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Total War: PHARAOH | Review Thread

Draugoth

Gold Member

Total-War-Pharaoh-Key-Art.jpg


Game Information​

Game Title: Total War: PHARAOH
Platforms:
  • PC (Oct 31, 2023)
Trailers:
Developer: CREATIVE ASSEMBLY
Publisher: SEGA
Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 67 average - 80% recommended - 6 reviews

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MetaCritic- 74/100 - 17 Reviews

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Critic Reviews​

But Why Tho? - Kyle Foley - 9 / 10
Total War: PHARAOH is a smashing success as a grand strategy game and brings the hit franchise to a new historical era. Fascinating leaders and subplots with mechanics to match help make each play session fresh and enjoyable.
PC Gamer - Rick Lane - 80 / 100
Total War: Pharaoh's battles may be limited by history, but Creative Assembly compensates for this with a complex, thematic, and highly dynamic campaign.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Unscored
Every single change Pharaoh makes to Troy is for the better, and some changes are so good that it's going to be difficult to play any Total War without them going forward. But the fundamental issues of Total War - mainly enemy battle AI - are far too entrenched to fix in a few years, and the bronze age setting doesn't allow for enough unit variation to make up for them.
Saving Content - Lucas Moura - 4 / 5
Is Total War Pharaoh a worthy successor to the historical franchise? Yes. Total War: Pharaoh takes more steps forwards than back, and I can live with that. At least, it didn’t crash and burn like so many civilizations it portrays, so that’s something.
VGC - Josh Broadwell - 4 / 5
Total War Pharoah doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it does introduce a handful of promising and sometimes deep new ways to approach the familiar formula. Combat is still hit-and-miss, but the approach to history and empire-building are among the best in the Total War series.
VideoGamer - Finlay Cattanach - 4 / 10
Total War Pharaoh is a fun game, but one that lacks ambition. It squanders its potential with meagre gameplay, story, soundtrack, and performance, and fails to add anything of note to the Total War series, or leave an impression of its identity.
But Why Tho? - Kyle Foley - 9 / 10
Total War: PHARAOH is a smashing success as a grand strategy game and brings the hit franchise to a new historical era. Fascinating leaders and subplots with mechanics to match help make each play session fresh and enjoyable.

PC Gamer - Rick Lane - 80 / 100
Total War: Pharaoh's battles may be limited by history, but Creative Assembly compensates for this with a complex, thematic, and highly dynamic campaign.

Saving Content - Lucas Moura - 4 / 5
Is Total War Pharaoh a worthy successor to the historical franchise? Yes. Total War: Pharaoh takes more steps forwards than back, and I can live with that. At least, it didn’t crash and burn like so many civilizations it portrays, so that’s something.

VideoGamer - Finlay Cattanach - 4 / 10
Total War Pharaoh is a fun game, but one that lacks ambition. It squanders its potential with meagre gameplay, story, soundtrack, and performance, and fails to add anything of note to the Total War series, or leave an impression of its identity.
 
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GHG

Gold Member
Never played any of these games because my PC was utter shit, but now I have a GOD pc. Might try it.

In that case, play Napoleon, Attila, Medieval 2, Rome 2, Shogun 2 or even Three Kingdoms over this.

Pick the time period/region that interests you most to decide which one to go for.
 
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In that case, play Napoleon, Attila, Medieval 2, Rome 2, Shogun 2 or even Three Kingdoms over this.

Pick the time period/region that interests you most to decide which one to go for.
Tbh, Warhammer sounds the most interesting for me because it's fantasy and is not based on reality. I wish they would do a 40K one, that would be amazing.
 

GHG

Gold Member
Tbh, Warhammer sounds the most interesting for me because it's fantasy and is not based on reality. I wish they would do a 40K one, that would be amazing.

In that case grab warhammer 3 because it has the best on-boarding experience for those new to the Series. Then just grab any DLC you fancy from the previous games (you can do this without needing to own the base game in the previous entries) to get access to the factions that you want.
 

Mercador

Member
Tbh, Warhammer sounds the most interesting for me because it's fantasy and is not based on reality. I wish they would do a 40K one, that would be amazing.
They will probably do it at some point. I don't think it will be a trilogy but there's a lot of content to use there.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
So this game is a flop. Debut with 5K players on Steam. I'm pretty sure this is the lowest for a mainline Total War game.

I'm hoping they go back and listen to the fans and give us Empire 2 or Med 3, but they'll probably do something that'll guarantee success like 40K.
 
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GHG

Gold Member
So this game is a flop. Debut with 5K players on Steam. I'm pretty sure this is the lowest for a mainline Total War game.

I'm hoping they go back and listen to the fans and give us Empire 2 or Med 3, but they'll probably do something that'll guarantee success like 40K.

A remastered Napoleon in time for the upcoming movie would do well, but that's too logical so they won't do it.
 

Nikodemos

Member
I'd say the Total War Sagas experiment has been a failure. Total War games need a proper development pipeline and wide scale in order to be successful.
 
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