Medieval II: Total War was a huge step up from the original games in the series and delivered improved graphics and advanced levels of detail and complexity that allowed you to command your troops from a tactical level or to zoom right down to the individual soldier to watch the action. This game also saw a well polished strategic campaign that challenged players to dominate Europe as the ruler of their kingdom of choice. Any sequel to this game has a lot to top so it was with a keen interest that we loaded up Medieval II: Total War – Kingdoms.

"Loading up" does little to describe the amount of time this took. With four new campaigns and various updates to the original game engine (it requires the original game to play) we were looking at over four gigabytes of hard disk space and over an hour of install time for the entire package. A saving grace for this is that the four new campaigns can be loaded individually.

As mentioned, there are four new campaigns to challenge the best of the armchair generals and not the least of these is the new Americas Campaign. This new continent to explore and dominate offers some unique challenges. You can play as the North American Tribes and forge these diverse tribes into a Indian nation to resist the incursion of the Aztecs from the South and the Spanish with their frightening new weapons. Play as the Spanish and, despite firearms, armour and cavalry, you start the campaign small in number and reliant on native levies to supplement your army. The race is on before the belligerent tribes capture your new technologies and turn them against you.. This is a huge campaign and offers some great new city build options and new units.

The new Britannia Campaign puts you in the shoes of commander of the burgeoning Kingdom of Britain. Facing up against the Welsh, the Irish and the Scots, this is a campaign that really challenges your ability to manage strategically over a multitude of fronts. Taking on the role of one of the lesser kingdoms also has its own challenges as you try to forge alliances to keep the ever growing power of the British.

The game does not stop there; there are the Crusades to re-fight in what may be considered one of the pivotal campaigns of medieval times that unfortunately still resonates through time to present day. Play as the Christian countries as they try and wrestle the holy lands from heretics, or command the armies of Islam and defend against the infidels. As if this were not enough, there is also the Teutonic Campaign where you can command the armies of the Teutonic Knights and bring the holy word to all the surrounding domains. This campaign requires a deft hand at a strategic level where conversion of the ungodly becomes the main challenge.

These four new campaigns are huge, and frankly they could well have been released individually. There are 13 new factions to command and some 150 new units with which to battle your opponents. Overall this represents tremendous value.

The only thing we did not like and something we found wanting in the original game was the clinical nature of the combat. Cavalry crashes into ranks of infantry, arrows cascade on the peasant levies and the axemen are bent on their grim task. But alas, not a drop of blood is spilled. This sanitised version of what was a brutal and bloody war does not deliver the true horror of the conflicts.