A Total War Saga: Troy is out now, and you can get it for free
Sing to me, o deals
War totally continues today with the launch of A Total War Saga: Troy, the latest strategic rumble from Creative Assembly. The Saga subseries focuses on particular regions, in this case the Bronze Age dust-up round the city of Troy as told in The Iliad (I think it's an episode of The Simpsons?). Troy is initially an Epic exclusive but: this deal means the game is fully free to keep forever for the first 24 hours. That's quite nice.
If you fancy it, hit the Epic Games Store before 2pm (6am Pacific) on Friday the 14th to get Troy for free to keep. After that, it'll cost you cash. While the game's Mac version is not out yet, nabbing that now will get you access to the Mac edition too when it arrives.
A Total War: Saga is a quasi-historical take on the war that might not have actually happened. It downplays fantastical elements of the legend, so sure you'll find Achilles but you won't see him giving a river a kicking. The influence of gods (or belief in gods) will be felt but they won't throw down on the battlefield. And mythical creatures like centaurs are turned into regular horse-riding human cavalry. So more Troy (2004) than Iliad.
Our Nate's A Total War Saga: Troy review says it's better than the last Saga, Thrones Of Britannia, but kinda just more Total War in a way that series veterans might not find thrilling. But, he says, if you've not played Total War before "and have always wondered about dipping a toe in to the series, you could do a heck of a lot worse than starting with Troy." Though being free right now surely makes it attractive to recruits and veterans alike.
Troy is coming to Steam in August 2021. This is the first Total War to be an Epic Games Store exclusive, and Creative Assembly have said they don't currently plan to do any more scloosies. They explained that Epic approached them with a deal and are paying for the giveaway. Creative Assembly also explained they're using this opportunity to take tentative steps onto non-Steam digital stores, seeing how it works out as well as putting work into "expansive back-end infrastructure development" to support multiple stores.