Napoleon: Total War - Imperial Edition (PC DVD)

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• Good but not Rome 28/07/2010 Read full review>>
  Napoleon is a good game if you have flogged Rome to death. The Steam issue didn't give me any problems and the game loads and runs fine... 98% of the time. It has managed to lock my computer once but all the total war range does that occasionally.
  
  The battle side is very easy to use if you have played any of the total war series but the AI is very weak. All you seem to need to do is plant your infantry in a line. Place the artillery sensibly (high and clear of your own troops) and manage the cavalry yourself. The AI never seems to anything remotely unexpected and attacks when clearly it should not.
  
  The map/management part is more complex than rome but the explanations of exactly what you are trying to do is poor, making it difficult to use. It feels like a poor mans Civ. And it seems to have little effect on success in achieving the objectives.
  
  So frustration with understanding the significance of the map part along with a weak AI brings down my fun score.
  
  I haven't tried using real enemies via steam yet. Maybe that will improve things.
• Great game, but comes with irritating flaws other reviewers fail to mention 26/07/2010 Read full review>>
  I've been a fan of all the TW series, but believe the original Medieval to be the best. I did not purchase Empire as the many reported problems put me off. NTW is certainly a beautifully presented game, and the team who developed it can be justly proud of their efforts. However, I believe there may have been some very bad project management decisions made by one or more "suits of nothing" executives that have prevented the game from being the iconic release it could have been.
  
  First the good news. The game looks fabulous; the details on uniforms and terrain, the little puffs of smoke from gunfire, and even the blossoms floating through the air all add to the experience, and not only that, but it runs very nicely on my modest system that still struggles occasionally with MTW II. Units that are decimated by artillery may have injured soldiers that pull themselves up from the ground and limp back into formation. Horses belonging to dismounted cavalry may run amok across the battlefield. Placing and reforming units is improved. Unit supply and attrition is now covered and works superbly. The naval battle system is one of the best I've seen. A lot of these features may have been present in Empire, but I'm extremely impressed coming straight from MTW II.
  
  However, there are many problems, and although none are critical enough to make NTW a "bad" game, some are extremely irritating.
  
  First, is the abysmal game manual that comes with NTW (Imperial Edition). This is a very complicated game, and many features are not covered by the manual. The tool tips in the game although good are not able to make up for the poor instructions, and after over 100 game hours I am still learning through trial and error the depth of what is possible. Manuals for previous TW releases were generally excellent.
  
  Next are the character voices. I'm sure there are many people who find the idea of clicking on Admiral Nelson and hearing him say "destination ahoy" highly amusing, but after being bombarded by this low-rent comedy for a couple of hours of game time you'll soon find yourself turning the volume off when on the strategic map. It is totally out of step with the sombre historical feel of the rest of the game - who's responsible for it? There is a facility for turning off the character voices in sound options, but it does not appear to work.
  
  The game is also guilty of one of the most serious crimes a strategy game can be accused of; cheating. For example, if you select a cavalry unit, and order it to attack artillery, the enemy cavalry unit defending those guns will respond to the threat the very instant you click on the artillery. Automatic resolution of battles sees you taking hugely disproportionate losses, even in extreme cases when a large army of thousands ambushes a single depleted unit - this means you resign yourself to playing every battle no matter how trivial in areas of high unit attrition. Also, in some instances if your army is attacked by a larger force on the strategic map, it may not attack you on the battle map, instead inviting you to give up your defensive position. If you wait for the timer to reach zero, you could find that you suffered a "crushing defeat", and your units are teleported across the strategic map far from their original location.
  
  There are two choices of campaign; historical and domination. Historical has many treaties and facilities already in place, and your game is guided by missions that reflect actual events of the time. However, domination mode appears to be identical apart from the loss of missions. Why can't I choose to play from a neutral position and decide how certain locations are utilised and which powers I wish to align with? Also, famous generals like Wellington, Blucher and Napoleon himself cannot be killed - that's fine for historical mode, but why not in domination? At least they can be moved reasonably freely from army
• Nice "expansion" for Empire Total War 29/06/2010 Read full review>>
  Its a nice "expansion" for Empire Total War, but with some interesting new features and details.
• buggy as hell. 25/06/2010 Read full review>>
  Don't know why but the further in the more this game struggles was initially dropping the video in battles now it gets so far into the battle and crashes the only way to progress is to autoresolve. My PC far exceeds recommended system requirements for the game so I can't explain it. It's interesting that the game fails at times of high graphics requirements perhaps the servers can't cope. I have heard that it's a common problem and that it overheats the graphics card but nothing definite. It's a shame that this is ruining a great game.
• Can't play it when not connected to internet 23/06/2010 Read full review>>
  I bought this for my elderly father who has played other Total War games.
  
  The computer on which he playes these games is not connected to the internet.
  
  This seems to require you to go into the internet and access something called "Steam". Is this only the first time you play this to register or is it permanently? If latter, he will have to return the game. (NB: none of the other Total War games he has required this)
  
  I need to tell him what will happen if he tries to access Steam before he dares open the game (sealed he can return it and get refund).
  
  How many other Total War games have this odd thing?
  
  Thanks