Review for Total War: Three Kingdoms. PC game, the video game came out on 23/05/2019
After a fantasy break, which occurred as a sort of midlife crisis, and the announcement of "minor" video games of which Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia is the progenitor Sega and Creative Assembly return to grind History with Total War: Three Kingdoms. Title that promises to bring the hard and pure of the saga back to the screens.
Leaving the eccentric lands of Total War: Warhammer and Total War: Warhammer 2, you return to the real world and real history, putting the magnifying glass on China in the second century AD, an era full of uncertainties, struggles for power and rebellions.
"There is no better weapon than a ready mind"
Total War: Three Kingdoms introduces several new features within the classic Total War gameplay. To begin with, as the game harks back to the famous "Three Kingdoms Novel" by Luo Guanzhong (Chinese writer of the 1300s), we will be able to choose two different versions of the main campaign that will allow us to play in a classic or "fictional" way. The first mode is the one that all gamers know and have learned to love, the second instead was designed to make our campaign adhere as much as possible to what is told in the Three Kingdoms novel. In this second mode, if you are good and know how to move diplomatically, you can found yourself one of the three kingdoms.
The differences between one mode and the other basically stop at the narration and little else, small changes to the gameplay make it easier to manage your faction in the "Chronicles" version compared to the "Novel" version but what matters most is that (finally ) the player's intelligence can be tested. In the previous Total War it was enough a wise knowledge of the economic and military modules to be able to conquer the whole world, it was simply mathematics. Apply math in Total War: Three Kingdoms it will get you nowhere unless you make subtle use of diplomacy.
And here it is the real novelty compared to its predecessors: the diplomatic module. During the Three Kingdoms period the relations between the feudal lords were constantly evolving and so it is also in Three Kingdoms. Furthermore (and this we must insert in the flaws in spite of ourselves) knowing the history of the Three Kingdoms could be quite useful to avoid making mistakes. In fact, many of the characters we will meet in the campaign will have close relations or friendship with others and ignoring this aspect could attract problems like a magnet. A striking example is that of the Gongsun Zan faction. If you choose this feudal lord, you will find at your service a certain Zhao Yun, one of the greatest heroes of the Three Kingdoms period. However, by declaring war on Liu Bei we will see our hero drastically diminish his appreciation for us until he leaves us.
Why is this a flaw? Well, simply because everyone cannot be expected to know the history of China and this will increase the unpleasant surprises for those who cannot move discreetly in a very crowded and chaotic historical moment.
"The wise man wins before fighting, the poor man fights to win"
The structure with which Total War: Three Kingdoms has been designed and built, it cannot and should not ignore the characters belonging to the various factions. These can turn the tide of a battle by engaging in duels to the death with enemy generals in spectacular 1 vs 1, or run away, surrender to the enemy and desert.
An accurate system of rewards and punishments (Confucius docet) makes our characters more or less fond of the leader of our faction and the faction itself. Making our generals satisfied won't be a walk in the park, we will have to support them with generals with whom they have a friendly , promote them to a higher rank by paying them a higher salary and make them a gift of objects, weapons and mounts. Put simply, the generals and court councilors (the court mechanism replaced the family panel) will be our cross and our delight.
In addition to sending them into battle, we will be able to let them enter our private council, the organ through which we will obtain missions to be completed in order to obtain bonuses. Not calling the council for a long time will, needless to say, lower the level of satisfaction of those characters. Not everything, however, will depend on the salaries and noble titles that we will dispense. Our behavior will play a big role. If we surround ourselves with honest and loyal warriors, they will not tolerate a declaration of war on a faction immediately after the cancellation of the treaties and also choosing to surround themselves with mixed personalities (honest and dishonest, thrifty and dissolute, generous and selfish) will not benefit our cause because our generals will always be at odds with each other and one day we will be asked to choose one or the other ...
Pearls to pigs?
The best, by now we should know, Creative Assembly certainly does not give it on graphics. In the case of Total War: Three Kingdoms we are faced with a disparity (which we hope will be reduced with a patch) between the graphic elements that make up the game. On the map there are sketchy textures on which it is better not to zoom while, as usual, the models of soldiers and generals are at the top. In this case also the faces (but only of the generals) were made really well and finally have an expressive air.
The real reflection that must be made on Total War: Three Kingdoms is the following: it is clear that behind this video game there was a maniacal study of Chinese history and certainly the number of consultants was not indifferent. The power relations of the warlords are too well established and adherent to historical reality to be the result of the study of novices. And here we come to the heart of the matter. On the internet and above all on specialized sites you can read continuous comparisons between the period of decline of the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire. Not only that: you also read history lessons from those who are certainly not a sinologist and reading statements that it is difficult to believe, with colleagues who claim to have read 1800 pages of Spanish translation (amateur and abridged) of the Romanzo dei Three Kingdoms, in a riot of "I am-better-me" to no end. Here, perhaps - in this case - SEGA and Creative Assembly, net of some flaws that this video game undoubtedly has, gave pearls to pigs.
► Total War: Three Kingdoms is an Adventure type game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega for PC, the video game was released on 23/05/2019
