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Great game, except.......

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 16
Date: December 11, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Total War: Medieval is very enjoyable, but it has an unendurable glitch -- the program occasionally aborts and returns to the operating system, without saving the game. This happens usually during battles.

My computer exceeds all system requirements, and this is simply unacceptable. It ruins an otherwise fine game.

After the 4th or 5th "abort", I broke the CD to spare myself further frustration. No more Activision for me. It is unbelievable (in 2004) that a company can market a product with this kind of glitch.

GREAT GAME!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: August 22, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is awesome. I read sumone saying this is the best RTS this year. I agree,but it much more than just an RTS. From the world map it looks and feel like you are playing the old comp. game,"Risk". But iits nothing like risk when you get into it. You can follow pre-set campaigns such as the 100 year war or just make your own. What I like about this game is you can jump into the battles almost instantly and as their happening. The major great idea about this game is that the battles can consist of tens upon thousands of units. The other cool thing is when a unit dies,the body stays on the battle feild until the battle is completly over. That add alot of reality to it. I love this game,and ANYONE even slightly interested in kings,castles,knights will love this real time strategy twist!

Wonderfully complex at first glance but...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: April 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The detail given this game is awe inspiring at first, but on close examinantion it's often excessive and superfluous. I found myself stripping away layer after layer until it was actually playable. There must be hundreds of different unit types, and I'm still not sure if it isn't all the same just to get a huge stack of generic spearmen, throw them into the fray, and let the computer auto-calculate. The game offers a huge array of diplomatic agents, but they rarely prove useful. Diplomats and princesses have difficulty actually finding a ruler to propose an alliance to, and even if they do, the AI almost always rejects the proposal. So the player usually ends up not bothering with diplomats and letting computer players come to them. I found spies to be the most useless of all. Supposedly they dig up dirty laundry about a certain individual, but they are absurdly easy to catch and have never in my experience actually succeeded in their mission. Assassins succeed sometimes, but not enough usually to make paying for them worthwhile. Inquisitors are the only agents I found to be useful enough to actually make.
For the most part, the diplomacy part of the game is a joke. The designers should have made this aspect stronger. As in almost all games of strategy, the player gets better results from spending that money on troops and sending them in.

The Pope.
He is perhaps the single most annoying figure. If you even take back a territory which you lost a turn ago to a surprise attack, he threatens to excommunicate your faction for defending itself. For Catholic nations, excommunication is practically unavoidable. And if the player has built piddly little border forts and town militias, it proves to be no more than an annoyance. The Pope's power is so weak that once again, it is more expedient not only to take your territory back, but to go on a counteroffensive. In fact, it is most convenient to simply conquer the Vatican and put a puppet Pope in place so you can do what you want.

The gameplay of Medieval: Total War is certainly addictive, but in the end it is little more than your standard strategy game of unbridled and unthinking aggression. The AI is unpredictable enough that it scarcely matters whether you're allied with them or not. They might just get in their heads one morning that they want to attack you when you are much stronger or be peaceful neighbors for a century while they are strong. Even on the expert level, this game presents relatively little challenge for all but the toughest factions. If you have some time that needs to be consumed, I guarantee the mastery of Europe will take many hours, but otherwise, look for something with same premise and without all the pretense of complexity.

Patience is a virtue

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: April 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Boy ,talk about mixed emotions. I have had a love/hate relationship with this game. I have bought it twice and trashed it twice. What is severely lacking is just plain old character. There is nothing to give you a sense of identity. Shogun at least gave you an advisor with whom you could consult(if you had a hankering for confucian riddles) or receive dignitaries whose insults were barbed with eloquence. It would greatly enhance the game to have a video play during key moments. When a faction leader is killed in battle a video would be much more affecting than reading a scroll of said event. That's what made Shogun such a gas.

Even though princes and princesses are capable of marrying into other clans there seems to be little thought given into how these events help to forge alliances.In the latter stages of this game marriage into other factions is next to impossible. That is tactical suicide for the minnows trying to swim with the sharks. In short the game could use a more complex diplomacy schematic - this was a truly dynamic feature of the age. Intermarriage guaranteed neutrality and sometimes military assistance.

The leader/general ratings are imbued with command,dread, piety and accumen. All of these can be enhanced with experience but are too often affected negatively on a random basis.Oftentimes turning a good commander rotten. Showing mercy by letting captives or rebels off the noose can lead to you being exclaimed a saint or a wuss but if you persist in executing your foes not only will your reputation suffer but your own troops will come to despise you. It sounds very intriguing on paper but in practice it is mundane. At the end of each round you receive a scroll listing this or that character change and that is it. Not very stimulating. And according to this version of history medieval nobles were very inclined to homosexual tendencies. When your umpteenth leader gets revealed as a molester of boys it starts getting under your skin. This is what passes for character and I just dont think it enhances the game in the least.

The multiplicity of unit types and units specific to any given faction should make the game more interesting - but doesn't. instead the sheer variety leads to confusion on how to engage a specific foe. Units may appear similarly armed but are in effect vastly different in quality. Without knowing the capabilities of special units in detail it is hard to say whether this unit or that is suitable to engage its counterpart. The AI knows these variables and will out- maneuver you too easily. Despite the cool graphics this is just about crunching numbers and the computer is much better at that than a human. But if you have lots of spare time and patience the game can be edited. After getting sick of seeing whole armies turn tail and run at the slightest provocation I did just that. I can't go into details here but in the game folders there are lists which will allow you to edit every aspect of the game. ANY unit can be resized, have more armour, valour, ammo, march faster etc...simply by editing the appropriate table. Likewise buildings can be constructed cheaper, faster, generate more income and give greater or lesser bonuses than has been originally denoted.Once you figure out how this is done it will lead you to question why certain units were shortchanged. Cavalry seem especially weak given their historical dominance in this era. Just an extra point here or there makes a big difference to the fighting capability of any given unit. In short, with a bit of patience you can rewrite this game to conform to your version of how is should be played.But be warned there are over a hundred unit types to tinker with. If you make a mistake no harm no foul, you just uninstall the game and reload it.

But even so the AI is still an issue. The battlefield AI works very well indeed but the grand strategy just seems to be clueless. This is one of the few games where manipulating thousands of troops at a time can be done effortlessly and with remarkable coordination. I haven't seen anything which comes close to approximating this. And there are many out there who promote themselves on this model but deliver far short of the mark. Caveat Emptor. Rebellions are a constant threat/nuisance. History has proven just how tough it was for one kingdom to absorb another once a national identity was fostered. But foregoing the accuracy of this model would assist in making the game more playable. Given the vast number of provinces to be conquered and pacified there is little time for idleness if the game is to be concluded fully. Having gotten to the end a few times only to have mass revolts erupt - not only among foreign vassals but in my own armies- I realised that this is not a genuine aspect of gameplay but a mere spoiler devised by some sadistic programmer. This is very similar to Europa Universalis - even the strategy map seems borrowed - right down to the scroll updates at the beginning of each turn. Medieval would do better to borrow the diplomatic cues from Europa. It would greatly enhance the game. Of course a multiplayer option of the full campaign would be better. Single battle multiplayer is just too lame to even bother with. Its a great game but lacking a certain spark to take it the extra level.

MTW is a MUST for any tactical addicts.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have to say that computer games with enough AI to actually keep me from sleeping can be counted on one hand. This game's AI is outstanding. Flanking, moral, terrain, armor, artillery, etc. all create a veritable buffet of tactical bliss.

Shogun amazed me to no end with the outstanding music and graphics. I was as well amazed with how little it taxed my 400Mhz computer with a 16 meg graphics card.

Bravo to the code team for making an epic game that the average Joe could play on his machine.

MTW is a well done graduation from Shogun. It's not just another copy of the game in a different historical setting. When your spies can actually uncover the vices of an enemy general to cause moral and loyalty decrease, that's great.

I constantly wear my headphones so I can turn the music up loud. I get a rush out of the immersion of this game.

I tell everyone who asks about strategy or tactical games to play this. I've NEVER played a game where the computer will back off of an unsuccessful attack and attempt to change it's tactics mid-stream.

Formations work well in this game, and the graphics have been improved from Shogun.

If you even remotely enjoy military strategy or tactical games, you really should at least give this a try.

Fun, but the combat system needs work

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: February 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I am an avid student of military strategy and I purchase and play just about every strategy game that comes along. Medieval: Total War is by far my favorite. Having said that I still have one major bone to pick with this game and seemingly every strategy game. I noticed that as I selected harder and harder levels, that the AI's tactics did not change at all, it was still extremely easy to out maneuver and outsmart the computer, however the game 'cheated' more.

What I mean is this-on the harder levels my troops would invariably run away more often, and at the hardest level it was impossible to rally. My troops would run away even when they easily winning, had obvious numerical advantage and were in general far superior to the enemy. The hardest level continually saw my Byzantine Kataphractoi being routed by Militia Seargents after slaughtering half of them.Even at the hardest level the computer did not deviate from the 'mass and march straight forward' tactic.

Every strategy game is like this, and Medieval: Total War is no exception. The computers ability at strategy is medicore at best and it makes up for it by cheating.Having said that I have beaten the game on every difficulty setting and with several different factions. The gameplay is good enough to keep on playing even after seeing the finale.

Medieval Total War (Kicks ...)

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: December 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Medival Total War is the best game i have played since starcraft it to me is better than warcraft three unless ur looking for good multi player. Medival is staged in Medival Eroupe. It starts from the around 1000 and goes to about 1400. I have now had it since sept. I have yet to beat it but i have tried out three diffrent teams so far. Spain is probably one of the best to play as for newbs becuase it has a very good starting spot. The Danes are also good but they are not very strong and have trouble building up cash. Other than that it is also good for newbs. Byzantine Empire so far has been my favorite. they start out pretty strong with lots of cash but the begining is troubling but if you survive then the whole future is yours so far in my game i own just about 1/3 of all of eroupe and i have caused the down fall of about 5 nations. The whole game is all stragety.

The game runs on a turn bases but it has some cool new effects that shogun did not have. one is the many new units and cool seige weapons. Also castle seiges are more fun then ever. The map is huge and there is no start in one spot and go to the other side. also a new thing are the boats which allow u to trade to get money and also allow u to attack any non-protected coast (meaning a area of water without an enemy boat). Also there are some new only board units and bonuses such as new traits that generals can have like runner or Drunk that can lower health or influence how your troops fight and now generals have traits that describe them such as loyalty, acumen, peity just to name a few. Also princesses that help form strong alliances.

Other than the cool new board abilities and awsome action the real time stragety is awsome. It is very realistic and the weather and terrian beat any game i have ever played. The fighting is awsome and the hole game play will keep you continuesly coming back for more. If u get it injoy! u will love every aspect of it!

Best Game ever!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: May 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is a very great game. Our Computer is to slow to do the battles but even without it is very fun. This game is challenging enough to be fun, yet not to hard to make it impossible. It takes alot of strategy. You get certain generals you always use and they actual have characters. It is fun conqueroring the world as well as dealing with revolts and taxes and everything. It is the second best computer game I have ever played. And also I assume the battles must be very fun. Buy this game for hours of fun!!!!!!! Do not listen to bad reviews!

Lethalities

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: June 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I finally managed to get this game to work on my computer, and I am fairly pleased with it.

I do have some doubts about realism based on the following battle that I ran:

My side consisted of 16 English longbowmen units. The computer side consisted of 16 peasant units.

I was the attacker. I advanced within archery range and let fly. Ultimately, my doughty warriors slew 1100 peasants and put the remainder to flight. I lost one man in the process.

Yet to rack up this lopsided victory, my longbowmen had to fire perhaps 20 or more times (about 20,000 arrows).

I'm not an expert on medieval warfare, but I would be surprised to think that only one arrow in twenty would hit a group of lightly armed men standing in close formation. I somehow think that the strike rate would have been higher.

Anyway, I'm left wondering if the game designers watered down the lethality of what's been described as the "machine-gun" of the Middle Ages for some reason or another. I'm left concluding that because of my experiment above and because it seems just about impossible to replicate the battles of Crecy and Agincourt (massacres of French knights by English longbowmen).

Oh, well.

The wait is over; buy this game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I've waited years for a game like this. It is both a tactical level and strategic level game set in the middle ages and I highly recommend it. I've spent hours and hours playing this game.

Yes, the install can be a little tricky but be sure to follow the advice on how to do a better install. Be sure you have defraged and scandisked your hard drive before trying to install.

After you get past that install, a glorious world awaits for your to conquer.

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