Total War: EMPIRE – Definitive Edition
Worth it · Strategy · 2009
Steam Deck PlayableThe verdict
BUY IT.
Worth it at $19.99.
- Cost per hourS
- $0.33/hr
- ReviewsA
- 91% of 38,366
- Critics
- 90 players 1 higher
- Genre rank
- Top 1% Strategy
Holding it back: Recent reviews
Why
Recent reviews trending down: 81% over the last 30 days against 91% all-time.
Watch this gameOne alert at a price you pick.
Time and effort
- Main story
- 60h
- To 100%
- 245h 4.1x the story
- Achievements
- 30
Price and sales
- Sales
- 81 on record
- Typical cut
- 75% off
- Steam low
- $3.74 January 2013
- Sale every
- 56d last October 2026
Players and genre
- Online
- 1,917 now
- Recent reviews
- 81% 30 days
- Cheaper than
- 7% of its genre
- Better reviewed
- 96% of its genre
Price and player charts
The drop-off
75% start to <1% rarestThis site could not identify an ending achievement for this game, so there is no finish rate. Steam global achievements
The value story
The value story
It has been discounted 81 times in the 14 years tracked here. The median cut across all of them is 75 percent, about 8 weeks apart. Today it is at full price, and its last discount ended about 3 weeks ago.
Its score sits in the top 1 percent of its genre. It is pricier than 93 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 96 percent. It outscores the games it most resembles, including Total War: MEDIEVAL II – Definitive Edition ($19.99, scores 62) and Total War: NAPOLEON – Definitive Edition ($19.99, scores 56).
More about Total War: EMPIRE – Definitive Edition
Players rate it 91 percent positive over its lifetime, but the last 30 days run 81 percent. Something recent has soured the room. This site sampled 800 of its Steam-purchase reviews; 10 were written by buyers who refunded it, sampled from reviews written December 2023 to October 2026. Inside the two-hour refund window, 61 percent of the 812 reviews written there were positive, against 91 percent overall, and those are 4 percent of everything written about it.
The main story runs 60 hours. Doing everything runs 245, 4.1 times as long.
Buy now or wait
Buy now or wait
Discounted in each of its last 8 seasonal sales. Last discount ended 24 days ago.
- Next sale
- Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4
Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.
What drives the score
Grades: S best, D weakest
S is the best grade and D the weakest, judged as a buyer. ▲ raises the score, ▼ lowers it, ? is an input we do not have, • is a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
What players say
I like watching lines of men shoot each other. I also like watching lines of horses run at each other. I additionally like watching lines of cannons shoot at cannons.
2 more reviews, 1 not recommended
Total War: EMPIRE - Definitive Edition Years later, most issues are fixed and there is a host of mods to make the experience even better. This is a must have!
Missing Scotland as a playable country. Scotland didn't become part of the UK till 1707. Also its gets boring with the same units. There should be an ETW 2 like the mod.
Steam reviews, mixed to its ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
About the game
Command the seas, control the land, forge a new nation, and conquer the globe.
Minimum specs
Minimum on the Steam store: 1 GB of memory, 15 GB of storage. Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.
Cite this score
Total War: EMPIRE – Definitive Edition scores 84/100 on the BANG Score (worth it) as of Nov 8, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/10500/total-war-empire-definitive-editionReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Nov 6, price as of Nov 7. A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.