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. Arquitte
    Apr 5, 2011
    7
    awsome game my only complaints are not being able to get all my friends in game at same time and the ai gets insane at times. you tell the archers to take to the wall, for instance and they stand there ignoring the command or you click a spot for a unit then go on to something else come back and there off in nowhere land and too few trade spots on the map. If you dont get to them quicklyawsome game my only complaints are not being able to get all my friends in game at same time and the ai gets insane at times. you tell the archers to take to the wall, for instance and they stand there ignoring the command or you click a spot for a unit then go on to something else come back and there off in nowhere land and too few trade spots on the map. If you dont get to them quickly you wont get them without fighting unwinable sea battles. I call them unwinable because it never fails. ill have the ai outnumbered and they take my ships and sink others over and over. love the graphics and the number of extra commands available to units compared to previous versions.… Expand
  2. ScareCrow
    May 4, 2011
    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 mostAs 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
  3. Magnethead
    Mar 18, 2014
    7
    This is a fairly difficult game to review. The vanilla version of the game falls short for silly reasons while the modded version (Darth Mod is a true hero of our times) is awesome - easily one of the best strategy games made recently. So, in order to give the game a thorough review I'm going to look at what they did well, what they did (horribly) wrong and how the mod fixes it.

    What    This is a fairly difficult game to review. The vanilla version of the game falls short for silly reasons while the modded version (Darth Mod is a true hero of our times) is awesome - easily one of the best strategy games made recently. So, in order to give the game a thorough review I'm going to look at what they did well, what they did (horribly) wrong and how the mod fixes it.

    What they did well: The AI is vastly improved especially on a strategy level. The AI now forms lasting alliances and looks to expand in a sensible way. It also builds armies quite well and tries to retain a useful balance of its forces (unlike previous TW-games where you could easily meet a full stack of archers because the AI thought it was a great unit and hey... you can't get enough of a good thing, right?). The economic system is much harder now and you can support fewer full stack armies which is great as it forces you to think more on how best to deploy your resources. It also means that you can't abuse the blitz-krieg concept which just won the game in previous TW games. You don't have enough armies to simply overwhelm any enemy in a year anymore and once you do, he has enough to defend against it. You have to build good armies, keep them alive and choose your battles carefully. Winning large battles quite literally determines the fate of empires.

    What they did wrong: Unfortunately, none of the good things mentioned above matter because of what they did wrong. On hard level and above, the computer cheats violently. It respawns full stack armies and earns bundles of money from nothing. Of course, that makes the game fairly difficult (and annoying) but more importantly, it removes all of those strategic elements the game got right. Winning on the filed means nothing now, no strategic value because he just spawns a new army. Only taking cities matters now. Blockading ports or otherwise hurting the AI through economy means nothing, he gets money for free. Diplomacy is useless because everyone automatically hates you now and they all have endless armies. Basically, this ruins the game. In the pure vanilla version this is no more than a 4/10 game.

    GO MOD! But luckily, the modding community comes to our aid. Darth Mod fixes all of those annoying points and even improves on the good ones (it's also easy to install). The AI is better on the field (you can actually lose now if you do something silly) and the world seems coherent and punishing. If you choose the wrong allies, you'll be in trouble, if you leave yourself exposed against a non-friendly neighbor, you'll be attacked, but at the same time you need to check the most rapidly expanding AIs or you'll find yourself in the world of Rob Stark: defeated without ever losing a battle. To win effectively on Hard level you have to use all aspects of the game; economy, diplomacy and tactics. Then it suddenly becomes a 10/10 game. However, since I can't give the game a top grade for work they didn't do themselves, I'll leave the rating on 7.    … Expand
  4. Comanglia
    Dec 11, 2011
    7
    I originally rated this at 9/10, but that was before I started to play online semi-seriously. Everything now revolves around spam, or some loop hole. It's basically a revolving door of spam.
    Naginata Monks
    Cavalry Matchlocks Vet Loan Swords Naginata Samurai Naginata Monks + Naginata Monk Cavalry currently I have not the slightest clue what's the "new" spam also that 1/6 players black out    I originally rated this at 9/10, but that was before I started to play online semi-seriously. Everything now revolves around spam, or some loop hole. It's basically a revolving door of spam.
    Naginata Monks
    Cavalry
    Matchlocks
    Vet Loan Swords
    Naginata Samurai
    Naginata Monks + Naginata Monk Cavalry
    currently I have not the slightest clue what's the "new" spam

    also that 1/6 players black out their banner, and rename all of their units to another weaker unit

    As for the campaign well it's still pretty mediocre for the same reasons as before. The new DLC campaign though is pretty fun itself.    … Expand
  5. scottslod
    Jul 31, 2011
    7
    reasonable good game play good graphics and the need of tactics and you can make your own avatar to use as general in multi player the only disappointment is the lack of different troops between the playable clans. but this is a very good recovery after Napoleon TW
  6. ZengxDoWx
    Nov 16, 2011
    7
    I've been playing the limited edition of this game ever since this came out, and also purchased every single add-ons for this game. My only concern with this game is that there's a lot of spammers, and recently, the replay files are all corrupted so I can't actually look at the replays. So I won't really be playing this game until CA fixes these problems.
  7. kabbi
    Dec 12, 2011
    7
    I'd have to say when push comes to shove and the **** hits the fan all in an honest days work...this game sincerely and objectively yet truthfully flat out just needed more ninjas. Period. I said. Ninjas.
  8. Erelyes
    Jan 6, 2012
    7
    Very fun game. The learning curve is a little patchy and the tutorial for the game could have been much better (I have played no previous Total War games). It needs to explain things like friendly fire from archers, charge bonuses, attacking from two directions, campaign strategy, and so on. I also found the graphics to be a little disappointing for a 2011 game - grass sprites will popVery fun game. The learning curve is a little patchy and the tutorial for the game could have been much better (I have played no previous Total War games). It needs to explain things like friendly fire from archers, charge bonuses, attacking from two directions, campaign strategy, and so on. I also found the graphics to be a little disappointing for a 2011 game - grass sprites will pop into and out of view, etc. However once you get into the game it's rewarding, engrossing and balanced.… Expand
  9. kane148
    Aug 1, 2012
    7
    Having played and thoroughly enjoyed the last few Total War games (Rome, Medieval, Empire), I expected to similarly love this game. Sadly, this was not the case. The game looks good: the graphics are improved and the Asian theme is well integrated into the general artwork. But it seems that this desire to create a distinctive ambiance went a little too far and subtracted from the gameplay.Having played and thoroughly enjoyed the last few Total War games (Rome, Medieval, Empire), I expected to similarly love this game. Sadly, this was not the case. The game looks good: the graphics are improved and the Asian theme is well integrated into the general artwork. But it seems that this desire to create a distinctive ambiance went a little too far and subtracted from the gameplay. For example, unit formations are now identified by an animal (crane, snake, etc.)--gone are the days of choosing between line, wedge, etc.--forcing you by trial and error to learn which does what. Would it be too hard to make it clear what the formation is? I'm trying to wage a war, not reenact Kung Fu Panda! The campaign in general was rather bland: I started on an island where I quickly overwhelmed my neighbors, then spent turn after turn building up my forces to invade a neighboring island, only to face a half dozen enemy armies full of highly experienced soldiers, ready to squash the feeble armies that I could support with my limited resources. To be fair, there were several interesting innovations in this title, such as talent trees for agents, but many others were just annoying (limited food supplies which can only be expanded through conquest) or simplistic (research is now strictly turn-dependent, with no way to really gain an advantage). I'm sure many people enjoyed this game, and maybe one day I'll try it again and like it more, but until then I'm just going to wait for Rome II.… Expand
  10. Harumpel
    Dec 22, 2013
    7
    I played TW titles since the original Shogun Total War 1 published in 2000. While it has been something very new and exciting back then, today I feel like every new title is barely adding fun to the game: its just updated graphics, more menues, more choices.

    But overloading the game doesn't make it better. Game mechanics can be OK like here with Shogun-2 or can be really bad like    I played TW titles since the original Shogun Total War 1 published in 2000. While it has been something very new and exciting back then, today I feel like every new title is barely adding fun to the game: its just updated graphics, more menues, more choices.

    But overloading the game doesn't make it better.

    Game mechanics can be OK like here with Shogun-2 or can be really bad like with Empire TW. Opponent AI feels like the same as 13 years ago and thats really poor.

    Still, you won't notice instantly and this game could be good for some 10-20 hours of Japan conquest.

    I give it 7 out of 10, because it is still a "good" game, but by far not as good as it could be.    … Expand
  11. reviewobsession
    Jan 22, 2015
    7
    Shogun Total War 2 is first casual game in the Total War series. It offers great experience with limited content. Casual and fast paced battles, simple rock-paper-scissors strategy and small map may be good for next generation players but at the same time these are the weak points for hardcore fans. Feudal japan concept is successfully created with beautiful graphics and sound effects.Shogun Total War 2 is first casual game in the Total War series. It offers great experience with limited content. Casual and fast paced battles, simple rock-paper-scissors strategy and small map may be good for next generation players but at the same time these are the weak points for hardcore fans. Feudal japan concept is successfully created with beautiful graphics and sound effects. Game has less technical problems compared to first Rome and its followers.(except famous SEGA splash screen bug). Land battles are shorter than older games so can't be watched decently but they are very excited and brutal. Naval battles are playable and entertaining after Empire TW and Napoleon TW sea battle failures. There are too many good DLC's to increase unit and faction diversity by adding new clans and clan specific units. Like the other TW games, this game has a poor AI too. Thankfully, CA has an epic modding community and there are too many good mods to improve AI's ability. As a result Shogun Total War 2 is a good game with new casual gameplay elements for new players and price is reasonable for a AAA strategy game. But if you're hardcore TW fan and love samurai concept, I recommend to you Total War Shogun 2: Fall of Samurai.… Expand
  12. jamesphillip198
    Sep 14, 2013
    7
    I love this game. It has good new features, a good skill tree, good polish, good balancing, specially with mods, but it has its own problems too though. In vanilla game, AI spawns stacks of archers with almost no melee, battles are way too fast, and AI spawns armies out of nothing, but mods fix almost everything. Would play this over Rome 2.
  13. Dco326
    Feb 17, 2023
    7
    Bila je dobra ali nista wow i dalje je bilo izbagovano sa formacijama, neke stvari su dodate tipa porodicno stablo ali je presporo sve u svemu bilo je samo okej nista wooooooooooow nazalost, ne bi vise igrao :)
  14. Vanco
    Jun 4, 2019
    7
    One of the better Total War games. Realm divide keeps late game interesting,
  15. CountCristo
    Jul 19, 2019
    7
    aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
  16. watergazing
    Aug 14, 2021
    7
    One of the best in the total war franchise. Some of the best mechanics from previous total war games are enhanced, and the setting on feudal Japan? Awesome. Definitely one of the best games in the total war series.

    Though, some perhaps major, drawbacks: 1. Can only choose from 12 factions. For players of hardcore feudal japan-themed grand strategy games, this number is not that high,    One of the best in the total war franchise. Some of the best mechanics from previous total war games are enhanced, and the setting on feudal Japan? Awesome. Definitely one of the best games in the total war series.

    Though, some perhaps major, drawbacks:
    1. Can only choose from 12 factions. For players of hardcore feudal japan-themed grand strategy games, this number is not that high, since it means you can only choose between very prominent houses.. Often, there is very fun gameplay to be had in lesser, obscure households as well, so in this case the game can comparatively have less depth.

    2. Mostly fictional officers and vassals, with randomly generated Japanese names. Thus, it makes the game seem "shallower" than it actually is... It is fun and all building a family tree and looking back on your ever-growing household. But with fictional names? Although it seems simple it can definitely feel underwhelming.. and that is not a feeling you want after spending many many hours playing one game. This limitation does not exist in well-researched games, like in Nobunaga's Ambition series.

    Had these limitations overcome, this game could be close to perfection.    … Expand
  17. dr-kenobi
    Sep 6, 2022
    7
    I do enjoy the esthetics of medieval Japan and the fact that they tried to make all the factions look real with advantages and disadvantages is nice as well, but it still feels a bit dull towards the end game when all of the folks declare war and diplomacy is practically useless, so you have to go warfare management non-stop. Still, it's one of their best so far
  18. Fireside
    Mar 21, 2011
    6
    Having played every single TW game, I have grown tired with the formula and there's nothing here that is really that different from the previous games, just small incremental improvements like always. It's fun in small spurts, but no longer engrossing, like sex after years of marriage. They need to release the dx11 patch soon cause the lack of anti-aliasing is driving me crazy.
  19. VideoDead
    Mar 22, 2011
    6
    Total War isn't about multiplayer for me so i haven't even touched the apparently buggy mp mode on Shogun 2 yet and have no intention of doing so. Haven't experienced any bugs on campaign yet.
    My favourite TW so far is Medieval 2 purely because of the variety of factions available to play and the variety of landscapes available to conquer. Shogun 2 has none of this!! As far as i can tell    Total War isn't about multiplayer for me so i haven't even touched the apparently buggy mp mode on Shogun 2 yet and have no intention of doing so. Haven't experienced any bugs on campaign yet.
    My favourite TW so far is Medieval 2 purely because of the variety of factions available to play and the variety of landscapes available to conquer. Shogun 2 has none of this!! As far as i can tell there is no difference to the factions apart from slightly better archers or spearmen or cavalry, the castles are exactly the same and set in identical surroundings - even the campaign map looks hastily splodged out with no distinctive topographical features(where's Mount Fuji?), it's just all mountains (the same height) and valleys (the same depth).

    On the management side, i am finding it hard to feed the masses as food can only be obtained through farming and not trade and virtually everything i build uses food supply. Also diplomacy can be a bit tricky as almost everything i do decreases popularity with everyone (yes, territory expansion counts against you in a big way).
    I think Creative Assembly should stick with a good idea (like Rome or Medieval) and refine aspects of gameplay. Overall this game looks and sounds great and there certainly is depth to the management side of things, but severely lacks the variety and innovation that will make me come back to it. Disappointing!!    … Expand
  20. TheangryOne
    Apr 8, 2011
    6
    I'll be honest--these games have started to go stale. Rome was innovative, Medieval was pretty good. Empire was pretty fair, but at this point I don't care how good the interface, graphics, and whatever is, it's really nothing we've seen before.
  21. Geroge
    Apr 19, 2011
    6
    the gameplay is good but the graphics and multiplayer component are totally broken The game was obviously rushed by sega to get more money and of course the innovation s not that good but hey they release a game a year now
  22. restless
    Apr 26, 2011
    6
    I agree with dcfx1984. Napoleon was the best game of the series and for some reason a lot of people don't see it that way. I too liked the variances of game play that Napoleon offered in both factions and campaign maps. For instance, in the Italian Campaign, France really has to fight a war of speed to push the Austrians out of Northern Italy. You don't really have those kind of historic,I agree with dcfx1984. Napoleon was the best game of the series and for some reason a lot of people don't see it that way. I too liked the variances of game play that Napoleon offered in both factions and campaign maps. For instance, in the Italian Campaign, France really has to fight a war of speed to push the Austrians out of Northern Italy. You don't really have those kind of historic, situation-specific campaigns in Shogun 2. Overall, Shogun 2 is a fun game, but it can be annoyingly time-consuming and detailed in areas that do not need THAT much detail. I like that there are now 9 clans to choose from I like some of the new units that can be had (such as Bow-wielding Warrior Monks) but overall, Napoleon's battles were more fun - even if Shogun 2 does have a more advanced design for its battle engine.… Expand
  23. Dariune
    May 21, 2011
    6
    The Total war series was once a favourite of mine. Until Empire i was enamoured with every offering from Creative Assembly. Shogun 2 is an attempt to bring the series back to its routes by making it simpler and suppoedly requiring more tactics. The graphics and atmosphere are the best in the series. They have done their research well when it comes to Feudal Japan. The game cannot beThe Total war series was once a favourite of mine. Until Empire i was enamoured with every offering from Creative Assembly. Shogun 2 is an attempt to bring the series back to its routes by making it simpler and suppoedly requiring more tactics. The graphics and atmosphere are the best in the series. They have done their research well when it comes to Feudal Japan. The game cannot be faulted for its artwork or the 3d models. But my high praise for the game ends there. Its just too simple. Every faction has exactly the same units and so once you have played as one faction, its hard to find a reason to play another, the only difference is one of your units being slightly stronger or you gain food quicker. There arent enough territorries and due to the natural shape of Japan, you almost always have few enemies attacking from only a couple of fronts. The research tree is nice but doesnt really revolutionise the way you grow your nation. All in all its better than the previous two games, but its still not anywhere near as good as the games before that. A nice try, but not quite there.… Expand
  24. wooopeee
    May 22, 2011
    6
    Good:
    - graphics is really enhanced; the detail on each unit is amazing.
    - simplified economics; i am not a fan of the empire total war where building options and economics is too much. ~~Bad: - short movies should be more rather than being replayed every single clan; i was hoping that different clans have different movies but alas it's still the same - i never thought japan can be    Good:
    - graphics is really enhanced; the detail on each unit is amazing.
    - simplified economics; i am not a fan of the empire total war where building options and economics is too much.

    ~~Bad:
    - short movies should be more rather than being replayed every single clan; i was hoping that different clans have different movies but alas it's still the same
    - i never thought japan can be conquered in a single sitting; with the right strategy one can easily finish the game
    - AI is still stupid; when I click a unit to move away from the fighting it just attacks the next to it.

    ~~Conclusion:
    - a game worth playing and paying for a discounted price. i just hope for shogun 3 blood and gore is added and a different movie player is used.    … Expand
  25. Aelric
    Jun 6, 2011
    6
    Shogun 2: Total War, beautiful, polished, but O! so boring. Of all Total War games, the graphics are done right with Shogun 2. Great visuals, special effects, and animations. Japan is beautifully rendered, and the new world-map can 360 degrees, like the battle-map. However, there are few differences between clans. Unit types don't vary. Culture doesn't vary. And once all research isShogun 2: Total War, beautiful, polished, but O! so boring. Of all Total War games, the graphics are done right with Shogun 2. Great visuals, special effects, and animations. Japan is beautifully rendered, and the new world-map can 360 degrees, like the battle-map. However, there are few differences between clans. Unit types don't vary. Culture doesn't vary. And once all research is complete, it's not worth finishing a campaign. Shogun 2 is as distant from the glory of Rome Total War as Empire Total War was. But even more so.… Expand
  26. ObjectivePlayer
    Jul 29, 2011
    6
    To start, of course this game has improved graphics. It is newer; in this day and age of gaming, graphics of top of the line game titles are expected to be as such. That is where the compliments stop. I have played all the total war games, and when compared the them Shogun 2 has nothing to offer a gamer such as myself. There are many things I can go about in detail, but for the sake of theTo start, of course this game has improved graphics. It is newer; in this day and age of gaming, graphics of top of the line game titles are expected to be as such. That is where the compliments stop. I have played all the total war games, and when compared the them Shogun 2 has nothing to offer a gamer such as myself. There are many things I can go about in detail, but for the sake of the reader, I will be to the point. Repetitive maps i didn't notice even on Rome: total war. Units are all exactly the same (other than some sparse stat differences). Multi-player is apparently bugged (personally I couldn't even figure out how to get the matches i wanted). These are some of the main issues i have with this game. As a result, Shogun 2, after a week of play, I had the feeling of drudging through the campaign and soon quit playing.
    As a total war fan, and someone who wants to get his money's worth, i cannot consciously give this game a good review (especially when the older games such as Medieval and Rome has much more to offer in game play and re-playability). If you buy this game, then please buy it because you are a fan of ninja's, not good game play or you will be disappointed. Shogun 2 is, in my opinion, a 25$ game at best.    … Expand
  27. Parvarteshwar
    Jan 28, 2012
    6
    The Total War series has a history of producing ground-breaking, innovative games that cater specifically to the RTS/strategy fans. Games like Rome and Empire are huge, enjoyable, full of strategic depth, and well polished. Shogun 2 unfortunately fits more into the category of Medieval 2. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad game and it's better than any other RTS game on the market rightThe Total War series has a history of producing ground-breaking, innovative games that cater specifically to the RTS/strategy fans. Games like Rome and Empire are huge, enjoyable, full of strategic depth, and well polished. Shogun 2 unfortunately fits more into the category of Medieval 2. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad game and it's better than any other RTS game on the market right now, but its just not a great game that deserves the 90 critic score that it has received. This has forced me to sometimes wonder if I'm playing the same game as the critics...
    The biggest problem I have with the game is that the same problems and bugs that were with Empire are still with this game. Diplomacy is a laughable exercise at best and completely worthless at worst. The best strategy for avoiding war is to not have a border with a country, even valued allies will forget your excellent standing with them and declare war on you if you so much as have a common border and getting a country to accept a diplomatic proposal is almost as bad as pulling teeth.
    The AI is as painfully stupid as it was in the previous games and I think they realized this and have now made drop-in battles by human players standard, but good luck trying to find someone to play with and finding someone near your difficulty level. But even if you have the coveted luck with the battles the AI is still as stupid as ever on the campaign map and since they don't have monetary restrictions to worry about all strategy goes out the window. It feels like you are playing alone instead of with a worth-while opponent, and if you turn up the difficulty the AI doesn't get better, they are just given more units to throw at you which results in attrition based wars rather than strategic depth.
    But the AI problems don't just stop with the computer players, be sure to keep an eye on your own soldiers in battle or else they will be more dangerous to your army than the opposition. Archers seem to be particularly guilty of this and if you don't micro-manage them they will tear up your own front lines even more so than the enemies. There was a bug in previous games where your archers wouldn't follow your attack orders, they would simply fire on the closest enemy, that bug is back and as annoying now as it was then. It is almost funny to watch then firing on a shattered infantry unit, killing more of your own infantry than the enemy's, while a cavalry unit about to run them down...
    The units are the same for almost every faction and this means there is very little depth in fielding a varied army, just load up on samurai and send them off to battle, and replenishment is back which means waiting 5 turns in between each battle. Naval battles are back and they are improved, but they are also more boring. Fighting with non-gunpowder vessels when compared to the huge and varied ships-of-the-line from Empire has very little strategy, especially when an entire battle consists of ordering your ships to board the other ships.
    The graphics are excellent, but that's no surprise as Total War games have always had stellar graphics for their time. The in-game interface is also excellent, it takes some time to get to know it but the wealth of information is a welcome breathe of fresh air from the previous titles. But at the same time the game feels stiff, this may just be because my PC isn't the top of the line but that just means if you don't have the best PC out there you will be greeted with a sticky interface.
    The game map has plenty of provinces, but it feels small compared to the huge map of Europe from Rome and half the world from Empire. The provinces are also very similar, and though there are special resources they don't really play a huge strategic role other than money. Japan is a thin country and therefore the strategy is the same with almost every faction, conquer a strip of land, set up two fronts and expand. This also results in the game being painfully short, while there can be 20-some factions at the beginning (only 9 playable), in 5 years there will be half that and in another 5 years half that again. So in less than 10 years the game will be down to 4 or 5 factions. Which is a shame because the second half of the game is definitely the best, the units get more varied and the battles get bigger but there is less to enjoy.
    So what should you make of Shogun? Well since I have taken the entire 5000 world limit to rate it you can place it higher on your list of games to play, even though it's annoying at times it can also be very fun and I caught glimpses of better previous games at times. This is perhaps the game's greatest flaw, it will always be compared to excellent previous titles, but it's still a Total War game and if you get into it you will easily get 50 hours of game play.    … Expand
  28. jimplunder
    Feb 5, 2012
    6
    Total War: Shogun 2 is a good game. Of course, I always have a bone to pick with games. The feeling of it is exactly like that of Empire/Napoleon: Total War. You have a city, you have a port (if the province is on the coast), you have farms, and you have support buildings. You have to manage your economy through trade and production within your own territory. You also have to decideTotal War: Shogun 2 is a good game. Of course, I always have a bone to pick with games. The feeling of it is exactly like that of Empire/Napoleon: Total War. You have a city, you have a port (if the province is on the coast), you have farms, and you have support buildings. You have to manage your economy through trade and production within your own territory. You also have to decide whether or not you want to stick with with traditional religion of Shinto-Buddhism, or convert to Christianity when you trade with the nanban (Europeans). The combat is very similar to all of the other games (except they give you pre-made formations you can use) and the game keeps the tradition of solid combat alive.
    While the graphics are a HUGE improvement (they are absolutely gorgeous), the gameplay is something that is still likable and enjoyable, the creators made the game a little too difficult for my liking. I'm a person who likes to develop provinces up, get a ton of gold in reserve, build huge armies, and send them out to conquer the territory peacemeal while leaving token garrisons behind. It's a sound strategy and it works, but the game doesn't give you enough time to really flesh the game out. It feels like to me that the game's over right when it's beginning. You either have to settle with groups of small armies going after each other and picking off small provinces one by one, leaving little development in the process, or fail. I'd like the game more if they lengthened the time span of the campaign (possibly doubling it). I'm sure there's a mod for that, but I'm not going to poke around to look for one. Why can't they make sliders for game length? That way if you want to give yourself more of a challenge, you can do the short or long campaigns in more or less time. Make the game more customizable.
    Also the diplomacy screens are ridiculous. Even on easy, the AI doesn't like to negotiate... at all. I'm crushing these two clans in a war and when I offer a peace treaty because I want to go pound on my ever-growing neighbor, they won't bother to make peace. I even try to throw away money and marriage offers and still nothing. Then 5 turns later, another person declares war on me. For casual gamers like me, this is frustrating. I've tried a couple of different campaigns and even when I wasn't shogun, it felt like everyone was ganging up on me for the sake of it. It feels like the game doesn't want me to win. I know that's part of the challenge and a lot of people like it, but when a game becomes oppressive, it takes the fun out of it.    … Expand
  29. DarKMaTTeR
    Dec 30, 2011
    6
    This game has been the greatest disappointment I've had from gaming in years. I've been a big fan of the series for more than a decade now. The amount of time I've spent on these games is ridiculous. In TW Shogun 2 I didn't even finish a single campaign, even though I really wanted this game to be good and I tried to find a way to appreciate it.

    I'd like to make it clear that the game is    This game has been the greatest disappointment I've had from gaming in years. I've been a big fan of the series for more than a decade now. The amount of time I've spent on these games is ridiculous. In TW Shogun 2 I didn't even finish a single campaign, even though I really wanted this game to be good and I tried to find a way to appreciate it.

    I'd like to make it clear that the game is NOT bad. It is massive, professional and unique. But it lacks a lot of what I cared about in Total War games. For example, I always thought it was brilliant how, no matter how many battles you played, it would be extremely rare for 2 battles to start and unfold the same way. Well, no more. Shogun 2 does not shuffle the deck like it's predecessors. This time, you'll be fighting the same battles over and over again, on a handful of predesigned maps that aren't that great in the first place. Especially with sieges. I wasn't even half-way through a campaign, before I started auto-resolving every battle.

    Another thing that made the game very tiring to me, is all the Japanese in use. It's great for an authentic feel, but ffs add an explanation in the tooltip. From the first moments in the game, you're expected to memorize all these jibberish, or you won't have a clue what's going on. No offence to the Japanese, but the only words I get are Samurai and Katana, everything else sounds the same to me.

    And there's also the technical part. The game takes FOREVER to load anything, and it doesn't even look better than TW: Empire. There's only some much time I can tolerate wasting on loading screens.

    If you're not an old fan of the series, then you will probably enjoy the game more than I did, because you have no idea what the game is missing. But as a fan, I was so disappointed that I no longer had interest in playing the game. Which is a shame because it is a good game all in all.

    PS. I wrote my review so late, because I honestly expected I would play a lot more before deciding I'm done with the game.    … Expand
  30. MalcomGTX
    May 17, 2012
    6
    Serious technical flaws mar this otherwise fun game. I really enjoy the complexity and flavor of the Civilization-esque over-map, though the battle map could use much more work. While it is impressive to see so many units on the field, the combat is dull an uninteresting with little tactical significance.

    The game is buggy, and can have issues loading. I haven't ever experience a crash in    Serious technical flaws mar this otherwise fun game. I really enjoy the complexity and flavor of the Civilization-esque over-map, though the battle map could use much more work. While it is impressive to see so many units on the field, the combat is dull an uninteresting with little tactical significance.

    The game is buggy, and can have issues loading. I haven't ever experience a crash in game, but loading the game up I have many times.

    Overall I am happy I bought the game while on sale, but would not pay full price due to the technical issues.    … Expand
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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

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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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