Kingdoms breathes fresh life into the Total War franchise, just when it needs it most.

But Sega's expansion for Medieval II does add around 80 hours of gameplay to the franchise--all for the price of a regular($29.99)expansion pack. [Dec 2007, p.69]

The series is no longer revolutionising the strategy genre, it is raising the bar with every effort – which, if the first game was a masterpiece such as Shogun: Total War, is not a feat to be scoffed at. [Nov 2007, p.112]

A general clean up of what was already a consummate package, with the addition of some incredibly absorbing new campaigns.

The variety of the campaigns and the different sides involved is enough to keep you going for some time. While more of a completion of the ideal of Medieval II rather than a whole new game, Kingdoms is the best value expansion pack of any game I've played in recent times, with four new campaigns to battle through.

There's almost no reason not to mount your horse and charge through the doors of PC World, beheading the security guard with a Zweihander and screaming blood-oaths as you enter your pin number, to get hold of a copy of Kingdoms. Only the weak will not be buying this expansion pack, and frankly, the weak are there to be trampled. [Sept 2007, p.82]

The Kingdoms expansion adds an unprecedented amount of new content to an already deep turn-based strategy game.

Whilte it may not be totally perfect, the sheer depth and replayability of Kingdoms raises it high above any RTS expansion I've ever played. [Oct 2007, p.68]

Rarely have I seen such a jam-packed expansion, or one with such variety. [Nov 2007, p.54]

A great expansion pack, and it's the standard to which all other expansions should hold themselves.

As if it wasn't Total enough, Total War gets even more Total. [Nov 2007, p.85]

A 4-in-1 add-on that delivers a staggering amount of new units, characters, events and maps. Gameplay is unchanged, though. [Sept 2007]

Instead of messing with the familiar basic gameplay mechanics, Creative Assembly decided to deliver as much fresh content as possible, which means you'll be busy with the game for quite some time. Each campaign provides a unique experience and we fully recommend the game to fans of the series.

True, there are some surprises in the way the new campaigns play out but, dog warriors and Greek fire aside, Medieval 2 fans will be in very familiar territory here.

The same great gameplay as the original... times 4!

So there's a sense of overkill. Unless of course you're a Total War obsessive -- in which case, the Kingdoms expansion is more or less chocolate-covered awesomeness. And then some.

Major events -- such as the arrival of a Crusading noble to join in your jolly pagan fox hunt, or the forming of a new faction -- keep you on your toes and inject personality, encouraging you to almost "role-play" the tyrannical zealots or freedom-fighting underdogs you're controlling.

The problem with all these things which have been coded to create historical semi-realism is that it creates a limit of the tech-tree they can climb.

The Creative Assembly team knows what Total War fans want, and the huge amount of new content found in Kingdoms is it.

This great new expansion offers a significant amount of new content for veteran Medieval II players.

These campaigns are so deep and focused that they make up for the fact that they do almost nothing to correct the original game’s sense of sprawl, or lack of a sense of direction whenever someone puts their stirrups on.

Options like the hotseat multiplayer turn out being a massive waste of time. Lastly, the expansion doesn't integrate very well with Medieval II, with each campaign operating like a stand-alone, multi-part, Total War scenario.