Even if it was the case that somehow the architecture across several asian nations thousands of miles (and thousands of years, based on the rulers) apart was identical, it doesn’t feel satisfying in a genre that’s most interesting when there’s some asymmetry and distinctions between the combatants.After battles with the Warsong clan and the rebellion of the Shattered Hand clan, the Gorian Empire was losing power on Draenor and their hold on Nagrand was broken forever. These restrictions also give the impression that the factions somehow play differently from one another, but once you start playing skirmish mode-the meat and rice of the game-you find that each one is much the same: identical units and identical buildings except for the bright neon colour banding around them. The campaign missions often restrict the units and buildings you can use, forcing you to really try and make the most of limited resources. The faction leaders and their rivals are avatars more than characters, only rarely popping up in the corner of the screen to grimace and scowl at you. There’s plenty of hours here but not much substance-no cutscenes, no big personalities to pit yourself against, and no mid-mission twists. Each one has a slightly different angle-from galloping around the plains of Mongolia as Genghis Khan to Thuc Phan’s quest to become king of the Au Lac kingdom in the jungles of modern-day Vietnam. There are five reasonably lengthy campaigns set across east Asia, each casting you as a real-life historical ruler of the respective region. But really there’s not much to tell here, with the campaigns falling for that RTS trap of serving as expanded and often mundane tutorials for the main events: skirmish mode and multiplayer. It’s taken a while to get round to talking about the campaigns, which no doubt will be on the minds of those who remember the original game’s run of medieval vaudeville villains (medievaudevillains, if you will) and kooky cutscenes. Managing and designing your fiefdom was always a strongpoint of the series, and Warlords upholds that tradition. Oxen carry iron from mine to stockpile, farmers work the fields, and little people scurry between shacks and pagodas illuminated by ambery hanging lanterns, offering soundbites on the state of things when you click them (so usually whining about taxes, in my case). Each approach grants its own bonuses, and rounds off a pretty satisfying city-builder element that’s a pleasure to watch when working efficiently. You can choose whether you’re a popular ruler or a feared one through buildings-a theatre on the one hand public torture equipment on the other. The campaigns fall for that RTS trap of serving as expanded and often mundane tutorials That means no fighting over resources on the map, which makes games that bit less strategic.ĭespite the teething awkwardness, I did get into a groove with this economic system, setting surplus resources to auto-sell once they hit a certain point while auto-buying those I lacked so that they always stayed at a minimum threshold. It’s strange that you can only gather resources from within the rather limited building boundaries of your solitary keep, as it means that you need to procure most of your resources through warlords under your command or the market, where you can buy and sell all goods in the game. It’s a solid lineup, offering more tactical variety than past iterations while retaining some of the whimsy that the series at its best had.īack on the homefront, you’ll need to keep the people happy with food, clothing, tea and temples if you want to crank up those taxes. These pyromaniacs shriek maniacally when you select them, making you question whether the least mentally stable soldiers should be wielding the only weapons also capable of damaging your own troops. Fire lancers meanwhile, can burn entire regiments with their medieval flamethrowers. Regular melee, cavalry and ranged troops are joined by far eastern classics like samurai, warrior monks, horse archers and ninjas-who can scale walls without ladders. Seeing a city burn and crumble before funnelling troops into it is still a joy, and I had a few highlight reel moments with the gunpowder-loaded oxen that I’d send on kamikaze death-runs into poorly guarded siege equipment. Siege equipment is varied, ranging from trebuchets that can fire not only rocks, but fire and diseased animals into enemy forts, to laddermen and mantlets that protect your incoming troops from the inevitable arrow barrages. The combat itself feels good for the most part.
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