Total War: THREE KINGDOMS

50 series gpus have had a soft incompatibility with this game for months. The UI will flicker and disappear during battles making it impossible to see where your troops are going. You have to work around this by enabling smooth motion or limiting your framerate by 40-50 fps. Game is good otherwise, but wow this should've been fixed already.

This game is so terrible that I've apparently put 838 hours into it without realizing.

Best in the series, imho.

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.

600+ Hours in this game (and many more in other TW titles) and never played legendary before. Wanted to try my first legendary campaign ever last night. Played Liu Bei from the 183 start and had my army wiped out and LOST the campagin in 7 turns and less than 60 minutes.... Fastest campaign ever finished in any total war games LOL
10/10 will try setting another personal record of fastest defeat again

TL;DR: One of the best mostly-historical TW games, a little confusing to get into for series veterans, lots of small changes add up to a brilliant package.
3K does a lot of small things different to the other Total Wars, but in aggregate they add up to a lot of good changes that deepens the strategy required to succeed. It was a little confusing on my first go through, but I don't know to what degree that's me with my well-walked expectations of TW games or the games on-boarding design.
As a long-time fan and player of the TW series, it can be easy to get a little fed up of the formula. Most of the time; All resources are condensed into "income", every army has 1 leader and about 19 units (no limits on the types), diplomacy is very basic, family tree/court mechanics come and go and don't amount to much. 3K changes a lot in a lot of small ways, and it helps it feel fresh again.
When learning the ropes of this one I was always surprised with an new feature, like how generals/agents can establish positive or negative relationships with each other and how this effects who can be posted where and how. Generals can only have 6 troops attached, but multiple generals can be in one army. Military Supplies are separate to unit upkeep, and add meaningful complexity to army logistics.
My main negative for this game, and its not anyone's fault really, is that the map is a bit repetitive. China is a MASSIVE landmass with a lot of different climates and features, but at the end of the day you have plains, mountains, rivers and forests, and that's it. The ocean may as well not exist, and the jungles and dense mountain regions are at the very edge and don't come up much. Going from TW:W3 that has every natural and un-natural climate to fight in, its hard not to feel a little bored in this aspect.
I think the dev's could have also done a little better with introducing players to the context and history of this entry. A lot of people outside Asia are only vaguely familiar with the 3K history and stories, and with all these factions and named characters its very easy to lose your place and have no idea what you're doing. Why should you pick Cao Cao over Liu Bei? Unique unit/building or faction mechanics aside, not a clue.
Also, its a Sega game, so there's piles of DLC ranging from utter trash to almost essential. About half of these could of just been free updates.

I can’t believe I didn’t find this game earlier. I’m totally new to the Total War series and it took me a bit to figure everything out, but now I’m completely hooked.

I keep telling myself “just one more turn” and suddenly hours are gone. The mix of battles, diplomacy, and all the little political stuff is just insanely fun. The characters feel alive, the map is gorgeous, and every decision feels meaningful.

It’s been a very long time since a game pulled me in like this, and now I can’t stop thinking about my campaign and next moves even when I’m not playing.

If you’re thinking about trying it: do it. I wish I had started playing way sooner...

This is the most fun I had playing any Total War game.

I grew up playing Rome Total War, and when I was a teen Total War Rome II came out. I feel like this game has everything that other Total War games lack:

I feel like every faction is playable. The characters, with unique buildings, units, abilities etc. feel different enough so that I can enjoy another playthrough.

The combat is amazing. I personally only play battles when the auto resolve loses, or losses seem too great (personal preference to keep the flow of the game for me) but I didn't have any major problems with the combat. I enjoyed how versatile I can be with formations, different units, bonuses etc. I do suffer with cavalry units but that is just the usual for me. I wish they would retreat when I tell them to and not get impaled on spear infantry but oh well.

The generals, commanders feel amazing. Making them represent the 5 elements is beautiful and making their abilities and the units match this as well is just amazing. Giving a great variety to how you can build your army, depending on what kind of generals you have, filling them up with suitable units. It just feels so good.

Honestly I could go on for quite some time, with the buildings, cities, diplomacy and features etc. all day long but after writing this much I realise no one is going to read this so I'll just stop :) If you read so far, thank you and I really recommend this game, I can't believe how much fun I had with it.