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83%
PROS
Two games in one! Great 3D battle scenes and wonderful RTS playing. A great load of fun and strategy excitement.
LOWS
Sometimes can get a little boring, if you are not hardcore, I few bugs...
OVERALL
Medieval Total War is definitely one game that you should have on your shelf.
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Medieval Total War is a great game that is actually 2 games in 1. You can enjoy the strategy part of the game, and can than immerse yourself in the 3D battle portion of the game. Everything about this game is in depth.
The units that you can make are very cool, as each one has something special about it. My favorite set of units is the archers, mainly because I love to see the huge influx of arrows streaming at my enemies. I swear, it's a nice site.
The graphics on Medieval Total War are great, but not excellent.
But than again, do they really have to be? I mean, if there is so much detail put into the characters, as long as you can distinguish the differences, I don't think that graphics are such a big issue. If the graphics on the game were a lot better, the game would take up too much CPU power and require too many high specifications.
Speaking about specifications, the game does not require that much. I mean, a Pentium II 350 is nothing!!! And only a 16 meg video card? Ludicrous! I can't believe how much of nothing that is for a game that looks like it needs a ton of CPU power and a 64-128 meg video card. While I was playing the game, I came across only one problem. Since my computer has Windows XP, the game's site states that your computer might come across choppiness in battle scenes if you have just the minimum requirements. I definitely do not: I have a Pentium III 933, 256 RAM, and a 64 Meg GeForce 3 video card. I figured that the issue was with my RAM, because it is only tolerable. I looked, and saw that the minimum specifications only needed 128 megs of RAM. I than tried that game on my laptop: A Pentium IV 1.8, 256 RAM, 64 Meg GeForce 4 Video card. The game works perfectly. The issue was probably with some weird driver issue on my desktop, but still a little weird... Besides that little bug, the game played great.
If you like to command battle, you will be glad to find a huge array of military options, including what you are going to do with your captured prisoners. To die or not to die? You can get really into the strategy of fighting or just use brute force. It's totally up to you.
If you are not into the RTS type of game, Medieval Total War has a real turned based aspect for you. You will have to move your armies, create new buildings, collect tax, invade new countries, the works.
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The map is laid out very nicely, and you can, again, get really into this part of the game. If you want to maximize your time as a strategist, just have the game "auto lead" your battles, so you won't even have to go into the RTS mode. Even though I have no idea why you would want to do that...
In all, Medieval Total War really has something for everyone. You can adapt your playing style to have more or less strategy or fighting, and then being able to change back forth creates enough new material for the game to keep you playing. The graphics aren't the best, but if you can deal with it and focus on an incredibly detailed strategy game, get your hands on Medieval Total War.
