Medieval II: Total War
The Creative Assembly · Strategy
Overview
Spanning the most turbulent era in Western history, your quest for territory and power takes you through Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and even onto the shores of the New World.
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Complete your Total War collection with this Definitive Edition of Total War: MEDIEVAL II, which includes all DLC and feature updates since the game’s release:
Kingdoms is the most content-rich expansion ever produced for a Total War game, with four new entire campaigns centred on expanded maps of the British Isles, Teutonic Northern Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas.
Total War: MEDIEVAL II Definitive Edition offers hundreds and hundreds of hours of absorbing gameplay and every bit of content made for the game. See below for full details.
About Total War: MEDIEVAL II
Take command of your army and expand your reign in Total War: MEDIEVAL II - the fourth instalment of the award-winning Total War series of strategy games. Direct massive battles featuring up to 10,000 bloodthirsty troops on epic 3D battlefields, while presiding over some of the greatest Medieval nations of the Western and Middle Eastern world.
Spanning the most turbulent era in Western history, your quest for territory and power takes you through Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and even onto the shores of the New World.
You'll manage your empire with an iron fist, handling everything from building and improving cities to recruiting and training armies. Wield diplomacy to manipulate allies and enemies, outsmart the dreaded Inquisition, and influence the Pope. Lead the fight in the Crusades and bring victory to Islam or Christianity in the Holy War.
Rewrite history and conquer the world. This is Total War!
- Bigger and better real-time battles. Improved combat choreography, larger armies, quicker pace, and spectacular finishing moves make this the most visceral and exciting Total War ever.
- New epic campaign. The ambitious single player campaign will span three continents and let players sail across to the Americas to confront the Aztecs on their home soil.
- Greater accessibility. An enhanced user interface and optional shorter campaigns make the Total War experience faster and easier to enjoy than ever before.
- Over 40 new features. An advanced terrain system, enhanced weather effects, and more will help you divide and conquer.
- Intense Multiplayer Battles. Wage war against other players in 8-way multiplayer games.
About Kingdoms
Kingdoms presents players with all-new territories to explore, troops to command, and enemies to conquer.
Kingdoms is the most content-rich expansion ever produced for a Total War game, with four new entire campaigns centred on expanded maps of the British Isles, Teutonic Northern Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. In Total War: MEDIEVAL II, you were only given a tantalizing glimpse of South America, but in Kingdoms, vast tracts of land in both North and South America have been opened up for you to conquer. All-new factions from the New World are also now fully playable, including the Aztecs, Apaches, and Mayans.
Along with the new maps in the Britannia, Teutonic, Crusades, and New World Campaigns, there are 13 new factions to play, over 110 units to control, and 50 building types, adding up to 80 hours of new gameplay. Kingdoms also offers new multiplayer maps and hotseat multiplayer, a first for the Total War series, allowing you to play one-versus-one campaign games on the same computer.
- Four new campaigns - Britannia, Teutonic, Crusades, and New World
- 10 new units
- 13 new factions
- 9 new agents
- 50 new buildings
- 60+ new territories across four new maps
- 15 new multiplayer maps and scenarios
- All-new 1v1 hotseat multiplayer campaign mode
From the game's Steam store page.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT10,000 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
Medieval II came out in 2006, as reviewers like to mention, and 95% of them still recommend it. Their praise lands on the real-time battles, which feel heavy, with cavalry charges, morale breaks and sieges fought across several rings of walls. The turn-based campaign gets credit for its medieval detail: the Pope and excommunication, crusades and jihads, family trees and character traits, assassins and merchants, castles versus cities, and the Mongol and Timurid invasions. Mods come up in 33% of detailed reviews, led by the Lord of the Rings conversions Third Age and Divide and Conquer and the historical overhaul Stainless Steel. The bundled Kingdoms expansion, with four extra campaigns, adds to the sense of value.
Only 5% of the slice is negative, and much of what those reviews list comes from the game's age. Crashes and launch failures on Windows 10 and 11 and on new hardware turn up in 19% of them. Other complaints cover units that refuse to run or charge, a camera and interface that sit badly on modern high-resolution and widescreen monitors, diplomacy where allies turn on you without warning, and a tutorial that can stall on a ship-boarding bug. Players disagree about the graphics and the AI: some say both hold up, others call them dated or easy to exploit. For 11% of detailed reviewers it is the best Total War game or one of the best.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
A modding scene that keeps the game aliveHigh
33% of detailed reviews talk about mods. The Lord of the Rings conversions (Third Age and its Divide and Conquer submod) come up in 12% of detailed reviews on their own, and Stainless Steel in 6%. Players also name Europa Barbarorum II, Tsardoms, Broken Crescent, Call of Warhammer, the Elder Scrolls conversion and the Kingdoms Grand Campaign Mod, and some say they bought the game mainly to play them. One reviewer put it bluntly: "Stainless Steel 6.4 is bar none the best mod of Medieval II!"
M2EX, a community 64-bit engine overhaul, is a newer name: 18 of the 26 reviews that mention it were written in 2026. Its fans credit it with fixing crashes, camera handling, performance and the campaign AI: "Installed M2EX and it fixed every issue I have ever had with this game".
Mods also appear in 20% of detailed negative reviews. Some of these say the base game only becomes good once modded. Others say mods break or crash on the Steam version, and several wish the game had Steam Workshop support in place of manual installs from ModDB and Total War Center.
Battles with weight, morale and real siegesHigh
Battles come up in 35% of detailed reviews. Players describe cavalry charges that hit hard and units that rout when their general falls or their flank collapses, and they say positioning and morale decide fights more than unit stat counters do. Sieges against castles with several layers of walls get regular praise, as do small details: armour upgrades bought in town show up on the soldiers' models, and generals give pre-battle speeches that change with their traits. One fan summed it up as "Cavalry charges that still give goosebumps, a map full of grudges, and a soundtrack that bangs." Another pointed out that "Units visually change when they receive armor upgrades."
Players who dislike the battles describe the same systems failing in practice: cavalry that won't charge, slow responses to orders, and siege AI that clusters in the town square (more on these under the frustrations below).
A classic that players say still holds upHigh
20% of detailed reviews call it a classic, timeless or nostalgic, or say it holds up, and 11% call it the best Total War game or one of the best. Several of these reviewers owned it on disc and came back to it on Steam. Some contrast it with later entries in the series: there is no paid DLC, blood is in the base game, and the battles feel slower and weightier. Some negative reviews push back on the nostalgia, like this newcomer's summary: "A product of its time that nostalgia oversells."
A campaign full of medieval flavourHigh
27% of detailed reviews mention the campaign's systems. Players enjoy managing a royal family whose generals pick up traits like chivalry or dread, marrying off princesses, sending assassins and spies (with their own short cutscenes), and choosing whether each settlement becomes a castle or a city. Crusades and jihads, the arrival of gunpowder, the discovery of the Americas and the Mongol and Timurid invasions give each campaign a sense of history happening around you.
The Pope divides players. Some enjoy the tension of staying in Rome's good books ("The Pope system is very cool and adds alot to the game."), while others curse him for excommunications and for crusades called against them, and a few find the whole mechanic a nuisance: "the Pope mechanic is honestly just irritating."
The bundled Kingdoms expansionMedium
Kingdoms or one of its four campaigns (Britannia, Crusades, Teutonic and Americas) comes up in 12% of detailed reviews. Players treat it as a big part of the value, each campaign with its own map, factions and mechanics, and contrast it with the smaller paid packs of later games: "Great expansion (something most newer TWs don't have, sadly)." A few find the expansions uneven, and the Americas campaign draws comments that it is short.
Music and pre-battle speechesLow
The soundtrack gets praise in 6% of detailed reviews, usually with composer Jeff van Dyck named, and the pre-battle speeches are singled out for their humour: "Generals give speeches before battles in the accent of the currently selected nation."
Cheap, and easy on modest hardwareLow
When price or value comes up (7% of detailed reviews), it is usually to call the game a bargain. Players point out how often it goes on sale and how much content comes with it ("One of the better Total War games, lots of content for the price."). Several add that it runs on old laptops and low-end PCs.
Where players are split
Graphics: holding up or showing their ageMedium
17% of detailed reviews comment on the graphics, and they split. Some reviewers are surprised: "even in 2026 I still think the graphics hold up surprisingly well for such an old game". Others call them dated, with low-resolution textures and stiff animations, and some fix that with texture mods or filters. Graphics come up in only 6% of negative reviews (28 of 470), and some players call the look a fair trade, like the one who wrote: "The dated graphics is the price you pay for a fun game."
The AI: an honest challenge or easy to exploitMedium
The AI is discussed in 13% of detailed reviews. Fans say the campaign AI is aggressive and plays by roughly the same rules as you, unlike later games: "the AI doesn't actually cheat NEARLY AS BADLY as every game after". Critics describe battle AI that drops its siege equipment and walks away, armies that retreat into the town square to fight on morale alone, and campaign AI that either leaves cities empty or sits inside them for dozens of turns. Some who find the AI poor love the game anyway, like the player who wrote "Despite the bugs and terrible AI the battles are super fun, no other game has the same feel to it."
How hard it is to learnLow
Complexity comes up in 6% of detailed reviews. Some players find it easy to pick up ("Very beginner friendly."), while newcomers coming from modern Total War games describe the mechanics as confusing and the controls as hard to get used to. A few also find the late campaign slow and repetitive once their empire is large.
What frustrates players
Crashes and launch failures on modern PCsMedium
19% of negative reviews (88 of 470) report crashes, freezes or a game that won't start. The usual culprits are the "unspecified error" crash between turns, a "fatal graphics error" at launch, and crashes to desktop during or right after battles, often on Windows 11: "Game crashes on Windows 11 following any battle." Some reviewers loved the game but couldn't play it: "Great classic Total War game, only problem is you cant play it! Crashes every time I try and fight a battle." A few reviews blamed Steam itself, saying a Steam update or Steam's DRM stopped a working install from launching.
Other reviewers report no problems on Windows 11, and the community passes fixes around: the 4GB large-address patch for memory crashes ("found a fix called LAA which allows the game to use more than 2 gb ram meaning its solved so yeah"), compatibility mode, running as administrator, and M2EX. Crash reports come from newcomers and long-time players alike.
Units that won't run, charge or path properlyMedium
Units that don't do what they're told turn up in 5% of detailed reviews and 10% of detailed negative ones. Reviewers describe troops that ignore the run command, cavalry that won't charge or that slows down mid-charge, units stuck on walls and ladders in sieges, and the long-known two-handed weapons bug. One returning player wrote: "Tell a cavalry unit to run down some infantry who are just running to the edge of the map? They will just walk after them, no matter how much you try to get them to run." Most of these complaints come from players with many hours in the game.
A camera and interface built for 2006 screensMedium
The camera, controls or interface come up in 27% of detailed negative reviews. On the camera itself, players are blunt ("Controlling the camera in this game is like controlling a brick."), and on the campaign map its speed is tied to framerate, which is why reviewers pass on tips like "If campaign map moves too quickly, change your monitors refresh rate down to 60." Players with 1440p, 4K or ultrawide monitors report tiny or blurry interface elements and broken widescreen support ("Unfortunately this just doesn't seem to work with widescreen monitors"), and people with two screens want a borderless or windowed mode for alt-tabbing. Even positive reviews note that "Some of the UI elements are a bit low-res". Newcomers raise this more often than veterans.
Diplomacy that never holdsMedium
4% of detailed reviews call diplomacy broken or complain about backstabbing allies, glowing reviews among them. Players describe allies declaring war the next turn and AI factions that refuse every deal on higher difficulties: "The only major down side is that diplomacy is completely broken, don't expect any deals to last." A long guide-style review puts it in one line: "Diplomacy is broken, don't try to understand it".
A tutorial that stalls on boarding a shipLow
The tutorial breaks for some new players, at the step where Rufus has to board a ship (13 negative reviews describe it). It hits in the first hours: "The tutorial teaches me that it is impossible for armies to board ships". At least one of them asked for a refund on the day of purchase.
Other campaign annoyancesLow
Smaller recurring complaints include squalor that keeps eating public order in big cities ("I'd say my biggest complaint is the squalor, it diminishes public order when cities get too big and there's no way to fix it."), Timurid and Mongol stacks that some find overpowered, rebellions while a king is away on crusade, naval battles that can only be auto-resolved, and the loss of Rome's option to choose an heir.
No campaign multiplayer, and quiet online playLow
A few players want co-op or head-to-head campaigns ("I would love to play a multiplayer campaign of this with a friend, unfortunately they only have multiplayer custom battles"), and a few report that public online battles are hard to find without modded communities.
Kingdoms campaigns that are hard to findLow
A handful of buyers couldn't work out how to launch the Kingdoms campaigns or saw them listed as owned but unavailable: "I cannot figure out how to access the Kingdoms expansion, but otherwise this game is great!"
Mac and Linux troubleLow
Reports are mixed and few. Some run it without issues ("Currently running it in Linux Mint 22 without issues."), while others hit crashes in the Linux version, poor performance through Proton, or a macOS version requirement that locked them out.
Price for a game this oldLow
A few reviewers object to paying near full price for a game this old ("Out for 14 years, a lil buggy, and still costs 40 Aud? Come on..."), and some of them object to past price increases. Other reviews that mention price suggest waiting for a sale, and call it a good deal at that price.
3. The player conversation
The tone is warm and often nostalgic. Most reviews are short endorsements ("classic", "old but gold", "Deus Vult"), and the longer ones read like advice from veterans: which faction to start with, which mods to install and how to get the game running. Requests for a remaster or a Medieval III come up in 11% of detailed reviews, and some of the same reviewers ask that a remake keep what makes this one work. The disagreements are mostly over details such as the graphics and the AI.
Newcomers and veterans raise different problems. Reviewers with only a few hours report the tutorial bug and the camera and interface more often than veterans do. Long-time players talk more about mods, AI behaviour, diplomacy and unit pathing, and they usually still recommend the game. Crash reports come from both groups.
The positive share sat around 97% in reviews written in 2021 and 2022 and around 94% to 95% in reviews written from 2023 onward. Reviews from 2026 are where M2EX starts to appear as advice for getting the game running well on current hardware.
4. What the developers could do
- Fix crashes and launch failures on current Windows and hardware. Crashes, the "unspecified error" and failed launches turn up in 19% of negative reviews, and the fixes players share (the 4GB memory patch, compatibility settings, a community engine overhaul) suggest the problem can be solved.
- Update the camera and interface for modern displays. Players want UI scaling at 1440p and 4K, proper widescreen support, a campaign camera whose speed doesn't depend on framerate, and a borderless or windowed mode. Newcomers raise these more often than veterans.
- Fix unit responsiveness and pathfinding in battle. Veterans describe units ignoring the run command, cavalry that won't charge, troops stuck on siege walls and the two-handed weapons bug, in a game whose battles are at the centre of its praise.
- Repair the tutorial's ship-boarding step. New players report getting stuck when Rufus has to board a ship, which makes the bug part of their first impression of the game.
- Make AI diplomacy honour its own agreements. Even glowing reviews say alliances mean nothing and deals never last, which undercuts a campaign players otherwise love.
- Add Steam Workshop support for mods. Mods come up in 33% of detailed reviews, and players ask for Workshop support in place of manual installs that sometimes break on the Steam version.
- Make the Kingdoms campaigns easy to find from the launcher. Some buyers couldn't find the expansion they paid for, while those who did count its four campaigns among the game's best value.
