Total War? Yes and No
The Total War series gained alot of attention and respect when Rome Total War hit the Shelves in 2004, it was considered such a great game, how could any sequel hope to outdo it.
2 years later here comes Medieval II: Total War, the direct sequel to the original Medieval Total War game that started the epicness of large scale land battles. In Medieval 2 their are over a dozen playable factions to choose from, with the majority being catholic nations, there are only a handful of Muslim factions and over-all they are a bit over-shadowed by the sheer dominance of the catholic nations, as being catholic nations from the good ol days, most of the time you are forced to kiss up to the Pope, even if you somehow manage to install one of your own priests as Pope, you still have to follow his edicts or risk excommunication and a sure defeat. On the upside, there is a certain "simple depth in managing your resources and building armies that has a moderate learning curve, but still leaving plenty of room to improve.
But what about the battles you ask? Let me get to that, Battles in Medieval II: Total War are as good as they ever were, with armies of almost any size colliding and tearing each other to pieces before your very eyes. The Graphics are good if you can crank them all the way up, especially considering the sheer number of units on-screen, and the sound is great and helps support the feel of the era and the challenges ahead. There are however a few nitpicks I have with this game, for one, while armies can be relatively large, there is a cap on the size of single armies, which i find to be a bit distressing, and quite frankly annoying, I believe you can't have any more than 2 full rows of units, regardless of how many actual troops are in each squad. This to me does not make any sense, If I want to put ALL my military units into one massive horde of unstoppable mass, I should be allowed to. Now I'm sure most people will tell me there are hardware limitations and what-not, and I guess I understand, but it is still very annoying and isn't very accurate on what battles were like back in the Medieval Ages.
Regardless of my nitpicking, this is one heck of a game they managed to put together, especially with its expansion pack which basically includes 6 mini campaigns for you to trudge through and spend countless hours.
Just remember that if your going to play this game, Holy Roman Empire is the way to go.
