➤ The King has arrived 🎮

During the fifteen-year history of the Total War series, Creative Assembly has explored different environments, moving from the Japan of the shogunate to the France of Napoleon, passing through the historical contexts that best suited the strategic dynamics of the game.

Among these, we can say that the one linked to the Roman Empire was the favorite of most fans of the brand, to the point of now representing an institution for the genre. A success that became a double-edged sword in 2013, the year of the release of Rome II which took place almost a decade after the arrival on the market of its direct predecessor. A title whose lofty ambition led the Horsham-based team to make some production errors, then forcing it to correct the game with a series of improved patches and additional content, with which the Emperor Edition came to life that has readjusted the what's this. Precisely because of the troubled genesis of Rome II, at the announcement of Total War: Attila there are those who have turned up their noses, considering less than a year and a half of the interval between the two episodes of the series too little to ensure that Creative Assembly didn't run into the same mistakes as the old game, especially with an Alien: Isolation in the way. Archived the latter, the developers have had the opportunity to refine Total War: Attila which on February 17 will officially arrive on our monitors: inside there is a lot of meat in the fire, with a Roman Empire at the last bars and numerous innovations that the developers have decided to introduce for the occasion, paying special attention to Attila and his Huns.

Live the last years of Rome or become the Scourge of God? All possible, in Total War: Attila!

From East to West

The Total War: Attila campaign begins in 395 AD, in the years when the light of Rome is definitively extinguishing on the territories controlled by the Empire. The latter is in fact divided between East and West, respectively under the control of Constantinople and the old capital. With the Roman forces weakened, many peoples began to peep out from the borders, pushing themselves with increasing audacity in looting and attacks directed at both sides, carried out thanks to warriors accustomed to enduring all kinds of sacrifices, not having a fixed abode. and life in constant motion. Apart from the Eastern and Western Roman Empire, the playable factions in Total War: Attila are eight more: they range from populations such as Visigoths and Vandals to the aforementioned Huns, accompanied by the Sassanids, the last to dominate Persia before the advent of the Dark Years.

Although with some differences, we can say that the level of challenge and the peculiarities of the gameplay vary a lot depending on the choice, also thanks to the new gameplay that Creative Assembly has introduced, bringing a hitherto unpublished concept to the Total War series. In the past, we have in fact had the opportunity to get to know civilizations in full expansion, including Rome, but here the perspective is reversed: we are in fact in a Europe where riots are the order of the day and the feeling experienced in guiding one's forces it is that of an imminent decline at the gates of the Middle Ages, dictated by the presence of various conflicts, but also by particularly adverse weather conditions and by plagues such as the plague that claimed numerous lives. Rewriting history is obviously possible, for example by launching into a campaign in which the Eastern Roman Empire will survive, a difficult undertaking we assure you. Or by becoming ourselves the cause of his end by putting the territories on fire as the Huns, a choice that among other things puts the players in a position to see the game in a completely different perspective, making us appreciate the choice of Creative Assembly that initially he had no intention of giving us control of Attila and his fearsome mounted men. But the novelties of this new chapter, as we are about to see, do not stop there.

Where I pass the grass no longer grows

The most interesting gameplay dynamics of Total War: Attila is in our opinion precisely that linked to the barbarian and nomadic populations, called by Creative Assembly "Horde Mode" and inherited in its own way from that already seen in the appreciated expansion Barbarian Invasion of the very first Rome : Total War.

Instead of being tied to city centers like other factions, the Hordes have no fixed abode, and can move across the map to wherever they see fit. The most striking example is precisely that of the Huns, for whom the lack of control of urban agglomerations is replaced by some mechanics specifically designed to ensure that the faction ensures the supply of food and money. We do not hide the fact that we were particularly curious to "live" this novelty directly, which is why we played our first campaign with the Huns: not having a fixed point of reference made us find ourselves more displaced than we thought, also due to of a map that is now really huge. The game area of Total War: Attila in fact goes from the British borders of the Empire to Persia, from the territories of Russia to those of North Africa, allowing the player to better control their domain through the presence of provinces and governors , able to issue edicts on the area they administer. Returning to our Horde, the camp mode allows units to build "buildings" and recruit new troops, through a construction method similar to that of the classic factions: in case of movement, however, you end up losing the various bonuses, forcing the player to plan their actions well to avoid staying dry. Moving on to something else, all the factions of the game have in common a new series of dynamics, which continue to bring the Total War series closer to the grand strategy of Crusader Kings: each dynasty has in fact its own family tree, to be managed in the best way to combine a marriage. with which to cement alliances, or to avoid that our kinsmen end up establishing our own domain. The latter situation can also be caused by other more famous exponents of their own faction: fortunately our defense foresees various possibilities, ranging from an extreme case such as assassination, to other lighter measures such as cutting the funds available. Furthermore, each character develops his own traits alongside the skills, which the player can assign through the appropriate game menu.

Total war

The dual strategic nature of the Total War series is obviously also preserved within Attila, thanks to the presence of the inevitable real-time battles. Also from this point of view, Creative Assembly has added some innovations, some of which can be found in the short term, while others can be appreciated with a few more hours of play on the shoulders.

Among the first, there is a different management of the fatigue of the units, which now end up getting tired earlier: an encouragement to plan their moves properly without throwing soldiers around the map, even if fortunately the new system provides that they recover. their energies faster. In terms of artificial intelligence, Creative Assembly seems to have made progress both in direct confrontation and in the turn-based phase, making sure that the CPU-controlled factions behave less consequentially than our actions, planning their own more. Also worth noting is a different philosophy behind the automatic resolution of clashes, which has become more uncertain than in the past: it is clear that in this way the developers want to make sure that the players themselves lead their forces in battle, to fully appreciate Total War. The sieges and the way in which they affect both the main mechanics of the game also deserve a separate discussion: the damage done to the structures in the turn-based phase will also have repercussions in those in real time, as well as the destructions carried out in the latter are reflected in the map of the turn-based phase.

The end of the world

Among the various aspects in which Rome II discovered the side of criticism was that concerning the uploads, a historical problem for the Total War series that became accentuated with the increase of units and territories at stake in the various chapters. Having already fixed things with the Emperor Edition, Creative Assembly proves that it has taken the matter further to heart even within Total War: Attila, although the waiting periods have not completely disappeared from the game, sometimes forcing a few additional seconds of pause.

The two sides of the Roman Empire, grappling with the management of larger territories than those of the other factions, weigh down the workload between one shift and the next. According to what the developers have indicated, the average performance of the game should be further optimized in a very short time. As for the part that remains of the technical sector, the work carried out by Creative Assembly in Rome II continues here too: certainly we have not seen unmotivated drops below 15 frames per second, as reported for the predecessor, with blows more than discreet eye in the phases in which we are directly engaged in battle. To fully enjoy all the details available, you need a pretty powerful PC, but this is nothing new at all. Latest notes for the multiplayer mode, inherited from the penultimate chapter: the cooperative campaign is flanked by the online battle, played up to a maximum of 4 vs 4 players, for a substantial reduction compared to Total War: Shogun II, probably in favor of Total War : Arena.

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

The editorial team uses the ASUS CG8250 Personal Computer
Intel Core i7 2600 processor
8 GB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti video card
Windows 7 operating system

Minimum requirements

Sistema Operativo: Windows Vista (64-bit se con Intel HD)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 3 GHz
RAM: 3 GB
Scheda Video: 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, AMD Radeon HD 2900 XT o Intel HD 4000
DirectX: 10 version
Hard Disk: 35 GB of free space

Recommended Requirements

Sistema Operativo: Windows 7 (64-bit se con Intel HD)
CPU: Second generation Intel Core i5
RAM: 4 GB
Scheda Video: 2 GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti o AMD Radeon HD 5870
DirectX: 10 version
Hard Disk: 35 GB of free space

Comment

Digital Delivery Steam Price 39,99 € Resources4Gaming.com

9.0

Readers (45)

8.6

Your vote

While not completely eliminating some defects of the series that have become historical, Total War: Attila manages to tease both the novice player and the one who instead did the whole process of the various Shogun, Medieval and company. The "survival" mechanics of this title make it an episode completely in its own right, to be experienced and relived thanks to the good level of challenge offered by such a situation. The introduction of new game dynamics for homeless factions such as the Huns, only adds extra hours to spend in the company of Attila and colleagues, trying to put Europe and neighboring territories on fire. In conclusion, we can only promote the work of Creative Assembly with flying colors.