TheTotal Warseries from Creative Assembly is one of the most celebrated franchises in the strategy genre, combining turn-based and real-time gameplay to create layers of tactical and strategic decision-making. Launching withShogun: Total Warback in summer 2000,Total Warhas since released 15 major titles, covering 7 periods of history, as well as taking a dive into fantasy with theTotal War: Warhammerseries.
All of theTotal Wargamesreceived positive reviews from critics upon release, and a few have even managed to win critical acclaim. However, fan opinion will always remain divided on which titles are truly the best examples of the franchise, and which should be consigned to history.
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Total War: Medieval 2:Released in 2006,Medieval 2marked a major turning point in theTotal Warseries. Although the game returned to the 11th to 15th century timeframe from the originalTotal War: Medieval, it massively expanded onMedieval’s core features. On top of more diverse factions and armies,Medieval 2featured more diplomacy options, an improved UI, smarter AI, and better balance in battles. These improvements and a well-polished finish helped to cementTotal War: Medieval 2’s place as one of the fan-favoriteTotal Wartitles, with many players still returning to it 15 years later. Contributing to this long life-span,Medieval 2is also one of the mostheavily-moddedTotal Wartitles. Mods range from minor additions to complete reworks, with some of the most popular being the remake Stainless Steel, and theLord of the RingsconversionThird Age: Total War.
Total War: Warhammer 2:Total War: Warhammermay have been the series' first foray into fantasy, but it took untilWarhammer 2to show what the collaboration with Games Workshop could really do forTotal War. As well as a slew of quality-of-life improvements,Warhammer 2featured somethingnever before seen in aTotal Wargame, a campaign that combined the content of two different titles. Combining the maps and factions ofWarhammer 1andWarhammer 2into a single, gigantic sandbox campaign called Mortal Empires,Warhammer 2allowed an unprecedented level of replayability, as well as a world that felt both dynamic and familiar.
Total War: Shogun 2:In 2011, Creative Assembly brought players back to the series’original setting inTotal War: Shogun 2. The return to 16th century Japan was an immediate hit with fans and critics alike, praised for its refinement of the classicTotal Wargameplay as well as its immersive setting. Following on from the continent-spanning maps ofEmpireandNapoleon,many players appreciated the return to a narrower focus, where local politics, resource management, and settlement building became much more important.
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Total War: Warhammer 3:Despite some lingering difficulties with its story campaign and settlement battles,Total War: Warhammer 3represents the culmination of theTotal War: Warhammertrilogy. As well as a slew of quality-of-life improvements,Warhammer 3expanded Mortal Empires into Immortal Empires, a truly vast sandbox campaign featuring hundreds of playable factions and three continents worth of conquest. With bugs still being ironed out and its first DLC on the horizon,Warhammer 3seems on the verge of joining its predecessor in S-Tier.
Total War: Three Kingdoms:Total War: Three Kingdomsbrought the main series to a brand-new historical setting for the first time since 2009’sTotal War: Empire. Set during the fall of the Han Dynasty in 2nd century China, the game is based on the legendaryRomance of the Three Kingdoms.For the first time,Three Kingdomsallowed players to choose between the semi-fantastical Romance mode, where legendary heroes can defeat hundreds of ordinary soldiers, or the more realistic Records mode. The game also featured the most in-depth and satisfying diplomacy and espionage mechanics in theTotal Warseries, a massive improvement that many fans hope will return in the next major historical title.Total Wargames have always been focused on conquest above all, but the robust diplomacy ofThree Kingdomsshowed players another way to approach their goals.
Total War: Rome 2:Despite a bug-filled initial release,Total War: Rome 2has grown into one of the best historical titles in theTotal Warseries. Featuring an expanded map that stretched from Ireland to Pakistan,Rome 2also came with improved internal politics within its playable factions, more diplomacy options, smarter AI, and better camera options for cinematic battles. The game also expanded on the character and army customization fromShogun 2,with sprawling skill-trees and the ability to assign traits to armies and weaponry to legions.
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Total War: Warhammer:TheoriginalTotal War: Warhammerwas a landmark title for theTotal Warseries, marking the first time that the franchise stepped away from real history and into fantasy. The lore-rich world of Games Workshop’sWarhammer Fantasytabletop wargame was an ideal pairing withTotal War, boasting dozens of unique factions, each ready-made with infantry, cavalry, heroes, and monsters. These diverse factions madeTotal War: Warhammerone of the most replayable games in the series, with the addition of magic adding an extra tactical layer onto the real-time battles.
Total War: Rome:TheoriginalTotal War: Romewas the first game in the franchise to receive critical acclaim, and represented a honed version of the classicTotal Wargameplay that had been pioneered byShogunandMedieval. One of the biggest and most popular changes was the 3D campaign map, which also featured free map movement instead of province-based hopping. This helped shift theTotal Warseries away from its original tabletop inspiration, and helped to solidify its position as an innovative strategy franchise.
Total War: Napoleon:Just asWarhammer 2refined thenewTotal WarsettingfromWarhammer 1,Total War: Napoleonpolished the setting and gameplay ofTotal War: Empire.Napoleonshrunk the world-spanning scale ofEmpiredown into the wars of Europe in the early 19th century, featuring four narrative campaigns covering Napoleon’s military career. The game also featured numerous technical and gameplay enhancements that raised it above its direct predecessor, including a new physics system, simulated attrition, and improved AI.
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Total War Saga: Troy:As themost recent historicalTotal Wartitle,Troyhas had difficulty living up to the classics of the series. Part of this problem stems fromTroy’s status as aTotal War Sagagame, a subseries that is smaller, shorter, and more focused than the mainTotal Wartitles. As aSagagame,Troyhasn’t received the care and attention of the larger games in the series, leaving several issues unfixed since launch, including poor unit pathing and collisions. Despite this, Troy stays out of D-Tier thanks to some of its innovative features on the campaign map, such as the barter system, improved diplomacy, and the favor of the gods.
Total War: Attila:Just asNapoleonrefined and focused the gameplay ofEmpire,Total War: Attiladoes the same forRome 2.Set during the 4th century, Attilafeatures a more narrative campaign thanRome 2, with major events such as the Hun invasions and Migration Period playing out as the campaign progresses. Despite some of the best battlefield mechanics in thehistoricalTotal Warseries,Attila’s campaign suffers from some fairly major balance issues, including poorly-designed technologies and an opaque and punishing corruption system.
Total War: Empire:Total War: Empirewas the firstTotal Wargame to truly embrace gunpowder warfare, with the line infantry, cannon, and cavalry of the Napoleonic period. It also boasted substantial naval combat, with great navies able to dominate oceans across the world-spanning campaign map. Unfortunately,Empirewas also fraught with bugs and problems, including somemajor AI issuesthat made siege gameplay almost unplayable. A lot of these difficulties came from the new Warscape engine, which forced the developers to simplify many of the features that had become staples of the series.
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Total War: Shogun:The originalTotal Wartitle launched in 2000, introducing the world to the series' unique blend of turn-based strategy and real-time tactics. Set in the Sengoku Jidai “Warring States” period offeudal Japan, the game had players take on the role of a local Daimyo in an attempt to unify the nation. Although well-received at the time,Shogunhas extreme difficulty running on modern computers, leading to numerous bugs and glitches. Additionally, its extremely early prototype of the classicTotal Warsystem is missing many essential features and quality-of-life improvements, making it difficult to recommend in 2022.
Total War: Medieval:Just likeTotal War: Shogun,Total War: Medievalrepresents the first, faltering steps of theTotal Warseries.Medieval’s new settingand updated gameplay ensured the franchise’s future after the niche success ofShogun, offering a refined and polished experience. Despite these improvements,Total War: MedievalsharesShogun’s problems with modern computers. Bugs and glitches make the game difficult to enjoy in 2022, and missing features will be immediately obvious to any fan of the laterTotal Wartitles.
Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia:The firstTotal War Sagagame,Thrones of Britanniais set in the British Isles in the 10th century, and features a hyper-focused campaign based on local cultures and politics. Unfortunately,Britanniasuffers from many of the issues found in its fellowSaga gameTroy.These include unfixed bugs, experimental gameplay design that didn’t mesh with theTotal Warsystem, and a general lack of polish. On top of these issues, many players were upset with the game’s lack of replayability when compared with other modernTotal Wargames. The differences between factions were largely cosmetic, and the campaign map and timeframe was too small to allow for deep strategic decisions.
Total War: Warhammer 3is available for PC.
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