Game Development is a rocky, uncertain, and complicated industry. It’s full of smaller studios that don’t have the funding to realize their goals, studios financially beholden to publishers that exert far too much pressure in terms of expectation, design philosophy, or punishing deadlines.
While the rise of indie developers like Mojang, the advent of studio-friendly publishers like Paradox and Devolver, and the normalization of crowd-funding have done a lot to improve the state of the market, we still regularly see lamentable events like the closing of veteran studios Maxis and Ensemble.
It is therefore positively refreshing to see a long-standing studio with a reputation for excellence born from a long line of deep, intricate, amazingly detailed and beautiful games do well. It is doubly so to see that studio branch successfully into different genres, and do so with that same intricacy and attention-to-detail.
And it is almost too much to bear when that studio, who has made a name for itself with years of hard work, acquires an intellectual property that is ideally suited to their predilection to intricacy and authenticity.
Total War isn’t a franchise that often tops sales charts, and when it does, you can trust it won’t stay there for too long. You can’t count on walking up to a patron in your average gaming retailer and having a discussion about its merits or flaws. It is, in a lot of ways, too intricate for the lowest common denominator. But there is no question that it is one of the deepest, smartest, most perfectly researched and excellently executed franchises in gaming. With the Total War franchise, Creative Assembly has breathed life into some of the most fascinating periods and locales in human history – the Dark Ages, the birth of the Americas, the fall of Feudal Japan, the Attilan Scourge, and the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Part of their success doubtless comes from the exhaustive research into every detail and aspect of those times in history, and that attention-to-detail has created a very well deserved reputation.
There are many fictional worlds that we cling to affectionately, and their adaptation into another medium can cause a great deal of worry, concern, and distress. I would posit that everyone has had a soul-crushingly negative experience with the translation of one of their favorite worlds or narratives from its original medium to another.
And that is precisely why one needs the right film-maker, the perfect concept artist, the correct script-writer to translate a novel from page to screen. We need the assurance that attention and respect will be paid to the source material.
And that is precisely why you should be excited that Creative Assembly is making Total War: Warhammer. Games Workshop‘s Warhammer is as rich, complicated, deep and detailed a universe as exists in fiction anywhere. There are hundreds of factions, thousands of years of history and thousands upon thousands of characters to realize. As the universe existed first in the format of tabletop miniature combat, the scale of the combat must be massive, and the bigger the better.
Both of these requirements point to a match-made-in-heaven with Creative Assembly. The developers of Total War are the best of all possible fits for Warhammer.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/nJ2Gl9ev7Iw[/youtube]
The trailer, released earlier today, is CG in nature, and quite obviously not in engine. It does, however, give us a glimpse into the factions featured, and the possible narrative arcs. We can, as this is a Total War title, safely assume that the Total War stand-bys will return: the turn-based campaign map – a la Civilization – and the real-time army-versus-army combat. I think it’s also safe to assume that the franchise city-control and recruitment systems will be relatively unchanged. Past that, from the footage in the trailer it’s a safe bet that the human, dwarven, undead, and ork factions will make an appearance as playable races.
Below you’ll find the full press release on Total War: Warhammer.
TOTAL WAR™: WARHAMMER® ANNOUNCED
SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON – April 22, 2015 – SEGA® of America, Inc. and SEGA® Europe, Ltd. today announced a new title from UK videogame studio Creative Assembly™; the first in partnership with Games Workshop®, creators of the well-known Warhammer® Fantasy Battle tabletop wargame and accompanying range of miniatures.
Total War™: WARHAMMER® for PC, Mac and SteamOS, coming soon.
Now in its 15th year, the award-winning Total War™ continues to offer a unique combination of huge-scale real-time battles and an addictive turn-based campaign game of statecraft, politics and empire building.
Total War: WARHAMMER will take the series to a realm of grand high fantasy for the very first time in its history. Our rules have changed, and with change comes war on a scale as yet unimagined.
The limitlessly deep and rich universe of Warhammer heralds a new era for Total War. Gigantic monsters, flying creatures, legendary heroes and storms of magical power take their place on the battlefield, alongside thousands of warriors clashing in real-time tactical battles.
In the turn-based campaign game, players will find the Old World an unforgiving and treacherous place, filled with endless war and cunning alliances alike. Whichever race you choose to play as and however you seek conquest, you will be faced with a conflict that threatens to tear the very fabric of reality asunder.
The first in an epic trilogy of titles, Total War: WARHAMMER will deliver hundreds of hours of absorbing gameplay. It will combine with two further standalone installments and additional content packs to create the single largest Total War experience ever.
“We’ve always loved the Warhammer universe, and couldn’t wait to approach it with the same colossal scale and authenticity that has characterised our titles for the last 15 years,” said Total War: WARHAMMER Project Lead, Ian Roxburgh. “We’re bringing it to life in a way that nobody’s attempted before.”
Watch the announcement trailer, voiced by celebrated actor Steven Berkoff, for just a taste of this forthcoming match made in gaming heaven.
For the latest news about this title and the other Total War games in development, visit www.totalwar.com and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to Total War’s Youtube Channel for future news about gameplay videos.
Interested in Total War: Warhammer? Notice something we didn’t? Drop us a line in the comments, and be sure to check back for continuing coverage of Total War: Warhammer from Pixelated Geek!