Right, bear with me here, because I’m off on a bit of a moan. Now I liked Total War: Attila. I liked it a lot. I thought the various factions in it each felt distinct and a lot of fun to play. The grand campaign was the best the series has had in years. That was some good work, Creative Assembly, very good work indeed.
What I’m less impressed with is the fact that we’re less than two weeks past launch now, but we’ve already got two factions packs sold separately as DLC, the latest being the (admittedly excellently named) Longbeards Culture Pack.
I’m not against faction packs per se – they’re actually a great way to eke some extra fun out of a game you might otherwise have stopped playing months back. It’s not like we’re short of playable factions in Attila either, you’ve got ten to try out in the base game (and technically the Viking Forefathers pack is pre-order DLC, which is a whole other kettle of radioactive piranhas that I haven’t got time to dip my fingers into here). However, when you start trying to sell me extra content less than two weeks, just NINE DAYS to be ruthlessly specific, after a game’s release, I can’t help but feel that you’ve cut content out in an attempt to bleed a few extra pounds out of me.
Maybe that’s not the case. Maybe this was created after the core game was content complete, and it’s nothing more than an honest attempt to offer us some more unique gameplay. But it doesn’t feel like that. It feels, if I’m honest, a little shameless.
Right. Anyway, the DLC. Annoyingly, it sounds like a lot of fun. There’s three Germanic factions; the Langobards, the Burgundians, and the Alamans. Each has a bunch of cool unique units, some of which you can check out in the unit spotlight above, as well as new buildings, traits and ancillaries (bonus trinkets and servants that you can give your characters).
All of the new factions can experience a new ‘narrative chain event’ called Lay Of Ybor. It’s delivered “in the style of a Germanic Saga, in which you direct the actions of a fabled hero through a series of branching narrative choices.” Cool. And depending on the choices you make, you’ll eventually get a different version of Ybor as a unique General to lead your armies. That’s some lovely stuff.
In fact, these three new factions sound even more distinct and intriguing than some of those from the core Attila campaign. So I guess, if you’re interested, there’s some quality stuff there for the $7.99/£5.99 asking price.
…But I can’t get rid of that bad taste in my mouth.