Total War: Three Kingdoms Reviews

I love the idea of placing myself into the distant past, of believing that I’m immersed in the problems and opportunities of ancient warlords. Three Kingdoms delivers, in the sense that it gives me the gift of a genuinely absorbing historical fantasy. It’s out now on Windows PC, Mac, and Linux.

When the trailer for Total War: Three Kingdoms was revealed, we were suitably hyped. It did suffer a two-month delay but the game is now out and we managed to put some hours into it. We quickly decided we had to do our own Total War: Three Kingdoms review.

Total War: Three Kingdoms begins in the year 190 CE, in war-ravaged China, and the Han Empire is in ruins. The Tyrant, Dong Zhuo, has taken the child-emperor captive, and in doing so holds the fate of millions in his cruel grasp.

You were a bandit queen, young and sweet, only eighteen.

As the first historical mainline Total War game since Rome II‘s disastrous launch over six years ago, Total War: Three Kingdoms had a lot to prove. While the Warhammer games received near universal praise, the two historical spin-offs released in-between, Attila and Thrones of Britannia, were considered disappointing at best. Total War: Three Kingdoms had to escape the mistakes of its predecessors, ease the discontent of the fanbase over Creative Assembly’s apparent “neglect” of the ...

Overall, Total War: Three Kingdoms can be summed up as yet another great entry in the long-running series. While it may not be the absolute pinnacle of what Creative Assembly can achieve, it has become my favorite entry simply because of the setting used. We’ve reached a point where your personal favorite Total War will be determined more by the property being adapted than any worry about quality or gameplay factors. Since everything is fine in Three Kingdoms, what else do I really need to say?

Total War: Three Kingdoms is a strategy game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega. The game is the latest addition to the Total War franchise, which comprises games that are a mix between turn-based strategy and real-time military battles. For anyone who has never played a Total War game before, there can be a lot to wrap your head around. But where previous generations could have a complex and sometimes overwhelming interface, Total War: Three Kingdoms offers sleek and beauti...

As a franchise, Total War is known for realism, with lowly axemen eating barrages of arrows as trebuchets tear into city walls. Then the Total War: Warhammer games bent those rules, and now that bending continues with Total War: Three Kingdoms,  albeit in a less extreme fashion. This installment embraces Chinese fantasy in the era of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, with larger-than-life commanders and their reigns. History-driven battles take a backseat to lively hero duels and big personalities. The experience is more enjoyable if you’re willing to suspend your disbelief and engage in a massive rise to power with a bit of wondrous awe – as if someone was regaling a crowded feasting hall with an embellished tale, rather than coldly narrating from the annals of a historical text.

A hugely enjoyable mix of historical realism and exaggerated action that is both surprisingly accessible and filled with an impressive depth of tactical options.

Total War: Three Kingdoms is a fantastic addition to the series, taking place in the Three Kingdoms period of China's history. The gameplay requires patience and strategizing, but is satisfying when successful. With plenty of aspects to manage, you won't be wanting for something to do, although it may be too much for some gamers.

While I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never been a big fan of the series, I found a lot to like in Three Kingdoms. I did tend to shy away from the real time battles and found them to be tough to manage, but the campaign section of the game were a highlight. I appreciated the option to delegate battles when possible and attempting to play the diplomacy game was often rewarding. The overall presentation from Creative Assembly is superb. Loading screen art and cutscenes are consistently stellar. For a person who had no real knowledge or interest in Chinese history, the art was a real eye catcher for me. Three Kingdoms won’t be a perfect fit for all players, but series die-hards will find a lot to like and newcomers are sure to be impressed with the AAA-quality presentation, despite the high system requirements. 8/10 battle horses

Three Kingdoms' diplomacy system is a real step forward for the series, but what about the rest of the game?

With an ever increasing amount of games getting console releases, the PC gamer can typically only point to having the best version of a title. Total War has always been a hold out and is one of the few AAA quality PC exclusive series left. While Total War veterans might be justified for feeling a bit of fatigue with the battle system, there's still plenty fresh in Total War: Three Kingdoms to enjoy. This is a game that brings an amount of depth that would be frightening if there wasn't also systems in place to help guide a new player. It's dripping with a beautiful style that evokes the era while still feeling modern. Indeed, the release of Three Kingdoms is an event. Just be prepared to lose track of time building that better China. Plus, it's a bargain. After all, it's three kingdoms for the price of one.

Total War: Three Kingdoms should serve as the example for all games of its breed going forward. The campaign design is brilliant, full of character, and tells a cohesive, historical-feeling story with satisfying act breaks and unexpected turns of fortune. The improvements to performance and optimization over its predecessors almost make me want to just lean back in my chair and hum contentedly while I watch hundreds of peasant militia hack each other to pieces. Its relentless ability to constantly provide challenging battles can almost seem like too much of a good thing sometimes, but it’s still a huge improvement over what came before. Just remember when you’re going over resumes to decide who to bring on to lead your next, big offensive: Do not pursue Lu Bu.

Three Kingdoms is an absolutely massive game, but it has a very clear thematic focus on the Three Kingdoms period - specifically the Romance of the Three Kingdoms - and a very clear mechanical focus on individual heroes. The shift bears an obvious resemblance to Crusader Kings II, which uses the lives of individual characters to liven up a game which might otherwise be stuffy. Indeed, Three Kingdoms defuses the impersonal, often boring expansion of empire which has plagued previous games in the series like Rome II with a riveting web of friendships, rivalries and grudge matches. Despite the resemblance, there really is no game which has quite the same combination of elements, nor is there any strategy game that looks this good. Defending a town in the evening light, watching your troops wade through shallow water and sending opposing lines crashing together is a spectacle. It’s the best Total War game, the best historical strategy game released so far this year, and its stories are so compelling I’m as excited to read about other people’s anecdotes as I am to create more of my own.

Three Kingdoms is another solid instalment in the Total War franchise, but lacks a certain wow factor. Creative Assembly has made some clever refinements around the edges of that enduringly addictive strategic core, allowing fans to steep themselves in yet another historic saga. However, there’s a chance that some won’t gel with this new setting or the way Guanzhong’s epic has been adapted. It’s another fun and rewarding take on the series, though we’d struggle to call it a must-buy.

Changes on the battlefield don't make for a Total War experience to match historical and Warhammer entrants, but there's still a deeply involving strategic layer in Three Kingdoms that sits well with its licence.

I genuinely want to say I hate Creative Assembly and SEGA. Why? Well, Total War: Three Kingdoms is certainly guilty of a few crimes. Crimes against Chris, anyway. What things I normally enjoyed doing, I was too tired to do or my mind was elsewhere. Also, every now and then I'd start randomly getting the shakes, only it wasn't from me going cold turkey from a certain powder or a certain addictive drink. No, it was a case of me suffering from "One More Turn Syndrome".

Three Kingdoms is a good game, and it feels like relearning an old game – it sticks to the Total War formula, but changes so many things around that everything feels different.