Artwork for the Vikings in Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia

Thrones of Britannia is the very first of the new Total War Saga spin-off series. Instead of focusing on a large conflict spread across an equally large time frame, Thrones of Britannia offers a much more detailed look at some of the most interesting events that happened after the English king Alfred the Great halted the Viking invasion in 878 AD.

If this sounds like something you would like to try out, you'll be glad to hear that Thrones of Britannia is now available on Windows, macOS and after the most recent update, Linux as well. Much like the previous few Total War games, the newly added Linux port has not been made by Creative Assembly themselves, but rather by Feral Interactive. You might recognize them from their work on the Linux and macOS ports of Total War: Warhammer 1 and 2, Dawn of War 3, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and the list goes on. So far they've done a pretty stellar job with their ports, so chances are the same applies to this new one as well.

As for whether Thrones of Britannia is worth your time and money, that is a bit of a tricky question to answer. You'll find a more detailed explanation in my review, but long story short, Thrones of Britannia represents two solid steps forward in terms of innovation and design, but also a rather unfortunate step backwards in terms of complexity. So if you're a long-time fan of historic Total War games and you're comfortable with using mods, then I do believe it's worth at least looking into it a bit more closely, but if you're a completely new player I'd say it's probably a good idea to wait for a couple of months until all of the major issues get fixed.

You can learn more about Thrones of Britannia and what exactly it has to offer by heading over to Steam. And finally, allow me to send you off with one of the developer-guided gameplay previews, just for good measure. Enjoy!