Total War: THREE KINGDOMS

Why three kingdoms is the best total war ever. the MAIN reasons.
Not talking about the immersive atmosphere of the game, which some like and some don't, lets get to the game itself on 2 sections just so u see how well thought out and in depth they are:
1. it has the best diplomacy in all total war games; factions act like they should according to their personality. there is the option to trade territories, so u can get that territory that u really want and its actually doable more often than not. when it comes to enemies, u can make peace if u treated ur enemies fairly, and this peace will hold if the enemy personality allows it and who knows u might become best allies. if a faction is saying no to you in diplomacy you know exactly why, there are no vague terms like "BASE VALUE" like in troy saga. what is that even! it is even possible to win the game with economy (i.e. force others to trade territories with a monopoly on trade)
2. a spy system that actually makes sense; here spies are spies. Meaning, there may be a spy among your characters (generals, administrators or perhaps family members) and you will never know who they are until they show their true face. U have to pay attention to the type of personalities that u surround urself with. spies can become double agents, or perhaps give u a territory for free. The world is your oyster!
3. each increase in faction rank is meaningful, granting u access to additional features that make sense. factions treat you accordingly (some like u and some fear u), your characters are also affected by it.
Every choice in this game makes sense. it has a deeply satisfying sense of role-playing to it that is there in warhammer 2 for example but is magnified by 10 here.
You wont regret the time spent on this game, if u like total war titles
Was this review helpful to you?

Only 6 hours in and I am hooked. As someone older and slowing down I struggle with the games that require fast reflexes. This is the perfect mix of high level strategy and battle level tactics. It is absolutely stunning.

It's a fun game, but the original game has a lot limitations and not match the real history. I played like 100-200 hours and have no more interest. But I found the mod called "New General Collection", these mods make this game 100000X fun than the original. That's why I can play 1000 hours.

Folks, let me tell you, I am Sun Jian, the man who founded the Eastern Wu kingdom. And let me tell you, that Liu Bei guy, he's no good. He's weak, he's spineless, and he doesn't know how to make deals.

I'll tell you what, back when we were all part of the same group, the Red Cliffs Alliance, Liu Bei was always trying to take advantage of us. He'd say things like, "Oh, Sun Jian, we need to work together against Cao Cao." But then as soon as we'd win a battle, he'd turn around and side with Cao Cao instead. Can you believe that?

And then, when we finally broke away from Cao Cao and formed our own kingdoms, what does Liu Bei do? He tries to take land from us! He's always trying to expand his little Shu kingdom at our expense. That's right, folks. Liu Bei, he's a snake. He's got no loyalty, no honor. He'll stab you in the back every chance he gets.I'm telling you, folks, Liu Bei is a loser.

I recently played the new dynasty warriors and i loved it. So it motivated me to go back to this game and in general go into a total war faze.

I really enjoy this game as shown by my time spent playing it, but on further thought i truly think this is the best total war ever made, to the gasps of other total war fans, i know.

But this game did so much right that i just love it. I've played nearly every starting faction and even ones only accessable through mods and i will say not everyone is perfect but most are very well done and have a sense of uniqueness to them. The diplomacy is hands down the best i've ever seen and i've played most TW games. Excluding a few like Pharaoh because nobody played that game, medievil 1, and shogun 1.

But hands down the thing i love the most about this game is that you can play a faction multiple times in a row and have completely different experiences. For example i played SHI XIE who starts on the bottom of the map (he is DLC content) so when you play him you have little to no impact on the rest of the main factions for quite a while. Well there is this yellow turban faction who almost always gets eliminated fairly early. Well sitting on the bottom of the map i had LIU BEI show up in my territory as a recuirtable character/ Which only happens if his faction gets eliminated. Well many turns later it happens that this yellow turban faction had become very powerful and taken out many faction. That is one of the many times ive seen a unique situation happen in my many playthroughs.

Now there are certain events that are more likely to happen but every once and a while they wont. Like DONG ZHOU wont get assassinated, Or Sun Ce will not die. Or that the three "Main" factions will become strong and make it to late game. But its never a guarantee. It makes every play through feel unique and exciting.

The characters and the diplomacy also add to this uniqueness. Having all of the legendary character who 90 percent of them are based on someone who actually lived makes it exciting to have them in your armies. Whether you get lucky and have ZHOU TAI show up early or YU JIN with his gold double swords. Even as a side faction its always exciting to get one of these character to show up and then you can turn them into your main general.

The diplomacy gives you so much choice as well. Even factions who normally hate you you could maybe be able to convince them to join you if you play your cards right. There are exceptions to this such as the yellow turbans and the NANMAN tribes but they have a uniqueness all their own.

I could go on for ages about the great things about this game but i will end it here.

This games does have its issues, its not perfect.

But it does so much right in the right places that it makes those issues seems small. Dont even get me started on the mods for this game because that adds so much. I recommend WUdancesse (spelt wrong im sure). Its great and adds a lot of characters and events.

Ok, i was not originally going to add this but i think i must. Most complaints ive seen of this game is that its not "Historical" like most of the previous TW games are. You have Generals who kill swathes of enemies and have powerful ablities blah blah. This game is not based on history. It's based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Which is a romantical telling of real events. With larger then life character doing fantastical things. It is why this part of history is so popular in modern times. it is what many pieces of modern media are based on. Because the story of these character is so good and based on real historical events it can inspire generations to look up the real historical facts which were recorded extensively at the time. If im really enjoying playing with GUO JIA who popped up in my faction i can look him up online and find out what happened to the real person. You do not get this from any other total war title.

This games does come in two modes. Romance and Records. Records mode gets rid of the "TW-warhammer" Generals and turns them in to retinue units like previous games its just no one plays records cause compared to romance because that shit is boring.....

no two battles are the same
no two battle landscapes are the same
AI is VERY competent, always manages to surprise and impress me with it's tactics
very well intertwined systems: diplomacy, relationships, troop types etc etc etc
amazing artstyle and sound design

MASTERPIECE! WORK OF ART!

This is the model of Total War I have always dreamed it could be: A Strategy roleplay game. It blends all that the historical Total War games have and even innovates on ideas that I still have yet to see return to One.

If you are looking for Total War's best historical title to date, you found it.

With or without mods, this game should be considered among the greatest of all strategy games and a bar by which to hold Creative Assembly to.

This is Total War at it's best.