Would you buy a delicious cream puff where the delicious cream filling is sold separately at an additional cost? Probably not. This is exactly how Total War: Warhammer 3 feels for MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus. He is bothered by a huge problem for which MMOs are otherwise criticized.
Yes, you haven’t lost your way to GameStar: MeinMMO actually writes about Total War. We have had a number of strategy nerds in the editorial office and also looked at the new Warhammer 3 extensively. I’ve clocked up over 60 hours and still haven’t had enough.
For those who don’t know the game: The Total War series is a mixture of turn-based strategy, grand strategy and real-time strategy. With one of many factions you conquer land, complete tasks and fight huge battles for cities or engage in real-time skirmishes.
Together with Age of Empires, Civilization and Co., Total War is considered one of the best strategy game series. The Warhammer trilogy plays in the well-known fantasy setting of the epic. Here you play vampires, greenskins, rat people (Skaven) or – as in the new part – the dark gods of chaos. Part 3 was released for PC on February 17, 2022.
As good as Total War is, for example in the test of our colleagues at GameStar, we couldn’t help but notice a flaw when playing. The new masterpiece has an enormously annoying quality: it appeared unfinished.
Total War: Warhammer 3 still needs at least 5 DLCs until it is finished
Total War: Warhammer 3 was released as a full price title on February 17th, 2022. The game should be complete and offers a (repeating) campaEsports Extraswith 7 different factions.
Anyone who pre-ordered or played the game for the first few days via Xbox Game Pass will have an 8th faction to choose from: the Ogre Kingdoms. In multiplayer, two more campaigns are open with different goals.
That sounds like a lot at first, but it doesn’t hide the problem that something is simply missing. This becomes clear at the latest after the second playthrough of the campaEsports Extraswith two different chaos factions. You can tell from the game that it was released with the idea of adding more factions.
Total War: Warhammer 3 is not complete. Whoever plays sees fully worked out factions, but they cannot be controlled. They are obviously there, you can even control them in co-op under certain conditions. Only they cannot be selected and at least 5 of them are clearly finished and playable:
Total War already has what is obviously missing in the game. Content that should actually be in the game is missing. I’m missing meat in the story, something that’s really different. Something different from humans and chaos demons.
I even know exactly how they play. Vampires and Imperium were in Part 1, Skaven in Part 2 and they are exactly what I would want in Warhammer 3 right now. The predecessors have been refined over the years and the current part is missing that now. You can tell.
The ogres are already showing what this can look like – but they’re just DLC, too. What is particularly annoying is that we can already say exactly what is to come.
We already know what’s missing – and that’s annoying
Every Total War of the Warhammer trilogy has always had DLC factions. This is nothing new. Warhammer 3 even came with the Ogre Kingdoms as pre-order DLC. However, due to the unplayable factions that are visible in the game, we already know what is to come.
After all, these factions are already done. And it’s already confirmed that the “Mortal Empires” are coming – a big giant campaEsports Extrasthat connects all 3 Warhammer parts. All factions of the other games should also be playable there.
There are even leaks from the game data that chaos dwarves will be the next faction. Admittedly, they aren’t in the game yet, but they are in the game data. Only: why the dwarves and not one of the existing factions?
What fans will find particularly cheeky about Total War is that blood is coming as DLC. Yes, you read that right: if you want bloody, brutal effects that are actually part of Warhammer, you have to pay. Unless you’ve previously purchased the blood DLC for other parts.
I personally love Skaven and once had the chance to pilot one of their armies in co-op as a backup. A glorious feeling that only makes me regret once again that they aren’t playable as a race. Because most factions are already dealing with them when I play.
An MMO problem is ruining Total War for me
Who is now wondering what the title is actually about: All this is a problem for which MMOs and .s in particular are scolded. When players in MMOs notice that content is missing, they often become suspicious.
If an update or DLC appears shortly afterwards, which is best still subject to a fee, they are angry. Understandably, I think. Who likes to pay for a game that is obviously missing something, which is then later sold as an extra?
Service games often pursue such strategies in order to be able to deliver content over a longer period of time. Often work is done in advance on content that comes later and most of the time you don’t notice anything as a player.
But it’s particularly annoying when the content – like in Total War – is obviously already in the game. Just inaccessible. This often results in leaks. Apex Legends had a lot of problems with leaks as a result.
The loot shooter Destiny 2 also had similar problems. Here, already known content from the first part was removed for the successor and subsequently brought back as DLC – such as the Raid Gear from Shadowkeep or the Strikes from the Warmind DLC.
In many cases, it is difficult to tell what content was actually intentionally unpublished and why. Fans often see it as the developers’ greed to later charge for such DLCs.
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In fact, sometimes there simply isn’t enough time to complete the content in question and then implement it properly. Only Total War already shows that the content is there – just not for me and not even if I pay for it.
“Balanced” reviews on Steam – But it’s still fun
Total War: Warhammer 3 was released for PC on Steam, the Epic Store and the Microsoft Store directly in Xbox Game Pass for PC. The ratings, at least on Steam, are just “Balanced” with 65% positive votes.
The biggest criticism is technical defects, which were fixed after a few days with a hotfix. However, even the praise shows that some players feel the same way I do. For example, SleepyCat says: “Play well. campaEsports Extrasbad. Wait for Mortal Empires”. At least 952 people agree.
It bothers me massively that what I want is held right in front of my face – but I still can’t achieve it. Damn it, just give me the factions that are already there! At least for battles or whatever. Actually a reason to wait for Mortal Empires
Then why am I still gambling? For one, I love Warhammer. On the other hand, Total War is still better than Age of Empires 4. The campaEsports Extrasis really fun in multiplayer. And as repetitive as the campaEsports Extrasis, I’m interested in the story of the peoples.
They’re just not all as exciting as Skaven. Luckily I know I can play them. Sometime …
Once I’ve had enough time to squeeze through Nurgel’s diseases and Slaanesh’s orgies, I’ll probably wait until Mortal Empires. That’s how long I’ll sink into one of the other 12 best strategy games of 2022.
