Total War: Warhammer 3 Review

ign.com:

We've finally come to the end of the sweeping dark fantasy trilogy that began six years ago, and Total War: Warhammer 3 is a worthy capstone. With interesting campaign mechanics that build up rivalries between its memorable main cast and several new armies that don't play like anything we've seen in Total War before, it excels on just about every level, strategic and tactical. And a collection of little quality-of-life changes carried over from other recent Total War games tie the single-player campaign up with a nice little bloodsoaked bow.

The main campaign in Warhammer 3 is very story-driven, even more so than Warhammer 2's Eye of the Vortex. And that can be both a good and bad thing. Having completed it three times now, I don't think it has the endlessly replayable sandbox potential of the Mortal Empires campaign available to owners of the first two games. And while Warhammer 3 will eventually get its own version of that, Creative Assembly has said we might be waiting a while for it. Currently, you can't even play as any of the Warhammer 1 and 2 races in skirmish battles, though they do appear on the campaign map as enemies to be vanquished.

So if you're looking to just pick a faction and conquer the world at your own pace, you're better off sticking with Mortal Empires for now. The pacing of this new campaign is almost too hectic, as you race against the other major factions to claim four Daemon Prince souls and free, slay, or perhaps even devour the bear god Ursun. You can set your own goals to an extent, but you're not exactly going to have free hands to pursue them. There are some upsides to that, like allowing your lesser generals to build up reputations and niches of their own while Skarbrand or Miao Ying are off