#Shogun total war 2 units series

The map itself is laid out as if on parchment where it is outside your visual range, and as you explore this it rises up into 3D, returning to the blackness of a fog of war when you don't have a unit in the territory. The battle-maps' reports from livid and disgusted lackeys (“A SHAMEFUL DISPLAY!”) are a highlight, but it's all consistent and strong. Like all the voice-acting in the game, it's well pitched. The tips are generally explained to you by a wife or geisha woman, in quiet but insistent tones. You start off on the campaign map and you get your first taste of the of the aesthetics with the typically thorough clan presentation and follow up tips. The Tokugawa won in real life, but you can change that. The menus, the mist on the hills of the battle-maps, the aggressive bark of the ninja, the calligraphic UI elements, it all unites into one of the most rich and delicious experiences in gaming.Ĭhoose a clan, and you can begin your struggle for dominance in the Sengoku period of Japanese history. Partly this is because the Japanese theme makes for great design, while our Western medieval iconography seems a bit kitsch by comparison. Everything in every aspect of the game is exquisite. This is possibly the most gorgeously a strategy game has ever unfurled its banners. First up it's worth taking about the presentation of Shogun 2. If you have played every Total War game, then nothing here will surprise you too much, and if you require novelty, then that might just be a problem. Shogun 2's ambitions are much closer, much more in line with the previous games, and as a result it feels overly familiar. Sure, the release was buggy and it took months to be patched into happiness, but it was nevertheless something a little different. I've enjoyed Shogun a great deal, but I am nevertheless filled with a kind of longing for Empire's silly, all-encompassing vision. While flawed, Empire was at least braving new ground, and its scope was titanic. Sadly that means it is also far less interesting than Empire as an experience. Because of the tighter focus on the single island of Japan, and the more comprehensible mechanics of spears, swords, horses, archers and not too much in the way of gunpowder-based conflict, the game is better encapsulated, and a purer Total War experience. Shogun 2 is a step back, and everything has benefited. Empire was arguably a step too far, and consequently everything suffered. The issue with this wide-open, sandbox approach to strategy was that when it gets too big, then things start to become messy. They are a big “What If” that allows you to play with war in unlikely situations, and see what might happen if Denmark had been a ruthlessly aggressive power throughout the Middle Ages.

While the Total War games take history as their inspiration, they are a counter-factual, and an abstract take on the processes of history. They are interesting because they represent a kind of exploratory simulation: what might it be like to govern in era x, and what can you do with a limited set of military, economic and diplomatic tools. Nor are they interesting because they represent any kind of state of the art in technology. They can't be said to be interesting because they are perfectly balanced, or cleverly structured in terms of progress over time. The Total War games are not interesting because they are tightly-honed, rule-governed systems, as many RTS games aim to be.

#Shogun total war 2 units series

This has set the template for the series and, despite colossal movement in all kinds of directions, this structure remains largely the same in 2011. The turn-based campaign map saw you moving armies about between provinces, in a mild Risk type game of unit-production and army-positioning, while the battles between armies could be fought in real-time on a 3D map. 2000's Shogun was what started it: a two tier strategy game set in ancient Japan. Actually, the beginning of Total War will probably suffice. So then: how do I get busy with that shogunate? That should, all being well, arrive with the game's launch on the 15th. While Sega did provide a multi-player test for press and other interested parties, I don't really see the point of talking about it until there's a live service. What I haven't done is play any of the multi-player. For the past week I've been playing the single-player campaign, and I've written up my thoughts on this below. Shogun 2 is set to be released on the 15th of March.