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Total War: PHARAOH
Released On: Oct 11, 2023
75
7.5
Where to Buy
Where to Buy
All Platforms
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 37 Critic Reviews
75
65% Positive
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
27% Mixed
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
3% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 37 Critic Reviews
75
65% Positive
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
27% Mixed
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
3% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Total War games spent so much time trying to do more. There are countless clever strategy games out there, but this series always prided itself on having a massive scale. Pharaoh totally changes that formula as it scales down and rethinks the gameplay flow of the series. Everyone has their favorite Total War game (mine for the record is the original Rome Total War). I’m sure that someone out there will be quite unhappy with some of the Total War changes. But from where I sit as a long-time player, Pharaoh is a total blast, and has me more excited for the future of the series than ever before.
When playing Total War: Pharaoh, time simply goes by easily. Creative Assembly delivers another outstanding strategy-game, that connects all its aspects well and motivates with constant progression. Despite some minor flaws in the user-guidance-department, Total War: Pharaoh is a must-have-game for every RTS-fan.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 15 User Ratings
7.5
73% Positive
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
27% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 15 User Ratings
7.5
73% Positive
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
27% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
The game has an enormous amount of depth and simply cannot be mastered within a reasonable time. Every element is very granular and can be played around in multiple ways.
The Ancient Legacies let you build your empire in any way you want, along with the court and pharaonic/great king **** battles are excellently paced and I have to say I found a good use for the chariots, which are the only type of unit, that's hard to micro.
Sometimes the AI on the campaign can behave unexpectedly, but is nonetheless very reasonable and for example on Legendary difficulty Merneptah suddenly attacking you with his vassals is a rare and refreshing event, forcing you to use all of your wit.
The outposts bring a lot of strategical depth, especially the fort.
The local deities system mish-mashes a lot of power effects, sometimes making province management irrelevant, but is customizable and fun to play around with nonetheless.
The royal decrees look hard to grasp at first, but as you play more and more, you realize why they were ordered that way, that is to create many opportunities to change your path on the go because priorities change within a campaign. You cannot get only military or only economic decrees. You need to choose whether you want to focus on melee or ranged infantry or chariot military decrees. You need to choose whether your end-game economy will thrive on lvl 5 buildings or on max workforce. You have many sub-decisions, that are designed to provide replayability with a straightforward system.
Overall, it is my favourite total war in the series!
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PC
Quite frankly, the people leaving any below a 5 for a game are straight-up trolls and overdosed on the "HateTube" phenomenon that has taken over the Total War community on Youtube.
This is a labor of love from CA Sofia that has brought a very in-depth campaign to a great period in history. The battles may seem bland, but the new tactical options you have make things interesting and you always have something new or unique to deal with thanks to dynamic weather and environmental obstacles.
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PC
Total War: Pharaoh introduces a number of great new systems and mechanics for the long-running strategy franchise, and there's plenty of fun to be had staving off an ancient apocalypse, but a large number of bugs bring down the experience.
Total War: Pharaoh lets you play your way, and throws a lot at you to deal with. Fans will lap it up once they get to grips with its new mechanics.
Total War: PHARAOH will be another must-play for fans of the series or those who can’t get enough of Ancient Egypt, but hopefully you have a top-notch PC, because at least for now, the game chugs pretty badly, crashes are frequent, and load times are atrocious.
There are some design (and marketing) choices about Total War: Pharaoh that are still unexplainable, but some of the innovations that the game introduces are what we hope to see more in the future of this glorious saga.
Total War Pharaoh is a fun game, but one that lacks ambition. It squanders its potential with meagre gameplay, story, soundtrack, and performance, and fails to add anything of note to the Total War series, or leave an impression of its identity.
It's a shame that a lot of people are dismissing this game without trying it. Yes, it's pricey for what it is. Yes, it is build on top of Troy (but every ubisoft, call of duty, fifa, etc, is built on top of the previous game). What people will be missing out on is one of the best Total War campaign games. There's a great "end of the world" vibe here, from the bronze age collapse, that worked so well in Attila Total War. The different factions are varied with interesting decisions along the way. The battles are somewhat hampered as they're set in an age when they didn't even have cavalry (saddles hadn't been invented yet) so it's a basic paper-scissors-stone with not a great deal of unit variety. I do think people are somewhat spoiled by the crazy unit rosters we have in warhammer total war. We also don't get the dynasty warriors style heroes that we enjoyed in Three Kingdoms. However the game itself is interesting and fun to play. It looks beautiful, the performance is excellent, and it nails the Egyptian atmosphere perfectly. Whether you buy now, wait for a sale or wait for when the DLCs and mods start arriving : if you are a strategy fan you are missing out by not giving this game a chance. A solid 8/10.
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PC
Total War games have become a cash cow for CA to fund other projects that they truly want to make[Hyenas]. They do the bare minimum and expect you to pay full price, and buy inevitable DLC's as well. This is the new installment in Total War series. Over priced DLC that they call a full game. Most of what you see is taken from their other games. I would advice against buying anything from them.
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PC
Pretty much the worst total war that I have ever played... it's just a basic reskin of Troy... which was a reskin of Warhammer... and it's also priced as a full total war game instead of a saga what a SHAM!
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PC
Summary Total War: PHARAOH is the newest entry in the award-winning grand strategy series from the developers at Creative Assembly. Experience Ancient Egypt during the vibrant and tumultuous era of the Bronze Age Collapse and master dynamic real-time battles and turn-based empire management to rise above your adversaries and become Egypt's last ...
Rated T
for Teen
Platforms:
- PC
Initial Release Date: Oct 11, 2023
Developer:
- Creative Assembly
Publisher: Sega
Genres:
