After much hype and much praise from those in the know (Re: PC Gamer), we have finally gotten a glimpse of the much awaited Empire: Total War. For the ignorant among you, the Total War series consists of hybrid tactical/strategic games set in various periods in history; the newest game takes place during the 18th and 19th centuries and allows one to take command of any of the relevant world powers during that period. However, is the 94% rating from PC Gamer a rating Empire is worthy of?
First and foremost trees serve as merely a backdrop to the actual game, and do not take any active role in game or storyline development. They can often become obstacles for armies, but only minor ones; the trees, therefore, serve no purpose but that of ornaments. Naturally, we cannot expect a game about imperial warfare to involve trees to a great extent, but we could at the very least expect the trees to be identifiable. The game comes with absolutely no documentation concerning the trees rendered, nor does it give any statistics in terms of polygon count of the trees.
Indeed, if one were to look at this picture, they could not possibly figure out what those trees were, especially not from a distance. This is due to, not only low polygon count, but a serious lack of care for the tree appreciation community by the game's designers. Through careful observation, I have determined the trees in the distance are of the family Pinaceae, but of their Genus, I know not.
Summary:
- Tree Involvement 2/5
- Tree Appearence 1/5
- Tree Identifiability 1/5
Taking into account a lack of documentation, along with gross under-design of trees in this game, I award it:
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Next week, an examination of http://www.treegames.net: are they truly what they seem?
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I see them as blurry specs of green patched over some unrecognized landscape - judging by the banner, somewhere between Patagonia and Mexico City. Surely Nature is not flattered by this poor representation, if she is truly a she and not a hobo wearing green.
ReplyDeleteThis game surely is an affront to all the trees of the World and our good weltanschauung did a good job in showing us this pisspoor job of representation.
Notwithstanding, Carthago must fall.
I object to this review, I really do. The trees in this game may not be pretty, but that's only realistic. Trees are actually pretty ugly. All that leafy fluff, with nothing behind it.
ReplyDeleteBesides, you failed to understand how involved the trees really are in this series. What other game lets you take hide in the forest, waiting in ambush for those upstart Americans?
That's innovation.
This isn't a virtual American ambush blog, this is a virtual tree blog, if you want to make such childish remarks, I suggest you take it to the appropriate forum.
ReplyDelete