1. Surg3on

   9

   Except for a couple of AI bugs this is probably the best strategy game you can get on PC right at this moment. some may complain that it doesnt have as much scope and variety of old total war games but I find that the more concentrated scope has allowed for more polish and its FAR easier to learn and enjoy the game.
   Graphics are great if your PC has the grunt. AI is good and would be great with a couple of tweaks (still waiting on that patch Sega!). Sound is OK, a bit more variety would be nice.… Expand

   • Helpful? 7 of 7 users said Yes.
2. Belvadeer

   8

   Shogun 2 Total War is not really a new instalment in the Total War franchise, more like a polished version of the first one, with a batch of new features and fancy graphics. But thats not really a bad thing, the Total War franchise has been a dominant player in the Turn based strategy gaming world ever since Rome: Total War. This game has no real story, the only objective is very simple....take over Japan. There are a couple of problems with this though, the developers pushed hard to emphasize that you play "however you want" through diplomacy, espionage, or through total military action, but the only way you will EVER win is with total military action. Another lingering problem that has haunted the Total War series is the incapable auto-managing AI, which will constantly raise taxes to the maximum level whenever it is engaged. This lack of any support from the AI to help manage your towns and cities is stressful at times, and doesn't add any real fun to game play, only frustration as you sit their trying to prevent rebellions and not going bankrupt. Another problem is the lack of any diversity between factions, as is, their isnt any...at all, they are virtually the same faction with different coloured armour and a few special bonuses to a select few major factions, unlike other total war games in recent memory, you will get extremely bored with each faction, and sometimes, even forget what faction your actually playing at times, although the developers cannot be specifically blamed for this since, well, it takes place on Japan, and diversity on a secluded island doesn't really exist.
   
   Other than those little nagging issues, this game is almost identical to other games in the series, with nothing really new added onto it, but it's still a damn good game, and will take up hours of your day at a time once you get really into it. And with better looking graphics and a simplified interface, this game should go on any Total War fans "To buy" list.… Expand

   • Helpful? 3 of 3 users said Yes.
3. ScareCrow

   7

   As someone who has never played a previous "total war" title, but HAS played every iteration of Civilization - I have to say everything except the combat in this game is a cheap knock off of CiV5. The voiceover accents, while authentic, are unintentionally comical. Which brings me back to the combat, personally I felt like every engagement became a huge clusterfark and those with the most numbers would win and there didn't seem to be much strategy to it beyond "melee up front, archers stand back and shoot". Perhaps I am oversimplifying it, but even the castle sieges which look like they'll be epic - just turn into complete clusterfarks where greater number of troops win and skill be damned. With all that said, it seems like the developers put a lot of work into the game and i'm sure fans of the franchise can see it as being a step forward but from my roughly 25 hours of play I can't say i've become a fan.… Expand

   • Helpful? 3 of 3 users said Yes.
4. baggytheo

   1

   The Total War series has always been going downhill since the release of Empire: Total War--not in terms of design and fun factor, but in terms of quality. The Creative Assembly has continued to put out blatantly BROKEN games that show no evidence of appropriate play-testing, since they have moved to their new engine after Medieval 2: Total War. Not only that, but the company completely ignores the cries of thousands of their paying customers, flooding their official forums for help, and simply lie that they are "looking into it" while 6 months pass, then a year passes, and nothing gets released except more paid DLC. With Empire, it was game-breaking tech tree bugs that remain unfixed to this day, THREE YEARS after its release. With Shogun 2, it is game-crippling multiplayer campaign desynchronizations that begin to occur about 1/5th of the way through a campaign without fail, forcing players through an arduous process of finding their last uncorrupted save file through a process of trail and error, and then completely re-do everything they accomplished in the last 5-10 turns from whenever that save file took place--or sharing and overwriting copies of save files in order to delay the desynch from inevitably reoccurring 2-3 turns later. The worst thing is that two friends playing coop are left to find all this out after they have already invested about 15-20 hours into a cooperative campaign only to find that it is literally impossible to finish their campaign, and that it basically ends when this bug rears its ugly head. Creative Assembly has intermittently acknowledged the issue after thousands upon thousands of complaints and bug reports from the community, but done NOTHING to put out a simple bugfix for this completely game-breaking and insanely frustrating bug, instead opting to allocate all their manpower towards continuing to crap out low-quality, meaningless DLC packs and even a NEW EXPANSION before they have even patched BASIC FUNCTIONALITY into this game since its release A YEAR AGO!
   
   Shogun 2 has a great single-player experience. But its multiplayer campaign is completely broken and should not have even made it into the release version of the game. It is clear that they didn't even bother to have two employees play a whole campaign with each other before release to be able to spot this massive, glaring bug that happens for 90% of people who play the multiplayer campaign. I spent $100 on two copies of the game at release for me and my spouse to play the coop campaign together, and not only was it a complete waste then but a whole year later it remains a complete waste. The Creative Assembly has made it absolutely care that they do not care about their customers at all. And when a company does not care about their customers, they do not deserve customers.
   
   I am giving this game a rating of 1 to offset all the perfect-10 ratings from single-player users and media who clearly did not attempt to finish a multiplayer campaign before publishing their reviews.… Expand

   • Helpful? 12 of 21 users said Yes.

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