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Total War Troy expands into the Realm of Greek Mythology with its Exciting Mythos Update!
By Madaaworld12 Posted in Entertainment, Gaming, PC, Reviews on September 1, 2021 0 Comments 13 min read
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A Total War Saga: TROY - Mythos on Steam
Buy the game through Steam.

SPECIAL EDITION



Jump into the definitive Troy experience with these time-limited offers. Save 40% with the Heroic Edition, packed with content including the Troy base game and three epic DLC packs, bringing the full breadth of the Trojan War to life. Only available until 30th September 2021.

ABOUT THIS GAME



In this legendary age, heroes walk the earth. In an act that shocks the world, audacious Paris, prince of Troy, elopes with the beautiful queen of Sparta. As they sail away, King Menelaus curses her name. He vows to bring his wife home – whatever the cost. 

Fight to save or conquer the kingdom of Troy as one of eight iconic heroes, including the infamous warrior Achilles, noble protector Hector, wayward prince Paris and vengeful king Menelaus. 


Lead an army across the fabled lands of the Aegean, recruit special units inspired by creatures of Greek myth, and charge into battle against ferocious foes. 


Build your empire through strategy, statecraft, diplomacy, and all-out war, as you conquer this vast and striking recreation of the Bronze Age Mediterranean.

Rating: 9/10

Review

Introduction

Troy A Total War Saga embarks on one of the most ambitious updates ever done for a Total War Game to date. When Troy was initially released, there was mixed reception over the Truth Behind The Myth Approach, as it did not fully embrace the mythological nature of the game. Now with the Mythos Update bringing massive changes to the game, with three new campaign modes (Historical, The Truth Behind the Myth, and the Mythological Campaign) and three new legendary beasts to hunt down and recruit in your armies in the Mythological Campaign, the game is gearing for its Steam Release which will be on the 2nd of September. They have reworked the three new campaigns in ways that make sure that each campaign mode is distinct. In this review, we’ll cover the three campaign modes in-depth. Previously, I had reviewed Troy before the Mythos update, which you can find here.

Historical Mode:

Historical Mode initially strips away all mythology, instead of introducing a grey muted color for their battles, including battles being more infantry based combat and less reliance on missile infantry even they can still turn the tide of battle. Your heroes do not fight like absolute machines on the battlefield and they retreat like normal generals. The diplomacy feels that it could do with some improvements and the diplomacy could act more historical in some ways. The diplomatic AI offers good deals for bronze and wood, and food. But it often does it to be unhistorical. Essentially, Troy Total War is a sandbox game. So what may have happened in the Iliad can change.

Battles are where I’ll certainly give credit to CA for taking community feedback and improving upon it. In one of my battles, I fought as Agamemnon and besieged a city. An epic battle ensured where rain poured down upon this miserable day as the city walls looked intimidating to my troops. The enemy had brought forward slingers. Slingers! A majority of their army comprised that only. With that in mind, I sent forward my shielded warriors, and we fought a tough battle. Not one side gave up their ground. The enemy’s missiles kept on peppering my troops with their deadly rocks. It was a tug of war, for the enemy had been wiped out.

Only their slingers remained while mine kept retreating. Exhausted, my troops retreated. They erected a historical landmark at the city gates on the campaign map. Troy can create these epic stories from your battles. That said, I disliked the grey-coloured outlook of battles and in the campaign mode. An option to have a colourful mode and a non-colourful mode would have been much better to do between switching colours in the campaign mode. In the battle mode, if you go to the menu, you can select Photo Mode, which means you can switch and adjust the lighting of battles that persists in the campaign map. 

Photo Mode is one of the best features of Troy. My only complaint would be is that the Troy Total War Logo is small to add. That said, for future total war and games and old, I do want Photo Mode being added in.

Some criticism that I would add is that slingers felt too powerful in battles and sometimes entire battles can be decided on that outcome. Garrisons are sometimes too strong even if you have an army that’s got elite units for historical mode. An improvement that was welcome to see was that during this battle, when the enemy slingers attacked my heavy shield infantry, the shield infantry didn’t break. That said, I prefer this. There was a time where slingers can wipe out entire units in the previous version of Troy before the Mythos Update. It is a definite improvement and one which I welcome. Chariots needed more of a presence on the battlefield and need to have a more devastating impact on the battlefield. They are powerful but can be easily defeated too quickly. Since Chariots were the battle tanks of the Bronze Age, some changes to their stats would be welcome. From an overall view, the technology tree didn’t change throughout the three campaign modes, and I feel they could have improved upon this aspect. Making each technology tree distinct from each other would have added more replayability. Historical Mode definitely achieves a gritty grounded feeling and is a recommended campaign experience to try first. Before you start the Mythological Mode, getting acquainted with the Historical Mode allows you to understand how to fight battles, and how you will play in the Mythological Mode.

Truth Behind the Myth Approach:

The Truth Behind the Myth approach has been revamped, giving the campaign map a more colourful mode to play with. In terms of preference, from the start, I had always wanted Troy to expand out of the Bronze Age and add different factions. I can say with no doubt that it has been improved. Mythical units have been revamped and re-skinned to make them appear Mythical as much as possible. The Gods give passive abilities within battles, and heroes are your typical one entity that charges into battle. The best comparison would be to compare this to Three Kingdoms, which period is renowned for Generals charging into armies alone many times.

Mythological units are mostly humans wearing animal skins, but that’s a wonderful concept. The way the three campaigns works is this: Once you’ve had your share of the Historical Bronze Age, it may tempt you to try out the units that were mythical in legend but having a more human approach. After that, it might tempt you out to try out the Mythological Mode in its full glory. In this mode, you are witnessing the truth of what was really behind the Mythological steroid-filled fest of the Iliad. It’s a campaign that improves upon certain mechanics in Historical and introduces other elements that you might not have been aware of previously. Overall, it’s worth trying out.

Mythological Mode:

Troy has definitely embraced the realm of Greek Mythology for its Mythological Campaign mode and battle-wise. This was my most favourite campaign out of all the three modes, and it is a definitive moment for CA to expand this mythology mode and add in other unique factions of the Bronze Age such as Egypt, the Hittites, and Assyria. It could become the next Age of Mythology Contender and I will keep on championing this cause until the day I see CA does a full-scale Bronze Age Total War, or hopefully decide to make this Saga Title and expand it further. It is where Troy excels at. This mode adds three new legendary mythological creatures most famously known in the Ancient Greek World: Cerebus, the dog of Hades and Persephone that guards the Gates of the Underworld, the Mythical Hydra that guards the entrance to the Underworld, and the Griffin of Greek Mythology.

You will need to start a Mythic Expedition and recruit units after you have defeated three mythological units. I will send those units alongside these missions. It will give you quests along the way, along with five in total. Within that, solve riddles and quests.

It sends those units alongside these missions. The writing for these missions is well done and is absolutely fantastic. Once you’ve completed these five quests, it will then give you quest battles to get these three units. The easiest would be the Griffin, and the hardest would get Cerebus.

The campaign map has been overhauled to present a stunning illustration of mythological monuments erected across the map and represent the Gods in the Sky. If it’s one thing that the three modes get right: Each general, be it whatever approach or campaign you play, has different motives and goals. Achilles in historical mode has a more unique approach. Whereas Achilles in Mythological has a completely different motive.

In my campaign playing as Hector, the Prince of Troy, I had the most epic playthrough. I thoroughly enjoyed the mythological touches to the campaign. However, I felt certain areas of the campaign could have been improved: first, that you often get many notifications popping up at the end of your turn, which could be slowed down. Second, I played in very hard mode and I saw Achilles appearing with an army with no support from his allies. As Hector, I could wound Achilles in battle. Cunningly, the AI had attacked the Island of Lesbos, which when I tried to attack, I failed.

So that was a neat move, but I would want the AI to better coordinate attacks between allies in some areas. Each legendary lord has their own missions and their own objectives to achieve it with different AI. Hector must impress Priam to become the heir of Troy and own many cities that the Trojans own. The buildings you make, the units you recruit, will all make an impact. I really love this neat approach that has been taken and every legendary lord in mythological mode has something of this to varying stages.

The Lair of the Griffin

Battle Maps for Mythological Mode: The Case for making more of these Unique Maps

Within Mythological mode, I feel the monuments are the best thing to look at while playing. My only criticism would be that when you fight in battles, often the best eye candy is often far away from the actual battle map. For example, I see these massive gigantic pillars in the distance that I really wouldn’t mind fighting inside these ruins. I really want more mythological maps to have massive pillars and have distant ruins. I’m not a fan of smaller, tighter battlefields, because they restrict all the temples and eye candy you would want to fight in. So with future updates, I hope we get maps that allow us to fight in these massive pillars and ruins.

While these Mythological ruins add a really good sense to the battlefield, I would appreciate if we could have ruins of gold or bronze, more colour being added onto the Mythological Ruins that surround the Battlefield.

What Mythological Mode does right is the introduction of three new quest battles that you have to fight and get them. Each battle feels unique, and the battle maps are well designed. The Gates of Hades is terrific, and I really wish to see MORE of these mythological battle maps. I want underwater battle maps like the one in Warhammer where you fight the Vampire Pirates, or what about more Underworld maps? Maybe Mount Olympus? And the Gods often make appearances and you get divine abilities, but I think Creative Assembly has struck a gold mine here with maps. I want to see Troy having more mythological maps. More. I want more!

At the Gates of Hades!

Conclusion:

Troy excels within its mythological DLC. And it can only mean good things for the future if CA continues embarking on the Mythological DLC model. There are many possibilities to expand the map out of the Greek Penisula, and add possible factions such as the Sea Peoples that could act as a type of Chaos Horde mechanic that brings about the collapse of the Bronze Age. Or, they could add Egypt and the Hittites. Now imagine the Mythos mode along with this, and CA knows full well that they could create an Age of Mythology contender. One of the best things about the update is that you get two modes for free: Historical and the Truth behind the Myth Approach. You don’t, however, get the Mythos DLC for free as that is a separate expansion, but it is worth the purchase down along a sale if you feel it may be too expensive at launch. Troy Total War is a great game to play. I’ve had tons of fun, and it’s the only best game that represents the Bronze Age. No other studio has like CA Sofia studios and CA has done such a fantastic job. Richard Beddow has done an outstanding job on the soundtrack and ambience. I feel Troy is one of his best projects yet. So shout out to them and Troy has a beautiful UI. I feel Troy is one of those games that’s worth trying out, and down the line, you can always get it on a Total War Sale which often runs around. But in all seriousness, it’s a fantastic game.

Sources:

Total War FAQ: https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-war-troy-mythos-release-date-faq/

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1099410/A_Total_War_Saga_TROY/

You can find my review here via Youtube:

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