Here we are: the most popular series of the excellent franchise Total War is about to unleash Chaos in a final chapter that promises to be grandiose. Six years after the first opus stamped Warhammer, Creative Assembly saw the big picture and cordially invited us to open hostilities a little early to see what's going on.
For the sake of this preview, the British studio has made available to us a build limited to eight hours of play, two factions (including a big surprise!) and 50 turns per game. What already largely give us grain to grind to forge a first informed opinion. So is Total War: Warhammer III a superb swan song addressed to this flagship and particularly appreciated license? Join us in our campaign to find out!
A God-Bear and eight factions play cards...
Before putting on our outfit as generals of fantastic armies, Creative Assembly had previously invited us to a short presentation of the game in order to place some context around this new campaign. This is centered on the northern Old World, specifically the Chaos Wastes, with Grand Cathay to the east and part of the Empire including Altdorf and proud Kislev to the south.
Ursun, the Bear-God of the Kislevites, was near death at the hands of a former Prince of Kislev who had become infatuated with Chaos. Mortally wounded, he would be imprisoned somewhere within the Realm of Chaos. From time to time, his cries of pain pierce the veil between dimensions and manifest as the opening of portals between the Old World and that of the Gods of Ruin.
Eight factions thus come into play, which will have to borrow these portals in order to find the jail of the God-Bear, for purposes as dark as virtuous which are specific to each one. Yes, you read eight factions correctly, whereas Creative Assembly originally promised seven. We also had the opportunity to try this eighth mystery faction as part of this preview, and we bet that it will please the fans enormously!
This brand new faction, represented by the Demon Prince who mortally wounded the God-Bear, is none other than Universal Chaos. Understand by this that it will be possible to play with absolutely all the units of the four Gods of Chaos which are Khorne, Nurgle, Tzeentch and Slaanesh. This new faction thus presents the greatest versatility ever seen in the franchise and will offer an infinity of options for players who are keen on min-maxing! This is also admirably well represented by the fact that we can equip our Legendary Lord as we wish by earning Divine Favors according to our choices during the campaign.
The other faction available during this preview was Grand Cathay, a civilization as old as the Gods themselves and largely inspired by Chinese folklore. Located in the far east, these people ensure the defense of the Great Wall against demonic invasions and seek in all things to preserve the balance between Yin and Yang. This translates into choices of generals, units and buildings aimed at maintaining this fragile balance in order to benefit from powerful bonuses on the campaign map as well as in battle.
A later Kislev engine
Ideal transition to talk about what Total War: Warhammer III has in the belly technically. Using an engine that shows its age and having taken its first steps on Rome II: Total War, this latest opus therefore tries to do something new with something old, with more or less success. The title thus visually blows hot and cold, between certain rather unsightly textures up close and much better visual effects. However, the units are generally very well rendered and animated. If you were expecting a graphic slap for the latest installment in the Warhammer saga, however, you may be disappointed.
Creative Assembly had warned us that this build would still have many bugs and would lack optimization. If we have encountered very few annoying bugs, it is clear that the optimization already decried in previous Total War: Warhammer is part of this third opus in line with its predecessors. Despite an extremely solid configuration, we deplored a relatively unstable framerate in the campaign as well as in battles, with regular drops below 60 fps. These optimization concerns were even more apparent as we approached the 50th round limit, when many factions and units began to show up.
So let's hope that by the time the game is released in February (and beyond) Creative Assembly will be able to fix these optimization issues to make the overall experience more enjoyable. We can in any case salute the exemplary work on the soundtrack, truly epic!
Chaos in the countryside
As our allegiance naturally goes to Chaos, we of course eagerly wanted to try out the new faction that is Universal Chaos. As usual, Total War tries to follow the maxim “easy to learn, hard to master”. Neophytes will therefore be able to take full advantage of this new opus by being gently taken by the hand during the first rounds.
For veterans, the mechanics of the campaign part of the game should not disorient you too much. It is always a question of moving his general or generals, filling their ranks with ever more powerful units, conquering cities and selecting the relevant buildings to build, in order to dominate several provinces, and after a few hundred turns the Old Whole world. On this point, Creative Assembly has only slightly modified a formula which has in any case proved to be extremely solid so far.
We can, however, point out a Diplomacy tab, quite limited in previous Total War: Warhammer, which has seen a nice overhaul here. New options are appearing and the chances of success of a negotiation draw their inspiration from a system introduced in Total War: Three Kingdoms, offering a much better readability. However, do not count on benefiting much by playing a faction subservient to Chaos. You know what it is, demons and diplomacy...
Of course, each faction will have its own campaign mechanics. For Universal Chaos, it will be a question of dedicating each conquered city to a given God in order to reap his Favors. These will be used to unlock new units and pieces of equipment for our Demon Prince.
Regarding Cathay, as mentioned earlier, it will mainly be about defending the Great Wall and the balance between Yin and Yang. This will result in particular in the Compass of Wu Xing allowing you to obtain powerful bonuses, or even to send caravans to travel the Silk Road… from Ivory to the south in order to obtain the resources necessary for the defense of far east facing Chaos.
JVFR
there is only war
The other central part of any self-respecting Total War is of course the battles part. If our 50 game turns per game did not allow us to build all-powerful armies, we at least had our fill of Blood for the Blood God. Again, the basic formula does not change radically, but has been refined compared to previous games.
JVFR
This is reflected in particular by much more varied maps, as much for battles on open ground as in cities, fortified or not, or even capitals. The artificial intelligence has also seen some improvements, such as better responsiveness to orders. Unfortunately, the pathfinding is still a little perfectible and the troops still tend to form "blobs" that magicians and ranged units will love to massacre by the hundreds.
JVFR
In view of the story depicted in this third opus, the battles are however more epic and are as much the scene of great moments of bravery as of fantastic fights between legendary creatures. This is clearly the most beautiful swan song that Creative Assembly could offer in the final chapter of this franchise which raised it to rub shoulders with the Gods themselves.
In any case, we have only one hurry on our side: to return to the Chaos Wastes in order to monopolize the power of the God-Bear… we meant to save him, of course! See you in a short month, February 17 more exactly, to find on PC and Game Pass this third opus which, in our humble opinion, presents itself as a masterful conclusion to this beautiful love letter addressed to Warhammer fans.
May the Chaos Gods bestow upon you their corrupting blessing until then…well, we meant: may Sigmar protect you. Obviously.
Preorder Total War: Warhammer III
