Total War: Pharaoh is the most recent release in the massive grand strategy series from developer Creative Assembly. Its release in October of 2023 was met with mixed reception. In the months since it has received numerous tweaks and updates to bring it more in line with the fanbase’s expectations and hopes for the series’ take on the late Bronze Age collapse. This has all culminated in the game’s largest and final game update, ushering in the age of Total War: Pharaoh – Dynasties.
Interestingly, Dynasties is not a traditional update but is actually an entirely independent version of the game, requiring a separate download and menu option on the series’ launcher. This comes with pros and cons. It does allow the update to make more sweeping changes to the title while still allowing players to go back and play the prior version without Dynasties. However, it does mean that mods for the game will not work with the Dynasties version, and old saves will not transfer.
Get BWT in your inbox!
Get BWT in your inbox!
The content of the Dynasties update can best be split up into two categories: campaign and battle. When it comes to the campaign, Dynasties works to expand on what was already there in Total War: Pharaoh to add more variation, complexity, and options for players. These include four new major factions to play, twenty-five minor factions, and a map expansion that increases its size by an additional 80%, boasting a whopping 168 additional settlements. These additions help support the update’s new features by increasing the scope of every campaign, allowing each playthrough to better encapsulate the game’s era.
Perhaps the biggest campaign addition in Dynasties, however, is the return of the series’ family tree feature. Featured in numerous previous series entries, the family tree brings depth to the relationships within kingdoms, opening the door for more political intrigue, in-fighting, and emergent storylines. Pharaoh was missing this feature at launch, but Dynasties brings it back in glorious fashion. The depth that it brings to the campaign is a massive boon to replayability, unique moments, and nuanced decision-making. It is so transformative and positively impactful that it is difficult to think of why Pharaoh was launched without it to begin with. Hopefully, this means that Creative Assembly will not do so again.
The second portion of Dynasties Changes is focused on the real-time battles that players lead their armies during throughout the campaign. Controlling units, similar to other large-scale strategy titles like Homeworld 3, play out battles in Total War games. Picture a visual shown in a documentary on the History Channel, with players having to account for terrain, land features, positioning, and more to keep things complicated for good measure. Combat in Total War games is slow and granular, and Dynasties do not change that in Pharaoh; instead, they try to make it more dynamic.
One large way that Dynasties attempts to do this is by adding new units and updating those already in the game for a whopping new roster of more than 150 fresh units to experiment with. While its historical accuracy prohibits Pharaoh from reaching the sheer variety of brethren like Total War: Warhammer III, the update does a lot to breath some fresh air into the options players have when waging war. However, I still found much of the options to feel rather underwhelming. Unit upgrades don’t do enough to make battles later on in the campaign feel particularly special or impactful, and there aren’t quite enough units to give each faction its own flavor in battle, even with unique faction-locked units.
A more successful change comes in Dynasties‘ new battle mechanics, chiefly its optional Lethality system. Lethality helps make battles even more deadly and realistic than ever before in the series. Each unit has a stat related to the system that indicates their probability of instantly killing an enemy combatant every time they attack. This allows certain units to play as fearfully as they were treated by history while also opening options for great gameplay moments. In just one campaign, I found Lethality and a good helping of luck, allowing me to pull off incredible defensive positions or quickly turn the tide of a battle in a rush of excitement as an enemy unit was suddenly wiped out by a quick flurry of attacks.
While some of its changes are more impactful than others, most of what is on offer in the Dynasties update for Total War: Pharaoh are net positives. The additions and tweaks bring some much-needed depth to the game’s campaigns and help keep things fresh on subsequent playthroughs. However, it does not address some of the core issues that longtime fans have voiced and will likely not be enough to bring them back to the Bronze Age despite being free.
Total War: Pharaoh – Dynasties releases on July 25 for PC.
Total War: Pharaoh - Dynasties
TL;DR
While some of its changes are more impactful than others, most of what is on offer in the Dynasties update for Total War: Pharaoh are net positives. The additions and tweaks bring some much needed depth to the game’s campaigns and help keep things fresh on subsequent playthroughs. However, it does not address some of the core issues that longtime fans have voiced and will likely not be enough to bring them back to the Bronze Age despite it being free.
