By Matt Bertz
Game Informer Magazine
Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “One must change one’s tactics every 10 years if one wishes to maintain one’s superiority.” The talented team at The Creative Assembly would be wise to heed the words of their latest game’s namesake. Like the European conqueror, The Creative Assembly’s signature blend of turn-based conquest and real-time battle ranks among the elite in its field, but as “Napoleon: Total War” demonstrates, persistent legacy issues have started to weaken the game’s standing.
The centerpiece to the latest chapter in the “Total War” series is the Napoleonic campaign, in which you assume the role of the French conqueror as he develops an influence through theaters of war in Italy, Africa and Europe proper. In addition to managing armed forces, players must juggle diplomacy, building construction, trade, and technology research in classic “Total War” fashion. Much like the Road to Independence campaign in “Empire: Total War,” each scenario takes place on a smaller tract of land without sacrificing the map scale players are used to with the series’ famed global theaters. Concentrating on smaller segments of land is a smart move, as it allows the developers to deliver much more varied terrain for battles and stress the importance of maintaining supply lines for frontline armies. If your platoons stray too far from home or march through uninhabitable land, units won’t replenish and attrition will compromise their effectiveness.
The challenge of meeting the objectives in each campaign is heightened by the strict timeframe in which Napoleon must triumph and the variation in tools at his disposal. The African map, for instance, robs you of all diplomacy as an invader in a foreign land, tasking you to make your way from Cairo up to the heart of the Middle East under the constant barrage of insurgent resistance. These enjoyable twists forced me to leave my comfort zone and employ new strategies to accomplish the goals laid out before me.