Total War: Shogun 2 is a strategy computer game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega. First of all the game looks undeniably beautiful, and is much better optomized than Empire or Napoleon. The lighting effects are absolutely fantastic and some of the battlefields look stunning, the way rain creates puddles and can be seen dripping from the armour of your troops adds a real sense of immersion. The animations have also been greatly improved over previous games, people no longer charge at each other and perform random animations which never really connect with anything, instead the animations all blend almost seamlessly together with people cutting through rows of enemies in realistic fashion, this means when your zoomed in the fight looks pretty much real. The campaign map is also rather nicely detailed and the new system of the map being drawn and then when you walk to the area it becoming a real 3-d model of Japan is incredibly fitting.
The general style of the game is expertly crafted, with everything from the main menu to loading screens absolutely drenched in Japanese style and culture. The music does much to add to this culture and is always incredibly fitting, also using some tracks that are remixed from the original Total War: Shogun is a nice touch. The game does have a problem at the moment however with graphics as Directx 11 has not been enabled so their is no AA causing lots of jagged edges, CA has promised this will be patched in within 4 weeks and I’m positive that after it is patched in the game will look even better.
The gameplay in Shogun 2 is in my opinion the best in the Total War series to date. Whilst i found the gameplay in both Empire and Napoleon lacking Shogun 2 refines and polishes everything, with additions to the core mechanics of managing your Clan such as winter attrition. The return of siege warfare is also certainly welcomed and the sight of your ninja climbing over the enemies walls is certainly an awesome one. The new RPG-esque style of improving your generals and agents is an excellent addition to the game and certainly gives you much more freedom in how your characters progress. In one playthrough I had two master assassins, one which i had specced into the sabotage tree and one which i had specced into the assassination tree by using the sabotage assassin to slow the enemies armies down and the assassination-specced assassin to kill their best generals and i was able to postpone a war for long enough to rally my own armies with this method.
The new AI is probably the most important change in this game compared to the others in the series as finally the AI is actually competant. The campaign AI no longer just waits for you to come and conquer them one by one, instead they form alliances against you, put trade embargos on you and betray you when you are weak. My first few campaign attempts ended in my destruction, something which has never happened to me whilst playing a Total War game before, in one campaign I had conquered almost all of Japan when suddenly an alliance of all the remaining clan managed to beat me back due to clever placement of armies and trade embargos, this was something I had never before seen in a Total War game and i liked it.
The AI on the battlefield is also finally competant, with your enemies often flanking you and reacting much better to your own movements on the battlefield. Pre-battle speeches from your general make a welcome return and with much of the dialogue tailored to who you are fighting and the odds you winning.
The overall aim is obviously to take Kyoto and had your clan become the ruling clan of Japan and make you the Shogun, this helps give the game some focus and direction which definately helps push the game along. The Ui is clean, intuitive and contains much of the same Japanese culture and style of the loading screens. The campaign map itself, although only containing Japan is incredibly detailed and much larger than you might first think. Although not as large as Empires campaign map it still contains lots of provinces for you to capture and many opposing clans for you to war or ally with.
The mutliplayer has been completely redone in Shogun 2 and contains both an online campaign, which plays much like the single player except with a friend, and an online battle system. The online battles have seen the most changes with the introduction of the avatar campaign map. This gives you an avatar who is your own personal general and can be customized and advanced up a skill tree similar to that in the single player campaign. You also unlock new units and bonuses by moving your avatar into a province shown on the map and the game will find you an opponent who has also decided to fight for that province through either matchmaking or through a server browser. The addition of the avatar multiplayer campaign is certainly an interesting one and gives you more reason to continue playing the multiplayer to unlock new units and customization options.
Overall CA have done an expert job crafting what is in my opinion the best Total War game to date. Though I was disappointed by Empire, Shogun 2 has done everything to convince me that CA still know how to make an amazing game. By scaling things to down to a smaller level CA has created more focus, more depth and most importantly more fun with Shogun 2. For fans of Total War or RTS in general or for those put off by Empire you have to give Shogun 2 a chance as it exceeded all my expectations in every single way.
Minimum Specs (Required for playing Total War: Shogun 2):
- 2 GHz Intel Dual Core processor / 2.6 GHz Intel Single Core processor , or AMD equivalent (with SSE2)
- 1GB RAM (XP), 2GB RAM (Vista / Windows7)
- 256 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card (shader model 3)
- 1024×768 minimum screen resolution
- 20GB free hard disk space
Recommended Specs (Recommended for optimum game play of Total War: Shogun 2):
- 2nd Generation Intel® Core™i5 processor (or greater), or AMD equivalent
- 2GB RAM (XP), 4GB RAM (Vista / Windows7)
- AMD Radeon HD 5000 and 6000 series graphics cards or equivalent DirectX 11 compatible graphics card
- 1280×1024 minimum screen resolution
- 20GB free hard disk space
