4.12.2011

after playing the great rome, which I loved and thought was the biggest breakthrough i've been anticipating further releases of total war games.however, it's fair to say i've been pretty disappointed by them:empire - bugged and crashing every hour, i gave up playing virtually after starting playing I was annoyed and upset that i'd spent the £25 or so that it cost and now it was practically useless as they left empire and moved onto napoleon which looks like a copy of empire just modified slightly (so i never actually bought this title)however, after numerous friends telling me this game was good, and after building a very new fast pc (3.5ghz quad core, overclocked to 3.782ghz with 4gb 1600mhz ram and an ok graphics card)i thought there wouldn't be any harm in trying to get this game.note, i'm familiar with steam and how it works, so i'm happy about the service. yes sometimes i have issues like they give me poor download speeds and sometimes the servers are too busy to launch a game, but on the whole it is quite good and manages my games and improves the social experience.However, instead of forking out £15 or so to buy the game from amazon (now priced at a VERY GOOD price of just under £8) i decided to trade some of my in game tf2 items for shogun 2 while it was in the sale (£15 on steam). basically the items i'd earned and traded for in team fortress 2 i could give to another player willing to receive that for buying a copy of shogun 2 and so i have effectively obtained this game for a minimal fee or price (as i sold it for items that looked nice, i.e. hats)on the whole i'm incredibly happy about this move, and it was definetely worth the time spent on forums.Once starting, i'd found you could play as multiple clans with their own unique bonuses, my favourite being chosokabe as they have strong archers and bonus income from farms, fuelling your war effort.As the game starts, there are tens of minor clans across all of japan (however the main island hokkaido is not included in the game, probably because even today it has a very low population density and is therefore of scarce importance).each clan will start off with only one or 2 provinces usually, some do start with more but it is rare. this means early conquests are usually relatively easy and simple, because you only have one or two provinces to manage and making war with another clan will not result in say a lot of armies attacking you because they own loads of provinces.as far as construction goes, you now have the choice of building certain buildings for military or economic purposes but are limited to particular numbers in each province (i.e. you cannot have all of the buildings in one province as it isn't possible). This means you have to be clever about what you are choosing for which province, on top of the fact that many provinces have specific bonuses that only exist in one or two other provinces on the map (such as artisans allowing for a master bowmaker, which provides bonuses to archers accuracy when trained in that province). This allows for dynamic and flowing gameplay, where you can have one province recruiting spearmen, one province archers, one province sword-samurai and one cavalry. not you can combine certain recruitment types also - ergo you can have missile cavalry but you will require some archery type building AND horse type building, meaning that you can really make certain provinces specialised relative to others.all in all i've played this game for quite a long time and it runs fine, i have also cross ran it on an xp machine that has a dual core processor at 2.3ghz (or thereabouts) with a poor/ok graphics card and yet it still runs pretty well.as far as starting the game, even on the 3.5ghz machine it takes a while to load the main menu, probably because it is a very complex game and it would pre-load certain aspects or features perhaps.My favourite part of the entire game however is the multiplayer campaign, where two players can play the campaign together or against one another. this allows for fun playing of the campaign rather than just battles with your friends.it also makes the game much more fun because you are able to play with friends and coagulate strategies with them to beat other clans. currently i'm chosokabe and my friend is mikoshi clan and we are striving to take kyoshu together, with me receiving the land with artisans (for bowmakers to improve my archers) and him receiving warhorses and he uses them a lot.other additions to the game which have enhanced it tactially is desertion through attrition, where in winter if troops are outside of their clans province land then they will lose men to desertion etc. this also happens in open seas with ships and so therefore implements strategies for the timing of attacking certain provinces or clans.as far as technology is concerned, a tech tree of bushido (or war) arts occupies half of technology (and this is sped up by building castles and fortresses etc or other bonuses) and chi arts, or economic and social technology (sped up by temples and religious buildings, or extra bonuses).lastly, the missions in the game are more varied than those in previous titles and allows the player to have many different choices than before. players are given options such as if they have a good harvest one year, they can stockpile and save giving certain bonuses, or give the food around which will give other bonuses.I hope this helps, and if you're a fan of the TW series a definite one to get, and if you are into strategy then this game is definetely good (it's as far as i'm aware, the only hybrid of real time strategy (battles etc, other rts titles include dawn of war, company of heroes) and turn based strategy (where you are on the campaign map and building troops etc. titles that are turn based include civilisation)

22.4.2011

It's been a month and I'm really enjoying this. I have to say at first I wasn't sure because of some differences from Rome/Medieval line, which I see as the comparable line up in the series. Such differences were ironed out as I started to see how it works.First, the balance between the economy and army is pretty tight and I had to consciously think about striking the balance. Instinctively I was investing less in economy and supporting the more heavily invested army became difficult. I had to learn to manage diplomacy more by making trade agreements and controlling the sea around me. These are important elements, which were less crucial for me in the likes of Medieval 2.The campaign map feels more closely packed with heck of a lot going on all the time.AI is generally more aggressive (i.e. they're actually trying to win rather than sit still as a status quo) so I'm not just doing what interest me, but also responding to what's happening around me. This means I have to find the balance between what I want to do on my own accord and what I should do in order to respond to enemy actions. Strategic thinking is encouraged in this way and it pulls you out of your comfort zone. In Rome/Medieval line, too often it was too much of a sandbox and AI was responding to your actions, rather than the other way around, so I often fell back on turtling all the time to steamroll the opponent - not much strategy there and it can still be done in Shogun 2, but it takes a lot more thinking as a strategist.Naturally this is partly a matter of preference. I noticed that some players, who turtle up the same way every game and don't like being pulled out of their comfort zone, complain about this game flow of Shogun 2. It's a fair criticism up to a point if you don't like it, but a lot of problems are then perceived to exist as a knock on effect, which I find to be misleading. Shogun 2 has a more tightly knit, streamlined game flow and to me this encourages dynamic strategy as the campaign goes on, and it lives up to the strategy ethos better in my eyes. Those who favour a static strategy might find it uncomfortable at first, but some resulting criticisms seem very subjective and unfair.At any rate, there are differences you have to wrap your head around, but otherwise it's TotalWar going back to its roots and learning from the past installments. Whereas going from Shogun 1 to Rome/Medieval line was more about expanding the scale/variety and diluting each element, with Shogun 2 it's as though they condensed everything and focussed on a more tightly controlled balance in each element. The result is an intense strategy game where AI actively seeks to disrupt your well laid-out plan and you have to use everything at your disposal to outwit them. It's up to you to readjust yourself to meet that challenge.One criticism I have is that there are some weird AI bugs especially in siege battles which need ironing out. I hope the devs are working on that. They could've also added more varying options for enemy clan's habits and aggressiveness, just to give people more options to play the game the way they want. I suspect that would solve a lot of issues.

17.2.2013

I would have to say its not the best game the Creative Assembly have made in the Total War series, but its better than some seem to give credit for. At the same time, I don't agree with everyone handing out 5/5 and dismissing the complaints of others.Steam isn't a perfect platform to use it on and I sympathise with those out there who are unable to get good download limits who are then effectively forced to download it despite going out and buying the disk version, but by and large I've had no major issues with Steam; its easy to set up and use and a convenient place to get your games.The soundtrack and art style are excellent and the battle AI, both in land and sea battles,

2.7.2011

I miss the old style shogun map, but this is an evolution of the series not a revolution. Everything about this game has been refined. I'd imagine the modders out there will eventually come up with a 'classic' shogun map, which reverts the map back to the old style, one move, chess-piece movement. This I would really enjoy and I hope will be out, eventually.First issues before the game was released. There was an uproar about the game being reviewed with DX11 which was unstable but looked good for the best screen-shots and video previews. Despite it being an unstable build this did not lower the final game score, nor was it mentioned in any review due to NDA.Users then had to wait for over a month for the patch that gave them the same functionality and AA options,

23.2.2012

Another great addition to the Total War series, the latest and of the greatest so far.Very fun game but is does not play 100 MPH, it takes a lot of patience and strategy instead of mindless, unskillful action.I am a veteran of the Total War series but I decided on doing the tutorial/mini-campaign to get accustomed to some of the new features and even remind me of some of the normal gameplay customs for this game, I am glad I did it. The tutorial actually takes a decent amount of time, a couple of hours at least but if you want to be able to play at your best it is definitely worth it.I have a high spec computer so I am able to play with every graphics option maxed out so I can not comment on

28.9.2011

A worthy new version of the venerable Shogun:Total War. The game-play elements are basically the same, but the updated game engine makes for some truly beautiful graphics (if your graphic card is powerful enough). Be aware that the game will degrade the graphics settings automatically if performance could have been affected (you may have all settings at "Ultra" but wonder why things don't look as good as you expected, and the game won't inform you about the changes either). I have also experienced some random freezes and crashes to desktop, so regular saving of your game is a good idea. Another annoyance is Shogun not always saving your preferences for game-play or graphics.

21.10.2011

I own all the Total war games, and this one is what we have all come to know and love about the CA. I have easily clocked up 300 hours of game play on this, mostly in single player and I still find myself wanting to play it more.Unlike many of the other reviewers I actually quite like Steam, which I think is an excellent supporting software tool, which helps me keep up to date with all my games, without me having to go off to a variety of different web sites to keep them up to date.Anyway back to Shogun, graphics are amazing on a decent PC, quite a lot of scalability, so if you dont have a great PC it will still run. I like seeing the arrows stuck into the walls of castles during assaults in particular.

4.10.2012

Just a quick few words on what seems to be a major issue for some ... Steam.I'm not sure why so many are finding things frustrating but there is NO need to have Steam running in order to play the single person game. If you do not have your network connection enabled then it's easy as a message will pop up and you simply select play in off-line mode. This works flawlessly. As a general comment, I always disable my network connection (assuming broadband then just put a simple desktop shortcut to toggle the LAN) when I'm playing any single player game. It just feels more secure.I also see that some have downloaded the full game from Steam even though they have the disk inserted. Again, this is not needed.

28.3.2011

As a long time fan of the Total War series (played every game and addon since the original Shogun) I am happy to say that many of the kinks and bugs that plagued previous Total War titles have been ironed out and that after the disappointing Empire and Napoleon, Shogun 2 is a very well made and engaging game. Although the beautiful graphics are the most eye catching improvement its the great AI that really sets this game apart from previous Total War games. Many small additions such as a leveling system for your generals and agents and an improved ability to arrange marriages and even hostages make the game interesting to play on the campaign level. The coop mode, which many Total War fans (myself included)

14.3.2012

I bought this game as I had previously enjoyed the Rome total war Gold Edition as well as the Medieval 2 Gold Edition. The graphics are definitely a great improvement and the battlefield looks great. The battle animations are also much more exciting making saved replays a lot more entertaining to watch. Unit variation is no way near as rich as Rome, but i guess its a historical limitation. The AI has vastly improved from just sitting round and letting u shoot it to pieces. Diplomacy is much more fun now as the AI is much more active in attacking each other, declaring alliances or offering trade deals.Anyhow, The naval battles are pretty boring, there's nearly no opportunity for strategy.

10.6.2012

This game, like the recent Empire and Napoleon games from the Total War series, have taken a lot of bad hits from people who are basing their reviews on Steam rather than the game itself. I love this game, the graphics are superb, the gameplay...and this includes the online multiplayer which I am not normally a fan of, are fun and easy to get to grips with. The fact that Shogun 2 and Fall of the Samuari have so many new and exotic units to learn to master just add to the fun.The storylines are interesting but in all fairness don't add much, its just basically a brief story of why you are fighting in the first place.The "hero" units are a new and novel idea.The naval combat needs something to

15.4.2011

You really need at high spec PC to make this worth it. My processor is an AMD 5000+ dual core. Which fits in with the Recommended settings but my graphics card only meets the minimum Spec (Radaeon 8800). so whilst i didnt expect crystal clear graphics like in the screenshots, i did expect ok-ish graphics. What i ended up with though isn't far off what Shogun 1 was like over a decade ago. A real shame as the game looks ugly and battles are wobblying blurred pixels. The game also made a point of saying where armies cross on the campaign map would affect the terrain on the battle map. Absolute rubbish. A planned battle next to a bridge didnt even have a river in the ensuing battle. Storming castles is boring.

24.1.2012

I'm not going to go into great detail for this review, but I can easily call it the best Total War game there is.I have seen a lot of bad reviews but they have been for petty reasons. Also, having it on Steam doesn't really make a difference in my experience, it only makes the multiplayer better if anything.I have been playing the Total War series since Rome and I love all of them and I will continue buying them after this. The real-time battles are really impressive and fun. The AI does a lot more, ranging from tactics to just doing different things each time you start a battle. The animations are fantastic. The graphics are fantastic.The campaign doesn't add much to the series but it is still a good challenge.

4.4.2013

Ok.So, you may have to download the game from steam, but that adds security. Yeah sure, steam requires you to download it, but then you don't have to use the disc again to start it, it runs from your hard drive many people think its futuristic, you don't have to worry about disc damage, which I find beneficial.The game play is excellent, so what if it's the same as all the other ones? Call of duty is always the same, Halo is always the same, Gears of War is always, the same.Its the "GENRE" so it's bound to be similar, it's how they make the game, all game designers leave similarities between their games, it's like a trademark.The only thing I am disappointed with in this game, is that unlike previous games,

27.9.2011

Having enjoyed Napoleon Total War a great deal I was keen to play Shogun 2. At first I must admit that I was disappointed. I had ordered a game on DVD as opposed to Steam and found out I still had over 19 Gig to download! The second DVD in the case appears to have no use what so ever.When I finally downloaded the game I found it a very different experience to Napoleon. It is a great deal more dynamic than it's forbear, infantry cover distances much more quickly. Individual mele battles are fought at a much faster pace than the exchange of musket volleys. Siege mode has been altered, you will often find yourself attacking or defending a multi layered fortress.

Shogun 2: Total War (PC) - Reviews

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