Medieval 2: Total War announced !!!

James Bond · 20 Jan 2006 at 18:23

I just saw this over on Eurogamer

Sega Europe has announced the next title in the Total War series of PC strategy titles, with UK-based developer The Creative Assembly (which Sega liked so much that it bought the company last year) set to return to the medieval era for the fourth instalment in the acclaimed franchise.

Medieval 2: Total War will be on shelves later this year (the official date is being given as "winter 2006") and looks set to build significantly on what was offered in previous games in the series - which kicked off with Shogun: Total War before moving on to the original Medieval: Total War title and the most recent game, Rome: Total War.

This next title in the series will see you playing through some of the most unpleasant years of western history, leading your armies through Europe and the Holy Land, before discovering America and heading off to deal with the locals in the form of the Aztecs.
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The game is promising a far superior terrain system to its predecessors, with the ability to create interesting new landscape features such as cliff-top castles, as well as a detailed building damage model and better siege warfare. There will be 200 new units, and you'll be able to see 10,000 of them on the battlefield at once.

Perhaps most exciting, however, is the promise of a totally revamped multiplayer system - which will allow players to confront each other in multi-battle campaigns, a feature which is likely to bring a smile to the faces of many fans of the series.

"Medieval 2: Total War is the result of 7 years continuous development of the Total War series and has been designed to appeal to all gamers, not just hardcore strategy fans," according to Creative Assembly boss Mike Simpson. "Each game in the series has outshone the previous one and Medieval 2: Total War is no exception."

bakes0310 · 20 Jan 2006 at 18:38

looks ok, id rather have shogun2 total war.

Reppyboyo · 20 Jan 2006 at 18:42

Wake me up when they do something different.

Plus Shogun2 would have been better.

Sem · 20 Jan 2006 at 19:21

i agree. I'm sure Medieval 2 will be great but the Japanese setting is better IMO

Buzza · 20 Jan 2006 at 19:36

Theyve done Japan, medieval europe and Rome, basically swords and spears everytime, why not do something different to those and do the Napoleonic era with musket, rifle and cannon?

Sure others have done Napoleonic era, but they arent anywhere near as good as the Total war games :/

CossackNoodle · 20 Jan 2006 at 19:57

Cant believe u seem unimpressed im made up i still love rtw and the expansion this has made my year ok it aint a new time line but i really dont care :O

Mr Bulbous · 20 Jan 2006 at 20:10

Looks good. My first impression was "they are milking it now" but the series has evolved quite a bit since Shogun Total War, maybe they will do an update to that too?

gord · 20 Jan 2006 at 20:13

Im waiting for the modern era, with the entire planet...

Buzza · 20 Jan 2006 at 21:02

CossackNoodle said:
Cant believe u seem unimpressed im made up i still love rtw and the expansion this has made my year ok it aint a new time line but i really dont care :O

it looks lovely, but will it be more than a graphical update, the first 3 while good, where pretty much the same game with a new set of graphics each time

Tunney · 20 Jan 2006 at 23:47

The medieval period was definitely my favourite of the three. Whilst I wouldn't have minded a new setting, I won't be complaining about another medieval one.

UnknownSoldier · 21 Jan 2006 at 00:24

You will be able to travel to the New World so that will provide a slightly different setting. I think its gonna be a good one.

Reiver · 21 Jan 2006 at 11:05

Mr Bulbous said:
Looks good. My first impression was "they are milking it now" but the series has evolved quite a bit since Shogun Total War, maybe they will do an update to that too?

I doubt it. Since Shogun they've increased the scope of the game and the variety of units that lots of cultures provide. Your best chance of getting samurai in a total war game in the future is either a mod or if they do an eastern game encompassing the whole of asia (or a world total war game). In a way it's a pity as i found the paper, scissors, stone style of battles to be at its most effective and balanced with the smaller variety of units. The wee movies were kick ass and i'm glad to see that they're making a return for medieval 2.

Wilf · 21 Jan 2006 at 11:31

Cool, I love Total War games, hopefully this is more than just a graphical enhancement. I hope they stick to the basic map from the original Mediaeval, the map in Rome is pretty crummy compared.

radio91 · 22 Jan 2006 at 20:56

I cant wait for this title to come out, I know its more or less just an upgraded version of the original medievil totalwar but who cares its the battles I really liked about the game anyway, Playing against someone else online, The stratgie main game was ok but a bit unrealistic, i mean you simply could not take over the whole of europe with medievil armies! Rome TW is my fav and probably always will be, I had dreamed about a game that would let you play as the greeks or carthiginians Marching the unstoppible phalanxes

against the romans.

I thnk a Napoleonic era version would be pritty crap imo, It would'nt be the same just armies marchining up to each other and fireing untill one side routes. The era just before that would be okey at the time of Oliver comwell you still had pike men and heavy cavelry but also musckets and cannons ect, would be awsome!

Reiver · 22 Jan 2006 at 21:24

radio91 said:
I thnk a Napoleonic era version would be pritty crap imo, It would'nt be the same just armies marchining up to each other and fireing untill one side routes. The era just before that would be okey at the time of Oliver comwell you still had pike men and heavy cavelry but also musckets and cannons ect, would be awsome!

Admittedly there were would be considerabley less hand to hand combat in a Napoleonic era total war (although there would be some). But once your units lock into hand to hand combat do you really have any control of them in any of the TW games. It's all about manouvering and timing your attacks and that could easily be applied with muskets as well. There was a lot more complexity to Napoleonic battles than two lines of infantry facing off and blasting each other just as medieval battles weren't two lines of swordsmen. As much as i'd love a TW game set in the gunpowder era, i feel it's probably best that it gets an engine designed for it specifically as it's quite a departure from Rome. It wouldn't be doing a potentially superb game justice if it was shoehorned into the rome engine.
As to featuring the english civil war: it would very likely extend from the end of medieval until either world war one (perhaps too far) or the american civil war. Covering just the Napoleonic wars would be too short a time period for a total war game as it wouldn't allow for significant technology increases. Possibly Colonial total war?

Lagmeister · 22 Jan 2006 at 21:35

The napoleonoc era wasnt just about muskets and the like, there were cavalry, skirmishers and the like, it was actually quite a vibrant time for the militaries of europe, but to be honest I dont feel that it would work, rather too few factions in the game, not much in the way of barbarians and the like, though the idea of escalades and having no idea of whats on the over side of the wall would be really great.

radio91 · 22 Jan 2006 at 22:10

I agree with you two guys, However i wander why they did'nt do a pre-roman expantion pack, Maybe going as far back as the Sumerians and hitties, Up until the glory days of greece, and Alxander against the persian empire, There could have been quite afew factions in it, Including ancient india, phoenicians ect ect

Reiver · 23 Jan 2006 at 12:01

Lagmeister said:
The napoleonoc era wasnt just about muskets and the like, there were cavalry, skirmishers and the like, it was actually quite a vibrant time for the militaries of europe, but to be honest I dont feel that it would work, rather too few factions in the game, not much in the way of barbarians and the like, though the idea of escalades and having no idea of whats on the over side of the wall would be really great.

I agree with your comment about the vibrancy and diversity of armies of the times, however i don't agree about the lack of factions. Britain (and they'd better call it Britain not England), France, Spain, Austria, Netherlands, Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Ottoman, Safavids and Mameluks could all be playable as they featured significantly in fighting of the era. Lots of non playable factions as well with basically all the German and Italian factions + the swiss in the mix. Lots of nice internal divisions as well as religion tore apart countries (eg. hugenots in France). Depending on the scope of the game it's quite possible that colonialism would be a feature so the americas, India and africa could feature as well.

Alex R · 25 Jan 2006 at 10:33

Got to agree that a Napoleonic setting would've been better. It lends itself much better to the RTW system anyway from a historical perspective. The tactics did use the set formations RTW so loves - whereas few medieval armies would've seen a unit of "swordsmen" fight in seried ranks as in the screenshot above. Plus, the Napoleonic era did include a fair amount of hand to hand combat. The early French revolutinary armies didn't have the training to use linear tactics and had to rely on getting to grips with formations deployed in line quickly - charge in column and use the bayonet.
Anyway, blah, blah, he goes on. I'll buy it anyway because whatever the period I still love the TW series. It makes me feel better about all the £££s spent on my PC rather than an Xbox 360 - till they bring it out on that with with keyboard and mouse support.

Wiggis · 25 Jan 2006 at 11:30

i just hope it does not turn out to be Medievial 1 gameplay with updated graphics.

Surley they could have come up with something better.