First Impressions Review.

[Suraknar]

Hello fellow ORGanites!

I just wanted to share some of my impressions of TW:Three Kingdoms, I know that a TW on the mainland China (be it on the Romance or Gengis Khan/Kublai Khan etc) has been a very long time wish. And many mods and mod projects in the past went towards that direction. It has been a wish of mine as well.

So I jumped in to this one head first, and Pre-Ordered just one day before release.

Note that I have not been following any Social media/Twitch/Youtube about the evolution of the game, I am not the type to do so. I just play the game when it is out or unless I get involved in Alphas/Beta Testing etc. So the game is brand new to me and I had 0 Knowledge about it and its systems or gameplay before I got it other than the fact that well it is about China's Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

So here are my impressions:

Game Loading: was comparable to other titles, about 10-15 seconds in my case before the intro launched, I have the game installed on an SSD drive and I was expecting the background unpacking of files as usual.

Intro Video: Very well done intro video which excites and motivates and immerses the player in the setting.

UI: My fist positive impression was the improvement of the UI, it is sleek, and of a minimalist design which is efficient and very fast. Love it!

Music in the UI: I was struck by the music, it is simply lovely to listen to!

Video Options: My first action was to teak the video options for a desired experience before launching a Campaign. So played a bit with various Advanced settings and running benchmarks (battle and campaign). I finally settled for a mixture of Ultra and High settings, Unit Size Ultra, TAA, Anisotropic 16x, at 45 Fps battle benchmark.

Tutorial: There is no Tutorial Campaign available. Yes I maybe a Vet in TW games but I always like to discover what is new through the tutorials. So I just started a Campaign, I set the Advice level to High.

To my delight I was offered Tutorial options within the Campaign itself. So there is a Tutorial which is embedded in the Campaign and it is good for both new players to TW and new players to Three Kingdoms.

Campaign: I started my first Campaign as the Recommended Cao Cao (albeit I want to play Liu Bei really hoping Zhuge Liang is in game, too). The campaign map is beautiful, the campaigns plays quite good.

Campaign UI: It felt awkward in the beginning of the Campaign UI as allot of elements are concentrated to the left of the screen. But got used to it fairly fast. The various territories are organized in "Commanderies" which basically consist of a Capital City and Urban and Administrative Center and various small settlements dedicated to providing food etc. Similar to the by now familiar Rome 2 Provincial approach, but this time even more streamlined and fitting to China of that period.

Campaign and Battle Music: Very nice, pleasing and exciting or calming music, especially if you have a taste for Chinese instruments. I simply love it the music all around!

Campaign Modes: This one surprised me but I found it so cool. You can play the game in either the Romance Mode which is the Romanticized, Legendary mode and it affects how your general behave skill up and level. In this mode generals do not die in battle, can be captured thought and can be executed if captured. Generals become like Hong Kong/China Movies a bit Super-heroic capable ofr fighting by themselves in the head of the battle against several enemy troops with legendary weapons and their Kung Fu prowess. Troops are affected less by fatigue and morale in this mode.

Or you play play in "Records" mode which makes Generals behave historically, and renders generals common mortals with General's Bodyguard like other historical titles. In Records mode troops are affected by Fatigue and morale much more too.

(I started my Campaign in Romance mode! I want my generals to leap above 100 enemy soldiers and smashing in the middle of them! Just like in the movies :) Haha Of course I will also play in more historical way too. Yet, I am not a purist, I enjoy both Fantasy and History, fun is the priority. In any case, the choice between the two to please everyone is there, and this is a plus for the game!

Campaign Economy: This one is important to me since the first Shogun. I get impatient with having to scrounge the bottom and choose between recruiting a unit or which settlement to upgrade. I do not like to bother myself with economy and prefer to focus on Tactical and strategic play. So I usually mod the games to give myself several millions of currency in turn 1, and that way I can raise my armies as I see fit and constantly be upgrading all my settlements as needed without headaches.

Nevertheless, I started my campaign without modding anything in the economy. and so far I think, it is actually an amazing improvement. I like it, and I do not think it needs modding. We gain currency every time we defeat enemies in battles, plus have the opportunity to release captives for ransom, and of course we can sack captured towns too. All this somehow makes it balance in a enjoyable way! Great approach!

Campaign Diplomacy: Now this one will most probably delight allot of old fans. Yes Diplomacy finally exists in TW. There is a slew of new options to use during the campaign which brings the Diplomacy game to a new level. I know many people here have wanted more and better diplomatic options in TW and this one delivers on that wish!


Help Tools: Other than the Advice/Advisor, there are several great tools such as a Cheat Sheet by pressing ESC and also a UI elements explanation by pressing F1, you can hover on every element of the UI after pressing F! to get a details explanation of it. All these can also be accessed via three convenient buttons at the upper right corner of the screen, including Tutorial Videos.

Performance: The game performs amazingly! I think many people will be talking about the smoothness and overall performance at every level from the Menu UI to the Campaign to Battles.

Flukes, Bugs: Nothing noticeable so far. Except maybe that the Advisor does not always Talk or is triggered properly. and the Text stays there indefinitely until manually dismissed. I am not sure if it is intended, I have not played with an Advisor since Medieval/Rome 1.

Misc: Not sure if Sun Quan is in the game, he is not available at startup. As well as Zhou Yu, who later formed an alliance with Liu Bei to counter Cao Cao, famous for the battle of the Red Cliffs. Maybe these are unlockable via the campaign, It would be sweet if other factions become available later after encounter or successful completion of the first campaign.

Modding: Not in a rush to mod the game. I find it really good as is in vanilla thus far.

Overall Impression: Awesome! Kudos to the Team, you really outdid yourselves with this title! This title will go down in history as the best so far and one of the best of all time in the series. in my opinion.

Cheers!