By Adam Smith on November 21st, 2011 at 9:32 am.
I don’t know if anyone bought the first Real Warfare game, but I suppose they must have done because otherwise it’s very unlikely that a sequel would have been made. What I do know is that it was very difficult to watch videos of the game in action and not shout “it looks like bloomin’ Medieval Total War”. There was an awful lot of medieval and an awful lot of bloom. Whenever a sword glinted in the sun, retinas were scorched and unshielded eyes risked turning into raisins. The sequel doesn’t dispense with this but it does add a strategic map to the first game’s tactical combat, which should hopefully allow for more varied scenarios. As the trailer below informs, the game is set in “the Medieval Europe”, following the Teutonic Knights as they conquer Prussia.
I didn’t play the first game and it sounded very limited, offering little more than a string of historical battles. The addition of a more cohesive campaign, with strategic elements, should benefit the sequel but it does look a lot like a budget Total War being sold at a steep price. I’m tempted to take a look when the price drops because I find it hard to resist a bit of historical crusading and the developers do seem to be rather passionate about period accuracy.
Real Warfare 2: Northern Crusades is available now on various digital distribution services, including Gamersgate and Steam (£26.96 and £26.99 – your move, Steam).
21/11/2011 at 09:43 ItalianPodge says:
I would be very interested in a “wot I think” about this game. Given that the Total War games have been on a bit of a downward slide in their vanilla editions (in my opinion) they could certainly use some strong competition.
The art style in the screenshot above certainly looks gritty and the castle forboding, I’ve also been impressed with the depth in games that come out of Eastern Europe and think this is a genre that can benefit from that.
Steam has a 10% discount on it’s € price which means it is only 22,49€. Given that most games cost more in €’s for this one to cost much less is most bizarre.
21/11/2011 at 13:08 JagRoss says:
Napoleon and Empire might not have been that good, but Shogun 2 was (in my opinion) excellent.
21/11/2011 at 13:53 mouton says:
Did they actually write a decent AI in Shogun 2? One that can actually defend or storm a castle? Because they never did in older iterations.
21/11/2011 at 19:43 Navagon says:
“I would be very interested in a “wot I think” about this game.”
Seconded. Worst case scenario: we get an amusing tale of bug ridden gameplay.
21/11/2011 at 10:00 Arnulf says:
@1:20 “Smite Like a Sledgehummer”
couldn’t continue watching after that…
21/11/2011 at 10:09 Zealuu says:
The Europe?
21/11/2011 at 10:11 Adam Smith says:
Yes, it’s ‘the’ Europe, but ‘a’ sledgehummer.
21/11/2011 at 14:38 cjlr says:
It’s cute when foreigners try to add articles.
21/11/2011 at 10:13 pacificator says:
It must have been really hard to fight with all the BLOOM damaging their eyes back in the days…
21/11/2011 at 10:52 Bluerps says:
It was a different time. Going blind from bloom before the age of 30 was considered normal.
21/11/2011 at 10:17 jimmm25 says:
It doesnt just look similar to Medieval 2, I’m pretty sure I they are the exact same unit models (mostly norman knights) and the same animations.
21/11/2011 at 10:25 RaytraceRat says:
Why its so blurry? Are they suggesting that everyone in old Europe needed glasses?
21/11/2011 at 10:30 Khemm says:
A friend of mine bought the first one and he regretted it – no strategy whatsoever apparently, Total War it wasn’t, so I’m curious whether the sequel has been vastly improved.
21/11/2011 at 10:46 robotsneedlove says:
As far as I remember the first game was closer to Dark Omen than to Total War – the levels were more of a pre-made tactical puzzle. Not that it helped in any way.
21/11/2011 at 10:50 Javier-de-Ass says:
“don’t know if anyone bought the first Real Warfare game, but I suppose they must have done because otherwise it’s very unlikely that a sequel would have been made”
this is the fourth game in the series even. xiii century death or glory and xiii century blood over europe were the first two. and yes, I own all four. :))
21/11/2011 at 10:55 Adam Smith says:
Aha! I used to know that, back when Real Warfare came out. I somehow forgot between then and now.
Thanks for clarifying, although sadly I haven’t played the earlier games either.
21/11/2011 at 11:30 Javier-de-Ass says:
there was a funny moment when I was checking out the tutorial to see about the changes with the new map mode yesterday. the tactics tutorial in real warfare 2 is actually the same one as it always has been in the series. the title of the game is even printed as XIII Century: Death or Glory in the tutorial text. haha.
the campaign seemed pretty cool though. very much inspired by mount & blade in the map mode.
21/11/2011 at 11:41 razgon says:
Now why did you have to say that? Now I have to give this a look…
21/11/2011 at 12:30 moarage says:
it seems like it suffers the same fate as other indie rts for being poorly optimized while not looking particularly good
21/11/2011 at 12:39 Drakhoran says:
So this is a chance for the teutons to win the Battle of Lake Peipus then? I’m sure millions of gamers have been eagerly awaiting this opportunity.
21/11/2011 at 13:11 pakoito says:
The guy from outofeight and wargamer tweeted a couple of days ago some impression and the game is fine or more than fine (7/8, surprisingly good AI). Expect a review soonish.
21/11/2011 at 14:02 Javier-de-Ass says:
Nice. I’m really enjoying it a lot. A few problems of course, especially in the map mode, but the battles at least feel more like they have some purpose now (or it’s easier to care for the outcome) and that is huge for the series.
21/11/2011 at 13:57 Inigo says:
FTFY.
21/11/2011 at 15:27 hosndosn says:
Overuse of bloom aside, this looks very impressive. Dare I say more impressive than even the Total War games?
21/11/2011 at 20:48 Dreamhacker says:
It definitely looks like Total War anno 2002 with a mix of Kings Bounty and Mount & Blade.
21/11/2011 at 20:03 Hensler says:
I found a review, albeit from a site I’ve never read before:
http://www.velocitygamer.com/pt/Review-Real-Warfare-2-Northern-Crusades/blog.htm
21/11/2011 at 20:12 mitra says:
Bloom can be deactivated from options; the game is well made mix of M&B realtime strategic campaign + real time battles; the campagain start with a story line guests which introduce the players protagonist and have the function to permit to raise his force, and at the end it become a sandbox campaign where you become the landmeister of Prussia, with full control on fortress, garrisons, markets and diplomacy. You manage also the logistic of your army and the pack horses. The AI is very good and if you not well manage your army will be very hard to continue.
21/11/2011 at 21:35 wazups2x says:
Looks like someone put Vaseline all over game.
24/11/2011 at 19:25 Javier-de-Ass says:
The out of 8 review is up, http://www.outofeight.info/2011/11/real-warfare-2-northern-crusades-review.html