"While Total War: Pharaoh is not the worst Total War game ever made, it is certainty the one which is most out of touch with its core demographic."
Massively Multiplayer.
Singleplayer.
PvP Multiplayer.
When Total War: Pharaoh launched, it was immediately disliked by many in the community, who found it to be closer to a Total War Saga title than a mainline Total War game, despite being marketed and priced as such.
As a result Sega and The Creative Assembly were forced to lower the price, refund buyers, remove the premium versions of the game from sale, and cancel the upcoming DLC.
In addition the first planned DLC (High Tide) would be rolled into the base game in effort to expand its upon the base game’s lacklustre world map and campaign.
Unfortunately these changes were not enough to win over the community, and Total War: Pharaoh would go on to receive only one major content update (High Tide) before being abandoned in favour of Total War: Pharaoh Dynasties, a separate game which is made available for free to all owners of the original Total War: Pharaoh.
While Total War: Pharaoh did improve upon many aspects of the base game, it already introduced a slew of issues which resulted in a product that was ultimately no better than Total War: Pharaoh, despite having addressed most of the issues players had with the original release.
As a result Total War: Pharaoh poor sales and Total War: Pharaoh Dynasties releasing for free, it appears that Total War: Pharaoh is longer be in development, having received no major updates since its release in July 2024.
Making Total War: Pharaoh the third historical Total War game in a row to have its support cut short.
As you can see overall, Total War: Pharaoh Dynasties. is a much better game, however the performance issues introduced with Total War: Pharaoh 2.0 (Total War: Pharaoh Dynasties) are so severe, that it makes playing Total War: Pharaoh Dynasties. much less enjoyable even on powerful PCs.
With CPU turns taking up to 5 minutes at normal speed, and 2 minutes at high speed, players will often find themselves spending more time waiting for the CPU to move than actually playing the game.
Total War: Pharaoh Dynasties also suffers from performance issues and memory leaks which Total War: Pharaoh did not, and these can crop up at various times, including but not limited to CPU turns, real time battles, campaign movements and navigation of the world map.
If The Creative Assembly could find a way to make Total War: Pharaoh Dynasties perform as well as Total War: Pharaoh, they would have a seriously good game on their hands, unfortunately they have shown no indication they intend to do so.
With Historical Total War games having suffered from a multitude of issues since Rome II, I am concerned that The Creative Assembly may be opt to side-line the series in favouring of licenced IP.
Considering the massive success of the Total War: Warhammer trilogy and the lacklustre performance of recent historical titles, the higher-ups at The Creative Assembly must have at least considered the possibility that there is less money to be made catering to fans of history than to fans of licensed IPs such as Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, or Game of Thrones.
Total War: Pharaoh does a pretty good job of including most of the major and minor players of the Bronze age collapse, with one rather iconic exception, The people of Israel who make no appearance at all, despite both biblical and non-biblical contemporary evidence of them having existed during this time..
While the Kingdom of Israel would not be established for several hundred years, The Tribes of Israel would have been engaged in their conquest of The Promised Land (Canaan), during the mid-late stages of the the time period portrayed in Total War: Pharaoh, and there is no reason why The Tribes of Israel should not exist as a horde or minor faction during the events of the game.
Pictured below: The Peleset faction from Total War: Pharaoh Dynasties , better known as the Philistines, an iconic and well known enemy of the Israel, most well known for their champion Goliath the giant, who was slain by David.
Total War: Pharaoh is a 4x strategy video game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega, it was released on 11 October 2023 and retails for $39.99.
Total War: Pharaoh is available exclusively on PC.
Total War: Pharaoh supports the following peripherals:
Total War: Pharaoh is rated PEGI 16+ and contains:
Neither Total War: Pharaoh or Total War: Pharaoh Dynasties are bad games, however both have enough issues, that playing either feels like a waste of time, when so many better Total War games exist.
If Creative Assemblies were to return to Total War: Pharaoh one final time and combine elements of Total War: Pharaoh and Total War: Pharaoh Dynasties into a single cohesive package, it would be one of the best historical total war titles since Medieval II: Total War, however until that times comes, I can only partially recommend it.
Ultimately not the worst Total War game on the market, but not one I will be rushing to replay anytime soon.
We found Total War: Pharaoh 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.
"Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire, at its core, is an excellent turn-based RPG, albeit one held back by lacklustre open-world gameplay, low-quality visuals, and weak dialogue."
"Total War: Three Kingdoms is without question one of the best Total War titles in the 25-year history of the franchise, which makes it early demise even more unfortunate."
"It's the time of year again when everyone and their mother have an opinion on "Is Halloween Evil?" but who is right, and in the end, does it really matter?"
