Total War: Attila Review

This clever AI carries over to battles as well; while there haven’t been many changes in the structure of battles from Rome 2, the improvements made in that game were largely negated by very problematic AI. Now, the AI performs admirably, setting up ambushes through trees and going for weak points in your defensive lines. The rate at which units lose morale, get tired and rally have also been fiddled with, resulting in battles that tend to last significantly longer with units often rallying and returning to the fray rather than fleeing the battlefield at the first sign of danger. I did encounter some minor bugs with the enemy leaving a single unit in some weird part of the map, but this was not a common problem. Settlements and open-field battles no longer have a control point that can be held for victory, meaning you can use the terrain to your advantage without having to worry about the enemy simply rushing to the capture point and winning.

Day 253 of the hunt for White Walkers

Thanks to these tweaks sieges, combined land/sea battles and making use of the terrain now actually seem like important strategic variables compared to Rome 2 where battles ended so quickly that these elements never really came into play. If there is one complaint I could level against the real-time battles it is the dedicated naval encounters; they remain slow, clumsy affairs, but this is partly a function of the ship technology that existed during this time period.

One side effect that all of this tweaking and rebalancing has is to greatly ratchet up the difficulty level. You actually need to understand how all of the different machinations of your empire work in order to succeed, whereas in the past these elements have existed in the background and didn’t usually require much attention outside of the occasional crisis. As a Total War veteran I was able to get to grips with most of these mechanics without too much difficulty, however I would hesitate to recommend Attila to someone who has never delved into the series before. The prologue campaign does a decent job of teaching you the basics, but some important factors like the political system are not very well explained. Creative Assembly touted Attila as a game aimed at fans of the series, and I think this is an accurate statement; I would advise fresh blood to pick up 2011’s outstanding Shogun 2 instead.

Cavalry plays a major role in Attila

For multiplayer, nothing has changed from Rome 2 in terms of modes available. However this still means there is a lot on offer; co-op and head-to-head campaigns actually work on launch this time, and the improvements that have been made to the grand campaign in singleplayer carry over to these modes as well. I did experience minor desync issues when playing the co-op campaign while the AI were taking their turns, but the game always recovered.

Custom battles are just as flexible as in Rome 2; you can have any desired combination of AI and human players facing off against each other, and the improved battle AI and unit behavior translates to longer, more epic battles in most cases. There is a quick-battle option if you want to jump into a multiplayer game, but there is no ranked matchmaking or progression system like we saw with Shogun 2’s Avatar Conquest mode, which will probably disappoint some players. Still, the vast amount of different maps, units and factions mean there is a lot of fun to be had with custom battles. If you want a dose of historical context in your skirmishes, Historical Battles also return, making for some challenging but exciting fights.

The Cinematic Cam remains the most enjoyable way to lose a battle

While Attila runs on the same engine as Rome 2, it has seen a good amount of spit and polish, especially when it comes to the amount of detail in battles present on units and in the maps. The cinematic unit-camera from Rome 2 is still here, making it easy to get close up to the action if you have no reason to give further orders and just want to watch things play out. I didn’t experience any major performance issues on my aging PC once I turned the settings down slightly, apart from some minor stuttering when the AI were taking their turns. As per the Total War standard, the music is excellent, particularly during battles where the thunderous score perfectly fits the masses of black Hunnish cavalry units charging around the map. The advisor who narrates the prologue campaign and gives you tutorial information is well voiced, however the voice acting during diplomatic encounters is the usual hammy affair.

Total War Attila represents the series at its best, taking the improvements and additions given to Rome 2 and combining them with the more challenging gameplay and clever AI found in Shogun 2. There are enough additions and tweaks to allow the game to stand out from its predecessor, although Sega must have recognized the similarities between Attila and Rome 2 on the surface since the game is being sold at slightly less than full price. Given the large amount of high quality content, varied play styles between factions and refined gameplay mechanics, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Attila to Total War fans. However due to the complexity I would also advise newcomers to the series to start with a less complicated entry.