Total War: EMPIRE – Definitive Edition

I am currently playing this as the United States on July 4th, 2026, America's 250th Birthday, with a Samuel Adams Summer Ale (250th Edition). I have completely wiped out the British from my Soil and I am now beginning to muster my forces to take over the middle east. No woman has ever given me as much unbelievable pleasure than what I just typed out.

Чесно кажучи не пройшов жодної частини серії, але мені подобаються саме битви в реальному часі, а вони в кожній частині красиві і масштабні. Полюбляю просто вибрати карту і військо, і насолоджуватись баталіями.

I keep coming back to this game. There is nothing coming close to this game in terms of playability and fun and replayability

Not for everyone, not even a well done product. But i absolutely love it. There are many mods that could make the game potentially less unbalanced and more fun.

Although I've enjoyed my playthrough, and you might too, there are too many issues for me to recommend this without reservation. This game purports to be about Empire in the 18th Century, but it's almost entirely free of the historical context of the time. The French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon are entirely absent. Playing as Britain, the American War of Independence doesn't occur - there's not even a hint of the political tensions of that time. Siege battles against a walled city are frustrating. 1. The AI has no idea of strategy. When the walls are breached, it huddles units directly behind the breach, ready to be picked off by a few infantry units - standing there like muppets while they're slaughtered. 2. The AI can't decide what to do with any cavalry units in the city - they begin to sally forth, then once they're outside they lose their nerve and go back inside. 3. The enemy artillery units are deployed uselessly outside the city. They could instead be deployed inside and try to hold a breach with cannister shot. 4. The AI huddles all other units directly in the centre of the city. I counted ten units, all huddled in the same spot. With a howitzer and carcass shot, I destroyed them all and they simply sat there and took it. Despite the withering fire, there was no attempt to reposition, spread out or occupy the buildings inside. 5. The [b]worst issue of all[/b] was the massive degradation of performance the moment smoke begins to appear - it becomes a torment to complete the battle and feels like walking through treacle. It feels like rendering the smoke has become the absolute priority and the unit animations take second place. UI response becomes sluggish, unit animations judder, increasing game speed does nothing except exacerbate the performance problems. Finally winning the battle feels like a mercy. There are also quite a few bugs: 1. When units are grouped, their position is supposed to be locked to the chosen formation. When you move such a group by dragging their position, the units do not always move to the indicated location, but often face in a different direction. I find myself ungrouping to move, then regrouping once they're moving. 2. The UI has some quirks. For example with two cannon of the same type if you select one of them and change from round to cannister shot, then immediately click on the second the cannister shot icon is highlighted incorrectly. De/reselecting is necessary before the correct status appears on the UI. 3. Using the defensive sandbag option with the puckle guns leads to an unresolvable mess. You can't subsequently reposition the guns without the unit and the defensive position becoming detached from each other. Removing the defensive position leaves the guns in a formation that cannot work in a real battle. To fix this, I quit the battle and reloaded, declining this time to put these guns into their enclosure. The game requires you to 'paint the map in your colour', but there are too few locations for this to seem realistic. In late game, I took France by taking and holding Paris, there were no other cities of note - a very large country of many millions was subjugated by my holding a strong army in their capital city. I entered France from Spain, which also has very few regions - taking Madrid was the only challenge. Central America has very few cities of note and the only barrier to taking it is the distance from your starting point. Do please note my campaign difficulty was set to easy, so the challenge was reduced somewhat. Nonetheless, I stand by my observations about the scale of the map. I achieved the victory conditions fifteen years early and the game required me to continue until 1799 before it allowed me to bank the win. I do like the variety of units, particularly once you unlock the different types of artillery and their ammunition. The more interesting infantry units are available only late game once research has been completed, and I finally completed this research tree five years before game end. I tried one naval battle and didn't find it fun so didn't bother a second time, relying instead on auto resolve. Despite the above, it has been fun to play. I agree with the other reviews stating that despite the 'definitive' label this game is from 2009 and is definitely showing its age. I bought this back then and I wouldn't wish to pay full-price today.

Review for Empire: Total War I really enjoy this game. The campaign is genuinely fun and engaging, and I like the overall strategy, scale, and historical setting. It still holds up as a very solid strategy experience, and there are a lot of mechanics that make it unique compared to later Total War games. One of my favourite features is “fire by rank” — I really love this mechanic and wish it had been carried forward more clearly into later games like Napoleon: Total War. It adds a lot of depth and realism to infantry combat, and I genuinely miss seeing it used more widely in the series. That said, there are a few things that hold it back for me on modern systems. I wish there was multiplayer campaign support, as that would add a lot more replayability and depth. Also, on Windows 11, I’ve had issues with Alt-Tabbing out of the game and returning to it. When switching back, the game sometimes doesn’t properly restore the screen even though it’s still running, which makes it frustrating to use alongside other applications. Finally, the graphics are quite dated by modern standards, which is understandable given the game’s age, but still noticeable. Overall, I still think it’s a great strategy game with a strong campaign and some excellent mechanics like fire by rank, but the technical limitations on modern systems do affect the experience today.

Зашёл после хойки в эту игру. Поставил сложность на максимум не зная ничего о ней. Трахали сильнее чем мой бывший

稳的一批，而且帝国这个完成度居然还是半成品，要是真完全给做完，莫卧儿还有俄罗斯南部和中亚，我都不敢想了简直

Despite all it's flaws, this game is playable with recommended Mods (Darthmod and ETW2 mods)

汉化之后更好完了，嘻嘻嘻。补票的