Total War Shogun 2 Review: The age of the country at war
Shogun 2 is the latest in the total war series from Creative Assembly, and brings the series back to its roots in feudal Japan. You play as 1 of a selection of the great Japanese clans and battle to become the new Shogun of Japan. The game is set in a Japanese civil war, and each of the selectable clans have their own unique abilities and bonus traits. As an rts and total war game, there isnt really a story. What the game does provide is the tools to establish your own story. You have a Daimyo, or clan leader, and generals, all of whom can build up their own traits and abilities during the campaign. You have children and continue your clan line as they also gain their own traits. You can develop grudges against rival clans. This makes for a fantastic character mechanism and peaks the players interest in his family and council.
The graphics in Shogun 2 are incredible. Character models are detailed and each man in a unit is relatively individualised. You can see their armour, weapons, facial features and even battle masks when they wear them. The campaign map has been given a beautiful new artistic style which really makes it attractive to look at. The campaign map looks like an actual browned out map until you see your own inhabitated territory complete with rivers, fields and mountains. As you expand and explore the map this area increases. Its a striking way to reveal the game's play area and is a smart asthetic feature. The battle maps are even better looking again, with greatly improved environmental effects. The seasons are fully implemented in the game, allowing battlefields to greatly shift depending on what time of the year it is. Water looks stunning, making the naval battles all the more impressive. Land battles allow the game to show off mist, fog, rain, snow, blossoms in the wind- its nothing short of stunning and a marvel to watch on high settings. Riderless horses flee combat, burning arrows fly through the sky and armoured men are smashed aside by matchlock volleys and cavalry charges raise dust to carry in the wind. This is by far the best looking total war game to date.
The sound of Shogun 2 is no less impressive. The music really gets the blood pumping with period Japanese instruments used to set the atmosphere. The music during battles changes as commands are issued and troops begin to move, adding immense pace to the battles. This is what music should do in a game, not take over but reinforce the action taking place on screen and set the mood. Voice acting is top knotch, with general speeches making a return and all in glorious Japanese with full subtitles. When you select your faction you get a full video intro fully voiced. Its all top production values and thats not even mentioning the fantastic small cut scenes which occur for your agents missions.
Gameplay remains staple total war at the core of this game. The interface has been given a nice overhaul but the game is still about managing your lands and economy and building an army to conquer your rival clans. Everything has been greatly simplified from Empire, and this is a blessing. You build units from your castle town and farms and ports are in the outlying areas of the provinces. Armies clash and you can opt to auto resolve them or fight battles yourself. The combat is back to melee dominance, were it belongs. There is a smaller unit selection this time then there was in Empire or Napoleon, but this is for the better. The differences between spearmen and swordsmen are much clearer than between the specialised units of Empire. The core mechanics of combat, such as the special abilities of units, deployment tactics, formations and placement are back at the fore and its a beautiful sight to see ranks of infantry clash to decide the fate of a battle. Spearmen can form walls to stop cavalry in their tracks, you can trade with european merchants to acquire gunpowder weapons, and of course samurai are the pinnacle of the unit tree. At last, the AI seems to be relatively ok for a total war game. The AI is cutthroat in the campaign map, playing smartly by raiding your farms and using navies to block you and transport troops into areas you deemed safe. It makes for the best challenge in a main total war campaign to date. The same goes for battles, with the AI having improved pathfinding and being able to take full advantage of weaknesses in your lines. The AI is still a bit weak when it comes to siege battles, but overall its the best its ever been in the series.
Diplomacy is expanded upon in this title, with more options than ever before with a real chance of being able to co-ordinate with allies in the campaign. You can send your sons to be hostages and therefore guarantee treaties. Agents also make a welcome return to the centre of the series. The assassins are great fun, and the geisha is a unique and deadly weapon, able to assassinate enemy generals. You need to use both your agents and diplomacy to extend your power and win the campaign, and its extremely rewarding when your efforts aid your military ambitions.
Shogun 2 has a fully fledged multiplayer component. You can have a full multiplayer campaign, playing co-operatively with another human player and take turns in the campaign. There is also avatar conquest , in which you create you own general customising his appearance, then fight your way across Japan. You unlock equipment for your avatar as you play, and develop a skill tree which grants new abilities. There are no turns in avatar conquest, its a gate way to player v player battles. You can play in teams or 1v1, its a brilliantly integrated multiplayer and a huge step forward for total war as a series.
Shogun 2 has a huge amount of single player content in its campaign, taking numerous hours to complete it as any of the factions. The multiplayer links into your steam clans and has scores of hours of potential in it. The graphics are stunning, and the level of detail is superb. Music and general sound is a perfect example of how sound should be done in a game. The new interface can be a bit difficult to get used to, but its all user friendly with helpful tutorials explaining everything. Battles are tactical and thrilling affairs and the battle fields are incredible to look at. This game oozes quality on all fronts, and is an impressive advancement for the series. I don't know where total war can go from here, but this game is incredible, and a must buy for anyone with even a passing interest in pc strategy games.
Pros:
- Incredible visuals
- Brilliantly integrated multiplayer
- Simplified core battle mechanics and units
- Music and voice work are exceptional
- New style of map is unique and striking
- Huge number of soldiers on screen at once
- Improved AI
- Atmosphere is perfect
Cons:
- Direct x 11 not supported upon launch
- Interface takes a while to get used to
- Naval battles could have been better
- Long load times
- Huge performance problems if you do not have a state of the art PC
Wtf:
- Geisha on a killing spree
Score:
- 8/10
