Medieval Total War revisited

"It opens with the preaching of the First Crusade in 1095. It ends with the fall of Constantinople in 1453." (Activision.)

Medieval Total War, the second in the Total War series, was released on August 19th 2002.

The Gamespot review, by Elliott Chin (Aug 27 2002) said:
"Medieval : Total War achieves that rare quality of having something for nearly all strategy gamers, amd most will find a lot to like in it, for a very long time."

That "very long time" came to an end this year.

It is time for a kind of reluctant soul-searching for MTW/VI players and veterans of a game that has stood the test of loyalty in an ethos of throwaway goods. Fans and fanatics of this game have been fiercely devoted to it, despite claims (recently, of course) about graphics and AI glitches.

A search for early reactions to the game took me not to the major forums but to Civilization Fanatics Centre, a forum devoted to the Civilization games:


Dell19
Jun 18, 2002, 09:14 PM
So has anyone heard about this game and is anyone likely to buy it?

The game contains an element of TBS and RTS. You move your armies in stacks around the main map and do all the diplomacy and build orders in the TBS section and then you control the battles in an RTS manner, which can be really good.
KingWilly
Jun 19, 2002, 06:59 AM
Sounds interesting, might be worth a look.
Knight-Dragon
Jun 19, 2002, 08:19 AM
Is this related to the Shogun Total War game?
damunzy
Jun 19, 2002, 10:36 AM
Only heard about it from you. :) Got more information on this game like some links?
Dell19
Jun 19, 2002, 08:32 PM
Its the sequel to Shogun Total War...
Dell19
Jun 19, 2002, 08:55 PM
And heres a link to the main site. It has some links to previews of the game if you want to read them.

www.Totalwar.com

and here

www.totalwar.com/community/medieval/index.htm

Here are some battle screenshots

www.totalwar.com/community/medieval/bat3.htm

Notice the simplicity with which the game is handled, even at this early stage, mentioned by Dell 19's first post above. There, of course, are the two biggest MTW communities, vital to the healthy development of a solid fanbase.

Has what occurred recently shaken the confidence of diehard MTW1 fans?

What was missing from MTW1 ( and I respectfully use that name) that it should suffer the equivalent of a major overhaul of a redundant machine, like some old-fashioned Industrial Revolution farming implement?

There' s still a lot to be said for the first MTW, and many voices to say it.

(End of Part One)