7.5 million of us snapped up the newly released A Total War Saga: Troy for free this week

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"We couldn't have predicted this level of excitement"

(Image credit: Creative Assembly)

Over 7.5 million of us secured A Total War Saga: Troy this week when Sega and Epic Games Store celebrated its release by giving it away for free.

Although the game was only free for the first 24-hours post-launch, Creative Assembly said it "couldn't have predicted this level of excitement" and was "very happy" that the giveaway was so successful.

"We were optimistic but we couldn't have predicted this level of excitement," said Creative Assembly's chief product officer Rob Bartholomew (thanks, PC Gamer). "It's been incredible to work with Epic on giving this brand new release away for free. Now we get to welcome so many strategy players – new and old – to experience this incredible Saga. We're very happy."

If you missed out but still fancy giving it a go, A Total War Saga: Troy is available now via the Epic Games Store for £35/$50.

As Connor deftly summarised a few days back, the latest entry in the historical strategy series turns the clock back to the Trojan War, exploring the potential real-life inspiration for the mighty heroes and fierce monsters that change the course of history in ancient Greek myths. Since it's the furthest back developer Creative Assembly has ever gone in history, it's also a chance to fill out each faction's ranks with speculative details: spearmen fighting alongside a hulking, axe-wielding brute they call The Minotaur, several potential applications of the famed Trojan Horse, that kind of thing.

"We decided to approach the historical angle [of the mythology] by overcoming its challenges by including also the mythical sources and the legendary sources," game director Maya Georgieva told us in an interview back in June. "The materials from this era are not suitable for the full Total War experience without the help of what we used from legendary sources." 

"I mean, even though in The Iliad you don’t see monsters on the battlefield – you get to see a lot of them in The Odyssey, of course. And even though they're absent in The Iliad, it's part of the overall, general fantasy of how people perceive this time and these characters. They're just connected."

Vikki Blake
Vikki Blake
Weekend Reporter, GamesRadar+

Vikki Blake is GamesRadar+'s Weekend Reporter. Vikki works tirelessly to ensure that you have something to read on the days of the week beginning with 'S', and can also be found contributing to outlets including the BBC, Eurogamer, and GameIndustry.biz. Vikki also runs a weekly games column at NME, and can be frequently found talking about Destiny 2 and Silent Hill on Twitter.