Total War: Attila Reviews
A barbarous twist on Rome II, with a handful of fixes.
Total War: Attila is an adept refinement of Rome 2, with a great, harrowing campaign that sets it apart.
Total War: Attila is undoubtedly a welcome addition to this 15-year-old franchise and it's a relief to find it stable at launch, but there is clearly room for further optimisation. It's a credit to The Creative Assembly that it is still experimenting and tweaking its systems to achieve the right balance of complexity and challenge, even if a few too many of its concepts fall the wrong side of the frustration/satisfaction divide for a little too long. Still, you need only be mindful of the advertised difficulty level of each of the factions in order to triumph and, through extended play, the excitement suggested by all that early potential does, eventually, come to fruition.
Only a minor evolution of Rome II, and with many of the same bugbears, but the stunning visuals and deep strategy bring a fascinating period of history fully to life.
By combining an improved UI with deeper strategic gameplay, Total War: Attila increments on Creative Assembly's formula to deliver a strategy game (almost) worthy of its namesake.
If you've played a Total War game before, you know what to expect. Despite some new mechanics and ways to play, the core is cultivating your expansive holdings or charging headlong into battle.
Total War: Attila is an arranged marriage between a capable (and aging) battle simulator, and a fussy political one.
Attila is a satisfying simulation of a world in chaos
There's a lot to like in Total War: Attila. It offers a beautiful glimpse into a part of history that doesn't get often explored, at least in strategy games. Pax Romana ends. The classic era fails and the peoples of the world are tumbled into a dark age. A long-sung series like Total War doesn't need to reinvent its formula each time it charges fifty dollars; but, setting even a well-made sequel in the crumbling legacy of the once-mighty may not have been a good choice.
Perhaps it's best to think of it this way: If the occasional AI glitch or incoming onslaught of paid DLC gives you unbearable or unwanted flashbacks to Rome II, then you may want to avoid Attila altogether. But for everyone else, you'd be remiss to deprive yourself of a rich, captivating experience that, though not quite perfect now, will likely achieve true greatness via updates well before its successor arrives.
To say Total War: Attila is complex would be an understatement. At times it can feel like you are studying for a final exam. If you manage to get past the steep learning curve however, Total War: Attila is a rewarding historical strategy game. There's a wide range of possibilities on the battlefield and conflicts are a marvelous sight to behold. Unfortunately a few technical problems and an insignificant political system hold it back from greatness.
All things considered, this is a solid Total War game that, while being far from revolutionary and requiring just a little bit more polish before official release, will be far better than Total War Rome 2 can ever hope to be.
As with Rome II, the positives outweigh the annoyances. Creative Assembly has been very ambitious with Total War: Attila, and the game is a lot more compelling than its predecessor. It feels more balanced. The A.I. is smarter, but a human general can still beat it. But the unrelenting weight of a collapsing empire pushes a human ruler to the limit. If you simply survive for a while, you'll feel like you've won the game.
Creative Assembly's award-winning strategy now comes in a brand new flavor, and it bears all the hallmarks of a franchise rejuvenated.
[F]ans of the Total War series will certainly enjoy this one and there's enough here to wrangle in some new players even if it may be a little daunting at first.
Total War: Attila brings an under-explored time period to bare to create a great setting and system of mechanics for a strategy game based more on tearing down your enemies than building up your own empire, but it's still plagued with some issues inherent to the Total War franchise.
For the uninitiated, Total War: Attila does a good enough job introducing a very detailed world and mechanics. What it does best is allow a player to get right into the meat of combat and enjoy orchestrating campaigns across gorgeous battlefields. While micromanaging the war effort and empire can be detracting, there are enough game modes and variety in the campaign to ween someone into the thick of it. At the end of the day, the battles are satisfying and the AI is good enough. It is not without it's problems, but it's as good a strategy game as you'll likely to find.
Playing ATTILA has taught me that this is a series that has a lot going for it. The scale of the battles, the depth of the seemingly innumerable mechanics all point to well-crafted title, but if I were to never play a Total War game again, I'd be perfectly fine with that.
Attila adds new layers of depth and complexity to Total War, and its dark, chaotic atmosphere does a brilliant job of breathing life into one of Europe's most troubled periods. The problem is that all that depth and complexity can make it a very demanding and – at first – unrewarding game. Keep at it, and the epic battles and challenging campaign mode make it well worth persevering. Overall, this feels like one for the fans, but is that really such an awful thing?
It is, across the board, an improvement on Rome II, despite some issues that have been carried over. And not just Rome II at launch, but even when comparing Attila with the Emperor Edition, the new kid puts on the best show. It's a confident marriage of setting and mechanics, with a historical and environmental narrative influencing each faction, pushing them into engaging situations. And you can burn the world, which is fun.