Medieval: Total War
$29.95		(Win98/2000/Me/XP) (DVD Case) (MEDTOTALPR)

Publisher: Activision

Ratings:

from the Adrenaline Vault

This Is Total War

Experience 400 years of Medieval warfare - from the First Crusade in 1095 to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Take charge of any of the great powers of the period and guide your kingdom’s fortunes through a time of brutal conflict and social upheaval. Command vast armies and lay siege to mighty fortresses across the battlefields of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. In a world of fear, power and death, where Empires are made and broken, choose your allies wisely and deal mercilessly with your enemies. This is no time for the faint-hearted.

Game Features:

Epic scale 3D battles featuring over 10000 troops. With hundreds of distinct battlefields from the lush farmlands of Western Europe to the arid deserts of Northern Africa.

Spectacular Castle Sieges. Pound castles into the dust with a vast array of siege weaponry, including: Siege Cannons, Mangonels and Ballistae.

12 playable factions and over 100 different unit types each with distinct playing styles including: the English, German, Byzantine, French and Turkish Empires.

Play as a famous Historical Hero - including Richard the Lionheart, Joan of Arc, Saladin and Frederick Barbarrosa, and engage in historical campaigns including, The Hundred Years War, The Crusades and The Mongol Invasions.

RPG-style character development - Kings, Generals and Heirs develop vices, virtues and abilities that reflect their actions throughout the campaign.

Custom Battle: Fight a one-off battles in a ‘sand box’ mode. Set a budget, buy up enough soldiers for two armies, and go to it on the battlefield of your choice! This is a great way of perfecting your grasp of battlefield tactics.

Historical Battles: Fight one of the standalone battles based on a famous historical event. These set piece ‘missions’ give you the chance to change history or do better than the original commanders. Historical Campaigns: Fight through a series of battles covering the career of a great leader, or fight the key engagements of an important campaign.

Multiplayer: Search for servers/hosts or act as one for a multiplayer game of Medieval: Total War. This allows you to play against other human opponents over a LAN or the Internet providing you have a suitable network connection.

Battle Replays: The Battle system allows you to save a record of the action. Here, you can watch re-runs of your greatest triumphs or, should the medieval idea of (virtual) flagellation appeal, your greatest defeats!

Map Editor: This allows you to use one of the game creation tools to create your own battlefields.

Mighty Nations and Ancient Cultures

Medieval Total WarTM portrays the clash between mighty nations and ancient cultures on the blood-drenched battlefields of the Middle Ages. The epic battles and castle sieges feature over 10,000 warriors, in varied and spectacular 3D environments, employing tactics and weapons spanning 400 years of technical revolution on the battlefield.

Armies now comprise over 100 different unit types, many unique to their particular culture and period: the English can train longbow yeomanry, the Turks raise Janissary armies from among their Christian slaves, while the German Holy Roman Empire reaches the pinnacle of heavy gothic armoured knights. Each type represents different tactical opportunities for their commander. Battlefield terrain is also extremely varied, with forests, lakes, deserts, mountains and plains that realistically recreate campaigns in any part of feudal Europe, Northern Africa or the Near East.

Trade and naval battles will present a new dimension of player strategy: build galleys, caravels and fire galleys equipped with catapults, guns, and greek-fire to extend control into sea regions, letting you decide who gets to trade. Factions such as England and Italy will find themselves relying upon piracy and trade income as a source of revenue.

Enormous replay value is guaranteed. In addition to the 12 major factions, the game provides a full campaign covering 4 centuries of history, plus shorter historical campaigns concentrating on, for example, the Crusades, the Mongol Invasions, the Hundred Years War and the Reconquista in Spain.

Special Characters have also been added to the strategic gameplay. Generals, governors, princesses, bishops, cardinals, diplomats, papal envoys, heretics and witchfinders all feature as pawns in the struggle for supremacy. Players can control many heroic characters of the period such as Joan of Arc, Richard the Lionheart, Saladin, William Wallace and Frederick Barbarossa - who can turn the tide of war with their mighty deeds.

Requirements:

Minimum Configuration: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, or Windows ME (Windows NT is not supported). 300 MHz Intel Pentium MMX or AMD K6 processor, or 200 MHz MMX processor with supported Direct3D video card. 64 MB RAM. 4x CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive. 650 MB free hard disk space plus space for saved games (additional space required for Windows swap-file and DirectX 8 installation). 8 MB video card with DirectX 8 compatible driver; 3D Accelerated Mode requires a 16 MB Direct3D capable video card using the nVidia GeForce 2, nVidia GeForce 256, nVidia Riva TNT2, nVidia Riva TNT, ATI Radeon, 3dfx Voodoo5, 3dfx Voodoo3, 3dfx Voodoo Banshee, Matrox MGA-G450, or Matrox MGA-G400 chipset. DirectX 8 compatible sound card. Windows Media Player 6.0 or higher (not on CD; available at www.microsoft.com). Keyboard. Mouse.

Recommended: 400 MHz or faster Intel Pentium II processor. 128 MB or more RAM. 8x or faster CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive. 1.65 GB free hard disk space plus space for saved games. 32 MB or greater Direct3D capable video card with DirectX 8 compatible driver

Multiplayer: Internet (2-8 players) - 33.6 Kbps or faster Internet connection, 1 CD per computer, 1 player per computer. Network (2-8 players) - TCP/IP compliant network, 1 CD per computer, 1 player per computer

Reviews:

The Adrenaline Vault by Samuel Knowlton

"Medieval is a richly detailed product that wears many hats. It attempts to succeed as both a strategy game and a tactical simulation, to appeal to scheming masterminds as well as the more action-oriented crowd. You can spend a lot of time managing the minutiae of your empire as it grows, or you can hand off tasks such as taxes, fortifications and unit training to the AI. Medieval also provides a considerable degree of evolution in the variety of playable cultures and religions. While Shogun's clans were slightly different from each other, Medieval promises radically different styles of gameplay between Muslim and Christian, as well as intra-religious, but inter-cultural, aspects that make the strengths and weaknesses of each faction more pronounced"

"The folks at Creative Assembly crammed a lot of history into Medieval. Wherever possible, the developers inserted historical figures as royalty, generals and even spies or assassins, right down to Guy of Gisbourne. The conditions at the beginning of the game are remarkably true to the historical state of affairs in each period. After that, however, you're free to make your own history. Campaigns started during the early period will likely not resemble Europe during the late period after a couple of hundred turns. In that respect, the developers make certain sacrifices in the interest of gameplay. While Medieval is chock-full of historical characters and warfare, the developers have said on many occasions that their desire is to be "reasonably accurate" - this product uses history to provide a foundation for and to enhance its gameplay, but it doesn't pretend complete obedience to the past in all respects. Gameplay balance usually wins out over historical fact, as Medieval is not a history lecture. Consequently, it serves as an excellent vehicle to interest players in the political and military strife of the medieval era, but it isn't an academic resource of any kind."

"Medieval provides spectacular entertainment to both the immediate gratification crowd and scheming masterminds. Each battle requires considerable planning, attention and knowledge of the terrain. Every order given to your units in a battle can change one of the many factors used in calculating strength, defense, morale and overall effectiveness. Likewise, every victory and defeat changes the political and military landscape of Europe in a fashion reminiscent of the "for want of a nail" poem. Medieval is jam-packed with goals and obstacles that fit together seamlessly such that every victory makes the battle after it seem all the more important..."

"...Creative Assembly has gone where other development houses have either refused to go or failed in the attempt. Medieval set high standards for itself and achieved its goals. The forums at Creative Assembly are chock-full of warnings to newcomers that wife and children (or husband and children) won't understand your new attachment to your computer. Medieval may well have room for improvement, but two things are certain: First, no other game can be properly compared to it, and second, any room for improvement is likely to be filled by an expansion pack. The only competition Medieval faces is from its own ranks with Shogun, its older brother. It's safe to say that Creative Assembly has cornered the market on historical, total war."

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