Total War: Warhammer 2 is now available, giving players both a huge campaign by itself and (soon) an even more expansive game mode when combined with the first Total War: Warhammer. The crazy thing is, this combined game mode will continue to grow after Total War: Warhammer 3 releases. How does developer Creative Assembly pick and choose what will make it into the third Total War: Warhammer? There’s plenty of heated debate.
Al Bickham, Development Communications Director for Creative Assembly, sat down with Player.One to talk Total War: Warhammer 3, the complications of squeezing decades of lore into only three games and what might be next for the Total War franchise.
“There are definitely some heated internal debates, because everyone has their favorites,” Bickham told Player.One about picking races and factions for Total War: Warhammer 2. With over 30 years worth of content, there’s too much to pick from, and that’s become somewhat of a problem.
“That’s what Warhammer is all about,” he said. “You buy, collect and paint the characters you most closely identify with and you like the most.”
Warhammer lore helps restrict options as well. For example, Total War: Warhammer 2 takes place in Ulthuan, Naggaroth, The Southlands and Lustria. It wouldn’t make sense to use races from outside those areas. From there, Bickham says it comes down to who is the biggest name.
“It’s a case for trying to figure out what are the most important characters and units, what typifies and exemplifies those races, and making sure we get the right ones in,” said Bickham.
If you still have a favorite from Warhammer that hasn’t made it to Total War yet, Bickham says to have faith.
“We’ve got a new content team that makes all our free downloadable content and premium downloadable content, extra races and new characters and new subfactions of races that exist,” he said. “Those guys definitely overdid it. They’ll create a new legendary character or new hero character that has a cult status in the lore, because they all get it.”
It’s the free content, made possible by robust base game sales, that makes Bickham the most excited. “There’s nothing quite like releasing a hefty, meaningfully large piece of content for free for your player base,” he said. “It’s a really nice thing to be able to do.”
The Total War: Warhammer franchise was always planned as a trilogy, and the ultimate goal was to unite them into one. This mode, called Mortal Empires, will recreate the tabletop experienc in a video game. It requires players to own both Total War: Warhammer games, and mashes them up to include everything that’s already been released in one game mode.
“It’s mind-bogglingly large and is only going to get bigger when we release the third game. That’s been the grand vision since we started Warhammer 1, was for people to play on the whole thing,” said Bickham. “They can pick any race they want to in Warhammer and have a huge game for them. Nobody's ever done that before, so it’s really exciting.”
We know Creative Assembly’s next game will be Total War: Warhammer 3, but when asked if anything else might be in the works, Bickham didn’t have much to say. However, now that the studio has broken away from its reality-based roots, he says the future is more open than ever.
“My diplomatic answer is we’ve got a full plate already,” Bickham said. “There’s a third Warhammer game coming down the line, but never say never. The Total War format could work with so much, with so many world-spanning universes. I daresay the sky’s the limit. Total War: Warhammer has taught us a lot about what we can do.”
Bickham coyly danced around the subject of hypothetical dream projects, almost as if there might have been something he isn’t allowed to say. “Throw a stone and hit a big, cool franchise and it would be awesome,” he said. “I can think of three or four movies in the last decade that would be awesome. I’m hesitant to say one in particular, but there’s a whole bunch.”
Total War: Warhammer 2 is now available on PC.
So what do you think? Are you interested in seeing what Mortal Empires will look like when all three Total War: Warhammer games have been released? What other franchise do you think would make for an awesome Total War game, and why is it Star Wars? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
