Hands on with the romantic battles of Total War: Three Kingdoms
"Art-driven" design, "mythical" characters, Wushu (yes, Wushu!). Total War: Three Kingdoms is the next historical entry to the grand strategy series but, boy, it really sounds like another fantasy game on paper. Watching developer Creative Assembly's E3 presentation I can almost feel the hand-wringing before it's begun - but, clearly, so can the developers, because in a stroke of simple genius they've already thought of that, already devised a solution, and already have an answer for me, before I even ask the question.
That's because Total War: The Kingdoms has two campaigns: a "Romance" mode and a "Classic" mode. One for the novel, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a sweeping epic of power, betrayal and warriors who slay a thousand men; one for the history books, like Records of the Three Kingdoms, a sweeping epic of power, betrayal and precise accounts of taxation levies and military formations.
I didn't get to see how this played out in the campaign, but I did get a look at "romance" version of a siege battle, where much of the game's changes are immediately evident. Creative Assembly is keen to stress the emphasis on character, above all, in Three Kingdoms. In the campaign map it'll come through in the form of "Guanxi" - a sense of connection, relationship and reciprocity - that I'm told will underpin much of your decision-making and that of your AI opponent's. In battle, it's most evident in your generals.
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