Recent reviews by FullMetalOvercoat

I can never forgive CA what they did to 3K.

But my faith in Total War has been slightly restored with the Dynasties update to this game. so many QoL and updates to the game that it feels like a good Total War title as of now, Tragic we won't get any more updates to this game but now its a great Bronze Age Total war.

When this Game came out, It only felt fun for the 1st 2 days. coming back to it years later, CA has refined this game to where it is fun to play. while not as great as masterpieces like Shogun 2, 3K or Warhammer. It holds on its own among the other historical title.

And besides, you can't argue with sending legionaries to conquer the world.

I only bought it to complete the Total War collection...and it was on sale.

Pretty decent Title though it's a like a small vacation home from 3k, Shogun 2 and Warhammer.

05/27/2021 -
Welp. the vocal minority got their dream and the game is dead. CA suddenly axed the game like shooting your dog spontaneously. its one thing for no more DLC but no more patch support. And to add insult to injury, y'all announce a standalone remake that potentially will be as tiny as TOB. What kind of BS was done to reach this decision.
No Northern Expansion.
No Korea.
No Full 3K Roaster.

There goes the only China Game CA will ever make and the only time a dream matchup like this will ever happen.

Don't buy from a company that thought this was a good idea and I can no longer recommend this game at it's current state.

2019
Ever since I started playing Rome 1 during my younger years I’ve always dreamed of a total war games based of the Three kingdoms the idea of watching the mass armies of China duking it out with the heroes leading them into battle was nothing more than a dream for us for years. I remember seeing the forums in TWC for a China total war. When Shogun 2 came out it gave me hope that maybe CA would venture to new location like China but with the announcement of Rome 2, I was content and believed they would remake their old games before venturing out. Then Rome 2 came out and I started to lose hope base on the quality of its release and the changes they made. Years later with other titles showing how they kept some of the bad ideas form Rome 2 such as the (in my opinion) bland Campaign UI. And the fact that it’s been mostly game in Europe and eventually when Warhammer was announce I was excited for an fantasy game, about Warhammer made it better, but I also began to accept that CA wouldn’t tried to go more east and stick to Europe, Fantasy Europe and eventually, Europe with Guns 2. 2018 was a Horrible time for me personally, if anything the announcement CA made earlier that year push me to keep going as at the end of this tunnel was the game most of us have been dream of. A Total War game set in the 3 kingdoms period. I was ready to buy this game right away and with every new feature they announce I got excited (except for no navel combat but it made sense to me). so after all the delays and hype. Was it worth it?

-The Campaign map and UI are beautiful.- None of the games after Shogun 2 was able to capture the immersion of the time period and give a beautiful map. Ever since Rome 2 I hated the simple UI with everything being a square compared to the traditional Total war building UI where you get to see what the building looks like. And with the options to switch from the bright romance mode to the grittier Records mode look, a player can choose a setting that fits what he/she prefers.

-Everyone is here (Kinda).- As someone who has played Dynasty Warriors and some games from the ROTK series I was more that excited to finally have theses characters playable and alive. I can be hard for a Total War fan with no knowledge in the History of China but for those that have some experience with 3K can really get connected and immerse themselves by following the story or make what if scenario like what if Sun Jian didn’t die and founded the Kingdom of Wu or if Guan Yu survived Lu Meng’s attack. The possibilities are endless.

-Diplomacy has been greatly improved- After Rome 2, I kind of look towards other games that would satisfy the Strategy itch I have of those games, Paradox was my fix. I loved the Diplomacy system they make and you can see the inspiration in 3k system coming from them from the opinions the lord may have with the proposal you give to the variety of deal you can make. Quick deal are the best when you don’t want to waste time going lord to lord to ask for food to supplement your faction and to sell your father by marriage before he dies (sorry Cao Song) could be funny.

-Guanxi System.- I missed the system they had in Shogun 2 where you Generals and agents feel like characters interaction with each other from time to time creating a story each playthrough. Rome 2 felt like the general were just units that lead armies lacking any sort of personalities. Warhammer fixed that but I couldn’t really get connected with the characters except while playing as the Dwarves and Bretonnia. Characters can form friendship and rivalries with other character creating moments in game that can lead to excitement.

-Character classes.- This could be a hit or miss for some people. While the class system leads to restrictions to what armies can be built, I can lead to unique as well. Such as an all Calvary army with 1 commander and 2 vanguards to a defensive army built to hold the line while the assault infantry or flank Calvary comes from the rear. (1 Champion, 1 Sentinel, 1 strategist) or (1 Champion, 1 vanguard, 1 strategist). And with each class able to give bonuses to their units when they level up can make armies unstoppable.

- Duels - Matched combat may not be as good as Shogun 2 where each solider can fight with unique animations, it is always satisfying to see duels in action (when they’re possible) seeing Lu Bu murdering 2 of the Brothers was devastating. I wish match combat animation are often among regular units but I guess that wouldn’t make the duels stand out.


-Late game can feel dead and lacking.- The 3 kingdoms endgame doesn’t really entice me to conqueror the 2 other kingdoms it begins to feel like a chore and I somethings feel like I need to rush capturing the capital for the sake of completion, that isn’t to say that great memories having come from it one of my favorite moments was fending off waves of Wei armies from the north with mai boi Huang Gai.

-Too few unique heroes.- I was disappointed in the lack of late game unique character. It sucked during my Cao Cao run where he died, and Cao Pi was just a generic Commander which kind of killed the immersion. Also sucked that characters like Pang De and Cheng Pu are Generics and deserve to be unique. Some of the lord don’t even start with unique generals! (Yuan Shao).
-No quest battles.- One thing I hoped for was the implementation of quest battles to the lords in campaign. It would give more connections to the character for those that don’t initially know much about the 3 kingdoms like a quest battle where you send an army to the battle of red cliff would’ve been awesome and would complement the dilemma system.

-Bonuses and Penalties mostly are not explained.- during my first campaign I would have rebellions spark up because of low public order that was resulted from population and I couldn’t find more information what that meant. Eventually I set up military infrastructure buildings to maintain public order without having half of my army’s garrison for most of the time.

-Lack of different cultures. I understand with a game about the 3 kingdoms that the focus would be the characters in China but it would have been nice to play as a Korean Faction or a Xiongnu Faction ( It looks like we’ll be getting Korea as DLC.) the Bandits could’ve had their own unique roaster of units like the yellow turban and their own objective but instead have the same units as the rest of the lords.

It’s a great game with the potential to be the best total war game I believe with long term support like they have given to Rome 2, Three Kingdoms is set to be the best TW game. If you’re a fan of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and love to experience heroes fighting to reunify China. Then this is the game for you. For Total War fans it can be a difficult game to get into especially with us being spoiled by the mass variety that Warhammer offers. If the system introduce from 3k were ever implement to Warhammer, that game would be unstoppable. for any newcomers to the series I would strongly recommends play a more refined title like Shogun 2 before playing 3K as this game has a steep learning curve for new comers and can leave a bad impression.

Years later this is still the best total war to date