Total War: WARHAMMER III

The game is great, the modding community is amazing, but the studio sucks ass. Giving the game a 10 euro DLC every now and then that contains 2 new legendary lords and a few units is stinky as it is, but considering 80% of the game is locked behind ♥♥♥♥ load of DLCs is extremely embarrasing for a game like this. Even the price is absolutely obscene.

80% of the content is locked behind a paywall for a game i payed for.

This is review is coming from someone who has had no total war or warhammer fantasy experience prior to playing this game. [h1]What I like[/h1] I like this game quite a lot and recommend it if you are like me, the kind of person who wants to feel like a commander of both a nation and armies in battle. This game really brings out that power-fantasy. The split between the turn-based campaign and real-time battles works very nice for me, as the decision making for your empire and your troops in battle are different, so having that explicit divide that you bounce back and forth between is nice. The scale is very nice too. Battles are large and full of spectacle that makes every battle feel epic, while still being strategically deep enough (at least for me) that it's worth taking the time to understand battle strategy to win your fights. I also like the world setting as well. I don't know everything about the warhammer fantasy lore but I can say that it's pretty big and broad, so the world never feels boring as you expand. One more thing I like is how every campaign is always different and unique, as a result of AI decision making and random events, meaning that even playing the same faction will never result in the same experience. [h1]What I dislike[/h1] While I do love this game, there are a few things to keep in mind. If any of the following is a deal breaker, either get it on sale or avoid. The loading times are long. If you have a low-end pc, while you can run it, loading the campaign map can take 2-3 minutes each time while loading battles can take 45 seconds to a minute. I upgraded my pc to have somewhat more decent specs as noted in my pc specs attached, and it can still take about 30-45 seconds to load the campaign, and 15-30 seconds to load battles. The learning curve can be somewhat steep. I don't think it's hard to understand but there's just a lot to take in and remember. However, once you do, the game really opens up. Thankfully, there are many, MANY tutorials and guides out there that can explain the various parts of the game. One tip I would give here is this: You don't need to remember every single unit and what they do, just be aware of the what each of the unit stats mean and how they interact with one another. [h1]Regarding DLC[/h1] A very common thing people don't like about this game is the DLC model. This is an unpopular opinion but I personally think it's fine. The actual quality and pricing of each DLC is on a case-by-case basis, but for the actual DLC sales model that CA is using, I don't have a real problem with it. A lot of people feel that the sheer amount of DLC for this game makes it feel like the base game is a very thin slice of the full experience. However, having played those dlc myself, I disagree. The dlcs that are in this game add new factions to play as, but those factions don't fundamentally change the core gameplay. The most these new factions do is add extra game mechanics to their campaign, but even then, you still build an empire and you still command battles as usual, which I would argue is the full experience that comes with base game. So, the DLCs simply add more of the same with a slightly different flavour, which I would say is what a dlc is supposed to be. Not all the DLCs are the same, though; Some I would personally say are better than others, but you don't need them to fully experience the game. The base game would provide dozens of hours of fun on it's own, and once you're bored of the base factions, dlcs can add a dozen more each. Some of the DLC are a bit pricey though, so I would wait for a sale.

I have 1k hours playing this game and half of them stuck in my loading screen. Gonna reach for 2k hours looking at my loading screen again.

The game was released four years ago. 85% off, $10—ok, good price, I bought it. I launched the game and only 5 factions out of 25 were playable. Imagine my surprise when I realized that if I wanted all the factions and heroes, I'd have to pay more than $200 for DLC. Even old factions from old games are DLC lol. Immediate refund. Don't get scammed, and don't encourage this by giving them money. Don't buy this game and boycott CA until they change their greedy mentality.

I have been a long time CA fan ever since the OG Rome Total war, but over the the past two decade the games have been getting worse and worse, with these over priced micro DLC's. This franchise has gone from must buy on release, to an ehhh... i'll wait for a heavy sale. I only own TW:3 and its Upgrade Pack because it was free and my friends wanted to do a MP Skaven Campaign and got me the Upgrade Pack on a 85% sale. Over the years I've just held my tongue, the failure of Rome 2, the abandonment of three kingdoms (and several others), splitting Warhammer in to three full price games each with dozens of over priced micro DLC. After seeing they plan to do 40K as their next setting (what a terrible idea for a Total War Game) And now they advertise this new DLC going how its their "Biggest DLC Ever" what a load of BS, they cut it up in to 4 DLC's (so their standard lord DLC's) and upped the price I've had enough. I will never buy a CA game or DLC again, You treat your fan's and customers like S**t.

Start campaign as Kislev, get railed by faction x, Start new campaign as faction x get railed by Kislev repeat. Much fun 10/10 would get railed again by Kislev and Faction x

I'm going to give all new people some game. Go to cdkeys.com and buy warhammer 1, 2, and 3 for like 35 bucks combined. This gives you all the default races that came with each game and will give you PLENTY to start the game with. Pick whatever sounds the most cool and enjoy. This is my first warhammer game and I've become helplessly addicted. Playing with friends is a lot of fun. The monetization is confusing af but just follow what I said above if you want to give it a full shot and you won't be disappointed. One of the most fun parts of the games are the battles, you can zoom in like a hollywood director to your empire spearing ogres in the gut. 10/10 game, just wish they'd add DLSS and other optimization features because it only runs poorly when playing with friends which is the most fun part of the game.

The game locks you out of entire factions unless you buy the previous games. Conveniently the game doesn't tell you this until you've played several hours of the intro campaign, so you pass the two hour refund period. I understand the need for dlc to fund a game of this magnitude, but this is a dishonest way to add an extra $110 price tag to the full dlc bundle.