The series “Total War: Warhammer” has always offered outstanding and popular strategy games. However, part 3 has only brought trouble so far. The Steam reviews have dropped to 60% positive. The main game costs €60, and the €25 DLC “Shadows of Change” was harshly criticized in 2023. Now, Total War wants to change its tone and will bring gifts in February 2024.
Why is the mood surrounding Total War so bad?
- Total War is one of those games that keeps getting new releases while changing very little. At the start of a new installment, the graphics improve, and there’s a new campaign, but many features from the predecessor are missing and are gradually introduced through paid DLCs. The second part was considered a masterpiece after numerous DLCs.
- When part 3 was released in February 2022, it received a lot of praise (via gamestar). But quickly, many players were dissatisfied with the campaign because it wasn’t free enough and included dull mandatory sections that became boring after a second playthrough. It was thought that the DLCs would improve it – after all, part 2 was so good.
- However, the DLCs disappointed in 2023: They were too expensive and offered too little. Players became increasingly unfriendly and were on the verge of open hostility. The Steam reviews fell to 60%. A disaster for such a great game series.
Developers enhance weak €25 DLC retroactively
They want to improve this now: The developers have realized that the €25 DLC simply offered too little for the money they wanted. Therefore, they are retroactively improving the DLC. Patch 4.2 will now provide owners of the DLC with some new content:
- Two new legendary heroes
- Two generic new heroes
- Two lords
- 6 new units
- A new magic branch
- As a free gimmick, they also provide the Ice Queen Katarin with a new mount
The highlight is a legendary hero named “Saytang the Watcher”, a giant terracotta construct with a siege bow and wings.
This is what the developers say: The Game Director states (via totalwar):
“I’ll get straight to the point, we didn’t provide you with enough characters and units to play with, at the release of Shadows of Change. We believe we can fix that.”
In the future, they intend to provide players with better and more varied options for their armies. The community feels as passionately about the game as the developers do.
They also address some of the players’ criticisms, which sound somewhat absurd and can only be understood if you are familiar with Warhammer, like whether a specific Beastman Tzaangors has a beak or not. This was apparently a point where some Warhammer fans would have preferred to sacrifice the developers to Tzeentch.
Here, Creative Assembly also shows some leniency.
This is what it’s about: The somewhat difficult lesson from this action is: “If players complain loudly enough and show they mean business, they get what they want, and developers have to yield.”
More on the problems of Warhammer: A major game about Warhammer on Steam was considered a milestone – But a conflict between developers and fans is currently escalating
