Total War: Pharaoh is receiving a free downloadable content (DLC) update as an apology to players.
Set to launch on January 25, High Tide allows players to play as ‘The Sea Peoples”, who are described as a faction that must “stay on the war path to survive” – meaning they need to constantly win battles.
Two new factions are also being added to the game: the Sherden and the Peleset. The Sherden use a new mechanic named Spoils of War to gain extra resources (such as the new resource Eminence) that you then use to build new camps to make your army stronger.
Players who choose this faction can command new units such as the Nuraghe Warriors, who form a turtle-formation to protect themselves, Harpooners, who throw barbed javelins, and Sherden Archers who use sulphur-tipped arrows to set enemies alight.
The second faction is the Peleset, a faction that can both take over cities on the campaign map and pitch camp. This faction adds three new units: the Oxen Cart, a chariot that can used to get the drop on the enemy with troops hidden in the back, Peleset Marines, javelin-throwing warriors and fast-moving Peleset Raiders.
The downloadable content was originally planned as a paid expansion before Creative Assembly and Sega decided to reduce the price of the game in December 2023. As a direct result of this, the developer decided to make the first paid DLC in 2024 as a “free update for everyone who owns the game”.
“We have now begun the process of reassessing what comes next for Total War: Pharaoh, and while we don’t have the answers today, we want to make it clear to you that we’re not closing the door on other, more ambitious updates to the game in the future. We’ve still got big plans, but we want to be honest with you in saying that we need to spend more time with them before putting them out on show,” the developer said in a blog post.
In other gaming news, a Ubisoft executive has explained why gamers should get “comfortable” not owning games.
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