Total War: Shogun

[Happy Panther]

A buddy told me to get this and it has really good reviews

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/shogun-2-total-war/review.html?tag=summary%3Bread-review

I'm about 20 minutes in and I think it is terrible. The graphics look 10 years old and the interface stinks.

anyone else like this?

[mmmbeans]

haven't played the new one. loved the original.

[natty]

I haven't picked it up yet but definitely will. I've been playing the total war series since the original Shogun and have loved every one up to Empire. I played the demo and the graphics/UI didn't seem bad at all....

[TerriblePizza]

I've loved all the Total War games. I haven't bought a PC game in forever though. I'm mostly a console man now.

[SmootsDaddy89]

I'd laugh like hell if you somehow got the original shogun. Even on the lowest settings the graphics arent 10 years outdated. That's the only thing that makes sense.

[SorthNarolina]

seeing as how it's a brand new pc game it could look crappy if you don't have a good pc. Those games can bring a 1000 dollar machine to it's knees if you have a big monitor at the recommended settings.

[natty]

Well having played it for a few days now I can see how the graphics fall short if you have all the settings on low. But that's good because the game downgrades very well to suit your computer. The units are the most detailed they've ever been and when you have a battle with 1000s of units it become quite a load.

The interface is fine imo, but I've also played every TW so I see how it's evolved. It can be sluggish if you have a sub-par computer because it seems they've tried to minimize as much as possible so when you click something(a castle, army, etc) there's a lot to load up. It's a complex game with a lot of controls, so there's really no way around it.

I haven't played enough to really form an opinion about it but I can already tell it's a LOT better than Empire. One thing I have noticed is that you have to tread very carefully. The map is smaller and every province really counts. You can't ignore some things like you were able to in previous releases(like farms, food shortages create a poo ton of unrest).

[bredy087]

So shogun 2 is a must for TW series fans?

[natty]

I would say so. ^^^

I played a good bit this weekend and I'm loving almost everything about it. Rome is still the pinnacle of the series, but this release made some great strides.

[bredy087]

Cool, Ive kinda played out Empire and Civ 5 so im gonna save up some dollars and get it. Gotta have something to hold me over till old republic drops.

[PanthersFanNY]

Thinking about picking this up. For those who have it, do all of the clans play the same way in terms of unit composition? I feel like that would get stale kind of quickly.

[SorthNarolina]

I would say so. ^^^

I played a good bit this weekend and I'm loving almost everything about it. Rome is still the pinnacle of the series, but this release made some great strides.

i like rome but i could be a really shitty empire yet destroy massive armies and keep rome from ever leaving the Italian peninsula just by making sure i could take phalanxes and hold them at bridges.

Then i would earn a new general every time because the victory was so overwhelming the comp thought i was a god.

[bredy087]

I would always stick phalanx units at the end of long streets, draw the enemy up then use cavalry to flank and trap the enemy in the middle.

[natty]

Thinking about picking this up. For those who have it, do all of the clans play the same way in terms of unit composition? I feel like that would get stale kind of quickly.

I was worried about that too since it was a big problem in the first Shogun. In a way the problem is still there but each clan has their 'special' units that they can produce cheaper than other clans. Money is tight in the game so it's really helps to build your armies based on what you specialize in. I'm playing the Date clan and they specialize in nodachi samurai, so when I recruit a unit they're 'Date Nodachi Samurai' - they are better and cheaper than other nodachi so I build my armies with lots of them. Other clans specialize in different types of troops or other things like diplomacy, ships, ninjas, castle building, etc.

The unit types are:

Yari (spear)

Katana (sword)

Nodachi (big swords, shock troops)

Naginata (pole arms)

Bows

Cavalry (yari, katana, bow)

and other units like battlefield ninjas(badass), firebomb throwers, matchlocks, monks, artillery etc

The matchups are the classic rock/paper/scissors that the original game was based on. Spears > cavalry, sword > spear, cavalry > sword. Naginata are a balance between swords and spears, a jack of all trades.

So there's not as much variety as Medieval(s) or Rome had but it's a hell of a lot better than Empire(muskets, cavalry, artillery, with little variation). It's much more of a chess match on the campaign and battles.

The best improvement imo is the way generals and agents work. Each named character you have can be specialized for certain things when they rank up. For example ninjas can be specialized for scouting, sabotage or assassination, but you can mix and match as much as you want. Your agents/generals that are high ranks are very important and it really stings when you lose one. There's a awesome balance of risk/reward with all the agents as pretty much every agent can take out another. Oh, and Geishas kick major ass.