
Command the seas, control the land, forge a new nation, and conquer the globe.
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All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Russian, Polish, Czech
Updates
Build ids and update times come straight from Steam's PICS — the same source SteamDB reads. Patch history grows as we record new builds.
Engagement
Hours played at review time, across 620 reviews with recorded playtime.
Reviews
Themes across 610 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
Reviews
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My heart bleeds at first when I see my thumbs down for a Total War game that basically feels good - and looks good. I'm an old RTW+mods and MTW2+mods player (3000hrs), and I like Rome 2, Attila, and Britannia. Troy and Pharao is ok. but... not the topic here. Only now, after more than 15 years, have I decided to give this a chance, alongside Shogun 2 (which is a much better Total War game than Empire). Both eras didn't really appeal to me. A few good things first: yes, you really feel like you're playing a game set in that time, and you definitely feel the Total War spirit. The graphics and animations are top-notch for 2009 (and even better with mods), and the naval battles are still incredibly beautiful today (something even current pirate games can't achieve). Garrisons are well implemented, research is okay, and the ministers are fine too. However, you do sometimes have to resort to mods or small script files, etc. It's not just bugs, but also illogical game mechanics. I briefly had Empire 2.0 active, but I uninstalled it immediately because, starting around turn 10 or 20, the Ottoman/Istanbul bug makes me wait 20 minutes in a single turn. Ctrl+Alt+Del doesn't always help. I had PuA too, but I wanted to play vanilla first. I also have seen some shogun2 - empire total conversations in progress, nice!! The lag problem with the fortresses can be fixed in the game files. You can also patch the performance. Thankfully, that's doable. (just written this, and the next fortress battle was delayed with this lag, Paris) sidefact: your artillery with endless ammo shoots the fortress into blocks...and like a miracle, after the battle it is undamaged - but only on the campaign map, for real it repais slowly for years.. You can not repair. Gift the province to an ally and it will be repaired in 1 turn.(as you can not hold the conquered provinces as many you can conquer at one time - this takes time - a point for reality of its era I think, but strange for this franchise) more things to argue about: The province division. It has its merits... but also not really. Spain, France, Britain... bam, one province ;) Auto-resolve. Fine for some garrisons, fine for some early see battles. but really bad, on Very hard. army control zone is too small. One point, how to reinforce your army far from home on enemy territority? solved in Shogun2. I mean this for the reality factor, not for the game fun. The map is ... where's South America? More Asia? Diplomacy. So awful... honestly. You get a war declared on someone you've never even dealt with. Yes, some fix the expansion penalty/negative reputation—but hey, that was actually realistic. If you take Texas, Spain will be angry with you, not Prussia. Otherwise, my researches are worth about a fifth of what I have to pay for it. Oh dear. Most of the time they don't want to trade, not even a trade route. Which brings us to the real problem. One-port trade? Seriously??? I'm constantly getting sick of this. So the enemy can theoretically block your 50k income port with just one galley? No, not just that, the one from your trading partner is enough. Even if the trade nodes are top-notch and plundering the route itself is fine. Okay, so always keep some ships at home. But you also need to have them at your trading partner's location—nothing will happen if you're not at war with their enemy. Side note: the income "playing" a pirate on a trade route is to your treasury by "magic hand"... would say, you dont need trade ships, go on raids to trade routes. save money So, let's talk about the logic. I only get money from the trade nodes and my own plantations if I sell the goods to others? Even if I own 30 provinces? So my people don't want that? Even if they're the same (conquered) provinces I traded with before. That's so stupid. Why didn't they just leave it like it was used in the games before? And increase the overall volume, in line with what comes out of the nodes? Having a trading partner gives you a bonus or, for example, duty exemption. But the way it's implemented here is just a complete lack of thought. The entire trade system collapses because of a single small route or even a port—especially for world empires. And they still have it like that in Shogun 2. I think later games did too, like Rome 2 and Attila... The tax logic is basically okay, and then again not. (Except that the AI has massive advantages here too, just like with happiness, max tax level but max wealth increase too?!). But there's income only like a VAT on any economy? Was this in this way in this Age? No general tax on residents. Otherwise, I cannot explain the differences between a small plantation island and southern Italy with 10 million inhabitants. BTW: France..on map noted with 10millions citizens, on city tab 100.000.000 !!!! or for what food/ population when your "villages are grown" ? seneseless...waste of slots. there is noted: as more people, as more building slots...its a joke for most provinces. some can not even have a fortress. finally for Empire2 from CA: I'd also like a sequel to start in 1600 or 1500. Gunpowder, for example, ended the Middle Ages. In the 17th century, the Spanish Tercio was dominant. You don't see any of that here, and in MTW2 they were just pikemen. Ah yes, with a world map, of course. ps campaign AI. it knows that land units can save your harbours against being damage by enemy ships ;) but not, that you should take more than one galley to transport your invasion army.
Has some bugs
quality
i enjoy the game
j
Still one of my favorite strategy games.
Good.
its good
top demais
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Engagement
DAU/MAU are modeled from peak concurrent players (≈×8 and ×28) — Steam publishes no active-user counts, so treat these as rough estimates, not reported figures.
Audience
Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
Games most often reviewed by the same players — an audience-affinity signal from our review sample, not full ownership data.
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