Creative Assembly's Total War Three Kingdoms was a smash hit upon release, with its blend of history and dramatic license that focused on one of the most tumultuous periods of Ancient China. The game drew praise for being able to cater to both newcomers and veterans of the grand strategy franchise, and its Day One DLC added a whole bunch of welcome content. Now, Total War is about to become totally gory; the developers have just announced gore DLC for the game to be released on June 27.

Gore DLC is pretty standard for Total War games, so it was only a matter of time before Three Kingdoms received its own. For those who aren't quite content with the level of lethality that the game currently offers in skirmishes, this DLC is going to address all of that and more in crimson style. Called Reign of Blood, the gore DLC appears to only affect battlefield interactions, which is where the combat gets hot and heavy.

The trailer from the official Total War Three Kingdoms YouTube channel shows off the best and the bloodiest that the new gore DLC has to offer. The battlefield carnage is an entirely different scene from the base game's release patch once you factor in what Reign of Blood brings to the table: the ability to dismember both troops and horses, lingering blood effects on corpses, blood spray upon weapon impact, graphic beheadings, and a gore slider to either amp things up or to take them down a notch.


The gore DLC for Total War Three Kingdoms isn't going to be for everyone; it's over the top, incredibly bloody, and turns fallen troops from relatively somber window dressing into something else entirely. That being said, war has never been bloodless, and Three Kingdoms' taking inspiration from one of the bloodthirstiest conflicts in ancient history means that Reigns of Blood is nevertheless a fitting addition to the canon of the game and to its DLC roster. Those looking for content DLC are likely going to have to wait a bit longer because of the Yellow Turban patch that was made available for purchase on release, but there's still plenty of major events in the source material that the title has yet to cover.

As mentioned, Reigns of Blood will be made available on June 27. The Steam store landing page for the DLC does not yet have a price tag, so it remains to be seen how much it's going to cost for players to have the privilege of ripping Cao Cao's head off mid-skirmish. One thing we do know, however, is that anyone with an active affiliation with PETA is probably going to want to give this one a miss.