Strategy Informer Shogun 2 Review

[Ibram]

Hey guys,

So, here's our review of Shogun 2: Total War (I'll say it that way around until I die ). Hope you all enjoy it.

Strategy Informer - Shogun 2 Review

Score: 9/10

Marked down for some bugs, like random CTD's, and I couldn't help but feel balancing was off, but that could just be because I sucked Still, a very, very good game.

Enjoy!

MODS: Feel free to move this to a central reviews thread if one appears, I couldn't see one.

[lacrossepl9]

Sounds amazing, I hope when it said "CTDs are there so much so that it made the game unplayable" they meant to say "NOT so much so that it made the game unplayable" haha cus that's a huge difference.

[Ibram]

Sheet - typo!

[BunnyPoopCereal]

thanks

[JGL]

cheers Ibram

No mention of the AI

[Adamwestisgod]

Man this just made me more excited to play..to bad I wont be able to play this till April

[Ibram]

@Patrick Sharpe: Sorry about that... I did try and shoe-horn a line in there somewhere, but as you can probably tell there's a lot to talk about and I only have so many words to play with. As far as I can tell it's been majorly improved, the BAI especially and possibly the CAI as well. It's hard to see evidence of the two working together like CA always claims they do, but I think the AI is good in this game. Not amazing maybe, but competant.

[CenTen]

If the text didn't have a score attached to it I would probably assume they gave the game something like a six or seven. Apart from the opening and closing statement there isn't a lot of lauding going on.

Judging by how picky the writer seems to be, he might very well be a diehard member of the TW community himself.

E: Just realised who the wrote the piece. No offence taken, I hope.

[dutch81]

What level did you all play on? You said it might have had a lot to do with how hard the AI was but never said what you played on.

[Queen Annes Revenge]

cheers Ibram

No mention of the AI

Yeah that's stupid, if they call themselves "strategy informer" you would think they would at least mention the AI, given that it's the most maligned element of the history of the series.

[Ibram]

@dutch81: I experimented on Normal, Hard and Very Hard, and even on Normal it's easy to get steamrolled by a larger clan... and there always seems to be a larger clan.

@CenTen: Not at all. I thought my write up was fairly positive for most of it, apart from the two-three paragraphs where I try to bring things into perspective. Hazard of the job though that everyone will interact with your article differently, so if that's that you think then that's fair enough

@Queen: I think the only people who dictates what our editorial remit is is us thanks. But yeah, I know I didn't mention the AI, but I felt it didn't need dwelling on too much this time around as there's so much else to talk about. Talking about the AI is getting to be a bit of a broken record anyway.

[InferiorBeing]

No mention of the AI

Thanks for pointing that out. I'll just save time and skip that review, then. So stupid.

Also, this:

...That's stupid, if they call themselves "strategy informer" you would think they would at least mention the AI, given that it's the most maligned element of the history of the series.

[Death's Deputy]

Come on guys give the lad who wrote the review and CA a bit of a break. The AI has been improved from everything I've seen, but the fact is that NO MATTER what anyone does, the AI will never be as good as even a fairly average player.

Why? Cos we're humans with intelligent brains capable of making up all kinds of tactics to win battles and campaigns, and the AI is a written program. Sure it can be enhanced and given the ability to take the initiative and make smart moves to counter-act our tactics, but ultimately, especially in a game as complex as TW, there will always be gaps in its capabilities and mistakes made. Writing a tough AI without giving it "cheats" is one of the hardest and unrewarding things I can imagine doing.

The best thing about Shogun 2 however (as the review mentions) is that the multiplayer aspect has been massively enhanced. No longer will the single player campaign be the main focus; instead we can play varying modes, including campaigns, against real people who will be a big challenge to over come. After all you might beat a human player with the same trick once, but unlike the AI it is unlikely you will find him out the same way again.

The biggest worry for me right now are these reports of random CTD's. However all you have to do is remember to save regularly, and I'm sure they will mostly be fixed if not by release then certainly in patches.

Finally I'd just like to say that I can't ing wait for this to be released!!!
+rep for the review btw

[Ibram]

By the way, regarding those CTD's: My contact at Creative Assembly tells me that a lot of them have been found and fixed, which is great, but I kind of wished they'd fixed them before I had my hands on it, but oh well.

[Heinz Guderian]

By the way, regarding those CTD's: My contact at Creative Assembly tells me that a lot of them have been found and fixed, which is great, but I kind of wished they'd fixed them before I had my hands on it, but oh well.

I enjoyed your review mate. Dont let the haters get you down bruv. Thanks for posting this.

[JGL]

ah ok Ibram, I just remember Empire reviews not being entirely forthright about its faults. Cheers for the reply

[Thefallenhun]

CTDs are IMO a part of the TW experience. I would feel weird if I didn't experience at least a few.

[Googoo24]

By the way, regarding those CTD's: My contact at Creative Assembly tells me that a lot of them have been found and fixed, which is great, but I kind of wished they'd fixed them before I had my hands on it, but oh well.

Shame you had your review called "stupid" when you attempted to share it with the community. But witnessing the behavior around here at times, it's not too surprising.

Keep up the good work.

[eXistenZ]

CTD's are something strange. I always heared Empire was full of them, but i got like two in hundreds of hours playing

[Hunor]

[QUOTE=Ibram;9136899]Hey guys,

So, here's our review of Shogun 2: Total War (I'll say it that way around until I die ). Hope you all enjoy it.

..hehe, and my MOD its in...
http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/m...alwar/mod.html