The Creative Assembly also made character progression and research more interesting then in previous Total War games, providing the player with interesting choices and forcing him to specialize characters for various roles within the clan. It is still pretty weak in castle assault battles and a bit vulnerable to kitting with quick cavalry units but otherwise the challenge it poses is solid, specially when pushing the difficulty to Hard. The computer is smart enough to keep its lines together both on the offensive and defensive and can actually manage some pretty good flanking moves, especially when it has local superiority in numbers. The tactical battles are also much improved over Empire and Napoleon.
The initial one province setup for all clans sometimes results in major clans quickly disappearing (the Oda seem to have the toughest starting position) and the fact that all the clans turn against the player in the late game feels somewhat implausible but these are the only faults I can find in the structure of the strategic game. Shogun 2 allows the player to fully inhabit the position of underdog initially only to then push him towards greater conquests, with the entire progression feeling natural and interesting at each step. Keeping casualties down is almost as important as winning in the early game and quick development of at least one castle is also needed early on. The early game is crucial, with the first two or three battles almost always being fought with larger and sometimes better equipped forces. The game is challenging on Normal difficulty, each battle feels important and has clear consequences and the map is well designed to allow for choke points that can allow one force to defend a whole province.
Total War: Shogun 2 is clearly a return to form for its series. but after some more play time I began to see that this was not happening as long as I was limiting my deals with those factions that had integrity and were likely to accept offers without me sweetening the deal too much. I initially dismissed this as stupid thinking on the part of the A.I. Depending on the approach they take to the game some of them might be very quick in asking incentives in order to enter into trade deals only to then cancel them in a few turns by launching an attack. Players need to be careful about how they conduct their diplomacy with the rival factions, especially the other major powers. They also do a good job of employing agents to cripple the gamer controlled faction and make the tactical battles as easy as possible for their own armies. Other clans seem to make rational choices when it comes to trade deals and to military access. The diplomacy aspect of the game has also been improved significantly.
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The mix between the demo is very much present in Shogun 2 and The Creative Assembly has added quite a big of more possibilities of the strategic section of the game, with a number of agents that are very much capable of changing the course of a campaign and even the full game with abilities like sabotage, demoralization of enemies and even whole army bribes.
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The Total War formula probably captured the imagination of strategy gamers because it mixes the more action heavy battle sequences, with regiments clashing and the pressure to win without suffering too many losses, with the turn based strategic element, where gamers have the time to think about how to commit resources and deploy units in order to reach a long term goal. Let's hope that tomorrow does not shatter our little Total War worlds by witnessing the discovery of a well hidden and significant bug. I've enjoyed Total War: Shogun 2 for more than 30 hours in single player and about 15 land and naval battles in multiplayer and so far the game seems very close to becoming a hallmark like the first Shogun. Initial reviews for both Empire and Napoleon were very positive only for a lot of players to then notice that the Artificial Intelligence was a bit dumb and that naval invasions were not really working, leading to disappointment in the ranks of loyal fans.
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Why is it hard to review a game in a beloved series that is very good? Because of the complexity of the Total War concept. And, most importantly, Total War: Shogun 2 seems to be very, very good. The game is the latest in a long running strategy series from The Creative Assembly that began about 11 years ago and has lately suffered from a rather disappointing releases of Empire and Napoleon. The game is the second one set in Medieval Japan, focusing on the struggle between the clans for control of the title of Shogun. It is hard to review Total War: Shogun 2.
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