Romance of the Three Kingdoms 13: Fame and Strategy Reviews
At times I could see the appeal, but there's just too many core problems with this game to recommend it to anyone who hasn't already immersed themselves in the series. The mixture of boredom and confusion made me wish I was doing just about anything else.
This new content expands on the game quite a bit and adds both a new depth to making these characters your own, as well as more overt customization to the whim of the player.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms 13 is a well-polished strategy game for fans of Chinese history or even just Dynasty Warriors. The combat is fun, ranking up is fulfilling, and learning about the Three Kingdoms is a great bonus.
Romance offers a challenging yet enjoyable strategy experience with a historical twist
Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII: Fame and Strategy Expansion Pack is a mix of many small and elegant changes that ultimately helps the core game becoming the best it can be - the best sort of expansion in other words. On top of that, there is the new meaty prestige system that really helps shape the officer life into a much more entertaining experience than in the core game and could easily have been sold on its own. This makes it a mandatory expansion to own for both veterans and new players alike if they are looking for the best possible experience.
It's the eye for historical detail that has always made Romance of the Three Kingdoms games so compelling. Like it shows with the Dynasty Warriors series, Koei really knows - and respects - ancient Chinese history, and while the Fame & Strategy expansion pack makes the base game even more strategically complex, the stories that the game tells, even when you'll be spending most of the game looking at a beautiful, but dry, map, makes this also one of the most accessible 4X strategy games ever created.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII: Fame and Strategy Expansion Pack is a great release, both in terms of its base, but also when it comes to the expansion element, which is where all too often other games can go off the rails. They either don't offer enough change to be justified, or they change things too dramatically when it was neither necessary, nor called for. The Fame and Strategy Expansion Pack manages to find a nice spot in the middle. Any fan of the original would be remiss to overlook it, and any newcomers should pick it up with the base game for a fantastic experience.
The Fame and Strategy expansion pack is something you should certainly get for Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII as it adds a lot of new content, gameplay mechanics and tools that will make a solid game even better. I highly recommend this DLC for the main game, so be sure not to let its price keep you from adding this pack of extra content, as it is definitely worth every penny!
If you already have the base game for Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII (a title that we enjoyed a great deal when we reviewed it), you owe it to yourself to consider this DLC expansion then. It is a fairly pricey pack, but it brings a lot of great new options to the table and makes the core experience considerably better. And isn't that exactly what we want? DLC that actually adds something to a game we already enjoy, and not just frivolous weapons or costumes? In my case, the answer to that question is a definitive 'yes'.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII Fame and Strategy Expansion is a niche game with so much going on that I'm not sure many new players will be able to get into it.