14 DAY TRIAL // Saying that Napoleon Bonaparte was ambitious is a sort of understatement. The diminutive French general was ready to take on Russia, Austria and any other coalition, which would stand in his way. He was a clear tactical genius but often lacked the strategic view needed to see that his efforts were ultimately destined to fail as long as he did no limit the number of enemies.
Gamers will be able to relieve the mistakes of Napoleon in the next Total War title set to arrive on February 26. SEGA and The Creative Assembly are promising a more focused experience than Empire offered last year, with more specific goals and better overall gameplay.
The developers are saying that the units the player can recruit now have more flavor and that the Artificial Intelligence is better at thinking in strategic terms on the map and more capable of choosing and pursuing goals in tactical battles.
Napoleon: Total War is also aiming to offer a more in-depth experience of the era portrayed, aiming to address the complaint of Empire players who could not connect with the game as they did with Rome or Medieval.
Also, The Creative Assembly is finally delivering on its promise of multiplayer for the Total War series. There will be three main ways of taking advantage of the presence of another human in Napoleon. First, there are the long known scenario battles based on historical encounters like Austerlitz, Trafalgar or Waterloo.
There is an option to start a single player campaign with two players taking charge of two different powers and play at the same time, with a turn time specified by the host player and with the player who is inactive still able to build armies and research tech as the active one moves armies and agents around the map.
But the most promising element seems to be the drop in battle options, which allows a player to get into a single player campaign while allowing other gamers, selected by Steam, to come in when a tactical battle starts and take control of the enemy. As long as a pool of players who are ready to jump in is always present, the mode could actually make the single player campaign a much more appealing affair.