Introduction
I put a big focus on whether or not Total War: Pharaoh is worth the $60 pricetag I paid and spoiler alert, it’s not worth the $60 so if you really want it, I’d wait for a significant sale. There’s definitely some positives and aspects of this Total War that takes place during the historical collapse of the Late Bronze Age which I think made it a bit better in some areas such as Diplomacy than all the other Total Wars I’ve played from Warhammer III to the first Shogun however it failed to meet my baseline expectations of a Total War game.
Performance, Settings & Accessibility
First, the accessibility and settings are actually quite nice. The typical adjustments for video and audio settings are there and in addition to those which I love are options for those with different types of color blindness such as Deuteranopia, Protanopia and Trianopia which is a major plus and one I would love to see in other games. The game offers a variety of tutorials and help options for those who may be newer or returning Total War players which is nice. Performance-wise, you don’t really need to do any tweaking for the graphics even on an older graphics card like a 2080TI which I used unless you plan to livestream and record your gameplay at the same time which may produce stuttering issues at least it did for me like a few of the other Total Wars such as the three Warhammers or Three Kingdoms.
UI / HUD / UX
The basic UI or RTS Heads Up Display during battles one could expect from any recent Total War game is present in Pharaoh of course with the stylistic and thematic twist that it’s set in what one could refer to as the ancient Middle East. The User Experience is just as what you’d expect again from a Total War game, nothing much has been changed or vastly revolutionized in terms of menu interface or the actual gameplay such as repositioning or selecting units. There isn’t anything really complicated you wouldn’t be able to understand without reading some ingame tooltips of just looking up some of the keybind options in the game. If this is your first Total War game, it might be a little overwhelming just as any semi-RTS, 4X element or turn based game would be whether we’re talking about Stellaris or even Humankind. But the game offers sometimes a bit too much help on this front so you don’t need to worry about being not able to get into it from a technical standpoint. The Total War developers basically also know that if their long-tried UI and UX works it works, no need to reinvent the wheel and they don’t attempt to do so apart from indicating newly thought of game mechanics such as the weather system, Pillars of Civilization or Royal Court system go which can be confined to small buttons or displays that doesn’t interrupt the flow of the UI.
Audio and Music
As one chatter put it during one of my livestreams, the idle music during the campaign map play can be relaxing. The battle and menu music definitely gives a lot of Assassin’s Creed Mirage vibes which we also made a review on. While it’s not the best music it’s certainly decent enough to get you immersed in some of the RTS moments. Audio feedback from interacting with options or mechanics in the game such as selecting or ordering units is again what you expect from a Total War game. Battle audio effects are initially satisfying especially when disastrous weather mechanics start occurring but the din of battle with a noticeable lack of screams, bodies and weapons clashing leaves something to be desired compared to Shogun 2 or even Rome 2.
History, Graphics, Art and Environment
As a historian, I’ve enjoyed the many historical settings and backdrops however they were reimagined or embellished by the Total War developers over the many years of playing their installments. While in some cases such as Rome 2 or Total War Napoleon, the limitations of the game clearly couldn’t convey the enormous weight of a lot of the actual historical battles, the barebones of what they could have been like was at least conveyed. The same goes for Total War: Pharaoh where the sunsetting of the 19th Egyptian dynasty in the greater context of the Late Bronze Age Collapse is also reimagined and delivered to the player artistically. While historically we don’t know for sure even today what caused the collapse of several Late Bronze Age city states and civilizations, whether it be famine, cultural shifts, wars, natural disasters, sickness and so on, Total War: Pharaoh basically throws all of the potential factors and theories into the mix and tell us go ahead and play it. The sense of impending doom or hopelessness particularly once you reach endgame can be felt and I think that’s certainly a plus for the setting of the game.
The graphics, art and environment are of course well done and attempts to stay true to history while not being there at all particularly when it comes to said environment can be forgiven for the resulting art. Graphically, it’s a beautiful Total War game although some of the assets for the military units could have also been given more attention.
Movement, Gameplay, Combat and Balance
Camera movement offers three different settings for players in Pharaoh which is nice. The pacing of the game certainly is a lot different, a lot faster and urgent compared to many other Total War games. After Turn 10 or 15, you can definitely get overwhelmed at first by the multiple new systems the developers have put in for Pharaoh, like the weather system I hope we get to see in the larger upcoming installment for Total War just as it was done for elements of Total War: Thrones of Britannia for Total War: Three Kingdoms or Total War: Empire for Napoleon, Total War: Rome 2 for Attila and so on. The construction of resource posts or fortifications and such on the campaign map itself was a neat idea which I felt was somewhat borrowed from Total War: Empire’s colleges and resource posts that enemies could raid or destroy albeit without Agents in this case.
There are of course other systems that I wouldn’t like to see that I felt clashed with the typical Total War gameplay or even Pharaoh in this case such as Workforce being a requirement to build despite you possessing enough resources to build.
Compared to other Total Wars, diplomacy at least early to midgame in Pharaoh is an absolute must. The game pushes you into engaging in diplomacy with other factions as it’s the best way to acquire enough or surplus resources to sustain your expansion or military upkeep. Just like Total War: Troy, instead of the game automatically regulating trade for an increase in gold or primary currency, your trade agreements or barter agreements through diplomacy must be manually allotted for the specific resources you need such as Food, Bronze, Lumber, Stone and Gold. The Tech Tree is actually quite nice and may be one of the more exciting parts of Pharaoh but the Tech Tree also forces diplomacy to a degree as some of the really good ones require you to uphold alliances or fulfill other diplomatic pre-requisites for those techs to be active once you gain them. Simply put, Pharaoh doesn’t give you much of an option to be self-reliant early on through a combination of resource and territorial management which are always under threat by hostile forces or map events such as famines and such. And while this is fine in a vacuum, again something like this often clashes with the pacing of the game which just doesn’t feel good at all to play through at times.
Unfortunately, it’s at this point where a lot of Total War: Pharaoh’s failings come to light after playing a considerable amount. I would say a lot of the negatives lie in the poor combat balancing particularly on the harder difficulties within the context of the endgame catastrophes such as the invading Sea Peoples. Siege battles feel like more of a chore than usual compared to other Total Wars, the length of battles can be way too overdrawn as a result of morale boosting or armor ratings which is another mechanic added to Pharaoh by the way. The end result is you basically just watch a standstill battle even if you outwit, outgun and outflank enemies which doesn’t make the progression of you unlocking better tech or units feel rewarding at all. The RTS element or battles of Total War: Pharaoh feel very drowned out by the campaign map which honestly takes up too much of your time whereas in previous Total Wars it felt like there was a healthy balance between the battles and the campaign map. Of course there comes a point in time where a lot of us do Automatic Resolves for field battles particularly for the easier ones but that usually comes in late game when you’ve done or seen everything with all units and this may be the first Total War where I’d rather just automatically resolve every battle than play some or most of them just because of the terrible combat balancing, unnecessarily longer fights and the poor variety in units.
Lastly, it’s a bit disappointing to see in this installment but there are no naval battles and any naval battle engagement is simply fought on land if you decide to manually take control. As for the Hitties and Caananites, it feels like these factions were an afterthought after the Egyptian factions were fleshed out and they just didn’t feel great to play.
Content and Replayability
After the first week of playing around with things on different settings and as different factions and getting to the endgame of mitigating the Late Bronze Age collapse for my factions, unlike a lot of the other Total War games and more similarly to Total War: Troy or Total War: Thrones of Britannia, I just did not become more engaged as time went on. I didn’t really enjoy playing much or even enjoy the prospect of replaying as I have for other Total War games.
As for multiplayer, well, as of the review, it’s pretty much dead or empty. I just do not think Total War: Pharaoh is worth shelling out $60 for when there are so many other good games in 2023/2024 and upcoming you could pay the same or similar amount for and enjoy for far more. And if you’re an avid Total War enjoyer like myself, I can promise you that you won’t be missing out on much and that just like some of the smaller installments in the past, Total War: Pharaoh is just a small stepping stone or a sandbox of ideas that the developers are testing out for the larger installments in the future. While I appreciate an attempt to return to a more historical backdrop for Total War games after the conclusion of the Total War: Warhammer trilogy, I felt like this one was just a miss in the end.