If you love the idea of waging wars, then play on. Fans of real time strategy (RTS) games should watch out for Medieval II: Total War. This game takes you back to the medieval ages. After the fall of the great Roman empire, Europe is ravaged by centuries of war which leave small European empires in its trail. These empires, in turn give rise to European and Middle-Eastern factions. And this is where you come in. You start off the game as the head of one of these factions.

The game is full of figures representing generals, agents and capitals spread across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. The developers, Creative Assembly, have also added independent historical events to the game such as the discovery of the compass and the first innovations in the use of gunpowder. Now it is up to you to rewrite the history of Europe and the Middle East in the Middle Ages as you see fit. Feel free to set forth and conquer the known world, discover the New World or develop an economic and political powerhouse as you play the game.

The Total War series gives players the best of both worlds. On the one hand, it offers a turn-based strategic game where you are responsible for the development of your settlements, handling of foreign relations, forming and moving armies around the map. On the other hand, it offers intense real-time battles that capture the intensity of warfare. What is impressive is how both these aspects have been integrated into the game.

One of Medieval II’s biggest attractions is that it allows the players to plan out the kind of settlement they’d like to develop. The previous game did not offer too many options for the player. But in this game, the towns are large, open areas, susceptible to attack but capable of generating revenue for your empire. The castles are much easier to defend and provide elite troops but they can’t sustain themselves economically. Balancing the two adds an interesting layer to the overall campaign.

The best thing about Medieval II is that you have three games in one. You can take charge of large and merciless battles if you like seeing hordes of troops clash and bleed. But remember, it’s not necessary. That is because the battles were probably developed by Creative Assembly to make an epic game that would last for weeks.

The cutscenes are very well executed.The enemy Artificial Intelligence simply stuns a real RTS fan. At the end of the day, every bit spent on this game is worth spending.

Minimum system requirements: Operating System: Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, CPU Type & Speed: Recommended: Pentium 4 2.4 GHZ, Motherboard: Recommended: AGP 4x, Hard Drive Space: 2 GB Available, System Memory: Recommended: 512mb, Memory Speed: Recommended: 266 MHz DDR (PC2100) or better, DirectX: Required: DirectX 9.0b, Sound Cards:Required: DirectX Compatible, Controllers: Recommended: Windows compatible mouse, Internet Play: Recommended: 56k connection required to play, Broadband (Cable or DSL) connection Recommended for server/hosting