14 DAY TRIAL // Rome: Total War, with the excellent Europa Barbarorum mod, is still installed on my hard drive and getting plenty of my limited play time. Medieval 2: Total War was appealing, but overplaying the original Medieval when it came out meant that I wasn't as interested in the remake. Shogun got me interested in tactics, warfare and lead me to reading Sun Tzu. So, you might say that I have a long lasting love relationship with Creative Assembly and their Total War series.
The move to Empire: Total War, which is supposed to cover strategic and tactical conflict set in the XVIII century, doesn’t attract me too much. The problem is that this period is only interesting if you can discern the subtle tactical moves that made blocks of pikemen and musketeers counter each other on battlefields where artillery begins dominating the battlefield. I'm sure that the developers will manage to make the tactical aspect of the game nice and balanced, but I can't wonder why the developers don't take the next logical step and move the franchise into modern warfare.
After all, we still have gunpowder based weapons and the scope of the tactical engagements can be increased or limited in order to make them meaningful. The strategic aspect of the Total War franchise, where you manage the political, diplomatic and religious destiny of your nation, is also well suited to modern day situations. Gamers could be engaged using a more detailed diplomatic model while a research component could also be introduced to the game to simulate the slow advance of technology. The level of abstraction required for a Modern Day: Total War game could be seen as a bit higher than that of previous games but that's just a consequence of the fact that we obviously know more about present day than we do, as gamers, about the reality of Medieval Europe or Japan.
Empire is due to be out sometime at the beginning of 2009 and, judging by the latest trailers released by the developers, it seems to be a great game, probably the best in the series so far. I hope that when Empire is released, Creative Assembly chooses to announce that they plan to bring their flagship series to present day.