Total War Pharaoh: The First Hands-On Preview

ign.com:

The confusing, violent, and cataclysmic events we know today as the Bronze Age Collapse shook the Mediterranean 3200 years ago, which is roughly how long it feels like it's been since we last had a main series historical Total War game. But much as Ramesses III led Egypt out of this dark era, Creative Assembly's Sofia studio (which most recently released the semi-mythological A Total War Saga: Troy) brings us Total War: Pharaoh. The mysterious Sea Peoples are coming, and as a variety of competing leaders from the Egyptian, Hittite, and Canaanite cultures, it will be up to us to weather the storm.

While we haven't gotten to see the campaign map yet, I was able to get a few details on it. We'll fight over the Nile Valley as far South as Nubia and Kush – modern-day Sudan, basically. Heading North, we'll get to explore Canaan, the region we usually refer to today as the Levant. Opposite Egypt, across the sea, we'll also get to battle for Anatolia, the peninsula today which makes up most of modern Turkey.

We won't be going as far East as Mesopotamia, so don't expect to be tangling with any Assyrians or Babylonians. But the developers were quick to point out that this is a "full-fledged," main series Total War game, though, and not a Saga. So we should expect sandbox gameplay and a scope similar to Rome II or Three Kingdoms.

While the marketing for Pharaoh centers on Egypt, there is no faction called "Egypt" to begin with. Similar to Three Kingdoms and Troy, each faction is organized around a specific historical or semi-historical figure who is in a position to potentially unite their culture under one rule. For the Egyptians, this obviously represents the ambition to become Pharaoh, including the historical winner, Ramesses III.