Just a reminder, you can get Total War:Troy FREE today (Thursday, August 13) ONLY via the Epic Games store.

I mean, free, right?

Do you work for Epic?


Yes, you certainly can't beat free. EPIC must have paid Creative Assembly quite a bit of money too for this exclusive deal.

Lol! No, but I've had my eye on this one for a while, and I'm a sucker for free.

Is the Epic Store site inaccessible for you guys too? I’m constantly getting a “Uh oh, something went wrong” message...

EDIT: Ah, got the game now, downloading the 16.8 GB’s now Been waiting for Troy since it was announced, can’t wait!

LOL!!! I had a feeling that was going to happen. Troy became available for download just a few minutes ago and the EPIC network is already overloaded.

I just logged in and am downloading it as I type this, so keep trying I guess!

I registered for an Epic account just for the free games. 30 so far. Most are Indie titles that I may never get around to playing.

Best game in the library so far is Tacoma,I enjoyed that.

I now have acquired 3 games for free from Epic. Troy, Just Cause 4 and Killing Floor 2.

Thanks Johnny C. for the heads up!

Red

Even for free this Total War is not worth my time. I've seen a lot of gameplay before realase and it's really mediocre at best. No wonder they sold it to "china epic store" for easy cash.

There are two new things about this one that intrigue me. One is the strategic goods thing, where having access, either through ownership or trade, is so important for your realm. This sort of thing kind of exists in other TW titles, but here it is more important. I like this idea.

The second thing is the unit weight feature, and new terrain such as mud. Would be interesting to see how that works in practice. I have no plans to pick this one up at this time, even for free, but will keep an eye on the reaction from long time players. I will also be interested in seeing how the historical -only players feel about mythical units in the game.

Well, when you get something for free, you often get your money's worth . . .

I'm on turn 57, and I'm throwing in the towel. I just can't take it anymore.

My problems with it:
- Each battle feels exactly the same since Hammer & Anvil is the only strategy
- There are no more than a handful of maps
- The maps are TINY. With a full stack, you can just put a spear wall through the entire map
- Encampment battles don't exist

Also, how CA fixed the whole 'naval battle' by deleting them entirely might've worked in 3K, but doesn't work here since the map is dominated by the Aegean Sea and you are constantly being harrassed by 'the other side' that constantly send forces over the sea. Sea battles are a major part of Total War Saga: Troy, yet they consist of magically teleporting the units to one of the few maps, playing the same battle over and over.

The sieges are really terrible to the extreme. All tactical dependencies terrain wise, lie with the attacker. Since the AI only attacks settlements that are outnumbered, you really can't do anything interesting to change the tide of the battle. Similarly, as an attacker, when you attack a settlement you just wait out until the enemy is reduced to a skeleton crew and you mop them up. This was a viable strategy in older TW games, but this has become gospel in Troy.

I find it quite funny -and strange- that a game that names itself after the most legendary siege in history, has put zero effort in making awesome sieges. Why so extremely loyal to history, when minotaurs, heroes, (baby) cyclops and chariots roam the battlefield?
Why not create special sap infantry? Why is every (siege) map just a small squares with rock pillars in them just to spite ranged units? Where is the effing Trojan Horse? Was it really so much effort to model a giant horse?

There is also no city management, and each city feels just as a resource node. There is an amazing lack of useful buildings (although for some reason, winemakers create spies?), creating the problem that pretty much all build slots are empty because there is simply nothing to build that would be of use. In old TW games, you constanly had a feeling of "oohh, what wil I build next?". In this one, you constantly wonder "why isn't there anything to build?".

Also, altars (temples basically) are pretty much useless as well. For example, building a Temple of Zeus will favour Zeus +100 points and a 25% penalty to offerings to Zeus costs.. But this favour goes away -10 per turn. So after 10 turns, you have a building that only gives you penalties! Add to that, that the buildings are pretty expensive to build and you end up with a "wtf?"-moment. How did this pass QA? And the Epic Store has no workshop, so no chance for a mod to fix it...


It is not all bad though: Divine Will (getting strategic buffs from the Gods at a resource cost) give a nice strategic layer, and one that I really dig in theory, with the costs being nicely balanced. The art style is beautiful and I really dig the part fantasy/part historical route they took.

It's just that the game is the same size as Rome 2's "Caesar in Gaul" and Napoleon's "Peninsular Campaign", but where those games develop themselves, in this game you've seen everything by turn 20. After that, the battles are a boring grind and the strategic map lacks strategy. It feels like a mobile freemium game on PC.

This probably was the last Total War game i'll ever play. What a #%&*$# show

Thanks for your review Vaderini and I'm surprised that it seems CA really dropped the ball on this title when you consider just how brilliantly TW: Three Kingdoms was implemented.

Then again, a lot of people didn't care for Britannia and I ended up putting over 800 hours into it.

I'm glad I got it for free,thanks for the review Vaderini.

I played Troy for about an hour on Sunday and here are some of my observations:

1. Stunning graphics and art design. The game really captures the entire ancient Greek aesthetic.

2. While playing I kept wishing CA would re-release Rome 2 with this graphics engine. I'd pay full price for that.

3. I did one 3D battle and I have to say it's really no different fundamentally from 3D battles in previous TW titles. The use of heroes is very much the same as the "Romance" mode in Three Kingdoms.



I'll add more observations as I play the game more this week.

That's probably why Three Kingdoms and Warhammer were popular, they changed things up a bit and made them interesting.

I played 2 more hours of Troy today and I admit it's growing on me. The aesthetics and music really get you immersed into the 12th century BC Greek and Anatolian world.

I've played an hour or two in it, and I have to agree - the aesthetics & music are very well done. Still haven't quite gotten the groove of the game yet, but it has been an enjoyable diversion. I'll give it a proper go when I get tired of WH.

Forgot i had this, i put in a few hours initially but it never grabbed me although i love the period. Might fire it up for another shot later.