Pass on it... or wait for it to come way down in price for the following reasons:

1: $50 for a new game is BS, especially one as unfinished as this one

2: By the time it's say, $20, computer hardware will have increased significantly.

3: By the time it's say, $20, the game will hopefully be patched to playability

Just my two cents, Im glad a buddy had a copy to evaluate... I would have been miffed if I had spent $50 on that game. Just a weak offering all around.

-Gonzo

Buy it. Amazing game.

However, don't buy it if your computer isn't up to snuff. At it's highest settings, it is easily one of the most visually stimulating and amazing games created yet. Crank up your settings, play a naval battle, and feel your jaw drop. Part of the games appeal is it's massive battles and if you can't experience that to a great extent... you are kinda taking out part of what makes this game great.

It's a great game, I personally don't regret buying the game despite it's bugs. They jsut released a patch recently that fixed a majority of the bugs, and they have free units, graphical upgrades, and patches on the way. Lot's of them. So you'll be fine. The fact that it relies on Steam means there are achievements, a huge community, and fast patching.

And yes the retail version also uses Steam.

If you have a nice PC, and love strategy games, by all means pick it up.

Wait until it's patched and finished, or, as Dr.Gonzo said, it drops in price. I paid full price on preorder and haven't started playing seriously yet, waiting for parches. Grrrr.

You'll have to cope with the fact it requires the steam crap, too.

It still amazes me how it got so well received by critics despite all the stupid bugs. That's all I'll say about the unfortunate game I bought.

Yes, you need Steam for updates and first time activation.

I played the demo a while ago and thought it was great (didn't buy though, had a few other games I wanted)

What are these bugs you guys speak of?

As far as the high reviews go, I don't have empire but I felt like something similar happened with MTW2. Total war games have a tremendous amount of content, so when people review them I think they sometimes feel like they have to give a good review because there is so much material being offered. The knowledge that the games will definetely sell well doesn't hurt either.

The problem is that when there are problems with key elements of the game--for me in MTW2 it was the relatively lackluster field AI in a single-player game--you end up with an experience that is less than the sum of its parts.

Everyone will tell you a different thing.  I think one of the problems with ETW is its sheer magnitude.  Its such a big game that it has quite a few flaws.  If you can see past the slightly dodgy (at times) AI and occasional annoying bugs its a great game.  They are doing plenty of patches for it so hopefully soon it will be a lot better.

Well, this link here kind of expresses my initial reaction of playing the game before being heavily patched...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCunixAzHOA&feature=related

Get the game when the price drops. By that time, it will be working at its best.

I don't like it, not what I expected. I'm more of a build base then attack. In ETW you are given men and you attack eachother.

I personally liked the Rome: Total War (which came free w/ preorder via steam) more than Empire. First off, Empire runs pretty badly, even though I have a decent system (9800GTX+ GPU, Phenom II X4 920 CPU, 4 GB RAM). The loadscreens are so long it makes you never EVER want to play a battle, especially small inconsequential ones. Then there are the bugs... Ew. I have come across around 5 instances of a bug I have nicknamed the 'toxic assets' bug. This bug makes it so an entire naval fleet is unusable. It does this by crashing the game to desktop every time you click on it. This basicly makes the fleet worthless AND a liability (click on it and crash, better hope you saved recently!) The bug persists through save-load as well, so simply restarting the game won't help.

Troop AI really seems to suck. I think they just took the AI from Rome: Total War and gave it guns with a firing arc. And don't even try playing a seige battle with a city with fortress or wall defenses. You are lucky if you can get your troops to fire down on the enemy (or up at the enemy) without them trying to path to them, usually via leaving the walls (and their nice defensable position) and using ropes to climb down off the walls. Unless you are VERY good in the field, it is best to just hit auto resolve EVERY TIME, since you will usually take less casualties, and almost always lose them in equal portions (such as 17% from each group as opposed to losing 17% of your groups which would be normal for player controlled battles) You can pull off some really great defenses, especially if the bugs fall in your favor in the towns with buildings and no walls.

Artillary are fun to use as soon as you get cannister shot, especially in narrow alley ways against horse charges...

I have gotten most of the way through one of the long campaigns (100 years) but got stuck at 81 years, since the toxic assets bug rendered my invasion fleet to take over America all but useless, and I don't want to complete it until the bug is fixed for good.

Overall, I wouldn't suggest buying it yet, especially not for $50. $30 would be a decent price IMO, since there is quite a bit of fun to be had, but also way to many bugs for a supposedly finished game. The general feeling, with all the bugginess seems to be closer to the beta of SoaSE: Entrenchment about 1.5 months before release.

At this point, if you want a Total War game, try some of its predecessors.

Fyi, you can buy the game for about $20 already off the Amazon marketplace.  That's the main reason I have been searching forums to see if it's worth it/has been patched enough.

For $20 you should probably buy it if your system can handle it and you can spare the cash.

Thanks for the replys. I thin requiring a retail game to use to use Steam in order to run is complete bullshit. I tried the demo (downloaded steam just for it) and it ran like crap.

As for the bugs, thats just amazing how buggy Creative Assembly's games can get. They're getting reliant on good graphics. They've had so much time to develop this game. How could they let it slip like this (this forum needs a shaking head smiley)? I don't understand the problems with the AI either. If you want good AI, give Stardock a call.

I have Medieval II, and I've been downloaded mods that make the game even better. I recommend Stainless Steel and Third Age Total War.

Enemy AI isn't to terrible as far as strategy goes... But you would be better off commanding lines of rocks than your own soldiers. Its more or less a bundle of straws which breaks this camel's back. Lots of little bugs which are numerous, but relatively few game-breakers (aside from the toxic assets bug).

The game is pretty decent in concept, however:

- The load times, and the times the AI takes to make their turns are ridiculous. Sometimes you have nothing to do for 3 turns and you are like "Click next turn", wait 30 sec., click, wait 30 sec., click ... Every time you start a battle, you can go fix yourself some food it takes that long to load the battlefield.

- The combat AI is idiotic. I sometimes have the feeling it just moves around at random. You can beat armies that massively outnumber you quite handily.

- It crashes. Nothing like playing a 40 min. battle, just to have it crash when you get back to the strategy map.

If that stuff wasn't there, it would be a pretty great game.