Total War: Medieval 3 will finally show what devs couldn’t 19 years ago. No one will have to „suspend disbelief” anymore

by

I’m so excited to hear that Total War: Medieval 3 is actually in the works! It’s still super early in development – like, really early, in pre-production – so we’ll be waiting a while, unfortunately. But the good news is, GamesRadar+ recently got to chat with the game director, Pawel Wojs, and creative director, Leif Walter, and they shared some initial ideas about where they’re taking the game, which is awesome!

Perfect moment for Medieval 3

Creative Assembly knows fans love Medieval 2 and have high hopes for the next game in the series. Interestingly, the studio has actually tried to make a sequel three times before. They even recreated the Battle of Grunwald as part of one attempt, but ultimately decided the timing wasn’t right to release it.

It’s all about getting the timing, team, and goals aligned. We felt like the moment wasn’t right to create Medieval 3, and we wouldn’t have been able to make it as good as we wanted to.

There are a couple of key reasons why the developers decided to create Medieval 3 now, almost two decades after the previous installment. Primarily, Creative Assembly has a new game engine called Warcore, which allows for features and improvements beyond what was previously possible. Additionally, with experience gained from developing numerous other games, the team now has the right expertise in the right positions.

It’s been a while since we released a large-scale historical game, and we felt it was the perfect time to refresh the series – to really rethink what a historical Total War game should be. Medieval seemed like the ideal setting and title to kick off this new direction for the franchise.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-60798

No more “Suspension of Disbelief”

Reaching the quality of Medieval 2, which the studio considers their masterpiece, is a significant challenge. As Walter explained, the 2006 game felt incredibly immersive due to its many intricate details. The team is now striving to recapture that same feeling, but Wojs emphasized a key difference. While Medieval 2 relied on players to fill in some gaps with their imagination – a ‘suspension of disbelief’ – Medieval 3 will visually display those details directly on screen.

In Medieval 2, while you built and expanded your empire across Europe and participated in events like the Crusades, the grand narrative often felt disconnected. It was up to the player to create a compelling story through extensive note-taking, as the game didn’t always clearly demonstrate the consequences of your actions or the full scope of your historical impact. Medieval 3 was designed to address this. We aimed to make the game world react more visibly to player choices, showcasing the layers of impact and allowing players to truly reshape history with clear, in-game feedback.

The developers emphasized that they want to build a more detailed and realistic foundation for the game before adding the classic Total War gameplay elements. They’ve been working on several underlying systems, which they haven’t revealed yet. However, they did mention a closer link between the campaign map and battles, and confirmed they’ll be offering improved support for player-made modifications (mods).

To truly revitalize the classic Total War experience, we should aim to create Medieval 3 by incorporating the strongest elements from across the series, not simply replicating Medieval 2.

Read More

2025-12-08 13:33