If a tree falls in a forest, and there’s nobody round to listen to it, does it nonetheless make a sound? The builders at Creative Assembly appear to assume so.

Immortal Empires, the DLC for Total War: Warhammer 3 that launched in beta at this time, is an train in inventive abandon. It includes an unlimited fantasy map replete with dinosaurs, mammoths, vampires, and sentient terracotta statues, through which you play a small position in a far grander scheme. So many video video games unfold round you, and exist solely in what you possibly can observe. But In Immortal Empires, you possibly can solely guess on the timber falling on the opposite facet of this huge world — till you’re all of a sudden gazing a sea of toppled forests.

For those that haven’t spent the higher a part of the 12 months poring over each new reveal, Immortal Empires is much less an growth and extra of an accumulation. It combines every of the trilogy’s three maps, and all 86 of its playable factions, into one digital facsimile of Warhammer’s “Old World” setting. It’s mainly a parody of Earth:

Image: Creative Assembly/Sega

As in the remainder of the Total War collection, you play half of Immortal Empires on the turn-based marketing campaign map, in a Civilization-esque sport of metropolis building and financial system administration. Once your armies conflict with these of an opposing faction, nevertheless, you’re dropped into real-time technique battles between a whole bunch, typically 1000’s of troops. As against Warhammer 3’s base marketing campaign, which provided a extra scripted expertise whereby you needed to full particular challenges alongside the standard technique of empire-building, Immortal Empires is targeted solely on the collision of 278 factions on one sandbox map.

Image: Creative Assembly/Sega through Polygon

In 2022, what does the time period “sandbox” even imply? It’s used to explain every part from open worlds to administration sims. Hitman 3 is a sandbox sport since you replay static ranges with a revolving suite of toys. Far Cry 6 is a sandbox sport as a result of you possibly can rig its physics system to provide a domino-like set of explosions. Fortnite is a sandbox sport, I suppose, as a result of you possibly can rifle butt John Cena within the face. As is the case with most online game labels, this one is amorphous. But at its core, it implies a sure stage of participant company: You can experiment all you need, as a result of the sport is, firstly, about you.

I name Immortal Empires a sandbox sport, nevertheless, for the other cause completely. This is a world in which you’ll spend a dozen hours enhancing your cities, negotiating together with your neighbors, and increasing your borders throughout a whole continent, solely to find that two, or three, or 4 different AI factions have spent their time doing the identical in a special hemisphere. It’s a startling reminder of enjoying video games with my childhood buddies in literal sandboxes, every of us content material with the machinations of our personal make-believe worlds, solely to find that we have been all enjoying by completely different guidelines. When my good friend maneuvered his cadre of G.I. Joes to confront my military of Lego minifigs, it didn’t matter that the scale distinction was unfair; we have been enjoying in the identical sandbox. My solely hope was that my third good friend might deliver his Bionicles in to save lots of the day, or that my fourth good friend, an isolationist who had been quiet within the nook, may seize the possibility for brand new territory and assault the aggressor’s flank along with her Mega Bloks dragons.

Image: Creative Assembly/Sega through Polygon

Like these thrilling episodes of youthful creativeness, Immortal Empires is a manufacturing facility for emergent tales, and it’s pushed by the same asymmetry. In the 2 weeks I’ve had entry to the DLC’s beta, I’ve performed as six completely different factions. My first, because the Dark Elf pirate lord Lokhir Fellheart, was a collection of raids alongside the coast of Cathay (the Warhammer equal of China). The first 30 turns or so have been leisurely battles in opposition to meager metropolis garrisons, through which my Dark Elf armies, identified for his or her prowess with ranged weapons and all types of ugly monsters, tore by means of the peasants on the nation’s jap borders.

Soon sufficient, nevertheless, the sub-factions of the Cathayan Empire diverted forces from the Great Bastion (a fantasy model of the Great Wall, constructed to maintain daemons out of the mortal realms) to fight the nuisance pillaging their flank. They ultimately confederated into one huge pressure of riflemen, cannons, rocket batteries, floating artillery, and shape-shifting dragons, and battered me up and down the coast. My essential mistake? Unlike Cathay, I had not bothered to make buddies.

Now, take into account my second marketing campaign, because the Lizardmen chief Oxyotl. The clever, bipedal chameleon was as soon as sucked into the Realms of Chaos and compelled to combat his method out, so his marketing campaign goals are all about stopping the opportunity of the identical ever taking place once more. By utilizing his magical talents, in addition to his military of dinosaurs and mace-wielding crocodiles (sure, I’m severe) I teleport to random spots across the Old World, combating the daemonic hordes of Khorne, the pestilent swarms of Nurgle, and the bloodthirsty vampires of Sylvania. Because I’m not involved with increasing my empire, my neighbors belief me. We commerce assets and recruit one another’s items. Occasionally, I’ll construct a temple of their cities that permits me to teleport in to repel invaders. By the time the evil sorcerer Nagash has summoned a number of armies of resurrected Egyptian pharaohs within the deserts of the Southlands, I’ve helped kind a coalition that may battle the undead menace.

Lokhir and Oxyotl are solely two of the playable factions in Immortal Empires. There are 86 of them. Some followers have made wheels to assist gamers choose their first chief as a result of, effectively, there are simply that many.

Image: Creative Assembly/Sega through Polygon

I’ve performed my finest, these previous couple of weeks, to not let Immortal Empires’ grandeur distract me from its flaws. For the entire AI’s intelligent maneuvers on the marketing campaign map, it nonetheless can’t appear to persistently work out how streets work throughout siege battles. In reality, stated battles are a continuing supply of complications. As Waypoint editor Rob Zacny factors out in his evaluate, they’re not solely awash with damaged pathfinding and simply exploitable bugs, however their frequency can be a hindrance to the general pacing of many factions’ whole campaigns. Their excessive towers and jagged cliff faces also can play havoc with the chook’s-eye-view digital camera.

Even so: I can’t assist however marvel on the scope and creativeness with which Creative Assembly has introduced Warhammer’s Old World to life. And perhaps I can forgive Immortal Empires for often not working correctly as a result of it’s so filled with factions that already bend the foundations by design. There are leaders whose military buffs I haven’t even touched, and elements of the world I haven’t but set foot in. But if my previous few campaigns have taught me something, it’s that there are timber falling in all places, they usually’re making various noise.

Immortal Empires was launched in beta on Aug. 23 on Windows PC. The sport was reviewed on PC utilizing a pre-release obtain code supplied by Sega. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media might earn commissions for merchandise bought through affiliate hyperlinks. You can discover extra details about Polygon’s ethics coverage right here.