Review for A Total War Saga: TROY. PC game, the video game came out on 13/08/2020
While Total War: Three Kingdoms is unquestionably still on the crest of the wave, at Sega and Creative Assembly it's time for a new chapter in the series A Total War Saga with the advent of A Total War Saga: TROY. As is clear from the title, after Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia, the capable developers take us to a time when "history" and "myth" were indissolubly intertwined.
The most common mistake is to consider this chapter as an ideal continuation of Three Kingdoms, which in fact it is not. Let's face it right away: already in the intentions of Creative Assembly this series (A Total War Saga) had to be minor and was amply specified at the time of the release of Thrones of Britannia. This must be said for the record, so as not to combine this game with the "big brother" by making him lose a little something in terms of perception by users.
A Total War Saga: TROY is a game that wants to be "minor" more than anything else in content, replayability and player choices. This is certified by the fact that we will have a smaller map (but not for this with few settlements) and fewer playable factions. Being the Trojan War mainly a clash between two peoples, that of the Danai and that of the Trojans, these will be the playable factions even if within them we will be able to choose a particular character (with an interface very similar to that present in Three Kingdoms).
Even here, however, do not be deceived: the Trojan War was a proto-world war in which all the peoples that bordered the eastern Mediterranean coast participated and also in this A Total War Saga: TROY it excels in the faithful reproduction of the peoples and settlements that we were told existed at that time.
The game comes with a very different graphical interface from its predecessor but in any case very recognizable and in the wake of all Total War. Perhaps there is some uncertainty about the position of the elements that do not turn out to be in very intuitive positions. A top menu with icons that do not perfectly clarify which panel will be accessed by clicking on it is proof of this. It could be done, maybe a little more.
The resources at stake this time will be those vital at the time the conflict took place: grain, timber, stone, bronze e gold. It must be said that although the last four are quite easy to find, we have experienced many difficulties in recovering the first, vital for the maintenance of armies. Here is a first big stumbling block to talk about: A Total War Saga: TROY is all about the player's ability to conquer new territories and win the Trojan War, however the difficult recovery of a resource like wheat makes sure that it doesn't all approaches can be practicable.
For example, if we are players who focus a lot on defense and like to wait for the right opportunity to launch an attack (like the writer), this chapter will test your patience even on easy difficulty. The difficult obtaining of wheat means that there are few armies with few units under our command, but firmly holding large portions of territory under these conditions is not at all easy.
The main difficulty lies in the fact that our enemies (be they Danaans or Trojans) move like a real league and will come to deploy many armies against us (with real invasions) that it will be very difficult to counter without giving up ground. This is a mechanic perhaps designed to lengthen the time of the campaign a little but it is too punitive and leaves little room for different approaches.
In addition to the resources panel we will find the smaller ones to open that we were talking about earlier. Particularly interesting is the one dedicated to the deities that will allow us to ingratiate ourselves with the favor of this or that deity thanks and prayers and hecatombs, all - of course - paid mainly in grain (again!). The greater the favor of a god, the greater the bonuses it will grant us in battle.
It will be good to talk about the battle now: the interface of the battles very much mirrors that of Total War: Three Kingdoms so we will not begin to list those that are now consolidated characteristics. However, it should be noted that the heroes will be able to use, in addition to the usual skills acquired as their level rises, even the "Anger". We are sure that instead of "Anger" the correct term was "Ira", to lower the Hero into the Homeric world where "the fatal wrath of the pelide Achilles" covered so much importance within the narrative. The mechanism of "Anger" will grant our leader a disproportionate strength but will not be able to turn the tide of an already lost battle.
Diplomacy, on the other hand, remains almost unchanged even if in this case it turns out to be a little more annoying due to the continuous requests of the other factions regarding exchanges of resources and nothing else. Something more could be done here too but a future patch could resolve the issue.
What A Total War Saga: TROY really excels at isn't even the graphics sector even if the general map is extremely beautiful, with the limestone coasts of Turkey of a shocking beauty. The graphic issue is a trademark, probably due to the need to manage impressive numbers of units. However, it is no longer justifiable that even the few cutscenes proposed by the game have the same graphic care as ten years ago.
Point of excellence is that of the atmosphere. The most important Homeric heroes (Achilles, Menelaus, Agamemnon, Odysseus mistakenly called Ulysses, Paris, Aeneas, Hector) are beautifully made and their epithets are accurate. A Total War Saga: TROY through the detailed realization of these heroes makes us enter the heart of History without ever forgetting the Myth. In this regard, in fact, special units such as Centaurs and Giants (and others that we let you discover for yourself ...) must be mentioned, capable of transporting us to a time in which many things considered supernatural today were instead credible for those who listened to these stories.
Ultimately A Total War Saga: TROY does justice to the Homeric tale in terms of atmosphere and construction of the game environment but lacks some revisable mechanics. Fortunately, these are aspects that can be easily retouched, and we hope for that.
► A Total War Saga: TROY is a Simulation-Strategy game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Feral Interactive for PC, the video game was released on 13/08/2020
