Well lets start off by saying that this is a Total War game, and thus should be a wonderful strategy game to make veteran wargamers weep tears of joy. Shogun 2 is not this, no Shogun 2 is the Total War game with broken....well everything for the most part. Lets examine the Difficulty I gave first- Very Hard. This game is not very hard because the A.I. was expertly programmed by strategic geniuses, no this game is very hard because the A.I. is incapable of translating player commands into what the player actually wants done. Want to do a cavalry charge? Well just try to give that squishy unit of undefended infantry two clicks (one to attack, two to make your unit run to attack) and your cavalry will run weapons pointed at the enemy, ready to kill those....wait did they just stop directly in front of them?? Yes, yes they did and now the cavalry that should be incredibly strong against infantry are all dead in pools of their own blood and incompetence. And as this is a Total War game archers are not the historically accurate ranged killing machines but squishy piles of nothing that ineffectually throw small pebbles at the enemy. So that leaves your effective roster of units with infantry, so I decided what the hey Ill just choose the faction that specializes in sword infantry and pump them up and I should have a decent chance right? Wrong, your infantry are all comprised of small children that are more likely to stab themselves with that masterwork sword then they are the hordes of merciless killing machines the enemy is equipped with. And that brings me to the way you level up your Family Members and Generals (the only units that can act as governors for your cities and without one in an army your troops are even worse then normal) who as stated fulfill a role not only as warriors but also as statesman, treasurers, all number of things peace related. They have a wonderful assortment of Perks to choose from at level ups that have such varied effects as making the city they are in happier to bonuses to their personal attack power. And seeing how half their duties are peaceful, just sticking them in a city should level them up for that right? Wrong, you can only get a wonderful peaceful poet governor by having him slaughter X number of random enemies which is a jarring idiosyncracy to say the least. So heres how a typical grand campaign goes, create units to have your general lead to their deaths in battles that you resolve automatically because the inevitable loss of half your force is better then the loss of its entirety you would incur if you foolishly dared lead it yourself, realize that each unit has such a large upkeep cost that at the beginning of the game keeping a single overmap unit at full strength (and it must be at full strength because if not then every single battle you undertake against even ONE unit will result in failure) quickly bankrupts you, quit game and pop in Rome Total War to get the bad taste out of your mouth. But hey on the bright side, Shogun 2 has nice diplomacy :P
THE GOOD: -Beautiful artistic and technical graphics -Excellent campaign with varied tactical approaches -Ambitious and rewarding multiplayer -Enjoyable battles on both land and sea THE BAD: -No DirectX 10 or 11 ... Read Full Review
This game is the pinnacle of Total War series to date. Unlike Medieval 2 that tried to include too many things all at once, and ended up a nightmare in terms of balancing and bug/glitch issues. (M2:TW was still a goo... Read Full Review
