When a violent game is not violent enough, it launches a blood and gore pack.  The trailer for the new Total War: Rome 2 DLC, released on Halloween, features 3 impalings, 2 severed limbs, 2 decapitations and several gallons of blood in a span of 15 seconds.  It also has a full moon and an excerpt from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.  Now, that is how you make a trailer.  Love it!

I wanted more blood and gore going back to the first Total War: Shogun.  A war wasn’t total without the savagery, brutality and horror of battle.  It may be a while before we see guts spilled to the ground, but severed limbs and heads is a good start.  I loved seeing corpses floating downriver in the first Total War: Rome.  For some reason, that disappeared in Total War: Medieval 2.  Perhaps it was too much gore for the underage market?

But gore is what war is.  The halberd can slice a man in half.  I want to see that.  I want to see rivers of blood.  When I play Total War, I want to watch Ridley Scott’s Gladiator or Michael Bassett’s Ironclad and not Kubrick’s Spartacus.  I understand the need to keep the main game PG, so these DLCs are a good way to do it.