Is this more fun to play than Empire Total War?

[Smokedice]

I'm asking this blunt question because I'm not batting around the bush, I enjoy 18th century RTS games, played Empire for a long time, it's good but cut short by how old it is and how it never got nicely patched

[Heinz-Fiction]

I guess youre referring to the battles itself as the other gameplay elements cant be really compared well. when it comes to battles, i would say ... it depends. naval battles are clearly better in age of sail in my opinion. they are much more in depth and tactical than in empire which i appreciate. when it comes to land battles, i would say empire is better. its more immersive and atmospheric, has more unit variety and so on. the only thing i miss in empire since ive played AoS are combined naval and land battles. destroying enemy coastal fleets and ivading cities afterwars is just great.

[Smokedice]

Originally posted by Heinz-Fiction:

I guess youre referring to the battles itself as the other gameplay elements cant be really compared well. when it comes to battles, i would say ... it depends. naval battles are clearly better in age of sail in my opinion. they are much more in depth and tactical than in empire which i appreciate. when it comes to land battles, i would say empire is better. its more immersive and atmospheric, has more unit variety and so on. the only thing i miss in empire since ive played AoS are combined naval and land battles. destroying enemy coastal fleets and ivading cities afterwars is just great.

I don't think coastal battles have combined naval and land units in Empire Total War, that came in Rome II

[Nelsons other eye]

Originally posted by Smokedice:

Originally posted by Heinz-Fiction:

I guess youre referring to the battles itself as the other gameplay elements cant be really compared well. when it comes to battles, i would say ... it depends. naval battles are clearly better in age of sail in my opinion. they are much more in depth and tactical than in empire which i appreciate. when it comes to land battles, i would say empire is better. its more immersive and atmospheric, has more unit variety and so on. the only thing i miss in empire since ive played AoS are combined naval and land battles. destroying enemy coastal fleets and ivading cities afterwars is just great.

I don't think coastal battles have combined naval and land units in Empire Total War, that came in Rome II

Mods add it but not all that well
done far better with rome2 onwards

[Toblm]

Originally posted by Smokedice:

Is this more fun to play than Empire Total War?

More fun? Maybe? Very much different beasts that scratch different itches.

[Easy]

Sea battles are the best here. Land are just for relax.

[Smokedice]

Originally posted by Kingorder:

Sea battles are the best here. Land are just for relax.

how close can you zoom the camera in on the action?

[albrightwillie0]

You can't get a deck view sadly, but you can get pretty close.

[DaNastyCrabHoarda]

Total War chads did you regret buying this or enjoy it?

[albrightwillie0]

No regrets here and I enjoyed TW Empire as well, but really they're different animals.

[Rather Useless]

Not even remotely, but there's so little in the genre that one takes what one can get.

[KevlarBurrito]

Originally posted by Smokedice:

I'm asking this blunt question because I'm not batting around the bush, I enjoy 18th century RTS games, played Empire for a long time, it's good but cut short by how old it is and how it never got nicely patched

In short? Eh...

Not really

Caveat: Empire Total War has some FANTASTIC mods that both extend game play and make the game a lot more interesting

[Smokedice]

Originally posted by Rather Useless:

Not even remotely, but there's so little in the genre that one takes what one can get.

What would you say, land battle-wise, Empire Total War does better?

I liked ETW for having detailed line infantry battles I could zoom up into for fun

[Ninjasquirrel]

The graphics for this game can't compare with total war. Where this game is better is smarter AI and better tactical gameplay.

[Rather Useless]

Originally posted by Smokedice:

Originally posted by Rather Useless:

Not even remotely, but there's so little in the genre that one takes what one can get.

What would you say, land battle-wise, Empire Total War does better?

I liked ETW for having detailed line infantry battles I could zoom up into for fun

That's quite a hard question to give a short, concise answer, I think. I don't think I can give a short one. But maybe the essay won't be too long, at least.

I think it basically comes back to the usual old idea of "games that try to do a lot of things", versus "games that try to do just a handful of things". Certainly Empire/Napoleon, and all the Total War games, try to do a lot more at once, while these "ultimate blahblah" games have a much more narrow focus. And okay, that's fair enough.

But this line of argument hinges on the unspoken assumption that the one trying to do less is going to do a better job of those fewer things. And I suppose overall this game's issue is that that is simply not the case.

Like I legit don't remember anything about the mechanics going on behind the scenes with Empire's naval combat, but I certainly give this game the benefit of the doubt and assume that there has been a concerted attempt to specialize in this area, and model a great deal more. Yet in the end, I don't actually "feel" like I am playing a significantly less arcade-y game than when I was playing Empire Total War. Arcade-y in the sense of, "where on the hardcore simulation versus easy to jump into arcade-style gameplay spectrum does this game lie?"

Like roughly my impression is that these games aspire to be simulations-- but they just don't end up feeling like it.

Total War is fun. It rides that sweet spot between arcadey and simulation that it's relatively easy to get into, but has enough depth to hold one's neurotic interest. Some Total War games are more arcadey than others (and some, tragically, flirt with mobile-game-tier), and some Total War games lean hard into trying to be very spreadsheet-heavy simulations. Empire Total War is among the less-arcadey of the Total War titles, however. Even then, its many, many bugs and issues notwithstanding, it is still basically a fun and arcadey-enough game that ones has the impression that "this is a strategy game that anyone who likes a strategy game ought to be able to enjoy".

This game, on the other hand, is presented like "if you are interested in a serious age of sail fleet combat and management sim, this game is for you". It presents itself as such a targeted niche experience, and yet-- and here ultimately is the main thrust of my position-- it doesn't really play any less arcade-y than a Total War game. And the things that do explicitly differ, basically the in-between mission equipping and managing of stuff and you have so many options-- honestly I just think it's that the work and thought you put in there just isn't really "felt" when you turn around and fire up the next mission.

Like you have so much variety in small arms, and ship cannon, and all this and that-- but really in the end it comes down to how well you handle your ships and men in the "arcade" mode, if you like. And by this I mean, dramatically better equipment has never really ended up feeling like a decisive advantage. Or, conversely, I've never really felt like I was a decisive disadvantage for having one type of gun or another. It ends up being Sid Meier's Pirates!, actually. Ship with more guns = much easy, ship with few guns = much hard.

Anyway I have gone on long enough, and ultimately I personally enjoy the game well enough that I'll keep playing. But it isn't great. Most of the time I'm playing I feel like "I wish this game was better". It's fine; it'll do. I think in the end it comes down to something like, despite Empire's lack of aspiration to tremendous depth on paper, in fact the sheer breadth of the game just makes up for it. So if this game is supposed to be a small, deep pond... I think it's just you end up feeling less like you're in a deep pond, than you are in a deep well. Where it becomes like "okay it's deep, but how much fun can I really get out of just sinking straight down, and bobbing back up again over and over?"

Some, I would say.

[Smokedice]

^No offense, but reading that put me to sleep, Professor Gobbledygook