Imperial Glory Review

Given the success of the Total War series, it would figure that poor spin-offs would be showing up sooner or later. Whenever an epic game hits the shelves there are at least four others that attempt to mimic it, 99% of those games ending up in failure. Simply put, Imperial Glory is no exception. The game tries to appeal to Total War fans who have outplayed their own games and are desperate for something similar. Sadly, it offers nothing to make it worthwhile.

That is not to say the game didn't have promise however, which it definitely did. Imperial Glory had the potential to be a wonderful game, the next Total War if you will. However, like most mimics, the game lacks the detail and development time it would have taken to give it the extra boost it needed. What it ends up as is a game with a good premise and a good base but fails to expand on that.

In the game you can play as one of multiple European nations. Depending on the nation, you will be presented with various goals to accomplish. The majority of the game will be spent in the turn-based map, which works just like the Total War games, allowing you to construct buildings, train units, attack other territories, run empire operations, etc. Each nation has its own strengths and weaknesses associated with it. You can forge alliances to wade through the powerful European armies, attempt to rewrite history and complete various epic quests, and eventually conquer the continent.

While the turn-based aspect is fun, albeit unoriginal, the battle system seems to get everything wrong. Units look unimpressive, the graphics engine really isn't anything special and it doesn't render all that many units on-screen, and battles seem small and unimportant. In addition, the units are incredibly stupid. They will literally not move and be slaughtered by the enemy at times. They also have no aspect of morale, making them useless for the most part and making the battle system clunky and incoherent. This aspect of the game could have used a lot more work.