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Awesome Gameplay for New Computer Owners

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 26 / 32
Date: March 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Medieval II Total War allows you to fight throughout the European world during Roman Empire / Venice / young England times. You get a wide variety of troop types, weapons and armor suited to the medieval years.

The graphics are stunning. We have a wide screen flat computer monitor and the details you get even in the small mini-map are quite impressive. From the overall world map, to the detailed combat screens, you get easy to read text, atmosphere-imbuing backgrounds and accurate armor and weapon depictions. You can rotate at any angle, zoom in and out, as if you were a small helicopter traversing every part of the battlefield.

They do an admirable attempt at giving accents to the various factions, so that you feel like you're talking with someone from Venice, or England, or whoever you happen to be negotiating with. Battles sounds are the traditional clank - bash - yaaaagh that you have come to expect in these sorts of games. I enjoy the included music very much!

We didn't have any issues at all running the game on our system. This is a rather high-end game, letting numerous enemies move and fight on-screen at once. You really do need a current system to play it. I don't find this a bad thing - XBox 360 games don't play on an XBox machine. In fact, we had things happening too quickly at times, and had to scramble to keep up with the events.

There are the scripted campaigns, as well as custom battles where you can create teams of factions and see how you do on a given map. You can even choose specific units from different periods, mixing and matching to see "what if" scenarios.

AI is rather impressive for having so many units making decisions at the same time. Sure, there is the occasional issue where units being bombarded with an arrow assault can't quite figure out where to go to escape it. But I imagine that happens in real life too - if you're under a hail of arrows, it might not be clear which way is safer to run. I do agree that they shouldn't just stand still and wait to die :)

Still, as all strategy gamers know, it really doesn't matter what the AI of a strategy game does. That is just a training mode to help you learn the techniques. The real challenge in any strategy game is to take on other human gamers. So once you've mastered the basics, and understand the skills, take your game online and see how you do against other human players!

Beautiful, Challenging, & Addictive Grand Strategy Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 15
Date: November 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Medieval 2 Total War takes all the best elements from all the previous great Total War franchise games and wraps them neatly into one powerful, incredible, almost unbelievably Beautiful, Challenging, & Addictive Grand Strategy Game. The gameplay combines a turn-based "table top" epic strategy component with a visceral, real-time battlefield experience. The game is literally two games in one, and both sides of the game truly shine.

I'm a long time fan of the series, so, I'll admit I have a strong built in preference for this series. I followed this game's development since it was announced, and I'll admit I had very high expectations for this next installment in the Total War series. After Rome Total War, the game had a lot to live up to!

I am pleased to report that my expectations were met...and then some. One need only read all the professional game review sites to see just how favorable the rest of the industry views Medieval 2 Total War. Although not as ground-breaking and original as the previous title in the series, Medieval 2 Total War still delivers incredible, jaw-dropping visuals, competitive AI, gripping music, and just plain tons and tons of fun.

I strongly recommend this game for any fan of the Total War series, any fan of strategy games in general, and even any gamer looking for something set in the medieval era to play. A+

Addictive gameplay, nosy Pope, and a feeling of strategic brilliance with well-timed victories

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 14
Date: December 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Graphics:
Having played every Total War game since Shogun, I knew what to expect going in. This game is quite an improvement over the original Medieval graphics-wise. The graphics are slightly better than Rome Total War - with an included option to select widescreen or fullscreen format, something that I wish more developers would include in their games these days. (Here's looking at you EA).

That and the fact that your individual soldiers within a unit have a randomized appearance put this a step above Rome in the graphics department - especially with the sheer number of units that can be in a battle.

My verdict? A+

Gameplay:
While I can only speak to the single player portion of the game, I have found myself playing 5 - 6 hours at a time, and have had to begin pacing myself. The politics, intrigue, and of course - warfare wrap things up into a nice little package of fun.

One thing I have found annoying (albeit probably realistic) is that the Pope - if there are lots of cardinals from an enemy nation, or if he is from one of the enemy nations can be downright hostile towards you.

As England, I was minding my own business - when France and their ally Denmark invaded me and declared war. Although I was caught by surprise, I was not off guard thankfully as I had just landed an army commanded by my best general in the general area they were attacking. This was a fortuitous coincidence as I was mainly getting him out of the mainland because there was an inquisitor poking around and executing my generals and family for heresy - and my best general, a "Pagan Magician" was someone I didn't want to lose despite his religious failings.

In short order, I beat the invaders out of my country and was on the outskirts of Paris - when the Pope told me to "quit spilling the blood of your fellow Christians with your aggression." I was perplexed long enough to realize that between them - France and Denmark made up half of the college of cardinals.

If they wanted to play dirty, so could I - as I began grooming new priests as candidates for cardinals - and assassins to open up the college itself.

Brute force isn't the only strategy in this game, and the politics and intrigue add a whole new level of depth to this series.

My verdict: A+

Overall - I am pleased to see the return of special mission videos that have been lacking since Shogun, although these are not quite (but almost) as interesting to watch. I have had an excellent time with this game, and recommend it to old fans of the Total War series - as well as new fans alike.

From Europe, Africa, the Middle East - and I understand America can be opened up... prepare for Total War. Crusades and Jihads abound during this representation of a tumultuous time in human history. The mongol invasion is represented as well - adding more and more levels than existed in the earliest Total War games.

5/5 for newbies to series. 3.5/5 for veterans

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: March 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you like turn based or real time wargames and if you haven't played any of the Total War franchise (Shogun, Medieval 1, Rome) so far, you are in for a treat. Medieval is a gorgeously rendered game that immerses you in lengthy nation & economy-building, back in the middle ages. But the key are the real time battles and boy are they fun to play and watch. In any case, the other reviews speak for themselves.

On the flip side, if you have played games in this series before, Medieval 2 is not without its flaws...

AI:

Med 2's strategic AI is pretty easy to beat, even at the highest level. This is unlike Rome which is much more challenging. My _guess_ is this: Rome and earlier games were heavily scripted, meaning that the computer would be _told_ to always play the same aggressive and effective way at the start of the game. With one script for each possible human player faction. I remember playing Scipio in Sicily 3 or 4 times before I finally learned how to stay alive. Sure, once you knew how to play a faction, you would win, but getting there was fun.

Medieval is, I think, less scripted and relies more on the AI actually figuring things out on its own. And it isn't very good at it, so the campaigns are actually a tad boring. If the AI does improve (a big if) then the game should have more replay value in the future. In the meantime, I'm not playing Medieval 2 much. The tactical battle AI is better, imho.

Graphics/individual soldier animation:

The graphics are eye candy. Graphics shouldn't make or break a game of this type. Wargames _can_ work with iconic/stylized graphics. I remember being thrilled by playing Harpoon, which had very very rudimentary graphics, even for its day. In fact, I rather prefer Rome's campaign map to Medieval's, because it is more stylized and easier to grasp at a glance. Granted, Medieval's battle map is a _big_ improvement, but I would have preferred to get naval battles instead of upgraded graphics.

Other new things:

The Pope: great idea. What a annoyance he is with his constant orders, just like Popes apparently were in those days.

Resources + merchants: good idea, would be better if resources weren't such a pixel hunt on the main map and if merchants weren't so preposterously difficult to assassinate.

Artillery: pretty good idea and fairly well represented - they are invaluable for city attacks and pretty good elsewhere. They sometimes can't fire somewhere and it is unclear why - no LOS? no spotters?

Princesses: what are they for anyway? I would have liked more strengthening of existing alliances by marriage, not just an underpowered Diplomat.

Religion: getting better and better in its effects.

Heretics: waste of time as shown, mostly useful to ramp your bishops' Piety and there aren't enough of them for that purpose.

City happiness: they've tuned the system a bit. Large cities do need lots of stuff to keep the locals happy. But it can be made to work and large cities don't _always_ oscillate between growth, revolt, suppression, growth...

May '07 addition: I've now installed the 1.2 patch and the strategic AI is as lame as ever, at 'hard' level. Nations that have me outnumbered send in their armies one by one so I can deal with them piecemeal. The AI really shows very little _strategic_ initiative. Again, this should not deter new players from this great game, but veterans will find little new challenge, just a different setting.

Total War does it again.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 11
Date: November 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game follows the Rome Total war system, but lets face it you always back a winner. The new game is graphically excellent, the game play is great and overall its a definite winner. Its stable and doesnt crash well at least on my system and only slows when the numbers being crunched are very high.

The strategic side of the game is better, improvements to diplomacy are good but not infallable, I recommend you play this game knowing that any alliance is going to be short lived and that eventually you or your ally is going to take advantage, which given the period is quite realisitic. The only patch recommendation I would add is to make dynastic marriages a little more binding.

The Castle/City idea is great though it takes a long time to build things up the new system is more realisitic. The combat system is much improved over RTW with the battles very realistic and quite a bit more visually pleasing, the AI does need some tweaking, the bad guys need to be a bit brighter but its only noticable if your a mad keen gamer. A bit of tweak and the enemy will behave with a bit more brain, like run before you die and be all good. Attacks on Castles can be fun as either the defender or attacker, defending is harder as your opponent generally attacks in a few locations so pay attention to you garrison size and composition.

Overall its a great game and worth every cent.

Cheers

Best RTS GAME EVER?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: November 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Pros- Good A1
Lots of Armies and nations
Great Map
Not to hard to master
Great Graphics
AMAZING BATTLES
Very good diplomacy
Very addicting
Very Replayable
CONS
No in battle save
Naval combat Weak
Requirements are high

Best TW GAME

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: November 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I ve been playing the tw series since rome. and i was blowen away. it is an awesome game! and so is Medieval 2!!!!! The graphics are very nice a lot of detail. individual armys ,no clons!!!diffrent shields and and and...the gameplay is awesome. it has afew bugs here and there but a patch is coming and i hope they will fix it. You can spent countless hours again and agian playing this game! The only con I have is that the map though a bit nicerr than in rome has stayed the same and the intro is the same as in rome just diffrent units. But those are small things that dont disturb me!

Evolutionary but a lot of fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: April 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Medieval 2 builds on Rome: Total War, it looks similar and plays somewhat similarly, but is easily my favorite in the series. The simple joy of trebuchets battering down castle walls, sending enemy archers flying is complemented by the intricacies of dealing with the pope and crusades. In a nice improvement over previous titles, even a game that you seem to have won, having a large empire and plenty of cash can be challenging. The computer players are more aggressive and you will square off against equally large opponents; not to mention the arrival of the Mongol hordes! Definitely a must-have if you're a fan of total war games or just medieval strategy in general.

Solid Title

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: November 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Another great title from the creative assembly. Yes, it is a lot like Rome: Total War, but why drastically change what works? If the creative assembly had reinvented the game then people would be complaining that medieval II *isn't* like rome. Thank dog they didn't screw it all up.

Anyway, if your a fan of the series (or just love a good RTS) then this is it. The IGN review pretty much says it all: rich detail during battle (each warrior moves and looks slightly different, fights look more convincing, better shading, gently waving grass, etc. etc.), and the campaign strategy portion includes more variety over Rome. The "Cresent and the Cross" history channel documentary (DVD) included in the box was a nice surprise. It was interesting to correlate game features with the show.

I was surprised to find that this game performs on my machine about the same as Rome (a little better in some cases and a little worse in others). They must have put in a lot of effort to get all the visual extras rendering that fast.

Medieval II hits the spot for this reviewer.

Not perfect but still the cutting-edge

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: January 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It seems as if most of the improvements since Roman Total War have been in the graphics. As far as cosmetics go, the game is amazing.

As for substance, I find MTW slightly unsatisfying. I had hoped for better AI. Even at the "very difficult" setting, the game is a little too easy. The political dimension seems to have less impact than it should, especially when you marry into a faction through a princess. Also, the other Christian factions seem pretty disinterested when you're excommunicated (or even capture Rome, for that matter).

The idea of heretics and witches is cool but under-developed. I had hoped that religion would have a more significant part to play in the game.

Also, all the factions are pretty much the same. They all have comparable units and the "unique" units aren't really all that special. Roman Total War did a better job as far as each faction having a unique aspect to it. Choosing a faction in this game is little more than a matter of geography.

The whole "discovering the New World" aspect is interesting but doesn't really have any strategic impact (which is realistic for the time period in question).

Overall, the game is beautiful but slightly lacking in playability. I've only had it since Christmas and, already, I'm starting to lose interest. Roman Total War has more long-term playability to it. Personally, I'd rather have simpler graphics and better game design.

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