This game is amazing and underrated, not much advertisment on it, shame. Yes it can be compared to Medieval 2: Total War in general, however the battle system is different, it needs more initial planning in order to win a battle, it can be considered as hardcore version of total war battles. The only con here that the game dosent have a campign map, only series of battles, but they are tight and needs a lot of strategy and planning, a battle can last much longer time comparing to total war games. The graphics are nice, better than Medieval 2, and comparable to Empire, while the sound and voice acting are average, the AI is decent, multiplayer is very enjoyable but usually its hard to find people online to play against.

when i bought this game, i was not expecting too much, considering the price i paid for it. but when i played it for the first time, i was mindblowned by the variety of units, factions and graphics. although i admit graphics is not rising to shogun 2 or rome 2 in the total war series, it is still quite good. and the units are great, with a wide range of variety. so great job whoever had the idea of making this game. i missed some old medieval 2 type of game.

XIII Century Is a Real Time Tactics (RTT) game set in the thirteenth century A.D.. It has 5 single player campaigns, each camaign is a series of Historicall battles. There is also multiplayer mode but I cannot review it because I can't find anybody online to play with.

Gameplay

The main gameplay of XIII Century is playing historical battles. The scale of the battles is huge, it is comparable to the scale of battles in Total War games. The battles have great depth so they offer great challenge and fun. Also due to the battle mechanics the use of tactics is totally neccessary in order to win battles, moreover any wrong move can drive your army to it's total annihilation. The UI is prety much simmilar to the the UI of Total War games and it's quite simple and functional so it doesn't cause any issues to the player during battles. As for the AI, it knows how to use it's units and combined with the battle mechanics it offers a lot of challenge and fun. The battle mechanics, the AI and the UI combined offer a great gameplay, but it would be better if there would be any conquest campaign with a map like in total war games.

Visuals.

The visuals of XIII Century are pretty good. The models are not as detailed as in the Total War games but they offer some visually impressive battles. Also, there is variety in the soldiers appearance so they don't look like clones. As for the animations, they are a little awkward but there are some of them that may impress. For example the soldiers draw their swords only when the enemy is near which may be something minor but it's an eyecandy that I like. The particles are just ok, when the soldiers are running there are some dust effects and also there are blood effects and gore which make the battles sort of gritty. Unforunately there is one objection that I have, the HDR makes everything to look too bright. Visually the game is great in comparison to many stategy games and it runs with high framerates.

Audio

The sound of the game is not anything special, it just fulfills it's purpose. There are descent sound effects and the music just fits with the atmosphere of the game. It is not anything imressive or bad, it is just ok.

XIII Century is an underrated game which has been overseen by gamers . It is a game that I highly recommend to Medieval II Total War fans.

If you like total war games then you should like this game!

I note that a number of reviews are warning people that this game does not work with Windows 7 64. It does. All you have to do is add 'engine.exe' to Data Execution Prevention.

For those that don't know this is found as follows;

Control Panel ---> System and Security ---> System ---> Advanced System Settings ---> Advanced tab ---> Click settings under performance ---> Data Execution Prevention tab ---> Add 'Engine.exe'

Wow... I got everything I wanted from a Real TIme Tactics game... yet I felt disappointed. This blows away RTW series for melee based combat. There are so many dynamics to the game, and better yet the stats are not hidden, but layed out in the interface. RTW and other combat games leave a few simple options available to the players. In this game, you can see the effect of open/regular/closed spacing, the effect of other troops nearby, the defestation of ranged archers, plus the usual damage/armor/defense and much more.

Yet... I felt disappointed. The battles were challenging, but I still craved the empire building of the RTW series. I wanted to create my army, my way, and not get stuck with historical units.

I know this seems like a negative review, but I feel that I got everything I wanted from this game... and at the same time, self discovered I wanted more freedom. Perhaps, if they took this level of detail and allowed me to construct empires and armies of my own design, I would have loved this game.

Love this game, seriously underated, the battles are epic, the graphics are great, the sound is perfect, the maps are randomly generated in custom game so no battle is the same. campaign has set maps but is great to play. can have 5x the amount of on screen soldiers as total war games. True RTS game. a must have for medievil, war and RTS lovers!!!!!!

As a hardcore Total War franchise fan, I can say with no hesitation, XIII Century is the best war game after TW. If you like especially Medieval Total War, this is a MUST for you. The game takes place in the XIII. century and you re-fight famous battles from that era. There is no map like a Total War game. It's all about the tactics on the field. Between battles it is possible to earn money and buy some additional troops for your force, that is all. The factions you can choose are England, France, Germany, Mongols but most importantly the Slavs! :-) This game also includes the famous battle between Teutonic Knights and the Alexander Nevsky, so this could be a single reason to buy it (for history geeks like me, of course). Graphics are nice but nothing über which I don't care. The beautiness of the game is in the details.

its just combat rts with out resources. its like all the combat from king arthur or the total war series with none of the strategy. I dont mean that in a bad way. It's just abotu the small unit tactics then it is abotu Grandscale rts. very cool though.

ON WIN 7 64BIT GAME IS NOT PLAYABLE.

does not run on 64 bit windows 7

Long loading times, units who do everything but what you tell them to and an absolutely horrid campain tutorial that you HAVE to sitt through before you can play any campains.

Just get total war: medieval 2 it's far superior to this.

WORKS ON MY WINDOWS 7!!

pure medieval battle

sound quality is very good, strongly recommended

the game has many crashes and dumps they are the top defects

nice

Good RTS game.

NO.. Never. No way.. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. Take your money and wipe your butt with it. You'll get more out of it.

okay game

Bom eu não conheço muitos Brasileiros que tem este jogo em sua Steam isso ja é ruim pois não tem quase nenhuma sala no MultiPlayer :c mas o jogo é pura Batalha Medieval,a Interface do jogo é muito bem feita (minha opnião),jogabilidade maravilhinda *-* kk é mais um jogo de RTS que infelizmente não é tão bom como TOTAL WAR ou AoE mas para quem não tem muito dinhero assim como eu :c kk vale muito apena comprar :D


9/10