Empire: Total War

[LaLocaDelQuinto]

Empire: Total War (PC)
Publisher: SEGA Developer: Creative Assembly
Genre: Real-Time Strategy Release Date: Q1 2009
ESRB: Rating Pending

At last month's demo Creative Assembly promised that soldiers engaged in a close fight would have matched combat animations. Sure enough, it was impressive to watch two soldiers clanging their muskets together, stabbing and snarling while combat raged all around. Even more impressive was when a cavalry officer joined the fray, leaning to one side to slash down at opponents while they dodged his blows and tried to dismount him. The cavalry officer's head looked down and pivoted to follow his target as he circled his prey. The graphics really serve to bring the harshness of Napoleonic battles to life. We watched a British flag carrier lead a line of redcoated infantry into battle, boldly vaulting over a wall and into the thick of an enemy position. Surrounded by enemies, we saw that he was reaching for his sword when his foes brought him down. Mechanically, the loss of a flag carrier means that his unit takes a morale hit, but somehow the game mechanics seemed secondary to the drama unfolding on the battlefield.

Using Terrain to Your Advantage

Of course zooming in close enough to see the whites of your enemy's eyes is a luxury in the midst of combat. You're more often paying attention to the battlefield as a whole, which is important in Empire: Total War, as the battlefields are a whole lot bigger. In our demo (centered appropriately enough around the town of Leipzig), the city itself was a relatively small portion of the map. The fields and hedgerows surrounding the city were the scene of the initial skirmishes, along with one or two smaller villages outside of the city proper.

Prior to hostilities, many units have options for erecting some crude defenses. Infantry lines can set up wooden pikes in the hopes of thwarting cavalry charges. If you have the technology, you can also use rough gunpowder charges to lay down a very basic minefield. These suckers were primitive as mines go, but they were good enough to get the job done -- when triggered, a swath of the field in front of us erupted in a sequence of explosions, kicking up spires of dirt and throwing the English cavalry into complete disarray. Those that survived the initial blast turned and routed.

Artillery comes into play in a big way during this era, and players will need to adjust their tactics to cope. Difficult to maneuver (especially in rain and mud), and defenseless if engaged close up, it takes some real planning to use artillery effectively. But every cannon shot is modeled with real physics, enabling cannonballs to bounce along the surface if the ground. This can be disastrous for your enemy if you catch their soldiers in a line. During the demo, some English defenders holed themselves up inside a group of small white buildings on the outskirts of town. Troops can now garrison buildings, sniping at you from the windows. We avoided dealing with them by using our cannons to level the buildings; wood shattered and walls collapsed in on themselves amidst a splintering rain. Survivors of a building collapse will continue to engage you from defensive positions in the rubble, although during our demo the Brits took enough of a beating from our sustained artillery that they simply routed.

Artillery isn't always the answer when an enemy embeds their troops in a city. For one thing, early artillery lacked the power to punch through reinforced buildings -- you'll see cannonballs ricochet off of stone structures during the early parts of the game. More importantly, any damage you do to a city is reflected in the strategic campaign. So if you level a town in order to capture it, you've just captured a pile of rubble, and you'll have to start rebuilding it from scratch.

A Better Class of AI

Interestingly, the computer opponents in Empire: Total War know to use such circumstances to their advantage. Every time a battle starts, the battlefield AI builds a strategy based on its goals in the grand campaign. It may opt to retreat, to hold the ground at any cost, or to simply maximize damage to you. During the Leipzig scenario, British troops fell back in an organized retreat toward the city proper. ("Organized" meaning that some units stayed behind to do rear-guard actions while cavalry swung around to thwart pursuit. It was an impressive piece of strategy.)

The AI assumed that we wanted to capture the city intact, and therefore sent units in the rear part of the city to take up defensive positions. Unable to use artillery, we were forced to move into the narrow streets with infantry, a situation that gave the Brits a chance to cause as much damage as possible before abandoning the town. We fixed bayonets (a one-time decision in the early parts of the game, as early plug-style bayonets fill the barrel of the gun and won't allow firing) and began filing through the city streets. As we massed our troops in the town square, British units moved up to engage, while others swept around to either flank us or force us to divide our forces. The losses started piling up as the fighting erupted into chaos in the cobblestoned alleys, while our cavalry and artillery were basically useless.

The AI behavior we watched wasn't scripted, although admittedly Creative Assembly chose a battle setup that allowed the AI to put its best foot forward. Still, if the AI across the entire game is as tactically shrewd as what we saw in the demo, it'll represent a real leap forward for this type of game.

Creating a Grand Campaign

The Total War series has always been unique in that it blends turn-based grand strategy with real-time battles. Empire: Total War is no different, but this time around the scope of the game is massive. European powers will compete for resources in the new world, as well as in India and Africa. A young upstart United States is just one of many possible allies or enemies in a game that spans multiple continents. Unfortunately the campaign map is still being finalized and we didn't get a chance to check it out.

Despite the scope of the game Creative Assembly is working to make the grand campaign more manageable. For one thing, factions may have unique goals other than "conquer the known world." Players can attempt to win based on their nation's prestige (earned through technology research, diplomacy, or military prowess). Another country might win if it establishes itself as a republic and maintains a stable government for X number of years. Of course players are always free to aim for their own victory conditions -- the grand campaign is wide open. There will be over 50 factions in the game, representing all of the European powers of the era and all the locals on multiple continents.

Players will have plenty of options with regards to managing their internal affairs. Three different governments are available: an absolute monarchy, a democratic monarchy (where the King's authority is limited by a Parliament), or a Republic. Each has advantages and disadvantages depending on what your goals are as a player.

Interestingly, in-game circumstances can impact your governmental options. Players set two tax rates (one for the wealthy, one for the poor). Either class of citizens might push for a revolution if they feel taxes are unfair. When there's a revolt in your capital, you can choose to either stay loyal to the current government or to take charge of the opposition party in an attempt to bring a new type of government to your nation. Aside from possibly triggering off internal strife, you can also use the tax system to encourage certain behavior by setting different rates for each of the different theatres of war. For instance, if you don't tax the poor in the colonies but keep tax rates high in the old world, you'll find a flood of inexpensive labor moving off to settle the colonies for you.

Researching new technology is vital, not just for improving your troops' equipment, but for teaching them new maneuvers. Expertly drilled soldiers will be able to fire faster or form up into squares to repel a cavalry charge. Maintaining cutting-edge naval technology is a must if you've got worldwide ambitions (just ask a frustrated Napoleon).

Players can really dig down and micromanage all of this, but Empire also does a lot to remove micromanagement for players who aren't interested. Players can select ministers from around the world to manage their various affairs (shrewd ministers can help run your cities or get you better tax rates). Another nice feature is that you can build an army right on top of your general -- you simply order the troops you need and they'll be provided from the nearest towns when ready, so you don't have to waste time shuffling around small forces trying to arrange them into big stacks.

All told, Empire: Total War sounds like a strategy gamer's desert island dream. It's an ambitious product, and if it weren't for the developer's pedigree we'd have a hard time believing anyone could make it happen. But combining solid grand strategy with exciting real-time tactics has been Creative Assembly's specialty, and we have high hopes that this product will live up to its impressive potential.