Total War Warhammer

Michael
Aug 28, 2021
6 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Introduction

Total War Warhammer (TWW) combines the complexity of the 4x games’ take on Total war with the extensive lore of the universe of Warhammer. As a newcomer of both Total War and Warhammer myself, this game was a huge challenge to get into for me. Both IPs are known for being so dense that they are almost impenetrable. So, I’m going to give a warning for all newcomers and please be honest with yourself:

-Don’t buy it if you don’t like dense and complex games, with lots of systems and mechanics that you have to balance out, in order to be just decent at it. If you are not prepared this game will kick your ass.

This beast of a game will eat you alive if you don’t put effort into understanding it. The game has their own wiki integrated, where you can read pretty much anything about gameplay and lore, as long as it is in or referenced during the multiple campaigns. But I still had to go out of my way, to ask friends and read guides, to understand what was happening and how to deal with it.

Questions you might have if you're interested in playing it

What is it exactly that you do in the game?

As a very rough way to put it, you manage an empire/clan/race in order to become the dominant kingdom/species in the world. But basically you do everything that is standard in 4X games (explore, expand, exploit and exterminate). I would like to mention that there are detailed simulations for grand scale battles and a great degree of political game that you have to do in order to accomplish your goals.

Will it make my eyes bleed?

I would say that you will probably like how this game looks. The graphics are surprisingly good for a 4X game of 2015. As for the textures and the lightning, TWW feels a bit dated, they are low res textures and they aren’t very detailed models, you can see it in the trees. But as for the animations of the characters in cinematics and during the battles, they are amazing and so detailed. Closing in on them and seeing how the characters interact with each other is sublime. The quality of the scenarios is not great, but it’s good enough, I particularly like how the overview map looks.

Does it have a good story?

This does not apply, there are around 5 unique races in the game without paid DLCs. You can play with them in the “grand campaign”, which is basically the base setting that the game gives you to “go on an adventure” and “make your own legend”. They all have custom cinematics and dialogue, but there are no “storylines” per se.

TLDR: The game is all about the gameplay but the lore is there just in case you want some context about why you are doing what you do.

Does it have a good soundtrack?

It’s an awesome orchestral score! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im0vK4dWL6E

Each faction has their own epic theme and, during the battles, the OST really enhances the action, so yes, it does.

Does it have replay value?

I think this game can be played to infinity. The amount of content that it offers, how each race and lord changes the gameplay, how dynamic the game is and the amount of free mods that it has, makes it a joy to replay.

Does it run well?

Besides the minor bug the game runs perfectly, it’s a smooth 60 FPS at 1080p max settings. In the 60 hours that I spent on this game I had not a single frame drop, crash or game-breaking bug.

Is it fun?

If you are a fan of 4X games, this will keep you engaged for dozens of hours. If you are a newcomer to this genre, just be aware that you have to put some work learning the mechanics of the game before you can start enjoying yourself. For me it was a steep 20 hours of learning before I knew what I was doing.

So what is Total War Warhammer?

Like I said before TWW is an empire building simulator with the lore of the table top game of Warhammer. You first select one of the races and then a champion as a hero to lead your empire.

Each race is different and requires you to learn their logic. The vampires before engaging in battle have to weaken the enemies with darkness and corruption and raise the dead afterwards. The dwarfs tend to be specialized in trading and crafting heavy machinery for war, just to name a few. All races have their own basic units and buildings with plenty of room for customization with the tech trees. I personally love the vampires and how they can build larger armies with their corpses and the enemies’ fallen units.

The game has another layer of complexity which is the lords. Each race has around 3 or 4 lords for you to choose, with each one of them having their specialization that complements the race traits. Some have buffs other have custom units, but both of them can be a game changer. I love Sylvania, they are the best at building an army of the undead, if you leave them unchecked in the late game they can be unstoppable.

The trading and diplomacy on TWW is the simplest of the mechanics in-game, it’s just a menu where you offer add or remove numbers. It’s a bit too simple for my taste but it’s functional and I think that is all that matters. Plus, it is so easy to exploit the AI with it.

And finally the meat and potatoes of the game, the battle system. I really cannot put in words how amazing it is. This is where the game really shines: the complexity of the strategies that you can craft; the stunning and gorgeous animations of each individual unit; the custom cinematics that change depending on the field and condition of the battles; and how almost every battle has a speech from your champion at the start, makes every battle feel alive and impressive. This is by far the main reason for why you should play this game. I love finding new interactions among units, perks, skins and terrains. As a newcomer, I love this part of the game with passion.

Graphics and Sound

What you see on screenshots is what you get. Everything is clean and icons presenting objects are nice and it is easy to see what all the objects are even when they are at the bottom stripe without the text. I found out that music in this game is a good mix of songs for such game as they enhance the gameplay without taking the spotlight away from it.

Pros

It’s an almost bug free experience. This game is so polished!
The battles are so epic!
The world is so beautiful and the lore is so deep.
The animations are amazing.
The game is tough but fair.
The replayability is basically infinite.

Cons

The learning curve is so stiff. I wish the game had a bit more hand holding, but it treats you like a big boy and it makes you work for fun. I know that this is a nitpick, but it’s a thing that you should be aware of if you are a newcomer
It’s kind of easy to exploit the systems of the game to your advantage in a way that breaks the game. If you want to play TWW online, be aware that you will probably have a bad time with how easy it is to become OP with certain builds.

Conclusion - Is it worth the money?

If you love RTS or 4X games: Yes.

If you are a fan of the Warhammer games: Yes.

If you are curious about this genre and you want to give it a try like I did: yes, but be aware that you have to study to be decent at this game.

As it is an older game, I would say that you should wait for a sale to pick it up if you are remotely interested in it. It’s a hard game, but I have to admit that I had tons of fun with it and, besides the exploits and some ugly textures, there is nothing really bad with it.

Rating: 9/10