Recent reviews by whitecastle

Great, albeit short game - in the vein of Limbo and Inside.
The non-spoken narrative, the tense disquieting atmosphere, the majestically bleak stylized environments are all top notch. There are some jumps in the narrative that feels like cut material, and the experience is fairly short, controls can be sometime clunky, but all in all they don't take away from the game. I'd say i'ts well worth the price.

Foreword: Coh1 and 2 veteran, practically grew old with these games. I haven't even touched the multiplayer in Coh3. After playing through the main campaign and part of the afrikakorps operation, my recommendation in short:
Wait for a steep price drop if you are interested in this genre, otherwise avoid this game.

Pro:
+Big and complex campaign, new factions, new theatres of war
+New combat mechanics, like towing, automatic reinforce, retreat to capture points
+New voice quips, some hilarious, some just hammy
+Map elevation is now affecting combat much more pronounced

Missed opportunities:
The strategic overlay has so much potential to become an interesting meta game, but in it's current form it barely functions. The narrative is just a pile of really awkward war clichés, the main characters are literally caricatures of tv tropes. I know the Russian campaign is controversial, but it was trying to show actual themes and events, and portray the mind-boggling brutality of that front. Here the presence and politics of Italy is reduced to a weird accent. The art style trying to replicate the loose skethcyness of the first game, but falls short.

Cons:
-The game is just clunky. You can never be sure your units actually start to perform the command you gave them. Any selection feels uncertain, there is just no weight to the UI. Units do not snap to cover, the just jump over fences back and forth.
-The dramatic overpowering soundfx of CoH fame is gone - most of it is just mechanic noise now, machineguns sound like typewriters, frantic combat is just a jumble of noise now instead of the very informative sound reports of serious shots, damage, suppressed infantry, etc. Given how much they just lifted from CoH2 there are many inexplicably missing vfx, for example cutting barbed wire is now an action performed in complete silence.
-Combat feels inconsequential: very hard to lose a unit and if you do, it barely registers as a loss, you can just make 10 other like it - the careful unit management and positioning of the older titles are gone - or you can still do it just makes no difference, it plays more like AoE
-The Ai is outright passive, it just makes a feeble attempt to capture a couple of territories before the ticker runs out, you won
-The UI... erf. My pet peeve is so many of the icons just recycled from the previous game to mean something else in this game, weapon models representing other weapons, russian unit icons reused as functions; it's just a mess. If you haven't seen the previous games, I guess it's fine, just a bit haphazard.

This is one of those rare games that bring together a bunch seemingly unrelated genres, and make them into a cohesive, self-explanatory unit. The sound effects alone are worthy of a play-through - but this is game is just so satisfyingly good in every aspect

A perfect zen game for perfectionists you want, a sweating-bullets thrill if you want a race against a corporate clock. A very weird satisfaction of making the perfect crosscut of a corridor :)

If you like slow, somewhat repetitive games like car mechanic, but want a bit more involved strategy, this one is just perfect.

Thrones of Britannia is my favourite Total War entry. I love the focus on a smaller theatre, shorter timeframe. I like the illumination inspired unit portraits. One of the most clear build mechanics. I do wish they'd focus on more historical entries instead of their fantasy titles.

It's hard to get into the zen of diagnosing and fixing, when you have to constantly fight the incredibly frustrating controls. Most of my time spent ingame: trying to set a ladder in the right spot from where I can reach the fuel tank. Failed.

The narrative is very enticing, unfolding through your journey at just the right pace. I was very pleased with the weaved in nordic myths. The combat is fairly simple but very satisfying.
And the atmosphere - man this game oozes with it. Also it is reaaally pretty, whoever set-designed it, hats off!

It's one of those games I was putting off buying, and turned out to be the absoulte riot. I now regret delaying it, the dev team deserved a full-price purchase for this gem.

Not sure if I learned anything, but I was entertained 100%.

An absolute joy to play.
4x done well.

Really cool, cartoonish graphic style, great campaign characters, really interesting faction falvours, slow paced, relaxing gameplay.
Recommended.