Medieval II: Total War

So immersive, you create a massive story with the actions you take, very addictive. More games should be made like these coz these are the best.

Objectively, the best Total War entry. It improves on Rome: Total War in almost every single way. It has a few quirks that are vastly overshadowed by its perfections. The age it wears, it wears well because when this game released, the gaming industry landscape was vastly different and much healthier. Developers were still geeks and nerds that wanted to play the games they created, not bloated HR money laundering schemes. Creative Assembly is manned by a completely different crew. [i] You can see and feel the passion the developers had for Medieval II. [/i] The charming UI, to the immersive music, to the campaign design, to even small details like armor upgrades being visible on units. The unit/faction balancing is nigh flawless with each faction having their own specialty that makes them unique, and with their campaign position to boot. Every single system in this game hums in harmony with the others, and its clear the development team had a CLEAR vision for this game. This isn't so much a one-for-one historical game, but its basis is believable and immersive enough you care for your characters and country. Units feel weighty, and tactics are rewarded over raw unit stats. The game rewards player ingenuity and doesn't spoon feed you like a child. AI battle difficulty hits the sweet spot because the difficulty specifically targets towards players SKILL level with unit tactics rather than RAW unit statistics. [i] Almost all further entries in the series miss this point. [/i] A few flaws I can think of are the notoriously terrible pathfinding during siege battles and wonky camera controls, with some bugs, however none I've encountered that are campaign ending. This game is SO perfect, you can start to identify the cut content the developers wanted to implement more of, but sadly never made it. Modders have transformed this masterpiece into the quintessential generational strategy and unit tactics video game. Its 20th birthday is coming up, and this means inevitably that the men and women that enjoyed this game can do so with their children. If any former Total War dev or current one reads this.... Medieval II is the standard and I'm not talking just about features, I'm talking things making sense and harmony of the various systems that create memorable scenarios and situations that are player created. Example: If you have a plague ridden city and you put a character in it, chances are they'll get sick. If you then place said character in another city, that city becomes plagued. The game rewards you for your ingenuity. You can use this feature to create emergent gameplay and NUKE enemy factions' populations/characters/armies(or your own). There are so many hidden features that are unspoken because YOU play the game, not the game playing YOU. If you try any of the newer titles and you can see the difference like night and day... Nobody is going to play Pharaoh or Troy in 20 years, let alone with their child. You generally don't play this game in vanilla, but; if you do you'll find that its simply a joyride of yesteryears gaming. Enjoy these kinds of games, because we'll likely never see anything as passionate as them again.

Medieval II is the best Total War has ever been. The little details are everything- visual armor upgrades, infantry & artillery reloading animations, general personalities, and more like it give the game such a strong identity. 10/10 Game.