Napoleon: Total War Hands On

Contrary to popular sentiment, I’ve always liked the French. Sure, they got a bit of an ass whooping in World War Two, but ever since the creation of the French republic there’s always been something nasty, dirty, vicious and downright awesome about the way they spent nearly three centuries putting half of the world to the sword.

Sadly, for Francophiles like me, the heady days of the glorious French Empire are well and truly over. Not to worry - just grab a chair and install Creative Assembly’s latest offering in the iconic total war series: Napoleon: Total War.

Here at NZGamer we have been following the development of this title with rising interest. Everyone wants to be the most powerful general in Europe. Me included. So with childish excitement I sat down to bring my own twist to Napoleon’s historical story.

Fans of the series will instantly recognise the format of Napoleon. The basic architecture that Creative Assembly has been offering since Shogun is still on offer (albeit with a nice facelift). You can choose to play single player custom battles, jump right in to the mammoth Napoleonic Campaign or select unlockable historical battles from the real life of Napoleon. A ‘greatest hits’, if you will. Or if you prefer to mock your opponents in real time, there are ample multiplayer options available – including the new ‘drop in battles’ innovation. Players may invite friends via Steam to enter their single player experience and play as an opposing force during the campaign. It sounds like a clever addition that provides a nice element of multiplayer support without upsetting your storyline immersion. Plus it adds some extra spice if you’ve gotten bored of puppy stomping the computer AI.

Creative Assembly has taken a gamble by choosing to focus the game’s narrative almost exclusively on the historical path of Napoleon. So far it looks like it’s paid off. One of my more virulent criticisms of earlier Total War games was once you’d achieved near dominance of the campaign map, the game lost most of its impetus. By providing historically accurate objectives the title now has much more direction. Fans who are worried that might make the game too linear, do not fear, hold the line! Napoleon’s conquest has been split up into various theatres of war.

I had the opportunity to play the Italian campaign, where Napoleon first made a name for himself as a warmongering bad ass. It’s a misnomer to call these mini-campaigns ‘mini’. Creative Assembly has chosen to ‘zoom in’ on these areas, increasing the territories and providing a campaign map comparable to those found in earlier titles. For example, in Medieval: Total War 2, the Italian/French Border was two territories big. Now it's over 20 and is an entire campaign in its own right. This helpfully means that players who delight in unconventional non-linear campaign map tactics are still going to enjoy themselves.

The campaign map looks great. The trees sway, the background music is surprisingly addictive, and your character advisors are polite and helpful, but do get a little annoying after a while. Not to worry, you can ignore them if you want to. You’re Napoleon dammit, you can do what you want. Its interesting to note while it may not be intentional, Creative Assembly seems to have pushed the machinations of the campaign map more towards that found in Civilization 4. Simply put, it’s very complicated. This is not a game that you can just dive headfirst into. You’re running an army and the French Empire. That means there is quite a lot of micromanaging going on. Not to worry, my comparison with Civilization 4 is meant to be endearing. This is, after all, a strategy title.

In order to make this easier there is the ability to research new technologies (again, much like Civilization 4) and create new buildings in your cities and your towns. These thankfully don’t need to be individually conquered and come under your control once you take the region’s main city. However, when occupied they can be used to build units on the go - a nice feature I thought.

Creative Assembly has also completely revamped the diplomatic AI. This is a very, very, good thing. Other nations are now much more receptive to diplomatic deals, and often take the initiative to offer them. It becomes apparent pretty early on that your diplomacy tab is going to suffer some abuse. You need to act diplomatically in Napoleon: Total War for any chance of success. The reality of more focused campaign maps is that the consolidation of territory becomes much less important. You can expect to make (and break) lots more alliances and don’t be afraid of choosing peace and protectorates over total domination. The smaller turn length (a whopping reduction from six months to two weeks) means that if you over-extend your military you’re going to go broke. And fast. Napoleon himself once said, “An army fights on his stomach”. If you can’t afford to feed your troops then you’re screwed. Mèrde!

But it’s in the real time strategy aspect of the game that the true mettle of a general is tested. Napoleon is Empire: Total War with a face lift, a nose job, and some new legs. The graphics are great, and for the most part are pretty smooth. However, be prepared to lower your settings – when they say that the Total War series is a big battle simulator, they mean it. Unless you’ve got a sub-zero cooled super GPU you’re going to have a lot of problems rendering thousands (and I literally mean thousands) of individually unique troops around the battlefield. Not to mention the frame rate-killing particle effects, such as rain, musket-rifle smoke and cannon ball explosions. There is still obvious work to be done in balancing units and ironing out some battle-map AI bugs, but the range of troops and battle maps is pretty impressive so far. Thankfully, Creative Assembly has also managed to drag Napoleon by the scruff of its Frenchie neck into the real world. Calvary units are no longer the super units of old, and will be obliterated faster than the French Monarchy if you charge them headfirst into an infantry line - even a weak one. The battles are rounded off with some pretty visceral audio. There’s nothing quite like listening to an infantry line take a round of canister shot at point blank range. It’s like hearing mince hit the pavement after a fifty meter drop.

I started playing Napoleon at 4pm and didn’t turn away from my screen until 5am. That’s saying a lot. And I’d only managed to secure and consolidate my control over half of the Italian campaign! Now, this may just mean I’m a terrible player. But it’s also possible that I’d become engrossed in what’s shaping up to be an immersive and intelligent computer game. Like a good French onion, it’s a title that’s deliciously full of layer after layer of conquest and glory. After some expected (and necessary) last minute tweaking of the AI, unit strength and graphical frame rates we can expect to see a Napoleon: Total War lead a victorious assault on New Zealand in late February.