The strategic Total War has been a popular, almost unassailable icon in the PC world for decades. That creator Creative Assembly suddenly started working on a free-to-play version together with the developer of the simplistic World of Tanks was unexpected. The result Total War: Arena is, however, quite a nice mini version of the great classic Rome: Total War.
But, you do not just get Total War in chip-pocket format. The single player campaign with its gigantic maps is of course not there, Arena is purely and simply about the famous battles with thousands of warriors on the battlefield. These are almost one-to-one transferred from Total War to the World of Tanks engine. It is all a bit rougher and uglier, there are some options here and there, but the steering is as usual. From the way you turn the camera over the battlefield to the tight formations in which you let your fighters go by the right mouse button.
It is pretty clever how they have done this, because World of Tanks and Total War are quite different games and you can see clearly that it is in the World of Tanks environment. But it feels like Creative Assembly's Total War and you do not get the idea that the creators have fired the game to one of Wargamings side studios. The fights are a lot faster than usual, because in fifteen minutes every potty is decided. Because the enemy is completely exterminated, you have occupied his base long enough, or because you have the most living units after fifteen minutes.
ASTERIX VS. OBELIX VS. CAESAR VS. HANNIBAL VS. SPARTAH! VS. ...
Of course this is not the only change. The army is no longer alone in your hands, you share it with nine others to fight against another team of ten people. Each player has control over three independent units, so in fact there are sixty groups on the battlefield. To make the formula even more complicated, each player has one commander between his troops who has his own life bar, but moves with one of the three teams.
Because you have direct control over three groups, you can for example flank very precisely or quickly throw a defensive line. This also counts a lot, much more than in the 'big' Total War. For example, the cavalry does little damage in long fights, only in batches. If you want to disable a group of soldiers with horses, you will have to actively circle, draw, charge, retire, et cetera. Those who just click lazily on attacks and do nothing more, will lose in a lengthy fight. But if you play well, cleverly, you can really have an impact on the battlefield and survive longer.
It is therefore important to have a plan in mind beforehand, because half of your tactics are determined before a game starts with a smart combination of commander and troops. Just as you are buying stronger tanks and artillery in World of Tanks, you can unlock new commanders and units in Arena. These are based on well-known figures such as Gaul Vercingetorix, emperor Julius Caesar, Hannibal de Carthaag and Leonidas of Sparta. Each hero has three unique support forces that match a certain tactic or playing style.
Would you like to race smoothly with cavalry across the battlefield to sew archers in the flanks? Then invest in the Germanic Arminius, which gives a boost when you are on a trot and can disguise your units as the enemy. More a fan of infantry? Then take Roman Germanicus who turns your soldiers into a group of tanks and protects them with archetypes against archers. If you choose a different hero, this attack strategy is not possible and they are gauze cheese opposite the arrow rains. The commanders really make a big strategic difference.
TOTAL WARS OF COOPERATION
Despite all your tactics, you are of course dependent on nine people who have to think along strategically, a major disadvantage of the 10-to-10 system. Unfortunately, it happens too little. There is voice chat, space to type and even a nice drawing board with which you can scratch stripes and arrows on the map (or penises, whatever you want). But in practice most players keep their mouth shut, use the chat to scold afterwards or cocks only in Cyrillic. The super simple drawing option is even barely touched. We have tested Arena at the level of newbies to the veterans; jars with socially gifted players are a rarity.
In practice, therefore, it comes down to everyone doing something. This has a noticeably negative impact on the game: the lack of coordination causes artillery, archers and other long-distance tactics to be particularly unpopular, because they consistently cause friendly fire in the chaos, and as a result of this, people are again in the chat. As a result, these units are used less often, which means that there is often too much cavalry in the pots around. So in the end you're sitting with unbalanced pots; converting a single player forum to ten people requires new solutions. So the designers really have to take a look at how they can stimulate the collaboration better, or solve the chaos problems that have been caused. For example, weaken friendly fire, or give more time to draw up a strategy.
The big question for many readers ultimately remains: what about the free-to-play system? We can be brief about that: that works exactly the same as in World of Tanks, so definitely expect a lot of grinding to get further. At a lower level you can unlock everything fairly cheaply and thus try out all styles of play, but at a certain point you have to stick to a certain commander and set of units because of the high costs.
Conclusion
Total War Arena is a positive surprise. It inherits some of the downsides from World of Tanks, but in its total it is just as exciting a tactical game as Total War, but easier to play in between.
This review is based on the PC version, later the game may come to console. The release date is still unknown, but this open beta is fully playable.
Pros
➕ Quick game Total War
➕ Tactically in order
Cons
➖ Grinding, grinding, grinding
➖ Teamwork does not come out of the picture
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