Total War: Arena Review

Total War: Arena is an Online Multiplayer Strategy game that is being developed by Creative Assembly and published by Wargaming. On release the game will be free to play but if you want to get in on the action sooner rather than later, there are founder pack bundles available that start at around 10 euro and grant access to the Closed Beta.

In order to begin a battle players need to choose a commander that will lead their army. At the moment there are three factions available: the Greeks, the Romans and the Barbarians, with the Japanese coming soon as they were announced in November 2017. The available Greek Commanders are: King Leonidas, Miltiades, Alexander the Great and Cynane. The Roman commanders are: Julius Ceasar, Germanicus and Scipio Africanus. Finally, the Barbarian commanders are: Arminius, Vercingetorix and Boudica.

When starting the game you will get to choose 3 of the 10 available commanders and then work your way into unlocking the rest. Each commander has his own set of 3 unique abilities so research well and decide which ones to start with depending on your playstyle. Commanders start with 1 unlocked ability and as you progress the other two are unlocked. The system offers even more unlockable weapons, armor and more, as they gain experience and level up

The armies consist of the Melee Infantry, the Cavalry, the Ranged Infantry and the Artillery. Each Faction has their own strengths and weaknesses as well as available consumables that can be used once in battle. Players have to choose up to three units in order to get into 10v10 Multiplayer fights.

The big drawback of these Multiplayer fights is the fact that the game is region locked. Because of this, even though you might be teamed up with players from other regions and have a great time you cannot add them as friends after the game. This can be frustrating and I hope it gets a fix for when the game is released.

Total War: Arena is a fast paced fun game with a simple win condition that did not become tiring to fight for over and over again as there are so many things to take into account and micromanage. I recommend keeping an eye out for this game as it offered a lot of fun and if you are a fan of the Total War series I would suggest supporting the game and buying a founders pack to try it out.