Shogun 2 total war review

The creative assembly’s total war games have gone through some turbulence with empire and Napoleon total war, but shogun 2 changes all that and puts the total war franchise back towards greatness by going back to the old ways of hand to hand combat that made the game what it is.

The basis of the game is still the same you chose a clan which at the time is relatively unknown and you build up your forces and attack rival clans to eventually become the shogun. Along the way you will use diplomacy to forge alliances and trade agreements with other clans and use espionage, while in the older games there were the annoying diplomats and princesses there are only characters such as ninjas which act as spies and assassins, the diplomacy screen can be accessed at any time and any clan can be chosen, making the pace of diplomacy faster allowing you to focus on conquering other nations.

Similar to empire and Napoleon you don’t have to just attack the stronghold of a region you can capture/ raid provinces which could be farms or ports to force your enemy out of there castle town giving you more decisions on where to battle, for example if you have an army with lots of cavalry then you might want to choose a flat area so your horses can run faster.

The graphics are amazing although you need a powerful computer to run it which is a pain, a pain for me as my quad core 64-bit operating system couldn’t hack it and had to be set to the lowest setting for it to run smoothly, even then it still looks good. The fighting looks better with proper 1 on 1 battle with choreographed movements by actual sword masters.

The sound of the game is great with authentic music that goes with the Japanese setting, and changes as the game changes from being calm and soothing during peace and then louder during war, and the voice actors are brilliant at conveying emotion and have Japanese accents which adds to the immersion.

The multi-player for total war games has been standard for the genre but now the multiplayer has been vastly improved by the inclusion of avatar conquest where you create your general and are presented with a map of japan and you chose where to fight, create your army and battle either one on one or in teams, however I didn’t get to play it much as it takes forever to find players and connect and then it can get laggy.

Overall the game is fantastic and is a must buy for any total war fan, I recommend if you are new to the franchise then buy Rome total war or medieval 2 as they are my personal favourites and are generally easier to master. My final verdict for shogun 2 total war is a 9/10 it can’t be a 10 because of some multiplayer issues and AI issues which a lot of reviewers have covered which is apparent in the early stages of the campaign where your allies just move their armies around there provinces. But it is still a must buy. If you want another good review of the game I recommend watching angry Joes at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5PIIOY2KS4

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