History Great Battles: Medieval

Like other reviewers here, I too was a bit tentative at purchasing this product. I can only recall seeing 1 advertisement for it on TV and generally there was not much marketing out there for it.

I have always been a fan of age of empires and history in general so this just seemed to make sense for me.

Please note this review is based on Single Player only I have not yet played Multi Player on XBL:

The game itself is set during the 100 Years War.

My first impression was a good one, there are 2 campaigns on offer one as the English, the other French.
Naturally I automatically selected the English for my first playthrough Once you select the game you wish to play there is a mandatory tutorial first before you are pitched into the full campaign. I could see why immediately.

- The controls; to put it politely are fiddly at best even though there are only 5 buttons/sticks used during the levels and I found it hard and timely to navigate across the maps.

-Graphics; mainly due to this not being developed by a gaming powerhouse (Slitherine)the graphics during gameplay aren't ground-breaking due to the scale required. I think console restrictions might have quite a lot to do with it and the fact that there is so much going on at any one time. This is not such a problem when zoomed out to get the best view of the battlefield (which it the view most used) but when you are close in like in the 'army camp' menu people practically have half their face missing. But as previously mentioned 90% of the time you will be zoomed out during gameplay so from that angle the graphics look quite good.

- Storyline; Generally speaking the game re-creates accurate historical events and battles throughout the main campaign. There are opportunities between main levels to raid villages and towns to gain gold for recruiting more men and experience.

- General gameplay; as mentioned before the control aspects are quite annoying which can sometimes take away from the experience. However the battles themselves are great. Ordering a thousand troops forwards is great to watch, this is mainly a tactical game and not one that you can send units in willy nilly because that won't work. You need to use logic i.e spearmen to take out cavalry, archers to decimate tight infantry ranks etc. This is what makes the game so engaging. The difficulty of the battles depend on the levels and numbers of your troops. You might find that you will end to raid a village before taking on armies if you don't have enough troops. you can upgrade and modify your army between and before battles training them in new techniques and buying new armour and weapons. Each decision in a way can affect the game.

Overall this game is a good buy for the price and with 2 campaign options and over 16 battles to fight in each campaign mode, this will keep you going for hours. Great if you want to have a break from FPS or RPG's or are a fan of the Total War Series.

I agree with other reviews regarding graphics. However, if you want to get away from the usual FPS and try a bit of tactical gameplay this is good fun. Yes the graphics are a bit of let down when zoomed in to the battle but 90% of the time you want to stay wide on the map to view the enemies movements. Of course, being English the 100 years war is a very interesting period. I keep going back to this game time and again. Total War it isn't but good fun if you like strategy games. The controls can be fiddly and if I don't play it for a couple of weeks I have to go through the tutorial again. Worth a punt at £11.00 if you want a bit of historical slash and bash and there is lots of upgrading of units,armour,weapons and abilities plus side missions to try and earn gold to upgrade.

It's one of those games that you keep for those times when you get fed up with certain MW(oh no I fell for the hype again) situations. Like I said I go back to this game again and again....

Give this game time to grow on you & (hopefully) it will.

If you think this game is total war, then you will be disappointed. However, take this game on its own merits & you will enjoy it. There are good graphics, & once you are used to it, some good gameplay.

The gameplay at first is a little frustrating, but once you learn how the game operates, it will become more & more rewarding.

If you, like me like strategy games, yet are frustrated by the lack of them on the 360; then please support games like this & buy it. Without sales in this genre, development will stop.

For God, King Henry & St. George!