Total War: MEDIEVAL II – Definitive Edition

the graphics may 30 years old, but the game itself more than makes up for that minor inconvenience

If campaign map moves too quickly, change your monitors refresh rate down to 60. Good game lets me conquer England as Scotland

Play the third age mod and you'll never need another strategy game ever again

I took all of the known world as scotland.
So my fanfiction came a little closer to reality.
SCOTLAND FOREVER!!

Only played Third Age Divide and Conquer. That alone makes this a worthwhile purchase.

Does suffer from old TW Ui jank though, so be prepared for that

I love this game it might be low quality but hey its a good strategy game.

Good game. Map doesn’t change color too much but overall 8.5/10

Greatest Total War game ever made, but has certainly aged. There are some QOL updates that would be nice, as especially in modded late games it can take a very long time to get through a turn. Regardless, this is also host to the greatest lord of the rings mod for any game I can think of. Last days of the third age + Divide and Conquer are absolute masterpieces. It even looks pretty good for being 18 years old.

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I've played a bit of this in the past so I have more than the 23 hours posted at the time. I've finally come to understand how to play this game from watching YouTube videos. There are some things I like about this game and there are some things that I think should have been improved or implemented better. IMO* There are way more fun games to play for the time it takes to really learn to play this game and even try to enjoy it. Time and money I feel is probably better spent on other games I would recommend.

try the Divide and Conquer mod, it is the best, Lord of the Rings.

Best Total War game. I do enjoy the exploitable siege engine mechanics.

Looked better 10 years ago. Just junk now. If you got a rubbish computer and this game is free. Go for it. If not there are a lot better games out there.

The game is engaging, the build up the managment part of the game dose makes the battle part feel really cool. Diplomacy and other such non-battle mecanics do feel a little under done.

For a turned based strategy game it is great! You have also the option to play real-time battles controlling your troops. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your troop types will help you successfully win a battle even against larger numbers. Utilize the high ground for defense. Manage your cities to develop economic and/or military power. Wish you could play against human players in the campaigns otherwise overall great strategy game!

Good graphics. Easy to play for all levels.

Absolute blast, have over 800 hrs in this game because of its replay value. Very good og total war game maybe the best.

"Total War: MEDIEVAL II – Definitive Edition" is a masterpiece of strategy gaming, offering a vast and immersive medieval world to conquer. With its stunning visuals, deep diplomacy, and epic battles, it's a must-play for fans of the genre.

Loved playing the game for 20 minutes, but it crashed on my Mac and now I can't even start it up without it crashing every time. Extremely extremely disappointed

This is one of the games I used to play as a child, but this time I bought it again to play. It's one of the best Total War games out there! I used to play PvP, and it's a lot of fun.

Amazing and what elevates this even further is the huge collection of mods available. Try the Third Age mod (Lord of the Rings mod).

I'd say this is the best Total War game to date, hence it's still massively popular despite being released in 2006! If you have not played it yet, you are missing out!

Not only are the base game and its DLCs brilliant, but there's been an active modding community over the years who have made some fantastic conversion mods such as Stainless Steel, Third Age Total War (LOTR), and The Elder Scrolls: Total War.

This is a game that I've played since it first come out, and still haven't gotten tired of... Please make Medieval 3. Thanks!

It's a good game but it's aged super hard and it needs a remaster like Rome.

its a really fun game i love the fact that you can command troops into a bloody battle

Played this game 20 years ago on ´cd-rom', add more than a 1000 hours on my played. This game was peak of its time and mods keep it alive till this day.

Please let it have a sequel, as a TW gamer veteran there is not a TW game i have not bought because of mods on older games. It just helps my own replayability and a good to decent historical TW game gets bought in my book, no matter the mods.

Absolute masterpiece and my personal favorite game in the Total War franchise. If you don't mind the dated graphics you absolutely should pick the game up and try it. Creative Assembly - please make a remaster for this game!

Decided to play as England, thinking I'd unify the lands and be a noble king. First thing that happens? France declares war on me for no reason.
Ah, diplomacy at its finest.

So naturally, I defend myself, repel their attacks, and boom:
“You’ve been excommunicated!”
What?! I defend my kingdom and suddenly I’m public enemy number one. Pope, buddy, they started it! Next thing I know, half of Europe’s sending assassins to camp outside London like it's some medieval Coachella.

Assassins are lurking in every alley. The Pope says nothing. Cool, cool.

But the second I send my own assassin to even the odds?
“That’s a sin, England! How dare you defend yourself with... the same tactics everyone else is using!”
Cue crusade against me.

Reputation in shambles.
Pope laughs in Latin.

Now half of my cities are on fire, the other half are busy fighting for the Pope who hates me. My assassins? Apparently trained by medieval interns.

10/10

I have very fond memories of this game, which in 2024 is as good as I remember it being. It was the first Total War game I ever played and remains an excellent entry point into the genre.

You play one of five great powers of Europe in 1080 and your job is to conquer a fair amount of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, plus some special population center (or two) that has significance for you. The tried-and-tested formula of moving armies around on the strategy map and fighting real-time battles on the field is the core of the game and remains a lot of fun here. There are also lots of agents to tinker with, like merchants, diplomats, spies, and assassins, and there is a rudimentary diplomacy system that sort-of works (although on higher difficulties it mostly breaks down as the computer opponents get mad at you quickly). If you eliminate a power that wasn't previously available to play, it will open up in a later campaign, and if you win a long campaign all the powers are opened up for future play, which might mean you end up playing this game a lot.

You will have to fight more battles on the field than you normally do in later iterations of this series because the autocalc is very biased in the computer's favor even when your part of the bar is larger than theirs, and even if you win an autocalc most of the computer's army will usually survive to fight another day, which is annoying. In order to wipe out their armies, generally you will have to go onto the field yourself and make sure you pursue everything to the end with your cavalry. The AI is not great though, either strategically or tactically, so you will really be able to manhandle it even on Very Hard difficulties. Often the computer will build armies of all infantry or all crossbowmen that autocalc pretty well but absolutely get crushed in a field battle versus your combined arms. The advisors will explain basic strategy to you at length so you will get the hang of it quickly even if you are not familiar with this series or games of this type in general.

Of course the graphics are dated now (but still not bad!), and if you want to avoid the game crashing every few hours from memory problems you will have to update it with the 4GB patch - your local search engine will direct you to this all-purpose wonder which is useful for any game created in the 32 bit era. Once I did that it ran marvelously.

Overall can still recommend, even 17-ish years later. Kind of surprised at how well it held up. Very inexpensive so a great way to kill a weekend for a few bucks.

I would absolutely play just for the Crusade DLC! This game is absolutely bloody fantastic and still holds up to today’s standards. If you’re a fan of medieval warfare, you’re going to fall in love; if you’re not, get ready to be besieged!

So addictive. Must have played thousands of hours of this over the years. Absolute go to. Perfect on a wet Sunday.

"But you can fix these troubles with mods!" yeah, well not all of us feel like going through all the effort of making a game playable. It's fun, but the small complaints add up quick.

So here's what was bad:
-In between rounds you need to watch slow motion animation of the dozens, if not HUNDREDS of little units scurry around the map. Clicking makes them walk slightly faster, so you only need to wait 2 or three seconds per unit. So it's minutes inbetween turns because there's no option to speed up the walking animations.
-Everything on the world map is more or less the same color. I can't tell where my units are, I can't tell if there's enemy units around. sometimes I lose or forget about a unit until an hour later when I see my damn spy has been standing in the wilderness for a decade.
-There's 4-6 "agents" units that are really annoying to manage and the benefits they provide are meh. Do I really need a princss agent to announce weddings and matches in the game?
-The barring of town/castle function unless there's some member of the royal family parked inside isn't fun, it's tedious.
-During negotiations you can't swap to another screen, so if someone is offering an alliance I dunno if it will piss off my other allies or not
-Sometimes other factions go from alliance to war? The whole reason I made an alliance was so France doesn't kick me in the ass when I'm fighting Poland, what the heck.
-Of course bigger numbers are good, but sometimes it's unclear if a unit can possibly defeat another unit. I was kiting an armored sergeant with my hero calvary and having 4 groups of archers light him up. But I guess the archers were too low and the sgt was too high? It's annoying to get stomped when you have 5 to 1 numbers(with ranged units!) against a slow enemy.
-You can't kill enemy agents, you can just kind of shove them aside. And wait the 3 seconds for their retreat animation.
-Scrolling through towns trying to figure out what a *town* does vs what a *castle* does is tedious. They both generate income and units and you build buildings, but I guess they're different? and transitioning one to the other destroys all your buildings so you need to decide right away or a couple dozen turns of progress is gone.
-The auto-calc estimate is wildly inaccurate in both ways: prepare to save-scum.
-Your calvary don't gallop everywhere, they default to walk. So clicking on a place, you need to immidiately click run otherwise they'll stroll while getting shot full of arrows. And most RTS you're clicking a few times, in this game you need to micro the shit out of calvary to get them to effing run. Particularly frustrating when you line up a great charge on some spearmen backs, CHARGE! JK, forgot to hit run, so the calvary was just strolling up behind them, giving time to get out of position of for them to put up a defense.
-There's a half-baked chivalry/dread thing going on where you can make your good guys do good, like releasing prisoners and your bad guys be bstrds, like executing prisoners. But you can't check your guy's stats when it prompts the decision and it's not obvious if they're going good or breaking bad. Frustrating.
-Can my calvary dismount when I'm siege-ing and be of any use? NO! Stubborn b!tchs won't get off their horses.

I had my fun, but this game is getting realllllly tedious and it's becoming more like work than play.

The Magnum opus of Total War games. While not as stunning or refined as more modern titles it still remains one of, if not, the best Total War. The modding scene to the game is what also kept it an all time classic allowing a plethora of settings and universes to embrace the total war formula ex. Lord of The Rings, Game of Thrones etc.

Graphically and its unique sound design make you feel like and its well placed humor can even make the most extreme players remain entertained.

The replay value of the grand campaigns cannot be overstated, especially for those brave enough to tackle higher difficulties, allowing a near endless supply of strategy, intrigue, betrayal, politics, faith and war.

A healthy blend of macro and micro. But most importantly, TOTAL WAR!

If you wish to delve into the franchise or wish to add and all-time classic to your collection, Medieval 2 Total War is the game for you.

P.S. The definitive edition not only fixes and improves graphics and UI but also includes ALL DLC Campaigns in the Kingdoms expansion. Talk about a sweet deal!

-ControlledKhaos

Everything except the graphics and controls is better than the newer TW games

very very great experience, even in 2024.

I've had fun with the scenarios and expansions, those, along with the grand campaign feel engaging enough to keep me invested and coming back whenever the internet's out or I make time to continue playing.

- if they ever do a remaster or a new game in the medieval setting, I may even cough up the cash to compare.

We're not quite at the 20 year anniversary of this game's release but I think it's more than fair to say that Medieval 2 has achieved the same legendary status that its predecessor Rome: Total War did two decades after release. This game easily goes toe to toe with any Total War released after 2006 and in my opinion, it remains the diamond standard of the series for overall quality. I bought this puppy on CD well before I knew what Steam was and I've probably poured nearly 4000 hours into it over my gaming career.

And that's all before I bring up the same thing every other reviewer has. This game, in my humble opinion, stands alone and above all other strategy games in the domain of mods. The community, the custom content, the graphical reworks, the historical overhauls, the fantasy universes brought to life, and so much more... It is the stuff of legend. Medieval 2 Total War was far from the first strategy game to be modded but I think the game truly redefined what is possible in modding. Stainless Steel, Vanilla Beyond, Solaris Draco, Divide and Conquer, Westeros Total War... I could go on and on and On.

You will never tire of this experience. I guarantee it.

played med 2 before on other devices. just love this game as a whole. any fan of tw either should or already appreciates this game.

Best Total War Game, not to complex but still very interesting just waiting for TWM3 PLease!!

This is the one of the all-time greats. I got this game back in 2006 at Best Buy, thinking my Dell laptop could run it at the time. I couldn't even run it over 15 fps on lowest settings back then. It was still a great game. It's probably the last "good" Total War game (Besides Shogun 2) in my opinion.

Does it hold up today? Yes, in some ways it does if you're realistic about your expectations. It still has more depth than most modern Total War games. The Papal Appeasement aspect of the game is one of my favorite concepts that hasn't been redone in a modern title.

But if you're looking for graphic fidelity it holds up the same way TES IV: Oblivion holds up. Not well, but nostalgically still pleasant to look at in a way (to me).

AI is quite simple and outdated at this point but I've played this for probably 1000hrs and most of them were great!

Very good strategy game, and has quite possibly my favorite mod ever. 10/10 would recommend trying out Third Age Total War: Divide and Conquer.

The one negative would be the occasional unit getting confused and failing to do what you commanded it too. It's more common in the mod than the base game, probably because of the custom maps. That said it happens pretty rarely, the DaC team does good work.

Un clásico de la estrategía, el juego es algo antiguo pero muy bueno, además existen muchisímos mods

Mods , mods,mods,mods,mods. This game is amazing because of the mods. Watch a tutorial on how to download them. Hundreds of hours later your family is gone, the world ended, my dad died. Mods.

It looks like Steam has fucked me over, and won't let me play the game I've bought and paid for. I could be wrong, and I'll happily be proved wrong, once I can play the game again.

I have played this game on my computer for years, now suddenly after an update my computer isn't good enough to run the game, Fuck you.

One of the best if not the best RTS battle Sim ever created, if only Creative Assembly would get there head out there A**'s and listen to the outcries for years now from there fans to remake it or just release a new one

From the icy steppes of Western Russia to the blustering, windswept dunes of the Sahara; from the forests of the great Amazon rain-forest to the walls of the Holy City itself, send your troops across the known world to meet fascinating and outlandish peoples and cultures and slaughter all of them.

I have played this game since it came out in 2006, a fantastic experience to relax, build, enjoy. Fun for even the novice.

10/10

I remember playing this game as a kid and loosing my CD Key. I missed this game so much I bought a second copy. This is the third copy I own, 10/10 game.

The last of the enjoyable Total Wars. All the crop following are too far removed and different from the Total War model. Not as enjoyable as the first Rome and Medieval 2.

epic strategical features, detailed and fun battles where you have control over your troops. real good game.