Creative Assembly is taking a different approach for Total War: Warhammer 40,000 than they did for the fantasy world of Total War: Warhammer. Instead of having sequels to explore different parts of the grimdark sci-fi galaxy, fans of Total War will see a single game that is continually expanded and grown.
Sitting down to chat with CA about Total War: Warhammer 40,000 at Gamescom last week – you can expect our hands on preview soon – we asked Dave Petry, Battle Product Owner for Total War, about what fans can expect for this latest adaptation. Will it be a multipart saga similar to Total War: Warhammer?
“One thing that we learnt, and I think everyone feels, is that the ultimate Total War experience is the sandbox, building that sandbox with those narrative notes overarching it. In order to do that it feels like having this single executable that we continue to build on [makes sense]. We’re going to do big new bits of this game, and also Warhammer 40,000 2? It just feels…”
Naturally I chipped in with helpful sequel name suggestions to avoid the number overload, such as Total War: Warhammer 40,000 As Well or, if the Orks weren’t planned for this initial release, Total War: Warhammer 40,000 More Dakka, but these incredible game title ideas will probably remain unused.
Dave continued, “We felt it makes sense to treat this as one experience that we continue to add to. That doesn’t mean we won’t see significant change and upgrades throughout this game, but we absolutely are going for the single experience.”
There’s big advantages to this for players. Total War: Warhammer’s three games were each launched with a different part of the fantasy world and factions, races and campaigns specific to those areas, but were then brought together in the Mortal Empires for those that owned the first two games, and Immortal Empires campaigns for those owning the full trilogy. With the plan to have a single game and expansions, players won’t have that same unusual set up to deal with, can return to this one game and buy the DLC that they want in order to stay up to date.
Dave concluded, “It’s a really exciting time, but like I said, it’s the start of the journey and one we’re going to go on with everyone to make it what it needs to be, which is a very special galaxy…. of death!”
Lovely.
