First Impressions” Review: Empire: Total War™

By Herman Hum on March 9, 2009 in _land3, hide, Reviews

Click here to see a slideshow of representative menus that are works of art in themselves.

Graphics and Sounds

Well what can I say but just look at the screenshots! Incredible graphics, especially for such a large scale game. The only problem, of course, is graphic glitches when going through your units and objects at ground level. I am able to run everything on the ultra graphic settings at 1024x768x32, with an average frame rate around 35 to 40 fps. It does go higher on sea battles, and lower when zoomed into the battle formations, but from a playing view it works well. The frame rate does drop into single digit range on the campaign maps when the AI is processing and taking it’s turn. No big deal. I can wait and watch the detail on the screen in the meantime.

Sound is very well done. The music adds a sense of urgency and drama, and the battlefield sounds are incredible.