Lu Bu’s great problem was that he was a touch psychopathic and rather temperamental, making him a horrible ally and rather isolated and easy to put down as a result. Naturally I decided to play a scenario early on in the Three Kingdoms era that would allow me to play as Diaochan the fictional heroine from Romance of the Three Kingdoms (the book), who seduced the almighty Lu Bu and convinced him to assassinate a particularly nasty tyrant, before breaking out and establishing his own, very temporary, kingdom. Adding entire systems to strategy games has the real potential to unbalance the experience, but fame works really well in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.Ī number of new base scenarios have been added to the game as well. I wasn’t sure how such a system would work in being integrated into the base game. The expansion adds even more to this with the introduction of a “fame” system, which rewards a player with prestige as they complete major actions, and can unlock additional actions for them as they grow in stature. There was always a heavy emphasis on events, character-to-character relationships, and generally the downtime between battles as warlords play politics and slowly build their strength up for the next battle.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII was a surprisingly narrative-driven strategy game. If you missed the original release of Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII, then this is obviously the way to go, and I do think that diehards will also find enough of worth in the expansion as well to justify the purchase. The Fame & Strategy Expansion Pack for Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII adds even more depth to the game’s systems, and brings the game to the Xbox One for the first time as well. Related reading: Matt’s in-depth review of the original release of Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII. On the PlayStation 4, it plays beautifully (proving that even the most complex strategy games can work using a game controller), looks beautiful, and has incredible strategic depth. Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII is one of my favourite strategy games ever.

Romance of the three kingdoms 13