With the release of Creative Assembly’s newest title Total War: Warhammer III, they may have put out the most divisive title to date. While being lauded by reviewers and players as the most innovative and exciting game in the series, the release was plagued by poor optimization and review code controversy. With that disclaimer out of the way, I can attest that this is the best Total War game of the last decade.

Warhammer III is the culmination of almost 8 years of fantasy strategy, starting off with the original Total War: Warhammer in 2016. Creative Assembly and publisher SEGA have taken this time to work with the community and introduce new parts of the Warhammer universe while also launching two other Total War games; Three Kingdoms and Troy. After a stellar run with Warhammer II (2017), the long-awaited finale of the Total War: Warhammer trilogy brings the best of every game and improves upon the worst.

Story

While the Total War games have always been more focused on the dynamics of a changing campaign, they actually got involved in some great storytelling for Warhammer III. The prologue campaign plays like a guided tutorial, following the story of Yuri of Kislev as he attempts to find and save the bear god, Ursun. The events of the prologue lead directly into the main campaign, in which each faction attempts to reach Ursun and the prison that holds him. The main campaign itself has much less guided storytelling than the prologue, but that doesn’t mean I disliked the prologue. While simple, it provided a fun prelude to the main campaign and explained a few mechanics that are helpful for newcomers. The story itself was enjoyable enough I would recommend it to veterans of Total War who might want to skip the beginner stuff.

While playing the main campaign, I did find myself drawn into the story of my faction and how my interactions with others would affect the world around me. Different factions fell or were weakened by my actions only to be gobbled up by the others. As I did my best to succeed on my goals for the campaign, completing missions and venturing into Chaos, I lost track of the overall story but became truly involved in my faction’s part of the world.

Gameplay

Built on the tried and true gameplay of Total War, Warhammer III puts the players in charge of a faction in the fantasy realm of Games Workshop’s Warhammer. They must lead armies, develop cities, and conquer new land in their pursuit of victory. Each faction will typically have a goal or objective, as well as the primary achievement in most strategy games of ‘painting the map’. When a battle occurs, the player can either battle it out in real-time or let the computer automatically resolve it. Warhammer III has a much more chaotic goal than the previous games and definitely keeps you on your toes with the intensity while giving unique gameplay mechanics and exciting matchups throughout the campaign.

When the bear god roars, rifts will open and allow access to the ‘Realms of Chaos.’ Each of these have their own daemon in charge, and if you kill all four you can fight the big baddie and save, kill, or even eat the bear god to win the campaign. However, these rifts also spawn rogue armies or can be used to travel long distances so make sure you leave a strong army at home.

On the campaign map, this translates to absolutely wonderful chaos. In between fighting your neighbors, rifts will have you fighting enemies from across the map as you all attempt to take these daemons’ souls. Picking out your units and preparing your heroes becomes a never-ending task, as constant warfare faces you on every front. It’s quite a lot of fun.

The introduction of simultaneous turns and an 8-player coop has also come at the perfect time. Trash talking your friends and taking control of their ai opponents in battle is wonderful, and the war stories and gameplay that evolves make an already great experience even better.

The UI can feel a bit cluttered for certain factions, but once you take the first few turns familiarizing yourself with the layout it becomes a much less daunting task. Tooltips will pop up if you hover over anything, and the advisor will constantly be giving you tutorial tips or updates about your situation and what you need to do. There is no better time to jump into Total War if you haven’t already, as this iteration is very accessible and easier to access than some of the other installments.

The campaign/battle gameplay is smooth and exciting, and I constantly lost track of time as I watched things play out and found new things to do. While difficult, the campaign itself is constantly changing, forcing you to stay engaged and working towards the next mission, and as soon as that’s done there’s another one! While this chaos can seem off-putting, it definitely encouraged longer gameplay sessions and stuck me with a never-ending feeling of ‘just one more turn!’

Audio and Video

Beefy system requirements bring gorgeous visuals, and this game has those in spades. Bright grassy territories turn dark and harsh as they are perverted by the touch of chaos, and the battle maps are all built with the campaign map in mind. Harsh chasms and pillars of bones directly contrast the snow-covered plains of Kislev, but watching armies clash is just as pretty on both. The real-time battles are gorgeous, and seeing daemons toss each other like toys and spells knocking apart entire formations never gets old.

For the duration of my time with the review copy, the game ran phenomenally, and I had no problems with getting my settings correct. However, since the game was fully released there has been notable degradation of frames per second throughout gameplay, even when there is no apparent reason for it. Selecting my resolution and modifying my advanced graphical settings had some issues that made it incredibly difficult to keep steady fps until I was able to correctly set the graphics up (after crashing a few times).

If the game is running well, however, it is easy to get swept up in the majesty of it all. The music swelling as two lines of demons finally meet in a funky purple realm of chaos is a thing of beauty. Overlooking the campaign map and observing the spread of your own special brand of chaos is very fulfilling, albeit in a very weird way

Replayability

With 7 factions and another added with the Ogre Kingdom pack, there are many different options on who to conquer your daemons with. Whether a first-time Total War player or a true veteran, you will find yourself being drawn in once you begin to finish a set of turns. Make it through a few losses and restarts and begin to truly understand a faction. After many turns and maybe a win, you still have a half dozen options to play it again in a completely different way. Even the daemon factions all play as distinct and unique playstyles, despite a seemingly tight roster.

While the game focuses on Chaos and the daemons that reside within, the other factions are also quite fun to play. Grand Cathay fields crossbows, cannons, and even hot air balloons with cannons in their never-ending battle against the enroaching daemons, while Kislev holds their icy realm through hybrid ranged and melee soldiers as well as ice animals. Holding the line as fragile humans attempting to fight off the stuff of nightmares makes for a fantastic time, and you definitely feel some pride when a small force holds off a horde of daemons attempting to capture a town.

With that being said for the humans, the most exciting faction in the game is the Legion of Chaos, a combination of all the daemon factions and units, led by a customizable daemon prince. I named mine Bisket, and he brought wrath to the lands and brought glory to the gods of Chaos. Customization felt like a dress-up minigame, but switching out body parts or weapons for different stats was a very cool feature, and needing to gather glory through victory or buildings definitely kept me engaged while I sacrificed enemies for the perfect sword to compliment my wings and horned head. Players will find a lot to love with the Legion of Chaos, and I’m excited to hear their stories.

What It Could Have Done Better

Poor optimization is a buzzword on the mind of every person who has played Warhammer III since it launched, and while it is sure to be fixed it would have been nice to not be an issue. There are also some problems with AI direction and pathing, causing some unintended movements or strange routes in battle. With the huge improvement done on siege battles, it was a miss to not rework the way units must be moved through buildings. While bunched up kill-zones are to be expected with the addition of barricades and towers, units not being able to walk around single trees or empty roads should not affect the flow of battle as much as they did. The siege upgrades were a blast, but could definitely be frustrating at times.

Verdict

By the time I had taken 5 turns into my first campaign, I felt that this was easily the best Warhammer game in the series. Before turn 10, I was ready to call this the best Total War game in the last decade. While it’s not perfect and there are definitely some things that could be improved, Total War: Warhammer III is an absolute triumph and the pinnacle of a very well-made trilogy!

Now I’m off to gather my friends and face off again in the realms of Chaos, wish me luck! Total War: Warhammer III is out now on PC, available on Steam, Epic Games Store, and Game Pass.