egyptian campaign, the French riding camels – Note, I found it quite amusing that such an arrogant people in the French were shown riding such an ungainly, rank animal that spits almost as often as the riders themselves – will fatigue less and be more responsive in the desert maps or summer regions than if you were to put them in the cold Russian winter. As such, you can no longer grab a bunch of dudes and ride from the north east of Europe all the way down to Jerusalem.
Which sucks in a way, cause I liked dressing up as King Richard the Lionhearted and calling ‘I’M ON A CRUSADE, I’M ON A CRUSADE! EVERYBODY LOOK AT ME CAUSE I’M RIDING ON A CRUSADE!’
*Ahem*
Moving on, the cover itself and position on the battlefield has seen a decided improvement from a realism point of view. That is, holding the high ground gives you a morale advantage, a range advantage and a charge advantage. These elements impressed even more upon me that, just like real battle, it isn’t so much about destroy the enemy unit as it is about routing them and running them down. Smaller, more agile forces with good position on the battlefield are, quite frankly, as lethal, if not more, than your larger, more area-sprawling commands.
Which brings me to my next point; the UI in the battle mode has seen a decided increase. More slim and focussing on visual indicators rather than text-based, the new UI focuses more on allowing the commander to make snap decisions rather than drawing out an engagement through counter-intuitive alerts. Adding to this is your aide-de-camp, who sits next to your general and alerts you to specific battlefield moments within his line of sight.
The generals have also been revamped. No longer are they a somewhat useless unit on the field; With a passive area-of-effect bonus to morale through their leadership – somewhat similar to the general area-of-effect in the Warhammer Fantasy Battles when rolling for morale – position of the general can be a turning point for a regiment in a battle. Added to this are two specific buffs’ that can be stacked and used a limited time during the battle. One focuses on inspiring your troops, which refreshes their fatigue and spurs them to fight with a renewed intensity for a short period, the other is a rallying call, which will boost the morale of a sagging regiment. Along with this, each specific general in the game will be based on historical equivalents, and also have passive abilities that will colour each encounter; For example, some generals will be better leaders with cavalry, some better with artillery etc.
In addition to this, when playing a battle, there is the option to allow your game to have human involvement. To explain, when you start a specific battle, you will be given the opportunity to allow another Napoleon: Total War player to control the enemy side. They will then play the battle through and impact on your campaign through the battle results. This is quite an innovative concept, as it spurs multiplayer involvement within a single player campaign.
Napoleon gets revenge for the Egyptians kicking down his sand castle...
There are many, many more nuances to the new Total War instalment. The most impressive feature I believe that Creative Assembly is working on is making the game act like reality. By way of explanation, they seek to make the game work in the same way as real life, thereby removing the need for documentation. This isn’t because they want to make the learning curve difficult, but more to give the player the same experience a real general would have had during a real battle. “Oh crap, their artillery is firing on my men and is out of range of my artillery. IT must be because they’re sitting on a tall hill. I’ll need to flank them so I don’t get caned by their mortar.” This is the type of thinking they’re trying to engage the player to learn through.
From what I’ve seen, Napoleon is looking to be the cherry to the Total War franchise. Admittedly, Creative Assembly is looking to make every new instalment the best it can be, which is what we as gamers want. However I have no doubt that their new evolution will not only please gamers but continue to stamp their authority on the RTS genre.
I will leave you with the official trailer. It will really set the mood... |