With Total War: Warhammer 3, the epic dark fantasy trilogy comes to an end. Featuring a memorable main cast, several new armies that play like nothing we’ve seen before in Total War, it excels on just about every level, tactical and strategic. The single-player campaign is rounded off with a handful of little quality-of-life changes from other recent Total War games.
There’s a lot more story in Warhammer 3 than there was in Warhammer 2. You can have both good and bad things about that. Even after completing it three times, I don’t think it’s got the endless replayability of Mortal Empires. Creative Assembly says we might have to wait a while for Warhammer 3 to get its own version of that. Skirmish battles don’t allow you to play as Warhammer 1 and 2 races, but they do appear as enemies on the campaign map.
You’re better off sticking with Mortal Empires if you just want to pick a faction and conquer the world at your own pace. This new campaign is almost too hectic as you race against other factions to free, slay, or perhaps even devour the bear god Ursun. You can set your own goals, but you won’t have much freedom to do so. You can let your lesser generals build reputations and niches while Skarbrand or Miao Ying are off fighting in the Chaos Realms. Better yet, have your faction leader return from Hell in a blaze of vengeance to reclaim the settlements you lost.
From that perspective, this is something that’s halfway between a Total War experience and a single-player campaign in a game like Warcraft 3. It’s a new type of battle in Chaos that has you facing some truly harrowing, horde-style maps using your ability to build defenses and call in reinforcements, as each Chaos realm has its own unique challenge to solve that reflects the character of the dark deity who owns it. It’s refreshing to see the time-tested formula used in a new way with those mechanics.
The single-player campaign in Total War: Warhammer 3 is thrilling, challenging, and multilayered, with a compelling story and memorable characters. Even those from remote corners of the world can test each other’s mettle in the Chaos Realms. While the faction list isn’t as big as Mortal Empires, all of the newly introduced factions are fun on the campaign and battle maps. The real test of Warhammer 3 will come when we get to play with all the factions from all three games. Even if that’s the main reason you’re interested in it, there’s already plenty of excitement.
