(15 votes, average: 2.73 / 5)
Loading...Total War Battles: Kingdom
Total War Battles: Kingdom is a cross-platform free-to-play 3D strategy game based on the PC game Medieval II: Total War, but features a more casual gaming experience.
|
Publisher: Creative Assembly Type: MMO Strategy Release Date: April 09, 2015 Shut Down: April 28, 2022 PvP: Instanced Duels Pros: +Good graphics. +Great audio. +Persistent game environment with changing seasons. +Strategic battles. Cons: -Heavily focused on microtransactions. -Long build times and cooldowns. -Unbalanced battle mechanics. -Repetitive gameplay. |
Total War Battles: Kingdom Shut Down on April 28, 2022
Total War Battles: Kingdom Overview
Experience a different take on the Total War series in Total War Battles: Kingdom, a bite-sized cross-platform game based on the widely-popular Medieval II: Total War PC game. Take control of your land as a newly-emerged English noble and slowly build a kingdom that can propel you to the throne. Establish cities, lay down roads, build bridges, and even terraform the land according to your needs. Conquer other regions with bribes or by proving your prowess in battle. Subdue rioting peasants, defeat deserting soldiers, fend-off conquerors, and take on rival players using a variety of units, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Formulate strategies to dominate the battlefield and eventually be crowned ruler of all of England.
Total War Battles: Kingdom Key Features:
- Cross-Platform Gaming – get the Total War experience on your PC, Mac, tablet, or Smartphone (Currently still in Open Beta for the PC).
- Bite-sized Total War – unlike other games in the Total War series, Total War Battles: Kingdom is made for casual and quick gaming sessions perfect for mobile phones and tablets.
- Build Your Kingdom – explore, conquer, and shape your lands into a powerful kingdom. Build cities, roads, bridges, and even change the course of rivers to suit your needs.
- Dynamic Environments – explore a constantly changing world where seasons change in real-time, effecting crops, wildlife, and the appearance of the land.
- Strategic Battles – recruit a variety of units and use their strengths and weaknesses to your advantage during battles.
Total War Battles: Kingdom Screenshots
no images were found
Total War Battles: Kingdom Featured Video
Total War Battles: Kingdom Review
By, Marc Marasigan
Total War Battles: Kingdom is set in war-ravaged 10th century England where local rulers fight for power among themselves while foreign soldiers threaten the kingdom. Players take on the role of a new noble on a quest to secure the throne and unite the land under one banner. Start off with a small area of land that, according to the game’s story, that players inherit after the untimely demise of their parents. And if dead parents weren’t enough, part of their inheritance was nearly wiped out by a flood and the rest is claimed by other power-hungry nobles. It’s up to the player to rebuild their kingdom and take back what is rightfully theirs. The game’s graphics look really good considering that Total War games aren’t too big on graphics. The audio on the other hand is top-notch with epic background music that’s to be expected of a Total War game.
Welcome Home M’lord
The game starts off with a dialog box that let’s players customize their avatars, which oddly contains plenty of options for male characters and only a handful for females. The game then continues with a somewhat lengthy and, unfortunately, unskippable tutorial which takes players step by agonizing step through the process of terraforming, building, recruiting units, upgrading, and controlling units in battle. The tutorial does a good enough job of bringing players up to speed the first time through so a skip button would have been great. After the tutorial, players are left to their own devices. They are, however, given side quests that serve as guides while also rewarding the player with Honor Points (EXP) and occasionally with gold, the game’s premium currency.
Total War of Clans
Total War Battles: Kingdom is basically a dumbed-down version of Medieval II: Total Wars. The game retains a few of the original game’s key features like city-building and strategic battles but caters to a more casual audience. And when I say casual, I mean construct-a-building and wait several hours before it finishes casual. Seriously, this game has ridiculously long build times and honestly feels like it has a lot more in common with Clash of Clans than any game in the Total War series. Players have the option to speed things up in exchange for gold, which can be bought using real-world cash, much like Gems in Clash of Clans. The game is plagued with microtransactions at every turn. Aside from speeding up construction, gold can also be used to speed up resource gathering, heal wounded units, buy unit upgrades, and pay for support skills during battle. Even colors, designs, and emblems, for your personal coat of arms need to be bought with gold. Talk about milking you for everything you’ve got.
To Battle!
Aside from city-building most of a player’s time will be spent completing missions and quests that are basically battles against different types of opponents, from rioting peasants to invading Viking warriors. The game’s battle system features a simplified version of battles in the Total War series. Instead of an open field, battles are fought in a closed space wide enough for three units per side, three rows deep, for a total of 9 unit slots. Players initially start the game with 5 slots, 3 units in front, and 2 units in the back row. The rest of the slots are unlocked as the player levels up. Like other Total War games, different types of units do well against certain types. Spearmen, for example, are great against cavalry but would be massacred by archers.
Micromanagement is also still a key part of the game, particularly in battles. Although, being a casual game, battles aren’t as complex as the original games. Casual, however, doesn’t necessarily mean easy. Unless you stick with the easy missions, battles can get intense especially when going up against superior numbers or superior unit types. Once the battle starts, units automatically move forward to face the incoming enemy while the player chooses targets, activates skills, and positions their units to effectively counter the opposing army. I actually enjoyed the battles although they can become a bit repetitive the longer you play the game. The game also seems to have a few balance issues. A unit of archers, for example, can easily take out half of a melee unit with a perfectly-timed charge.
I Challenge You to a Duel
Dueling is the only form of PVP available in the game, and allows two players to battle it out using their armies. The game’s matchmaking system automatically tries to match players up with others of roughly the same level although it’s entirely possible to be matched up with a high level player. Cash players have a slight advantage over free-to-play players because of their upgraded units but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll win the match since strategy and successfully countering your enemy’s troops is still the key to victory.
The Final Verdict – Fair
Total War Battles: Kingdom is basically a microtransaction-heavy mobile game made for the PC. To be fair, the devs did say that it’s a cross-platform game; although, honestly, they might be better off sticking with tablets and smartphones. The battles are quite enjoyable and maybe even a bit addictive. The game might have been great if it weren’t for the overly-long wait times and the game’s pay-or-wait-8-hours-to-harvest-the-freaking-wheat payment model. As of now, Total War Battles: Kingdom isn’t really worth investing any time in. My advice, wait for the game to come out for smartphones and tablets then play it just like you would Clash of Clans, Castle Clash, or any other mobile strategy game.
Total War Battles: Kingdom Screenshots
Total War Battles: Kingdom Videos
Total War Battles: Kingdom Links
Total War Battles: Kingdom Official Site
Total War Battles: Kingdom Steam Page
Total War Battles: Kingdom Wikia
Total War Battles: Kingdom System Requirements
Minimum Requirements:
Operating System: Windows Vista 32-bit Service Pack 2
CPU: Core 2 Duo / Athlon X2 / 1.8 GHz
RAM: 2 GB RAM
Video Card: 512 MB Intel HD4000 / ATI Radeon HD4650 / NVidia Geforce 430
Direct X: DirectX 9.0
Hard Disk Space: 2 GB available space
Recommended Requirements:
Operating System: Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1
CPU: Core 2 Duo / Athlon X2 / 2.4 GHz
RAM: 2 GB RAM or more
Video Card: 1 GB ATI Radeon HD5850 / Nvidia Geforce GTX 480
Direct X: DirectX
Hard Disk Space: 2 GB available space
Total War Battles: Kingdom Music & Soundtrack
Coming Soon!
Total War Battles: Kingdom Additional Information
Developer: Creative Assembly
Publisher: Creative Assembly
Open Beta: March 09, 2015
Official Release Date: April 09, 2015
Steam Release Date: April 09, 2015
Shut Down: April 28, 2022
Development History / Background:
Total War Battles: Kingdom is a free-to-play 3D MMO strategy game developed and published by Creative Assembly, the developer behind the highly-acclaimed Total War Series. The game is based on the Medieval II: Total War PC game from the same company. The game went into Open Beta on March 9, 2015 and was officially launched on April 9, 2015. The game is planned to be released across multiple platforms but is currently only available for PC and Steam. The game was shut down on April 28, 2022.
