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Total War: Arena

Total War: Arena

Free-to-play and coming next year, we got hands-on with Creative Assembly's multiplayer wargame in the making.

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After a couple of rounds of Total War: Arena the game that I'm reminded of most is not one you might expect. Given that it's a team-based real-time strategy, with big maps and historical soldiers, you'd think that it'd be easiest to compare it to the similarly-themed Total War: Rome II, or another game from the same stable of historical war games. However, this isn't the case, and I actually came away from my interview and hands-on demo with World of Tanks firmly in my mind.

My first sight of the game was over someone's shoulder, in the final throws of a battle. I hung around, and after the match I was able to take a long look at the unit tech tree. As players advance through the game they'll be able to unlock units from one of three armies (the Romans, the Greeks, and the Barbarians). Over time, as you move through the levels, different units unlock that will change your role on the battlefield, options open up and there's new nuances to learn with each unit (they're aiming at having around 150 at release). On top of that there's going to be commanders that players will use to lead their troops into battle, including some premium options that will have very particular uses on the battlefield.

Total War: Arena

There's three currency types, Gold, Silver and XP. Gold is the paid-for currency, while Silver and XP are earned in-game. It's very similar to the system used in World of Tanks, both in terms of presentation and feel. Importantly, we're told, it's not pay-to-win. All of the playable content that you can see - save for the premium units (which we'll mention later) - you can earn via playing the game. There's some cosmetic stuff, and paid-for progression boosts if you want them, but you can play without paying a penny, should you so wish.

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There's more though. Let me describe the typical battle that you'll see in Arena. You have two teams that face each other across a large map. Each team consists of ten players, so that means a huge twenty players feature in each match. Each player takes control of three units, so that's thirty units on each side, sixty in total; regular Total War players will know that's a steep increase in the number of units in a typical battle. The objective is a capture point on the opposite side of the map to your starting point, and the team that wins either captures this point, wipes out their opponents, or the timer runs down and the more successful team is declared the winner.

We asked why ten players. Why not pick a smaller number and give players more troops. CA's Elliot Lock explained thus: "We felt that ten vs ten was right after playing. We experimented with a lot of different numbers when we were prototyping Arena very early doors, and ten vs ten just felt right. It wasn't too many, it wasn't too little. It felt Total War, basically. It felt like the essence of what Total War is. We felt like having three units could bring a lot of different gameplay to battles."

At the moment there's two maps, but we're promised more will come. The first we only saw a small section of (it was Thermopylae - the site of the famous battle between Sparta and the Persian Empire of Xerxes), but the second (Salerno) was set in and around a town with a huge coliseum in the corner. We battled our way down through the streets, chasing our enemies, surrounding them (thanks to a pincer attack with the help of another player), and eventually winning the match by parking our troops in the enemy base. It ended up being an easy win, largely because most players were engaged in a huge battle in the northern part of the map and we were able to sneak in behind enemy lines. It's unlikely to happen too many times in the real-world; when it has happened to you once you won't let it happen again.

Total War: Arena
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Having three units does allow you to micro-manage in a way that you simply can't in a more chaotic single-player battle. You can really analyse the contours of the battlefield and seek out the slightest of advantages. "Three units really is the key number that we felt like you feel right in the action. You have enough to do that it's not getting boring; you're not walking around with one man," said Jan van der Crabben, before later adding that you can "pull off some really amazing tactical moves and flanking manoeuvres and so on. You feel like you're right there. It's very engaging compared to having more units or less units."

The three armies may well be added to later on. For now the Greeks are a more defensive option thanks to hoplites and cavalry charges, the Romans are more like a tank option, less mobile but deadly up close, while the Barbarians are going to be more a hit and run type force, with archers springing traps from cover. We then asked the question on everyone's lips: will they bring in units from across history? Will we be able to fight Samurai against Spartans, or smash medieval cavalry charges into the Roman phalanx? The answer, in short, is maybe, but not right now. At the moment they're just concentrating on what's in front of them; three armies and a growing collection of maps. The fact that they didn't dismiss the question straight away is an encouraging sign, although it has to be said, balancing units from across the expanse of history will be an absolute nightmare.

Total War: Arena

Balancing was also a concern when I heard about the premium commanders that players will be able to buy with real cash, however it sounds like these will be specialised tools, rather than more overtly powerful ones. Although van der Crabben stressed that Alexander the Great isn't actually a confirmed commander, he did use the famous general as an example: "Alexander, for example, has a "hammer and anvil" ability, where he can lock units in place and charge them with cavalry, which is exactly what he did in real life. That's a manoeuvre that anyone can really do, but Alexander really facilitates that through his abilities. But at the same time he's lacking other abilities, like infantry charge, which in many situations might be better, because that's a very specialised ability, you need to know how to use it. So he's going to be a commander who's slightly more difficult to play, but if you play him right you will reap the rewards. Which is the same for all commanders, but what we want to do with all the premium commanders and units, we want to do something that's kind of unique to them, that the others don't have."

Another element that we asked about was whether they're going to facilitate leadership roles on the battlefield, allowing for dominant players to take control of teams and issue orders. At the moment players can draw on the map before a battle and suggest where others should go, or show their own intentions. CA are looking at the communication tools required to ensure that organised teams can have a formal structure to fall back on. Obviously this might not be ideal for the player looking for a solo game as part of a larger, but ultimately anonymous team, but for those who want to band together and get tactical en masse, there will be tools added later to better allow for this.

Given the free-to-play styling, which seems a natural fit for the game that CA wants to make, progression through the ranks could take a chunk of time. The main thing as far as we can tell is that the studio makes the game accessible, because the low barrier to entry will bring in plenty of new blood. The team are acutely aware of this: "Total War has always been hard to get into, but easy to master, in terms of the battles at least," said Lock. "We've kind of flipped it, so it's going to be easy to get into, but really, really difficult to master. Even though you've got less units, there's a lot more stuff that you can do."

Total War: Arena
Total War: ArenaTotal War: Arena

Van der Crabben added: "As you progress the gameplay experience changes as well. The units that you've been playing with at the beginning, they are relatively simple units; they don't have any specials and so on. But the further you progress the more units get special abilities that they can use that are useful in certain situations but not in others." So the roles of units will change as you progress, with different units unlocking as you climb the tech tree. Like World of Tanks, the higher you climb, the trickier the battles, so paying to speed through the ranks is only going to be suitable for experienced players, and experienced players that are familiar with the brand are among the most likely to pay.

The core mechanics of the game seem solid, and for Total War fans who enjoy the multiplayer battles, there's going to be every reason to check this out. I was skeptical regarding the ten vs ten battles, but it seems a good number, and the three unit cohort each player takes into battle feels like a good fit. A closed beta is coming soon (sign up here), and an open beta is planned for later in 2015, so if you're interested in seeing more, it shouldn't be too long before you can get your hands on the game. We're certainly looking forward to playing more, as Arena looks like it's going to be good.

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