I React To Total War: Pharaoh... 

Apollo bullies a game for 30 minutes.

My only concern is that if fantasy fans say they hate it, and historical fans say they hate it, they’ll just go back to making fantasy titles because that’s the safer business route

at this point i'm just gonna get hired by CA and climb the echelons to actually save the franchise

Your honesty about a franchise that you love makes me believe it more than people who hate the franchise.

5:55 "no heroes!" Warhammer players have left the chat Thank goodness for no heroes

Vanilla Rome II is a severe disappointment that is entirely accurate. But they were saved by fantastic teams of modders who took that pile of shit and turned it into something actually enjoyable. I think we all know I'm referring to the team that developed Divide Et Impera. They practically saved Rome II.

I miss seeing the flags of whichever nation you are on the units

I love how Apollo talks about CA like a divorced man talks about his horrible ex wife who ruined his life.

I can't imagine it would be difficult to take the combat formula from medieval 2 and implement it into a new TW game, but apparently that's not their goal right now.

One of the biggest problems honestly has to be that there appears to be no blood meaning they prob plan on making it another DLC on top of the $60 price tag

Id love to see a new battle engine that gives us hours long seiges long pitch battles again.

Those chariot charges had me dying 😂. Can’t wait to play medieval 2 for another 2 years!

My biggest wants in terms of what to bring back are 1. Stylized huds that feel thematic 2. Stylized unit cards (learned to love Rome 2s mosaic art style) 3. Unit banners 4. Real general speeches 5. Naval battles 6. Chivalry/Dread mechanic from Med 2 7. Tangible control of city development (military vs commerce, with battlements upgrades as you upgrade your city IE med 2) 8. Non instant diplomacy (I know it's inconvenient/slow but having a high level diplomat felt so satisfying) 9. Control of armor/weapon upgrades in custom/multi-player battles IE Rome and Med 2 10. Literally just a full base game without having to pay DLC for a faction you locked away. I get DLC for expansions (legit ones) but DLC for blood or factions is ridiculous (and it's been a problem for over a decade) We Literally used to have this in TW, and now have to beg for scraps while WH gets skilled out constantly

A new game to watch my units mathematical equation face another units mathematical equation represented by a bunch of guys doing random things without actually interacting

It's ironic that the company is called Creative Assembly considering it is one of the least innovative game developers. They could have a staged battle system, for example a skirmishing phase of battle where vanguard calvary and light infantry meet before the armies are fully assembled for battle. This historically often happened in antiquity where foragers and scouts would meet and skirmish before sending messengers back to the army camps to notify them and ready them for battle. You could have a retreating stage where a small section of your army could break off and raid the enemies baggage train at their camp. Often times the veteran soldiers would have all of their personal belongings and many times family members that traveled with them on campaign so losing the baggage train was a big deal and hit morale very hard. This historically happened often and would be another cool gameplay mechanic. This could be further developed on the campaign map as defeated armies that had their camp raided could suffer morale and supply penalties. I'm thinking you implement a post battle system similar to CK3 for this with defeated armies needing to retreat and regroup before reengaging. These are just a few concepts I thought of on the fly. Clearly modern gaming on the triple A level has developed to suits making heavy handed decisions and the dollar being king.

"Let's start with the positive : it plays like Troy" Also triggered me hard lol

I’d love to see CA try and address all these criticisms 😂😂

Man, it's incredible seeing you go from boy to man, Apollo. I've been watching you since my early/mid-twenties, and now I am 33; it feels like I've grown up watching your channel. I appreciate it!

dude i was literally cracking up hard during this. The part with the chairots was single handedly enough to make me not want the game. Unbelievable lmao

Rumor is they're gonna make Assyria and Babylon DLC. Theyre gonna charge you for Assyria and Babylon... in a bronze age game 😑

I am so glad there are still reasonable people and youtubers like you Apollo and Volound. Props to you lads keep pushing for the better of this community

They need to spend a good 3-4, maybe even 5 years developing a new engine and resetting everything and making an amazing and fantastic Medieval 3, the variety of combat and economy in this period would allow the engine to be easily moved into either later or earlier history!

Can't wait for them to bring faction banners back!

Cant wait to see Rameses use his Uber Egypt Man ability to give +5 billion melee defense

I am an archaeologist ...... I am screaming at the screen over the huge lightsaber-looking 'bronze age swords'. why are they bigger than the soldiers whole arm, bronze age swords with the exception of northern European rapiers are short affairs ! first mod for this game will have to be a historical reskin

Oh god they still use unit health bars. Nothing worse seeing lightly armored archers tanking shots until their green bar says they have taken enough damage to actually start loosing models xD.

Honestly at this point im waiting for manor lords

Apollo woke up and chosed fax

Yeah call me when they develop a new engine... Back to Shogun 2 lmaooo

31:18 - Jackie is absoutely right. Charging £50 - We should have larger battle maps, and we need Mesopotamia. ADD MESOPOTAMIA!

This is why I don't buy new(ish) games anymore. The fact that you pay 50 pounds for a game with very little features AND you have to buy several DLCs to complete it is outrageous and not even justifiable

All we want is a medieval 2 remake with good graphics, better politics, ai, and TO NOT GLITCH ON THE WALL EVERYTIME IT GETS HIT WITH A CANNON. been asking for that for a decade.

Still looks like Troy Arcade Strategy 😐

I’ve been dying for CA to to add elements from the game “Ultimate General: Civil War” to their battles. Make it so I can’t see the enemies army and need to send out scouts to determine their position, add supply chains, logistics, larger maps with multiple potential places the battle could take place.

At the moment I´m playing a lot of ntw and there´s just a whole other level of positioning and movement tactics than in this game it seems. Like when you defend, you have to watch what your opponent is doing, reposition troops and look for adventagious points on the map. In Pharaoh it just seems to be like "Ok, you´re charging me so I´ma charge you too!" - 5 minutes later the battle is over.

"I never thought I would sink so low" lmfao

He says "If you told me this was a mod for troy, I'd probably believe you" and I shit you not, when I saw the first video I did, of the game, my first assumption was "someone modded Troy to look like the new game lol"

I watched this guy when i was like 10-13 and since then always wanted a pc to play Napoleon. After a few years i find his channel again with new a hairstyle and completely based redpill takes. Definitely going to stay subscribed.

spear was king on ancient battlefield and in the east archery was dominant, archers were combined with shield bearers that had huge shields to protect the archers.

Imagine spending 50 bucks on current day CA. I’ll pay 50 bucks for manor lord

about a minute in and i could sense the the unfinished part of this sentence " i predict it's gonna look like troy, they are gonna bring back old features and pretend they are new and and exciting, and erm yeah thats it." let me finish that sentence for you apollo, "... and erm, CA are gonna find a new way to f*** it up again." seriously, who here thinks it's going to have a botched launch? or just be downright terrible?

jackie sound like a paid actor

Im more hyped for Attila map modding

Always looking forward to another apollo video lol,bro you make my day and please continue making rome 2 videos. i started watching you when i was five, and now im 14,you made me love history and the ancient world and i still enjoy watching god bless you man❤

I actually love Apollo being honest. Keep up the good work man

Local man gets angry at product that has not come out yet

yes im gonna buy the full 60 dollars or whatever and play it for a total of three hours like three kingdoms and troy then go back to playing my medieval 2 and ntw3

“It plays like Troy” so this will be a hard pass from me then.

I have thought these things for so long, but all the youtube channels I watched completely kiss CA's toes. Glad to have found you.

19:26 Omg, there's so much going on here. Apart from the two flying soldiers (another one in the center-screen), I love the short standoff between the naked random man and the spear-boy in the lower left corner; the spear-boy awkwardly turns around and is like: "You want some of this?" before stabbing the naked man.

Apollo i'm surprised you don't do Divide et Impera battle replays. fits way better the style you describe and that I also love for battles !

I don’t understand why they are going to Egypt for the “historical” game. It’s a rubbish setting that we know too little about to make a “historical” game. Was really wishing for M3TW

I still can't believe there are no banners and regimental officers/musicians

I want "unit diversity" i.e. pooping Frogs not immersive tactics, sieges and sandbox gameplay...

This was a nice refreshing style of video Apollo, I like the reaction/breakdown style a lot!

Love this "react" video. Honesty is in short supply these days. Thank you sir.

A reason why i like Apollo is his mindset towards shorts and Reaction videos is really something which i feel is close to my opinions! These reaction videos, speculations and Shorts are ruining mainstream content! They do that because people would rather watch those and satisfy their emotions than watch a proper long form video!

why does the unit cards look like mobile game icons

It’s realistic that routed troops leave and scatter and then come back and regroup. Nobody cares where to rout when they are running for their lives

Had to go back and watch one of your medieval 2 3v3 siege videos to revive my soul after seeing this footage

This is troy. Like the same everything. Like troy "historical" mode I bet the slingers shoot upwars and you can run through the units more easy

9:23 I'm pretty sure they were "inspired" by this certain game called Manor Lords to add in this feature. The exact same thing is made by an indie game producer.

What I’m curious about is… what TW fan asked for this game? What are the business facts behind not doing sequels to Medieval? Shogun? Napoleon? Empire? It seems they just make what they think is best, not what the players want.

oh man thank god someone actually said something I felt like i was going crazy, this game looks boring as fuck. Shogun 2 still makes any other TW game look like a joke.

I can't help but see really big similarity with Troy. The in-battle icons and overall looks, the icons of resources in campaign map and stuff. Also although I am excited for this era as it is quite a jump from other TW games, I'm a bit worried about units diversity as it looks like we will have like 3 factions to play with (Hittites, Egypt, Canaan + at least 1 non-playable). Troy wasn't THAT much bad overall, but the battles just felt se boring for me and I'm worried about the same result in Pharaoh. Looking forward to trying it nevertheless.

Maps should be 10x the size, you should start in a marching column & the enemy should be difficult to spot. A battle should take 40min & involve you using scouts to explore terrain & try to find the enemy before engaging.

Love the honesty. Great job Apollo

How is it possible to regress this much when you've been making the same kind of games for so long? Please help this make sense.

Thank you for being sane

Its so good to hear the honest frustration of someone else about this franchise. I hope your words reach CA's ears someday, because the last games are infuriatingly disappointing.

CA had to wait for Manor Lords to have the idea to implement a retreat mechanic?

TW is evolving backwards. I go back to my Shogun 2 campaign.

Literally my comment on ca’s video is that its boring and looks like a mobile game, 50 quid for a troy dlc is crazy Imagine manor lords (a city builder) battles being way more exiting than a battle focused game

I am glad you made this video. I had a feeling it would be exactly like troy just without hero’s and honestly I feel like I am right.

One of the funniest reviews I have seen in a while. Nice job Apollo.

Apollo, im from Indonesia. I've been watching the Biggus Dickus series for the past few months and I really like it. it's like a masterpiece for me and I hope you come back to play the next series. honestly, you are one of the geniuses in directing character stories among other youtubers who play mount & blade 2 bannerlord and I hope this won't be the last time but there will be a new series again.

First honest reaction video I ever seen haha. Based Apollo! I havent bought a TW since Atilla and I dont be buying this either from the look of it. Also about the dynamic weather, kinda dont get the point of it tbh. Historically people have always tried to wait out bad/extreme weather...

100% agree with u Apollo. All these new games sound really interesting, however none of them have depth, and they’re all copy paste just like a communist country building a neighborhood.

We need to go to Empire/Napoleon time. This time period is a perfect sandbox to fine tune both infantry and naval combat. Close skirmishes, calvary charges, bayonet charges, musket fire, and artillery barrages are all possible.

I didn’t realize Apollo abandoned his beautiful long locks. Thanks for this tho dude, love🤘🏻

lmao genuinely more hyped for Rise of Mordor than, whatever this troy 2.0 they try to throw at us

I dont understand why they are making some inf units smaller than others like in troy. Like I dont want to fiddle around with a 90 man unit where are my 160 old guards or praetorians

Ngl this turned into a try to not laugh😂 love you Apollo

I miss the old total Wars I wish empire would have been developed more and ran better

When I get hit by chariots I also return to my home planet.

In history, weather ended battles more often than minorly affecting it.

I totally feel you...

guess Ill be sticking to Rome 2 for another decade at this point

Did they confirm no "heroes"? It's "ancient" Egypt. I'm sure we'll get a Nile Croc DLC with Moon Knight skin.

I gotta say this game looks like hell. Imagine clicking your mouse to death, sweating, when you're desperately trying to micromanage an entire army in a battle where everything happens in seconds. I tried Attila, and it was already such a rushed experience I didn't even know what was going on half the time. You win by spamming.

I laughed so hard when the dudes went flying and he was like $60 bucks ??

Opening I really don't like the idea of Pharaoh, nobody that I know in the community wanted this 💀, and not many are optimistic. In my opinion, it's a Troy expansion, it's not even a full game. Comparison What the community wanted: - Gunpowder - Medieval - Historical What we got: - A big Troy Expansion Warhammer has broken the historical games, their battles are quick and you've seen historical battles get quicker. The game is Fantasy, you've seen historical games diverge away from realism (I attribute this mostly to them picking an era in history with little historical knowledge, i.e. bronze age and three kingdoms). So I believe for us to get better historical games they need to go back to areas with great historical knowledge which is AGAIN MEDIEVAL AND GUNPOWDER. Maps They've definitely gotten smaller for sure, i remember playing maps on shogun, Napoleon, and empire. The maps were great, good size variety, more strategies to use, but now were out in a box.

Looks like a mod....

Fighting retreat? About time. Sid Meiers Gettysburg did that in 1997. Retreat by recoil for artillery as well.

I could definitely get behind more Apollo CA rants.

Need them Apollo reaction thumbnails

Sigh. I remember waking up early in the morning before school so I could play Medieval 2. I know it wasn't a perfect game, it had its issues, but it was so much better than these new arcade total wars.

Also why in all these years of making games with chariots did no one ever tell CA that this is not how they were used. They were transports or at most archery platforms. They were specifically made super light, they would be useless after a single charge.

“YOU WONT BELIEVE WHAT UNITS ARE IN THIS GAME”😳😦😦

19:43 This animation looks like if it was from like Ultimate epic battle simulator! Like they had to make a bad animation, so it doesn´t decrease the fps or something.