Total War: Shogun 2

 PC
  • Publisher: Sega
  • Release Date: Mar 15, 2011
User Score
8.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1448 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,144 out of 1448
  2. Mixed: 216 out of 1448
  3. Negative: 88 out of 1448
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  1. Failshipdown
    Mar 26, 2011
    4
    I've played every single Total War game to date. And I can tell you what they all have in common. Everything. Its been 11 years, starting with Shogun and after spending another wasted 50 on Shogun 2, I hope it ends on the sequel to this classic series. Total War has dozens of wonderful and amazing design features. It will always be a fun game. Its idiosyncratic habits.. are fun. ItsI've played every single Total War game to date. And I can tell you what they all have in common. Everything. Its been 11 years, starting with Shogun and after spending another wasted 50 on Shogun 2, I hope it ends on the sequel to this classic series. Total War has dozens of wonderful and amazing design features. It will always be a fun game. Its idiosyncratic habits.. are fun. Its campaign is both a fantastic time sink and a great source of entertainment. I'm not a fan of multiplayer in these games so I'll leave that to another reviewer. I've extolled how adequate I think the game is so far now for my actual review and opinion.

    It can (and after 1-2 years will) crawl under the porch to die, unremembered and unloved. I Just PLAYED this game! They called it Napo.. wait Empire:TW! The units are different (Not so different considering my avid fandom to Medieval II:TW and Rome:TW. The strategies are still the same. The buildings logical conclusions are still the same. The only new feature compared to its predessesors is the addition of food management, a crucial resource that limits the amount of castle and market upgrades you can ultimately have. One new thing. Lots of old.

    Archer vs Melee vs Cav vs Archer with two differerent melee types to counter each other. The same unit stat points- new textures and more of a load for my video card. And a poorer preforming product. I can get the same unit set and the same buildings in Medieval 2, except ultra fast battle speed works as fast as intended.

    A definite downgrade is the replayability of the Grand campaign. Before you had very unique races and an extremely large map. Now its devolved into Clan A gets better bows, Clan E gets better seige and don't ever pick clan F because they're specialty, ship upgrades, is worthless once a super powered European Galleon appears and you capture it, literally winning every naval engagement without any upgrades. Look, I appreciate the game looks even better than it did before (although I'd expect such a low incremental upgrade to visuals from an expansion pack, not a year or two of work). This though, this is got to stop. The AI is still rotten at making decisions, trade alliances and vassals are still bugged and the final stretch is, as with Empire, autoattack win next turn autoattack. Maybe I'm just hung up on that one time in Medieval 2 when the Mongols invaded and attacked me at Damascus. I had a 2000 strong army in a fortress against 8000 bloodthirsty Asians. I remember being so proud of myself, turning away their massively larger army after an amazing battle, filled with both tactics and strategy. And I remember the very next turn, with my brave remaining 400 soldiers that just defeated a full stack of Mongols.. Another 8000 stepped up and laid siege. This is what Empire and Shogun 2 lack. There are no game changing occurences and aside from the appearance of the Black Ship the whole thing could take place in 1200 or 2100, no historical events actually occur.


    Yes the graphics are pretty.
    Yeah its still TW.

    But you've played it before. Pick it up for $30 if you must but please, for my revenge against Creative Assemblys latest uncreative venture- don't pick this game.    … Expand
  2. Iconoklast
    Jul 12, 2011
    4
    What a disappointment, after years of being a fan of the series, this game is nail in the coffin for this long standing fan. I had my suspicions that Shogun 2 would follow in the badly flawed footsteps of Imperial TW, and I was right. But I gave CA a chance because they had done such a good job in the past. Technically this game is pretty, but the graphics are flawed and glitchy, so IWhat a disappointment, after years of being a fan of the series, this game is nail in the coffin for this long standing fan. I had my suspicions that Shogun 2 would follow in the badly flawed footsteps of Imperial TW, and I was right. But I gave CA a chance because they had done such a good job in the past. Technically this game is pretty, but the graphics are flawed and glitchy, so I wonder what the point was of wasting all that CPU.
    The biggest failure of this game is its AI and Diplomacy, a gigantic cesspool of failure. I have replayed the campaign several times and each time I get gangbanged by 3-4 clans that declare war on my without any provocation or reason. The diplomacy interface is a disaster of clicking buttons over and over to get no results, it is inexplicably obscure how it works and a chore to go through the menu. In the end no matter what you do you end up having war declared on you by all your neighbors and you get gangbanged by a non stop hoard of gradually superior forces. If you attack your army gradually gets wasted away in attrition far away from home, and if you defend you get blasted by wave after wave of armies until you die. What a retarded strategic system.

    The battles are a chore, the archers dominate the game with their guided missile artillery, and if you are not rushing around and pausing the game all the time you lose generals and elite troops because they stood under a shower of arrows for a few seconds. The interface is a step back from the excellent ones of the past, controlling large armies is a frustrating and infuriating exercise in micro management with bad response times and glitchy behaviors. The tech trees are unsatisfying, they give so many miniscule rewards that there seems to be no strategy to them. And by the time you are ready to build major buildings you cant because the tech tree chokes you so that you can never get a major advantage over any of the other clans. This is game should be the last in the series, a major rehaul of the tactical and strategic system is necessary to make this a worthy strategy title. Its just a glitchy pretty screen saver.    … Expand
  3. baggytheo
    Mar 1, 2012
    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 completelyThe 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
  4. Jimbobbrown
    May 13, 2012
    2
    Well that was disappointing. How has the series moved on since Rome and Medieval total war? Not a lot really, same game different lick of paint. Adds nothing new what so ever. I have to say something about the engine too, there has been no improvement as far as I can see, It runs like a dog. If they released the same game but optimized it so that you could actually have the epic battlesWell that was disappointing. How has the series moved on since Rome and Medieval total war? Not a lot really, same game different lick of paint. Adds nothing new what so ever. I have to say something about the engine too, there has been no improvement as far as I can see, It runs like a dog. If they released the same game but optimized it so that you could actually have the epic battles that would be forgivable. Multi-player just turns into a slide show. Got this on a steam sale and really wish I hadn't. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Rome or Medieval 2 cheap, they beat the heck out of this re-skin.… Expand
  5. RDonnell
    May 26, 2012
    4
    One of the best games ruined by lobby dropping and debug camera cheating.Most people are not aware the developers known about 1% of users using a secret camera to get an advantage online and people dropping from game lobbies by pulling out the network cable to strand users in an emtpy lobby requiring a retstart and a huge load screen wait time.This can happen and can make getting games aOne of the best games ruined by lobby dropping and debug camera cheating.Most people are not aware the developers known about 1% of users using a secret camera to get an advantage online and people dropping from game lobbies by pulling out the network cable to strand users in an emtpy lobby requiring a retstart and a huge load screen wait time.This can happen and can make getting games a 15 minute process.There is also a huge change recently to the graphics engine due to the Fall of the samurai game changing graphics and breaking features such as gloss,HDR,DOF and draw distance alonside leaving many missing textures graphical bugs.So far 2 months on the only thing they fixed was the blood pack dlc which the patch also broke.There is no sign of the game being restored to how it used to look and how it looked when reviews were based on that content which sadly users no longer have access too.Simply awful work and a great RTS or probably the best RTS there ever was is now ruined by amatuer patch system and bad beta testers.… Expand
  6. Turd_Furgeson
    Dec 30, 2011
    3
    This game is playable, however the in game tutorials left me asking friends how to do many of the world view options such as factions and what various icons and numbers meant. As well, the actual fighting is severely flawed. I would tell my archers to attack a unit but they would remain firing at a single enemy who was behind cover and impossible to kill, no matter how many times IThis game is playable, however the in game tutorials left me asking friends how to do many of the world view options such as factions and what various icons and numbers meant. As well, the actual fighting is severely flawed. I would tell my archers to attack a unit but they would remain firing at a single enemy who was behind cover and impossible to kill, no matter how many times I clicked on attack the enemies right next to the single unit that were in the open. The combat aspects of the game would be considered good 6 years ago.… Expand
  7. waterwaterwater
    Feb 27, 2013
    0
    Great game when it came out however since its release CA has actually made the game worse through patches and expansions. Fall of the samurai actually made the graphics worse even if you never purchased it. The fogging issue has never been resolved. They have really done their best to destroy the modding for the game as well. One of the patches made it so adding new units to the game makesGreat game when it came out however since its release CA has actually made the game worse through patches and expansions. Fall of the samurai actually made the graphics worse even if you never purchased it. The fogging issue has never been resolved. They have really done their best to destroy the modding for the game as well. One of the patches made it so adding new units to the game makes bows sound like firearms. Did you purchase the game on dvd because you have poor or limited internet? Maybe like me you wanted to play an earlier version of the game that is not broken? Too bad! Because they have patched the game so much the hard copies of the game (which are still in stores btw) are no longer playable and there is no way to install from the disks anymore. Think they are ever going to fix any of the problems? Why would they? They made their money all while ignoring VERY blatant problems and instead released a bunch of paid DLC's which in all honesty should have been in the game from the start. Also, why fix a game when they could be working on a new one (Rome 2) to do the exact same thing with.… Expand
  8. Crimson
    Mar 21, 2011
    3
    Has gorgeous graphics if you have the hardware (fortunetly I do : ), slick interface and a lot of polish. Unfortunetly the AI is retarded (and gets HUGE bonuses to compensate), the units are completely unbalanced (I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I melee the opposing cavalry to death with my bow samurai), and the units are still as unresponsive as ever (they are still incapableHas gorgeous graphics if you have the hardware (fortunetly I do : ), slick interface and a lot of polish. Unfortunetly the AI is retarded (and gets HUGE bonuses to compensate), the units are completely unbalanced (I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I melee the opposing cavalry to death with my bow samurai), and the units are still as unresponsive as ever (they are still incapable of getting through doorways).

    I still pop in Shogun 1 every now and then to re-play it years after the fact. Yet after a few days the annoyance factor is already creeping in on this game.

    You know what they say about polishing a turd...    … Expand
  9. nibelung
    Mar 28, 2011
    3
    Shogun 2 is a beautiful game, but there is one very tiny little problem that it still inherited from older Total War game, game breaking savegame corruption. I am a very patient person, but even my patient has its limit too. After restarting campaign for the 9th time with 9 different clans, wasting a total of 70 hours of my life, well what do you know, my savegame corrupt when I am tryingShogun 2 is a beautiful game, but there is one very tiny little problem that it still inherited from older Total War game, game breaking savegame corruption. I am a very patient person, but even my patient has its limit too. After restarting campaign for the 9th time with 9 different clans, wasting a total of 70 hours of my life, well what do you know, my savegame corrupt when I am trying to load it back and it happen every single time. Not even a constant saving with different save file help me to avoid this problem. A friendly advice from me, unless you are a very patient masochistic person, please avoid buying this game until they fix the savegame issue. And by that, you have been warned.… Expand
  10. jwinlesta
    Jun 4, 2011
    4
    its not that shogun 2 is a bad game, but its just very boring, everything is polished well but the lack of lots of different units (something the series was very good at before) means that online in particular can be very stale in the way you fight
  11. DKF
    May 28, 2011
    0
    I"ve purshased every TW game. Shogun was ok. I liked ROME a lot, but wished they made a Rome2. I kinda liked Alaxander... but it was too scripted. I liked MTW 1 and 2 a good amount. I really liked EMpire, aside from the super slow turns. I hated Neo, because it was 25% of what EMpire was, and it was heavely scripted. I only liked the battle events. I played the Shogun2 beta... same ol ****I"ve purshased every TW game. Shogun was ok. I liked ROME a lot, but wished they made a Rome2. I kinda liked Alaxander... but it was too scripted. I liked MTW 1 and 2 a good amount. I really liked EMpire, aside from the super slow turns. I hated Neo, because it was 25% of what EMpire was, and it was heavely scripted. I only liked the battle events. I played the Shogun2 beta... same ol **** even more boring though. Bad AI, small map, severl few nations, sparse unit variety, no uniqueness. TW series is really falling behind now. I didn't even care to pick up the full version. I might buy t for $10 in a few years. My best friend also hates Shogun2, he played it once, a full campeign, and said he has absolutly no desire to play another.â… Expand
  12. chrnit
    Mar 20, 2011
    2
    multiplayer is totally broken. games are not starting because the amount of money spent is calculated in a wrong way. people do not see each others lobbys and many many more bugs. obviously, no pc magazine tested that mode.
  13. big_munios
    Jun 11, 2011
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. much worst than napoleon, less units,tactics..... so im a very disappointed with that game i bought it and now im disappointed, should buy some earlier game, for now max 3/10… Expand
  14. Tomwyr
    Aug 16, 2011
    2
    I played TWS2 for over 350 hours, which is not nearly as much as I played RTW or M2TW. I played a campaign with every clan, except the Ikko Ikki, when I got that dlc I was already bored out of my mind with Shogun2. There are simply not enough differences between the factions to keep me interested, I think this game is better than Napoleon (that's not much of an achievement though) andI played TWS2 for over 350 hours, which is not nearly as much as I played RTW or M2TW. I played a campaign with every clan, except the Ikko Ikki, when I got that dlc I was already bored out of my mind with Shogun2. There are simply not enough differences between the factions to keep me interested, I think this game is better than Napoleon (that's not much of an achievement though) and nowhere near as good as RTW and M2TW were.

    I think it's highly overrated, replayability isn't very high and another bad point is that they swapped the modding community for dlc.

    For me personally it was the last CA game I'll get.    … Expand
  15. Budget_Security
    Sep 14, 2015
    3
    Disappointing. Medieval2 was OK, but since then Total War has become mediocre. The graphics may have improved, but all the flaws of the previous games (bad and cheating AI, useless diplomacy, unfair battle auto-resolve, confused units that ignore orders or get stuck, and other unreliable mechanics etc...) are still bad in Shogun2, and now it takes forever to load. Age old problems likeDisappointing. Medieval2 was OK, but since then Total War has become mediocre. The graphics may have improved, but all the flaws of the previous games (bad and cheating AI, useless diplomacy, unfair battle auto-resolve, confused units that ignore orders or get stuck, and other unreliable mechanics etc...) are still bad in Shogun2, and now it takes forever to load. Age old problems like gunpowder troops randomly failing to shoot at enemies that are charging towards them even after they have had ages to line up are still here. Naval combat is broken - try to board an enemy ship, and half of the time, soldiers will get permanently stuck due to an AI path finding failure. All the factions look and feel the same. There is also an over emphasis on expensive DLC that should have been in the base game. And where did hotseat multiplayer go?! They removed it because it allowed 2 people to have fun without paying for two copies. DarthMod helps, but not enough to make it enjoyable.… Expand
  16. Tick
    May 29, 2012
    4
    This game is single-player only. I loved shogun Total war, Medievil total war etc. when, and so I bought this sequal. It was pretty much the same game with some minor tweaks. capturing the European ship = complete sea control. Combat is the same. Graphics are a tad better. You can use questionable strategies, but vs the computer AI you win 100% of the time. Even when greatly outnumbered. IThis game is single-player only. I loved shogun Total war, Medievil total war etc. when, and so I bought this sequal. It was pretty much the same game with some minor tweaks. capturing the European ship = complete sea control. Combat is the same. Graphics are a tad better. You can use questionable strategies, but vs the computer AI you win 100% of the time. Even when greatly outnumbered. I could fight off an army of thousands of enemies with mearly 4-5 groups of units inside a basic fortification. I also found it odd that any upgrade to your fort beyond the 3rd upgrade made it harder to defend... So I never bothered to upgrade past a certain point. What a waste! Multi-player is botched, and the company does not listen to customer feed-back and churns out DLC until it's not longer profitable once they've alienated enough of their customers. I bought a DLC, I never received it though an error,and the customer support was LACKING! They agreed I bought it, but the content was not in my game once installed through some glitch. they basically said.. too bad. Not our problem. I will not be purchasing anything from this company ever again.… Expand
  17. v3ctor
    May 23, 2013
    3
    I would rate this game higher except for the horrible bugs I encountered, especially during installation (forced download of 12Gb despite having disks). In my opinion graphics are the same as Empire: Total War but a lot slower especially with the "depth of field" effect which just makes everything blurred rather than giving an actual feeling of depth. Game play is okay, but I feel theI would rate this game higher except for the horrible bugs I encountered, especially during installation (forced download of 12Gb despite having disks). In my opinion graphics are the same as Empire: Total War but a lot slower especially with the "depth of field" effect which just makes everything blurred rather than giving an actual feeling of depth. Game play is okay, but I feel the franchise hasn't really improved much since Medieval II in fact I feel it's gone backwards. Battles should be easier to manage, you should not have to constantly be correcting dumb AI path finding.
    Most of these complaints are minor compared to my issue with the game installation (forced download despite disks and then install is corrupted if you choose to cancel it!).    … Expand
  18. Regian
    Mar 21, 2011
    0
    Okay I decided to wait a lil while before writing this review az I thought the problems would of been fixed by now. This is like playing a beta, except its even worse than a beta. The multiplayer is totaly broken to say the least, 1) The screen is getting stuck on unit statistics, or arranging battle/ opponent although the game doesnt crash it just hangs there and you cant out of theOkay I decided to wait a lil while before writing this review az I thought the problems would of been fixed by now. This is like playing a beta, except its even worse than a beta. The multiplayer is totaly broken to say the least, 1) The screen is getting stuck on unit statistics, or arranging battle/ opponent although the game doesnt crash it just hangs there and you cant out of the screen, only way is to alt+del. This has hapened so many times its a joke. I dont know what they have done with the chat lobbys but there all split up into continents, why? Lobby is broken with no games up. Broken avatar traits, cant spend avatar points, match made team games never find an opponent or if they do it will usually hang up and you then stuck.

    What else to say? Absolutely pathetic, some of us thought CA would of learned from Empire. Obviously not.    … Expand
  19. Alvin
    Dec 23, 2011
    0
    I am a big fan of the Total War series, I was really excited when I purchased Shogun 2 as it promises alot, reviews are great!

    I got in from the shops, unwrapped the game and installed it. Its a big game and took a bit of time to install. Happily after the install I started the game and it automatically (without any warning or option) went about downloading content from the web (It sort    I am a big fan of the Total War series, I was really excited when I purchased Shogun 2 as it promises alot, reviews are great!

    I got in from the shops, unwrapped the game and installed it. Its a big game and took a bit of time to install. Happily after the install I started the game and it automatically (without any warning or option) went about downloading content from the web (It sort of implied it was downloading data), it said it would complete download in 2hrs and 16mins. Unfortunately this figure climbed instead of declined over time, eventually saying that the server was busy and to try again later. 24 hrs later and it is still giving me this feedback- I am now giving up and the game is going back!

    I looked deeper into discussion groups over the web and find that the download is 7gb, so even if I could connect to a non busy server, download size would be ridiculous- literally hrs of downloading data ..... 7 gb would take hrs to download.

    - The decision to deliver 7gb of content from a game delivered on DVD as a consumer is not acceptable. As a consumer upto 1gb is acceptable as an option but 7gb to enter is not good enough. - Disappointed that they don't provide the option of playing the game without having to download.    … Expand
  20. dajarvi
    Jan 23, 2012
    2
    This game reminds me why I still play Rome Total War and Medieval Total War 2. I feel like I'm an eight year old playing an eight year old's strategy game with beautiful graphics. I played the game for about thirty hours. Found it boring. Went back to Rome and Medieval with Europa Barbarorum and Stainless Steel mods. If you like shallow strategy games, this one's for you.
  21. Stillbreathin
    Feb 14, 2012
    2
    I recently obtained a copy of Shogun 2 and was expecting a similar format and playing platform as the other total war games. I was not so lucky. I now have to play a game over the inter-net and before I can play said game I have to down load it on to a web host from a DVD (which at last look had taken 9 hrs due to the updates) - whats the point? I now have 20 Gb of memory used that iaI recently obtained a copy of Shogun 2 and was expecting a similar format and playing platform as the other total war games. I was not so lucky. I now have to play a game over the inter-net and before I can play said game I have to down load it on to a web host from a DVD (which at last look had taken 9 hrs due to the updates) - whats the point? I now have 20 Gb of memory used that ia useless to me without an inter-net connection.
    If the graphics are as good as Medieval 2 then I am sure it will be a great play but not being able to play without being connected to the inter-net and all the cost and grief that produces is to this player a major failing for the player who wishes to play securely. Before any one shouts all content on line is corruptible and accessible - a pc not connected is safe.
    Why change the playing platform that has worked in earlier gasmes    … Expand
  22. Tpiom
    Mar 26, 2011
    4
    I'm a playing coming from Medieval II, and I did NOT enjoy this game. The menus are cluttered and now they give you damn ports/lumber camps to manage too?! The map is changed... too.

    Medieval II is a really fun game but I could not stand more than five minutes of this game.
  23. sgriffith
    Jun 14, 2011
    0
    This was my first Total War game and it was a complete disappointment. First the pros its a very polished game got it when it came out and i encounters no bugs or glitches. The graphics are beautiful and the sound is great. I have always loved Real time Strategic games I have played Age of Empires and Starcraft from the start and with the end of Age of Empires and Starcraft getting a bitThis was my first Total War game and it was a complete disappointment. First the pros its a very polished game got it when it came out and i encounters no bugs or glitches. The graphics are beautiful and the sound is great. I have always loved Real time Strategic games I have played Age of Empires and Starcraft from the start and with the end of Age of Empires and Starcraft getting a bit old this game was recommended to me recently. This was my first foray into the Total way Series and its possible that i came into it looking for the wrong things. First thing that i think is missing is a top down 90 degree viewing angle if not 90 damn near it. While some people might like the camera controls i think there a pain in the ass. Thats my major problem with this game the camera controls make it impossible to play. If it was possible to just lock it in a 90 and get rid of camera rotation totally it might be playable.

    My recommendation is this. IF you have played Total war games before and like them buy this game. You will love it. If you have not played a total war game before don't waste the money buy a previous version like medieval 2 which i have been told is very good and see if you like that first.    … Expand
  24. EllEzDee
    Aug 1, 2013
    1
    Not worth your money. Awful, simplified amalgamation of previous TW titles. Unit variety is even worse than in Empire, with all factions sharing the exact same, ridiculously small selection of units: 2 archer types, 3 spearmen types, 2 swordsmen types, 3 cavalry types, and 2 musket armed units (with 1 cannon, 1 mangonel, 1 grenadier unit, and a "ninja" unit). This is essentially the entireNot worth your money. Awful, simplified amalgamation of previous TW titles. Unit variety is even worse than in Empire, with all factions sharing the exact same, ridiculously small selection of units: 2 archer types, 3 spearmen types, 2 swordsmen types, 3 cavalry types, and 2 musket armed units (with 1 cannon, 1 mangonel, 1 grenadier unit, and a "ninja" unit). This is essentially the entire unit selection, and because of the awful tech tree, you're limited to using a marginal amount of these units until the mid- to late game.
    Besides the monotony, there's also the exact same bugs present in Empire and Napoleon, which they STILL haven't bothered to fix. The multiplayer desynchs were so prevalent, and rather than bother to fix them, their "work around" is the removal of the ability to continue battle after the enemy routs in a multiplayer game. The same old path finding issues are STILL present, with units completely unable to use bridges without getting stuck underneath them, units getting lost in sieges, and units running in random directions when told to charge; and the same old unit cloud still exists, with units crumpling into a thin cloud rather than actually engaging the enemy.
    If you really want it, pirate it.    … Expand
  25. DaChunK
    May 26, 2013
    1
    The firs total war game I never finished for it got way to frustrating. My brother and I have been playing the total war series since day one and have enjoyed most of them. The original Shogun and Medieval 2 total war being a favorites, yet this one neither of us finished which is a first fist both of us. Several points made the game a poor design What the hell is the point of havingThe firs total war game I never finished for it got way to frustrating. My brother and I have been playing the total war series since day one and have enjoyed most of them. The original Shogun and Medieval 2 total war being a favorites, yet this one neither of us finished which is a first fist both of us. Several points made the game a poor design What the hell is the point of having walls in a castle if all the troops can just friggen climb them? None. Terrible mistake there. If they can climb they should not be in full armour, nor carry heavy weaponry. Both of us used diplomacy and make allies as best as we can and it has assisted out campaigns in all previous titles this one is crap how the whole country turns against you at a certain point making it near impossible to win. Again terribly unrealistic that this would happen in history or a game where your nation has such a strong influence. Very poor and frustrating design and made it was to hard to keep playing. Neither of us did and I don't think changing difficulty settings are the answer here.

    Overall a very disappointing installment and I don't think I'll buy the next one unless it's more realistic and is worth playing through.

    Not finished and not impressed with design Negative score    … Expand
  26. mrcoolman
    Mar 8, 2012
    4
    If you are korean you probably like this game because it is real times strategy like stracraft. you are man in middle ages japan and you have to conquer all japan. First you pick which car company you want to be, like mistubishi or toyota, then you go to map off japan. on the map you are famous real life historical japanese person like hitohiro, jackie chan, or gengis kan. one thing isIf you are korean you probably like this game because it is real times strategy like stracraft. you are man in middle ages japan and you have to conquer all japan. First you pick which car company you want to be, like mistubishi or toyota, then you go to map off japan. on the map you are famous real life historical japanese person like hitohiro, jackie chan, or gengis kan. one thing is that even though this is real time stategy game the first map isn't, so if you wondering why you cant move your men or the computer doesnt do anything, it because you have to click the button first. also i think i get japanese version of game because when i click men they speak in japanese so i coundt understand the story. i give this game only 4/10 because you need to speak japanese to play.… Expand
  27. Hibryd
    May 28, 2012
    4
    5000 word limit, so I'll just knock this game straight in the face even though I'd like to get into the nuance of things.

    I'll start with the good, which I will admit, justifies buying and playing the game for a couple of weeks. 1)The battles are very entertaining to watch in replay mode. 2)The loading screens are actually very enjoyable and contain an encyclopedic library of cool    5000 word limit, so I'll just knock this game straight in the face even though I'd like to get into the nuance of things.

    I'll start with the good, which I will admit, justifies buying and playing the game for a couple of weeks.

    1)The battles are very entertaining to watch in replay mode.

    2)The loading screens are actually very enjoyable and contain an encyclopedic library of cool quotes and poetry.

    3)The interface is well-thought out and easy on the eyes.

    4)The music is fantastic, I suggest checking it out even if you don't buy the game.

    The offline mode only really has one flaw I can see, but its huge. Huge enough to single-handedly flatten the offline game.

    1) AUTORESOLVE THE BATTLE. BAM. GAME OVER.

    You know all those months we spent coding this cool flocking engine? You know those awesome siege battles you wanted to play? Why bother? We've created this button to let you skip past them! Push this button, get your special hat. The princess isn't in another castle, she's in this one, and we've created a warp pipe straight to her at the beginning of 1-1 so you don't have to wind yourself out getting to her.

    But multiplayer mode, which is nothing but tactical battles, must be good, right? Nope. Multiplayer is the coup de grace.

    1)The Morale system does wacky things much more often than it should, mostly when Calvary or ashigaru units are involved.

    2)The vet system is horribly, horribly broken. The extra stats you gain via it actually punishes you for slowly working up units in rank, because the extra stats they gain never....I repeat.....NEVER justify the extra money they require to deploy. 3)Calvary can be spammed in a variety of ways to give players an unfair advantage. The most obviously broken one is when you make them turn sharply, any units en route to attack them simply disengage and stand in place.

    4)Naval battles are loooooooong for no good reason. The first 3 or 4 minutes of every.....single....match....is routinely spent just running your ships into the center of the map.

    5)My personal favorite: if you lose connection to the game, you and your opponent both get full points for the match. It's actually more efficient to join games and keep disconnecting than it is to play out the entire thing.

    I really want to like this game, I truly do. I've spent weeks and weeks trying to like it, clearing my mind, letting its finer points filter into my being. But the more I play multiplayer, the more I lose admiration for even the good things going for this game, because I began to wonder how anyone could make a game with such great assets but still have the scope of bugs and unevenness the multiplayer had. I thought surely I must not be understanding something, the game is just too subtle and I'm missing some major aspect of the gameplay.

    But then I understood the pettiness of the problems that were left in. And then I realized, "Oh I see, they're just pulling it out of their ass" after hundreds of hours of gameplay, and I uninstalled it for the last time.

    Shogun 2 is very much like being shown a grand, 5 bedroom 3 bath house with an island in the kitchen on an acre of manicured, terraced property, but when you try to turn on the water you realize the faucet doesn't connect to a pipe...and in fact the whole house doesn't have any plumbing. It's so incongruous with just basic everyday horse-sense that you sort of wince and think to yourself, "Maybe the house gets water in some unconventional beyond my peasant's understanding of the physical world." Unfortunately, its simply that the house, despite being modern and beautiful, has no plumbing. The emperor has no clothes. The game is a wreck.    … Expand
  28. Cloppers
    Jul 17, 2012
    4
    You can expect high critic scores when there's nothing technically wrong with the game. The biggest problem Shogun 2 has is the replay value. Sure, most games get old after a while... but TWS2 got old way too fast. Combine that with confusing tutorial that drags on and on without fully explaining the point and bad multiplayer with a terrible community.
  29. jclaw8207
    May 22, 2013
    4
    Not the best total war game. It is nothing different than the other total war games except its samurai warfare. The game like others gives you a time limit to beat it, if you dont with in that time frame than you lose and start over from scratch. Wars dont last within a certain time it can last forever.
  30. Pohch
    Feb 21, 2022
    4
    При всем моём уважении к серии total war сёгун является удачным продолжением серии. При этом в игре без покупки дополнений достаточно слабая система развития. Для любителей японского стилистики рекомендую, для остальных советую пройти другие части серии.При всем моём уважении к серии total war сёгун является удачным продолжением серии. При этом в игре без покупки дополнений достаточно слабая система развития. Для любителей японского стилистики рекомендую, для остальных советую пройти другие части серии.
  31. Siralfon
    Jun 24, 2022
    0
    El juego en cuestión es muy bueno y se lo recomiendo a todas las personas ,
  32. Waltram
    Jul 31, 2021
    0
    Good game, but I feel rushed by time to complete the objectives in the campaigns compared to other Total War games.

Awards & Rankings

6
#6 Best PC Game of 2011
21
#21 Most Discussed PC Game of 2011
10
#10 Most Shared PC Game of 2011

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
90

Universal acclaim - based on 62 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 62 out of 62
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 62
  3. Negative: 0 out of 62
  1. Game Over Online
    Jul 14, 2011
    89
    There is a je ne sais quoi elegance on how the game is presented and how well put together the game as an entire corpus is. Although it's still mired by some version 1.0 bugs, Shogun is highly playable and deserves a place on any Total War fan's hard drive.
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  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    May 22, 2011
    90
    Beautiful, complex and varied historical strategy which offers hours of fun in single player and multiplayer modes. [Issue#203]
  3. Computer Games Online RO
    May 1, 2011
    93
    The mix of turn based strategy (with economical, political and diplomatic ramifications) and real time battles is still wonderful, but the need to balance timing and aggression is more important than ever. Aggressive players will feel a little cheated, while diplomats will hate Realm Divide stage. Still, Total War was always about realism and the AI's scripted actions make logical and historical sense.
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