Shogun: Total War Warlord Edition Preview
Fierce Mongol hordes invade Japan in the new, expanded edition of the award-winning Shogun: Total War.
Shogun: Total War stands out as one of the more critically acclaimed games of 2000. It was nominated for and won a number of strategy game awards, and GameSpot named it the 2000 Strategy Game of the Year. Shogun blends thoughtful turn-based strategy with challenging real-time combat on a grand scale, all presented with a refined sense of style and high production values. Building on its success with Shogun, developer Creative Assembly is rereleasing the game as the Warlord Edition. This new edition features both an enhanced version of the original game and all-new material known as The Mongol Invasion. (The Mongol Invasion should also be available separately through publisher EA's online store to gamers who already own Shogun.) The Warlord Edition will feature a host of additions and enhancements, including new units, scenarios, campaigns, and a map editor.
One of Shogun's more unusual and successful elements is its smooth integration of a turn-based strategy game with real-time tactical combat. The turn-based element looks and plays a lot like a traditional strategy board game, in which you send your clan's armies, emissaries, spies, and ninja assassins to neighboring Japanese provinces in the hopes of exploiting or conquering them. The relatively unglamorous yet fun strategic elements of empire building, like dealing with resources in the form of rice, are reserved for this contemplative turn-based portion of the game. When armies clash, you can let the computer handle the battles for you, or you can switch over to appropriately dramatic real-time combat on a 3D battlefield and lead your troops directly. Here, you'll command your armies in massive battles, which sometimes feature thousands of troops. It's a logical and pleasing division of strategic and tactical elements that sets Shogun apart from many strategy games that try to handle both elements through either a slow turn-based design or manic real-time gameplay.
The original Shogun game plays out in Japan's bloody 16th century, known as the Sengoku Jidai, or Warring States period. With a weak emperor on the throne, rival clan warlords known as Daimyo had struggled to accumulate power in battle after battle. This exotic and brutal period provides the backdrop for a game that's very colorful yet rooted in history. To ensure historical accuracy, the designers have consulted with Dr. Stephen Turnbull, an expert on the period.
The new, additional material in the Warlord Edition takes you back to another dramatic period in Japan's history. In 1274, the great Mongol warlord Kublai Khan dispatched his forces to Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu in the hopes of conquest. The Mongols were beaten back by the Japanese, but that didn't stop the invaders from trying again in 1281. This time, Kublai Khan's fleet was obliterated by a massive typhoon, called the "kamikaze," or divine wind. The Shogun Warlord Edition puts you in the boots of the Mongol invader and Japanese defender. Where the original game focuses on building up and cultivating the land in your efforts to control it, the new material will offer an alternative style of gameplay. Here, the Mongols will concentrate on destruction, pure and simple.
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