Total War: WARHAMMER

 PC
User Score
7.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 839 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 588 out of 839
  2. Mixed: 104 out of 839
  3. Negative: 147 out of 839

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  1. NubNub
    May 24, 2016
    7
    I'll be honest, I didn't come into Total War: Warhammer with much faith in CA. After the release of Total War: Attila, I was worried that the franchise might not rebound, but with Warhammer it seems to be on the right path, but not necessarily the right direction. What I mean is that I'm playing Warhammer, but it doesn't necessarily feel like Total War. The game has been dumbed downI'll be honest, I didn't come into Total War: Warhammer with much faith in CA. After the release of Total War: Attila, I was worried that the franchise might not rebound, but with Warhammer it seems to be on the right path, but not necessarily the right direction. What I mean is that I'm playing Warhammer, but it doesn't necessarily feel like Total War. The game has been dumbed down dramatically, in particular with managing provinces and raising armies. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it lacks the Total War feel. Of course you have to expect some give and take in that regard, but it's also the reason why I only gave it a 7 and not an 8-10.

    Yes the game has great graphics, yes it runs much smoother than Attila, however it didn't really expand on the elements that made so many of us love Total War in the first place. In fact it felt like they tried to do the same things they did with Attila, for instance, there are only 4 starting races, with one bonus race if you pre-ordered. That's about the same amount of factions in the first game, as far as unique unit types. So what you can expect is numerous new factions being added, but only at a cost. The trick to appeasement is to offer new stuff, but not significant amounts of new stuff, to make us believe that they're not trying to nickle and dime us on additions to the game.

    Alright, so the game play is good, simplistic, but good. The addition of a fantasy element really does make you think. Is it a bad game? By no means. Is it everything I'd hoped for? By no means. Would I still buy it knowing what I do now? Most likely, but I'd still be griping about what I felt should've been changed or kept the same. Maybe I'm just one of those people that can't be satisfied. Anyways, I hope that helped.    … Expand
  2. TrueReview01
    May 28, 2016
    1
    Re skin the engine-Check
    Strip out features-Check
    Tell sheeple stripped features are really added features because MAGIC-check Marketing budget-Check Give game to reviews and gamers that will rate it up blindly because its free-Check Make the beginning seem deep-Check This is another weakly developed game from CA with a great base to build upon, but squandered. Every single    Re skin the engine-Check
    Strip out features-Check
    Tell sheeple stripped features are really added features because MAGIC-check
    Marketing budget-Check
    Give game to reviews and gamers that will rate it up blindly because its free-Check
    Make the beginning seem deep-Check

    This is another weakly developed game from CA with a great base to build upon, but squandered. Every single faction you play is exactly the same. Same start point, same tactics, literally the same beginning. Thinned out, slimmed, SIMPLIFIED, streamlined, there will be nothing left when the decision makers of the current CA are done. Most of their games are just cash grabs with ONLY enough development to look the part, but not be the part. Such a great chance to endear yourself to the fans, but instead go for casuals. This type of game ins't for hardcore casuals but apparently that's all they have working on their games, and its a mandate at the company. So make a title, strip out features, market it like crazy, and find people shallow enough to pretend its another great title when IT IS NOT A GREAT TITLE AT ALL.    … Expand
  3. kalimah
    May 26, 2016
    3
    I love how some people say this is the best strategy game of 2016.. This game is for carebears and wimps. So frackin watered down easy mode strategy is horrible. It is so not like other Total War games. The only people that give this game a 10 are Warhammer Fanbois. I wish I didn't go past my 2 hour refund period on Steam because I would have gotten a refund. What's next? Total WarI love how some people say this is the best strategy game of 2016.. This game is for carebears and wimps. So frackin watered down easy mode strategy is horrible. It is so not like other Total War games. The only people that give this game a 10 are Warhammer Fanbois. I wish I didn't go past my 2 hour refund period on Steam because I would have gotten a refund. What's next? Total War Pokemon? Sad sad sad… Expand
  4. daanelf
    May 24, 2016
    10
    For anyone wondering if this will be another rtw2 kind of launch. No worries. This total war is stable and a very solid launch. Considering the staggering number of new unit types. Flying units, giants, trolls etc this game is really well designed which exceeds my expections. The game does tell a brilliant story from what i have seen so far. The develops hit a bullseye with this fantasyFor anyone wondering if this will be another rtw2 kind of launch. No worries. This total war is stable and a very solid launch. Considering the staggering number of new unit types. Flying units, giants, trolls etc this game is really well designed which exceeds my expections. The game does tell a brilliant story from what i have seen so far. The develops hit a bullseye with this fantasy total war mix.

    Like any tw game it does have its typical total war issues. Nothing serious. The game performs great on my old gtx 780. I`m getting high/ultra settings and a lot of eye candy on. + huge unit numbers. Which is perfect for me.

    Keep in mind that installing the latest nvidia driver makes the game hang on the warhammer logo. Playing steam offline helps for now. Suppose this will get fixed soon as rtw2 had the same issue.    … Expand
  5. Decoy
    May 24, 2016
    4
    Not good, the WARHAMMER spirit is totally missing. No blood, no gore, just feels like regular Total War with Warhammer models and textures.

    Waste of Warhammer license.
  6. honestabe
    May 24, 2016
    1
    My gawd at the lag and this game gets 2 points off because we can't post on Steam forum page. They have locked us out. This could go down as worse than Rome Total War II and that's pretty bad.
  7. Thazari
    May 24, 2016
    9
    Warhammer is the first Total War game in a fantasy setting, so it was the question whether CA could pull this off. I believe they did. Then you may ask "Is this another Rome 2 fail launch?" and I'd say no, for me, the game is fine on launch and there are no obvious game breaking issues.

    TW Warhammer offers the choice of 5 distinct races. Each of the races plays quite differently and has    Warhammer is the first Total War game in a fantasy setting, so it was the question whether CA could pull this off. I believe they did. Then you may ask "Is this another Rome 2 fail launch?" and I'd say no, for me, the game is fine on launch and there are no obvious game breaking issues.

    TW Warhammer offers the choice of 5 distinct races. Each of the races plays quite differently and has some unique mechanics going for them. Character customization is better than any TW game before, with lots of magic items, skills and followers to tailor them to your needs. The campaign map looks spectacular, with lots of awesome-looking landmarks such as skull mountains, volcanoes and unique structures allover the place and when the evil factions Chaos or Vampires get hold of a province, the terrain changes to a hellish landscape, which is a nice touch.

    The battles run a lot smoother than Rome 2 and the the variation in units is massive. Each race starts with some basic stuff like spearmen and archers, but as you progress in the game you start to unlock the creatures that make them unique, such as demigryph riding knights, flame cannons, boar-riding orcs towering giants or undead dragons. Bringing your customized generals and heroes into the fray feels really rewarding, as they send lesser warriors flying just like Sauron did in the Lord of the Rings movie.

    Overall the game seems somewhat easier to play. In Rome 2 and Attila in particular you had to juggle food, squalor, sanitation and all that, but in Warhammer the buildings have no penalties so you can just build whatever you want. Some regions have unique buildings or resources so there is some variation and not every province will be a carbon copy.

    Since the Campaign part of the game is turn based, the time it takes to resolve rounds is important, and I have to say they are REALLY quick, roughly 15-20 seconds with the movement of enemy characters turned off, which is a breather since Attila would take up to a minute which is really frustrating sometimes.

    There are two negatives I can point out so far. First, in battles, the magic spells are not completely balanced yet; magic is a limited resource so you can only cast so many spells, but magic missiles seem to miss all the time and do less damage than a cannonball if they do hit while the recharge of magic spells is so fast that you wonder why they even have a recharge time, as you're waiting for mana anyway.

    The second is the lack of variety in battle maps. The battles in the field have a lot of variation, but siege maps are mostly the same. And there is not really any other type of battle (no river battle, no minor village battle), which is a bit of a shame if you're in it for the multiplayer battles and you want to play a different type of battle.

    So, overall, 9/10, good performance, beautiful fantasy setting, lots of unit variation, nicely distinct races to play, but it lost a point because of no good balancing on magic and they should have put in more different battle maps.    … Expand
  8. RealQi
    May 24, 2016
    0
    Weak game. No cinematic combat. Units hit the air instead of other units.

    Skip this one. Also you only get 4 factions. This is really sickening. Scam!
  9. nefer
    May 24, 2016
    0
    Daha küçükken Total war oyunlarını hep sevmiş, bütün oyunlarını oynamış biri olarak yazıyorum. Total war zamanla daha derin bir strateji ve taktik özellikleri, simulasyon tarzında (arcade olmadan) ortaya çıkarmak yerine, tam zıttı yönde ilerlemektedir. Bir europa universalis oyununa göre diplomasisi komik kalır. Hadi diyeceksinizki eu4 bir grand strateji oyunu bunda aramayın... NedenDaha küçükken Total war oyunlarını hep sevmiş, bütün oyunlarını oynamış biri olarak yazıyorum. Total war zamanla daha derin bir strateji ve taktik özellikleri, simulasyon tarzında (arcade olmadan) ortaya çıkarmak yerine, tam zıttı yönde ilerlemektedir. Bir europa universalis oyununa göre diplomasisi komik kalır. Hadi diyeceksinizki eu4 bir grand strateji oyunu bunda aramayın... Neden aramayalım eu4 kadar olmasada biraz kendisini geliştirmesini beklersiniz, sonuçta buda bir strateji oyunu. Trade agreement al, dost ol, işte size total war diplomasisini özetledim, bu bitti...

    Ha tamam hadi bunu geçtik total war'un en güzel ve benimde en sevdiğim özelliği RTS yanıdır. İşte burada taktik ve simulasyon özellikleri konuşulabilir. Serinin en iyi animasyonları kuşkusuz Shogun 2 oyunundadır. Rome 2 ve Atilla ve tabiki bu warhammer oyununda iste askerler havaya kılıç sallamakta, birileri sebepsiz ölmektedir. Askerin arkası dönükken 5 kişi ona vurmakta ancak hala Hit point (Hp) mantığıyla oyun yaptıkları için saçma bir şekilde ölmemektedir. Serinin ilk oyunlarından grafiklerinin daha gösterişli olması dışında hiçbir artı yanı bulunmamaktadır. Bütün birimler tam disiplin dikdörtgen prizmaları halinde durmaktadırlar, oysa özellikler rome 2 ve Atilla oyunu için konuşursak, barbar ırklarda bu disiplini görmememiz gerekir. Ayrıca 3-4 varyasyon dışında bütün askerler hala aynı görünmektedir, hala aynı hareket sekansını tekrarlamaktadır. Dövüş durumu zaten bahsettiğim üzere daha vahim bir haldedir. Kimin neden öldüğü bile bazen belli olmamaktadır. Serinin ilk oyunları bile bu konuda daha iyidir. Hele atlı karşılaşmalarına hiç girmiyorum...

    Yani bütün bunlar söz konusuyken bu saçma sapan oyun, Total War camiasına bir hakarettir. Almayınız...    … Expand
  10. pdh115
    Jun 29, 2017
    10
    This game has exceeded my expectations on release. It runs very smoothly and I haven't encountered any bugs within 40 hours of gameplay. I didn't pre-order and I got the Chaos DLC for free on the first week. This is a great example of companies listening to their fan-base as I wanted to see how the game turned out before purchasing. Good AI, Unpredictable AI, New hero system, Air unit
  11. Askador
    Jul 5, 2017
    10
    One of the best Games i played the last 10 years. Together with Witcher 3 and X-com.
    All Factions are Unique and all got Unique Units. Not like the previous TW games with all those Copy&Paste Units and Factions.
    So far it was worth every cent i did spend on it. I played around 1000 Hours now and already preordered the next part of the Triology. CA/Sega will have a hard time with the next    One of the best Games i played the last 10 years. Together with Witcher 3 and X-com.
    All Factions are Unique and all got Unique Units. Not like the previous TW games with all those Copy&Paste Units and Factions.
    So far it was worth every cent i did spend on it. I played around 1000 Hours now and already preordered the next part of the Triology. CA/Sega will have a hard time with the next Historical title because if they go back to copy&Paste factions, people will hate it. They tasted the High standard now and most people cant go back. If you want to have hundreds of Hours good entertainment with a High replayability in a Fantasy strategy Game: This is your Game. Its will be the first complete Warhammer Game ever made. And im sure such a mammuth Project will not come again so soon.
    Thanks CA/Sega to be so brave and made such a High Risk niche Project of High quality.    … Expand
  12. Mandulum
    Mar 1, 2021
    9
    My one negative is the lack of a story. They could have turned the whole chaos thing into a grand epic but instead of get a "Baby's First Book". That aside, the gameplay is rather quite enjoyable.

    Date Completed: 2021-03-01
    Playtime: 77h (Failed around turn 90, 2nd time completed the long campaign)
    Enjoyment: 9/10
    Recommendation: I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
  13. Tubey
    Jul 5, 2016
    7
    If you have never played a Total War game but love strategy titles, you'll love this game. Dripping with atmosphere and it nails the Warhammer licence visually.

    If you've played Shogun 2 though... bit of a different story. See, this game is not "bad", and is actually comfortably ahead of the more recent Rome 2 and Attila Total War games, but the problem is the rampant streamlining of    If you have never played a Total War game but love strategy titles, you'll love this game. Dripping with atmosphere and it nails the Warhammer licence visually.

    If you've played Shogun 2 though... bit of a different story. See, this game is not "bad", and is actually comfortably ahead of the more recent Rome 2 and Attila Total War games, but the problem is the rampant streamlining of the game at the expense of immersion and challenge.

    In fact, it's so stripped down that at times you feel each individual battle is a tech demo of what could be, rather than a finished product. I feel incredibly harsh saying that, as so many things are done right here and the level of detail involved is stunning, but all of that is tainted by the game alternating between too easy and too obvious. Would it have hurt to put a bit more focus on the "behind the scenes" elements of getting your armies together and so on? How about making the battles feel like the epic blood and thunder encounters the Warhammer universe is famed for? Why are all the battles incredibly short? Why is every single siege in the game the same thing over and over again?

    It's like they had the basics there, and forgot to build on them. Can I still recommend this game? Yes, I really can. In fact, I know this review is going to look unduly harsh, but it's because I've played Total War games in the past that are simply hands down better than this one, even though if taken in isolation this is a good strategy game in its' own right.

    As a fan of both strategy and Warhammer, this is both a decent game and a massive disappointment at the same time.    … Expand
  14. Kakaloto
    Dec 12, 2016
    6
    The game with all of its DLC's and features is fun, even if many of the usual Total War systems are dumbed down to the simplest level.

    That being said, the cost for such dumb fun is around 150$ Canadian. Outrageously not worth it, not even close. Also it should be noted that against the wishes of an adamant fanbase CA was chopping the game up for DLC's long before it was out. The    The game with all of its DLC's and features is fun, even if many of the usual Total War systems are dumbed down to the simplest level.

    That being said, the cost for such dumb fun is around 150$ Canadian. Outrageously not worth it, not even close.

    Also it should be noted that against the wishes of an adamant fanbase CA was chopping the game up for DLC's long before it was out. The "Chaos day one DLC" was just shameful, but even basic options like blood and gore are a DLC in this. Next Total War we'll probably have to pay for sound effects.

    So the base game itself, covered in insulting little dlc moneybags and locked content is about 70$ Canadian. This is why Creative Assembly earned a 2.    … Expand
  15. Boras
    Sep 3, 2016
    0
    the game is oversimplified, and for 60 bucks was completely undone. many previous features of Total War franchise are missing, campaign strategies and battle tactics are childish at least, I repeat the game is undone.

    and the worst thing: more than being a stupid game and no more a strategy game, SEGA and Games Workshop are working together to sell any DLC possible, including the    the game is oversimplified, and for 60 bucks was completely undone. many previous features of Total War franchise are missing, campaign strategies and battle tactics are childish at least, I repeat the game is undone.

    and the worst thing: more than being a stupid game and no more a strategy game, SEGA and Games Workshop are working together to sell any DLC possible, including the silliest one I've ever heard about: a payable DLC for blood and gore during battles...that's amazing a payable DLC for pure aesthetics...that's madness.

    I will never ever spend money again on SEGA, Total War nor Games Workshop products. Their policy is just to get as much money as they can from kids. Mature players bye bye    … Expand
  16. BlackFox81
    Jul 24, 2016
    7
    after rome total war 2 ca has left a bad taste in my mouth Attila suffered from that, in fact i tried getting refund on that one.... just couldn't enjoy the game, warhammer is a solid 7 its not great but its better then rome 2, at least gives hope that future total war titles wont suck a big D like ROME total war 2.

    although ca dlc is kinda lame that trend seems to be continuing
  17. Liam99
    Jun 10, 2016
    7
    Total War Warhammer is a great game that is missing a lot in my honest opinion but it is a solid foundation for a lot more content which will be added in free-LC and DLC, which I really don't mind because the game has so many new features and has fixed many problems that occurred in many other games in the franchise. This game is truly a fresh start for total war as they have never made aTotal War Warhammer is a great game that is missing a lot in my honest opinion but it is a solid foundation for a lot more content which will be added in free-LC and DLC, which I really don't mind because the game has so many new features and has fixed many problems that occurred in many other games in the franchise. This game is truly a fresh start for total war as they have never made a game like this before, veteran total war fans might be annoyed because certain thing have been dumbed down like how the map size is not as big as previous ones but the game its self is as I said a solid foundation for something great.… Expand
  18. alex_dragon
    May 28, 2016
    2
    They didnt finish warhammer the game as a whole but they instead decided to split it in different parts. so stuff like elves etc will appear in warhammer total war 2 / 3 and it will keep asking for money. in the end if you want to get everything we will end up paying 150$ +.

    also lack of gore option and those again will come as DLC and chaos etc which all cost **** ton of money.    They didnt finish warhammer the game as a whole but they instead decided to split it in different parts. so stuff like elves etc will appear in warhammer total war 2 / 3 and it will keep asking for money. in the end if you want to get everything we will end up paying 150$ +.

    also lack of gore option and those again will come as DLC and chaos etc which all cost **** ton of money.

    there are only 4 factions which is total not worth it considering how much time they spent making the game.    … Expand
  19. WerN1211
    Aug 14, 2016
    5
    87 EUR ? Seriously ? :-D

    59 EUR for the game. Let's add an other 18 EUR for the Beastman race (should AND could have been included day one). 7.5 EUR for some extra Warriors. Icing on the cake : 2.5 EUR to add some gore. A good game (7/10), but certainly not worth 87 EUR, whether you are a Total War / Warhammer fanboy or not,.. Marketing people ARE insane. We probably are too if    87 EUR ? Seriously ? :-D

    59 EUR for the game. Let's add an other 18 EUR for the Beastman race (should AND could have been included day one). 7.5 EUR for some extra Warriors. Icing on the cake : 2.5 EUR to add some gore.

    A good game (7/10), but certainly not worth 87 EUR, whether you are a Total War / Warhammer fanboy or not,..
    Marketing people ARE insane. We probably are too if we keep buying from them.

    Hopefully we do not have to buy map extensions yet, and we still can produce units with IN-game resources. Lucky us !    … Expand
  20. ErobererZim
    Jun 1, 2016
    7
    Classic Total War experience. You manage your settlements and armys on the campaignmap and fight huge realtime-battles on the battlefield. Settlement management is a HUGE improvement over Rome 2, you don't have uncountable options to upgrade your buildings (with only minor differences) anymore. I even prefer this system over Shogun 2, where npc's just upgraded their provinces which costsClassic Total War experience. You manage your settlements and armys on the campaignmap and fight huge realtime-battles on the battlefield. Settlement management is a HUGE improvement over Rome 2, you don't have uncountable options to upgrade your buildings (with only minor differences) anymore. I even prefer this system over Shogun 2, where npc's just upgraded their provinces which costs you food (a valiuable resource) when conquered - which you couldn't make unhappen, you had to live with that. But that doens't exist anymore. You now have buildings that make sense, you always know what to build. You have your buildings for military stuff and upgrades (eg. forges) as well as buildings for money, towngrowth, public order and so on.
    There is also no Food in the game as a resource besides Gold anymore, but Towngrowth instead (you need to get it to upgrade your buildings). I don't mind that change, it's neither worse nor better then before.
    I am a 40k fanboy, and I like fantasy universes as well, so I hadn't any problems to get used to this new setting, and I quite like it. I enjoy the huge unit variety, the monsters and heroes you get attached to when watching them ripping your enemys apart doing their questbattles to gain special armour and so on, all the new spells and abillitys are fun to use as well.
    It's super fun and it was almost impossible to stop playing this game for the last 7 days, always stayed up to 1 or 2am even when i needed to get up early the next morning. There is so much to do in this game and you always want to play only one more turn.
    Game on higher difficulties can be challanging, I played Shogun 2 for about 700h and I'm quite good at that kind of games. But I had a hard time to survive with The Empire on very hard, hardest faction for me so far, and I played (and finished) all exept Chaos and Vampires (playing them right now) on very hard.
    If the performance would be better, I would rate this game 8/10. It's pretty damn good, not perfect, but a improvement over Rome 2 (and partly even Shogun 2). I see myself playing this game for the next 1-2 weeks quite excessive.
    Co-Op-Campaign is fun as well.

    Graphics are fantastic 8/10
    Animations are gorgeous 10/10
    Performance is slightly under average 5/10

    I'm playing on high with a gtx780ti, i7, 16gb and my fps are jumping between 30-60fps, both on the campaignmap and while playing fullstack-battles. Sometimes your fps will drop for no reason and you have to tap out and in again to normalise it. Same goes for v-synch, when you have it on (to avoid really annoying screentearing) you will have some graphical bugs until you retab the game. You have to do this every single time you start the game. Also Fraps won't show you the fps when playing the game, thats pretty odd (you'll need to use Steam for that). After 70h of gameplay (already) I only had one single crash (when I started the game for the first time).

    Besides the performance there are only a few things that bug me out. Like diplomacy isn't that important in the game, most factions won't agree to whatever you offer them, exept they want it themselfs too, but on that occasion they will come to you to make you the offer (like trading, non-aggression-pakts, alliances and so on). So you pretty much can ignore diplomacy for the most part.
    Another thing that I find annoying is the fact that you have to spend all those points your heroes get after almost every single battle (up to 29 at level 30) as well as the items and followers you get for them (who give you minor bonuses in battles or on the campaignmap). You get them and even lose them almost every single turn. It's a clickfest and I completly ignore them by now and doing just fine on very hard.
    On harder difficultys I didn't find myself using agents a lot, I actually play without them. They are hard to level up, will very often fail their missions and will get killed by enemy agents anyway who will have a ton of them. They aren't worth their money in my book.
    Autoresolve is broken, you're better off autoresolving then fighting for your own, you still can win when the enemy has the favour. When I played Greenskins on very hard I overfoold the map with my "Whaaags!" and played 6 (!) battles manualy. Rest (about 120+ battles) where autoresolves. Greenskins where the most easie and fast to play race so far.

    Well that's it for so far, I hope my review helped some of you guys out.    … Expand
  21. Connolius
    Mar 15, 2017
    6
    This is an average game, its basically rock paper scissors with Warhammer units. Id rather they came out with a tabletop Warhammer game based on the tabletop rules. Seems rather repetitive. I did have more fun with Rome and Napoleon. Something about the game makes it easy to put away and forget when your done with it. Certainly, there is the one more battle syndrome which can occur. I justThis is an average game, its basically rock paper scissors with Warhammer units. Id rather they came out with a tabletop Warhammer game based on the tabletop rules. Seems rather repetitive. I did have more fun with Rome and Napoleon. Something about the game makes it easy to put away and forget when your done with it. Certainly, there is the one more battle syndrome which can occur. I just think at this point it isn't such a fresh format, and seems like a Rome TW mod than a unique game.… Expand
  22. smeehee
    Jun 5, 2016
    5
    Big Total War fan
    Big Warhammer fan
    Disappointed First the good: - Factions are distinct and flavorful both in unit roster and campaign mechanics - monsters and magic are awesome - city/province manegment is simplified without losing to much depth - modding support can fix a lot The Bad - sieges have been ridiculously simplified to "Improve the A.I." but the A.I. is still thick    Big Total War fan
    Big Warhammer fan
    Disappointed
    First the good:
    - Factions are distinct and flavorful both in unit roster and campaign mechanics
    - monsters and magic are awesome
    - city/province manegment is simplified without losing to much depth
    - modding support can fix a lot

    The Bad
    - sieges have been ridiculously simplified to "Improve the A.I." but the A.I. is still thick as a brick so this was pointless and ruined a big part of the game IMHO
    - only 6 army rosters in the whole game which is disappointing for total war fans (1-2 unique units for some of the non-playable factions would have gone a long way)
    - agents can get frustrating
    - magic is messed up (doesn't scale with unit size)
    - general lack of content (will be better later with DLC /MODS)
    - disconnect between WFB units and TW units as a lot of units either don't exist (especially unit variants with different gear) or don't work as a warhammer player would expect (black orcs, ethereal units...)

    the game feels like early access
    not enough content and a bunch of little things that annoy you

    would recommend waiting until more DLC/MODS are released before buying    … Expand
  23. TeddNii
    Aug 11, 2016
    7
    The base game is really good, but the fact that the 2 first dlc were 100% base game content really bothers me. And the 3rd dlc was good and all but then you look at the **** pricetag, not worth it. I would easily give this game a 9 or maybe even a 10 if they would have handled dlc better.
  24. Timmiiii
    Sep 18, 2016
    2
    After putting in more than 150 hours in this game I feel like I am ready to give a valid review of this game. I have never had any experience with any Warhamme games before, so I was mesmorized when I entered my first battle, but that was soon to fade.

    It is not that battles are bad or poorly made, they are just all the same, and it becomes very tedious in the long run. The enemy very    After putting in more than 150 hours in this game I feel like I am ready to give a valid review of this game. I have never had any experience with any Warhamme games before, so I was mesmorized when I entered my first battle, but that was soon to fade.

    It is not that battles are bad or poorly made, they are just all the same, and it becomes very tedious in the long run. The enemy very rarely engages you, they just stand there and wait for you to engage. And sieges are all exactly alike, which after 100 hours of gameplay makes you auto resolve more or less every battle there is.

    Diplomacy is a joke - an utter joke. Vey little effort were put into this by the devs. You can play the game without ever really engaging in diplomacy, but just pressing "ok" and move on. It is not really that important for succes of your progress, sure it will make things a bit easier, but not much. What really makes my blood boil, is "Join War" option. If you you allies, or ask them to participate in a war against a certain faction, they never show up or help you defeating the enemy faction. The "Join war" option is random at best, and more or less useless. The overall feel of this game becomes "lather-rinse-repeat".

    But, the one thing I loathe, the thing I absolutely hate and makes me scream at this effing game and ragequit is the "Heroes", and their lack of succes. Now, math has never been my strong side, as go the same for the devs. How so? Let me explain. If a hero has, for instance, 59% chance of succeding in a certain action, how come it takes up to 15 attempts for that action to succed?! If succesrate is 50% or more, it should according to my calculation take a maximum of 2 attempts, for an action to be succesful. Nothing is more frustrating than watching a single enemy hero massacre an entire army, while you can do nothing to prevent this. There is no point in having heroes, except bolstering your army with perks.

    Despite all of this, my real beef with this game is the DLC´s. This game has become a symbol of GIG (Gaming Industry Greed). The game itself is 60 euros, and at the current moment the total price of DLC´s are 34 euros, so total price of game pushing almost a total of 100 euros. This is insane. All the DLC should already be in the game at the price of 60 euros. Now, the DLC´s look good and fun, but if I buy this, I would support GIG hence signalling that in the future they can pick apart games and sell them off at ridiculous and unaffordable prices. I simply cannot and will not support this action

    So, my advice is do not buy this game in its current state. Put it on your wishlist, and buy it on sale in about a year or so.

    Thank you for your time    … Expand
  25. dinin70
    Sep 19, 2016
    6
    So much wasted potential. I’m playing on hard.

    I’m not talking about the DLC policy. I’m not talking about few 5 playable races. I’m not talking about the choice of releasing Beastmen as first (or second) payable DLC, which is extremely stupid since they are simply a mix between Orcs and Chaos, which are both already playable… What will be next? Norska? Please provide us something    So much wasted potential. I’m playing on hard.

    I’m not talking about the DLC policy. I’m not talking about few 5 playable races. I’m not talking about the choice of releasing Beastmen as first (or second) payable DLC, which is extremely stupid since they are simply a mix between Orcs and Chaos, which are both already playable… What will be next? Norska? Please provide us something DIFFERENT next time if you see what I mean… Skavens? Elves? THANK YOU.

    Anyway… The game, on paper, is great. Warhammer and Total war is (was?) the beloved dream of many geeks of my generation. The fact of having a scenarized game with the final Chaos Incursion is pretty cool. It provides consistency in a game where there is a rich lore. The regional occupancy Mod allows getting of regional occupation limitations (it would have been cleverer from CA to provide it official)

    It really is an immersive game. It’s a long time I haven’t been that much immerged in a game. Playing the Orcs and expanding from the Badlands to the snowy Northen Karaks of Dwarves was a cool experience on my first playthrough. Playing the Empire and expanding to the North and East to face as a protagonist the first Chaos Invasions was super cool. You can expect to have extremely Epic battles, 3vs3 to Death battles ringing the end of mankind! The graphics are great. The Lore is (except some “meh” things here and there) is superbly rendered. The epicness is really there. But…

    Then comes the late game (the first 100 turns are great, then it’s over…)

    In fact there is a core problem with this game. There is something wrong. There are actually 2 things that ruin the game.

    The first thing wrong is the way the Chaos Invasion is handled. Mixing Chaos and Northern Tribes invasion is pretty cool but Skaelings are the pain of my existence. Those Norsemen have literally free spawns. Irrelevantly from their holdings they can insta-spawn full army stacks and endlessly attack you over and over and over and over.

    I order to get rid of them, don’t expect to mobilize less than 2-3 full stack armies (representing probably 100% of your force…) in order to destroy them. In other words: IMPOSSIBLE to do when at the same time you need to deal with Chaos Invasions and spreading corruption causing your regions to revolt and full advanced troop Rebel stacks needing at least a full army stack of yours…

    This really is a problem: Skaelings are too powerful and it literally ruins the experience.

    Second problem: stupid A.I. When you mean Stupid A.I. you mean cheating A.I. When you mean cheating A.I. you mean: complete immersion destruction.

    I don’t care the A.I. being able to summon 2-3x more troops than I do. I care about having to constantly play “Chaos Whack-A-Mole” and “Skaeling Whack-A-Mole” because cheating A.I. goes faster than you do despite all your buffs and exactly exactly where you’ll land and knows how to avoid fight.

    I care about suffering all attritions and A.I. not suffering them.

    I care being overwhelmed by swarms of Agents corrupting my regions having like 90% chance of killing my agents while I have, on paper, 30% chance if killing them but in reality it more looks like being 1% chance of killing them.

    No… NO C.A. If you can’t make A.I. clever enough don’t make it cheat in any other way than spawning TROOPS FOR BATTLE!

    So now, mix problem 1 with problem 2: result is pretty simple: expect having s**tloads of small roaming armies running through your lands down to the least defended city (since A.I. doesn’t have fog of war he knows where to go), razing it and making your full stacks busy chasing them on a F***ING CONSTANT BASIS since Skaelings will stalk you all the F***ING TIME… Jesus… What a horrible choice from C.A….

    You want to make Chaos Invasion difficult: Make Skaelings a SMALL faction and make Chaos bigger. In my playthrough it’s easier for me to defeat chaos than Skaelings… It makes no sense… That literally ruins the immersion.

    On the top of that. Add other regressions:
    - River battles are not present anymore
    - Sieges are AWFUL. Either one or two side walls. No Squared cities. Thank you. Strategy please?
    - Fixed Story: Since the “story” is here and Chaos steps in very quickly, what will happen will always be the same. Don’t expect to play more than 2 or 3 times and experience every time a different playthrough. Source of lack of replayability.
    - Lack of playable factions. Second source of lack of replayability
    - Beastmen DLC: mix of orcs and chaos: doesn’t add much replayability
    I would like to much this game to be good. But for the moment it’s a hate and love feeling I have toward it. And so few would be needed;
    - Nerf Skaeling and make chaos stronger
    - Stop making cheating A.I. (no attrition, different RNG results, A.I. being always quicker than you despite all your movement buffs). If A.I. is not clever enough, simply make it spawn more troops. It’s a much better decision.
    - Take out Marching Stance: it destroys everything in this game.    … Expand
  26. Quatra
    May 29, 2016
    5
    A highly devolved form of Total war with pretty art and cool, unique factions.

    Defensive game play is all but dead, so is any form of defense based strategy as sieges are linear, nonstrategic, races. Everything happens fast, with most battles over in under 5-10 minutes. Garrisons are defeated by random rebelling and traveling heroes, which are impossible to beat. On VH and Legendary    A highly devolved form of Total war with pretty art and cool, unique factions.

    Defensive game play is all but dead, so is any form of defense based strategy as sieges are linear, nonstrategic, races. Everything happens fast, with most battles over in under 5-10 minutes. Garrisons are defeated by random rebelling and traveling heroes, which are impossible to beat. On VH and Legendary its almost impossible to keep order in check as dwarves or empire, at least, to stop magic spawning rebels with the best tier troops and a general from quashing a settlement or two before you can even arrive.
    Melee heroes have no meaningful abilities, which last only seconds giving perhaps a 8-22% increase to some usually irrelevant stat like charge defense or speed. Magic is relatively useless and the number of spells one can use a battle is also fairly low to be meaningful. Since CA put focus on heroes and magic, all units have lost any micromanaging skills. There are NO shield walls, open rank formations, no cavalry formations; nothing. you set your line, and play stupid heroes, who are way too weak in late game and can beat anything in earl;y game.
    The economy and technologies are heavily dumbed down, and it becomes difficult to fund over 4-5 armies, except AFTER you've destroyed Chaos and conquered half the map. Heroes, generals, and units all cost upkeep, and the more you have, the higher the upkeep by a % for all.

    TLDR: Highly dumbed down and simplified total war with interesting world and factions but feels like a broken Beta and the simplest Total War to date, which quickly loses it's charm.    … Expand
  27. soundofmoonligh
    May 27, 2016
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. don;'t try to play in this after paradox games, diplomacy primitive as always for total war series, map looks like circus crazy colored and lazy modeled (atmosphere killed with head shot) , units options so casual that it fills a spit in your face, achievements after combat make u feel that u play in mobile coffee game...
    seems like gamedevs are impotent for new ideas, only changing 3d models, year after year; sadly this game dissapoint of year    … Expand
  28. juliiouse
    Jan 1, 2017
    5
    Since Empire, Creative Assembly have been slowly developing the engine used in modern Total War titles to simulate combat in a way that it both satisfying to look at and strategically engaging. With Total War: Warhammer, the engine's teething issues feel as though they have finally been resolved.

    The combat works in a similar way to how it did in Rome, albeit with more satisfying    Since Empire, Creative Assembly have been slowly developing the engine used in modern Total War titles to simulate combat in a way that it both satisfying to look at and strategically engaging. With Total War: Warhammer, the engine's teething issues feel as though they have finally been resolved.

    The combat works in a similar way to how it did in Rome, albeit with more satisfying cavalry charges and better animations. It feels a bit strange to be applauding a game for feeling like a game from 2004, but the teething problems have taken a long time to resolve.

    However, despite the actual simulation of melee combat taking a huge step in the right direction, I cannot in good faith recommend Total War: Warhammer to any veteran of the series, for a number of reasons.

    The campaign has taken a step back from all previous titles. The map feels small, and the joy of expanding out, conquering varied factions and culturally assimilating them into your new borders just doesn't exist here. For a start, you can only conquer regions that belong to your faction's designated nemesis: This will mean that you will either be ruining an extant civilisation or reclaiming what was yours anyway.

    This design philosophy also seriously restricts the replay value of the campaign. Previous Total War games allowed you to go into a campaign and adapt to whatever scenario you decide. Even in Attila as Western Rome (which on the surface feels very set in stone), you have a huge range of possibilities: You can attempt to hold onto your thinly spread territories with military might; you can cede territories to the raging hordes whilst redesigning your inefficient and corrupt empire into a wealthy, centralised Italian kingdom with the intent to reconquer once you're in good stead; you can disregard your poor holdings in the north, betray your Eastern Roman brothers and create a powerful Mediterranean empire, or you could just attempt to create a huge range of vassals and client states with your struggling empire at the helm.

    With Warhammer, none of these options are afforded to the player. As the Empire, you will always start in-fighting with your elector neighbours (and face hundreds of strategically uninteresting battles where you just fight the same units you field). As your empire begins to take shape, you will turn your attentions to the Vampire Counts (who need to be destroyed as a win condition), before ultimately consolidating your empire, allying with the Dwarves and defeating Chaos. The first time you do this, it feels amazing, but every successive playthrough is exactly the same. There will never be a need to fight the Greenskins or Dwarves as the Empire as their settlements cannot be captured.

    Another issue is that each faction has very specific mechanics to consider: whilst this sounds good on paper, it makes playing them far less interesting. The mechanics of offices, family trees, religious conversion, trade and diplomacy have been split up and assigned out to different factions.

    The battles also lack many of the more in-depth tactical elements that previous Total War games had. You can no longer pick from a range of arrow types (unless you're Wood Elves), you don't have access to special formations (such as wedge and spear wall), and your options for unit spacing and preset formations are severely limited. Every faction only has two formation types: archers first and melee first. This doesn't work very well given that two of the playable factions don't even have access to archers, so your only options are to deploy in a straight line. It also makes all units feel very basic, put there to fulfil a single role like the units in Command & Conquer games. Your spears are for monstrous units, your swords are anti-infantry, your guns are anti-armour etc. It seriously limits your strategic options and forces you to just hope you've taken the right army for the job instead of working with what resources you have.

    Graphically, the game has significantly less fine-detail than previous titles. Guns and artillery pieces no longer have reloading animations, model variance is much smaller than even Medieval II, and all cavalry have the same coloured mounts. This makes playing as chaotic forces such as the Greenskins very jarring, as they look far too ordered.

    This review feels like it is being negative, but I will close by saying that Creative Assembly have succeded in creating a game that captures the Warhammer universe: I just believe that the sacrifices made to pull off this vision have created a game that feels much less detailed, vibrant or interesting that any previous title.    … Expand
  29. Sir_Red
    May 29, 2016
    5
    5/10

    Cons: 1. So arcade like. It couldn't be more arcade like if it tried: when winning a battle as Chaos fireworks erupt and a treasure chest slaps up on screen telling you the loot you've won.... There are also no death animations when you slay the rival army. 2. Graphics are average at best, and I have a 780ti. No night battles that I can see. Units look caricature like and    5/10

    Cons:

    1. So arcade like. It couldn't be more arcade like if it tried: when winning a battle as Chaos fireworks erupt and a treasure chest slaps up on screen telling you the loot you've won.... There are also no death animations when you slay the rival army.
    2. Graphics are average at best, and I have a 780ti. No night battles that I can see. Units look caricature like and blocky, rather than refined. the maps are small, and on maps with an element of sea view, you can see the corners of the maps, since when did the sea have corners...
    3. Arcade like. Again I feel I need to mention this. I got so bored after a few hours. The battles are click fests with little tactical oversight needed and the campaign is so light on features that I roll through the turns at lightning pace, quicker than any TW game
    4. The list goes on. All through the game you will be like "what happened to x feature? Where did it go?"
    5. Music is forgettable, which is a crying shame

    Pros?
    1. Umm.... it works day one. The fact that this should even be mentioned as a win shows how poor the TW series has become
    2. One day it will come good when the modders have had 2 years to work on it, adding features and improving graphics that CA should already have done.
    3. Unit variety. Different races makes for slightly more imaginative unit rosters    … Expand
  30. Indubitabil12
    May 28, 2016
    2
    Total War = Total Rip-off, this game is a platform for a huge cash shop. Take my advice, wait 2 years and buy it in a bundle. Dont support greedy tactics like this.
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Awards & Rankings

19
#19 Best PC Game of 2016
29
#29 Most Discussed PC Game of 2016
27
#27 Most Shared PC Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
86

Generally favorable reviews - based on 77 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 72 out of 77
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 77
  3. Negative: 0 out of 77
  1. DarkStation
    Aug 5, 2016
    90
    By building on a strong foundation, it allows its players the freedom of determining their own destiny, with little in the way of flaws holding it back. Sure, I may have some grudges that may never be removed from the great book, but in the end, this is the best experience I’ve had, bar none, when it comes to real time strategy games.
    Read full review
  2. Games Master UK
    Jul 25, 2016
    92
    A richly-crafted recreation of the Warhammer world and the best Total War game in years. [July 2016, p.66]
  3. CD-Action
    Jul 21, 2016
    95
    Total War and Warhammer are a match made in heaven and Creative Assembly’s latest release is a dream come true for the aficionados of both franchises. As a fan of Game Workshop’s tabletop original I have waited my whole life for this game. [07/2016, p.70]
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