➤ To arms, citizens! 🎮

After the discussed Empire, certainly deserving as regards the concept and mechanics related to diplomacy, the idea of scientific / cultural research and the wonderful naval battles, but at the same time undermined by some new problems for a Total War product, such as a scarce squad of units and factions available or the not really "enlightened" AI, Creative Assembly initially attempted to correct some problems by releasing patches and DLCs, including the controversial Warpath Campaign, dedicated to Native Americans, which however produced a effect sometimes inverse to that hoped for, as many users did not like to pay (however little) for features that they expected already implemented in the base product.

Fortunately, while these DLCs were released, a stand-alone expansion was in development in record time that was supposed to rebalance and diversify the factions, and restore that air of epicness that had been lost in the transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In Empire stood in 1700, today, in 1796, a small French contingent is preparing to cross the Alps to invade the Spanish allies of Austria: it is commanded by a young man named Napoleon, and it is again time of total war.

The birth of an emperor

Napoleon: Total War, as the name suggests, focuses all the attention in that relatively short period in which Europe but not only was devastated by the earthquake following the French Revolution, by the spread of the ideas it brought as well as by megalomania and the ambition of a only man who, in the name of democracy, tried to bring his dictatorship to the entire continent.

Compared to the other products in the series, in which there was indeed the historical element but where it was also possible to witness various anachronisms (The search for the Social Contract in Empire anticipated the effective diffusion of Rosseaux's ideas by decades) or real evolutions alternatives (the Republic of Venice under my enlightened leadership has conquered the Holy Land and Europe Ed), in Napoleon the reconstruction takes over through a series of targeted campaigns that lead the player almost by the hand through the most important stages of Napoleonic epic.

A first attempt was made with Empire, thanks to the campaign dedicated to the American war of independence, but never in the history of the series had the historical reconstruction been sought with the aim of increasing the involvement of the player, to make him feel involved in certain facts that have helped make history as we read it in books. Perhaps more exciting than having the opportunity to rewrite it. It begins in Spain: a few possessions, armies made up of peasants armed with rifles and militiamen, a few knights and cannons against the Austrian giant to be weakened by annexing its Piedmontese allies and invading Austria, passing through the Po Valley and annexing the Republic. of Venice and then go up again along the Friuli. In 1798 we arrive at the invasion of Egypt, the clash with the English fleet, the fall of the Mamluk kingdoms and the defeat of the Janissaries at the Battle of the Pyramids, to return, in 1804, emperor, to Europe, to conquer Russia, and finally, in 1815, try it all out at Waterloo.

And he rethought the furniture / curtains, and the beaten valleys

Making the most of such a short period of time has forced the developers to radically change some of the basics of the game, first and foremost the duration of the shifts that goes from the canonical six months to two weeks, thus making it possible to create short campaigns while giving them a discrete series of choices that can be made. And precisely the pace of the action is the second important factor in this expansion: for the first time the player cannot wait, cannot retreat through years and decades of defense and trade to rebuild their armies. He has to attack quickly, because especially in Spain and Africa the turns are very few and the things to do, the lands to conquer and the enemies to defeat are many. Even the 170 rounds of the European campaign seem few compared to the objectives to be carried out.
Finally, the third big news are the objectives. Already present in the predecessors but often simple additions - however trivial or absolutely unjustified - in Napoleon: Total War they become fundamental requirements for victory. Even the rare optional missions, such as annexing Piedmont for example, are instead practically mandatory to win especially at the highest difficulty levels, guiding the player through those actions that Napoleon had to perform in order to win with such small forces against the opponents.

There are of course several minor improvements to the strategic map, new diplomatic and conquest options (looting returns for one), historical characters leading the armies, the possibility of recruiting generals as well as soldiers, some balancing in the behavior of citizens, finally new military units appearing on a campaign-by-campaign basis, from revolutionary infantry to the old guard through to Mamluk auxiliaries, new options for agents and more. News that, while not changing the gaming experience much, make a good impression, especially when compared to the bugs in the campaigns of the original version of Empire. For the record, it is also possible to face the European campaign with any dominant nation, but again nothing done for the minor factions, still not very usable until some mods are released, as it was for the predecessor.

Was it true glory? Posterity will judge.

Even the battles, both naval and land, have undergone heavy improvements: starting from the graphic aspect, which sees the increase of special effects, of smoke and particles, of detail in the soldiers and in the battlefield (the units have finally disappeared of clones), new atmospheric effects, a new option that opens a small window on the screen when something important happens (broken unit or general killed for example) on which to click to immediately move the camera in order to take action and, here too , much more.

Naval battles see a greater diffusion of huge sailing ships and steamships, a fair balance of the damage suffered by cannon shots and greater maneuverability, especially the minor ones, maintaining their appearance and their depth that were the greatest pride for Empire . Always with a view to historical reconstruction and also to signal a greater emphasis in the pitched battle, there is a campaign formed exclusively by battles (with a lot of imagination called "Battles of Napoleon") that traces the most important stages of the Napoleonic war epic (Austerlitz , Moscow, Pyramids up to Waterloo of course). Although the difficulty, both on the strategic map and on the battlefield, turns out to be quite high, this is more thanks to the limited time available for objectives than to the AI of enemies and allies, still to be perfected. The computer always tends to attack, even when it would be better for it to stay perched in defense, and moreover it always does so with the same tactic, sending the cavalry to the massacre first and then charging with the infantry - and to say that it was Napoleon who taught that there could be no cavalry charge without infantry input - and sometimes keeping units in reserve for no real reason; moreover, he often tends to abandon cannons to his fate, invariably reached and destroyed by the player's light cavalry. By increasing the level of difficulty, unfortunately, it is not so much the AI that improves the tactics, but rather the soldiers who transform into supermen, never fleeing and killing dozens of deaths at a single discharge, unlike your soldiers who suddenly become weaker.

Together

Also interesting are the proposals for multiplayer: fun the possibility to search, during the single player campaign, an opponent on the network to play a battle against a human instead of against the PC's AI, instead of finding someone waiting for a game quick, but even more interesting is finally the possibility of playing internet campaigns in the company of a friend. Both Italy, Africa and Europe are now open to the conquests of the players in the big network, which will make it difficult not to find someone willing to play: set the duration of the rounds and the frequency of the bailouts, wear the tricorn and good clash at all.

Comment

Resources4Gaming.com

8.6

Readers (157)

8.5

Your vote

Napoleon: Total War, more than an expansion, it is a real chapter in its own right, almost a spin-off of the Creative Assembly saga, and to prove it there are both the almost twenty GB of space required and the possibility of installing it even without already having Empire on the hard disk. The Napoleonic campaigns turn out to be frenetic, complex and evocative, the new units and improvements to the strategic campaign blend well with the gaming experience and offer a remarkable fresco in terms of longevity and replayability, things now quite rare in the videogame panorama. The new multiplayer options are good, a bitter aftertaste remains thinking about the enemy's Artificial Intelligence and the return to a smaller map than the big step, perhaps excessive, made with Empire. Furthermore, the total focus on the French faction obviously had negative repercussions on the others, which received a much lower number of additions and units.