Love

1. It has character

With alot of historical based games, they can at times feel sterile, distant and just playing boring. When Rome: Total War arrived, instead of just giving you a dry interpretation, you were given something infused with character and attitude. It made history seem exciting. It made people who had no interest in the strategy genre take interest. Instead of what appeared to be 12 sprites looked upon from 20 feet above, you were controlling thousands of highly detailed units with heart pounding battles. A sense of grandeur and scope that gave a hint of how epic these battles could have really been.

Even the games tutorial was (is) full of character. Typically an older alpha male general blurting out gleeful ways to kill the enemy real time. And a more cerebral female presence on the turn based map dealing with the management aspect. The music itself from real time to turn based goes from thumping, epic battle music to chilled, relaxed reflection music. Total War is a very immersive experience in a genre typically not seen as immersive. It captures each time period with style and zest, bringing it to life.

2. It's cinematic without being detrimental to the gameplay

When you look at something like Call Of Duty, or other suppose cinematic games such as Heavy Rain. the player doesn't have very much input. Call Of Duty consists of near enough walking in a line watching scripted sequences go off. Heavy Rain seems outright reluctant to give the player direct control. In Total War, you have battles of huge, huge scope that easily arrival anything put on screen on a near continual basis. With you, the player directing it as it happens and how or if it happens. Unlike most strategy games, Total War is a game you can watch, without playing and still enjoy.

3. Pushing the boundaries of Scale VS Detail

Total War: Shogun 2 never won any graphic awards. People waffled about Uncharted mainly. Uncharted, is a linear game with tight environments with most of the good visual presentation coming from pre-rendered cut-scenes. In Shogun 2 you have highly detailed models and animations going off real time with thousands of people on screen at once. For it's specific genre, Total War more than any other game has pushed visual fidelity. Arguebly for any game, in fact. You will not find something matching the same scale VS detail in any other game barring perhaps a modded Crysis.

4. Skill Wins

While in Total War you can level up characters making them stronger with experience, or use units with higher stats, this does not mean an automatic win like many other strategy games. If a player is playing tactically superior, they can beat a force of greater magnitude with more powerful units. Terrain height can be used to give sifnicant advantage. Wedges and pockets can create death traps. Wittling away or overwhelming fragments can cause units to panic and route due to low moral. Using stealth, a player can outright circle an enemy and remove any artillery sitting behind the lines. The game is chalked full of variables and possibilities.

5. It's accessible without being dumb

I had mew nephew (who is 7) playing Napoleon Total War the other day. The main issue he had, wasn't the game, it was the keyboard because he is so use to playing on his Playstation 3. He had never played a strategy game before and I actually had to explain to him what one is. Within about 15 minutes, he was quite happily playing a real time battle.

Gaming today, is dumb. It's simplistic dude-bro games becoming increasingly dumber. Heavily streamlined games, games that outright play themselves and a media black out on any game that isn't mainstream means many specific genres that are more sophisticate in nature get a black out. Total War is an accessible game. A 7 year old can play it. It isn't a dumb game though. It's easy to learn, hard to master. Rather than just... easy. In actuality, Empire: Total War went in the exact opposite direction of what most games are doing today. While games become increasingly simpler, by comparison, Empire was more complited than it's fore bearers. Along with a very small pool of games, Total War remains last bastion of AAA quality games that require thinking. Thank Christ is exists. But, for how long? Hmm.

Bad

1. AI is stupid

2. Pre-order DLC

3. Buggy, terrible launch typically

4. Thats it can't think of anything else

5. Filling up space.

Also not enough black people.