Harsh words, harsh truth, if you don't have this masterpiece in your collection, you are not worthy of playing strategy games. Shogun 2, in my humble opinion, is the last completed, balanced and well-made TW game that was released. While Rome 2 and Atilla are good on their own ends, they are miles away from this gem of the genre (not to add they where a bit of a mess upon release).

Shogun 2 takes place in the same time period as Shogun 1, the Sengoku Jidai, the age of the country at war as they said. By 1545, the current Shogunate's power has dwindled, leaving the clans of Japan at each other's throats in a struggle for supremacy. Your task is to increase the power of your clan, expand your influence and conquer Kyoto to become the new Shogun. The Japanese martial culture is a fascinating subject for many people (me included) and it's a wonder to see it in action.

Shogun's armies and maps look astonishing. Each unit has incredible levels of detail, like a demon mask here, a moustache there, a crescent-shaped helm and many more. The soldiers look diverse in a way we never before saw in massive scale battles. CA raised the bar too much, with amazing season-specific effects and splendid work with the textures, especially the rain. The music feels traditional, epic, and downright dashing. It will accompany you in every battle, victory or defeat, fitting the pace of the battle and you might find yourself searching it on youtube afterwards (I strongly reccomend Yoisa, Now and Zen, Ona Hei and more). It's an ♥♥♥♥♥♥, especially for fans of folk japanese music. The accents and intonations of your advisors and on the map are also incredible, especially in the heat of battle. You can almost see them spittle as they scream "OUR TROOPS ARE RUNNING FROM THE BATTLEFIELD! A SHAMEFUL DISPLAY!"

As always in the TW games, you got two phases: the turn-based phase, and the battle phase. In the first phase, you manage your clan and make your decisions as each season plays out, and in the second one you lead your armies to glorious victory or humiliating defeat.

In the early stages of the campaign, diplomacy is a key factor. Even more so on higher difficulties, where the AI is merciless in its demands both on you and the other clans. It gives them a sense of personality: they can break relationships as easily as they come to you bearing gifts and asking for arrangements. Alliances feel fragile as every Daimyo wishes to become Shogun, and everyone is enemy to everyone. But your "trustworthy" allies are the least of your concerns: the AI will not hesitate tou backstab you and capture your capital, if it finds no resistance. These kind of surprise attacks and army landings on your shores make the game special: you never know where and when an attack will come from. When it comes to battles, just play it on Hard. In early levels, the AI is too easy to beat, forming small armies and making many mistakes in its deployment. But in Hard, it's a whole new story. The AI tries to flank you with cavalry, it's more aggresive, it bides its time and looks for weak spots in your formation. The game is merciless to you on higher settings, and you must be careful as you wage war against it.

On the downside, as much as I'm trying to find flaws, only one comes to mind: unit diversity. Buying the DLCs gives you some extra, unique for each factions units, but in the end (and the basic version), every clan has the same ashigaru, the same samurai, the same monks. They differ in attack and defence, depending on the clan's traits. It gets a bit repetitive and somewhat tiring after a while, but I'm willing to look past it.

Shogun 2 is the Total War series at its best moments, and boasts the most outrageous helmets in martial history. Daimyō no tame!


9/10

10/10

9.5/10

9.5/10

The Shogun called. He wants his land back.

Beautiful and great fun. Learnt so much about Japan! Not quite as good as the first Rome Total war or Napoleon.

japanese game is not always weabs's game

MY LORD! OUR GENERAL IS IN GRAVE DANGER!

This game is near perfect for what it is. You like the genre? Get it. You like Japan and have some time and money? Get it. You like neither of these things? You probably shouldn't be reading about it then.

This game is just amazing! At first the game crashed on the splash screen but you have to uninstall McAfee Web advisor (which I know sounds like a trap) and then run steam in Windows 7 Compatability mode. Then the game will work.

Review: This is a very exciting turn-based strategy game. In my opinion, it is the bet total war title. The art is amazing and the battles usually do not last very long. I love the game so much and am slightly ashamed at the amount of time I have played this Shogun 2. I will sadly have to agree with other reviews that sieges could be improved (for vanilla in particular). All you really have for vanilla sieges are monganels (sorry if I miss spelled that) and in the very late game the rockets. I don't know if it is just me, but using meat shields (ashigaru) does not feel shameful. They shall die honourably. Also, naval ships for me in vanilla are really just transport ships. In FOTS, however, they can win a land battle for you. I have gotten 500 kills with a single naval bombardment. Overall, this is a fun game with diverse units and a VERY unique multiplayer (avatar conquest). I highly recommend it, for it is worth the price.

DLCs: If you are torn between getting Rise of the Samurai or Fall of the Samurai, get Fall of the Samurai. It is much more fun with more units. FOTS also has naval support in battle, and is one of the reasons that I love FOTS. ROTS does not have as many units and the soldiers are like paper in water. They will last a few seconds and then run away with damp undergarments.

Fr****ng amazing game. few glitches here and there and dosent need a beast of a machine to run. Great game other than size 20gb!!!.

I can't choose what my favorite total war is. But Shogun II and Empire are neck and neck. Very historical and pretty accurate. id give both of these games 9 out of 10.

-You are not allowed to set one unit group in one control group (it has to be 2 or more) which can sometimes be annoying.
-The maximum camera zoom out is not enough. You are required to do some script changing.
-AI gets bugged sometimes resulting in the AI being idle in a non-sea battle.
-Would be good to be able to sort your agents by class (ninjas first then metsukes then missionaries or in any order, but by class)


Other than that, it is a pretty good game.

This is CA's best total war game imo. It has much of the features of previous games, but with the graphics of the new gen. There are a few flaws, realm divide vanilla is like a samurai who has just stumbled into a ninja's sake den after a tea ceremony. However, despite the minimal map and carbon copy clans I still enyoyed hundreds of hours conquering Japan. This game is definitely not a shameful display.