This Day in Games: May 23, 2019
Today is a big deal for strategy fans: on May 23, 2019, Total War: THREE KINGDOMS arrived on PC, bringing Creative Assembly’s beloved series back to Asia after almost ten years. What’s more, fun fact—around this same week back in 2010, Total War: Shogun 2 first made its splash at E3. Taken together, these anniversaries really highlight how much the franchise has grown and why it still captures our imagination today.
Storyline & Setting in Total War: THREE KINGDOMS
The game takes place in 190 CE, right after China’s Han dynasty falls apart. You pick one of 12 famous warlords and try to bring the whole country together. Like Zhou Yu, Cao Cao, or Liu Bei. Each character comes with their own goals, loyalty levels, and personality traits from the classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Will you build lasting friendships or pull off shocking betrayals? Either way, your story unfolds through political plots, epic battles, and careful statecraft.
Gameplay Mechanics: A Speedrunner’s Perspective
- Turn-Based Campaign
- In the turn-based campaign, you’ll spend your time carefully planning each province. You’ll be moving armies into strategic positions, and keeping your finances and supplies in balance. A good rule of thumb is to invest early in both economic and military technologies. Striking that balance up front will help you avoid frustrating slowdowns later in the game.
- Real-Time Battles
- In real-time battles, you’ll command your hero units and unleash their special Wushu abilities to turn the tide of combat. Scout the terrain before engaging—ambushing your foes in bamboo forests deals a sudden morale shock, while seizing the high ground lets your archers rain down arrows for maximum effect. Learning to read the battlefield and exploit its features will give you a decisive edge every time.
- Guanxi Relationships
- In the Guanxi system, characters now react to their friendships and rivalries, adding real stakes to every alliance and betrayal. By fostering strong bonds between your heroes—whether through shared victories or carefully chosen missions—you unlock powerful joint bonuses that can turn battles in your favor. Speedrunners especially can exploit this mechanic by pairing trusted officers in key fights to ramp up those shared buffs, shaving valuable hours off their conquest runs.
- Political Intrigue
- In the realm of political intrigue, you’ll appoint your heroes to a variety of roles—governing key cities, gathering intelligence on rival factions, or recruiting promising officers into your service. By placing a high-loyalty hero in charge of a province early on, you greatly reduce the risk of uprisings and rebellions, which not only keeps your realm stable but also frees you up to focus on expansion rather than putting out fires.
Visuals & Audio
The game’s visuals and audio work together to bring ancient China to life. Everywhere you look, you’ll see vivid landscapes and even the Great Wall snaking across the campaign map. In battle, the animations burst with energy, whether it’s a hero’s Wushu flourish. Or the sway of bamboo under archers’ arrows. All of this is underscored by a sweeping orchestral score rooted in traditional Chinese instruments. Setting an epic mood for every encounter. To make things feel even more authentic, characters speak in both Mandarin and English. So every council debate and rallying cry rings true.
User Reviews & Community Feedback
Steam players have given Total War: THREE KINGDOMS strong marks overall. Recent reviews stand at 77% positive out of 286 player ratings. All-time feedback sits at an impressive 82% very positive from nearly 60,000 reviews. Fans frequently praise the game’s rich world-building and cast of fresh, memorable heroes, and many enjoy how the strategic turn-based campaign flows seamlessly into real-time battles. The new Guanxi relationship system also earns high marks, with players noting that the added layer of character drama makes alliances and betrayals feel meaningful.
That said, a few issues still crop up. Some units occasionally struggle with pathfinding, causing frustrating delays on the battlefield, and newcomers sometimes find the learning curve a bit steep. At launch, there were reports of crashes and frame stutters when armies grew large, though most of these technical hiccups have since been patched.
Legacy & Impact of Total War: THREE KINGDOMS
Total War: THREE KINGDOMS changed the way Creative Assembly thinks about strategy. Its relationship-driven gameplay showed up in later titles, inspired a novel, and kick-started loads of mods. For speedrunners, nailing the Guanxi buffs is one of the best ways to cut hours off your runs. For everyone else, its mix of personal drama and grand battles still stands as one of the best strategy games out there.
