"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."
Singleplayer.
Co-op Multiplayer.
PvP Multiplayer.
Despite Creative Assembly’s excellent reputation for long term support, the famed developer was forced to cease all development of Total War: Three Kingdoms in 2021, just two years after release.
The vast majority of Total War: Three Kingdoms playerbase were based in mainland China, who traditionally are not as supportive of traditional DLC models as their western counterparts, often preferring free-2-play games with often exploitive mechanics, in stark contrast to western gamers.
While not all Chinese gamers prefer a free-2-play/pay-2-win business model enough to to ensure that even Total War: Three Kingdoms’ highest rated DLC packs sold very poorly globally, with low rated DLC selling even worse, to the point that ongoing support was deemed unviable, long before the developers were able to incorporate everything they had intended to add to the game.
While they may revisit the setting in future, due to the unceremonious way they cut support short for Total War: Three Kingdoms, any future revival of the sub-franchise will be difficult, especially if they cannot find a business model that will appeal to both eastern and western audiences.
I must preface this by saying I fully understand and support why people do not like nor support the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), however many people, with “less than ideal” understanding of complex issues have taken this distrust for the CCP and extended it to all of China, with every Chinese person or product being automatically bad or suspect.
What makes this even more tragic is the one of the main reasons people dislike the CCP is because they oppress their own people, yet many people show their anger at this oppression by… spreading lies and conspiracies about every game made or set in China, making lifer harder for the very people they claim to care so much about.
While Total War: Three Kingdoms was not made in China, it is set entirely in China, and focuses on Chinese history, and for some that was reason enough to avoid it and encourage others to do the same, somehow making a connection between ancient China and the CCP which was not formed until 1921, and did not assume power until 1949.
Ironically it was Total War: Three Kingdoms’ huge popularity in China that helped to to fuel this false narrative, “Chinese people like it, so it must be communist!”, ironically this narrative is often pushed by far right American gamers, who are for the most part overwhelmingly fascist.
What is even more tragic about this cruel irony is that the Chinese people have no say over which party is elected, while far right Americans have chosen to elect fascist leaders on multiple levels all the way from city councils to the highest halls of federal power, often to their own determent and determent of those around them.
Jesus addressed behaviour like this directly the Gospel of Matthew when he said:
Dismissing the culture, creativity and history of one of the largest nations on earth , simply because you do not like their government is a poor way to act, and even if you view them as “your enemy”, Jesus had something to say about that also when he commanded his followers to love even their enemies, and those that treat them badly.
While Total War: Three Kingdoms is not a perfect game, and some factions are vastly more powerful than others, it somehow feels right, with Legendary characters such as Cao Cao, being far more formidable opponents than what is commonly seen in many Total War games.
While this can feel unfair at times, it is makes victory over Cao Cao and similar legendary characters all that much sweeter, and in my most recent playthrough, it was my wars against the Kingdom of Wei (Cao Cao) which were some of the most intense, and enjoyable moments.
Base game aside, the new characters, units, events, and start times introduced by the DLC expand upon an already great game, and while some packs feel a little lacklustre compared to what we are used to, they are frequently on sale, and while they may not offer the same value and replayability of some of the DLC we are used to (such as Total War: Rome II’s excellent DLC), they still offer very above average replayability and value for money.
Total War: Three Kingdoms allows players to chose from two unique playstyles in both campaigns and battle mode, with romance mode featuring larger than life characters with near super human abilities, while records mode players more like a traditional total war game, with generals being escorted by a unit of bodyguards.
As result Romance mode is perfect for those who are looking for epic battles, which can be won or lost based on the heroes present, while Records mode battles are slower, and offer greater tactical depth than those found in romance mode, and are much closer to the type of engagements found in other titles in the series such as Total War: Rome II and Total War: Atilla.
For those who do not wish to engage in a full campaign, Historical battle mode allows players to partake in key battles from the Three Kingdom era such as The Battle of Xingyang, Siege of Xiapi, and The Battle of The Red Cliffs, while playing as a variety of iconic characters such as Cao Cao, Sun Ce, and Guan Yu to name just a few!
While Campaigns, random and historical battles are a mainstay of the Total War franchise, Total War: Three Kingdoms tries something new by introducing a mode inspired by another franchise, with the introduction of Dynasty mode, which allows players to select 3 heroes, and face of with ever increasing waves of enemies.
Unfortunately it sounds much more fun than it is, and as a fan of Musou games such as Dynasty Warriors and titles it has inspired, I must admit I found Dynasty mode to be very bland, even when played at maximum speed.
Its a nice addition for those looking for something a little different, but compared to an actual Musou game, it felt lacking.
Total War: Three Kingdoms has one of the best, if not the very best diplomacy systems in the history of the franchise, and the base game campaign pushed me to consider alliances and di0plomatic unions that I would have otherwise never considered including pledging myself as a vassal to a larger faction, eventually buying back my freedom (at great cost), trading away vast tracks of land in exchange for peace, and conquering my two nearest enemies by a mixture of warfare and later diplomatic actions such as vassalization and annexation.
In my most recent playthrough, I utilised diplomacy surgically to ensure my factions survival and eventual victory as emperor, by placating the powerful southern factions, while securing the entirety of the north for my faction, before launching an attack from three directions against my former allies who betrayed our longstanding friendship for the sake of imperial glory.
While Total War: Three Kingdoms ‘combat mechanics are second to none, I must admit, It is the added diplomatic depth of Total War: Three Kingdoms, which makes it one of my favourite strategy games ever.
Total War: Three Kingdoms looks stunning and runs incredibly well, and while there were some occasional performance issues with late game turns overall my fps remained stable during large battles when playing at maxed visual quality settings.
While graphics are not everything when it comes to strategy games, Total War: Three Kingdoms is visually stunning, and character models in particular look amazing, especially for the legendary heroes, which look gorgeous.
Total War: Three Kingdoms is a 4x strategy video game developed by CREATIVE ASSEMBLY and published by Sega, it was released on 23 May 2019 and retails for $59.99.
Total War: Three Kingdoms is available exclusively on PC.
Total War: Three Kingdoms supports the following peripherals:
Total War: Three Kingdoms is rated PEGI 16+ and contains:
While Total War: Three Kingdoms never became all that it could have been, from day one it was one of the best Total War games ever made, and while the DLC did not sell, and some DLC packs are less impressive than what players are used to, Total War: Three Kingdoms is still very much worth playing, and I fully recommend it to all fans of strategy games, and to a lesser degree, of the Three Kingdoms Era.
We found Total War: Three Kingdoms to be a masterpiece of a game, meaning it is a must-play for almost every gamer, due to its near-perfect gameplay experience.
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