Total War: PHARAOH

Like its predecessors, Total War Pharaoh is extremely time-consuming. It delivers a truly colossal punch. In addition to being visually very pleasing, it has the luxury of offering numerous new features in terms of gameplay, which fit perfectly into the setting of Ancient Egypt.

Total War: PHARAOH is a smashing success as a grand strategy game and brings the hit franchise to a new historical era. Fascinating leaders and subplots with mechanics to match help make each play session fresh and enjoyable.

Total War: Pharaoh is a successful return to pure history for the series. While some may not like aspects, such as a limited unit variety and a map that can feel a little narrow in areas, the gameplay is enhanced across the board thanks to a variety of features, increased tactical options in combat, and more.

A splendid campaign mode with many systems working in conjunction to offer a varied experience without losing the focus on the military conquest. Few cavalry units are partly compensated by a renewed attention to different types of infantry, but to be honest I do miss a good old cataphract charge.

Total War: Pharaoh truly represents a grand return for the famous saga of real-time strategy games. The attention dedicated to a purer form of story is evident, in a distillation of mechanics that evoke the greatness of previous titles without neglecting the necessary improvements that a series with over 20 years of history requires. The abandonment of myths, legends and fantasy elements is an appreciable move that will make historical fans of the saga happy, allowing them to completely immerse themselves in historical settings with an authentic feeling. In Total War: Pharaoh, you can recognize numerous familiar elements now cemented in Total War lore, alongside new additions that enhance historical immersion and bring freshness to Creative Assembly's catalog. The surprising optimization of the game guarantees the stability necessary to make an experience free from hitches or slowdowns shine, capable of effectively immersing the player with respectable views.

When playing Total War: Pharaoh, time simply goes by easily. Creative Assembly delivers another outstanding strategy-game, that connects all its aspects well and motivates with constant progression. Despite some minor flaws in the user-guidance-department, Total War: Pharaoh is a must-have-game for every RTS-fan.

Total War: PHARAOH is a very good strategy experience that explores one of the periods that the genre rarely engages with. After playing a few campaigns, I wanted to know more about the Sea Peoples, the way the Hittites organized their kingdom and the ways armies were mustered during the Bronze Age. I was also willing to spend time understanding the unique approach that each ruler brings to a campaign and how traditions and gods can enhance an advantage or cover a weakness. I’ll certainly simulate many of the battles while enjoying the crucial ones. Total War: PHARAOH is immersive and varied, a good entry in the series for both veterans and new players.

The multitude of systems can add so much variety and variation to the same gameplay that it's actually surprisingly easy to get overwhelmed by them. [Issue#330]

We'll still have to wait for successors to giants like Medieval II or Rome II, but even so, Pharaoh is the best attempt at a historical Total War since Attila, despite borrowing many systems from Warhammer or Saga-labeled titles. Add an extra point if you have an affinity to ancient Egypt and can be satisfied with two or three completed campaigns. On the other hand, if you expect extensive entertainment for hundreds of hours or units that rival the fantasy branch of the series in diversity, you may soon start to get bored with Pharaoh.

Ultimately, Total War: Pharaoh satisfied the historical grand strategist in me. If you've got the patience for its slow tactics and stripped-down strategy, its undeniably beautiful presentation could attract new players to this admittedly niche genre.

Pharaon is a good game and fans of the franchise will love it, but at this point the series are starting to feel a bit too repetitive, and we would like to see a bigger evolution in the upcoming entries.

Total War: Pharaoh stands atop the pyramids of grand-scale RTS. It takes the franchise in a bold new direction, adding a slew of new systems and features that enhance the gameplay. Despite choosing to play it safe with battles, the new systems are a big step forward. And while it has its flaws, Pharaoh features one of the best campaigns yet in an exciting and beautiful setting.

High replay value, enormous depth and massive demands: Total War: Pharaoh is strategy food for advanced players. The game requires a certain amount of training, but it also rewards it with an overall motivating gaming experience.

Total War: Pharaoh delivers the series’ best campaign experience yet, becoming its new gold standard for customization options and mechanical depth, while improving on its predecessor’s battles. It manages to translate the fascinating and mysterious history of the Bronze Age Collapse into video game form in a great way, though budgetary constraints are sadly visible when it comes to scope: How beautiful would the addition of the Assyrians and Mycenaeans in the east and west or actual trade routes on the map have rounded out this game. If Total War: Pharaoh has proven one thing, then that Creative Assembly Sofia has earned the chance at working on something bigger next time – this kind of quality campaign deserves a grander stage.

Total War: Pharaoh introduces a number of great new systems and mechanics for the long-running strategy franchise, and there's plenty of fun to be had staving off an ancient apocalypse, but a large number of bugs bring down the experience.

Despite its shortcomings with performance and AI pathing, Total War: Pharaoh has been one of the most enjoyable Total War games I’ve played for quite some time. Its refined focus on a smaller period of history has allowed for experimentation elsewhere, with dynamic weather and terrain, resource generation on the campaign map, and a wave-based invasion system with the Sea Peoples that constantly keeps you guessing. I hope that some of these mechanics can be taken and expanded on for future, main series releases for Total War.

From a brand-new campaign with exciting new features to a battle system that has been shaken up with new mechanics, Total War: Pharaoh has a lot to offer players looking for a new strategy experience to sink their teeth into. Some of its unique features may feel a bit bland, but it makes up for it by offering players unprecedented freedom to shape game and history how they see fit. And even though it may be smaller than Total War: Warhammer 3, it is still a worthy entry in this iconic franchise.

Total War: Pharaoh’s battles may be limited by history, but Creative Assembly compensates for this with a complex, thematic, and highly dynamic campaign.

Old issues return and some of its new ideas are less effective than others, but Total War: Pharaoh remains a strong and exciting addition to the series’ historical catalog.

Creative Assembly Sophia has refined every part of its take on this franchise since Troy, and the results are just shy of glorious.

Total War: Pharaoh lets you play your way, and throws a lot at you to deal with. Fans will lap it up once they get to grips with its new mechanics.

We believe that this sibling studio has the potential to create equal or better products in the future. Every new title we test is a step forward in both design and execution.

Total War: Pharaoh is a really nice upgrade almost on all fronts, and the ability to customise your campaign has also been preserved. If they could just update the interface. To me Pharaoh is one of the best historical Total War titles in a long time.

Total War Pharoah doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it does introduce a handful of promising and sometimes deep new ways to approach the familiar formula. Combat is still hit-and-miss, but the approach to history and empire-building are among the best in the Total War series.

Total War: Pharaoh makes the best of a difficult setting, but can't mask all of its problems.

Pharaoh is a solid new entry in the Total War series, although it lacks some ambition. If all you wanted was some fun playing as a general in a Bronze Age setting, you'd probably be satisfied here, but if you were waiting for the next big thing, you'd have to wait a bit more.

Total War: Pharaoh offers fun and challenging gameplay both online and offline. Graphically it is also quite enjoyable and the performance is excellent. However, the game lacks a bit of innovation and the voice-acting is a bit hit-or-miss. It's mostly more of the same within the series, and while that's not a bad thing, it can also feel like a lack of real progress. Despite that, a fine strategy game.

An innovative addition to the game series whose new mechanics offer exciting potential for the future, but gets in its own way and therefore unfortunately falls short of its potential.

Placing the next Total War game in Egypt was probably not the best decision. The Bronze Age simply tied the creators' hands too much, and you can see it especially during the fights. A small variety of units and battles that lack real juice drag the rating down. On the contrary, dynasty management is fun and last a long time.

Total War: PHARAOH will be another must-play for fans of the series or those who can’t get enough of Ancient Egypt, but hopefully you have a top-notch PC, because at least for now, the game chugs pretty badly, crashes are frequent, and load times are atrocious.

It's a beautiful and enjoyable game, but I see no reason to prefer Pharaoh over any other Total War.

A generous Total War in good shape from the outset, and one that will be refined over time.

Total War: Pharaoh asks you to spend a lot of time learning its new and complex mechanics, but if you do, you'll feel like a true Bronze Age battlefield commander.

Total War Pharaoh is unlikely to be a game you will sink hundreds of hours in, due to its repetitiveness and lack of variety. Fortunately, frequently criticized parts of previous games - AI and powerful heroes disrupting the balance - have been improved. Overall, few new mechanics and a new historical period are not enough to add Pharaoh to the "best in Total War" collection.

Creatively Assembly has made a good, solid game. Total War: Pharaoh offers a fun experience for anyone interested in the time period surrounding the Bronze Age Collapse. The technical issues I experienced were few. Out of the various gameplay systems, I particularly enjoyed the Royal/Hittite Court intrigue. But while the initial experience was great, some players may find the mid to late game lacks depth.

Total War: Pharaoh is a Total War without infamy or praise, one might say. It's one of those chapters that works but doesn't seem to add anything significant to the discourse carried on by the series.

There are some design (and marketing) choices about Total War: Pharaoh that are still unexplainable, but some of the innovations that the game introduces are what we hope to see more in the future of this glorious saga.

Total War: Pharaoh will surely benefit from the shortage of AAA strategy games with real-time battles, but it may play things too safe for the most demanding fans of the series, and given it’s a full-price release, the overall scope lands dangerously close to that of the Total War Saga entries.

Total War: PHARAOH presents an interesting window into the time and place of a tumultuous historical period while handing you the reigns to make your own story out of it.

I can't say that Total War: Pharaoh is a bad game. It's simply the same well-known game that was spruced up (again) and sold for a full price. But if you wait for a discount, Creative Assembly's newest game should deliver dozens of hours of fun.

Creative Assembly shows serious signs of fatigue in this new iteration of Total War. This new sequel lacks any kind of ambition or innovations, with its limited content impacting its replayability and the subpar A.I. leaving a lot to be desired. Pharaoh ends up being one of the more weak entries of the series.

A Total War game proves not to be the best way to explore one of the most fascinating periods in ancient history, with boring real-time battles dragging down positive changes to the grand strategy elements.

Total War: Pharaoh offers satisfying battles and challenging empire management, but undermines itself by pushing the player towards half-baked diplomacy, trade, and intrigue systems that feel authentic but aren’t consistently fun.

Dull warfare mars a fascinating battle for supremacy during the late Bronze Age collapse.

I liked it even less than A Total War Saga: Troy. There is not much variety in battles in the game, and the map looks incomplete. This is a game about the bronze age collapse, and where is Mesopotamia?