Total War: Warhammer: First Impressions

I’ve sunk a little over 40 hours into Total War: Warhammer and I feel pretty confident in saying that it’s one of the best titles in the series. Maybe not the best. Not yet, at least. But the potential is certainly there. This ‘core’ release will serve as an excellent foundation upon which the developers can build over the next few years.

This isn’t another Rome 2. This is possibly the most stable and polished Total War release yet. Not perfect – there were server load issues upon release which caused some crashes, but this was fixed within a matter of hours. The only other technical issue of note, at least from what I’ve experienced, is an issue with some nasty screen tearing, although this is easily solved by using Alt-Tab to exit and enter the game. This seems to be a driver related issue, rather than an issue with the game, however, so hopefully NVIDIA will get their shit together and put out a new driver soon.

In 40 hours of play I’ve seen a single bug – just before a campaign cinematic was due to trigger, I was treated to a weird montage video of my Legendary Lord stretched across the screen. But, yeah. That’s it. One bug. Kind of hard to believe, isn’t it? 

That doesn’t mean the game doesn’t have any other issues, but these are more related to gameplay and unit balance. There’s certainly some work to be done here, but I think we all expected this given the variety of units between every race. There’s nothing noticeably serious, though. The game just needs a few tweaks and fixes here and there to balance things out.

 

But what about game performance? Overall, it’s very good. Once again, it’s not perfect, and hopefully it will improve over time (and once we get those drivers) but it’s easily the best Total War release yet in terms of stability and performance. I’ve been playing the game on the Ultra default setting, which isn’t entirely recommended for my card (a 780), but I still get a very solid and playable average of about 40-60FPS in both battles and campaign.

I’ve ‘completed’ an Empire campaign, which I’m actually still playing despite hitting my objectives. It’s probably the first time in a Total War game I’ve actually wanted to keep going beyond the victory conditions just for fun. And it’s exciting to think that even when I finally finish up with this campaign, I still have four other races to play – each with their own campaign mechanics and entirely unique unit rosters. The variety on offer in Warhammer is staggering compared to previous titles in the series.

The campaign side of the game has certainly been streamlined if you compare it to say, Attila, at least in terms of region management. There’s no sanitation, fertility or immigration. There’s no negative modifiers to various building combinations. All of this has been stripped away. But I can’t say I disagree with this choice. Would these things have made sense within the context of a Warhammer themed Total War? Probably not. It’s not like the Greenskins are going to be worrying about their settlement sanitation levels. 

Settlement management in Warhammer is primarily about military, defence and money. And whilst it’s a more simplified system, there’s a lot more depth added to other areas of the game – most notably Lords and Heroes – all of whom have extensive skill and ability trees, combined with customisable equipment and followers. The main Legendary Lords also have unique quest chains and gear, which can be won by fighting scripted quest battles. These are a lot of fun, offering some narrative flavour to the sandbox campaign.

 

There was some controversy prior to release regarding the regional occupation system, but I’ve honestly not found it to be an issue at all. In fact, I think it’s had a positive effect on the campaign in the long term. Normally by about turn 80-100 in a Total War campaign, it starts to get a little tedious, but I’m nearly at turn 200 in my Empire campaign and I’m still enjoying it a lot.

The restriction on occupation really does force you to think differently about where, when and how to expand. And surprisingly, diplomacy is a big part of Warhammer, as forming confederations and forging alliances with other races is extremely important if you want to survive and deal with the threat of Chaos.

The campaign and battle AI in Warhammer is the best it’s ever been. Campaign AI, probably more so than battle AI, which is more of a small step up from what we had in Attila. It can really punish you in the campaign if you extend too far, too fast. That doesn’t mean there’s no AI quirks to be worked on, but they’re pretty minor.

Sieges were the other ‘controversy’, but I really don’t see them as any more or less simple than previous games in terms of strategy. Here though, with the emphasis on rapid assault, sieges are actually fun to play. Probably the most fun in the series yet, with an AI that actually attacks and defends to a competent degree.

 

In fact, battles in this game, thanks to the inclusion of magic, flying units and the sheer variety of unit types, are probably the most fun I’ve ever had with Total War battles. This is the first TW game where I’ve sunk any significant time into the custom battle mode because it’s so damn fun putting together varied scenarios of different units.

Graphically, the game is stunning, with fantastic detail to units, animations and effects. Terrain and architecture seem downgraded compared to Attila, but not to a detrimental degree. And sound and music in this game is outstanding. The voices, the creatures, the artillery – the battle audio is fantastic and is complemented by one of the best soundtracks in the series yet.

Okay, I’m starting to gush now, so I’d better wrap this up. As you can probably tell, I’m very impressed by Total War: Warhammer. I’m excited to keep playing my current campaign, even though it’s technically ‘complete’ in terms of objectives. I’m also excited to play as the other races to see what they offer in terms of mechanics and units.

There’s so much packed into this initial release, that it’s well worth your time and money. And as I said, this is only a foundation upon which the developers can build. Warhammer has breathed new life into the Total War franchise in just the way I hoped it would. Expect a full review and my final impressions in the next few weeks.