Total War: Three Kingdoms "Reign of Blood" DLC is Mortal Kombat as heck
War is bloody hell. But if you're playing the base Total War: Three Kingdoms game, that isn't 100 percent apparent. I personally feel like the thousands of bodies littering the battlefield face down is gory enough. But for those of us that want to leave a little less to the imagination—and hey, just to add some more Hollywood-level fun (?) to the whole equation—Three Kingdom's Reign of Blood DLC introduces arterial sprays, amputations, and even decapitations. That'll be $2.99, please.
Creative Assembly has been doing this for nearly a decade now. At least since Total War: Shogun 2 in 2011. It releases a vanilla Total War game that's rated T for Teen. Then it releases a blood and gore DLC that pushes the game's rating up to an M for Mature. Hence the age gate button here on the site to see all the grim details. Not everyone can legally purchase M-rated games, so this makes perfect business sense. Now, whether Creative Assembly is asking you to pay extra for "cut content" that should've been included in the original game, or if it's something they worked on post-launch? That's a can of worms I'm not going to open. I'm not a developer, nor am I into rampant speculation. But this post pinned on Total War's official YouTube channel does make it appear that there's at least additional work being done, post-launch, to justify a $3 price tag:
Reign of Blood will be released on 27th June and will cost £1.99/$2.99/€2.99. We were hoping to release it this week, but we found some minor bugs a few days ago and we want to make sure the pack is as polished as possible before we release it.
I'll admit I was surprised to see this DLC. I hadn't played a Total War game since Medieval II, 13 years ago. There may have been mods for this kind of thing in the early 2000s that I'd missed, sure. But Creative Assembly started making these blood and gore releases more official after Napoleon: Total War in 2010. If you're ready to see just how vile war can get, then this is the DLC for you. The idea is growing on me. Especially with how up close and personal your one-on-one generals' duels get.
Total War: Three Kingdoms – Reign of Blood DLC is still scheduled for June 27, provided the bug fixes don't get away from them.
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EXPERIENCE THE BATTLEFIELDS OF ANCIENT CHINA IN GRUESOME DETAIL WITH THE REIGN OF BLOOD EFFECTS PACK FOR TOTAL WAR: THREE KINGDOMS
China will run thick with the blood (and limbs) of your enemies in the new Reign of Blood Effects Pack for Total War: THREE KINGDOMS, out Thursday, June 27.
The Reign of Blood Effects Pack will introduce several new gory and mature-rated effects, animations and kill-moves to the game in both Campaign and Battle, meaning you can witness limb lops, beheadings, and charred corpses in sadistic detail.
The Reign of Blood Effects Pack will cost 2.99, £1.99, €2.99. Once downloaded, gore effects can be enabled in the Advanced Graphics Settings of Total War: Three Kingdoms.
Reign of Blood is available through Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/874310/
