Vympel wrote:It's a very fun game, but compared to Rome it's only about half as good- that's how good Rome is, no slur on Medieval. Graphics are inferior, units don't move as swiftly, and the strategic game isn't as engrossing (since regions are represented as pieces on a board game, so whenever two armies meet they automatically fight).
The only way I would say it's better than Rome is that the music in battles is much better. Medieval has the best music of the series.
The Viking victory music rocks, IMHO.
Typhonis 1 wrote:What about gameplay and control?
It's good enough if you haven't played Rome before. Left click selects a unit, left click after that tells it where to go, double click tells them to run or charge, left click + drag allows you to position it where you want. It's pretty intuitive, really. Learned it in five minutes.
And the gameplay rules. There are automation features if you don't like to micromanage your provinces, and they work real good. There is also an RPG aspect with regards to your generals, who get specific traits that influence the way they work during the campaign. You can get brilliant commanders who like getting drunk, pedophile devout Christians, or bloodthirsty, insane maniacs who make their enemies run by the very fact of being on the battlefield, but scare your own men even more. This is by far my fauvorite part of the game.
It generally has a very polished feel to it, it shows the developers put in a lot of effort. If an element is there, you can use it somehow to further the goals of your nation. For example - a princess of your royal family can be used as a spy, married off to one of your generals (to increase his loyalty), married off to another faction (so that you get a lasting alliance with them), or simply as a diplomat (if the other faction does not have any unmarried men of royal blood).
Castle assaults are pretty fun, too. Castles come in a plethora of shapes and sizes, and if you want to win an assault, it needs to be carefully planned. You can try to lay siege on it, of course, but larger fortresses may just as well outlast your army (Viking Invasion makes besiegers loose men too, not just the defenders). But by far the best thing about this game is that no matter how far you are, until you win, something always seems to be happening that keeps you on your toes. In Shogun, from a certain point the game deterioratated into a glorious march to victory, without any kind of opposition the enemy could present. Here?
In one of my games, Poland ruled Eastern Europe and Germany, all the way to their today's border with France. My armies were vast and technologically advanced, my coffers were overflowing with gold, my generals loyal and competent. I got complacent.
Ten years later, the mongol Golden Horde appeared. Unprepared to face new threats, I quickly lost my grip on eastern provinces. I've managed to put up a defence (after all, I still had tens of thousands of men at my command), but then the remaining powers jumped at the opportunity and ganged up on me. When all seemed to be lost, I decided to gamble and ally myself with the heretic saracens to stave off defeat. This turned the tide for a while, but I got complacent
again when the campaign started going well, throwing all my armies to the front with no regard to interior security, and then a heir of a rival faction (the Holy Roman Empire) surfaced and led a rebellion, taking some of my most profittable provinces. While I was fighting the bastard, my allies booted and turned on me, and five years after that, my fall from glory was complete.
I love this game. And Viking Invasion is at least just as good
P.S.
Install the expansion straight away, it gives you some very useful features (like the ability to save before each battle. Handy when you have to fight five do-or-die engagaments this particular, crucial turn)
