Total War™: EMPIRE 12+

I’ve encountered a couple of bugs, language issues around religious unrest (for example, playing as Catholic Austria) when I’ve captured a Muslim region, the game will tell me “religious unrest, send an Imam in to […]” where it should be Priest. Also, sometimes when my turn starts it will just skip turn for me, usually this is if there’s a lot going on or the game briefly freezes whilst I’m trying to tap on something- especially when message pop ups cover my screen at the beginning of a turn, I will click the checkmark on the note, but it will register as me pressing the skip turn button beneath it; this isn’t a huge issue because I can load the auto-save from the start of that turn.

The actual game is amazing, I think I’m enjoying it more than the PC version I played years ago. It looks better on iPad than I even remember the PC version looking. Honestly, if you have ever played or enjoyed any total war, or if you think this game might be for you, trust me, it is.

Edit: I have had to delete because I spent so much time on this I started having issues with sleeping and doing my school assignments. Great nostalgia trip, install at your own risk. One final thing I’d like to add, it doesn’t “feel” like just some lazy port, it’s like a new game which I’m eerily familiar with, though I have memories of playing it, the experience was incredible. Looking forward to reinstalling when I’m not as busy.

Ever since Medieval II came to iOS, I’ve been hoping that Empire would follow, but it is such an ambitious game (encompassing warfare, politics, trade and economics, research and technology) I didn’t honestly believe it would happen. But Feral have shown once again that they are masters at converting PC classics to mobile - all the detail from the original seems to be present and correct, and accessible through an elegant and user-friendly mobile interface. They have also implemented a number nice changes including an improved research system, streamlined replenishment, and a handy positioning box for placing units on the battle map - this is definitely my favourite way to play (I’m on a 12.9 inch iPad pro 2nd gen). This is a big game - a single playthrough can take tens of hours, multiply that by eleven playable nations and lots of potential strategies and its easy to rack up a lot of hours in this game (all for about the same price as many ‘free’ games charge for a bag of coins/gems/gold/other virtual nonsense). So, to sum up: epic strategy, excellent conversion, bargain price.

This is a (broadly) good port of a game that has many many problems. The AI is terrible, which is exactly how the original game was. The AI will often brainlessly march troops directly into yours with NO tactical skill, making battles a matter of cheesing more than strategy. Upping the difficulty just fiddles the morale. Also, fort battles become a cluster of overlapping models with very poor in-game physics. On the campaign map, the AI is liable to declare war for absolutely no reason to the point it really is just random, which takes much of the fun out of the game. Somehow the AI is considerably worse than in earlier total war titles, such as Medieval 2. The port has been attempted valiantly but it doesn’t quite hit the mark. Some good efforts have been made to make the game suitable to tablet but these need some work. For example, the button to dismiss a notification at the start of a new turn overlaps the “end turn” button, so you’re likely to dismiss a message and accidentally end turn with a single tap. Also, whilst many features were added, several were needlessly removed, such as the ability to toggle the floating flags in battles which are an eye-sore. If Feral are reading this, PLEASE provide a means to remove the annoying floating flags in battles. Ultimately, it was a good attempt to make a highly flawed game IOS compatible, but it has ultimate ply proven to be a disappointing purchase.