Total War Series - Recommend A good Starting Point ?

Komedy

Komedy

Komedy

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As the title suggests I played the demo of Shogun 2 and this was the 1st time playing anything from this series or even anything in this genre.

I have to admit how surprised I was how gripped and enjoyable I found the demo.

Rather than jumping straight out to buy Shogun 2 can you recommend a good starting point from one of the previous titles in the series, Medieval, Empires, Rome etc.

Ta in advance
 
Medieval 2 or Rome Total War. Arguably the best of the series.

I would prefer to play Rome first, both accurate chronologically and has a little different feel to Medieval 2. I'm pretty sure I spent the most time playing Rome - Barbarian Invasions.
 
Mr Krugga said:
Medieval 2 or Rome Total War. Arguably the best of the series.

I would prefer to play Rome first, both accurate chronologically and has a little different feel to Medieval 2. I'm pretty sure I spent the most time playing Rome - Barbarian Invasions.
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+1

Rome is deffinately the best place to start as it re-invented Total War from the earlier games and is the gameplay that later ones were based on.

(however I prefer the basic version rather than the Barbarian expansion - I also think it'd be better to start on than the Barbarian add-on as it changes the gameplay slightly - try that later.)
 
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Komedy said:
As the title suggests I played the demo of Shogun 2 and this was the 1st time playing anything from this series or even anything in this genre.

I have to admit how surprised I was how gripped and enjoyable I found the demo.

Rather than jumping straight out to buy Shogun 2 can you recommend a good starting point from one of the previous titles in the series, Medieval, Empires, Rome etc.

Ta in advance
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I'd buy the latest shogun, and i'd get an old copy of Rome and use the TOTAL REALISM MOD with it. This game is never better than Rome with RTR IMO.
 
BombayMix said:
Rome Total War looks bad on a modern widescreen. If that doesn't bother you, you can pick it up dirt cheap.

I'll Medieval 2 or Shogun 2 best.
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I disagree - Max settings on 1080p 22" looks pretty good IMO. A little dated maybe but its really not bad at all!
 
Shogun 2 is the by far the most complete and polished TW game. The others are too old even though they are still great.

So I'd say get Shogun 2 and enjoy :)
 
Well Rome Gold is £4.99 so will go for that until Shogun Drops abit and I guess if I follow release sequence i'll see the improvements as i go along which will be nice.

thanks for the feed back
 
Wish I could even play the new Total Wars, Napoleon and Shogan 2 (from what I read) have a really bad ATI stutter. I had to Uninstall Napoleon as the only fix was reverting back to 10.5 drivers or turn particle effects down. No fix yet :o
 
RedStarRiot said:
I got Napoleon a few months back and couldnt get into it. Was this in fact a bad place to start with this series?
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Yes, as others have said Medieval 2 and Rome were pretty much the best of the series. I've not played Shogun 2 mind, I'm sure it's a fair improvement on Empire and Napoleon.

Napoleon was ok, but like you I really struggled to get into it. Both Rome and Medieval 2 have cost me many hours of my life :p.
 
RedStarRiot said:
I got Napoleon a few months back and couldnt get into it. Was this in fact a bad place to start with this series?
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Personally I think the earlier games (Shogun 1, and Medieval 1) worked better. Less to go wrong, especially with the AI, and for newer players a gentler introduction without too many aspects to keep track of. Empire was a complete bug-fest from what I've been hearing, and Napoleon is basically an expansion using the same engine.
 
Komedy said:
Well Rome Gold is £4.99 so will go for that until Shogun Drops abit and I guess if I follow release sequence i'll see the improvements as i go along which will be nice.

thanks for the feed back
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Can get Shogun 2 for £15 now - not bad at all imo.

Edit: You will want the Total Realism mod if you get Rome.
 
OP, if you're getting Rome (or indeed Med 2), make sure you get all the available patches. Both had some serious bugs for a while after release.
 
Patch the game but play without mods for a while. It will be easier to get into them in the future as Total War games can take countless hours of your life with all the mods out there and an official release almost every year.
 
MW2 for me, Rome is amazing as well but has annoying things in it like all cavalry armies being practically unbeatable to the point of ridiculousness. It's also not quite as pretty :)
 
Medieval 2 Total War download the following mods@
Stainless Steel: its basically a massively improved version of the game.
Third Age: Made by the same person who made stainless steel but set in the lord of the rings world.
 
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