18th Feb
There's little not to like in the Gold Edition of Medieval 2 Total War. There are huge battles pitting the best troops kingdoms were ale to field during the Middle Age, there are towns and castles to develop in a myriad of ways, there are treaties to be signed and spies to be employed to take out high value enemy targets. The game uses the Rome engine and looks very good even so long after the initial release. The Kingdoms expansion and patches also made the Artificial Intelligence better than before and there are some truly excellent mods out there that make the game even more historical. For those who are interested in turn based grand strategy mixed with real time tactical battles Medieval 2 Total War is a must.
5th Jan
Medieval 2 is basically a big, fat, shiny (not so shiny really - all the battlefields are covered in a rather odd gloomy atmosphere) megamod of Rome Total War. Some minor improvement, some inexplicable backwards steps (like an almost legendary sloppy movement of the troops on the tactical real-time battles), but the game is nearly the same, plus greatly improved graphics (and smoother too, on "modern" mid-to-high end PCs). So, is the game any good? Is good, bordering on very good if you can overlook the historical sillities, the design oversimplifications and the dumb AI. The real deal are indeed the mods, which are plentiful, free and offer something to everyone: more gameplay depth, graphics improvements, or whole new settings (and sometimes all the 3 together, which is good).
3rd Dec 2009
Gamersgate version works with popular mods. I tried installing Stainless Steel 6.1 and Third Age (LOTR) and both seem to run fine.
For those that are not aware, half the draw of Total War games are the mods that are freely downloadable. Sure Medieval 2 has the main campaign, and Kingdoms has 4 huge separate full-scale campaigns, but there is just so much more mod content out there, and for fans of other themes, such as say Lord of the Rings fans, it's great to be able to play a LOTR campaign with treants, orcs, and ring-wraiths.
11th Oct 2009
This is probably the finest Total War game that has so far been released. The historical accuracy is, as usual, leaning on the cinematic side of realism but that is forgivable in light of the overall experience of hacking and slashing your way across Europe. Also, this is the only Total War game with a decent expansion list! The Americas is particularly fun.
2nd Sep 2009
Absolutely terrific game. Sublime graphics and good performance, terrific and immersion macro campaign coupled with unmatched real-time tactical battles. Gold Edition is a must-have because Kingdoms gives you not only four new campaigns (previous reviewer didn't mention Americas campaign) but also access to many mods that require it in addition to the original--including developer-produced Retrofit, which is like a final patch for the original game incorporating Kingdoms features into the original game. Throw in the incredible Third Age: Total War Lord of the Rings Mod (basically a complete game in and of itself, new intro and everything) and you've got a semester's worth of classes to miss because you played until 4 AM ;)
3rd Jun 2009
M2TW Gold edition is truly a must. Of course its view of european medieval history is a bit farcesque for those who have even a moderate knowledge of what the Middle Ages really meant - if you want the real thing, check Crusaders Kings, Deus Vult.
However, for the pleasure of deploying the banners, timing the knight charges or watching the bowyers send their arrows to cruelly break the aforementioned impetus, it is still an unparalleled achievement.
The campaigns of the addon (Britannia, Crusades, teutonic) are pretty tough. Plus if that is not enough, you may download a bunch of great mods (like Deus lo Vult from Total War Center) that will perfectly fit on this installment.
More reviews >>