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Total War: Arena

Total War: Arena

TW: Arena is making headway in offering casual gamers the best tactical combat of the Total War series via 10v10 online matches.

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Historical MMO RTS Total War: Arena has been in development for several years by now, with a select group of players currently playtesting 10v10 matches in closed beta. The game is set in the timeframe of Classical Antiquity with the earliest playable units hailing from 1500 BC Greece and the most recent ones from the Roman Empire around 500 AD. The developers at Creative Assembly are currently polishing up the game and moving ahead towards an open beta release in 2018 which is why Gamereactor was invited to the studio's UK headquarts in Horsham to learn all about the latest scoops and developments.

Total War: Arena has its own dedicated team at CA with other teams working on the recently announced Total War Sagas: Thrones of Britannia, the as of yet undisclosed successor to Total War: Warhammer II which will return to a historical setting. The people we met who are working on Arena have one thing in common and that's a huge love for history. Their enthusiasm when talking about how they added their favourite historical figures such as Vercingetorix or Sulla to the game gives us confidence that the game will keep its strong emphasis on historical authenticity.

This game is made for lovers of history as well as those who appreciate an accessible and easy to play strategy game. CA's own term for the genre is actually "Real-Time Tactics" which betrays the game's focus on tactical movements and increased micromanagement of units. A big portion of the target audience are people who played the previous Total War games but have since gotten older and often lack the time to invest in lengthy campaigns. Arena will provide them with the opportunity to enjoy Total War with battles that range anywhere between five and fifteen minutes at a time. Additionally the game will feature a slower pace than other games (such as Starcraft II) which might also appeal more to older players. Troop movements and positioning are in fact the deciding factor in winning battles we found out while testing the game, which means calculation and planning are more important than speed.

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Total War: Arena

During our hands-on time we were able to join battles on the live servers of the closed beta build. The controls are very intuitive with the camera adjustable both by using the mouse or keyboard. Moving your units into position does require a degree of micromanagement, because with all units selected a right mouse click will have them all lumping together at the same position instead of holding an organized formation beside each other. It's essential to keep an eye on what your team is doing on the minimap and CA came up with some effective ideas to increase team coordination. You can ping teammates on the mini map for help or to draw attention. It's innovative that you can draw freely on the map in the pre-battle screen to express your intentions without the need to type. Even in battle you can toggle the option to draw on the ground to indicate your intentions to players nearby. The developers stated that because their servers will host the entire global player community simultaneously, they wanted to eliminate language barriers and they've certainly tackled that in this way.

During our first few battles, we were mostly focused on moving the units and attacked basically without any plan whatsoever. This resulted in a swift and inglorious death for our units every time, so you're automatically pushed into working together with your team. The pace of the battle is quite fast when armies make contact and the timely use of commander abilities can make all the difference between victory or defeat. The positioning phase is very important and you'll see more experienced players moving back and forth in order to engage only at the most advantageous moments, like when holding higher ground. After a while we were doing the same and this means the tactical combat in TW: Arena is working well. The game is easy to control but it's challenging every time to execute your preconceived tactical movements because you're always up against a human player calculating the same way you are. This makes the battles far more interesting than the ones against AI that we know from campaign-focused Total War games.

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Every player has three units with between 50 to 100 men to control with the option for cavalry, spearmen, pikemen, swordsmen, archers or artillery. Working together is even more important when taking the different unit types into account, because if you picked only archers in your army then enemy cavalry is your number one threat. Sticking close to the spearmen of a teammate and supporting him at the right moment adds to the likelihood that he will keep an eye out for your safety as well.

The different units feel balanced and even when you're fighting at a disadvantage (like archers engaging in melee) you're still able to make an impact. Morale is very important in the game and a flanking attack even by weaker units can turn the tide of battle. The units are great to look at, with a variety of combat animations and upgrades making a difference in the appearance of your units. The graphics do not compare with the performance in the latest Total War games though. While looking good, smooth gameplay is clearly the main focus for the game's graphics. Similarly, within units the variation is more limited than in Total War: Warhammer II which is done to ensure performance on slower machines. You're able to enjoy your commander and units up close in battle but you're probably too busy planning and moving units to use this feature a lot anyway.

We've already seen earlier builds of the (closed alpha) game but much has changed since then. Early builds of Arena ran on a modified Rome II: Total War engine but the current engine has progressed into a dedicated one. The starting screen now allows you to check out your heroic commander and your three units, with different scenic environments being planned. Vegetation has been reworked and in addition to looking much better, it also obscures the player's views to a higher degree which benefits players and units that excel at ambushing enemies. New heroes have been added with the latest addition being the infamous Roman dictator Sulla. Developer Joshua Williams told us that besides allowing players to learn about interesting historical figures, every hero has its own distinct playstyle. By adding new heroes over time the game will keep increasing in diversity regarding tactical playstyles. Other additions increase the immersion in the game, such as detailed unit descriptions, battle decorations, and achievements. Based on player feedback, the UI has been expanded by, for example, showing unit health in percentages, as well as a rework of the scoreboard after each battle. Players can now also use a replay feature and spectate.

Another change from last year was the cooperation with Wargaming Alliance which according to developers Stefan Aluttis and Jan van der Crabben has given them a lot of good ideas for improving the game. The cooperation with Wargaming has allowed them to make TW: Arena "less monetised than it was before" stated Stefan Aluttis and there is less emphasis on paid content than in games like World of Tanks. There are premium units available for purchase and to prevent pay-to-win they will perform on a "medium level" like in World of Tanks; better than stock units but worse than fully upgraded standard ones. During our testing the premium units did not feel overpowered. The developers were already in the process of approving new premium units for the current closed beta, possibly famous historical units that offer unique play-styles to their faction. Other paid content is upcoming paint packs to colour your units in a special way, and consumables that give your units a slight boost. Additionally, by the next closed beta patch you're able to buy cosmetic items in order to personalise your units; think different shields, helmets, decals or armour variations. Your heroic commander will also be customisable in the near future.

As in Wargaming games, TW: Arena features units and commanders that are unlocked in a tiered system from tier I to tier X. Joshua Williams remarked that one of the things they learned from Wargaming was that many experienced players prefer to stick around somewhere in the middle of these tiers and often go back to fight in lower tier battles. That's why in the latest patch higher tier commander abilities have been disabled for lower tier battles and unit abilities have been reworked starting from tier VI. The grind to unlock all tier X units and commander abilities will be markedly shorter than, for example, it is in World of Tanks. In the estimation of Jan van der Crabben, you'll need to play "around 1000 battles or so" to unlock all units and abilities and "on one commander it's about 250 battles" to get to your first tier X units.

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Coming to units and factions, the past year has allowed the developers to get a clearer view of what they want them to be in the game. The main thing they want to achieve is diversity and adding different play-styles with every new unit and every commander. According to Jan van der Crabben, other strategy games may have different factions but very similar units. In TW: Arena the "Roman faction plays entirely different from the Barbarian faction" and units are entirely different as well. This means, for example, that not all factions have swordsmen or that one of the newest unit types, lightly armed swordsmen with war dogs, is only available to the Barbarian faction. In lower tiers only two unit types and just one commander ability are available, and as you progress more unit types and abilities join in to add to the complexity of the battles.

As stated above, Total War: Arena is set in the timeframe of Classical Antiquity with the earliest units from 1500 BC and the most recent ones from around 500 AD. The developers told us however that while maintaining historical authenticity for every unit we can expect to see units from different timeframes pitted against each other. The main criteria is a similar level of technology, meaning that our suggestion of 1500AD Aztec warriors versus Imperial Roman legions is a realistic possibility. For every new unit the team conducts deep historical research so that the unit is both a reflection of history and offers an interesting story to the player. New units will be "historically authentic, but not necessarily accurate" and when we asked Aluttis and van der Crabben about War Elephants or Horse Archers they responded they will "definitely be in there" at some point because they add the possibility of new play-styles. New units will be "unique" and not just a variant of existing units.

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Regarding upcoming factions, the developers are nearing the completion of several new factions, but couldn't tell us which ones yet (our own bet would be the Persians). Right now you can still only play as the Romans, Greeks and Barbarians, each with several famous heroic figures to lead your armies. We did get a confirmation that a Japanese faction will be added to the game in the distant future so expect factions hailing from all parts of the ancient world and previous Total War games. Developer Joshua Williams pointed us to a very elaborate timeline he had compiled listing all important states and empires in history in the TW: Arena timeline and commented that the strongest case for a new faction is a unique historical unit roster combined with interesting figures to lead them. When the open beta is out the developers aim to release a new faction every few months (one within half a year), but of course it remains to be seen if that's realistic.

We think Total War: Arena is on the right track towards becoming a success. The fact that the closed beta has a lot of active participants and that early November's 'Open Weekend' event drew a lot of new players points to the fact that there is a lot of potential interest. The developers stressed that they aim to make the game playable on almost any machine (except, unfortunately, consoles) ranging from budget laptops to high-end gaming desktops. The wide range of specs on the PCs in the company's test room reflected this and we can confirm that the game is even playable on an integrated GPU such as the Intel HD Graphics 530. For those of you who didn't get in the closed beta, we advise you to keep an eye out for future opportunities to do just that.

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