Total War: Attila

I will admit that going into Total War: Attila I was starting to feel a bit of burnout from the series. Rome 2 turned out to be great, but the way that game launched still really bugged me so I was a little unsure of what to expect from Attila. Thankfully, The Creative Assembly does a ton of things right with this one.

A Huge Campaign

The Roman Empire is falling apart and you have three provinces (which are three regions grouped together) that make up the map. You, of course, have many different factions that you can play as in the campaign. I spent my time as the Visigoths and had a fantastic time. I really liked this as I did not have what you would call a home turf. I just went around waging war and taking what I wanted and felt like an unstoppable force… until I went a little too far north!

I ended up losing a large chunk of my people due to the extreme cold and the fact we did not have a home. This led me to overthrow the first settlement I came across, I lost many more people, but I at least had somewhere to have shelter and regroup. I went from being a wandering warlord scared of no one, to be terrified that the next invasion may be my last.

Convoluted But Fun

I think that Total War: Attila is a fun game, but it certainly takes a lot to get the best of it. This may sound like a big criticism, but it is not meant that way. The family tree dynamic I found to be very, very confusing. It was near impossible for me to keep everyone happy and there always seemed to be the threat of some kind of civil war on the horizon.

To be fair this I feel is done on purpose as no one ever said being a leader is easy. While the overall UI is better than it was in Rome 2, I just feel that things here could have been streamlined a bit more. I did eventually “get it” however, I can see some people losing interest before this happens.

What About The Bugs?

Because of what happened with Rome 2 it is more than fair to question how Total War: Attila runs. I found, even from the early days of the game, it ran pretty well. There are a couple of strange things the AI has done which I have witnessed, but these were not game-breaking, frustrating or anything like that. It seems like this is a very well-made game and that it has been that way since it launched a few years ago.

War On A Grand Scale

The visuals of Total War: Attila are great, I really like how “full” some of the battles can look and being able to zoom in and out of the action is as cool as it has ever been. The battle system in the Total War series is arguably the best around and while they do play it a bit safe here, I feel that the game is all the more fun for it to be honest with you.

I really like Total War: Attila. It is to me one of the more underrated games in the series. It does many good things, but at the risk of playing it safe which is why I feel it does not get the attention of games such as Total War: Warhammer. Still, this is a great time with a fantastic setting and some great races to play as.

8/10

Pros:

• I like the stories in the campaign
• Playing as the wandering Visigoths was awesome
• The battles are a lot of fun and very strategic
• It looks great on higher-end hardware
• It plays great with very few bugs or issues

Cons:

• It does play it rather safe
• The family tree thing was confusing to me