Total War is a Creative Assembly IP that has been kicking around as long as strategy games for PC have. They have become the bar to reach when attempting turn-based strategy and real-time battles in the same engine, and no one has ever really done it like Total War. Unfortunately, that can sometimes cause different games to feel “Samey” and not bring the new game experience to it’s maximum potential. With a lot of recent controversy surrounding pricing changes, lack of bug fixes, and general complaints about the direction of the series and even the company, Creative Assembly had a lot to deal with before anyone even played the newest game, Total War: PHAROAH. This title is based on, you guessed it, Egypt and its bronze age neighbors, namely Canaan and the Hittites. This title has a lot riding on it, as the return to historical titles following the last few being fantasy (Total War: Warhammer 1 - 3), and it definitely brings plenty of features and lessons the company has implemented and learned in the last few years to hit that high bar.
Gameplay
As soon as you launch into a campaign, the UI brings you back to Total War Saga : TROY, as PHARAOH is a product of the same studio, Creative Assembly Sofia. With that, much of the gameplay changes and improvements from that game have been included here, and it feels excellent. As another Bronze Age-focused Total War game, it should feel similar while still having its own gameplay twist around the specific region and timeframe.
PHARAOH is based on becoming the titular Pharaoh of the Egyptians after the death of the previous, or the High King of the Hittites in a brutal civil war. The Cannan tribes sitting between can also make a bid for a big fancy hat of Kingdom, but also could ignore that struggle entirely and simply conquer to their heart’s content. Spoiler alert, this game is pretty focused on Egypt, so playing as the other factions is fun in a side quest sort of way. Enjoyable, but the meat of the game is in that Nile valley. With 4 main characters that all play differently and a power struggle that is always messy, trying to get one of the Pharaoh’s Crowns is never easy.
With that out of the way, I can confirm playing as an Egyptian character struggling through these times is a blast. With a much deeper campaign layer featuring court actions and intrigue, the resource systems from Troy, and a brutally hard AI that takes every opportunity to stomp you, PHARAOH does not get dry. Constantly dealing with shortages of vital resources and attacks throughout the game really accentuates the instability and chaos of this era, and later in the campaign can get really dark when the ancient world falls into crisis. The Bronze Age collapse can occur if specific cities aren’t in good shape, with the collapse signaling fewer resources and more powerful enemies like the Sea Peoples. This can quickly spell doom for fractured tribes of the region, which can only be protected by a strong ruler… Me. At least, that’s what I keep telling my advisors.
The campaign layer of PHAROAH will see your character building armies and upgrading towns to take more towns and get more resources. Simple right? Except this time around, instead of just dealing with one currency, you are dealing with 5. Food, Wood, Stone, Bronze, and Gold must all be balanced and dealt with, necessitating trade with those that have resources you require or capturing territory to gain them. This leads to a much more interesting and in-depth diplomacy situation, where many of your resources will be funded or offset by trading with nearby rulers. At one point, I had 15 different trade deals going to supply my armies, and the sudden spike in upkeep when those deals started expiring caused a lot of sweat and concern. Of course, while balancing the needs of your armies and people, it is also important to keep up the court politicking and behind-the-scenes plays for power. Diplomacy and Court Intrigue are just as important as fielding a strong army in PHARAOH.
Of course, fielding a large army is part of the fun. The real-time battles for PHARAOH are great, with more of an emphasis on tactical positioning and utilizing the terrain and your units to best advantage. Strong heavy units can be bogged down in mud and whittled down by spears, and archers can’t fire too well in sandstorms. The changes to the terrain of the battles, the layouts of siege maps, and unit variations fit well for an infantry-focused game, with the only real mounted units being chariots. This interplay of differences from a game like Warhammer means that even with plain old humans you can have a huge variation of units and uses and incredibly fun and engaging battles. The weather mechanic has also been reworked, which can allow interesting changes in battle. Where it used to be dry, rainy, etc, now there is shifting weather as the battle goes on, with some wild battles coming from starting hot and dry and then having a sandstorm hit mid-fight. While this was incredibly fun and I enjoy the basics of the battle layer, I did have some issues with what felt like incredibly fast camera scrolling compared to previous games, and the much-touted unit animations felt kind of lame, with very few kill animations (if any) that I saw.
As a return to the historical Total War game, PHARAOH reminded me how hard they could be. The Hard difficulty was truly a struggle, and the only campaign I actually finished was a Normal Ramses campaign. This difficulty made for some awesome intense series of turns, and fans of the series can rest assured this one is a tough nut to crack.
Graphics and Sound
Those who have played Troy and Warhammer can attest to the graphical integrity of the Total War series. With each iteration, this improves, and PHARAOH is no exception. The battles are crisp and pop with fidelity even on a desert map, and I cannot wait for the inevitable blood mod to paint the sands red. On the campaign layer this graphical fidelity is even better, taking advantage of the fantastic art direction and set pieces throughout the map, with individual cities and each part of this ancient world looking incredible. Panning across the Nile or the the cliffs in Canaan and seeing the different environments and visuals across the banks and valleys evoke images of these epic ancient struggles. Overall, a very pretty game to base my conquest across.
Audio is pretty standard for the series, which is to say pretty darn good. FX sounds are well done and he music is awesome. The voice acting from characters to the advisor to individual units and general yells in battle feels accurate and lifelike, without some weird robot tone that can plague strategy games.
Feedback
Please please please, CA, fix the camera. On the lowest setting, it was brutal, flying around the battle map at the slightest touch of a button or dragging my mouse to the side. Don’t even get me started on using shift to accelerate the camera.
Other than that big complaint and a question about matched animations not including the cool kills seen between generals on the end-of-battle screen, I only have minor complaints. PHARAOH will not be for every gamer, and there were parts that stuck as not fun for me. Chariots are fiddly and can be messy to use in battle, and learning how to manage a workforce, armies, and a suffering economy feels impossible. However, I recognize that the parts I may not have liked as much fit extremely well with the rest of the game as a part of the whole, and the game would be worse without those parts. All in all, it makes for an awesome game that a lot of people will enjoy (and plenty will also eviscerate because it isn’t perfect for them)
Conclusion
Total War: PHARAOH marks a triumphant return to historical strategy for the Kings and Queens at Creative Assembly. While not perfect, PHARAOH takes advantage of the best that the Total War series has offered, refines it, and puts out a package that will be great for players to enjoy as their newest offering. It’s pretty tough to follow a game like Total War: Warhammer 3, but Total War: PHARAOH definitely does a good job.
In terms of price, this feels a bit more expensive for what it offers. While the narrower focus is great and allows a much needed change from the vast Warhammer games, the distinctly smaller game feels like a Total War Saga title that got a main game price-tag. If this were priced like Total War Saga: Troy it would be a good price, so this is one to pick up on a sale.
Total War: PHARAOH will be out on October 11 on PC via Steam. Check out the latest trailer below and let us know your thoughts in the comments!
