Total War: Three Kingdoms

Total War: Three Kingdoms – Gameplay Video

With E3 this year, CA has put out a new video showcasing pre-alpha gameplay from their newest title, Total War: Three Kingdoms. The game is “historical” in that it uses the romanticized version of the Three Kingdoms story, so it is not a strict historical game.

Two interesting features in the video:

  • Generals can duel each other.
  • Armies can contain multiple heroes, each of which can recruit units, some of which may be unique to them.

You can choose between historical mode and romanticized mode.

  • Historical mode plays like the historical titles. Heroes are not single-unit entities, but move with a bodyguard and are also much more vulnerable to getting injured/killed on the battlefield.
  • Romanticized mode plays like the Total War: Warhammer titles; heroes are single-unit entities who are capable of taking on huge numbers of enemy troops simultaneously, while being less vulnerable to getting injured/killed, if at all.

You can read about their decision-making process here regarding the two modes of play.

The game’s launch date has been pushed back from Fall 2018 to Spring 2019, with the reasoning being more time to develop and polish the game. Total War games are famous for some of the bugs at launch, so it is good to see that they’re working to put out a quality product as opposed to rushing it.

Another interesting note is that Total War: Three Kingdoms will have Rafe de Crespigny consulting on the development, which bodes well for the authenticity. The concern is that the game should not be approached haphazardly even if the historicity of the source material “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” is not clear. There is hope that while the series is well known to be a sandbox of sorts, allowing players to write their own history, Total War: Three Kindgoms will feature events that naturally follow the flow of the story and showcase major battles, for example the Battle of Red Cliff.

More information will come as the launch date is still about 9-10 months away, while players wait for the third installment of the Total War: Warhammer franchise as well.

%d bloggers like this: