"Total War: ATTILA was developed with next-generation hardware in mind. Unfortunately, that hardware would not arrive in the way that the developers envisioned. "
Singleplayer.
Co-op Multiplayer.
PvP Multiplayer.
Before we move on, something needs to be addressed. Total War: Attila suffers from horrendous performance issues across a wide variety of modern and even fairly dated hardware.
In fact, Atilla runs terribly on almost every possible PC build, except a few very specific components from circa 2013.
Now, please understand me. I am not talking about the occasional lost frame or muddy texture.
I am talking about frequent nosedives into single-digit fps, even when running on the lowest settings, despite the same PC easily running modern Total War titles at 144 fps/ultra settings.
I have witnessed my fps drop to 1 and 2 frames per second on more than one occasion, and I am not the only one with these issues.
While fans of Total War love what Attila stands for, the game’s performance has worsened over time, and it has become clear that something is very wrong with Total War: Attila at a foundational level.
Circa 2010, it was a fair assumption for developers to make that CPU manufacturers would continue to focus on single-core innovations, increasing clock speed, and performance.
And even the very idea that high-powered, high-clock-speed single-core performance would become less important than multi-core performance would have been regarded with derision at best, mockery at worst.
And yet, unfortunately for The Creative Assembly, that is exactly what happened.
Total War: Attila was developed with superior single-core performance in mind; as a result, modern and even contemporary multi-core processors struggle to run Total War: Attila at an acceptable level.
While the developers felt they were future-proofing their game, they had no way of knowing that by taking this risk, they would doom one of their most unique and otherwise well-made titles to relative obscurity.
If I were only allowed one word to describe Total War: Attila, it would be “unique”, as while it ofcourse shares many similarities with other games in the franchise, the tone of Total War: Attila is very different from the rest of the series, meaning that while most other titles in the franchise make you feel like a conqueror on the verge of greatness, in Total War: Attila the world is on the verge of collapse, cities are burning, hordes ravage the land, everyone is struggling to get by.
While I find this setting interesting, it is a little unbalanced (especially in the base game), and both player and NPC factions are forced to endure disaster after disaster, while citizens are constantly miserable for various conflicting reasons.
No matter what you do, everyone is constantly miserable until you research enough upgrades to overcome the massive “we are miserable all the time” debuff that hovers over most factions.
The Roman Empire definitely had its issues, but it represented stability and security for many people. By the time of Total War: Attila, that stability and security were gone, and Europe was firmly in the grip of the Dark Ages.
When playing Total War: Attila, the glory days of Rome and the relative calm and stability of the Middle Ages feel very far away.
Hordes burn vast swathes of Europe to ash, and plagues sweep across the land, decimating cities and armies alike, making Total War: Attila feel more like a game of surviving, rather than one of conquest, which is a refreshing change of pace for the conquest-focused Total War franchise.
If Atilla performed as well as other entries in the series, it would likely be one of my favourite games in the Total War series, making its abysmal performance even more unfortunate.
While I can understand that the Dark Ages armies were not known for their vibrant colour palette, Atilla feels needlessly dreary.
While I like the more simplistic armour worn by “barbarian factions” compared to other titles in the series (many of which were ahead of the curve visually for their time), Total War: Attila‘s visuals feel like they were obsolete at launch, with even the highest-quality visuals appearing muddy and undefined at times.
Don’t get me wrong, Total War: Attila‘s visuals are neither terrible nor a deal breaker.
Like all Total War titles, the combat is really enjoyable, which makes muddy visuals easier to overlook.
When you are up to your knees in Mongolian archers, you are not worried about the odd muddy texture, but considering how good many other titles in the series have looked, the question remains: Why?
Luckily, we have the answer. Like many aspects of Total War: Attila, the visual quality settings are malfunctioning, and lower-quality visuals are being used, while performance is still suffering as if higher-quality assets were used, resulting in the unfortunate combination of abysmally performance and muddy visuals, which has resulted in [game-title] failing to capture the market share it would have otherwise deserved.
While Total War: Attila is an older title, I feel that if The Creative Assembly were to fix lingering issues and repackage Total War: Attila as a definitive edition, it would sell incredibly well. While it does have issues, at its core, Total War: Attila is still one of the best strategy games ever made, and it deserves a second chance at becoming all it was envisioned to be.
Total War: Attila is a 4x strategy video game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega Corporation, it was released on 17 February 2015 and retails for $44.99.
Total War: Attila is available exclusively on PC.
The following peripherals are officially supported:
Total War: Attila is rated PEGI 12+ and contains:
I like Total War: Attila, as I am a huge fan of the era and, of course, of the Total War franchise as a whole.
However, Total War: Attila, performance issues are so prevalent and serious that I cannot recommend it in good conscience.
Instead, I suggest players either play Total War: Rome II (whose own performance issues are much less severe) or dip their toes into the fantastical and try the Total War: Warhammer Trilogy.
While the Warhammer trilogy may not be historical games, they are some of the best Total War titles since Total War: Medieval II, and for those who enjoy or can overlook the more fantastical elements of the setting, there are countless hundreds of hours of fun to be had.
We found Total War: Attila to be a good game, meaning it is likely to be enjoyable for most players, despite having a few areas that could be improved upon.
