Total War: Pharaoh

Total War: PHARAOH is a smashing success as a grand strategy game and brings the hit franchise to a new historical era. Fascinating leaders and subplots with mechanics to match help make each play session fresh and enjoyable.

Creative Assembly’s first historical Total War in ages combines classic real-time battles with the most 4x-y campaign yet.

Old issues return and some of its new ideas are less effective than others, but Total War: Pharaoh remains a strong and exciting addition to the series' historical catalog.

Total War: PHARAOH presents an interesting window into the time and place of a tumultuous historical period while handing you the reigns to make your own story out of it.

Total War: Pharaoh will surely benefit from the shortage of AAA strategy games with real-time battles, but it may play things too safe for the most demanding fans of the series, and given it’s a full-price release, the overall scope lands dangerously close to that of the Total War Saga entries.

The gameplay is incredible. Once you master the complexities of its systems, pulling off your master plans in Total War Pharaoh is immensely satisfying.

Developer Creative Assembly has created a solid game with Total War: Pharaoh. It explores the challenge of taking on the role of a leader during the Bronze Age collapse. Would-be rulers can choose their leader from three factions: Egyptian, Canaanite, and Hittite. While the aesthetics and gameplay are fun in several ways, the overall package could be better. I have played multiple leaders now and ...

Dull warfare mars a fascinating battle for supremacy during the late Bronze Age collapse.

Total War: Pharaoh isn't a terrible game, but it's definitely not the grand return to the heyday of historical Total War games that fans have been desperately waiting for. While it falls short of that, it can be enjoyable for those who enjoy focused, small campaigns.

Every single change Pharaoh makes to Troy is for the better, and some changes are so good that it’s going to be difficult to play any Total War without them going forward. But the fundamental issues of Total War - mainly enemy battle AI - are far too entrenched to fix in a few years, and the bronze age setting doesn’t allow for enough unit variation to make up for them.