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CNET editors' rating:
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- Reviewed on: 09/07/2007
- Released on: 08/28/2007
- Originally published on GameSpot: Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms (PC) Review
Conquering Europe is never an easy task, in real life and in Medieval II: Total War. It's a big place, after all, and there's no shortage of foes, as you might have learned in Sega and Creative Assembly's epic strategy game. Enter Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms, an expansion pack that offers up whole new areas of the world for would-be emperors to conquer. There's a lot of content in here for veteran Total War fans to chew through, though newcomers should probably familiarize themselves with Medieval II before diving into this packed expansion.
Go England! Or maybe you're for Scotland? How about Wales? And where did Norway come from?
This expansion is like having four all-new games in one, considering that it features four unique single-player campaigns: Britannia, the Crusades, the Teutonic Knights, and, most radically, the Americas. The nice thing about these campaigns is that they don't feel like Creative Assembly just recycled a lot of content from the core campaign and called it a day. Each campaign feels like it was built from the ground up, complete with its own appropriate music, movies, units, rule changes, and more. Even some of the oft-humorous cutscenes that show in-game events have been retooled for the better. (If the "walking bush" infiltration cutscene doesn't make you smile, then you have no sense of humor.)
Even though these campaigns aren't quite on the scale of the epic campaign in Medieval II, they're still huge. Each will require hours to get through, particularly if you play through each battle rather than have the computer automatically generate the results. Though they're normally focused on more specific eras in history, Creative Assembly has done a good job of making these campaigns feel grand in their own right.
While the Britannia campaign might seem like a rehash of the successful Viking Invasion expansion for the original Medieval: Total War, it's quite different. The Viking Invasion was set in the Dark Ages, when a dozen factions tried to carve a power base. This new Britannia campaign occurs much later in history, and you'll play either as England trying to cement your hold on the islands, or as one of the smaller nations (Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Norway) trying to fight back. Playing as England may be the toughest proposition in the entire expansion, because you start out with huge swaths of poorly developed territory and must defend your land from all sides. You can easily find yourself strapped for the resources needed to upgrade your territories and field huge armies. Forts play a big role in this campaign, in that they're basically minicastles that help you defend large expanses of territory.
The real-time battles are as big as ever.
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Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms (PC):
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