Total War: Warhammer II is a turn-based strategy war game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega. Similar to other Total War series, the game involves conquering or engaging in diplomacy with other parties (either AI or other players) in the world map as well as small-scale battles where players format and control troops.  Players choose a race and a lord to start with where each race has its own unique characteristics and each lord has his/her own strong spots. Total War: Warhammer II is different from other Total War series where the background of the game is set in Games Workshop’s Warhammer Fantasy fictional universe instead of real historical background.

Link to Total War: Warhammer 2 Website: https://www.totalwar.com/games/warhammer-ii/

Lens 1 : Essential Experience

Just as the name suggests, the main experience of the game is to experience the elements of war. The game provides two types of game modes, campaign, and customized battles. In the campaign mode, a player gets to see the more holistic picture of war where players have to decide resource allocation, research tree directions, diplomacy with other players, etc. in order to achieve victory. This game mode is challenging as there will be many unforeseen circumstances that might happen due to the unpredictable environments and other players’ actions which in turn makes it more satisfying and accomplishing for players to successfully conquer. However, if one simply wants to enjoy being the commander in real-time battles, the game also provides a customized battle game mode for players to format and control troops.

Lens 4 : Curiosity

As the game is set in Warhammer Fantasy fictional universe, a player gets to play unique races such as Lizardmen, High Elves, Dark Elves, and Skaven and their respective lords, buildings, technology, and troops. These are things we don’t usually hear/see in our normal life, therefore making it attractive for players like me to try out all combinations to find out how are they like and what they do. Furthermore, there are different objectives and background stories tied to different races and lords which make me want to delve deep into the game and explore more.

Lens 6 :  Problem Solving

As a strategic game, during each turn, the player has to make careful considerations and even calculations before making a move. Often time the player is required to balance between economy and military, plan on troops placements/destinations, decide the track of research tree, etc. in order to out-perform enemies or to merely survive in the game. 

Lens 7 : Element Tetrad

Mechanics

 Diverse but brain-draining game mechanics in a campaign mode:

• Troops recruitment
• Constructions of buildings
• Research Tree
• Lord’s ability
• Troops movements on the map
• Diplomacy with other players

  Exciting but intense game mechanics in the real-time battle:

• Troops formation
• Troops movements on the battlefield
• Lord’s ability (for eg. magic, warcry, etc.)
• Troops ability (for eg. wall of shields)

Stories

The game tells the tensions/background information about races/lords through the use of text and an in-game narrator. However, given how complex and massive the Warhammer fantasy universe is, often time these stories told in the game are generally insufficient for players to understand the whole picture. The developers do put all the detailed background information on their own wiki page, however, it would require additional efforts for players to read up before understanding the full story of the game.

Aesthetics

Character/unit modeling as well as their dialogs/voices are fantastic where it fits my imagination and expectation of fantasy creatures. The battlefield is immersive with impressive styling of the environment.

Technology

The game is powered by TW Engine 3, the third engine created and used by The Creative Assembly for the development of the Total War series. The engine uses Warscape, a graphics engine developed by The Creative Assembly. Although it does provide high-quality graphics, the time taken to render is considered too long for me, especially for real-time battles which could take 2-3 minutes before I can start making actions.

Conclusion:

Total War: War Hammer 2 meets all my expectations about how a turn-based strategy game should be. Its next series Total War: War Hammer 3 will be out on Feb 17, 2022 and I looked forward to better performance and more enriching storylines in this next series.