Well, I’m a big time Total war fan, but I hold my purchase because the game was released in a way that felt like a money grab and a disrespectful way to fans.

But now I can honestly say the game feels like what I would have expected from the series.

Let’s hope the lesson was learned, both by the developers (no disrespectful money grabs from you fan base) and from us, not just giving money hoping that they will self-correct the course.

More power to us as consumer, and to the producers, we will support games that are good and true to what we expect from you, because you can be that good, if you try.

Fun game. No Rome II -- certainly nothing as legendary as Empire-- but solid release to the series. Not a huge fan of the UI- especially around Diplomacy. Feels less immersive, more arcade style. This will be familiar though for anyone whose played the recent releases.

Pros: Graphics, Campaign Map, Immersive battlefield conditions, Original new style for managing some in-game elements like religion/court dynamics and generals (not better necessarily but something new to try).

Cons:
Up to Rome II, the games were getting more mature, with more complex battle scenarios, combined warfare, better unit diversity and greater scope. The economics of the game and the diplomacy were heading in the right direction as well. (Note - Im referencing ROME 2 DEI as the benchmark - call it vanilla).

Since and including the release of Thrones of Britannia TW continues to decline in quality. The battles feel more 'cartoonish' so does the UI and campaign. Buildings and settlements feel more trivial. Diplomacy has become a joke, completely unnecessary to a winning strategy. There's just not as much juice in it. I'll concede that part of the diplomacy issue could be resolved by expanding the scope of the games and going back to a global campaign. These "episode' style releases they've done are obviously smaller by intent.

Bottom line:

In an effort to make the games appeal to "less serious fans"(eye roll - I know) they continue to undermine the military history, economic and civil development and diplomatic maneuvering. For long-time fans, this attention to detail is the foundation that makes you feel like you are building a lasting empire. Complex games like TW titles of old take a long-time to appreciate, but that's certainly part of the charm. Starting a campaign on the hardest difficulty in Empire or Rome II DEI still gets me locked-in( That's more than a decade since the release of the former.)

I sincerely hope a new Empire TW is on the way or a Medieval II -- one that again includes India and the Americas. I also want naval combat back. Especially for an Empire reboot. Look at Rome II with DEI installed. Use as a guideline for future releases. The attention to detail. Growing populations, maintaining military supplies, building out diverse armies and navies to fight across the known world. Dominating trade routes and cornering resources.

I want to see global supply and demand for in the game economy. Its fun to be able to manipulate markets to influence my friends and enemies. This is obviously somewhat accomplished by going back to trade route manipulation.

Working dynamic elections when appropriate would be fun as well. If you had to whip votes, help people campaign, and manipulate counts -- then actually watch the results play out.

Negotiations between monarchs would also be awesome if they played like Rockstar's LA Noir. Lofty goal on that maybe, but just a thought. Negotiating with the Pope over some bread and wine while he tries to talk you into walking to the middle east in plate and mail?!?!

Naval combat - esp. for empire is also just the bomb. I don't care about the bugs. Its still awesome. Play Darthmod and tell me you ain't having a good time. Cannons, pirates, ironclads (shout out Shogun II) - lets get all that going again moving forward thanks.

I commend CA for not abandoning Pharaoh, I hope other players who liked how CA overturned their shambles to edit their reviews to show CA that we appreciate what they did