One of the first blogs I ever wrote for this website was about Total War: Pharaoh, and how the underbaked and hugely disappointing release had pushed me to the very brink when it came to one of my favourite franchises. Nine months later, I have some good news: I am here to eat some shit.
My criticisms of Pharaoh at launch were not isolated, nor were they made in a vacuum; while Creative Assembly enjoyed some recent well-deserved success with the main Warhammer games, and the mega campaign made available as a result, fans had still been simmering away for a while, upset at everything from the supposed abandonment of Three Kingdoms to deeply unpopular Warhammer DLC pricing and plans.
To then release Pharaoh, a game so underwhelming I called it Total War: Going Through The Motions, was for many a final straw. Some folks were mad! And more importantly, I guess, more folks simply didn't care, with Pharaoh enjoying nowhere near the critical success or sales performance that previous historical Total Wars had enjoyed.
While Creative Assembly could have just ridden this out--keep milking Warhammer for DLC and slowly release Pharaoh DLC in the hopes someone would like it--what they've actually done in response is remarkable. Because what they've done is tear up what looks like a years-long release schedule of expansions and downloadable content and just...dumped it all on players in one big package.
For free.
Called Total War: Pharaoh Dynasties, this update was released late last month. It adds two whole new regions to the map (it shipped with just one), doubling the total size of the game. It doubles the number of unique factions available to play as, adds a dynastic system (your leaders can now die and have their children inherit) and a ton of new units. Every single thing I just mentioned could have been at least paid DLC, if not a dedicated expansion, but it's all been rolled up and dropped in everyone's lap in one big download, and it hasn't cost anyone a cent.
Game director Todor Nikolov says of Dynasties:
From the outset of our design journey on Total War: PHARAOH, our vision has always been to deliver a grand-scale recreation of the turbulent Bronze Age Collapse; one brimming with historical intrigue, authentic representations of iconic civilisation, and a sandbox theatre that allows you to rewrite the course of human history. We’re very proud of what we’ve achieved and whilst this will be our final content addition, we hope it serves as a love letter that encapsulates our continued passion for this wonderful age. Thanks for your support.
By "thanks for your support" I think he means "we're sorry", and when he says it'll be the final content addition, it sure sounds like this was years worth of releases all dropped at once.
On the one hand, this highlights the very worst of modern, big-budget video games. If the plan really was to release such a limited game in 2023 and then drip-feed so much of everything else to players over the next year or two, then that plan can fuck right off. It's bad enough when Paradox do it, but I think most people's criticism of that approach is slightly unfair, since Paradox's base games often ship in a pretty complete state already. Pharaoh, as so many said at the time, felt like half a Total War game. Because, turns out, it was!
On the other hand, though, that's a strategic decision made above most people at Creative Assembly's heads. Those responsible for making the game itself can now have their work surveyed in full, and in a remarkable turnaround from November 2023, I think that work is fantastic.
While I still have reservations about the time period--"Bronze Age collapse" sounds cool but the primitive units available to the player kinda limit the tactics you can employ as a result--Pharaoh now boasts easily the series most accomplished strategic section, with a ton of cool features like outposts (which can be customised to add benefits to your region and slow down defenders) and a court + religion overlay that really helps each corner of the map feel like a distinct ethnic region.
And the bigger maps, extra cultures and fog-of-war frontiers help make the game feel vast, and not in the bland, tedious way that Rome 2 or Three Kingdoms were, but more like Empire or Warhammer. Dynasties' world is one to be explored and adventured in, starting small in your own region with your own familiar people before venturing out into the wider, wilder world.
Basically, in the space of one update this has gone from being one of the worst Total Wars of all time to one of the best, all because we got to see the full game as it was intended to be seen, not held back and drip-fed over months and years. Does it make up for the years of frustration and disappointment fans have been dealing with across the entire Total War series? Probably not! But does it make up for months of frustration and disappointment surrounding this game? You bet.
I have no idea if this is indicative of Creative Assembly's release strategy going forwards, or if it's just an emergency, one-off decision made in response to Pharaoh bombing last November. I fear it's the latter, but man, wouldn't it be great if the company could look at the unprecedented turnaround Pharaoh has enjoyed here, and the resulting swing in people's appreciation of the game and the studio, and realise that we can go back. That even in 2024 and beyond, when it feels like every other game on the planet is feeling the pressure to keep releasing content forever, it's possible to do the most old-fashioned thing imaginable: just release the whole game at once and make people happy.
(Bonus note: if you're into Total War and want to hear me and some people much smarter than me talk about it, I was on last week's episode of 3MA specifically to chat about Dynasties, and you can check it out here).
