Total War: Warhammer III

DLC comes up in reviews of every kind, positive and negative, from new players and veterans. Reviewers report that the base game unlocks only a small share of the lords on the selection screen, that iconic factions such as the Empire, Dwarfs, Greenskins and Skaven require buying the first or second game, and that factions they own still have key units split across several packs. Totals quoted for everything run from a few hundred dollars upward, and paying for blood effects is a running sore. Players who arrived through deep sales or free keys describe the moment after the prologue as the low point: "I finished the prologue campaign and was ready to proceed to the main one, but it said I have to buy it separately." Free-key reviewers add confusion over the upgrade pack: "This is not even the base game. It is only a tutorial mission."

Plenty of reviewers share the complaint while still recommending the game, often in a single line: "Recommend for the play not for its monetization." Defenders argue that the base game alone offers dozens of hours, that DLC from the earlier games carries over, and that sales make the cost reasonable: "If you'd pay $30 to go see a 2 hr movie, then you're getting your money's worth out of this one." Some defenders concede the store gives no clear guide to which pack unlocks what.

After the DLC, bugs and crashes are what negative reviews raise most, about as often as the AI. Players report crashes on campaign load, at end turn and when entering battles, saves that stop loading after many hours, and new bugs arriving with each patch or DLC. "Crash to desktop. Reload save. Crash to desktop. Reload save. Crash to desktop." Long-time players say updates repeatedly break saves and the mods they use to fix the game: "Keep breaking mods and savegames with useless updates". Some reviewers, especially newer ones on strong PCs, report no crashes at all, so experiences vary by setup and mod list.

The campaign AI draws two opposite complaints. One is that it cheats: enemies field stack after stack from tiny economies, respawn defeated lords immediately and dogpile the player, while AI allies sit idle. "Vlad von Carstein can maintain eight full armies with only two provinces." The other is that it freezes, parking armies around a settlement for turns on end. "There is a game breaking bug where the AI will completly stop doing anything & just keep their lords next to their settlements and do nothing." Players also describe whack-a-mole campaigns spent chasing small armies that dodge battle to raid weak settlements. A smaller group says the campaign is simply too easy once a player learns the AI's habits.

Most of the players who complain about sieges have hundreds of hours in the game. They describe ladders appearing from nowhere, units that ignore open gates and blob at walls, tower-defence style barricades, too few siege maps and a siege rework they say was promised and never arrived. "Sieges are almost always very frustrating, as both the attacker, and the defender." Some say they now auto-resolve every siege.

Players describe units that do not do what they are told: ranged units that stop firing, melee units that stand idle beside an enemy, cavalry that will not finish off routers, and armies that string out in a line. "Ranged Units sometimes refuse to fire, for no discernable reason." Several compare it unfavourably with Warhammer II, where they found units more responsive.

Veterans complain that each new DLC faction or lord arrives stronger than what came before, and point out that AI-controlled DLC lords appear in every campaign whether or not the player owns them. "The power-creep on the new DLC factions is ridiculous." Reviewers name Bretonnia, Norsca and the Tomb Kings among the factions left behind. Single legendary lords that can beat whole armies are a fun power fantasy for some players and a balance problem for others.

Long loading screens, slow end turns with hundreds of AI factions, and a campaign map that runs worse than the battles come up from new and old players alike. Some reviewers say an SSD is effectively required. "The load times are atrocious, like playing PlayStation in 1997." Others mention blurry UI scaling at 1440p and higher, heavy hardware demands, and overheating since Lords of the End Times.

Co-op players report desyncs, disconnects, being unable to join friends after updates, and DLC mismatches inside Steam family sharing. Reports that the End Times lords' mechanics break in multiplayer add to this.

A recurring minority says the campaign gets repetitive once an empire snowballs, with thin diplomacy and an end game that turns into clean-up or auto-resolve. "as wide as the ocean & as deep as a puddle" Others say the new end-game scenarios fixed this.

A small group objects to Denuvo, to the game claiming they are offline, to needing an internet connection to start, and to a launcher that reorders or disables mods.

A handful of players keep asking for real naval combat, and some point out that sea-themed factions never get to fight at sea.