Total War: Warhammer III Reviews
Total War: Warhammer 3 has the most diverse and most fun ways to play with friends the series has ever seen, even if network issues can still be a bit troublesome.
Warhammer 3 is Creative Assembly's most maximalist, chaotic, and arguably best game to date. But it'll ask a lot of you in return.
A brilliant final act with the series' most inventive and unusual factions yet.
A fitting capstone to the trilogy, the story-heavy campaign and an armload of exciting new factions lead Total War: Warhammer 3 to victory.
An inspired ending to the Warhammer trilogy that rather than just adding new factions makes a host of clever additions and changes to the gameplay and structure, in what is one of the great achievements in modern strategy gaming.
Even so: I can’t help but marvel at the scope and imagination with which Creative Assembly has brought Warhammer’s fantasy world to life. And maybe I can forgive Immortal Empires for occasionally not working properly because it’s so packed with factions that already bend the rules by design. There are leaders whose army buffs I haven’t even touched, and parts of the world I haven’t yet set foot in. But if my past few campaigns have taught me anything, it’s that there are trees falling everywhere, and they’re making quite a lot of noise.
Creative Assembly's Total War: Warhammer 3 is a spectacular fantasy battle simulator with a flawed campaign.
This new fortification system is also present in siege battles and small settlement engagements, and it's probably the biggest change to the overall Total War formula. Capturing points on the map builds up your resources, which you can then spend on fortifying defensible areas. It's a compelling tactical addition, bringing Total War closer to other real-time strategy games where it's not just about wiping out an army, but capturing points, defending them, and using resources wisely. It does, however, also take away from what Total War battles always seemed to be about: careful, tactical positioning within a semi-realistic environment.
This is an enormous bummer, because everything else about this game is so good! In so many ways this is the best Total War game ever made, the latest example of a series that has spent the last 3-4 big releases (we don’t talk about the Saga games here) successfully refining a decades-old formula to keep it fresh and interesting. It’s a shame, then, that having come so far in so many respects this time around, Warhammer III stumbles right where it matters most: at the end.
If Total War Warhammer 3 is the beginning of the end for Creative Assembly's fantasy series, then it's going out on a high note. The game takes several steps forward in how the campaign works, how it builds toward climactic battles and then how those battles take place, and there's plenty of quality of life improvements for the Total War series as a whole.
Total War: Warhammer 3 is a big game by nearly every measure. It hosts big battles across enormous campaign maps, contains multiple armies with unique units, and effortlessly shifts between the Old World and Chaos Realms. It will get even bigger post-launch. It features absolutely gorgeous art in its many cutscenes that marry lush animation with the classic fantasy oil painting style and often hilarious voiceovers. It represents a giant bow on a gift Creative Assembly has been working on for years and is sure to be a can’t miss for Total War and Warhammer buffs alike. Will it change minds for those who bounced off the series in the past? Not really, but this one is for the fans, and I’d wager most folks would be delighted to receive this kind of attention for their favorite IP.
Total War: Warhammer III is sheer fun. Not a particularly deep game, nor a very innovative one, but a game capable of doing what it's meant to do: to provide an enjoyable framework for spectacular, breathtaking fantasy battles.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Total War: Wahammer 3 closes a trilogy that is one of the best adaptations ever made to the strategy genre. An ambitious title that presents a huge and spectacular campaign along with multiple multiplayer options, while introducing important new features that significantly affect the development of the game. An excellent title for the genre that will delight fans of its universe.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Warhammer 3 is, frankly, an incredible package. It somehow manages to deliver multiple unique and satisfying campaigns, mostly without sacrificing their quality and depth in the process.
Total War: Warhammer III offers the incredible depth synonymous with the series, while adding expansive new multiplayer features and some great faction mechanics.
Though best considered as the final part of an excessive strategy megagame, Total War: Warhammer 3 is a heavyweight in its own right. A little too much RTS grind in the midgame is easily outweighed by transformative changes to multiplayer, sieges, diplomacy and more.
Creative Assembly/SegaThis sprawling medieval fantasy brings together romantic and classical strategy game design with spectacular results
Overall, Total War Warhammer 3 is a gift to its fans, a fitting send-off to the trilogy. The real going-away party arrives whenever Mortal Empires shows up, but for now, you can delve into the twisted Chaos Realm and get lost in sprawling battles and text-heavy menus, like any Total War fan.
New features, factions, and gameplay options make Total War: Warhammer 3 a must-play strategy game. Lacking blood at launch was expected, but still disappointing.