First Look At Total War: Warhammer Is Totally Warhammer
First trailer has all the things
This is a good trailer. It's a good trailer even though it doesn't contain even a picosecond of in-game footage. This first 'cinematic' trailer for the Creative Assembly's RTS adaptation of Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy Battles is a good trailer because it's got a big old dust-up between the Orcs (on boars!) and the Empire (on Griffons!) with a side-helping of Zombie Dragons, dwarfs fighting Arachnarok spiders and what looks an awful lot like mother-lovin' Tzeentch. I might be wrong in that, but lord I hope not, because Tzeentch has always been my Chaos god, and sadly he's gotten a raw deal in videogames to date
Anyway, you'll want to watch this.
I'd probably need to dedicate a whole day to identifying every unit they've included there, but it very much suggests this won't be a straight-up orcs vs men affair. Whether the game itself looks as epic-scale, dark'n'nasty as this suggests I don't know, but in the meantime, solely within the context of trailers, let's just enjoy what might just be one of the most spectacular animated depictions of Games Workshop's fantasy wargame that we've ever seen:
That is a Lord of Change, right? Right? Tell me I'm right. I also like the slight hint of a prog rock soundtrack right there at the end.
Initial details from publisher SEGA confirm the game will include the Empire (under Karl Franz), the Greenskins (under Grimgor Ironhide), the Dwarfs (under High King Thorgrim) and the Vampire Counts (under Mannfred von Carstien). Chaos, whether Tzeentch or not, isn't mentioned by name, but it does say here that "a greater threat still whispers in the winds from the north. The fabric of reality itself begins to rend and buckle" so yeah, Chaos is in there too.
We're also promised "a unique combination of colossal real-time battles and an addictive turn-based sandbox campaign game of statecraft, politics and empire building", so can expect something structurally similar to other Total Wars, and right off the bat they mention that there'll be "two further standalone instalments and additional content packs", which should calm the nerves of aggrieved Skaven, Ogre Kingdoms, Lizardmen and Elf fans.
And yes, Total War: Warhammer is what they eventually settled on as a name. Date is 'coming soon' for now. But how soon is soon? Is it now? It would be good if it were now.