Total War : Attila

The new installment of the Total War franchise releases in just a few days. The developers went ahead and sent out a few review copies to some review websites and youtubers. Currently, Attila is sitting at an 81 on Metacritic with 20 something reviews in. If you're a TW fan like me, you've probably already watched some of the preview gameplays and already know what some of the upgrades in Attila vs Rome 2 are.

BTW - I was very disappointed when Rome 2 launched. It took over a year of patches to get that thing stable, and after all of that mess, I still feel a bit burned by CA. That being said, I am hoping Attila turns out to be a great installment over the previous TW game.

There's not a whole lot of videos out there yet for the review build of the game, but I'll share a few that I found interesting.

May as well put a big name reviewer video out here first. IGN....eh. When it comes to TW games, I tend to stay away from big name reviewers, and instead stick to some youtubers I actually trust. (Darren TW, Sun Jetzu, etc.....)



And here's Sun Jetzu's initial review. I would post more youtuber reviews, but there's barley any out yet. Give it a few more days and more channels will have theirs out.



Now on to the other youtubers and their gameplay videos. Before I forget, one thing I want to point out is the amount of unit roster diversity in Attila. So far it looks like this game will have the largest selection of units, atleast when it comes to the most recent TW games.



Sassanids vs Eatern Roman Empire (HeirOfCarthage vs PrinceOfMacedon). Commentary on units in battle, along with battle gameplay video.



THFE plays as the Eastern Romans vs Gepids while attempting to defend a small city. One thing I've noticed is that smaller settlements usually have small walls now. Also, instead of mostly flat, squared small cities like in Rome 2 (well, there was some variation in a few cities, but not too much), they're now more diverse and tend to be positioned on higher ground. Civilians run around the towns now to, and they kind of try and fight!



Last battle gameplay footage is from Alex the Rambler. Western Romans vs the Huns in a semi forested/grassland terrain.



From what I have seen so far, it looks like Attila is a pretty well upgraded Rome 2, along with some neat little additions (civilians on the battle map in cities, fire actually torches quite alot of things, nuking regions on the campaign map, and along with a few other things). It's also set in one of my favorite time periods. The game is also only $45, instead of a normal AAA launch at $60.

Even though it is looking pretty good, atleast for me, I will wait for a few more reviews to come out before I decide to buy this. I would recommend waiting for DarrenTotalWar and also Lionheartx10 to give their reviews of the game before deciding to purchase. (They did have some imperssions on the preview build sent out, but they haven't gotten to the review copy yet)

Saving this for last, but I also wanted to mention the music. Music is a must for me when playing large scale, epic battles in TW games. Rome 2 had some of the worst music ever IMO. Shogun 2 had pretty decent battle music. Medieval 2 was by far the best though. I haven't been able to find a soundtrack to battle gameplay music only, but here's the main screen music.



Im actually digging the main screen music. Hoepfully someone will post battle music soon. However, I dont think any TW music can beat Medieval 2. CA needs to bring back this guy.

Well, about those youtuber reviews I was talking about, it looks like DarrenTotalWar has just been hired by CA.



Unfortunately, this means no review of Attila from him, and he wont be doing any DLC reviews for the game either. Tis a sad day when one of the best (if not the best) TW youtubers has had to close up shop. He'll still do some tactics videos and maybe a couple other things, but no more reviews/opinions from him.

Also, here's a bit of info for those that are thinking about pre-ordering mostly for the Vikings DLC pack.



Long story short - The Vikings are basically a copy and paste. You can basically get everything Viking while playing as the Saxons. All you really get are just a couple new units and a few new starting positions. Kind of a disappointing bonus IMO.