Shortly after the release of the game, Pyro released tools & documentation to help the modding community. Yes they were in Spanish which is quite logic for a Spanish developer. What people don’t know or maybe don’t care to know, is that this is the first time that Pyro releases actual tools & documentation to help the modding community. But for some people this wasn’t and probably still isn’t enough. It is however thanks to that documentation that forum member Icanus managed to make a program to read and change the unit stats. You see, rather than to complain about the fact that the documentation was in Spanish, or that this or that wasn’t there, he did something about it. Not everyone can program but complaining about something certainly isn’t going to get the code on your screen. More info is just released thanks to the Producer & Lead Programmer of the game which you can find in the news section.

Next on the list is the Intel fix. After the release of the game, there were quite some people who couldn’t play the game because their Intel graphics chipset didn’t support certain technical features. To help those people Pyro/Eidos released a fix to make the game playable for those people. That fix was later on also included in the patch.

The patch for the game. A lot of people where mad because the patch didn’t include changes to the issues listed above. There seems to be a common misconception about what a patch is. The reason a patch is made is to fix bugs i.e. technical, graphical issues with the game sometimes accompanied by a few gameplay tweaks. It didn’t fix all the things that were requested but then again a lot of those requests demanded that Pyro would throw it’s initial design decisions over board. I find it understandable that they didn’t, in the end as it’s looking now changes that those features can be implemented via mods are growing bigger & bigger.

Lastly jaycw2309 has been on the forums answering and helping a lot of people with technical problems, including getting the intel fix out. It gets forgotten that he doesn’t have to do this, as it isn’t his job but he still does it, day after day.

That rounds up this part, next on the list are some things that are worth checking out:

Making of Imperial Glory movie:
This movie shows the designers explaining how they went about to create the game, showing the different aspects such as, programming, music, art/graphics. It’s worth checking out!

Mods:
There are already a couple of mods that can be find in our modding database some of them give the uniforms a different look, others change the sounds or create more and longer smoke effects. There’s even a bloodpatch for the people with US version, and, due to the release of Icanus stat editing tool I’m sure there will be a lot more upcoming that change the units and thus affect the battles.

The review:
After the ranting it’s time for the positive part, it’s called Imperial Glory. As you could’ve read not everyone was happy with the game but I was. With the exception of the demo of Rome: Total War (which I must say I didn’t like), IG is the first Turn Based Strategy game I play. At first I was a bit wary of the game as it’s the first one that I played where the units had firearms and cannons. The units of the previous RTS games I’ve played (Praetorians, Settlers 3 & 4 to name some) consisted of archers, spearmen, horses, sword men catapults and ballista’s. I’ve played demos of RTS games that featured a more modern kind of units such as tanks, units with guns etc. and I just didn’t like them. Nonetheless I’ve been following Imperial Glory as I liked the previous games of Pyro and was sure that this time too they would create something unique. It was the demo that convinced me that I wanted this game. In the beginning I got my ass kicked multiple times by the AI in the beginning as I wasn’t used to the sort of tactics that this era requires. But what surprised me the most that I actually found a strategy game that contains units that shoot fun. It is, lining your men & cannons up, ordering them to attack and watch them shooting the enemies to bits.

The enemies that you just shot will keep laying on the battlefield for a while, while you see them struggling with death. This is one of the examples of the attention to detail that went into the game. Others include sandstorms blazing through the desert, mud on your soldier’s shoes and clothes as they march through the battlefield or the water that splashes up as you move through it with your ships. Furthermore the look of the menu’s really give you the feeling that you’re playing in the past.

What helps even more to get into the right atmosphere is once again a brilliant soundtrack delivered by Pyro’s in house musician Mateo Pascual, ‘nuff said. The sounds are good as from you’re men shouting in their language to the firing of the muskets.

As this is a turn based strategy game you’ll spend most of the time watching the map representing all the countries at that time. From there you’ll able to solve issues in a diplomatic way if you don’t want to go into combat right away. Or use some dirty techniques such as fighting a country taking a province then make peace to annex the province. Diplomacy allows you to increase relations with other countries, start a war or ask to loan armies when you’re in real trouble.

All in all an underrated game which is great fun to play, it has replay ability in the form of quick battles which let you choose your own troops, enemy and map to play + mods that are starting to come out. The historic battles are quite fun as well, if you want to try and change history by winning at Waterloo it’s worth giving it a try and see how far you get.

In conclusion, don’t let those whiners scare you, it’s often those that shout the loudest that are heard but try it yourself by checking out the demo and form your own opinion!

 

Gameplay:		great!
Music:		fitting
Sound:		good
Graphics:		awesome

 

Written by @m