My FIRST Impressions of Pharaoh. BEST Total War EVER

[Paddy]

Alright i'll try to keep this short and sweet as i've only played around 5 hours of this game. I just want people to know especially if you have read my posts that i was one of the biggest critics of this game even going as far as calling it a Troy Reskin. Is it? Well i can say after diving in for a good few hours that this is easily the BEST Total war i have played yet and i'll explain why below. What they done with this game and at a similar scale to Three Kingdoms it is in my opinion a step above Three Kingdoms. Anyway i'll give a brief explanation below what i think and why.

Graphics and Optimisation: For me it has similar graphics to the likes of Troy which is fantastic. Total War game have always had the best graphics out of any game in this genre and this is more of the same. There are a few more graphical features that do spruce it up. In terms of Optimisation, again i'd say it's similar to Troy. I have a RTX 4080, 5800X3d, 16GB ram and i'm able to maintain 60fps and above in 4K with units set to extreme. That's impressive however the only time it really drops is in battles where 10 units cards are engaged with another 10 and it's one huge mosh. In this game the FPS does tank if you have the camera right over it however if you zoom in and angle the camera the FPS shoots back up to 60fps and this suits me fine as i love to watch the battles up close anyway.

Campaign: This is the area that impressed me the most. It builds upon Troy's resource system so it is very much a juggling act to maintain the right number of resources and regions are more strategic so this isn't really new but a mechanic i'm glad and hope CA stick with as it adds a layer of depth. What impressed me most however was the number of different mechanics. Like Three Kingdoms that added a layer of depth that even may Paradox fans complimented it on. Pharaoh does the same and goes even further. The court system and being able to manipulate, threaten, embezzle, gossip, aid etc Characters in different positions is something that impressed me not to mention you can put yourself in a court position and use it to push others out or benefit from it's position whether it be financial, military or political. There are also a great number of events in the game which keeps things interesting. Very few turns will have no events at all. You can also choose to be King of the Canaanites of Pharaoh and go down the route which gives you access to a number of entitlements. To enter into civil war or accept the many different mini objectives which gives you resource bonuses if you manage to complete them in a number of turns. The outpost systems add another layer of depth. This is MUCH more like Three Kingdoms than Troy and i feel all of you guys will be pleased. It is a very deep game and the Campaign map is HUGE. As big as Three Kingdoms. Does anyone else remember the ULTRA aggressive Ai that declared war on you in Troy if they sensed any sort of weakness even though you were much more powerful.? Well this is not here at all and again i feel the Campaign Ai here much along the same line as Three Kingdoms. it keeps you on your toes and you in the Campaign menu before you start a game you can enable or disable SO many mechanics and options similar to Warhammer 3

Battles: My favourite part of any Total War game and i have to say i did not expect battles in Pharaoh to be this good especially after watching other people's first impressions months ago. It is in no way like Troy, in fact Three Kingdoms battles are more similar to Troy than this game. There are no super duper moves or super hero Generals. The unit clashing i feel is the best yet and the combat animations is a mix between mostly synced combat and some non synced combat to keep the battles looking intense. They are the tightest animations yet, unit clashing is among the best in the series and my favourite aspect is that there are NO unit blobs even when most of your army is engaged as one unit against the enemy army in a choke-point. Soldiers stay close together but there is no clipping like in Attila and units stay in relative formation where the front line is constantly engaged. As for battle Ai, it is similar to the most recent titles. I felt the Ai in the most recent games was fantastic and pretty much can always give me a run for my money if i take my eye of the ball. The battles Ai in this game will have you watching all aspects of the battle or you will get caught out quickly, the Ai will exploit any weakness. Weather effects are not something i noticed that much as it mainly just effects both parties so the penalties you and the Ai suffer are the same. Perhaps have it where certain factions don't suffer from certain penalties so it can have a significant effect on the other party. In terms of battle length i found they mostly last anywhere between 10-20 minutes and these were battles consisting of weaker morale militia units. I'd imagine it being longer with more elite units in both sides. By far the BEST battles in the entire series. A big shout out to Sofia for bringing combat animations back and making them the best yet. No more swirling leg kicks or sword strikes. It looks and feels more real

Sound: I have to say before Pharaoh i felt Troy had the best sound effects in battles and overall music. The campaign ambience was second to non however for me Pharaoh tops it as being the best in the Total War series. Then in battle the clashes of units, the sound of different weapon sounds hitting shields is also something i noticed. Not all weapons hitting shields sound the same. I'm not sure if this is the same in other total war games but it just added another layer of immersion.

As for things i didn't like or would like to see in the future. Ahhh..... BLOOD. I felt this feature was missing the most, i feel it should be standard at release as a DLC to keep parental rating down but please don't make us wait too long. Blood adds a layer of immersion especially when you can use it to tell if someone has been hit. Battles just don't feel as immersive or real without it. Also i dislike when you hover over units that a unit card of information pops up on the middle of the screen. I'm not talking about the in-depth unit information which is on the side which you can turn off. This information instead is much more generic but it is right on the middle of the screen and just blocks your view

[Yews]

There’s no bloody way in hell this game bankrupts Sega, and the game itself is like a mix of most features from previous games plus a bunch of new ones, set in an unprecedented, exceptionally fascinating setting, so very far from bad that’s for sure.

[Nats]

Paid by the publisher by any chance do we think?

[Berserk Belta]

Wow, thats a ringing endorsement!

I'm sure I'm not the only player of the history games that's looking on to see how it goes, who likes it/doesnt like it and why, so cheers for sharing

[Shadow of Sauron]

I very much like the game and the Egypt theme is very well received as a gamer of the Pharaoh city builder games and tired of the Warhammer copy and past saga and it plays like Total war Troy (minus the GODS mode) and I am happy about it. There has been good games this year and this is one of them as for me I am waiting for the Star Trek Infinite game as well but back to this game. I have encountered some glitches (required reload save) in the game but over all very well done and very interesting on brining back the outside settlements well to be more persise building plots that can upgrade to military buildings, Admin buildings and trade like buildings and I am unsure if you build the fort and enemy attack it and have a fort battle but that would be cool. I only have a few hours into the game but I see this being one of the top 5 games from total war (Empire still for me). We need more positive reviews for sure.

[Strategist]

引用自 Hollidad：

引用自 Defmonkey：

You here to buy the game then?

Oh absolutely not lmao. Just here to talk ♥♥♥♥ on a game that may actually bankrupt Sega. I would never waste my money on something as obviously bad as this lol.

Get a life... CA lives rent free in your head, so you must actually LOVE them enough to get such a rage boner. You sound like just another entitled liberal (yeah I'm assuming but it seems obvious).

Lots of people that have ACTUALLY PLAYED THE GAME are enjoying it.

[Paddy]

引用自 Nero：

lol a TW game with no cavalry and no ships and no unit variety at all is the best ever???

I don't care for ships and Cavalry as much. In Three Kingdoms I felt Cavalry could be used too easily to turn the tide of battles.

[Dark Messiah]

引用自 Paddy：

Alright i'll try to keep this short

Oh boy you failed miserably here.

[Paddy]

引用自 Dark Messiah：

引用自 Paddy：

Alright i'll try to keep this short

Oh boy you failed miserably here.

It was a bit of a joke. I mean I obviously couldn't lol

[Paddy]

引用自 Nero：

Yeah you have a valid point there.

I felt battles here were Harder simply because Cavalry couldn't be exploited. Honestly if I fought very hard battles in Three kingdoms I would just use cavalry to do constant hit and run attacks to bring the enemy down. The Ai isn't smart enough to protect it's flanks against Cavalry. Of course In earlier games because the Cavalry was heavier armored I found them to he much slower and not able to do hit and run attacks as easy

[Prisoner 76561197992841073]

best total war ever: for ZOOMERS

[IonizedMercury]

引用自 Hollidad：

引用自 Defmonkey：

You here to buy the game then?

Oh absolutely not lmao. Just here to talk ♥♥♥♥ on a game that may actually bankrupt Sega. I would never waste my money on something as obviously bad as this lol.

There's always something forced when people go to the discussion board of a game they don't intend to play and start dissing it.

Almost as if those people need to convince themselves more of something than other people.

引用自 Nero：

lol a TW game with no cavalry and no ships and no unit variety at all is the best ever???

I like a TW game that's about strategy for once and not about brainless mappainting and pressing the AR button a dozen times a turn.

So not like Total War Warhammer.

[Paddy]

引用自 Prigozhin：

best total war ever: for ZOOMERS

What's a zoomer?

[Hori]

It’s how United States citizens refer to people a millisecond younger than themselves anytime they feel a lack of cultural affinity with them.

[Paddy]

引用自 Sabhotep：

It’s how United States citizens refer to people a millisecond younger than themselves anytime they feel a lack of cultural affinity with them.

Well I'm in my 30's so would be older than a good few on here. I've been playing Since Medieval 2 so would easily describe myself as a veteran of the series. I remember the old games quite well and the way people romanticize them is ridiculous. Perhaps it's the fact that battle themselves still largely haven't been revolutionized. Many want an entirely new engine which I understand

[degumuto_berseg]

cavalry is the hearth of any total war game I really miss medieval area