It struck me while playing Medieval 2: (ME2) that perhaps I'm a bit too much of a pacifist at times. I was quite happy ruling my bit of and keeping the populace safe and happy, I had fought hard to secure the whole of the and most of France (because, well, you've got to haven't you...) and had no real desire to expand my empire any further and risk unsettling the relatively comfortable status quo I'd managed to build. Perhaps if I just patrolled my borders and kept up trade agreements with my neighbours I could live out the rest of my reign in peace and harmony. Then, in a strangely inevitable turn of events, an arrogant German noble invaded my lands and soon enough I was back sending my armies ever wider across the map pushing the boundaries of my military might in the quest for dominance. After all, as Tears For Fears once said, 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World'.

ME2 is a truly massive game, a huge and engrossing turn-based game coupled with an epic real-time battle engine that lets you play out every battle in mind blowing detail. One thing it's not however is easy to pick up and play for a novice, and as such the first few hours of play can be an arduous climb up a very steep learning curve if you're new to the Total War games or historical strategy in general. A brief tutorial takes you through the basics for controlling the game but once you're dropped in at the deep end of the main campaign it doesn't take long before you're wishing you'd paid more attention in history class, and that your history class had in some way covered in-depth military tactics and the intricacies of European at the end of the eleventh century. Total War veterans may scoff at such concerns, but for a newcomer whose knowledge of medieval history is sketchy at best the otherwise admirable level of detail and historical realism can be more than a little daunting.

Fight your way through the first few hours of trial and error however and you start to uncover a game that rewards such perseverance. The main campaign sees you become the leader of one of seven factions (more become playable once you've completed the campaign once) and embark on a quest to control the whole of the map before, in a slightly surprising move, moving onto the new world and the chance to pit your might against the Incas. The meat of the game takes place on the turn based world map from where your armies are built and managed, your settlements grown and fortify and the diplomacy of government takes place. The level of detail is staggering as each turn sees you having to keep track of a seemingly endless number of aspects, from sending out spies, entering into trade negotiations and marrying off your most eligible princesses to gain favour in foreign courts and that's before you even start to think about growing your cities, building defences, training new units and eventually waging war.

When war is finally waged you leave behind the turn based world map and move into the nitty-gritty of the real-time battles. On a capable machine (something way above the on-box minimum spec) the battles in ME2 are nothing short of spectacular, individually modelled foot soldiers and cavalrymen give a convincing illusion of a real army marching into battle. Little touches like slight differences to the uniforms amongst regiments increase the sense that each individual soldier is unique and as they engage the enemy under your command you feel a certain attachment to them that other large scale war games often lack. As fantastic as the graphics are and as much fun as you can have sweeping the camera through the battles watching the brutality of war at close quarters, in reality the only way to seriously play is from a far more zoomed out perspective which, to a point, makes some of the graphical splendour on offer slightly redundant. From such a viewpoint it soon becomes apparent how much thought needs to be put into each battle and it doesn't take long before the realism on display hits home, for example sending infantry and archers in to attack the same enemy regiment only to see your archers arrows doing as much damage to your own infantry as the enemies is a rookie mistake that you'll only make once. Battles soon become much more tactical as you start to see how each units strengths and weaknesses can effect the overall impact of your army. You can auto resolve conflicts from the map screen if you wish to remain focused on the more global plan but to do so would be to miss a large part of the ME2 experience, and the chance to see your armies fight on such a grand scale is worth the time and effort.

On top of the general empire building idea of the main campaign, religion plays a large part in proceedings too. Keeping on the good side of the Pope is to be advised unless you want to see your lands swarming with the Inquisition or at worst becoming the subject of a Holy Crusade. To this end it pays to try and complete the Vatican suggested missions that present themselves throughout the game doing so can see you well rewarded as well as keeping you in favour. The inevitable changing of Pope's also adds a twist to the game as you may find your own plans less in favour with the new pontiff and there is also the chance of getting one of your own cardinals elected if your have courted enough favour amongst the council.

Such an epic and technically impressive game isn't without its faults however, the interface on the world map is a bit of a mess and while the sheer level of detail involved makes a clean and simple interface something of an impossibility it does feel a little clunky and unrefined certainly not going out of its way to be intuitive which, especially for beginners, is a shame. A longer tutorial, or some kind of hand holding option through the first few hours would have been a nice inclusion for the uninitiated amongst us. Also, as impressive as the battles are they do start to get a little routine after a while and the temptation to hit auto resolve grows as you get deeper into the game and you'd really just like to move onto the next turn.

Put such minor quibbles aside however and ME2 is a wonderful achievement both technically and, more importantly, in the level of historical detail that it contains. For existing Total War fans keen to get their next fix it offers a step forward in the series that will delight if not surprise, for the strategy crowd in general it's a game you really owe it to yourself to try and for the rest of the world it's a game that's historical realism can be daunting at first but will reward the effort you put into it once the learning curve is climbed.

88%

By Paul Newcombe