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Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms is the official expansion to last year's award-winning Medieval II: Total War, presenting players with all-new territories to explore, troops to command, and enemies to conquer. All Reviews:. Popular user-defined tags for this product:. Is this game relevant to you? Sign In or Open in Steam. Languages :. Franchise: Total War. Share Embed. Read Critic Reviews.
Packages that include this game. Package info. Add to Cart. View Community Hub. Kingdoms is the most content-rich expansion ever produced for a Total War game, with four new entire campaigns centered on expanded maps of the British Isles, Teutonic Northern Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. In Medieval II, you were only given a tantalizing glimpse of South America, but in Kingdoms, vast tracts of land in both North and South America have been opened up for you to conquer.
All-new factions from the New World are also now fully playable, including the Aztecs, Apaches, and Mayans. Along with the new maps in the Britannia, Teutonic, Crusades, and New World Campaigns, there are 13 new factions to play, over units to control, and 50 building types, adding up to 80 hours of new gameplay.
But 'ah' I retort 'you can turn a city into a fortress later if need be, or vice versa. Such redevelopment is expensive, but surely you can see the possibilities, hmmm? That's the development cycle by which the Total War series has single-handedly redefined the RTS genre over the past six years. And now, two years after Rome rode into town like a triumphant king to batter its competitors into a powdery submissive pulp with its ground-breaking blend of strategic depth and visceral, awe-inspiring real-time action, we arrive at an evolutionary junction for the franchise.
As with the last time the Total War series swapped renovation for decoration with Medieval: Total War , we once again find ourselves revisiting the religiously fanatical era where superpowers from Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor carved each other up in the name of religion in order to extend their holdings and rake in as much cash as their coffers could hold. Aficionados of the series needn't worry though, as a multitude of other factions become unlocked once you've completed the hour campaign.
Each nation proves suitably distinctive and provides a unique challenge, both in terms of unit selection and starting position. England's island-bound holdings prove a mixed blessing with only the rampant Scottish hordes to contend with, though across the channel, the single English foothold in Europe needs to be quickly expanded upon and protected from the marauding French.
If you decide to play as the French, you'll find yourself equipped with the best cavalry in the West though it's not till later in the campaign that the country we commonly associate with affordable booze, snails and mass-rioting really comes into its own, when it starts spewing out professional armies that don't just stand around grunting with dissatisfaction before trying to sleep with the wives of their fellow comrades.
At first glance, The Holy Roman Empire is the most tempting nation to start your Medieval II experience with, due to its generous land holdings - but as you'll soon realise, its realms are beset on all sides by enemies eager to take a bite out of any unprotected provinces.
Venice finds itself in a similar situation, though its meagre collection of starting states means it's perhaps the most challenging of the six. So you've chosen your faction, disconnected your phone, stocked up on cheese puffs and you're ready to go. So what's new? Well, where do I begin?
How about the revamped engine, which takes the graphical splendour of Rome and remodels its already ample assets with a plastic surgery-style makeover?
Yup, that sounds like a pretty good place to start So let's get started Without doubt Medieval II is a visual feast one that'll milk your 3D card to within an inch of its life and fill your monitor with battlegrounds so detailed, you'll be reaching for a towel to wipe your enemy's blood from your forehead.
I Proving far more power-hungry than its predecessor if you want to really get the most out of it that is , your medieval troops radiate the kind of detail that Rome could only dream about after a hard night's orgy. Gothic Knights rumble across grassy plains, kicking up plumes of dust as they march, their hooves pounding thunderously against the turf and their polished platearmour suits glinting majestically as they catch the rays of the sun.
Cities steam with smoke that spews from the chimneys of each stunningly detailed building and billow smoke as enemy catapults and roaring cannons hurl balls of flame over their towering stone walls and set them ablaze. But that's just the edge of the glacier myfriends, as Rome's clone armies have been replaced by squads of fairly unique soldiers, while battlegrounds now possess far greater geographical diversity than ever before.
Terrain undulates, creating makeshift vantage points on which to plant your archers and artillery, while jagged, impassable mountains block your escape routes and make you think in new strategic dimensions.
What's more, you can now line towering rock faces with missile troops who can send deadly volleys down the mountainside at their foes. Fog, rain and snow restrict your view like never before, forcing you to squint into the gloom for the slightest hint of enemy movement, while your pulse beats in your brain like an overheating jackhammer.
In the presentation stakes, Medieval Il's real-time battles are almost beyond reproach. Now you may not have seen this coming -I know I didn't - but despite their undoubted qualities, these real-time battles aren't quite the leap forward for the series that perhaps they could and should have been. While having unique-looking troops using melee combinations rather than clone armies that simply hack at each other is an RTS wet dream, the level of differentiation isn't always all that easy to distinguish in the midst of the game's titanic blood-baths.
As a result, these skirmishes often don't look and feel all that different to Rome's unless viewed from extremely close range. What's more, the bone-crushing army impacts captured so perfectly in Rome - I particularly the cavalry charges - seem to lack a certain amount of weight and brutality here, with units often pulling up at the crucial moment of impact.
Finally, the control issues that haunted Rome: Total War - Alexander once again rear their ugly heads here. Cavalry is a particular culprit here, sometimes doing the exact opposite of what you tell them to and generally galloping their way into situations that threaten the very outcome of your carefully laid battle plans while you scream at your monitor and your neighbours call the police.
Don't get me wrong, Medieval Il's battles are superb, visceral, brutal and so thrilling your heart will fracture your ribcage. They're also further embellished by the return of hostage-taking and the reprisal of Barbarian Invasion's visually spectacular night-time encounters. However, they never really feel all that different to Rome's conflicts and fail to quite live up to expectations due to an assortment of niggles that chip away at you like a woodpecker that's been surgically implanted into your skull.
Why, for example, can you no longer place your formations anywhere within a city or castle when defending it? Why do siege battles, despite their pyrotechnic splendour, still often boil down to just knocking a hole in a wall and charging through it?
These problems are by no means terminal and in no way prevent Medieval II from being a sublime piece of programming, but they're enough to irk you and make you realise that in terms of the real-time battles, perhaps Medieval II isn't the hugely impressive leap forward from Rome that we were all hoping for.
Thankfully, the same can't be said for the turn-based strategic map, which trounces all of its predecessors with its sheer level of detail and breathtaking array of options, despite the odd balancing issue. Coupled with innumerable tweaks and improvements, its this part of the game that makes Medieval II stand apart from its predecessors like a giant at an under-tens basketball club.
Regions burst at the borders with geographical features, while armies, agents, merchants, priests and princesses meander between settlements on a variety of diplomatic, military and clandestine missions. The sheer magnitude of options available to you between each titanic real-time encounter is stupefying, urging you to tinker with every facet of your empire from population control to your relationship with the Pope.
Reality quickly melts away as you navigate the map, tending to the minutiae of your rule with the superbly streamlined and intuitive interface, and guided by the excellent advisors which prevent you from ever having to trawl through the hefty manual to learn how a certain game mechanic works.
You'll spend hours agonising over how to best balance your economic and military budgets, while brokering deals with rival factions and forging alliances that'll best serve your nations interests. Perhaps the strategic map's biggest overhaul is the way that settlements work.
Oh no my compadres, those days are gone. You now have the option of constructing either castles or cities, both of which carry their own unique set of advantages and disadvantages.
Cities are the economic and cultural centres of your empire, allowing you to build roads and markets, and tax your populace as you see fit However, despite being encircled by stout walls, their defensive capabilities are limited, a problem that's compounded by the meagre selection of units that you can train within their walls. Castles are, as youd expect the exact opposite. While these fortresses may be militarily mighty and provide a cornucopia of options when it comes to constructing armies and defensive structures including multiple layers of defence later on in the game , theyre about as economically viable as a pissed-up tramp asking for a loan while knocking back his fourteenth can of Special Brew of the morning.
Another new feature is the emergence of guilds. Every so often, one of these guilds will want to set up shop within your city walls and for a small price, you can reap the benefits that they bring to your provinces. Merchant guilds, for example, help cities to prosper economically, while Thieves guilds will bolster your nation's subterfuge abilities and cause the sudden mysterious disappearances of thousands of hub-cabs.
This subtle shift in settlement emphasis forces you to think about your every move even more strategically than ever before, ramping up the realism level and utterly immersing you in a Medieval world, where only the most ruthless and two-faced prosper. The Pope also plays a prominent role in deciding your nation's prosperity. Having made a cameo-like appearance in the original Medieval, the Pope's role has been significantly bolstered this time around and now reflects his true influence throughout the medieval period.
Making sure you keep His Holiness on side isn't just a necessity, but a serious challenge. Constructing churches and spreading the good news will help keep him on side, but making sure you don't attack too many Catholic factions is also paramount if you're to avoid being excommunicated. Get on his good side, and hell show you favour.
Displease him and hell order you to stop attacking your fellow Christians. This latter scenario also works as a subtle way of balancing the campaign, as it prevents you from becoming too powerful too quickly, and means you actually take the time to slow down your conquering exploits and enjoy the multitude of social and political options on the medieval menu. Of course, the best way of keeping the Pope onside is by getting one of your own or an ally's cardinals elected. Once he departs from this medieval world and meets his maker, elections are held to find a new resident for the Vatican, and if your man amasses enough votes, then you'll be in for an easy ride for the next 20 turns or so.
The Pope can also call Crusades, ordering you and your Catholic brethren to muster armies and march to the Middle East in order to 'reclaim' the Holy Land. Should you decide to jump onto the Crusading bandwagon, your men will be sped along by religious fervour, allowing them to cover ground quicker than normal. Staying clear of the Pope's legion of roaming inquisitors is also highly prudent, as they're more than happy to unceremoniously bum any of your family members or generals who whiff even slightly of heresy.
Of course, there's always the option of simply attacking the Vatican, but with the risk of incurring the wrath of every Catholic faction on the map, it's a hugely risky strategy. Medieval H's strategic map is a hulking world of murder, intrigue and goodness. No major historical event is ignored, be it the first sightings of the Mongol hordes approaching Europe or the discovery of windmills.
And with the map expanding to even more impressive dimensions when the Americas are discovered, this is unarguably the most enthralling Total War turn-based experience yet. As evolutions go, Medieval II has certainly delivered, upping the stakes both visually and in terms of gameplay. While the slightly glitched real-time battles may not be ah that much different from Rome's, and naval battles and new multiplayer options are still conspicuous by their absence, there's simply no way that any self-respecting strategy fan can spend this Christmas doing anything other than rampaging across the world on a whirlwind of medieval conquest.
This latest evolutionary step for the franchise feels like the final piece of the jigsaw for the series in its current guise, filling in the omissions of the previous games with aplomb, while bolsterjng the strategic map to even greatfirFieights. However, its starting to feel as though the franchise now needs to take that next major step - be it naval battles or more detailed siege warfare or preferably both - in order to maintain the superiority that it's enjoyed over its competitors for so many years.
For the time being though, sit back and enjoy the evolution and all of the delightful tweaks and innovations it brings to this majestic series - because if The Creative Assembly sticks to its strategic template, then another Total War revolution could be just around the comer. About three-quarters of the way through the game, you're in for a treat as an all-new Total War feature makes its debut and turns the entire campaign on its head.
Suddenly, the Americas are discovered and a massive rush ensues as you and your rivals conduct a mad genocidal assault on the unsuspecting and incredibly rich Aztecs tribes. The nation that proves most successful in this conquest suddenly finds itself in a very advantageous financial position and the wealth to be gained can turn even the most redundant enemy into a superpower.
However, standing between you and bags of gold are tens of thousands of fanatical Aztec warriors, who make up for their lack of armour and technology with sheer numbers. The first time you saunter up to an Aztec army, you'll be struck by the sheer magnitude of your task. Having these 3D models meant we could have far more visual detail over Medieval. Sign in to add this item to your wishlist, follow it, or mark it as ignored.
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