Total War: PHARAOH Reviews
It's a beautiful and enjoyable game, but I see no reason to prefer Pharaoh over any other Total War.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Total War: Pharaoh isn't a terrible game, but it's definitely not the grand return to the heyday of historical Total War games that fans have been desperately waiting for.
Total War: PHARAOH doesn't feel like a proper Total War title, but rather like a simplified grand strategy game. This is not entirely a fault of the developers, though – the historical era the game is set in is just pretty limiting.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Total War: PHARAOH just doesn't impress as much as it should have. The flaw lies only with the magnitude and scope of the game and not with the game's choice of a Bronze Age or ancient Near Eastern setting. The game's atmosphere is what you'll remember most. Still, its mechanics are shallow, the level of replayability is low, the artificial intelligence is useless, and there's no opportunity for strategy in the fights. If a top-notch total war game is what you seek, you've come to the wrong place.
Pharaoh is a solid new entry in the Total War series, although it lacks some ambition. If all you wanted was some fun playing as a general in a Bronze Age setting, you'd probably be satisfied here, but if you were waiting for the next big thing, you'd have to wait a bit more.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Total War: Pharaoh is not a “return to the golden age” of Total War, whatever you think it might be. Still, is an incredible accomplishment of mixing player-driven decision and storytelling, along with some much needed battle improvements.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
A Total War game proves not to be the best way to explore one of the most fascinating periods in ancient history, with boring real-time battles dragging down positive changes to the grand strategy elements.
Placing the next Total War game in Egypt was probably not the best decision. The Bronze Age simply tied the creators' hands too much, and you can see it especially during the fights. A small variety of units and battles that lack real juice drag the rating down. On the contrary, dynasty management is fun and last a long time.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
As a whole, Total War: Pharaoh is more than a capable entry into a storied franchise, with the grand strategy elements much more intriguing than before. While it fails to match up in bloody battles when compared to Warhammer or Three Kingdoms, everything else maintains that level of quality that fans know and love. Just like entering a new age, the game is still in its nascent days, and it has plenty of room to capitalise on its potential, we can only hope that’s the case in the coming days.
Total War: PHARAOH confirms expectations and delivers one of the best titles in the Total War series in recent years. Although its battles are logically slower and less spectacular compared to the great fantasies of the WARHAMMER trilogy, at no point do they prove less exciting or addictive. To top it off, we still have one of the most interesting campaigns in the series, with several branches and customization options capable of extending the game's lifespan for months and years on end. Becoming pharaoh (or king of the Hittites) is only half the battle; The story of Egypt's reconstruction is more complex than it seems. We, the players, benefit from this.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Total War: Pharaoh is a truly unique strategy game for those like me who love the period it's about. The Ancient Egyptian period is where the game really stands out. However, I have to say that the artificial intelligence problems that we have experienced in other games continue and it is not very appealing for those who do not like the era. Nevertheless, with the Palace system and some improvements added to the dynamic battles, it offers a very enjoyable Total War experience.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
I can’t say that Total War: Pharaoh is a bad game. It’s simply the same well-known game that was spruced up (again) and sold for a full price. But if you wait for a discount, Creative Assembly’s newest game should deliver dozens of hours of fun.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Total War: PHARAOH presents an interesting window into the time and place of a tumultuous historical period while handing you the reigns to make your own story out of it. While learning the ropes takes some work to get into due to poor use of tutorials and the overwhelming amount of extra mechanics in the campaign layer, buried underneath is an excellent gameplay formula that continues to stand the test of time.
Ultimately, Total War: Pharaoh is an attempt to provide an accessible experience that delivers what feels like an abridged version of a world history course. Most of the systems in Pharaoh offer glimpses of greatness, but aren’t deep or refined enough to deliver a memorable grand strategy experience. Creative Assembly’s take on the Bronze Age is not thematic enough to engage a novice, but not accurate or expansive enough to appeal to Total War veterans, leaving us with a Total War title that’s unlikely to stand the test of time.
Once you master the complexities of its systems, pulling off your master plans in Total War Pharaoh is immensely satisfying!
Total War: Pharaoh is truly a return in style for the famous saga of real-time strategy games.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Dull warfare mars a fascinating battle for supremacy during the late Bronze Age collapse.
Total War: Pharaoh will surely benefit from the shortage of AAA strategy games with real-time battles, but it may play things too safe for the most demanding fans of the series, and given it's a full-price release, the overall scope lands dangerously close to that of the Total War Saga entries.
Total War games spent so much time trying to do more. There are countless clever strategy games out there, but this series always prided itself on having a massive scale. Pharaoh totally changes that formula as it scales down and rethinks the gameplay flow of the series. Everyone has their favorite Total War game (mine for the record is the original Rome Total War). I’m sure that someone out there will be quite unhappy with some of the Total War changes. But from where I sit as a long-time player, Pharaoh is a total blast, and has me more excited for the future of the series than ever before.
Like its predecessors, Total War Pharaoh is extremely time-consuming. It delivers a truly colossal punch. In addition to being visually very pleasing, it has the luxury of offering numerous new features in terms of gameplay, which fit perfectly into the setting of Ancient Egypt.
Review in French | Read full review