I am King of England. I sit here on my throne built on the plunder gained from my numerous conquests as I guide my generals to carve a huge slice through Europe so that I can expand my Kingdom to the farthest reaches of the known world. I am the stuff of legend; hundreds of years from now, my name will have been solidified in history. There are few Kings now living who can contest to matching my cunning. And there I was, promising not be modest. It's not easy though, being me - I've an empire so large that managing it all has become something of a burden.

An important lesson I've learnt from Medieval II: Total War is that keeping hold of a kingdom is actually a lot more difficult than building it. I'm living in an age where everyone is out to make a name for themselves, wars are the proving grounds for the young and overeager noblemen and the number of provinces you own greatly dictates the power you wield. For me, being as powerful as I am means fending off the marauding hordes of the French, Danish and Spanish, all after a slice of my kingdom, while keeping tabs on my numerous settlements to avoid unnecessary upheaval from their populace. As if this wasn't enough, I'm at the beck and call of the Pope, whose occasional crusades into the Holy Lands have secured me a few more enemies in the Middle East. I am the King of England and it's not an easy job.

Oh, but it's addictive. Yes, for all the betrayals from once so-called friends and despite a neverending barrage of armies sent forth to rout me from mainland Europe and isolate me one my little island, the pull is too strong to resist sallying forth and continuing, despite whatever problems lie ahead.

Medieval II is an empire building game of the highest calibre; it's your job as an emerging king of one of six medieval nations (more of which are unlocked once the campaign game is completed) to attain control of a certain number of provinces and one or two specific regions by the end of the game. It's all played out on two fronts; the enormous scale real-time battles that occur when two opposing armies collide and the turn-based strategic overview map of the world, the place where all the tough decisions must be made.

Four games on though, and it's not difficult to spot potential cracks in the armour of the Total War series, with this version simply opting to add improvements over existing features rather than go for the full on drastic, but much needed changes of Rome: Total War. This isn't a dramatic change in pace for a series that has always progressed in leaps and bounds, although it does bode bad tidings for any future Total War games, where such a lack of any substantial changes will likely face more scrutiny. For now though, Medieval II does the best it can with what it's learnt from its three predecessors.

Much of what's improved upon relates to the game's campaign map, the area in which the bulk of the game takes place. Little has changed since Rome; the map still represents everything, from the towns that each province contains to the supply lines they use for trade while all your armies and agents are deployed to do your bidding. It's here where all the important stuff must be handled, where you can use diplomacy to form alliances or broker ceasefires with enemies and where armies are trained and eventually shuttled in the general direction of an opposing force. If you've played a Total War game before - and you're not allowed to call yourself a fan of strategy games if you haven't - it's caped in familiarity. What changes have been introduced do, however, make the campaign map more of a point of focus than any of the previous Total War games.

Take now for instance the ability to choose to build a province's capital as a city or a castle. A city provides a province with all the municipal buildings it needs, affecting both the amount of military units it can build while simultaneously keeping its population happy enough to prevent them from rioting and allowing you to fleece them for money with stupendously high taxes. It only provides one measly defensible wall as any kind of safeguard against an attacking army though, making it a much more difficult place to defend against an army who's prepared for a siege. Castles on the other hand are the complete opposite, reducing the amount of buildings you can construct but granting a massive defensive bonus with additional walls, the later types of which are protected by no less than three, a daunting sight for any attacking army to face.

Another brand new addition is that of the Merchant, a new agent you can train and then deploy on the campaign map to scour out precious exotic goods that he can then set up camp around and trade for small profit during each turn. As with practically all agents, he also has a rather shifty ability to circumvent those in the same field as him, and with one click of a button he can be sent forth on secondary missions to shift a rival merchant from his own lucrative trade goods, depriving other factions of that little cash boost he once yielded. Okay, so he isn't the guy you are going to want to rely on to take your kingdom to riches, but in an age where both friend and foe use subterfuge against you, it pays to make full use of his abilities.

He isn't the only one either; agents have always had a role to play in each Total War game, but they've never been as important as they are in Medieval II. The reason for this is religion, which plays a fundamental part in the lives of all medieval nations, and all answer to one man. In the case of the Western world that man in the Pope; he's the unofficial ruler of the Christian world and the leader of the Papal States, handing out missions to spread the word of God while dealing out punishments for those who cross him. If you abide his will, by successfully completing the missions he hands out and agreeing to undertake the occasional Crusade to the Holy Lands and he'll richly reward you; disobey him and attack a fellow Christian nation without provocation and you'll incur his wrath.

Although to the unsuspecting, the Pope may seem to posses little in the way of power, having just the minimum of armed forces and controlling just one province, the punishments he deals out can have dire consequences for those on the receiving end. First into the fray of any nation seen to fall out of favour with the Pope are the inquisitors; think of them as the religious police who roam the world in search of heretics and witches to burn at the stake. No one is safe, including your merchants, diplomats and generals; after losing a top general or one of your best assassins to the inquisitors, their presence soon takes its toll. Fall out of favour with the Papacy too much and you'll have more inquisitors swarming your way - and there's very little that can be done to stop them.

A more severe and damaging punishment at the Pope's disposal is that of the complete excommunication of an entire faction. This basically cuts a faction off from the Pope and his ever increasing demands - a good thing, you'd think, except that an excommunicated faction isn't just going to have more trouble with its population who aren't going to be too happy with having their ties to the Pope severed, but they also have to deal with the increased threat of invasion. You see, excommunication is sort of like having a bullseye painted on your forehead that the rest of the world is invited to throw darts at; without the protection that the Pope once provided, any nation is free to attack and it's a punishment that most seek to take advantage of once it's been enacted.

Working around this presents a new and interesting challenge to the way in which you form a kingdom, fighting wars without resorting to trading sword blows with opposing armies. Spies and assassins have never played as important a role in subverting an enemy during peacetime, and their presence becomes something of a priority considering that practically everyone, including your allies, will use them against you. With good reason, using them doesn't effect your reputation with Pope, while their abilities to both gather important information on troop movements and assassinations against generals and family members also plays a big role. It's not uncommon to find small scuffles breaking out between assassins from numerous nations as they both try and subdue this constant menace.

A more fascinating approach that you can employ against an enemy faction is to get the Papacy to work for you. Popes aren't immortal; they eventually pass on and leave an opening that must be filled, and the interesting part here is that any new Pope voted in will immediately reset the reputation he had with the rest of the Christian world and reconcile those factions who were previously excommunicated. New Popes are voted in from the College of Cardinals, comprising of a collection of the best priests from around the world, and if you've got a priest in the college, you've got a chance to vote him in as the new Pope. This doesn't prevent him from threats of excommunication should you upset him in any way, but it does allow you to get away with more, while simultaneously making it more difficult for any of your enemies, who are now under his ever watchful eye. The complete opposite happens should you be unfortunate enough to have an enemy get his cardinal voted in instead.

All this politics can be fiddly at times, but it doesn't replace the need to swing into full-on combat with a neighbouring country in order to continue to expand. This is as important a part as it's ever been, the game once more featuring battle sequences so awe-inspiring in their scale that calling them epic just doesn't seem to do them justice. As ever, the battles are more than just a stunning visual showcase for some of the most spectacular scenes of mass carnage you'll ever whiteness in a strategy game, although some much needed diversity in the armour that each soldier wears avoids the clone army look of the legions you controlled in Rome.

Any long term Total War fan should know by now that winning a battle is down to more than just a collection of every unit under your control, sent forward in the hope that strength in numbers is enough to carry the battle. Every unit has a strength and weakness, so those who are capable of whittling down enemy numbers from a ranged position aren't likely going to be much cop in close combat, while those on horseback might have an advantage over poorly armoured footsoldiers but are at the mercy of a well-placed column of spearmen. This is a game where even the largest of armies can be shattered and routed with the right selection of formations and the correct use of cover and terrain.

The sieges too are once again one of the highlights of the combat, employing a variety of specially-crafted siege weapons that attackers must use to assail the walls, or crumble them if they have the forethought to deploy a catapult or trebuchet. Although Medieval II lacks the wide diversity of the units of Rome, a game that had everything from groups of chariot riders to bloodthirsty dogs, the theatre of warfare does noticeably change during the later periods of the game, where the introduction of gunpowder allows muskets and cannons to be used and effectively changes the course of warfare, particularly in sieges, where those once imposing walls lose a lot of their defence bonuses against the devastating power of a bombardment or mortar.

As impressive a spectacle as these sequences make, it's always the campaign map you'll long to return to, as it's here where the core focus of the game takes place. It's a signal of the possible shift in the direction that the Total War series might take, transferring the focus from its groundbreaking battle sequences to the more thoughtful tactical planning of your empire building. This is all helped along by occasional historical events that can continually alter how you progress throughout the game, an early example being the emergence of the Mongolian hordes from the East, whose vast armies quickly shift the balance of power in that region (and subsequently the rest of the world) into the hands of Genghis Khan. Later still, the discovery of the continent of America brings with it lucrative, unspoiled lands to colonise and their Aztec inhabitants, huge in number and fearless in battle yet lacking in any of the modern technologies of those who came across the seas.

And yet for all the great things this game gets right, there are still those occasional problems seeking to spoil things, like the occasional erratic AI on the campaign map that can often make rash and bizarre decisions, breaking off alliances and attacking armies it quite clearly hasn't a hope in hell's chance of defeating. There's also the rare but irritating bug where soldiers get stuck during combat and can't move until they've been hunted down and slaughtered. These aren't big problems, but they are increasingly troublesome when they strike.

Another continuous problem for the series is that of the sea battles, which are once again only handled through the auto-attack option, where the computer dictates who wins and loses. The problem here is that the game never quite seems to favour you and often makes you the one on the receiving end of a good thrashing, unless you do something drastic like amass a huge fleet. What doesn't help matters is that sea warfare seems to play a much more prominent role in Medieval II than in previous Total War games, meaning that it's something you'll need to face and deal with sooner or later.

Medieval II: Total War's biggest problem isn't with its minor bugs (many of which can and will be solved with just the right amount of patching), it's that after the high of Rome, it doesn't quite seem to dwarf its predecessor with many innovative new ideas. It's a great game, but it needs a change. Yes, there are some nice additions to this version that hint at the possibilities of what future Total War games may bring; the fight to colonise the new world, the introduction of gunpowder in the battlefield and maybe, just maybe, Creative Assembly might finally bring forth real-time ship battles. For now however, although lacking in the changes its predecessor is famous for, it's a deeply challenging, forever rewarding strategy game that builds on the success of its peers. I'd tell you more, but I've spent enough time here peddling praise - I'm the King of England you know, and my empire isn't going to build itself.

Reviewed by Kieron Giacopazzi for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).