TWC Official Shogun 2 Review by Dragooon

[Dragooon]

Total War: Shogun 2 Review by Dragooon @ Total War Center - Part 1 of 3

It's back, it's new and it's total war! Total War returns this year with a brand new take at the title with which the entire series started 11 years ago. The series has come a long way since and here we are to check out the latest installment of the series, Total War: Shogun 2. I'm Shitiz "Dragooon" Garg and I'll be reviewing TW:S2 for you, most of my experience of Total War is with Empire and Napoleon, when I got Rome back in 2005 I was hardly 10 years old so I don't remember much, I do own Rome and Medieval 2 along with all their expansions though(Got to love Steam sales).

The game is set in 16th century Feudal Japan, the Senguko Era in which war broke out in Japan to take control over other clans and become the "Shogun". A Shogun is basically like a ruler of the whole country and each clan is struggling to be in power(Aren't they always?). Honestly speaking, I don't know much of this era(Okay, I don't know anything), so everything in here is new to me and quite unfamiliar to be frank unlike in E:TW and N:TW where I knew of the era and knew what's what and why they're at war. However, who doesn't know ninjas and samurais? Regardless, getting in touch with the setting is not hard. Before I continue, I'd like to extend my regards to Japan and hope it comes out of the current crisis strong.

Total War series contains games that are hybrids between Turn Based Strategy and Real time Strategy, TWs as a game is divided into 2 areas, the campaign map where you build your towns and armies, move the armies, handle diplomacy and pretty much run the entire nations. This section is turn based, meaning first you do your turn. Do whatever you want to in the turn and then the other clans(Factions for those who are not familiar with the term) perform their actions. Then there is the real time battle area where you can actually fight the battle you start on the campaign map. As someone rightly said in Napoleon: Total War's review, had the games been shipped as 2 separate products with each comprising only one of the 2 sections, it would still have worked just fine.

Now that the introduction is over, let us dive straight into the game. I'll start with what strikes us first. The new UI. Most of the UI has been re-worked/enhanced and made a lot more pleasing. The art work of this entire game is inspired from Japanese arts, and it really magnifies the level of immersion, not only that, it is plain beautiful.

The new UI

The new UI is simple, its pleasing and at the same time, its more accessible. Those little buttons at top right will give you all the information you need to access at the campaign map without overwhelming the user with a host of options

The new UI gets it right, it doesn't remove any features but at the same time it is less overwhelming upon the player. Now you can overview all the buildings in a region by viewing the capital even if they are not present inside the capital, this eases out one burden which involves carefully observing what needs attention. Apart from this there are other several enhancements such as those tabs at top right which can show almost everything you want to know, other clans and their existing treaties, armies, fleets, agents etc.

The campaign map itself might be considered smaller than that of Napoleon Total War, but in reality it has 67 provinces whereas Napoleon Total War had about the same. Those who are worried may fear not, the campaign map is sufficiently big enough to keep you occupied for a full game and even more.

Two of many new features which have developed and been implemented into the game are those of "food and resources". Economy has always been an integral part of Total War series, Total War: Shogun 2 just expands it for good. Apart from your normal cash flow, you now also have to take care of what is known as "Food". It is as simple as it, basically every region can cultivate food and every region also consumes food depending upon its level of development(Mainly, the level of the castle, this is explained later in the review). In order to keep your entire clan happy, you need to have the global food supply(Indicated at bottom right corner) equal to or above 0. If it goes negative revolts start popping up regardless how happy people are, and it gets really messy. One region may not need to satisfy it's needs, but the overall clan needs to balance out its consumption and production. This ensures a good check on your level of development since one cannot have every castle at level 5, you will need to have some castles at lower point in order to maintain a healthy food supply.

Apart from the production and management of food, there are also other resources that can be traded and are sometimes required to build a specific building or for recruitment of an unit, most regions got some resource that can be harvested. For example some got stone, some got gold, some got iron etc.

Apart from the 2 game effecting changes, pre-battle speeches also make a return. This really doesn't make a difference but is nice for immersion effect and shows the effort Creative Assembly has put in the game

Pre battle speeches

Pre battle speeches are spoken in Japanese and subtitles are present, for your information escape button can skip these

There's also the new in-game encyclopedia which gives access to all the information about the game including the mechanics, the buildings, units etc. Its quite a nice feature to have in order to have a detailed read on things to have a clearer understanding.

Graphically, the campaign map is very pleasing. It is easily the best looking Campaign map to date in history of total war. There is also a new fog of war, instead of black areas or darkened nothing, you get an old paper japanese style map of the undiscovered land.

The Campaign map

The campaign map is beautiful, and when it lightens up when you walk through it, it gets even better.

The Battle AI has long been considered the "Achilles Heel" of total war games, one memorable example being the flawed AI of Empire Total War on release which took quite a few patches to fix. I've played my main campaign on Normal as Takeda, since I feel that on High and above the AI get's unfair advantage(Actually I got my butt kicked at High since I lost within 30 turns, but that's another story), speaking of difficulty levels, Shogun 2 has a new one. It's called Legendary, in this mode apart from the normal buffs to the AI you also get several limitations to yourself. In a nutshell, you cannot save and reload a game before or after a battle and your camera is limited to up to 200 feet of your soldiers in a battle. Also, there is no minimap in a battle and so on.

The AI seems smarter since the moment you start the campaign, and believe me it will not fail to surprise you at any point during the campaign. It can sneak upon you when you least expect it, one time I had left my capital unguarded(It was surrounded by allies though), and an enemy clan managed to sneak in. Luckily I was able to withdraw and defend it in time before the clan took over but I suffered a lot of losses, weakening my already over-burdened army. Alliances are not useless anymore, the AI actually seems to help you. I had Hojo as my ally after 2 years into the game(1 year consists of 4 turns), and they helped me fight off the wars against some Eastern rivalries. Without them I couldn't have expanded since they shed a lot of load from my shoulders. Unfortunately, I never had a battle in which the AI came to my rescue, but I haven't had the need of one anyway. No longer does the AI send armies of 2 battalions raiding your buildings, although when it raids it aims for your most important buildings such as farms causing a lot of headache.

The AI Strikes

The AI will strike if it sees an opportunity, and it will strike hard. Also notice that you can skip the battle by pressing auto resolve in which the game will make calculations based on the armies and battlefield and will give you the result.

Land battles themselves are a lot of fun, more particularly sieges. In the previous 2 games, sieges are utterly boring due to the way they play out. This has changed with this game, Japanese castles are way more fun than European ones, basically a castle can be upgraded till level 5 with each one being grander than the previous one. I preferred to attack and defend castles rather than fight land battles, within Shogun 2 there is an ample supply of both. The Battle AI is smarter than previous games as well. I had lost most of the land battles I fought because I was outwitted by the AI, this time they maintain formations, use their units sensibly(And the armies are composed sensibly as well) and actually try to flank others. The AI did a decent job to keep their general alive, but this can be improved. Sometimes I had the general charging at me first which resulted in its death, hence the whole battle coming to an instant win since the units will route easily once the general is killed. Night battles also make a return, you can choose to attack at night if you have an general with the trait required for night battles

Graphically, some features are lacking such as AA and DX10/10.1/11 although CA has said that they'll come with an update within 2-4 weeks of this review. Regardless, it isn't bad at all.

Battle on...Land!

Up close, you get to see some of the best animations in TW ever. I've witnessed some fantastic duels between melee units such as Monks and Samurais that just kept my jaw dropped.

The Battle AI is smarter and more consistent than before, I saw myself loosing more than I was winning which came to me as a surprise. The BAI can hold its formations which is a big bonus unlike previous games in which the BAI tends to loose formation and form a big mess causing it to loose very quickly. It tries to flank and counters any flank attempt I made, once I even lost an entire battalion of cavalry trying to flank the AI's archers because the AI managed to put its Yari(Spearmen) before my cavalry just in time.

A bit more in sieges, basically you start with a fort-less town which can be upgraded all the way to level 5 which results in a massive citadel. Fighting on them is fun as ever since you can employ a host of strategies to attack or defend them, this time you can actually defend a much larger army by using the castle's features. The AI did a fine job attacking or defending it, although there were some holes that I discovered. Once I was able to sneak in an unit and capture the shrine on top which resulted in instant win. But apart from minor quirks, it worked quite decently.

Sieges

At first you see a mere second level fort and then at second its a level 3 fortress. Just a level of a difference is making a world of a difference here.


Now that's a level 4 Castle, and needless to say, the battle did not end well.

You actually need to outnumber the AI when it comes to attacking a castle now, and likewise protecting a castle can be done with much less army when compared to the one attacking it. As you upgrade your castle, you'll add one more building slot to it. So a level 5 Citadel can have 5 buildings inside it whereas a Level 1..fort(?) can have only 1 building inside it, this is not inclusive of the buildings outside the castle such as farm or any building unique to the region(For example, a port, maybe a specialized horse stable etc). The AI attacks from multiple sides and uses its assets wisely when it comes to siege, the general is usually away from the battlefield unless its an imminent loss which makes sense.

Disclaimer: Total War, Total War: Shogun 2, Empire: Total War, Napoleon: Total War, Rome: Total War, Medieval 2: Total War, Creative Assembly, SEGA etc are registered trademarks belonging to their respected owners. No copyright infringement is intended. All of the text written in this review © Shitiz "Dragooon" Garg (mail[at]dragooon[dot]net), re-use of the text in part or whole for any purpose is not allowed without written consent of the copyright holder. All the screenshots are taken by Dragooon and can be re-used as desired as long as they are not linked from their original links. Review's logo kindly given by Maяcel

[Dragooon]

Total War: Shogun 2 Review by Dragooon @ Total War Center - Part 2 of 3

Let's move on to naval battles, introduced in Empire Total War, naval warfare has been revamped for this game mainly due to how Japanese boats were designed. The big ships of the line Napoleon and Empire are replaced by more nimble Japanese rowing boats, which primarily rely on archers instead of cannons as main armament. This also means that the boats are easier to maneuver and the battles are relatively shorter, and in my opinion they are a lot more fun. There is a nice variety of ships in this game, from Heavy rates to fire bombing ships to even European Galleon if you get to that point(More on this later in this review). The artistic appeal in naval battle is very nice. And adding to the new types of ships, there is also land present in the battle maps which add to the possibility of an ambush. Japanese ships are equipped with small guns and mostly archers, fire arrows are quite devastating especially when they set the ship ablaze.

Naval battles

Naval battles are fun, the details in ships is fantastic and well...it is fun!

One might thing if navies play a significant role on the map of Japan and I did survive almost 80 turns without using navies, but to be honest you will find plenty of use with navies. Especially with raiding, conquering and protecting trade routes, trade nodes along with protecting one's own regions from invasions and the ports it holds, and doing the same to the AI. The AI also manages to use the navies effectively, I've seen plenty of sensible naval invasions to give it an 'A' when it comes to naval invasions. I've seen AI sneak on other AI clans, it even sneaked on me once, the AI won't fail to take any opportunity you give it.

Let's continue with the Battle maps and discuss about the weather, yes weather makes a return and it is more annoying than ever! A heavy rain or snow storm(Or any other bad weather for that matter) can not only slow your units down or lower the morale along with other stat penalties but totally render gunpowder units(Yes, there are gunpowder units) along with fire arrows totally unusable. I've lost some battles(Especially naval) due to rain rendering my fire arrows useless, I also lost a siege battle because not only I could not use fire arrows, I also couldn't see the battle itself properly.

Weather

Regardless of how annoying the weather is, it sure looks pleasing.

Speaking of weather, attrition also makes a return in game. For those who don't know, attrition is the loss of army or units that happen on campaign map due to bad weather. Since the game's year is divided into 4 turns, one turn for each season, if you manage to get stuck in bitter cold during winter then you will suffer heavy losses. Naval attrition also happens if your navy gets stuck in deep water.

Overall the battles are fun and intuitive, they work quite well and the AI works better than ever. Although the land battles do play out faster than N:TW and E:TW, I find it to be nice since I am a RTS player in general and the speeds suite me. To me N:TW was kind of slow and the battles were a bit too long to my liking, in TW:S2 the battles last 10 to 15 minutes at most and are really intense while being fun. The morale effects are a lot stronger and the units themselves move faster, here the general comes in handy to keep the morale up for enough time so that the enemy routes in time. And the negative effects of a general's death is enough to make almost every unit route without much effort. Luckily, the AI is good enough the keep the general alive in most of the battles. The return of swords and bows from older games is also a welcomed change since many fans were craving for them.

Now that we're done with the battles, lets come back to the campaign map itself. Agents make a return and they are better than ever. In the previous 2 titles, I did not find much use of agents apart from boosting research but now agents are more fun to be used. TW:S2 has 4 agents namely Ninja, Metsuke, Monk and Geisha. I haven't used the last since I couldn't reach to that point in tech tree but the previous 3 are very good, Ninjas are your assassins and spies, Metsuke can bribe armies and settlements to join your clan. I believe Metsuke can also corrupt Generals but I'm not sure on that part, they are also counter Ninjas as they can apprehend them, I've managed to successfully bribe 4-5 armies totaling to nearly 2.5 stacks along with 2 settlements, it works best with unhappy settlements or small armies with no/weak general, apart from this they can also oversee settlements and make them happier. Monks are religious people which can convert enemies, they can also cause revolts and demoralize armies or boost the morale of your own army and boost the happiness of your own regions. I've taken over tough regions by causing a revolt and weakening them, works quite well. The AI uses them quite like they should be used and that's quite impressive, I must have my army successfully bribed atleast twice or thrice, a couple of generals assassinated and a few revolts that may be incited by the enemy. In order to avoid overpowering of agents, each agent is especially strong against another type of agent. For example, Metsuke can easily find and imprison a Ninja and so on.

Family tree has also returned, you got brothers, sons, daughters and other generals which can be hired or are promoted(In case you manage to win a battle without general, you get an opportunity to promote an unit to general). As your sons and brothers come of age, they also become generals and eventually heir of your clan incase your existing leader dies. The image of the clan leader(Diamyo) also makes a difference to diplomatic relations, in case your family gets wiped out the new leader usually gets a bit of hate. Sometime the leader might also get hate if he doesn't do well in battles, it is all dependent on the leader's performance. Families can be extended by performing marriages which also results in a very strong alliance between two nations. You an also give your sons and daughters as hostages which can help in diplomatic relations with those clans who's relations are tight with you.

Total War: Shogun 2 also introduces a brand new RPG system. As your agents do their job, they gain experience and level up. As they level up, you can equip more skills, traits and retainers which can make them better at their job. Each agent can have different areas of specialization, for example a Ninja can be master at assassins, master at sabotaging buildings or be a jack of all traits. Its up to you how you raise them. Same principal follows with Generals, as Generals wins battles they gain experience and level up. They have a different skill tree having various skills which can either introduce new abilities or improve existing one. For example, they can booste the general's bodyguard's morale, defense or offense or they can booste the moral that's handled out by Inspire ability or Rally ability. Or they can increase his troop's stats. This adds a lot to the depth in game, along with that it also adds a lot of fun to it. The agents are fun to handle and a single agent that's highly leveled up can totally turn the tides against you or with you.

Skill tree

You can't have all of them unfortunately

The tech tree makes a return in a new avatar, previously each teaching center(School, collage, university etc) could research one tech at a time. This time there are no teaching centers, there is one big tech tree divided into Way of Bushido - consisting of military techs and Way of Chi - Consisting of economical and such techs, you can research one tech at a time and the number of turns it takes depends on how deep it is in the tree. The techs allow you to have bonus on statistics, income etc or build new buildings, units etc, they even allow to recruit some agents(Actually Geisha), make sure to research to have access to some very powerful skills and units, otherwise you'll be rolled over by the AI! Some skills of some agents help you reduce the time it takes to research a tech, so I urge you do some research and plan out your way in order to maximise the effectiveness of an agent.

Tech tree

The tech tree is quite elaborate, and it'll be well over the game over time before you finish researching everything. So make sure to plan things out.

The diplomacy also has a few new options, including the ability to conduct marriages, exchange hostages, demand breaking of alliance. The ability to give or take regions has been removed due to the historical period the game is set in.

The diplomacy screen

The Diplomacy screen, make sure to talk nicely!

The AI handles diplomacy much better than before, they will respect your alliance if you respect theirs. it also offers peace and declares wars when it is sensible. Betrayal to any treaty will have very strong affects against your reputation. Playing nice pays at later stages of the game which we'll talk about now.

Natural disasters also make a return in this game, some random instances can happen that will cause some monterey damage, damage to buildings or even loss of armies(Partly or even whole).

Before I'll continue with the later part of the game, I'll talk about Nanban port and the Portugese. Basically randomly anytime in the game you'll be contacted by Portugese to establish a trade network with them and build a port for this called the Nanban port. Not only will you trade with the Portugese, you'll get access to their gunpowder techs(As mentioned earlier in this review) allowing you to recruit riflemen infantry and galleon ships. This is not all golden though, by accepting Portugese's offer you'll have to convert from Buddhism to Christianity and this will cause a lot of unrest in your clan causing one rebellion after the other, although the riflemen are very dangerous units. Whether you'll accept the ability of increased trade and powerful units at the cost of a lot of rebellions is up to you, the game is fine and fun either way.

Now, the motive of the game is to become the Shogun(Surprise, surprise!), and in order to do so, you'll have to capture the capital Kyoto(It's roughly around the middle of the map) and hold it for at least a year(4 turns). The game doesn't end then, it just gets exciting. Basically after this it'll turn every other faction against you and will probably cause them to go to war and they will grind you badly especially if it is all v/s you. There is something called "Realm Divide" that can happen when your reputation with the emperor reaches a status called "Legendary", it reaches that after you've captured a lot of regions and/or won a lot of battles, this will also give every faction a huge negative against you and will probably make them go to war, and at this point capturing Kyoto gets harder unless you're close to it. Now here's when diplomacy helps, although conducting sensible diplomacy after Realm Divide or becoming Shogun is useless since almost nothing will make them accept peace, but having some strong allies and maintaing healthy relations help. This can cause them to not declare war on you and actually stick to your side, in my turn I had all 3 of my allies stick with me which really helped me during the realm divide(Where it became 3 of us vs 12 of them). They cut a lot of load from you. The siege of Kyoto itself is quite fun, the castle is huge and their garrison comprises of a very lang army of well trained and high leveled units. Make sure you're prepared for all this before messing with the Shogun!

Kyoto

This...was not fun. I did not win it at this point anyway, I won it at a later point where I caught them off guard and with a much superior force than this.

Disclaimer: Total War, Total War: Shogun 2, Empire: Total War, Napoleon: Total War, Rome: Total War, Medieval 2: Total War, Creative Assembly, SEGA etc are registered trademarks belonging to their respected owners. No copyright infringement is intended. All of the text written in this review © Shitiz "Dragooon" Garg (mail[at]dragooon[dot]net), re-use of the text in part or whole for any purpose is not allowed without written consent of the copyright holder. All the screenshots are taken by Dragooon and can be re-used as desired as long as they are not linked from their original links. Review's logo kindly given by Maяcel

[Dragooon]

Total War: Shogun 2 Review by Dragooon @ Total War Center - Part 3 of 3

Now let us take a look at one of the most radically changed areas of the game, the multiplayer. Total War Shogun 2 has an absolutely unrecognizable multiplayer section with a host of new features. Now the multiplayer is a side of the game I'm still weak at since I have only spent a fraction of the time I've spent on single player, but I'll try to share my experiences anyway. Now the overall multiplayer is divided into 2 areas, Avatar conquest and Multiplayer Campaign. Multiplayer campaign is quite similar to that of Napoleons with one addition, a Co-op campaign in which you and your friend can divide the clan and rule it collectively. Honestly, I'd like to speak on this more but I haven't tried it so I'll leave this mystery for you.

Let's go to Avatar Conquest now, in this mode you set up your own avatar for the online battlefield and fight to conquer Japan. You can design the mon(banner), choose the colors, design your general's outfit, name the general(Which would be also the name of you) and these colours will be carried over in the battlefield. This adds a really nice touch to personalize and make you a distinguished somebody on the battlefield.

MP Customization

Beware of this guy. He'll eat you alive, run as soon as you see him.

Let us move on to the actual gameplay side of the avatar conquest, now there is an all new conquest map. Basically you fight a battle while placing your marker on a region and if you win enough battles(Or gain enough XP) then you capture that region and move on. As you capture the region you unlock new things like new units or abilities. As you win battles you gain experience points(Similar to Single Player battles in which a general levels up) and you level up, as you level up you get skill points which can be used to give your general new skills, traits etc which can be used in the battlefield, they also give access to new piece of armor or body set that can enhance the appeal of the general on the battlefield. Now the sad part is the multiplayer skill tree for the general is far superior to that of the single player one. It has a whole new tree for Bow mastery which is completely absent from the single player. The battles are your usual naval, siege or land battles, drop in or normal match found ones(Similar to those of Napoleon).

General's skill tree and Avatar conquest map

The skill tree is huge, and there is plenty to unlock


You capture each region as you win battles while having your markers placed there, and you can move on to adjacent regions once you have it under control. Each region has something to offer.

There is also a new trait introduced called "Dishonorable Coward". Basically if you quit a game before finishing it up(Be it intentionally quitting or disconnecting) 5 times in a row you'll get this trait, it identifies the quitters out of the lot and actually puts some heavy penalties on those. However this feature is bugged at the moment, as a matter of fact, quite a lot of MP is bugged in its current state. You can get the dishonorable coward attached to you even if you've played fair battles, apart from that people have reported several glitches, disconnections etc happening with MP. If CA does get to fix it(And I'm sure they will), then this will be a gem to the crown which is known as Total War: Shogun 2.

For me, the true value of a total war game lies in its single player campaign. I'm sure there are a lot of people who get it for its MP, and for the first time a total war's MP is something that stands on its own, and I do enjoy MP. But a Total War game is absolutely not worth it if you cannot go into a state of Total War in single player. And to be frank, Napoleon and Empire couldn't grasp that essence. It was a lot more predictable with some major nations absolutely owning everyone else. Total War: Shogun 2 completely changes that. You cannot predict its outcome of campaign even if there is only 10 years left in the game. The campaigns themselves last for over 200 turns which are more than enough, I was defeated on my 195th turn where my rule ended. The absolute beauty of this game comes from the fact that every campaign is different.

The outcomes of the campaign

I'm the red clan(Called Takeda) just besides the blue clan in these pictures, the first picture is from 1559, second is from 1564 and third is from 1584 in the campaign






As you can see, the map changed dramatically within those years. Hattori, which had been an immensely powerful clan along with the Date clan were nothing by 1584, Chosokabe rose to power and controls quite a nice amount of region above me. Hojo rose to a lot of power before being crushed down to 3 regions. I was nothing and struggling to survive and after a while I became a superpower. Shimazu also controls a huge amount of land. After this the outcome did not end well though, Chosokabe, Shimazu and Hojo were my 3 allies after Realm Divide and they turned against me in 1590. Hojo was down to one region, I was wiped off the map. I managed to loose 6 regions in one turn! Basically the clans raided my food supplies and it went from 2 to -6 which caused massive revolts everywhere.

This is just how dynamic this game can get. I've read other diaries and I've seen clans like Shimazu and Chosokabe getting wiped out in first 10 years, or Date clan ruling half of Japan. The AI actually plays like it should now, it respects diplomacy and acts a lot more sensibly, Alliance is a lot more sensible now. The Normal difficulty is an absolute blast to play at and is no longer a steamroll, Hard and above are for those who find Normal to be easy. But to each its own I guess.

One thing I haven't mentioned yet is music, the game comes with brand new tracks which consist of Japanese style music. To tell you the truth, the first time I listened to the music of Shogun 2 was when an user extracted them from the demo and posted for download, and it didn't feel that good. However, when you're in middle of a battle, on a loading screen or anywhere else in the game, the music just blends in and it pumps you a lot. I don't know why but the music alone doesn't sound that pleasing to me, but in the game it is absolute genius. And since it is meant to be in game, I got no complaints. The feel of the drums beating in a wonderful Japanese tone while seeing your units march into the battle is just too epic, I cannot describe the music and the combination so I just recommend to actually watch and listen it.

As far historical accuracy of this game goes, I have absolutely no knowledge of this era so I will not comment on it. However, if unfamiliarity with this era is one of your concerns about getting this game, then I'll say worry not. The game will not be any less fun without the knowledge.

So, let's sum things up with a few Pro's and Con's of my own
Pro's
- The AI works - One of the biggest quirks that happened with Empire when it come out was that its AI was terrible. Regardless of how awesome the game is, without a half decent AI, it just gets boring and sends everything else down the toilet. But in TW:S2 CA has managed to give us an AI that works, and it works rather well. It is more aggressive, but at the same time it is more smart. Not only that, it is even smarter in battles.
- Look! It's darn pretty! - TW:S2 has to be easily one of the best looking strategy, TBS/RTS games I've seen till date. And this is with more to come! It is not only the looks, it is also the animations which are far superior to previous installments of total war that makes it a joy to watch zoomed in.
- Food is nice - Food is something that adds a lot more dynamics to the game. One can bring a nation to its knees(And so it happened) you manage to cripple the entire clan to its knees.
- All new naval battles - The naval battles are quicker, they are more responsive and involve land. What more can one wish for?
- Enhanced multiplayer - TW:S2's one of the true gems is the multiplayer, it is just the best one ever.
- Sieges are worth something now - Sieges in Empire and Napoleon are boring, but the sieges in this game are just what I want to play. Nothing more, nothing less, just sieges and sieges. I've probably played 10 times the sieges when compared to land battles in my campaign
- RPG elements that just blend in - The new RPG elements blend well in with the whole game, adding more depth to the possibilities in the battlefield.
- Enhanced UI and artwork - The UI is just better than before, the artwork is not only fitting in the game, it is very beautiful as well.
- Brilliant music - As mentioned a few paragraphs above, the music is an absolute pleasure to listen while you are in a battle. Playing this game with speakers off is just unfair.
- Battle's speed work - The battles play out a lot faster than before and the morale plays a deadly role now, in my opinion this is a very nice change.

Con's
- The AI still got issues - Need not be afraid, they are nothing when compared to Empire's flaws, but some far less flawed and far more fixable. There are a few holes that can be exploited with the AI, for example I could sneak in a small battalion and take over the castle whereas I should've(And would've) easily lost.
- Crashes - I experienced 2, maybe 3 crashes at best. Nothing major, but still annoying. Luckily, no corruptions
- Incomplete graphics - CA released the game without DX 10/10.1/11 which also resulted in missing AA. Although the game doesn't look shoddy, it is still quite saddening to see that we were not given everything promised at release.
- Graphics might look artificial - There is something about the battle graphics that give it a somewhat bland appeal of the landscape. Apart from that the units shine a bit which might create some artificiality, although I'm not sure if that is a bad thing. Hopefully with the coming of DX10/10.1/11 this might be improved since at the moment I can only see DirectX 9's work in this game.
- Optimization may be lacking - Although I haven't experienced any slow downs first hand, but proper utilization of a Quad core is still not in place.
- Multiplayer is bugged - Multiplayer has its fair share of issues, actually more than its fair share of issues. Hopefully CA does get them fixed within a month.
- Other bugs and issues - Players have been reporting some bugs, issues and other glitches which can cause some disappointment. I've not experienced anything major but I've read reports of AI glitches which renders it completely useless and things like that. Hopefully these will be patched in as well.

So, what should be the verdict? I give Total War: Shogun 2 a :
9/10 - Highly recommended.

To be honest, the Con's are something that either are going to be fixed or can be fixed if CA shows its role towards the fan following and the Pro's easily outweigh the cons. If CA can get some of its most prominent bugs fixed and get the proper graphical updates in, TW:S2 can be, if it is not already, easily the best Total War game till date. I'd say get it whenever you can, it is one game that must not be missed by Total War fans or strategy fans alike. The score can easily go up to 9.5 if CA manages to get the above mentioned issues fixed. Regardless, I highly recommend getting this game since it is nothing short of spectacular.

Thank you for reading this review.

Disclaimer: Total War, Total War: Shogun 2, Empire: Total War, Napoleon: Total War, Rome: Total War, Medieval 2: Total War, Creative Assembly, SEGA etc are registered trademarks belonging to their respected owners. No copyright infringement is intended. All of the text written in this review © Shitiz "Dragooon" Garg (mail[at]dragooon[dot]net), re-use of the text in part or whole for any purpose is not allowed without written consent of the copyright holder. All the screenshots are taken by Dragooon and can be re-used as desired as long as they are not linked from their original links. Review's logo kindly given by Maяcel

[Maяcel]

best review i have ever read

[helmersen]

Wow. -rep

[Omar Nelson B.]

Very well written and thought out.

[lt1956]

Well good job on your review, but relying on a 15 year old kid to what type of game this is would be hard for anyone who was around when RTW or for that matter the original shogun was released.

Good review on features, but your statement of liking 10-15 minute battles right there doesnt place high hopes for me that this game will not need modding if its even possible to mod with steam and all.

atleast you did a review but saying you were 10 in 2005 doesnt breed confidence. lol

[Dragooon]

The reason I like 10-15 minute battles is because it is faster paced, I like the pace of it as I've been playing BFME/BFME2 for over 4 years. It is entirely on one's personal preference on how they feel, I personally like the 10-15 battle. They keep the intensity that had been in the previous game. Also one thing is that if you're attacking the AI doesn't take the first move, so that gives you time to lay down the battle. In case you're defending the AI will be all over you. In case you got a problem with me being 16, then well it is your problem, actually it'll be a lot more of a problem because I'm also part of the technical staff here. I'd suggest you comment on the review rather than my age .

[Lord Willy]

Very nice job mate , was nice to read , great review! + rep

[jimkatalanos]

Very nice.

[Swiss Halberdier]

Very informative and interesting review! +rep

[Dragooon]

Thanks guys

[Belisarius]

Well good job on your review, but relying on a 15 year old kid to what type of game this is would be hard for anyone who was around when RTW or for that matter the original shogun was released.

Good review on features, but your statement of liking 10-15 minute battles right there doesnt place high hopes for me that this game will not need modding if its even possible to mod with steam and all.

atleast you did a review but saying you were 10 in 2005 doesnt breed confidence. lol

I think Shogun sets a solid base aimed at casual gamers and is fast paced much like rome was, people like you and I will probably want it to be modded to increase the length of battles but in general I personally think, having played every TW game, that this one is the most challenging in its release state.

[Hopit]

I agree with pro's and con's expect the sieges part
I hate them because I never win them (expect when defending)

[bangell99]

Not very well written, but you covered it in detail and did that well.

[Dragooon]

I agree with pro's and con's expect the sieges part
I hate them because I never win them (expect when defending)

To each its own I guess, one just needs to get used to it.

[Dragooon]

Not very well written, but you covered it in detail and did that well.

How would you suggest improving it?

[Spaxspore]

Great review! 10 in 2005, damn i feel old.

[lt1956]

Thanks Belisarius, thats helpful. I have been looking over the forum for information on how the game plays out of the box. Seems they have copied alot of ideas from the modders which is good. AI will be interesting to see how well it performs. I am worried about steam and forced patching which can conflict with mods, so I would most likely wait till the last patch to mod the AI. It will be hard as I dont know what has changed, and I did bother buying ETW or NTW before of their changes and steam.

But I am tempted on STW2 only because I like the era alot and it looks nice, but it depends if I can mod it or not. Atleast the graphics are great so only the GUTS need modding which might make a mod easier than RTW was.

But I am waiting till the price drops, no longer am I supporting CA and their lack of support. They will never make battles longer or realistic because of who they are marketing.

I think Shogun sets a solid base aimed at casual gamers and is fast paced much like rome was, people like you and I will probably want it to be modded to increase the length of battles but in general I personally think, having played every TW game, that this one is the most challenging in its release state.

[lt1956]

Dragooon, I been around here to see staff come and go and even when TWC almost closed down I was there, and I have no problem with a young man like yourself being on the staff. You did a nice MATURE review, better than alot of reviews out there. I just said you have the mindset that CA is looking for. Which doesn't fit most of us that made or use mods to begin with.

I do think STW2 is shaping up to be the better of all their releases out of the box. But I have seen things reported that will require modding already which is standard.

Don't worry we can use more Mature young men like you here at TWC. I was just speaking about personal preference like 10 minute battles.

The reason I like 10-15 minute battles is because it is faster paced, I like the pace of it as I've been playing BFME/BFME2 for over 4 years. It is entirely on one's personal preference on how they feel, I personally like the 10-15 battle. They keep the intensity that had been in the previous game. Also one thing is that if you're attacking the AI doesn't take the first move, so that gives you time to lay down the battle. In case you're defending the AI will be all over you. In case you got a problem with me being 16, then well it is your problem, actually it'll be a lot more of a problem because I'm also part of the technical staff here. I'd suggest you comment on the review rather than my age .