Total War: WARHAMMER III - Year In Review

The Warhammer fantasy world at its grand strategy apex, the defining trilogy comes to a dramatic finish. Does it live up to the built-up hype over its two predecessors, or does it stutter to the finish line. Perhaps the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Chapters:
0:00 Prologue
1:17 Introduction
5:18 Premise & Setting
11:44 Presentation
19:48 Campaign
35:09 Battles
43:12 Post-Release
59:51 Ownership Breakdown & Pricing
1:01:51 Ratings, Verdict & Conclusion
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Music: Richard Beddow, Jamie Christopherson, Ian Livingstone, Simon Ravn, Tim Wynn - Total War: WARHAMMER III Soundtrack

[@schwango4816]

Man, super well done review. Really appreciate your work!

[@j.bbailey6275]

Okey so I have over 3000 to 6000 hours on total war titles. He is correct on many points but he is abit over critical. In this genre Tww3 is the best of the best. Give it a shot you don't have to buy dlc to have alot of fun. Also great game to play with friends.

[@bubbajoezappern]

Definitively the wrong guy for the review. But you also cant choose someone overyl positive either

[@jerrydelguercio5462]

the game has some absolutely major bugs. and some of them get left over for a while. and it seems like 2 are made when one is fixed. warhammer 2 had the charge bud for almost the entire games lifespan. and then it ended up in 3. the barrow legion has a bug where you never get the victory screen in battle. u have to let time run out or forfeit. if u are on force march or ambushed. bye bye army after your win. been since immortal empires released. about a year now. game would be amazing if it was managed properly.

[@JasperLane]

I would argue some DLC is necessary. The prophet and the warlock being the first one that comes to my mind if you want to play the Skaven as well as "Champions of Chaos" since the solo chaos factions felt very barren.

[@wonderfulworld2475]

*has over 1000hours on the game: uhh he's a bit over critical... casual me: YOU DON'T SAY!

[@OffToBattle]

Thank you for putting in the effort and giving this a fair and thorough shake. I hope it keeps improving, in small part because I'm producing content for it, but because there's so much detail despite the shortcomings. We'll see how it goes. I think sales for the I and II content unlocking various races made me forget how much it amounts to total (i.e. what I must have paid over the last 8 years)..

[@MilesStratton]

A fantastic review! Thoroughly enjoyed it. 👌

[@lord_alderaan9283]

My biggest gripe with Warhammer 3 is that all the campaign storylines like the Vortex campaign from Warhammer 2 have been left behind resulting in many previous title races playing quite flat or monotone with nothing in the way of story direction.

[@bovinehamster]

oooofffff a few months too early... wonder what your review of the new DLC would be....

[@Caterpillar]

Nice review! Didn't want to get it at launch but finally it seem like a good time to get the game now

[@henri2058]

Amazing work as always

[@MilesStratton]

Alright, having had a chance to go through the review I'd like to add a few things. I have been a fan of Total War for a long time now and the Warhammer Trilogy is by far my most played series within the franchise, I thoroughly enjoy the game but I'd agree with many of the criticisms had within this review. The Spectacle and atmosphere is flat-out better than any of the other recent offerings in the Total War IP. Especially Troy, Three Kingdoms and the upcoming Pharaoh which all seem to be looking to capture the success of the Warhammer franchise by being able to do neither the spectacle, nor the historical nuance well. I was originally going to write a big wall of text on how I disagreed with the criticism of factions feeling "Samey" on the battlefield but it occurs to me that this comes from a matter of perspective. ReviewGen stated throughout the review that he much prefers the real-time battles (or at least, that's the impression I got), and in that context I can see where he's coming from. The unit rosters do have distinct playstyles but they are far more subtle at the tactical level than they are at the operational/strategic level of the campaign map. As somebody who enjoys the operational/strategic layer more, much of what makes the factions unique is centered on the campaign map, the intent being that you can manipulate events to put your forces at decisive advantages on the battlefield and vice versa. So while I still don't totally agree with this assessment, I can see where it comes from. Another thing I wanted to add was with regards to Immortal Empires becoming repetitive, firstly, RGen is absolutely correct on this point. It DOES get repetitive after a while, and even as somebody who's played over 1000 hours collectively between all 3 games. There does come a point especially in the late game past turn 100-150 where you're just coloring the map. But it's important to point out that a LOT of Total War games have this same problem, yet it remains a popular series nonetheless. Interestingly enough, the developers recognized this problem which was in their words the main impetus for creating Warhammer 2 and 3's Narrative campaigns to give the player direction and a more tangible end goal to strive for. It's just a shame that the execution was so poor in both attempts. Personally, I have zero issue playing a campaign till I get bored and decide to start up another one. Which plays into one of Warhammer's greatest strengths, its variety. I can decide to play a chaos warband one day, and then swap to undead Egyptian skeletons or the Empire's Pike and Shot the next. Assuming you own a fair chunk of the DLC/Titles, you have a pretty spectacular variety of playstyles to choose from, so the repetitiveness isn't an issue for me. Beyond those two points, this review is pretty spot on. Assuming CA has the will and the resources to maintain their planned 5 or so years worth of content for the game, I can easily see it becoming the most successful title in Total War's history.

[@willl676]

Even from the point of view of real-time battles, I feel the criticism either wasn't explained very well or just doesn't make sense. He talks about how Kislev, Dwarfs and Chaos Dwarfs feel "samey" and play similar and then proceeds to list how they are different and focus on different strenghts on the battlefield.

[@ReviewGen]

@@willl676 Well I think you missed the nuance of that section. It attempted to display how there was only one differentiating factor in the overall very similar unit rosters. Not enough to overturn their 'samey' feeling.

[@willl676]

@@ReviewGen The problem is I don't understand what you mean by samey. Not every faction plays the same (campaign mechanics can play into it although not always). Sure, Dwarfs and Chaos Dwarfs are going to have some overlap, stemming from both tabletop army lists and lore reasons. However, Bretonnia or Wood Elves for instance don't play like Dwarfs at all. If you try to rely on your frontline infantry to carry the day as Bretonnia, you'll lose (unless you're playing on easy). If you try to kite your enemy using your ranged units (as you can do with Wood Elves) when playing as Dwarfs, you'll lose. High Elves rely on the combination of excellent archers, decent spears and powerful Lords and Heroes. While the Empire, who doesn't excel at anything in particular, has to use a combination of artillery, infantry and an assortement of specialized ranged units (handgunners and huntsmen fulfill different roles for example). I honestly don't see *how* they're samey, unless you're playing them the same, which you can do if you're well acquainted with Total War in general or if you play on Normal/Easy. Unless I missed it, you didn't seem to mention at which difficulty or with which settings you played your campaign but those are important. I only play on VH/VH at ultra unit scale so maybe my experience is skewed. Also, I wish you touched on the issue of smaller battle maps, not the siege ones but the open field ones. They used to be larger in WH1 and WH2 and the side effect of making them smaller is that you get very little room for manuever, with positioning and deployment mattering less. That is not to say you can't use geographical features to your advantage, because you can still do it, e.g using a hill as cover from gunpowder units or elevation for your ranged units. The problem is that since maps are smaller, engagements are quicker (which I guess is what CA consciously intended), and less room means you tend to use your cavalry and monsters less as cavalry and monsters and more like a second line of infantry, which might have contributed to your opinions regarding the Chaos Dwarf roster for instance.

[@ReviewGen]

@@willl676 Again, my opinion was somewhere in the middle of what we are semanting about. I never explicitly said Dwarfs felt the same as Bretonnians or Wood Elves, but in battle there are similarities with Chaos Dwarfs and Kislev. In a sense there are faction archetypes that have lobbed races together. I agree that this will be a matter of perspective and your own mileage will vary.

[@willl676]

@@ReviewGen I can see that. Chaos Dwarfs and Kislev both have monsters and monstrous cavalry, alongside a solid frontline with high leadership in general. I can see how they play similarly. I guess the one thing Kislev does differently is the focus on hybrid units, with Chorfs having a larger selection of artillery but that by itself isn't enough to differentiate it by too much.

[@OodlesanNoodles]

The review quality is fantastic. I think you are pretty hard on the game, although I do agree a 6 month kickback on the release date could have done wonders. All in all its a great game that can be found at a discount quite often. For a new player picking up Warhammer 3, the base game races offer plenty to let them sink their teeth into prior to investing further. In addition to that, the inclusion of Immortal Empires without the requirement of owning the first two games is a pretty insane inclusion in terms of variety and quality.

[@OffToBattle]

I strongly supported the push by Legend of Total War and many, many players/ viewers for that. I mean morally mostly. I couldn't get out and push very much at the time.

[@alifarsani2469]

awesome! just found your channel! subscribed immediately :)

[@TheVakama112]

ReviewGen Upload Day is always a good day.

[@TheBenjaminArgo]

I feel like the pricing issue was glossed over. The $400 dollar estimate is spread out over 7 years, so only 57ish dollars a year. Not terrible when you think of it like that. Also, the previous games and DLCs go on sale regularly, so you can safely shave another 15-20% off that cost. CA already allowed WH3 owners access to Immortal Empires without the previous games, so there have already been concessions made (which is fine with me). But I think the pricing is a non-issue due to the sales and the fact you straight up avoid paying for DLCs you don't want but still have them as opponents. Otherwise, I enjoyed (but occasionally disagreed with) your review.

[@Greyknight1575]

The 57 dollars a year perspective only applies to those who purchased and played the games and dlc packs as they released, like myself. For newcomers who are just now seeing and interacting with the total war warhammer trilogy, they go to the dlc page and see a WALL of additional purchases totaling to multiple hundreds of dollars. Veterans of the game know that this game's dlc is actually pretty good when it comes to content added vs price, and that even if you don't own a piece of content you can still fight against that content as controlled by the ai; but new players wont have that knowledge and are likely to assume the worst as a lot of games that have a dlc list as long as total war warhammer does tend to be on the scummy cash grabby side. Frequent sales of non-recent content does help alleviate the issue, but the default price of some of the older items is egregious. Warhammer 2 and especially Warhammer 1 should not still be $60 at default price. Game 1 needs to go down to $20, and similar price reductions for most of its dlc content. Wood elf and Beastmen race packs are valued the same as warhammer 2 race packs despite having less content. Their prices are still inflated by their mini campaigns that you cant even play in warhammer 2 and 3. Also, 7 years post release is more than enough time for a price drop. Game 2 can go down to $40. Same points as before but its not as old and also a much better experience on its own.

[@DeafDemoBA]

The point being it doesn't offer the complete experience for newcomers, only for a steep price. It's a pretty reasonable point of disclaimer. Regardless there's gray market options out there that offer game passes for big discounts, e.g. InstantGaming.

[@MidnightBlackandVictoria]

Great review! For all its faults, I still believe that when the trilogy is finished, no other fantasy game will even come close to this one for years to come.

[@xpaydayx]

I've been thinkin about pickin up the games. Should be an autumn/winter sale soon. Anything I should know about buying the games and/or the DLC to potentially save some money? eg. owning blood for the blood god or in the first or second game is suffice for the 3rd game.

[@ReviewGen]

Hi, there is an Ownership Breakdown & Pricing section at 59:51 that covers which factions are available in which base games, and factions which are available via DLC, helping you to choose which ones are worth purchasing based on your preferred races to play. Otherwise, yes owning either of the first Blood God DLCs will unlock the third.

[@lalaninja006]

i have a love/hate relationship with this game. there are a lot of things that are great, and just cannot be found anywhere else, but the amount of times i curse at it because of bugs or just stupid game design is ridiculous. it takes months for something to be fixed, and i already accepted that some things will be in it forever. i feel like CA is spreading itself to thin, i think at some point there were only 2 guys working on multiplayer balance. and it also seems like their other tittles suffer, people have been complaining for a pure historical tittle for years, and i dont think egypt will be wat they are asking for. from what i understand it was made by a smaller studio like how it was with troy, but they got rid of the SAGA name

[@colbycarreon9378]

I don't know where or when I heard this but the best review for this game and I feel this way too. That it is a "green banana". It's not there yet but the devs and moders make it better everyday

[@dinomation]

Yoooo, you can fight lizard men vs robo bears in this game? Cool!

[@KrytoRift]

They're real bears

[@Xman360z]

I don't understand people complaining about the price of all the DLCs. That's content that was developed over nearly a decade, and you don't need all of it to have a great time. People also always complain about the lack of dlc / about a total war game no longer receiving DLC. So which is it, do you want DLC or do you want the game to require few purchases?

[@cango8415]

About chaos dawi they are super strong on campaign even after last nerfs.

[@crispymattastic]

Want to get into warhammer 3 again but just d'ont have the space on my SSD , wish it was less gigs.

[@s0lid_sno0ks]

epic review

[@pipebomber04]

Is s3xval activity required to play the slaanesh faction?

[@jamesnugent2233]

22:07 Since when could you play all those factions in the Realm of Chaos campaign

[@joshuaball5916]

Hey ReviewGen, why have you stopped making Jurassic World Evolution videos?

[@Hedonite]

Anyone else have alot of issues with the co op? Or multi-player? Have had multiple campaigns bug out or desync and it's pretty annoying

[@Maurodax]

As somone who is relatively new to W3, I started playing in February after the patch was released. Talk about lucky. Overall, this review is harsh but fair.

[@simenskeide5634]

No words on multiplayer?

[@aleifur]

Very nice video, however the text of your script needs more work

[@Daervar]

Easily a top 10 game ever released. A lot of issues at start, that is so true but come oooon! they havent stopped updating it, the game is massive as it is and it keeps getting better

[@nunuarthas8680]

I don't hate TWW3, but considering it was supposed to be an amalegamation of the work across three titles and the developement experience for nearly a decade, there're so much wasted potentials.

[@MerssiVK]

I think this review, while pointing put some real issues, most notably the irritating campaign, is overly critical about unit rosters in particular, when Warhammer 2 and 3 have by far the most diverse and interesting unit rosters of any total war titles IMHO.

[@ReviewGen]

It may have been a bit overcritical. My point was that it's not better or worse than other Total Wars' archetypal system when analysed a bit deeper.

[@vasiliskoutsokostas]

I absolutely love this series of TW. Having said that WH3 has a lot of potential that haven’t yet been exploded that’s why I just stop playing for now although I have purchased all 3 games + all DLC content. 100% agree with this review