A "chapter pack" expansion is coming for Creative Assembly's ancient Chinese magnum opus in Total War: Three Kingdoms – Eight Princes. Eight Princes is a standalone campaign taking place after the events of vanilla Three Kingdoms. These eight legendary princes have their own unique traits, playstyles, and units. The roster in Three Kingdoms is already enormous. It's all the more intimidating if you, like me, had to watch a dozen language tutorials on YouTube to even start pronouncing Chinese names correctly. (But if you did so, then you're hardcore and I salute you.)
This trailer is admittedly tedious. It's a bunch of breathy narration over the needless slow-mo of political leaders standing around in courtyards, nodding their heads or grimacing at one another. At least at first. The Total War part kicks in eventually. Your gameplay won't look exactly like this. This has been cinema-tized a bit for your viewing pleasure. Most of your time in-game is spent on the overworld map and in beautifully rendered menus describing the socio-political machinations of being a leader during this highly romanticized era of Chinese history. But Three Kingdoms is so wonderfully constructed that it's worth slowing your roll in order to comprehend its multitude of pieces and parts. The game can be exhausting, it's true. But you'll hopefully be smarter for it, even if that simply means realizing the pen is mightier than the sword. At least sometimes.
Total War: Three Kingdoms is thick yo. I just mean, it's got many, many strategic layers that extend far above and below what I had perceived a Total War game to be. Don't let me talk you out of a purchase when I brutally use words like "tedious" and "exhausting" to describe some of its gameplay. All of Three Kingdoms is laid out better than anything prior to Total War's recent Warhammer era.
Total War: Three Kingdoms – Eight Princes is coming to PC on August 8. It sounds like a lot of extra game for the $9 asking price.
