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Total War: Warhammer 3 Reviews

Bragr

Banned
Currently sitting on an 87 on Metacritic.

The massive end to the Warhammer trilogy is coming to an end, and launching day one on Game Pass. Let's hope it's better optimized than the mess that Warhammer II was. Let the casuals have Horizon, it's time to face down chaos one more time.

"A brilliant final act with the series' most inventive and unusual factions yet." - PC Gamer

"A triumphant step forward for Total War on almost every front, boasting not just the best and most diverse single-player campaigns ever, but a revolution in multiplayer too." - PCGamesN

"Total War: Warhammer III offers the incredible depth synonymous with the series, while adding expansive new multiplayer features and some great faction mechanics." - God of a Geek



wh3.jpg
 

Abriael_GN

RSI Employee of the Year
6nC7PSj.jpg


What year is it? 🤔

Jokes aside, it's a really, really good game, but the campaign AI remains completely inept as it has always been in every Total War game, and even more so because it can't effectively deal with the main mechanic of the campaign (which is really easy to deal with).

Pretty surprised to see that most reviewers haven't noticed 🤔
 
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manfestival

Member
Glad to see that this series continues to retain it's quality. Will be picking this up when I get some free time. my backlog is so huge right now.
 

Bragr

Banned
Can we use warhammer 1 and 2 on warhammer 3 Game Pass edition?
No, if you own the other 2 on steam or epic, you need to buy it on those platforms to play the combined mortal empires map that is coming out later. Most total war warhammer fans view the game pass edition as a way to play the campaign for "free", while they wait for the mortal empires map to be released.
 

Hal.

Member
My heart still aches that the series has gone off in such a different direction after Attila.

Literally cannot stand nu Total War.

Thrones of Britannia was a piece of shit though.
 

TheMan

Member
I bought the first one when it was still new and have barely touched. Just haven't made time for it with backlogs being what they are. maybe I'll change that this week.
 

Bragr

Banned
My heart still aches that the series has gone off in such a different direction after Attila.

Literally cannot stand nu Total War.

Thrones of Britannia was a piece of shit though.
What about Three Kingdoms?
 

Bragr

Banned
It’s nu Total War and hero shit.
There are 2 modes in Three Kingdoms, one for hero shit and one for traditional non-hero shit.

But do you want them to do the same old stuff over and over? Do you really want them to go back and start making Rome II or Shogun II games all over again? why not just play those games if that is what you want, they are very replayable.
 

ToxicWeeb

Banned
My heart still aches that the series has gone off in such a different direction after Attila.

Literally cannot stand nu Total War.

Thrones of Britannia was a piece of shit though.
This series is better than ever using fantasy, sorry Thomas Aquinas.
 

Shai-Tan

Banned
I watched the entire hour of the MandaloreGaming review and the big negatives are that the siege AI does not work well at all (disappointing because that was one of the supposed big upgrades from II) and in combat units often look like they're doing nothing. he hopes it's buggy because it looks bad. as a filthy casual that's a big negative because I like zooming in and watching what's going on

edit: I'll probably play the Game Pass version and wait until (Im)Mortal Empires to buy on Steam

edit: that said there were a lot of other (mostly incremental) improvements
 
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Ladioss

Member
I'm a bit worried about the tech specs. Apparently, TWW3 is notably more demanding and TWW2 was already pushing it on my machine.

I don't plan to buy it at release for once anyway, I will wait for the Chaos Dwarves and Mortal empires expansions.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
So typical Total War game, fantastic base that desperately needed another year of development and bug fixes.

I will gladly buy it in a few months once the full map is available and previous DLCs are added.
 
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This looks mighty tasty, but unfortunately my february gaming schedule is packed and something has to give. I'll definitely pick this up a bit later in the year.
 

Kacho

Gold Member
Sounds great. I wish I had time to get to it but with Elden Ring dropping next week I'll have to put it on hold for a minute. Need time to fully invest myself in this beast.
 

Mozzarella

Member
The score is very close to Horizon. Looks like Gamespot hasn't released their review yet.
 
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Bragr

Banned
I'm a bit worried about the tech specs. Apparently, TWW3 is notably more demanding and TWW2 was already pushing it on my machine.

I don't plan to buy it at release for once anyway, I will wait for the Chaos Dwarves and Mortal empires expansions.
Warhammer 2 is legendary for how poorly optimized it is, it runs very heavy and has extreme load times that required SSD, something not everyone had back in 2017.

Three Kingdoms, which they released later, runs twice as easy. I hope the Warhammer III runs better on mid-lane machines than Warhammer II, I don't need to run it at ultra, if I can get good framerates on high I will be happy.

Also, if you struggle running the Warhammer games on PC, turn down unit detail, switch to 2D portholes, and scale back the shadows. This usually has big impacts with very little visual impact.
 

Hal.

Member
There are 2 modes in Three Kingdoms, one for hero shit and one for traditional non-hero shit.

But do you want them to do the same old stuff over and over? Do you really want them to go back and start making Rome II or Shogun II games all over again? why not just play those games if that is what you want, they are very replayable.

Records mode is literally an afterthought.
Oh yes, Shogun 2 to Attila are highly replayable but Attila came out in what 2015?

Since then we’ve had Thrones which is dire, and soon to be the fifth nu Total War with heroshit.

It’s not Total War anymore, unfortunately.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
Actually, the game is remarkably polished for a game of this scope. Most of the (few) flaws it has aren't bugs. They're endemic shortcomings of the series.

There are quite a few bugs that are blatant and glaring in the numerous gameplay that has released. MandaloreGaming, one of the few people I trust to objectively review a game, showcased a large number of them.
 

Bragr

Banned
Records mode is literally an afterthought.
Oh yes, Shogun 2 to Attila are highly replayable but Attila came out in what 2015?

Since then we’ve had Thrones which is dire, and soon to be the fifth nu Total War with heroshit.

It’s not Total War anymore, unfortunately.
80% of it is still the same though.

Total War is not just one way of making a game.
 

Abriael_GN

RSI Employee of the Year
There are quite a few bugs that are blatant and glaring in the numerous gameplay that has released. MandaloreGaming, one of the few people I trust to objectively review a game, showcased a large number of them.

They're likely much rarer than the videos makes them look like. I've played the game without interruptions every night since February 1, including a whole 200 turn campaign and several partial ones, and I haven't encountered a single bug that I'd consider beyond mildly and temporarily annoying, and even those were extremely rare compared to the total gameplay time. Much rarer than in both WH1 and WH2 (or in every other total war game I ever played at launch... which is all of them).

The inability of the campaign AI to cope with the portals effectively is much, much more serious, and not anything that can be considered a "bug" but simply a very well rooted shortcoming of the AI that has been around since ages ago. I've actually watched the video you reference and I'm pretty shocked that it defines allies as better coordinated and useful in several occasions. Due to the fact that they can't handle the main mechanic of the campaign effectively, you're basically spending your time playing global policeman and running all over the map just to keep them alive. Sure, they will attack a lot, but their core territory will become an absolute mess as soon as the portals appear, and 90% of the times, they won't fix it unless you fix it for them.
 
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Inviusx

Member
God damn I wish I still had a PC. This game looks so good. Total War is the one series I miss the most since switching to console.
 

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


Total War: Warhammer 3 single-player reviewed by Leana Hafer on PC. Stay tuned for our multiplayer review later in the week.

Total War: Warhammer 3's single-player mode presents us with a tense, challenging, multilayered campaign driven along by a compelling story and a memorable cast of rivals. The Chaos Realms cleverly draw these larger-than-life figures together, so even those from remote corners of the world will be able to test each other's mettle. And while the size of the faction list currently feels a bit disappointing coming from Mortal Empires, all of the newly introduced factions are inventive and just plain fun on the campaign and battle maps. The true test of Warhammer 3 is still to come when we'll get to play with all the factions from all three games on the massive combined map. But even if that's the main reason you're interested in it, there's plenty of excitement to be had already.
 
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Elog

Member
Really looking forward to this one but I doubt that Mortal Empires and WH2 will collect dust - such a complete experience and I can see people trying the Chaos campaigns in WH3 and then go back to play some WH2 to then go all out once the updated ME campaign is launched (WH1+WH2+WH3).
 

RiccochetJ

Gold Member
Very excited! Between this and Elden Ring, I could easily be busy until Summer. By the way, preloading is available now. It's a 65GB download and 112GB hard drive space requirement on Steam.
 

Mercador

Member
Not ever most likely, it's hard to share content between ms store and steam.
I can't even find a way to preinstall the game on MS Store right now. I'm wondering if I made an error getting GPU for this game, maybe I'll need to purchase it on Steam after all, mostly because I want to remote gaming this one on my laptop.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
This and Elden Ring will have someone covered for games to play for a few months easy.

I've put over 270 hours into Total War: Warhammer 2 and have still yet to finish a single Mortal Empires campaign. Amazing series. I'll pick it up when I eventually am not so poor, but I'm glad to see it's out.
 

A.Romero

Member
I can't even find a way to preinstall the game on MS Store right now. I'm wondering if I made an error getting GPU for this game, maybe I'll need to purchase it on Steam after all, mostly because I want to remote gaming this one on my laptop.

I don't think Gamepass does pre-loading.

The game will be there, though. It's been advertised there for a few months now.
 

isual

Member
the tech here is to play it on gamepass, then when mortal empires releases, buy it on steam. if you really are cheap, just wait for the first 20 percent off sale.

i think for the main campaign, you probably only want to play it once or twice as an order faction and chaos faction up until ME releases.
 
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amigastar

Member
When does the game go live on Gamepass, anyone know?
This will be my first Total War game and Warhammer.
Should i expect greatness?
 
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