'Total War Battles: Kingdom' Open Beta Launches On Steam, Tablet And Mac Versions Coming Soon

The mobile MMO strategy title "Game of War: Fire Age" made waves recently for hitting the million dollar a day revenue mark after pumping $40 million in an advertising campaign starring Kate Upton. While the mobile game continues to rake in money by the truckloads, there are serious old-school strategy gamers who consider it beneath themselves to partake in the free-to-play mobile game. Gamers belonging to this category might want to check out "Total War Battles: Kingdom," which is a strategy game with mobile roots developed by a studio that's backed by some serious pedigree. The open beta for the game has recently been thrown open on Steam for the PC platform, with a tablet version in the works.

Like "Game of War," "Total War Battles: Kingdom" is a cross-platform persistent world strategy game that will eventually be released on tablets as well as the PC and Mac, according to PC Gamer. Unlike the former, "Total War Battles: Kingdom" bears the pedigree of being developed by the talented British videogame studio Creative Assembly, which is known for creating the critically acclaimed "Total War" series and, more recently, the successful survival horror game "Alien Isolation." However, the advantage of having such a fine pedigree seems to be questionable since the game seems to have garnered mostly negative reviews on its Steam listing.

The "Total War" franchise carved a niche for itself by combining the depth of turn-based strategy and resource management with the thrill of battles that embody the fast-paced action of the real-time tactics genre. With the free-to-play title "Total War: Arena" already in development, "Total War Battles: Kingdom" isn't the first game in the series to adopt the free-to-play model. However, it is the first in the line-up to take a leap onto the mobile platform, where it will be competing with the likes of "Game of War: Fire Age."

The game takes place in a persistent online world, which means that events keep happening in the game even after the user has logged off. The developer states that the feature allows players to continue their campaign across multiple devices, irrespective of whether they are tied to a desktop or while they are on the move using a tablet. Gamespot notes that the game is set in the tenth century, where players are tasked with rebuilding a waning empire. This is achieved by following the series staple of using resource management to build the kingdom and raise armies to fight battles against opponents.

The cross platform spinoff of the "Total War" franchise differs from the core games because it provides "rich, bite-sized Total War experiences." This change is most likely to make "Total War Battles: Kingdom" playable on the smaller tablet screens considering the limitations of the platform. The free-to-play roots of the game mean that the game will incorporate in-game purchases. These range from paying $5 for gold worth 450 points to $100 for 12,000 points of the precious metal. Those who don't wish to pay up can earn gold within the game, but that option will most likely be a tedious and time consuming affair for obvious reasons.

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Total War Battles: KINGDOM - Official Open Beta Trailer (credit: Total War YouTube channel)