Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms

8.0
Good

Gameplay	8.0	"Massive amount of new content, but clearly aimed at major fans only."
Graphics	8.5
Sound	9.5
Value	10

By Sam Waldron

The time is come again to pit steel against steel. Armies clash across a thousand battlefields. Through wind and rain and snow, multitudes of brave warriors drive on, bent on the destruction of their enemies. And at the head of the throngs, the finest generals Europe has seen...

This is Total War. Again. And again. And again. And, for good measure, once more after that.

Medieval 2: Total War Kingdoms, the epic expansion to the mighty sequel to the brilliant second game in the Total War franchise, adds not one but four new campaigns. Sit and process this information for a little bit. That is a lot of game to add. For the purpose of comparison, think of the expansion for the last Medieval: Total War – Viking Invasion. Viking Invasion brought some minor upgrades to the original campaign, and one new campaign, focusing on the British Isles. Don't get me wrong: that was a great expansion. But this is like that times four.

First off, Kingdoms revisits Britain. Potentially, they could have just rehashed Viking Invasion. It wouldn't have been hard, and I doubt anyone would have complained about it. However, this Britain campaign is a complete departure from the last. Instead of being set pre-England, in the Dark Ages of numerous unfamiliar warring British factions, and raids by the ruthless vikings, Kingdoms sets its Brittanic campaign later, pitting the large Kingdom of England against the Scots, the Irish, the Welsh, and the Norse. England is the obvious power in the area, but suffers from the fact that everybody else is out to get it – so it isn't such an easy romp for the Poms as you might think. Also, as King of England you must keep a tight control on your generals, lest they gather together to form a rebel alliance and overthrow you. The campaign can get a little claustrophobic if you're a small kingdom like Wales, but it is also a fair bit more interesting than its predecessor in Viking Invasion.

Next come the Crusades. Here we get to see even more new material. Set in and around the so-called Holy Land, this campaign centres on the two crusader kingdoms, Jerusalem and Antioch, each backed by a knightly order. These two European Christian factions must battle it out with the Egyptians and the Seljuk Turks. And, to the northwest, the Byzantine Empire sits, vulnerable because of its long borders, but eager to regain territory from the new powers. In this campaign, religious differences make for fairly restricted diplomatic options. However, there is much to flavour the brutal war that ensues. The Middle East offers up much difference in terrain from the battlefields of Europe. And the clash of crusading knight with Turkish cavalry makes for exciting conflicts, especially if you're sick of fielding similar armies to your opponents. And as long as we're talking units: Byzantium gets Greek fire, which as you can guess is at least as awesome as it is unreliable in battle. On top of all that, you can use special characters such as Richard the Lionheart, who possess remarkable new tactical options on the battle field.

Continuing the religious themes is the Teutonic campaign, which pits the supposedly righteous Teutonic Order (who, by the way, look righteously awesome, even if their methods might not be as Christian as advertised) against the pagan Lithuanians. The Teutons have powerful knights and heavy infantry with cool-looking helmets, along with battlefield priests, who aren't great fighters due to their lack of weaponry, but do wonders for morale. Lithuania, though, gets to bring its own special units to the party: an assortment of different pagan warriors available by building a variety of religious buildings. But herein lies the conundrum for anyone wanting to play as Lithuania: do you remain true to your traditions and keep your fierce troops, or do you bow to the west, convert to Christianity, and improve relations with your neighbours at the cost of that military prowess? The trick is all in the timing. Surrounding these two warring factions are Poland, Novgorod and the always inappropriately named Holy Roman Empire.

Finally, and perhaps most exciting of all, is the American campaign. Well, maybe not most exciting. But this is certainly the most interesting; and the biggest change of scene. You take control of either the Spanish Conquistadors, or one of the native American factions: the Aztec or Mayan Empires, or the nomadic Apache tribe. Each side has a distinctive playing style, but the gulf between conquistadors and natives is immense. The latter bring numbers to battle. New Spain bring few, but they bring them armoured, and with gunpowder weapons. The lack of numbers mean New Spain must ally themselves with certain American factions in order to access better mercenaries. But the quality of their European troops is such that, even in small numbers, they are more than capable of overpowering their adversaries. I guess history -- and the number of spanish speaking countries in Central and South America -- says everything you need to know in this case... But historical accuracy doesn't always gel perfectly with playability. This campaign is the boldest in the expansion, but between the unbalanced sides and the gameplay irritation of having to explore the New World, it's also the least enjoyable.

It's impressive how much detail is in each of these four campaigns. We're not just talking about four different maps and a few gameplay changes. Each campaign has its own distinctive units, quirks, and soundtrack -- that's right, different music for each, and it's actually bloody good, too. Each even has a couple of different movies, all of which start out epic, and descend into cheesiness by the end. Of course, all this content comes at a price. Medieval 2 was already bloody huge, and Kingdoms adds about another 4 gigabytes to that. Fortunately, each campaign operates as a mini game, and you can just install them one at a time. But even so: this thing is about as epic to install as it is to play. And it seems to be a little harder on your system resources too; not in any awful way, but don't be surprised by a little slowdown.

And the massive extent of what it adds is probably wasted on all but the most hardened fans. Its strength is also its Achilles Heel. There's a lot more gameplay, but there's a high chance you don't actually want to play through four new campaigns. It's the same great game, there's just a lot more of it. So there's a sense of overkill. Unless of course you're a Total War obsessive -- in which case, the Kingdoms expansion is more or less chocolate-covered awesomeness. And then some.

 del.icio.us  StumbleUpon  Facebook  Reddit