Total War: Three Kingdoms

Management are worried about an impending Chinese takeover, but really it’s just Jody Macgregor using the new diplomacy system.

- Jody Macgregor

Two of our generals dismount in the middle of a field to duel with their opposite numbers. The rest of the battle continues in the distance, but we’ve zoomed in to watch the flashy moves as the generals kick and stab each other. Occasionally a flurry of arrows or a riderless horse passes in the background, but we’re intently focused on something that looks more like a game of Tekken.

Total War: Three Kingdoms embraces the story it’s inspired by, Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong, rather than strict historical accuracy. Soldiers can run around the battlefield seemingly forever without getting tired. Their leaders are larger-than-life figures with complicated backstories and rivalries, who carry legendary spears and are able to defeat entire units single-handed. Characters like Cao Cao are cast as devious opera villain masterminds able to manipulate wars into existence at the drop of a hat, when the history books suggest he was a decent ruler and quite the poet.

There’s an option to turn some of these things off by engaging Records Mode, if you want stamina to play a more important role in unit repositioning or to get rid of the duels and get generals’ bodyguards to do most of their fighting instead. The alternative, Romance Mode, feels like an honest embrace of what Total War has really been all along, though. It’s a version of history that’s closer to an epic movie.

That said, it’s still the kind of epic where you’ll also have to increase three different types of income by small percentages. The systems that were simplified for the Warhammer games or the trimmed-down Thrones of Britannia have returned and brought some new friends. Espionage has its own menu full of options, so that embedded spies can mess with trade or sabotage cities.