21.4.2011

Shogun2 TWI'll make this review as short as possible, simply because I'm too busy playing it! I think that's the highest compliment I can give it.S2TW is simply put, an excellent game. So you can quit wasting your time reading my review and do yourself a favor and go on and play it.Still here? Oh well, I'll continue my review then. With S2TW they have matured, refined and distilled the Total War formula to near perfection. S2TW is the culmination of a decade of hard work with its ups (Rome Total War) and its lows (the nefarious Empire Total War). It is so far the best game in the TW series in my opinion.For those of you who are not familiar with Creative Assembly's work,the TW franchise blends TBS (Turn-Based Strategy) in the campaign map with RTS (Real-Time Strategy) in a battle map.Despite some minor blemishes, such as occasional CTD and mouse problems whilst hovering over the campaign map which impedes unit clicking, it's a superb strategy game through and through. S2TW beats last year's biggest PC strategy contender, Civilization V, hands down.Beautiful artist's design (kudos) in the campaign map reminiscent of the Sengoku Jidai era help with the immersion, beautifully crafted landscapes on the campaign map with overflying eagles projecting their shadow, rainbows on waterfalls, snow-capped mountain ridges, lazy whales swimming; all contribute to bring the campaign map to life.The battle-maps are likewise well-designed. I loved the sharp contrasts the designers instilled in the game depicting such a turbulent era e.g. delicate cherry blossom flowers being swayed gently in the wind in the midst of a battle-torn scenery littered with corpses and blood of vanquished foes and friends alike; awe-inspiring snow-covered 16th century besieged Japanese castles, with dramatic views overlooking an ocean of pale winter light, whilst the siege fires rage on eating away the few remaining wooden structures. So you have on the one hand a beautifully-crafted delicate poetic background made up by the scenery which helps to act as the backstage to the unfolding drama men unleash upon themselves. Yeah!It's a real pleasure to play in an ocean of light from dusk till dawn. I would however add that at times it feels too dark for my liking as I can barely make out the units on the battlefield.General speeches are back! I missed them from the RTW days. Apparently every Japanese general, as part of their academic Bushido upbringing, are natural-born speakers. These speeches prior to battles also greatly contribute to add flavor and immersion although you -obviously- haven't a clue of what they are saying unless your command of Japanese is flawless; they could be speaking of the latest manga film for all I know. But thankfully they are subtitled for us lazy twits who took French in lieu of Japanese at grammar school!I undauntedly started playing it on my usual setting, very hard/very hard (VH/VH), but I was soon overwhelmed by the AI spamming Ashigaru units. So I had to eventually swallow my pride and re-start -a couple of times- lowering the difficulty to -gulp- H/H to actually enjoy the gameplay without feeling frustrated and steamrolled only 20 minutes into the game (that and the fact my budget this year is tight, so I can no longer acquire a new mouse every time I grow frustrated and smash one; just saying).I wouldn't however take this as an indication of the battle AI being improved upon, which has traditionally been the single player (SP) Achilles' heel of the TW series. Rather, the upkeep expenses seem to be lower for the AI the higher the difficulty echelon (evidence of AI cheating?). To compensate the weak AI handicap the developers tweak things such as the financial upkeep of the AI armies allowing them to field, from very early on, huge Ashigaru armies.So if you happen to survive the first dozen engagements you will eventually turn the tide against you as you will have higher tier units, providing you've built and improved the appropriate unit specific buildings, at your disposal vs. huge third-tier AI armies. But the AI will eventually catch-up, mind you, fielding huge battle savvy units. On the higher levels of difficulty you will initially take a defensive stance allowing you time to build improvements and a superior army until you feel confident enough to expand and take over other neighboring territories (which will drain your food surplus if their castles are very advanced).You will find yourself losing battles on the higher levels, not because the AI is tactically or strategically superior, but because you lose the attrition war.- you either end up being broke or you are unable to replenish units on time for the next wave.There's a huge cost of opportunity the higher the level of gameplay. Or you build units or you build improvements (improving roads is your number one priority to deploy troops quickly within your territory without the associated movement penalty as well as trading with every faction possible to rake in money). Sending a ship from very early on along the shoreline to explore, meet and trade with other clans is a wise idea.It becomes tricky balancing both, units vs. improvements. At VH/VH the AI will attack you relentlessly in wave after wave and even allies will not hesitate to backstab you if they see the slightest opportunity i.e. your troops are committed on the northern side of your fledgeling empire having left your southern flank exposed and unprotected. Consider units on valleys acting as choke points to thwart these underhanded back-stabbings. Such a careless overlook can quickly put an end to your daimyo's shogun's aspirations.On a H/H setting the AI will not attack you unless you make the first hostile move. So basically on this setting you are mercifully allowed by the developers to build and improve your empire at your leisure getting geared for the grand conquest. On VH/VH its survival what counts.And yes, the AI does realistic naval invasions on your shores to catch you off-guard if possible, unlike ETW.Another improvement I liked were the hero units (i.e. elite archer and sword- wielding heroes) that are available to build once you've reached the specific top-tier legendary building that enables them. But be prepared to pay dearly for them, for they are very expensive. These legendary units add flavor to the game without detracting from the tactics; they are not overpowered. These units have much less men than their normal counterparts so their impact is greatly severed as a result. Consider them special ops units for tactical surgical strikes or to hold the line and turn the tide of battle at a given moment. They are not supermans and will die, so you have to take care of them and replenish them at the first opportunity (units are replenished in a castle or when commanded by a general). Using them recklessly will only get them killed and may even send your army in disarray in mid-battle. So hold them back as reserves until the opportunity is ripe to make a dent.Obviously the very embodiment of covert black ops are ninja units. In the Limited Edition they even include an additional ninja clan. Again imo they are flavor units which do not detract from game play. Ninja units are one of the few units who fulfill a double role, as they can be used either on the campaign map (as explained below) or in the battle map itself as a "normal" fighting unit.Other strategic units which can be deployed on the campaign map, rather than the battle map, and fill a wide array of purposes are stealthy ninjas (assassination, sabotage attempts, spying, bribing), monks (religion conversion), secret police (useful for counterspy roles and to enhance loyalty of generals within armies), geishas etc.The most important in-game units, besides your Daimyo only because you lose the game if he's killed, are generals. A new brilliant addition are the generals' skill trees which add layer upon layer of additional strategic thinking. You can now opt to develop a general's skill to add more money to your coffers (pillaging), or else instilling fear in enemy units affecting their morale or hone his martial abilities as a master of land warfare (melee, horse, special unit formations such as wedge etc...). You can choose to have him elevated to the ranks of a culture icon, which is useful appeasing newly-conquered territories, or else dabble in sea battles like a veteran seadog. The choice is yours.But be wary, as in the original Medieval Total War and Rome Total War, generals can turn on you easily if their loyalty is too low. This happened to me in one of my first playthroughs with my top-ranking general, needless to say, I lost the game. So the lesson is to always have various generals at your disposal and pamper them all. You can actually order a general to commit seppuku (ritual suicide with a small blade) if he's perceived as a growing menace i.e. potential traitor subject to the bribes of other clan ninjas. If you do not, other clans may deem you a weak leader and as a result you get a relations penalty for the next 10 turns, for example, which makes trading with them not possible and thus you earn less money which in turn affects ....you get the big picture.To raise loyalty, as in RTW, you can have them married into the clan, if they are not already family members, or else you can assign them responsibilities such as tasking them with all the armies' upkeep. These assigned responsibilities should in fact be one of your first priorities as they can greatly contribute to bring down unit upkeep expenses, building upkeep or even generate more revenue for you.The game is now choke-full of this new RPG'esque branching-out options that may have far-reaching consequences 20 turns unbeknown to you i.e. will you adopt Christianity and gain access to advanced powder weapons such as modern cannons at the cost of your empire revolting and turning against you? Or will you favor the peasantry in lieu of the new emerging city bourgeois class? I must say I love this new feature.There are also random events which also contribute to giving each game a unique feeling. i.e tidal wave strikes on a province affecting crops and income, during 5 turns any sword units you build have 3 additional degrees of experience, your diplomatic relations are improved +10 on ordering a would-be traitor to commit suicide (this also affects your daimyo's standing which contributes to the Shogun taking notice of you) etc.I play mostly on SP, but I'm aware the multiplayer seems to be broken at present. I won't really penalize the review for this as it doesn't really affect me. Although it may understandably infuriate other gamers.All in all a great a worthy addition to the TW series. Quite simply a great game marred by very few bugs (nowhere as near as Civilization V which CTD 200 times in my case). It is commendable how well polished they've released this game, so unlike CA as of late (i.e. ETW, NTW). A must-play for devoted strategy fans and fans in particular of TW games. Truly after a decade CA have become digital warfare masters, well done!I'll add - mischeviously- that perhaps such a tip-top polished result was due to CA working on only ONE landmass as opposed to ETW's huge and over-ambitious over-aching campaign maps that sprawled the world-over with frankly very poor results that resulted in me dilapidating my tight budget in new mouses.And to close, graphics are better and much improved.So go out and buy this game. Japan awaits its new Shogun... will it be you?Drakan

6.5.2011

Before I Bought the game I read a lot of reviews here and I was completely confused with all those mixed opinions. As usual there are 5stars and 1stars and the more you read the less you know. So I bought the game and decided to check on it myself, also giving myself chance to comment on some comments, especially those negative ones.If you are fan and want to play, just buy it, play and judge it yourself. Not everyone has to like Queen... you know what I mean?1. Some people moan on Steam and installation. That they have to download all 13GB although having disks. This is how I did it:a) I created account with Steam, but closed it prior inst.b) inserted disk 1; didnt want to install without Steam being online.Fine.c) Opened Steam again.d) Game started to download from disk no 1 and then no 2.e) I suppose for security reason, last 500mb it downloaded from Steam.f) fired the game. 450min people!How easy is it???? I dont understand how can you give 1 star to the game if you have no clue what to do or have bad connection or slow computer, whatever. It is your fault not game's!2. Someone moaned about small map. Is it a joke? You have 70 provinces? It is not small at all. 1 town per province, it was always like that.3. Few people moan about very slow AI turn. Well, I have i5, 4gb ram, ATI 6850 and each AI turn takes 15sec to go. These people have slow computers and that is it. Nothing wrong with game.4. Someone moaned that no one declares war at him and other that he experiences wars all the time. I admit, wars come easy here and alliances hard to gain. Understand, that those days it was exactly like it! Read Clavell's Shogun and you will understand what I am talking about.Also, isnt it making it more challenging? Nothing last forever. When you grow stronger clans hate you more and want to crush you working together. At least you havent got easy life with every one waiting for to start war.In this respect AI is smart. You may allocate all your forces to borders, and suddenly in far away province enemy will make invasion and take one or two provinces. Clans make and break alliances all the time. It is big plus from me. Bit more reality in game.5. I have no blue screen crushes, game plays smoothly without problems, at higest possible settings.6. Similar and small amount of troops???? Someone played 5min to make such statement?? You will have a lot of units, or maybe should I say enough to keep you satisfied. Apart from basic units you have charging NoDachi and Katana, offensive monks, defensive naginata, nodachi cavalry which you can dismantle to fight on foot. What did you expect? In medieval and Rome were completely different nations, cultures and therefore units. Here all you have is Japan and that means the same units.7. On battlefield there is not mess at all. Shogun 2 is about hand-to-hand combat units get mixed up as they should. Units react quickly to my commands. No problem there.PROS:1. Super graphics. During battles it is pleasure to watch soldiers at zoom in. Tactical map changes to reflect each season!! If you enter your army in winter to enemy territory it looses morale. Superb move.2. It is hard to take castles and easy to defend. You need to have good units like NoDachi or Katana with very good morale and it will still be difficult. When enemy charges it runs to walls so your archers hurt them as less as possible.3. Development of your generals. It is now not only about no of stars, but a lot of other attributes, which WILL make difference on battlefield.4. Types of units make difference. If you havent got yari samurai and enemy charges you with cavalry on nodachi, monks etc., no matter how good your foot soldiers are, you will loose them all.5. I like the idea that you have to learn and get hold of specific goods before you can train more advanced units. You need to be more patient, think where your priorities are. You simply have to make an effort to get everything you want.6. I like that authors wanted to add to the game more culture with typical for those days artwork and music. Super work. Plus encyclopaedia explaining everything about everything.7. Demo is just fantastic. I can watch it 100 times and wont be bored.8. You need to pay for each ninja attack, as it was in real World. Didnt like it in the beginning, because you will never have enough money. Upgrades cost a lot but eventually got used to it and I appreciate what authors tried to achieve here.9. Other small details which are to small to mention all but each adding extra flavour to the game.CONS:The only I can find is unfortunately AI. I have a lot of mixed feelings about it:1. Battles are fairly easy for me. AI tries to do something but usually fails. I believe that it does not create/develop enough strong units and charge at me with bigger numbers but mostly yari samurai and archers. It does make those better ones as well, but just too few. I play at hard 3rd diffic. level, maybe when I play new campaign at 5th, hardest, it will be more challenging. I am sure that if I choose random battle with equal no and types of units it will be difficult to win, but in Campaign it is not good enough.2. I wrote above that it is hard to charge and easy to defend. AI always attacks my castle in first turn and always looses. When I siege enemy castle I wait few turns forcing my opponent out to an open field. I have to say though, that to make game more challenging, I storm castle straight away. It is just that AI does not use brains in proper manner making your life too easy.VERDICT: I usually do not buy games, but I have a lot of sympathy for this title and samurai culture (read all Clavell's Asian saga). Loved Shogun 1, but I could never finish game properly (Daimos were charging in suicidal manner). I wanted to pay tribute and £25 was fair price.Uff. Thats enough from me. It's 5 stars. Simply couldn't be different.

18.4.2011

OK.After the terrible awfulness of Empire Total War I wasn`t expecting much with Shogun Total War 2. I spent a long time perusing the forums and checking critical user reviews (here and elsewhere) ignoring official corrupt reviews, I decided to go for it despite Steam. To be caught with a bad Steam game twice that I could not return or give away was bordering on sheer stupidity, hence my caution.Right from the beginning I could feel something was right. Everything felt cleaner and better put togther, just from the way it started. The CGI intro was great, though not important. It was the menus and options that felt good. No missing choices, nothing that failed to do what it said (except a couple with graphics,see later). Options were all there from Easy to a new Legendary mode that took away the unrealistic radar map, floaty banner, pausing and even anti cheat-reload to win where you previously lost! Considering I usually play this way it was good to see it all packaged in one difficulty level.I chose Legendary and my old Clan from the original Shogun; The Shimazu clan.4 turns later I was defeated!! What the?I restarted, still slightly stunned. Defeated really quick again. The CAI is BRUTAL now. In Empire on release the CAI was dead. It couldn`t naval invade, it couldn`t properly attack you - It was basically idiotic. In Shogun it`s like a seriously bad-ass mean Daimyo warrior leader! It`ll go for your weak points. It`ll not send one stack on you, but 3 or 4 for a guaranteed win. It`ll naval invade where you least expect it. It won`t stop until it`s taken your puny only city and destroyed you! It`s like the Terminater- It absolutely will not stop until you are destroyed! And it`s happy to band together to do it, too. I seriously felt humbled after losing about 4 times in a row and I`m a vet to the TW games!Very hard and Hard CAI (Campaign AI) isn`t much less merciful, I tested. It will still probe for weakness, build its forces and attack you HARD. It`s not afraid to use all its agents, monks, assassins, Geishas, Metsukis on you. Your only real chance in the early game is to get at least one ally through diplomacy and together move forward. No friends, means no conquest. Thankfully, allied friends are pretty loyal and if you are good to them, they`re good to you... Until Realm Divide that is. This is where you get too powerful and then everyone hates you, unless you pay your friends incredible amounts of bribe money.But I`m so much please with Campaign CAI now, it`s almost like playing a Human in its determination.BAI is also, to my surprise, much better. It`s like the original Shogun. It knows to use the hills on defence. It knows to make you sweat struggling up that hill while it showers your men with arrows. It can reconstitute its forces and reform to take on a new threat in the middle of a battle as with the case when I had some new reinforcements arrive, making my job all the bit harder. It knows to retreat if the battle isn`t going its way too, saving pointless battles.Sieges are better, but still a bit of a downer, I`m afraid. Castle walls slope, so men kinda `crawl` up it now. No ladders. Why? can`t CA do decent sieges any more like in MTW2? They had some cornball excuse in the manual which doesn`t wash at all. It`s like an adult telling kids that the tooth fairy exists. Sad and insulting.However, it knows to attack all round and will even retreat its Generals sometimes in a pointless fight. So... better than Empire, but after Empire anything is.Major criticism of battles? Too fast. It barely gives you time to get stuck in before it`s all over. You can`t even watch the battle animations (which are great) before it`s done. I advise getting a slowdown Mod like Darthmod which help greatly in strategy and allows you to watch the fights. In fact I think this Mod actually helps the AI strategy too.What else?Music great, humble and effective in that Japanese manner with minimalistic HUD graphics. Very good.Nice Assassin\Geisha kill\fail cutsecnes like the original Shogun.Game is VERY stable. Been playing about a week and not one crash, even with Mods.Don`t do multiplayer, so can`t review that. Sorry.Nearly forgot sea battles. It`s a bit different to the Age of Sail. No cannons really (not until late), just fire arrows and boarding action, but where it shines is that now you get different weather, night day battles. Blustery waves, even whales swimming nearby! It`s a heckuva lot more immersive this time round. I kinda made the mistake of ignoring ship building but after getting naval invaded by a huge force a few times, having ships to counter soon becomes essential.Whines of mine.1. Well, it says uses DirectX 11, but as of this date it don`t. There isn`t even any AA, but the graphics still look ok to me. I`m not an eyecandy freak. however, if it says it on the box it should be in the game. Naughty and underhanded, CA.2. Steam. Steam should be optional, not forced. Others without the net or who just don`t want it should not be forced to miss out. If you don`t like it and feel ripped off (as with Empire) you`re stuck with it forver. It should be optional. I want to know that if I ever lose the internet for any period of time (like years), I can still play my games like with most others I have. This is a game choosing and breaking point and VERY, VERY important and therefore Shogun 2 loses a star for it. And every game with forced Steam (that`s not all multiplayer) will. No apologies.3. Needs multicore optimising. yep, blasted thing is using only 1 core! Get into a really heavy battle and watch the stutter show. It`s 2011, CA.4.Sieges are again a disappointment (though not too terrible) and sometimes, AI reinforcements get stuck. On No Timer that`s a pain.However, the game is FAR better than Empire and worthy of say the original Shogun. Recommended.

31.3.2011

To start, i must state that i had no problem with my installation. My internet runs at just below 3MgBs and i have a AMD Phenom II 955 processor 3.2Ghz x4, i hope that helps determine whether or not you'll have a normal or protracted install,i had no notion of the problem until i checked the reviews the other day.Right to the game itself...The detail in the game is very impressive from the individual units, the cut scenes, the backgrounds and the history. This game draws you in from the moment you start up the campaign. The whole new leveling system for your generals and agents creates all manner of possibilities tactically,whether to turn you general into an unstoppable fighting unit or to have him the most inspirational unit on the field who will drive your men to the bitter end without them wavering against all odds. This new aspect creates an all new personal touch whereby your fighting preferences can be given to your generals rather than them gaining random traits like in previous total war games. This leveling style is also the same for you agents making your choices on how to level them more important, do you want your Ninja to be a savage assassin, brutal saboteur or expert spy to reveal the enemy positions. For each agent and your general there are 3 different starting trees for progression in a certain field but some traits require combinations of joint traits making you plan ahead on how you wish this agent or general to progress.The building of your castles, economic buildings and Dojo's is also far more tactical than it was in Napoleon where you only had the option between 4 different building types. To be able to construct more buildings you require your castle to be upgraded which consumes food points as do some building types which creates the tactical dilemma of where you should focus your main recruitment bases and economic centres. You can't turn each region into an impenetrable fortress, you have to decide which places are naturally easy to defend and which need walls and towers. You really have to think about what to build where more now, and with some regions containing special buildings like workshops, sacred holy sites and extra resources some regions become important to capture or hold on to.The best aspect of the game in my opinion is the ability to stack unit experience, general experience bonuses and increased weapons or armour stats from certain buildings allowing you, after much micromanagement and patience to produce truly incredible warriors. These warriors will battle off any enemy with all their stacked melee offense/defense, moral, armour and charge bonuses. When you have created these units its such a joy to zoom down to battle level and watch them cut swaths through the enemy. It also creates a huge personal attachment to these units due to the patience gone through to finally unleash them on your enemies whether they can nock an arrow and hit a target in under a second or march into ridiculous odds and come out the other side.The AI of the enemy is truly impressive in this game too. There are several different levels to set it at depending on your ability and how insane you are. On medium difficulty the AI puts up a stiff defense against your attacks and if you make a mistake it will serve your genitals to you on a plate but its attacking stance is pretty wet. Up from medium you better be ready to fight an increasingly efficient and sneaky enemy that will give you nightmares with ambushes, feints and rapid maneuvers that make it truly difficult to try and stay one ahead of the enemy.The online aspect of this game is much improved from the last with the ability to customise your avatars appearance and skill sets to tailor your preferred fighting style. However there is still much to be fixed on the online aspect, which will hopefully come with the first patch. It is possible to play online but it takes some effort, but the campaign will keep you busy enough until they fix it.To summaries this over written review, the main new aspects are the increased ability to micromanage and personalisation open to the gamer. The tactical possibilities are truly immense making any reply of the the campaign a different experience, as long as you have the patience to see it through, for it is by no means a short game or easy.A must buy in my opinion for veterans of the franchise and new budding strategists. You will be hard pressed to find a more enjoyable game at the moment.

27.11.2011

Because of the technical problems and terrible customer support for Empire Total War, I almost refused to purchase this game on principle. Creative Assembly certainly went through a rough patch with Empire total war, with borderline improvements for Napoleon TW. The good news is that they seemed to have nailed it at long last. This game (on my system at least) is a hell of a lot more stable than previous titles and and I have only had it crash on me 3 times as compared to the hundreds (literally) of times empire crashed. Onto the review then, I'll keep it and simple.Graphics: People complain that the graphics are a step back? Im playing graphics on medium to high settings and have no complaints.The units and campaign map is ultra detailed and nice to look at. Even the new unit cards suite the game perfectly. 5/5Stability: Still crashes.. but only very very rarely after hammering the game for upwards of 8 hours at a time. Compared to Empire, this game runs smooth as butter. (on my machine at least) 4/5AI: Still not perfect, but a step in the right direction and the best improvement so far. Diplomacy and the use of agents as well as the ugrading system is excellent. The only issue I have is that realm divide comes to soon and once that happens, everyone turns against your faction. This is not so bat so long as you have upgraded important "resource holding" settlements to castles and citadels and have a sufficient garrison. I hope that CA continue to use the same diplomacy (i.e. no need for a diplomat to wonder round a map endlessly) in future titles as it makes things a whole lot easier and less tedious. 4/5Gameplay-Campaign map. As with the previous two titles, you can now decide when and how to improve your arts an technologies, this gives the game more depth. There are also a lot of side missions and dilemma's to deal with throughout the game, which can be cancelled. This adds to the overall fun factor and can have both positive and negative affects on your clan depending on how you deal with these dilemmas and mission objectives. There are plenty of units and buildings to choose from, and although some would say unit selection is very limited, I find that there is enough and that they are all relevant to the period. The game is also very educational thanks to the new total war encyclopaedia. Among the best features of this game is the ability to "promote & adopt" generals and family members, I miss the old days of medieval total war where you could give titles to your generals and family members. The fact that you can now entitle one of your generals as a comissioner of supply, for example, is excellent. Also, the framily tree's and heir selection has also been massively improved, even allowing you to select your own faction heir and faction religion. 5/5Gameplay-Battles. Battles appear to be over very quickly quite often. But the positive side to this is that you can cram more into the game during a session. Cavalry, though improved massively, still act quite stupid and seem to still be attracted to spearmen despite telling them to go the opposite direction. Also, it puzzles me as to why my cavalry end up getting chased around the field by spear infantry. Spearmen should be used defensively against cavalry... not running round the field trying to chase them down. That gripes me - not very realistic. Apart from the usual cavalry complaints the battles are excellent, especially when using archers in large numbers. 3.5/5 (deducted points because of stupid spearmen v cavalry behaviour).If you, like me have been put off buying any further total war games because of the complete failure of Empire total war, give Total war one more chance, this game certainly makes up for it. IF CA continue the total war series at this quality then they can't really go wrong. I'm now greatly looking forward to the next installment, which I'm hoping will either be: Total War: China & the Mongol invasion, Total war: Rome 2 or the one I most look forward to, Total war: Medieval 3.Oh yeah, with reference to Steam... for god sake let it rest, Creative Assembly are sticking with it (hopefully). It's not that hard to use, it automatically updates your game and the best part is you don't need a disk to play after the initial installation. I was dubious about Steam at first, but now I actually like it. It's really not that bad.

17.5.2011

I have played every single Total War and the majority of their expansions, so to say I am a bit of Total War addict would be an understatement.Largely up until this Total War I have never touched the multiplayer and largely focused on playing the Campaign or a lot of Custom Battles. My biggest dissapointment in this game is the lack of unit variety. Everyone has the same units with some having slightly better stats in single player. I know it is for game balance but I just do not find it as interesting as the other versions. Personally for me, setting it just in Japan is less interesting than if it was Asia with the likes of Japan, China, Korea, etc etc with lots more variety.Now out of the 40 odd hours I've played on this,I'd say a good 30 hours have been spent on the multiplayer. I have found it thoroughly enjoyable with the ranking up and veteran units which level up with you. Battles are very interesting and a hell of a lot of fun.But for me, there are several major dissapointments which are holding the multiplayer back from being great.1: Match-Making. It is horrible, definately one of the worst match-making systems I have used. Rank 2's going up against maximum level rank 10s? You get absolutely creamed with no chance of a victory. My advice is stick to the Match List and pick your own game instead of using this.2: Clans have too much of an advantage. Players in Clans can give their Veteran units specific advantages when they level up which are far superior to the normal Leveling bonuses. For example Veteran bowmen can get increased range which is a huge bonus in nearly every situation. To balance it off, it increases the cost of that unit but I still feel that the increased costs are balanced well.3: There are a lot of battle drop-outs. I've say around 20% of the fights I do drop out at some point in time, either due to my apparent loss in connection to the game or the hosts.4: There are a lot of cheap tactics out there which reduce the game's fun when they are used. For example spamming Matchlock infantry with veteran improvements to fire at ridiculous speeds are near on impossible to beat. Another cheap tactic is using the European Cannons to take out enemy generals from afar which leads me to my final point.5. Generals are too important. You lose your general, you lose the match 9/10. The morale hit your units take is utterly ridiculous. I suffered the cheap tactic above of a European cannon killing my general and a Rank 5 Veteran bow unit fled at 50% troops opposed to the more usual 10-20% troop numbers (No, they were not charged down by cavalry or such, was just 3 archer units vs 3 archer units).I know my listings above make it sound like this game is horrible, when you use the Match List to fight players your own level and players don't spam units or use cheap tactics it is a brilliantly fun game. These cheap tactics I would say are only used in like 5% of the games I play, the rest of the time it is fun and as long as you avoid fighting clan members generally even fights.

7.4.2011

The game takes a while to load and is run entirely from hard drive so you need a fair bit of space (18 Gig, I think); once loaded it runs as smoothly as Rome TotalWar but with the best graphics I've seen so far. The lighting effects on the campaign map are significantly improved, though I find the map panning annoyingly slow compared to previous TWs, the city management is much simpler, though I miss the ability to vary city tax rates you can still make a city tax exempt. The battles are amazing, the graphics are great with different weather affecting the game such as haze and rain making clothes wet. Cavalry charging across the battlefield makes the camera shake if positioned low down,which really adds to the atmosphere. Troops can dismount and remount from horses, you can't occupy houses or use things to hide behind as in Empire, but there is still plenty to keep you occupied. The addition of traits you control in Generals is really good, generals are even more critical to success than previous TWs, but you need to keep them close to the action which is a problem because they are not as tough so you need to keep them safe at the same time. Archers are the most important type in my opinion now, its easy to take a castle just by positioning archers outside, Japanese castle are very different to European ones so the walls are lower and can be climbed, no ladders or siege equipment needed.Naval combat is very good and blends in seamlessly with the rest of the game.The AI in Shogun 2 is much more intelligent than previous TWs, don't think you can just ware an enemy down any more, you can't it will try to out manoeuvre you and use all its available resources to create and army that can overpower you. It looks more intelligently at your weaknesses both on the campaign map and the battle map.The developers have tried to get the battle maps to dynamically adjust to the terrain of the campaign map, so in theory each battle field is unique, the maps do appear to adjust, but I wouldn't say there is a significant improvement here over previous TWs, but it is a nice touch so you can start to tactically plan where you attack from on the campaign map. However battle maps that involve besieging an enemy definitely do not adjust, I've become a little bored of the same battle fields, I think the previous TWs had more variety in this area, though the coastal cities are beautiful with temples and waterfalls.The only bad thing I've found was the installation, I bought the DVD pack so I wouldn't have to download the game. It never used the second DVD, it just decided to download 16GB of game which took over 8 hours. That said I've had no problems so far with Steam, I deliberately avoided Empire because of the number of people complaining about it, but I can say I'm happy, it even has an offline mode so you don't need to be connected to the Internet all the time.

26.3.2011

The amount of raiden cosplay in this game is absolutely rediculous... joke!First time disc put in: DVD drive spins up and steam opens. No surprise it wants to download. Right click -> pause update -> Delete local content -> close steam.Next: Go to "Run". Type -> "C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe" -install E:C being the letter of your HDD where the steam directory isE being the letter of your DVD drive where the discc isNext: Steam should re-open. Put in password. Let it launch. Small window will appear and it will, maybe, ask for CD key and then will start installing from disc to about 95%. Small 100mb-ish download will come after that.After that is done you should be able to launch the game

21.3.2011

I like many others who have reviewed this game have been a die-hard total war fan. I couldnt wait to get this, and i have come to a conclusion.The campaign of the game is very enjoyable and fun, you can play as 10 different clans, each with thier own unique abilites, eg. increased income from agriculture etc. All with one quest, to become Shogan of all Japan! The map is a resonable size, but nothing special, diplomacy is more or less the same as it was in Napoleon Total war, just it's been given some updates.Battles are varied and highly enjoyable, the AI is smart and adapts to the situation, eg. flanking and ambushing you. The graphics on this are better the other total war games,

28.3.2011

I've played the game for 30-40 hrs now. I came to amazon just to see what other people thought and am quite surprised at all the negativity.First of all, I bought it from a retail shop and had no problems installing. I have no idea what all the fuss is about.I don't quite have to go into details, but I will make bullet points.Pros- Better AI overall. Although still not up to the standard of a human, the AI in this game is superior to all previous TWs.- More concise selection of units to choose from. Makes it easier to know who does what and makes the battles more about your strategy.- Brilliant battle animation. Being an animator myself, I'm very impressed with the animations that you see when you zoom in..

19.3.2011

I don't blame people for 1 staring a game they cannot install,or have massive issues with installation. It does however not give a potential buyer of the game a true feel of what they can expect. I've always found that since the TW series went to steam starting with Empire, the games get loads of 1 star reviews purely based on peoples issues with steam.I've generally found steam to be no problem, it does not hog recources and has never effected the performance of my PC. The only issue I've had with it is when I reformatted my PC to change OS, and then reinstalled old TW games. I had a couple of problems where steam tried to download the content rather than take it from the install disc.

15.4.2011

Shogun 2 is the latest in the long line of Total War games, but the first to work well enough to tip me from wanting to like them to actually liking them. "Streamlining" is a bit of a dirty word with strategy games, but here it seems to have been used to good effect allowing you to get on with the important business of war without becoming completely bogged down in city management as your realm expands, especially in the late game. Unit AI seems to have improved gradually over the series with incidents of mass stupidity on the part of your troops at an all time low, they mostly do what they're told where they're told, and not just quietly forget about it because there was a pixel in the way or something.

18.4.2011

Become the Shogun by conquering Kyoto, then conquer enough to dominate Japan. You can have about 6000 or so individual Warriors in shining armour visible on the screen at the same time. You can zoom in to any one well dressed samuraj to see who his tailor is. The Generals have silly tailors who make them wear a horo, a huge round bag on the bag to protect them from arrows. The details are more beautifully crafted than ever before in "Total War". Each battle starts with an inspiring speech made by a General framed in a beautiful landscape and often with cherry blossoms flying on the wind. Each pause while loading a battle or siege has a haiku or a quote from Sun Tzu or the book of five rings.

12.4.2011

Shogun 2 is an improvement for the franchise in practically every way. My personal interest in history is more aligned with the settings of Empire or Medieval, so I was initially not so excited at the idea of a return to Shogun. I was proven wrong. Very wrong.Every aspect of this game is better than its predecessors. The RPG-esque character development (of generals, ninjas, metsuke and monks) just makes the campaign so much more rewarding, seeing your subjects age and develop over decades of service effects your strategies and your investment in your clan. The landscape is largely more tactical than Empire, with less open land and more mountains and valleys to be taken into account when planning your armies movements and defensive positions.

4.5.2011

The Total war series has long been rcognized as one of the leaders in the PC wargaming space and Shogun 2 Total war is no exception from that. If you liked the other games in this series then you are going to love this. Shogun 2 benefits from an improved (but still recognizable) interface and an improved gaming system overall.Of particular note is the new experience system that is applied to the generals, metsuke, monks and ninjas under your controle. As these characters increase in experience you now have the opportunity to guide their progress through a 'skill tree'. This allows you to specialize their abilities if you whish and gives them a very real sense of personality.

Shogun 2: Total War - Limited Edition (PC) - Reviews

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