I am not sure why the first reviewer is so critical of this game, but then again his grammar is very poor so who knows how much he can be trusted? I am also a huge fan of the Total War series of games and this is by far the best one. The amount of attention to detail is immensely satisfying for anyone who is a student of history. I am very pleased with the amount of choices available for playable factions and the detail given to each civilization. Just an incredible amount of attention to detail. Anyone who is a fan of strategy and history should enjoy this game immensely. Be warned, if you like dumb dumb first person shooter games you will probably hate it. Even small decisions in this game can have huge consequences. Do not expect it to be the same as the Napolean or Empire games, it has similar controls/interfaces but so much more detail than those games. Very happy with this game and I am hoping they make one for the Crusades in the future with this amount of detail.