Epic Games Store announced its new free mystery games, ‘Total War: THREE KINGDOMS’ and ‘Wildgate’, during the holiday giveaway. The store’s official social media page made the announcement, and there was an instant reaction from the gaming community. Although the reception to this pair of games was rather mixed, it is just one of numerous ways Epic makes free titles available to PC gamers.
So, Epic has a mystery drop again. If you have been paying attention to the news, you surely know how this works, don’t you? You wake up, check your phone, and see a notification from Epic Games that you are already familiar with. For a split second, your heart stops—perhaps today is the day for one of the superbig games which have been so much talked about. You click on the link… and the outcome is a strategy game and a multiplayer shooter. The overall verdict on that? It’s a total vibe.
Now, let’s take a closer look at the situation. The two titles that can be redeemed are ‘Total War: THREE KINGDOMS’ and ‘Wildgate’. That is not a very bad deal at all! The Total War is an enormous and very respected strategy brand. THREE KINGDOMS is the one where all the warlords and gigantic battles are in ancient China. And Wildgate is… just a game. This is an extraction shooter with a fantasy theme, a genre that is a bit of a gamble. But if it is free then it is still worth having, right?
But the comments, oh boy, the comments. They are the ones that really let you know what’s going on. There is a mixture of different vibes everywhere. Some of the gamers were really enthusiastic. A user, Pavi, wrote, “nice, I actually wanted to check out TW: Three Kingdoms at some point.” And Anuj (maxotaku9) was like, “lets goo i always wanted to try total war.” Hence, for some players, this is a really good outcome. Getting to experience a complex strategy game without the need to pay anything.
Then… the other side of the coin appeared. The majority of the people were quite unhappy. The main rumor that had been going around for weeks was that Red Dead Redemption 2 would be one of the mystery games. I mean, that would have been so huge that it could have caused a meltdown on the internet, so when user needved saw the reveal, he just wrote, “So this is it, no RDR2.” It is as if the exhale could be heard through the screen. Another person, MacS1ms, even shared a meme of Arthur Morgan looking dejected with the caption “Red Dead redemption 2.” It is a clear mood of broken promises.
And what about the opinions on the games? They are spicy. DemonSkeld, a user, gave a quite fair appraisal: “Wildgate is fine though its a dead game this may give it a little life, Total War games are completely unplayable without $500 of DLC purchases.” Ouch. That’s the one big concern that comes with playing Total War games, though, right? The main game is free, but if you want the complete experience, get ready for a mountain of DLCs. W.A.S. shared the same opinion and called the second one a “$300 warlord pack DLC simulator.” The claim is rather strong—storage space is cheap, but your time and the risk of future wallet-emptying are other factors to consider.
The technical side was not perfect either. The Epic Launcher seemed to face some difficulties. A user, theholyman74862, said, “Welp the store shat the bed on this. I even got a crash report in Chinese.” Meanwhile, Descina (sanquisdragon) had quite an adventure: “I restarted my launcher twice; it went from English to German to Azerbaijani and finally back to English, lol.” That’s the classic Epic store experience—although you are just getting a free game, a little chaos is added to the process.
Some players just could not take it any longer. T.Parton revealed a sentiment that some have had about the entire holiday event: “Wow it has been bad this year apart from Hogwarts legacy.” And Fmart033 did not spare his criticism of Wildgate: “Wildgate is dead shit.” Simultaneously, user 0x_rizz just posted a meme of a famous quote from the Godfather: “Look how they massacred my boy.” Which, indeed, is a perfect image to depict the reaction when hype crashes into reality.
One can easily be cynical. We allow our imaginations to create very different pictures of situations than they actually are. Red Dead 2! GTA VI! The next Elden Ring! And then there comes the reality of a PlayStation or console experience, where titles like Gran Turismo 7 thrive, while on the Xbox platform, players have their own expectations and library.
