Review of the game total war arena. Total War: Arena is an amazing multiplayer strategy game. Factions and generals

The evolution of the RTS genre - natural process development? And if so, where will he lead? Let's look at an example Total war: Arena.

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In plain text

The RTS genre has been in deep decline for many years now. Gone are the days of the cult Warcraft and, large projects are released no more than twice a year, and the main representative of real-time strategies is StarСraft 2- has been doing without serious competitors for many years.

There are several reasons for this. Classic RTS with gathering resources and building a base - the games are quite difficult. They usually require a competent distribution of resources from the player, multitasking, tactical knowledge on the battlefield and, in addition, a lot of free time. The result of the decisions made is often not immediately visible, and many fans of Age of Empires are familiar with the situation when one game party lasted for several hours.

In addition, the genre itself has hardly evolved for a long time. Players took part in accurate reconstructions of historical battles, immersed themselves in fantastic universes of their favorite films and books, and got involved in epic battles of a galactic scale. The number of units on the battlefield was in the thousands and was limited only by the power of the iron. The scale and number of actions per minute grew, but the general mechanics of RTS obeyed fine-tuned algorithms and did not change.

Not surprisingly, one day real-time strategies took the path of simplification, and developers began to add elements of other genres to them. It is worth remembering at least tower defense and successfully shot Plants vs Zombies, which later grew into a series of its own.

Another example of this mixture is MOBA games: this genre of RTS and RPG was born from amateur modifications to games. Blizzard... Aeon of Strife Card for StarСraft set the familiar to many battlefield format with three "lines", and custom card Defense of the Ancients (DotA) to Warcraft iii: The frozen Throne cemented its success by complementing the mechanics with leveling up heroes and purchasing gear. It was the first DotA that gathered around itself a serious community of fans and laid the foundation for most MOBAs.

What should we build a MOBA

For a long time, multiplayer arenas existed only as additions to other strategies. But in 2009 the company Gas Powered Games(now Wargaming Seattle) released the first independent representative of the genre - Demigod... It was in it that the player first chose one of ten heroes and helped weaker allied units under the control of AI (thus creeps) to capture points and destroy the enemy base. Experience gained for destroying opponents raised the level and opened up new abilities of the hero, and gold for killing enemy demigods was used to buy equipment.

It is much easier for a player, occupied by a single character, to follow the development of hostilities and plan their steps in advance, without being distracted by the economy and the construction of structures. And since the battles here are much faster and more dynamic than in the usual strategies, the MOBA genre is ideal for short session games.

Soon the new direction expanded to the point that only a few studios could afford to release conservative single-player real-time strategy games. Now the old genre is showing itself well on mobile devices, and veterans like Relic and The creative assembly from time to time delight fans with major releases, but the glorious times when the RTS genre dominated the market are long over.

The detachments themselves tried to take a safer shelter, be it an earthen embankment, a brick wall or an explosion crater in an open field

Faster, less, more interesting

The hallmark of the series Total war there has always been a mixture of tactical battles in real time and step-by-step country management: elements that are very different in mechanics directly depended on each other and were inseparable over the years. Although there have always been players who liked the economic part more than the strategic one, and vice versa. Just for the latter it is intended Total War: Arena .

Want thoughtful, balanced combat with cornfield ambushes, fog of war, and elevation changes, but without diplomacy, tax collection, and the administrative work of running provinces? No question - let's simplify the "global" gameplay to the formation of units and pumping leaders.

Don't want to spend a lot of time on drawn-out battles and chase tired infantry across huge battlefields? Please. The maps in Arena are quite compact, although they are replete with obstacles such as dense forests and numerous structures, behind which you can hide a whole squad from enemy shells.

The pace of the game has greatly accelerated: you will no longer be able to be distracted by tea while the army is advancing on the enemy ranks. Even "heavy" foot detachments move surprisingly briskly, constantly trying to hide in the folds of the terrain, outflank and suddenly thrust a spear deeper into the line of a gaping enemy. Games in the "Arena" last no longer than fifteen minutes; if during this time the enemy units are not destroyed, and the bases are not captured, then the victory is awarded to the team, which has the most troops left at its disposal.

Despite all the gameplay simplifications and the limitation of three squads per person, the scale of the "adult" games in the series was not particularly affected. In addition to standard units like infantrymen, cavalry and riflemen, we may have at our disposal heavy siege weapons, and even war dogs... And the number of wounded soldiers lying on the battlefield can reach three thousand - a solid figure for a shareware session.

In-game purchases, which no ftp project can do without, are also available in TWA. But here the analogue of real currency does not increase the chances of winning: for gold you can buy skins for armor and shields for the squad or special premium troops, which in fact turned out to be weaker than the free ones of the same level due to the lack of pumping (most likely, this will be fixed in MBT) ...

Although you can cheat a little: buy an unnecessary combat unit for gold, convert a soldier into free experience and instantly raise your commander's level, or even more than once. But even in this case, success is not guaranteed to you: the higher your level, the more often there are more experienced rivals, behind whose shoulders not the purchased gold, but the skill earned in blood and sweat. And the experience, as they say, cannot be spent on drink. In addition, for obtaining certain achievements, the game itself gradually throws up gold.

For a long time, the cult studio Creative Assembly is preparing a real bomb for all fans of multiplayer. And it will explode this year. If someone else does not know, then eminent developers legendary series Total War decided to swing into the MMO market. And they start in this direction together with the publishers from Sega with their product with the uncomplicated name of Total War: Arena.

What is it?

It should be noted right away that this is far from a continuation of the eminent franchise. Rather, it is her adaptation for. Although it is more correct to call Total War: Arena a symbiosis of the multiplayer arena and. Although the creators of the project, for example, Jan van der Krabben, compare their new brainchild with the second part of StarCraft. But whole line critics believe that the game is more like a session game, and the most daring of them even hint that it is similar to a very popular one in our latitudes.

In fact, Total War: Arena is typical, but not one user will have to command an army in it, but a team of up to ten players. Moreover, each commander can simultaneously have up to three detachments, including hundreds of soldiers. So in order to defeat the enemy, a team of ten people will need to act as coordinated as possible. And sincerely believe that their opponents will be stubborn schoolchildren who are not able to fight together.

The project has successfully passed the beta testing stage and now everyone, including Russian-speaking gamers, can download the game client for free and test themselves as a real commander.

Key features

So, what else can you do without? Total overview War: Arena? Of course, without at least a brief mention of the unique features of the project:

no turn-based mode, unlike other games in the series;

team battles with the number of live players up to 10x10 games;

three warring parties: Greeks, Romans and barbarians. In the future, there may be an increase in the factions for which you can fight;

each player will have his own army, consisting of several units. Moreover, both units and main characters can be pumped;

Considering that in the army of any of the users there are simultaneously up to three detachments, including a maximum of one hundred warriors, at the same time there are about six thousand units on the battle map;

the main emphasis of the developers is on the interaction of gamers, which will help an even weaker army to win, provided that the correct tactical and strategic decisions are made.

Verdict

Total War: Arena remains one of the most anticipated MMOs among true strategy fans. And this is a clear merit not only of the previous games in the series, but also of a number of innovative ideas that the developers from Creative Assembly are threatening to implement. We can only wish them luck and hope that the world will see another cult multiplayer strategy game.

Introduction

On February 22, an open beta test of the online historical strategy started. Now anyone can join the multiplayer battles of antiquity. The product is conditionally free - the donation is there, but at the very beginning you will not feel it. Development of the game is still ongoing, but the core of the gameplay can be checked out right now. We, for our part, will explain the basics of the game to a beginner in this guide: the interface, default commanders and units, pumping methods and initial tactical tips. In general, everything you need to know when launching this very franchise.

Interface and pumping system

It is quite simple here and was clearly made under the influence. There are "Troops" tabs, where you can select a commander and units of units, as well as the "Research" tab, where they are pumped. On the right are resources: gold (donat), silver (in-game currency) and free experience (deducted in battles). In the center, attention is drawn to the "To battle" button, which so far has two modes - a battle with bots and real players. The bottom panel is reserved for purely utilitarian and technical issues.

The pumping system is two-level here. In addition to free experience, a separate experience goes to the general and the units. And if the former needs it to increase the level and new skills, then for the latter there is an intricate tree of improvements, on which not only XP is spent, but also silver. For example: to upgrade from pedites (I level) to militia (II level), you will need to consistently unlock improved swords and helmets.

Choice of commander and faction

At the start of the game, you will be asked to decide on the commander, and therefore on the faction. There are only three available commanders:

Germanicus (Roman Empire)

A versatile general specializing in close combat and infantry. We recommend it to beginners, as it will allow you to deal with the main unit of the game - swordsmen. After that, you can safely study the rest of the types of troops.

Skills: heavy infantry onslaught (short-term powerful onslaught, most effective for assault infantry); turtle (soldiers are rearranged and covered with shields, reducing the effect of frontal shelling, simultaneously losing speed); retribution (warriors, seeing the growing losses of the enemy in battle, begin to show miracles of dexterity and courage).

Starting units: pedites (swordsmen) and tyrons (dart throwers).

Kinana (Greece)

This woman prefers ranged combat, giving the player control of the first-tier archers. Very well suited for reconnaissance, support and defense.

Skills: rapid attack (the squad focuses on maneuverability, increasing the speed of movement); pursuit (the specified enemy unit is visible even when it leaves the field of view); shower of arrows (increases the rate of fire).

Starting units: Mycenaean hoplites (spearmen) and Mycenaean archers.

Arminius (Barbarians)

Under the command of this commander, there are lightly armored and fast units - infantry and cavalry. It is because of the cavalry that he is chosen in the first battles in order to arrange raids on the enemy's rear, cutting out archers and capturing bases.

Skills: take-off run (speed increases with each step, but when stopped, the effect is reset); fury (the soldier is seized by a wild lust for blood), disguise (the selected squad pretends to be the enemy).

Starting units: tribal warriors (swordsmen) and horsemen (cavalry with spears).

It is clear that this is not a complete set of faction generals, but the rest become available only after donation, including such famous ones as Bouddick and Guy Julius Caesar. As well as new faction on MBT - Carthage. Each commander has his own branch of pumped skills and, with a new level, more and more advanced units are opened for him. But it's better to talk about this in a separate guide.

Combat launch and placement

After you have decided on a faction and a commander, the recruitment of units for your mini-army begins. It is really "mini", since the maximum number of units in it is only three. Therefore, you will not particularly roam. But you will also play in a team of ten, hence it makes sense to make your unit specialized. Having decided on the starting setup, click "Into battle!" To get started, we recommend PvE battles with bots, where you can upgrade your starting units to the top state, and only then move on to hacks with live players.

Next, a tactical interface opens, where the disposition of your units on the battle map is selected. I advise you to carefully approach the study of the terrain, so as not to be alone against a superior enemy at a disadvantage. Ideally, all teammates should be your friends and preferably hang out on the teampeak. This is the only way to ensure a more or less acceptable level of coordination in the battle. However, this is utopia. The maximum that you can - on the same screen, use special tools to draw an attack plan and place marks. But will they listen to you? A rhetorical question. So just act according to the situation.

Battle and control

Command and control of troops in "Arena" quite intuitive and familiar not only to fans of the series, but also to strategy lovers in general. Select the troops with a frame and throw them into battle. With the numbers 1, 2 and 3, select the corresponding unit, Ctrl + A - select all units. WASD - move around the map, Q and E - rotate the camera, spacebar - center on your troops. If you hold down RMB, then you can set the turn of the units at the point of arrival. On the held Shift, you can register the route of movement by checkpoints, for difficult maneuvers.

Directly on the battle map, you need to know the following. First, the types of terrain. Your troops will move at different speeds across different types of terrain, in the forest and on the road. The loss of speed is especially critical for the cavalry, so keep an eye on the route. The dynamics will also subside uphill, and if you run from it - vice versa. Second, an overview. Each unit has its own viewing radius, while taking into account obstacles, height, type of troops and a bunch of other factors. It is clear that in the forest, visibility decreases several times and it is there that it is better to set up an ambush. There are points with an eye icon on the map - they offer the best view.

Allied and enemy units have many characteristics, but we will focus on two of the most important. There are two stripes above the squad icon - white and blue (red for the enemy). Blue - indicates the number of soldiers. If it is over, the unit is considered destroyed. White is responsible for stamina and morality. As soon as it drops to zero, the warriors will run headlong and only later recover. Morale collapses at double speed when you are attacked from the flank and rear. Pay close attention to these parameters during the battle.

Although Total War: Arena- strategy, this is a rather dynamic game. The first clashes begin in the first minutes. Therefore, here you have to make quick tactical decisions in real time, without the ability to pause and think over the steps.

To begin with, you need to competently approach the assembly of your units and clearly understand your place on the battlefield. The whole principle of actions and counteractions fits into "stone - scissors - paper". The cavalry beats the archers, the archers mow down the infantry, the infantry hobbles the cavalry. At the same time, it is not necessary to recruit troops of the same type. For example, you shouldn't take three archers at once. Because in a certain moment you will be left alone with the cavalry with a completely predictable result. Hence, for two detachments of shooters, you need to have one regiment of hoplite spearmen to cover in a critical situation.

Infantry we break bots

Choose either spearmen or swordsmen depending on your defensive and offensive tactics. Blocking a strategically important gorge with a phalanx is a nice thing. But being on the defensive isn't always right. While you cuckoo on one flank and do nothing, the enemy concentrates all his forces on the other and grinds allies. And since the concept of fatigue does not exist here, soon superior forces will come to you. In general, the basis of tactics should fit into a simple scheme - try to tie up as many enemy units as possible on yourself, in the hope that your teammates will not be blunt and win the victory.

To do this, you need to constantly look at the minimap in order to be aware of the movements of enemy units. It is quite simple to determine the direction of the main blow - a bunch of detachments, swordsmen and spearmen, are in close formation under the cover of riflemen. Hurry there and try to hit the flank. If your position is at the forefront of such an attack and the troops are threatened with useless death, it is best to retreat to the allies - this will bring the team more benefit. Do not disdain tactical retreats and regroupings, obstinacy is not appreciated in this game.

The most dangerous enemy in "Arena"- your own ally. And not only because he often blunts. This game has a "friendly fire", which means you have to monitor your troops so that they do not damage your teammates. This is especially true for archers. As soon as the infantrymen clashed in hand-to-hand combat, it is better to rain down the arrows in another place, without the risk of hurting allies. Or change your position in order to shoot more at the enemy than through the backs of your own. Hoplites have a phalanx mode where they bristle with spears. So - any passage through their formation causes certain damage, including to friends. Do not forget to disconnect him on the march, otherwise you will cross half of your team.

Risky cavalry maneuvers

Try not to move around in dense compact masses. You will come under fire, especially the catapult, it will not seem a little! Separate your squads to the sides and advance on a wide front. This will make it easier to cover the flanks of the gaping enemy units. It is better to move through the terrain that gives maximum cover and camouflage: ravines, forests, tall grass. So not only will you not be detected ahead of time, but also will not be able to inflict serious remote damage.

Don't attack the enemy base! Alone, you most likely will not capture it. In addition, ambushes always graze near the base, who like to hop-stop such adventurers. While you deal with the AFK-shniki, they will come up and hit the rear. It is better to catch enemy units all over the map, gradually grinding the score in your favor. After all, even if the time runs out, the victory will be attributed to the team that destroyed more of the opponent's troops.

Outcome

Despite the rather strange setting, start playing Total War: Arena very simple. And this is good, because a high-quality product is distinguished by a low entry threshold and a gradually opening depth of gameplay afterwards. In addition, right now is the most convenient moment to sit down to the game, since many other newcomers will come with you and experienced commanders will rarely meet in the sandbox. We will gradually reveal all the nuances of this wonderful game in thematic guides, if your interest in this topic appears. In the meantime - go ahead, to defeat the same profane!

Once upon a time, as a child, I played strategy and got wild pleasure and joy from it. It was possible to think over ways of bypassing, cheat and build your warriors in a certain order. Then no one even thought about multiplayer. At that time, we could at most launch some strategies for local network, the maximum still Garena helped. However, time has passed and the ability to play strategy on the network is implemented in Total War: Arena. I played for a while and realized that this is exactly the game that I want to play in the evenings, to compete with other players. And, of course, I would really like to see the tournaments for this project, since there is plenty of room for tactics and spectacular battles here. It's too early to talk about that, so let's discuss the features that are already in the game and move on. Let's start with gameplay, which should not be compared to WoT, is a completely different story.

Game process

After you have chosen your character and squad, you can click on the button for finding opponents. On this moment the game was just released, there may not be so many users, but I was looking for a game for a maximum of three minutes, usually the match was even faster. After all players are loaded, you need to take your spawn point. You can even think over some kind of your own plan of attack or defense, but at the start of the battle it will no longer matter. Yes, it is advisable to put swordsmen and other heavy soldiers in front, and to place archers in the back, but this is not necessary. Your strategy can be as cool as possible, but a team of ten wins here, and if only everyone plays together, it will be possible to finish off the enemies as quickly as possible. You can win either by killing all the enemies, or by capturing the enemy base, or by time - whoever has more points at the end of the round (15 minutes) wins.

Improvements

Throughout the entire process of the game, you will improve your commanders and squads. This is a fairly simple process, you do not need to have special knowledge or skills. There is a development tree, just like in tanks, there is a commander with his skills. You improve the hero, then improve the parameters of the units (buy new uniforms, weapons, and so on), after which you can go into battle. It is worth noting that although the characteristics of attack, defense and other points are important, in a battle it will not be possible to win solely at the expense of a strong team. You need to win with your head, not with your sword.

Tactics

Players are a huge problem in any battle. This is a problem for any multiplayer game, because in Dota 2, for example, you can hit and lose with a bad team even if you have advantages on all fronts. In this game, everything also very much depends on the team, only here there are ten players on each side and it is quite difficult to cooperate. For example, in one battle we had just a gorgeous balance of forces, but for some reason the archers ran forward, died, then inflicted damage on their own (this is also possible), and we lost. In another round, the formation was terrible, we had almost no ranged combat, but we won by simply bypassing the enemy behind the forest. Not so much depends on you, here you need to work as a team, and this is difficult.

Outcome

I liked the game, no doubt about it. Beautiful graphics, clear and familiar interface, excellent product optimization. You play and have fun, especially if you get into a team with more or less smart guys. At level III and higher, people already understand what needs to be done to win, you just need to obey or command yourself. An excellent option for those who are a commander at heart.

Comments and opinions on Total War: Arena

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Hello everyone and good mood. The creation of the game began back in 2013 by Creative Assembly and SEGA, known for the Total War series of games. The game managed to get to the closed beta on playground Steam, but after that something went wrong and the team that worked on the game stopped coping and did not have time to update the game. In order to correct their mistakes, they were forced to go offline. After a long lull, Creative Assembly announced in 2016 that it was joining forces with Wargaming to help make the game the way its Total War fans want it to be.

In 2017, the closed alpha began, after half a year, this month the closed beta began which you can get by purchasing one of the sets, or if you were invited to the alpha, you will be given access to the beta. The studio expects to start open beta in 2018 in the spring.

Wargaming collaborates with Creative Assembly to create a tactical game fighting game, which will allow you to converge with other players in 10v10 mode under the command of legendary historical commanders, you will lead armies into battle.

Before the battle, the player will have to choose one of the three currently available factions: Romans, Greeks and barbarians. Several commanders are available in each faction, now there are ten of them, but their number will only increase. On the side of the Romans: Gaius Julius Caesar, Germanicus, Scipio Africanus, for the Greeks: Kinana, Leonidas, Miltiades, Alexander the Great, barbarians: Arminius, Boudicca, Vercingetorigus. Each commander has a set of abilities that will strengthen your units.

After choosing a side and a commander, we will be able to choose our squads, in total, under the control of each player, three squads will be available, each squad has up to one hundred people, there are 146 squads in the game and ten ranks of pumping. Each unit and faction will have their own abilities available. A large variety of troops awaits you, you can take control of cavalry, swordsmen, spearmen, pikemen, archers, dart throwers, slingers, siege machines.

We will be able to combine different types of troops in our army, for example, to the pikemen who, thanks to their ability to become an impregnable phalanx, can add a detachment of cavalry with which we will go behind enemy lines.

In addition to historical commanders, historical battlefields await us, with an increase in rank, old cards will not be available to you, since new units will be much larger, faster and stronger new cards will be available to you that will be increased in area, as well as more and more new ones will be added geological features that will increase the difficulty of the game with each new rank.

The pumping system is quite simple and similar to World of Tanks, where each squad can be improved by buying new items of weapons, and upon reaching a certain amount of squad experience, we improve it and move to a new rank.

The currency in the game is divided into two parts, silver and gold, gold is the currency that is bought for real money, and silver is in-game. With the help of gold, we can acquire absolutely everything, and with the help of silver, we buy units and abilities of factions. There is also free experience, which will help us in buying, pumping commanders and improving their abilities, but we can spend them on pumping units, which I do not recommend doing.

The battles in the game are quite large-scale, you will have the opportunity to win in two ways, destroy all opponents or capture their base. As in others online games which, imprisoned for a team game in Total War: ARENA, cannot do without it, for example, archers will not be able to survive a collision with any units that get close to them, or units of swordsmen will not be able to withstand a phalanx of pikemen, therefore, without help, mutual understanding and team play our united army will be destroyed.

Wargaming and Creative Assembly want to develop the game as long as possible, adding new commanders, cards, units, factions, technologies. The main goal is to reach the Middle Ages. Total War: ARENA will be completely free and will be distributed on a free-to-play model.