I was honestly expecting Rome Total War II to hit Linux first in the series, since it was announced around the time of the Steam Machines’ Valve event, yet it’s Empire that comes first. But it’s nonetheless an excellent addition to the platform, as it is one of the best titles in the Total War series. While its release was a kind of surprise, Feral had released some hints a couple of days back on their webpage, and a couple of redditors were able to see through the hints. Feral is indeed behind the port, and as far as I can tell it seems like a very solid port once again (after their work on XCom), running well even on not so powerful configurations. Well, it’s a 2009 game, so it’s not very surprising at the same time.
In case you are not familiar with the series, Empire Total War is a mix of strategy and tactical warfare, where you play the role of an European Power in the 18th century. You are in charge of infrastructure, taxes, political alliances, innovation and so on. When things heat up you will be able to into tactical mode to lead your troops on the ground against your opponents – either on land on in the seas (a fighting mode newly introduced in the series at the time of Empire). There are victory conditions you need to achieve within 200 turns, based on the country you selected in the first place – this gives some direction in the grand campaign games. If you have never played a Total War game before, get ready to sink a certain number of hours in each campaign you play. Yup, this can become a social life killer, again (After Civ V, XCom, CS:GO, did you have any social life left anyway?).
While it was recently available as part of the Sega Humble Bundle, you can still get the game for cheap these days, and I’d recommend you support Feral if possible by getting the game through their website (you get a 50% rebate right now).
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