True Three Kingdoms: 8 Empires: Old brand Erguotou with new packaging

As a traditional spin off in the series, "True Three Kingdoms 8 Empires" has been released more than 3 years after experiencing a ticket bounce, and is almost 8 years behind the previous work in the "Empire" series, "True Three Kingdoms 7 Empires".

Time has passed too long, and by the time I opened "True Three Kingdoms: Unmatched 8 Empires", my mind could no longer accurately recall what happened to the night I played "True Three Kingdoms: Unmatched 7 Empires" all night in college.

This work is an "Empire" work that was released without the optimization system of "The Legend of Might and Magic", and coupled with the poor performance of the original "True Three Kingdoms Unmatched 8" as the foundation, it is really difficult to make people optimistic about this work before its release.

But after all, "Empires of the Three Kingdoms" (hereinafter referred to as "Empires") is considered a commemorative work for the 20th anniversary of the series. With so many debuffs added, can it make a comeback? I opened this game with this curiosity in my heart.

Fresh combat packaging

As a spin off of True Three Kingdoms 8, True Three Kingdoms 8 Empire naturally inherits the action system of this game.

In my impression, the combat systems and action modules of the "True Three Kingdoms Unmatched" throughout history have undergone additions and fine-tuning in the "Legend of Mighty Generals" before being added to the "Empire". However, the 8th generation did not have "Mighty Generals", so the basic action system of "Empire" is basically the system with "roulette+three keys" as the core of this series. The advantages and disadvantages of this system have long been determined, and there is no need to further develop it.

The main battlefield gameplay of the game has also become the siege and defense gameplay from "True Three Kingdoms Unmatched 8". On the basis of reducing the strength of both sides to 0 in the past, siege players can obtain various siege weapons, such as charging carts, catapults, and so on, by capturing siege weapon strongholds. Among them, the catapult can help players seize the loft stronghold on the city wall. When all the lofts are captured, players can use their claws to climb over the wall and open the city gate for a decisive battle.

Defending a city is the opposite of attacking a city. It is necessary to prevent the enemy from using siege weapons to break through our city walls, but the victory method is the same as before. Occupying a stronghold or reducing the enemy's troops to 0 triggers a decisive battle.

Unfortunately, there are only two gameplay options available on the battlefield of the game.

Fortunately, Empire has added many new features to its combat related systems.

Firstly, in terms of equipment, Empire did not use the same inlay system as in this book, nor did it use the traditional weapon+treasure system. Instead, it was replaced with treasure tools and jade. Each general will default to using their own weapon of expertise, while self built generals are the weapons chosen by players - although they can be replaced, generally no one does - players can obtain precious jade artifacts and precious jade during battles. Both are divided into 5 levels from level 5 to level 1, as well as multiple attributes.

Replacing a precious jade artifact will directly change the weapon level and corresponding attributes of the general's equipment. In addition to enhancing the attribute attacks of the corresponding precious jade artifact, precious jade also comes with multiple entries. These entries can affect the numerical values of generals from attack power to unparalleled damage, making the game seem to have a slight possibility of building a group, but more importantly, it still gives players a target to brush and a certain degree of numerical freedom.

There is also an optional set of secret skills that have been added (of course, you can also think that the secret skill system in "True Three Kingdoms Unmatched 7 Empires" has been divided), covering everything from attack to assistance, and can also be upgraded. Both systems can inherit across roles and scripts. However, from my gaming experience, if I want to achieve similar results, it is definitely not enough to only unify the Three Kingdoms once.

This game also introduces the concept of military branches, dividing all the generals of the Three Kingdoms into three basic branches: infantry, cavalry, and archers. The branches themselves do not affect the numerical value of the generals, but they form a seemingly counterintuitive relationship: infantry defeats cavalry, cavalry defeats bow, and bow defeats infantry.

Leaving aside this, the addition of unit restraint has indeed added a sense of strategy to the battlefield. Attacks on restrained generals have higher damage, faster defense breaking, lower damage, and shorter control time for dizziness and other states. Especially in combination with the original heavy kill system in this game, it gives the generals a thrill that sets them apart from the series. If the player is restrained, it doesn't matter. On the battlefield, they can turn their own unit into the unit of their fellow generals through peer commands.

But in the later stages of the game, this system is almost like half a decoration - because the character controlled by the player can also unlock troops other than these three generals.

Yes, you're not mistaken. In a game with a career restraint system, there are also professions that are not in the restraint chain. These types of troops highlight one that jumps out of the Three Realms and is not within the Five Elements: they do not enjoy the advantages and disadvantages of being restrained by the troops themselves, and there are also some special passivities, such as medical soldiers being able to heal, surrounded soldiers increasing the probability of capturing enemy generals, etc; And as long as it is a general controlled by the player, they can be transferred to these types of troops in the current battle.

The result is that when you choose these types of troops in the later stage, the impact of the restraint relationship on the battle is much smaller. What you need to pay attention to is only the comparison between the numerical value and the action module (even if you think it's scraping, you just need to run for a teammate from thousands of miles to come over). In the later stage, some unparalleled generals can use this system to kill all directions - they have high numerical value and fierce mods. For example, I once tried to control L ü Bu, who had changed his troops, to fight the same battle after the failure of building his own generals. However, the higher-level "Xiao Qiang" showed exceptional bravery, ignoring the enemy generals' troops and blocking the gods and Buddha.

I just left myself crying and laughing at the screen - what's the difference from before - and then started the next round.

Carrying wine on dates throughout the territory of the Three Kingdoms

As a spin off based on "True Three Kingdoms 8", "Empire" naturally cannot avoid the biggest gimmick of "Open World Three Kingdoms". Fortunately, Honor Tecmo made it clear during the promotional period that this game is not an open world game and will not provoke PTSD among players.

But it's a pity to throw away such a large open world map before. If the core game content doesn't have an open world, wouldn't it be better to use it in other systems? So the "Walking" system - a liking system for generals attached to the open world map of "True Three Kingdoms Unmatched 8" - was born.

Players can choose to take a walk to enter this system during the domestic round. After a period of reading, we arrived at the open land of the Three Kingdoms. This map, except for not being able to fish or fight, basically has everything in the map of this book, Empire. There are cities, villages, road signs, docks, military camps (empty), scenic spots... everything. Its main function is to recruit out of the wilderness generals and enhance the relationship with our own generals. Of course, it is not impossible for oneself to travel without time.

Huangguoshu Waterfall

However, the map may have some movement restrictions due to the player's identity, such as when the player does not have their own territory and does not belong to any faction, they can teleport freely on the large map and enter and exit various cities. Once a player owns a territory or belongs to a faction, non local cities will close the door to the protagonist.

However, there is not much to wander around in the city. In the city we occupy, we can still see generals from the same faction and chat to deepen our relationship. The unoccupied cities have no other interactive content except for occasionally finding an NPC to talk to and buying things that players can buy on the internal affairs interface from merchants.

Ah, what? Recruiting wilderness generals? That's not in the city, it's at the city gate.

In this game, the wilderness generals are scattered to various main cities, and there is a recruitment card at the entrance of each main city. Players can see three newly refreshed wilderness generals in front of the recruitment card in this round. Chat with the generals gathered here to enhance friendship. If the friendliness is high, you can spend action points to invite to join.

This system, apart from having too many disk reads, is still much better than the one in "True Three Kingdoms: 7 Empires".

Players can also invite their friendly generals to accompany them while taking a walk, and then... go on a date!

Players are allowed to act together with their own generals while in the same state. In addition to playing in the mountains and rivers, if they reach a certain number of wild monsters while in the same state, they can receive gifts from their own generals. Of course, sometimes there may be well connected generals who actively invite you to join them in the wilderness

However, this wild monster system is quite rough, just randomly throwing various monsters into one area to complete the task. So you can see the strange scene of two packs of wolves surrounding a group of deer doing nothing but biting you, or the scene of a large number of miscellaneous soldiers still appearing in your own territory when the world is going to be peaceful.

In addition, the walking system is a system that triggers a large number of favorable events, including but not limited to being recruited to chat with Mr. Shuijing while players are in the wilderness. As it is an open world map, when this game triggers a liking event, players can follow the generals to run around various scenic spots within the territory, truly dating in the Three Kingdoms territory.

The confession and friendship scenes between players and generals will also change depending on their location, and this is the scene of this performance... It's really a bit unbearable:

After increasing the friendliness between players and generals in this game, players can still choose to form alliances or get married. After forming a corresponding relationship, special events will be triggered, which are also the only source channel for the mounts in this game (so if you want something like Red Rabbit, let's get a female warrior to marry Lv Bu). Fortunately, to prevent players from forming special relationships with other generals, there is nothing else but blood ties.

: The wedding scene of "True Three Kingdoms: 7 Empires" is still a float parade, and this game only follows this path

By the way, players can worship three generals, but they can still only marry one general. That is to say, no, open, back, palace!

Players will still have offspring after getting married, but it has been changed to be born after completing the level. Descendants will inherit their parents' weapon suitability and a title, which, in addition to certain custom options being locked, is a new custom warrior that can be used to start a new script. This way, although we cannot see descendants in the game process, it also avoids the situation where handsome men and beautiful women gave birth to evil gods in the previous game.

The inheritance setting also allows people to see a plan for the birth of generals with full weapon adaptability for offspring, which seems to be transforming into a new sun rising slowly. It is also predictable for players to live together with their own descendants in a certain script N generation (laughs).

The wine in the bottle is still the same as the Empire's set

I've talked about the new things quite well, the rest is just tinkering with the old ones.

One feature of the "Empire" series is the ability to create custom generals, also known as pinching people. The Pincer in this game can be said to be the strongest in the series, after all, the system was taken from "Renwang", and from the actual experience, it is indeed similar. It seems that the Pincer system in "Renwang 2" is slightly castrated.

It's just that it's a bit cumbersome to pinch. There's no preview for all the content, and you basically need to scroll through it step by step and press OK to know what it looks like. There's also no "back out" button or default reset. It can only be said that the system is powerful, but usability has not improved at all.

In terms of the game process, there are still a few scripts, from the Yellow Turban Uprising to the Three Kingdoms Triumph, and the gathering of heroes. However, there was no custom script for this time, and the Jin Dynasty script for "True Three Kingdoms: 7 Empires" was also changed to the Northern Expedition. However, the basic gameplay has not changed. Heroes gather all generals, and corresponding event scripts can trigger corresponding historical events. The length of the process still depends on the player's gameplay, and there is no exact number.

As for the political strategy system, ha, this is really the old trick.

Players who have played the Empire series should know that the political strategy system of this series has been hovering around the online and offline "playing house". The biggest change in this political system is the addition of the so-called "political assistance" system, where generals occasionally take some political actions on their own. The action content will be influenced by the goals given by the player during the evaluation, and players can also actively choose the projects that the generals will undertake to obtain corresponding reward bonuses and favorability. The higher the favorability of a general, the higher the frequency of political strategy assistance.

This has to some extent improved the gaming experience: in the early stages, it can help players accumulate resources, and in the later stages, it can save many rounds to speed up the game pace. However, the operation of this system is not under the control of players, and whether the experience has improved or not cannot change the fact that the entire political strategy system is not fun.

The fundamental reason lies in the setting that players in the "Empire" series can only do one thing in politics per round. This system is simple and straightforward, but it significantly reduces the already limited strategic and depth. In the later stages of Empire, players are still ruthless "next round" machines, no different from the previous game. After all, there are not as many practical things that can be achieved in this domestic strategy as in "True Three Kingdoms: Seven Empires".

In addition to the differences in weapon and action module strength, each general has finally developed some unique features this time. When the player's liking for the generals increases, they can receive political and military assistance. The former is the political assistance system mentioned above, while the latter constitutes a battlefield secret technology system similar to that in "True Three Kingdoms: The Seven Empires". Generals who meet the requirements of friendliness will provide players with secret technique suggestions during the strategic stage before the start of the battle, and players can choose the corresponding secret technique to launch an auxiliary battle.

Of course, opponents will also use secret techniques, and on the battlefield, there is often a race against time to form secret attack and defense battles, which can increase tension and strategic sense.

Unfortunately, the friendly AI in this game has not made any progress and remains at the ancestral level of the "Three Kingdoms Unmatched" series. That is to say, many systems may seem beautiful, but in reality, playing them is a kind of "knowing smile" on a different level - our Liu Guanzhang was killed three times by the enemy's whiteboard general, the friendly army couldn't protect the key commander of the secret technique, and was at a disadvantage. Later on, the friendly army basically retreated and couldn't find anyone to accompany them

Old wine has a new appearance, but the taste has not changed

There have been too many readings for "True Three Kingdoms: 8 Empires" this time.

End the battle and enter the political strategy system to read; Triggered an event to be read; If there is more than one trigger, you need to read after watching a single episode; Entering the stroll system requires reading, teleportation requires reading... With so many reading disks and the fact that I am using an unmodified solid-state drive PS4, this game has given me a deeper understanding of the fact that the PS4 has already been half buried.

Personally speaking, the frame rate performance of the game is still in line with expectations, with acceptable frame drops and unstable frame rates, even causing me to overlook some possible stiff movements. However, the overall performance is still only at a playable level, after all, the frame rate is obtained by waiting for the minions to refresh when capturing the stronghold, and the visual performance can only be said to be average, after all, the PS4's functions are limited to this.

Setting aside these, as long as you can accept the action system of "True Three Kingdoms Unmatched 8", then "True Three Kingdoms Unmatched 8 Empires" has significantly improved its combat experience compared to both this game and "True Three Kingdoms Unmatched 7 Empires". Just the game's internal strategy system is still a clich é d patchwork, and open world dating is just a big addition to its highlights.

In the later stages of the battlefield, there are only so many secret techniques left, such as constantly changing attacks and defenses, and going back and forth. The events and broadcasts in the entire script process are not too many and will still be repeated. Even opening a new generation script is just reheating the content that has been played. These elements add up, ultimately resulting in Empire appearing to have changed but its essence remains unchanged, still the repetitive explosion and stagnant "Three Kingdoms Unmatched Empire".

At this point, let's think about the debuffs mentioned at the beginning. If they were to be included in a passionate work, the protagonist who has memorized so many debuffs would often explode and fight back, giving himself and the series a proper name.

Unfortunately, "True Three Kingdoms 8 Empires" is just a spin off of "True Three Kingdoms 8 Empires". It didn't lose, but it didn't win either.