Medieval II: Total War
The Creative Assembly have had a curious relationship with the medieval period. It’s probably a cynical pronouncement, but the record suggests that the developer turns to medieval Europe when it wishes to bring increased scale and depth to a winning format. And to be fair, it works very well. But by the end of 2006, there would be a certain sense of déjà-vu when reading critical and community reception of the Creative Assembly’s indirect sequel to Medieval: Total War.
In spite of an increased polygon count, Medieval II’s most noted graphical advancement over Rome was increased variation in unit models. Knights would display their personal livery and wear alternate suits of armour. The faces of men at arms and archers were also diversified, adding still more colour and realism to battles. Units now correctly looked like a collection of individuals rather than a mass of clones.
But naturally where Medieval II broadened its offering was on the campaign map. Importing and inflating Rome’s reworked campaign mechanics saw the addition of heretics, witches, inquisitors and merchants to Medieval’s priests, diplomats, spies, assassins and princesses. Inquisitors would scour heretical provinces and occasionally put the less pious members of your administration to the stake. And returning to the campaign map was the use of cinematics, a format not seen since Shogun. Rome’s naval functions were remodelled but largely given a “working as intended” tick and transported into Medieval II – even if the computer was perhaps more ruthless in its auto-resolutions.
Newly, communities were now either castles or townships, chosen at the player’s discretion. Townships conferred greater economic productivity but advanced unit production was assigned to castles. The enhanced defences afforded by a castle would be both strategically and tactically beneficial: Better equipped to withstand a protracted siege, the garrison could wait longer for military relief. In the event of an assault, the castle’s enhanced defences would be carried over to the 3D battlefield.
In spite of being acknowledged as the best iteration yet of the Total War franchise, Medieval II received a familiar strain of criticism, albeit applied differently. The game was widely regarded as having implemented enough to be considered a stand-alone product, but the similarities with Rome – right down to renaming the senate the ‘council of lords’ and having it deliver trying edicts to what should now be an autocrat – simply begged extensive comparison.
For many, the century tacked onto the close of Medieval II showed the most promise for the future of the series. No longer closing with the historical fall of Constantinople, Medieval II extended its timeline into the Renaissance and the discovery of the new world.
The promise was compounded by Medieval II’s expansion: Kingdoms. The Kingdoms expansion went into increased detail on four historical campaigns, the last of which, “the Americas”, focused on the Spanish conquest of South America.
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