Total War: Warhammer II

Total Warhammer II, a sequel to Creative Assembly's combination of its influential Total War strategy series with the Warhammer franchise, is due out before the end of the year. Our PC editor Dan Tack enjoyed the original game, writing in his review that "Total War: Warhammer is one of the best Total War games I’ve ever played, and fans of either franchise should find themselves with a winner here. Those looking for more historically rooted fare may find the fantasy over the top, but plenty of solid strategy lurks under the magic and mayhem."

The sequel looks to continue the tradition of the first, putting tactics and fantasy front and center. We recently checked out a snippet of Total War: Warhammer II and came away enjoying our time with it. Here are our five big takeaways.

Owners Of The First Game Get Something Special
A patch that Creative Assembly will release shortly after TW:WH II's launch will allow owners of the first TW:WH to combine campaigns of both games, giving them access to all the factions from the first game as well as the world map, much in the way that Left 4 Dead II gave access to the original game's maps if you owned both.

You Can Control Armies Of Dinosaurs
One of the factions you get to control in the new game is called Lizardmen. They're from space (don't ask). This is the faction we played with during our brief demo and it was a blast, sending massive dinos and spear-armed raptors against elves, cutting them to pieces. Three other new races are in the game: Dark Elves, High Elves, and an unrevealed one.

There Are Generous Difficulty Settings
Not really into Total War's difficulty spikes? Creative Assembly has included a casual difficulty setting for novices where you can essentially coast your way through battle and just enjoy watching armies go at each other with minimal input. Likewise, you can turn up the heat if tactics are your jam.

There's A Four Player Free-For-All Multiplayer Mode
Want to go head-to-head with some other players in a battle of wits and savagery? One of the multiplayer modes will let you do just that. Alliances won't count for much here as the only winner is the last player left standing.

Battles Are Incredibly Tense
The scenario we played through, and saw other players trying their hand at, had us controlling the Lizardmen as they tried to take a control point up-hill from the elves. I used several varieties of dinosaurs, including smaller, agile units armed with sharp weapons as well as massive brutish monsters capable of stomping foes into the dust, to stampede my way to victory. However, the cost to get there was high, with elves cutting down at least half of my army before I wiped out their commanding officers and sent them routing.

As someone who adores the Total War series, I still found Warhammer II's battles to be a new level of intensity for the franchise, with vicious and well-crafted animations making the battles seem more brutal than ever.

For more on Total War: Warhammer II, be sure to check out our previous coverage here.