by JudgeX
March 08, 2009 18:38
I've waited for this game to come out for, ohhh, well, since I imagined they would create it as a natural extension and continuation in the Total War series, so, back when ROME: Total War came out. The Total War series is amongst my favorite titles, and I own all of them, and most expansions, from Shogun up to Medieval II.
So, I was incredibly delighted to be informed by Steam that a demo for Empire was ready to be played. I dropped everything I was doing and started the install process.
My Review:
Immediately, people with a similar configuration to me will notice a very long (3+ minute wait) during the initial loading screen. Why we are forced to wait for so long reading the "bink video" and "Total War" logo is a complete mystery, but, some of us do have this wait. Directly afterwards, the menu system seemed familiar, but, WOW, this demo is limited! You get two "tutorials", which are about 95% useless if you're a Total War veteran, and 2 "Single Player Battles". The campaign mode is absolutely not represented in the demo whatsoever.
Anyway, a few really, really long loading screens later the tutorial is loaded. (What is it doing, Creative Assembly? Seriously? We change our video and control options, and then we have to watch a "loading" bar again... why? That should have been changing like 10 lines in an INI file somewhere. Stop taking the interface away from the player.)
Ultimately, if you've played Medieval 2 and made use of the bombards and gunpowder weapons in that game, the land-based tutorial and battle example aren't going to offer anything new aside from taking cover behind obstacles and in buildings (which, you don't get to take advantage of as much as the CPU). The graphics are impressive, with very nice attention to detail on everyone, but the performance is a considerable bit behind Medieval II (probably about 40% slower before lowering settings), while there's not really much improvement in quality(Maybe a 10-20% improvement in graphical quality).
The default control scheme is different from Medieval, using the WASD as default camera movement, Q and E to rotate camera, and so on. This can easily be remedied in the options, and most veterans of the series will probably revert to old input methods. The new in battle interface is superior to the prior versions in some ways but also lacking. The unit cards seem weakened, and gathering information about the status of your soldiers is not as evident as it was before, but it does have a much cleaner and more professional look. Function ultimately wins over form, but the improvements to form *almost* make up for the loss of function. Maybe it's just a learning and adjustment issue, time will tell.
The Naval Battles are pretty awesome. Great graphics, and each ship in your fleet feels like its own entity capable of turning the tide of battle if used correctly. This portion did not run so well on the test computer, but victory was still relatively easily had.
Honestly, it may have been a bad move for Creative Assembly/Sega/et al to release this demo, because according to google, several people are already having performance problems with it. With no Campaign teaser to whet the appetite for carving a new world, all we're left with is an impressive demonstration of the naval battle engine, and a lot more of the "same old, same old" overland battle from the rest of the series. It probably should have highlighted more of the differences in ground battles in the new game in addition to the ocean tutorial and sample battle. Furthermore, the campaign mode is what many players play the game for, so it wouldn't have been too much to ask for a small sample campaign to toy with.
Without multiplayer, also, the Demo took this game from my "must buy" list to my "maybe I should read up on the forums for a couple months before I purchase this one" column. I am still excited to play the full game, and I'm sure it's packed full of awesome surprises (they've been working on it long enough!), but with the way it performed and no insight as to what campaigns will really feel like to play aside from a few review site vids, I think i'll take my time getting this one.
But, anyway, it's a free demo, so give it a shot!
