So there has been some evidence that Total War: Warhammer is being worked on.
Here is the link to the relevant post.
The Total War community’s reaction has been very divided. Some are very happy for a new branch on their favorite IP, others are expressing anger for the move into fantasy, and many others are taking a wait-and-see approach.
The people who are against Total War: Warhammer have two lines of reasoning:
- They believe CA is “tainting” the Total War franchise’s focus on history.
- They believe CA will stop working on the historical games that Total War is known for.
First off, it isn’t your intellectual property. It’s Sega and CA’s. They could make a My Little Pony game with the Total War branding and you would have to live with it. Don’t like it? The only option you have is to not buy it. Don’t worry, you won’t be missed as we will have plenty of Warhammer fans to replace you.
Second, this is foolish. CA has already shown they have multiple teams working on different games. If you were to believe some of the posters in the TW community, CA will never make another historical Total War game again. Was Total War really all that historical to begin with? Does no one remember exploding pigs?
It just looks like a small number of angry, fanatical “purists” who believe Total War needs to be a certain way only. These people are toxic to the community. Games should be seen and played before judging them, and these people are completely condemning the game off of a blurb in an art book.
Personally, I think it’s fine. The game series was starting to stagnate. Medieval 3? Shogun 3? How many numbers were we going to go up into? Because history is history, it cannot be “improved” with new mechanics and features. Historical games are either historical or not. If a game is fun, it’s fun. Let it be judged on its own merits and quality.
What is the upside of a Warhammer game in the Total War franchise?
New IP to explore – Like I mentioned above, how many sequels to certain games can we expect from Rome, Medieval, and Shogun? Is there something I can look forward to that Rome 5 will have that Rome 4 won’t? History itself can’t be “changed” to reflect more interesting gameplay. The most they can do is update graphics, and any other changes would be on the periphery of features. Some have argued that there are other time periods to explore (Rise of Islam, Victorian Era, China’s Warring States Period, etc.) but I would argue the gameplay would still be the same, while the setting is different. A football game played in a different stadium and season is still football.
New gameplay and mechanics – Total War has a overused formula. Most units are either spear, sword, or ranged units. You have foot infantry, cavalry, and artillery. You attack settlements, siege cities, and fight armies, in the context of a pretty straightforward politics and diplomacy system, with a small mini-game utilizing agents. The variance between play-styles and units in the Warhammer universe are very large, and would be a breath of fresh air in a somewhat tired formula.
Overall, I feel like having a Warhammer game in the franchise is a plus. Time will tell how good it is, and how well it is received.