Empire: total war impressioni e opinioni

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All hail the power of mystic Will Porter! Back in time, PC ZONE's less-than-ancient sage declared that if the logical next step for the Total War series was implementing naval combat, then "it would be a good opportunity to bring it into the Napoleonic era".

Nine months on and here we are with the announcement of Empire: Total War, the brand new game from The Creative Assembly, and a true revolution for a series that, like a sailor knocked overboard at the start of a sea battle, has been treading water for too long.

Empire: Total War takes place during the period from the 1700s to the early 1800s, a turbulent era in history when technology was being fuelled by a new industrial age, and for the first time various powers were fighting for control of the Old and New Worlds on a global scale.

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This is the age of the French Revolution, Voltaire, the American War of Independence, Mozart, Wellington, the British Empire and, of course, Guybrush Threepwood, Captain Jack Sparrow and Blackadder The Third.

As you can see from these decidedly gorgeous screenshots, Empire's big-ticket attraction - its unique, ahem, sailing point - is the introduction of proper naval combat to the Total War series.

As with the complex land battles, the sea warfare will involve real-time 3D action, but instead of troops, you'll command single ships or fleets of up to 20 craft, which vary in size, speed and manoeuvrability, ranging from small brigs to powerful ships of the line.

Vessels will be able to let fly with chain shot, grapeshot, musket fire and cannonballs, which you can aim at your foes' destructible sails, decks and/or hulls so they sink faster than Robert Maxwell.

You can also opt to grapple and board enemy ships for exciting fights on-deck with muskets and sabres, any captured ships becoming part of your fleet, and thus available for use in subsequent battles.

Also boasting real-time weather effects such as fog and ever-changing sea conditions, Empire: Total War promises to deliver some of the most realistic and visceral sea battles ever seen in a PC game - with everything except the smell of salt, gangrene and fish in your nostrils.

As well as taking part in the all-new offshore encounters, you will of course be commanding your armies over land, in a campaign that spans Europe, North America, the Caribbean and India, and features revamped trade, diplomacy, mission and espionage systems.

New tactics have evolved on the battlefield, so you'll be able to destroy buildings and walls and use them as cover, deploy defences and employ a variety of new unit firing drills and formations - such as the classic hollow square that's effective against a single target but very vulnerable to cannon fire.

The campaign itself includes historical figures such as French dictator and pint-sized comedy staple Napoleon, and ten playable factions vying for economic and political supremacy, including Great Britain, America, France and Prussia.

The Creative Assembly promise plenty of variety in the different factions and their units, with abilities and tech trees evolving throughout the period - so playing as a naval power such as Britain will be very different to playing as an emerging continental power such as Prussia, for example.

Empire: Total War will also feature a new fully animated, non-grid-based campaign map for planning your empire-building, allowing for tighter control of army movement as well as a closer relationship between the terrain you see at this strategic level and the terrain you start with on the battlefield.

Also, buildings will now be visible on the map without you having to click on the settlements that they're in, so you'll be able to click on them and upgrade directly from the map. Apart from the added convenience, this means you'll now be able to see at a glance how developed a region is without trawling through a menu to investigate, and in addition use your armies to attack and destroy individual buildings.

Medieval II: Total War was a superb game, but more evolution than revolution - Empire: Total War is definitely the latter, a complete re-imagining of the famous RTS series, retaining its turn-based map and real-time battles, but introducing a whole raft of new features such as naval warfare and wrapping the whole package in stunning next-gen graphics.

Apparently the team have had one programmer working solely on the real-time seascapes for a whole year, and the title will also feature new landscape and flora systems, dynamic weather that'll affect gameplay (rain dampens musket powder, for example) and destructible buildings.

It's still very early days for Empire: Total War, but it looks as if this game about conquering the known world could well see The Creative Assembly achieving a massive expansion of their own strategy empire

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