Shogun II: Total War - Worth buying?

[Bateluer]

I played the hell out of Rome TW and Medieval 2, but Empire really left a bad taste in my mouth and I've barely logged a dozen hours in it since I bought it. Its my understanding that most of the stability problems were ironed out, but I never really liked the time period much either. Give me swords, bows, axes, and spears over muskets and rifles any day.

How's Shogun 2?

 

[Skott]

I stopped buying CA games after ETW. They constantly release buggy games. And I do mean major buggy games. NTW I skipped. It had lots of problems. Shogun 2 did as well I heard. I imagine they have patched it up some since though. I'm just not going to support their 'Get the buggy thing out now and we'll fix it later' attitude anymore. Thing is for some reason they cant seem to fix some of them bugs and I've seen same ones pop up in release after release of theirs. CA has hit its peak and running out of ideas and quality programmers and programming now I'm thinking. The upside is that the modding community takes their games and makes them much better for those that want to play them.

 

[BD231]

It's a lot of fun for me personally but I've never played any other total war title. After having played this, muskets and rifles sound pretty amusing honestly, might have to give that one a shot.

 

[Zenoth]

I prefer Shogun II over Empire, but still, Shogun II isn't better than Rome or Medieval II, in my opinion, and Medieval II is superb with some nice mods, like Stainless Steel, Rome on the other hand is already awesome without mods and just the official patches. To be honest I only played Shogun II for approximately three hours so far, I got it because it came with my 2600K from NCIX.com during a special sale, so I registered it on Steam and gave it a try. It's more polished than Empire was on release, as of now Empire (not Napoleon) isn't exactly bad, but I just never liked the era, gunpowder and canons just don't cut it for me, I need raw army clashes with swords and shields and arrows, give me that any time over Empire.

Additionally, I prefer the micro-management of your empire in both Rome and Medieval II, Empire's management of your forces and resources was streamlined/simplified, I never understood why since it was working fine the way it is in Rome and Medieval II, I guess they wanted to change it for the sake of trying something new, who knows. From what I've played of Shogun II it does feel better overall than Empire (the management), but I haven't seen enough of it to say that it's more or less streamlined than Rome or Medieval II, what I can say however is that despite the beautiful graphics what I didn't particularly liked about Shogun II is the scale and size of the world map and the soldiers on it, everything is really big... maybe it's my resolution, heh, but anyway Shogun II isn't bad at all, a solid game, but after trying it about two times I never bothered resuming, I lost interest right away and I haven't played it since, and it's still installed right now.

I'd say if you want to give it a try then perhaps wait for this year's holiday sale on Steam, or get it from D2D if it's on sale or something. If you don't mind paying the full price (I'm not sure of its current price) then go for it, it's certainly better than Empire, in my opinion, but Rome and Medieval II are much better. I loved Rome and Medieval II is awesome as well but it's much better with modifications (Empire has mods too, but whatever mods are made for it it won't change its era and the game-play mechanics that goes with that).

 

[Sulaco]

I've played and own every single game in the series.

Picked up the original Shogun when it was released back in 2000, and every subsequent TW game has been a first day purchase for me. It was my "perfect game", there was really nothing else like it.

Personally, I find Shogun 2 to be stellar. It has some drawbacks, but it after logging over 100 hours now (single-player), and who knows how many thousands from the other entires, I think I can fairly say it is one of, if not THE, best entries in the series.

As far as bugs go, Empire was a MESS upon release, and had several game-destroying technical bugs that made it impossible to continue to the next turn sometimes.
Shogun 2's bugs have been relatively nonexistent in comparison, and in my 100 hours+ of playtime, I've had ZERO crashes to desktop, and only a handful of times the game has failed to load.
It is, for all intents and purposes, lightyears beyond Empire at release.

The enemy AI is the best in the series, both on the campaign map and the battlefield. That's not saying it's anywhere near perfect, but miles better than previous entries, with fewer exploits.
The atmosphere, music, sound, graphics, menus and streamlined nature are masterfully done. It really is wonderfully refined and polished.

I could go on and on, but the bottom line is its more than a worthy entry in the series. If you at all enjoy real strategy games, the total war series, the Sengoku Jidai setting, or any and all of the above, it is worth the price and more.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I played the crap out of Shogun 2 (close to 500 hours according to steam(I think this isn't completely accurate though)). I loved Rome and didn't much care for Medival 2 (cavalry never felt right and some other little things); didn't play Empire or Napolean. I like Shogun 2 a lot; probably about the same as Rome. I've only encountered one game breaking bug in all the games I've played too (fleet became unresponsive after I split ships with no movement away from it). They've done a decent job of fixing the annoying bugs that pop up too.

 

[JumBie]

Rome total war was by far the best of the series. For some odd reason, in Rome total war i was actually able to strategize and win games. In Napoleon total war I suck ass, and in shogun 2, don't get me started I cant win a single game.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Rome total war was by far the best of the series. For some odd reason, in Rome total war i was actually able to strategize and win games. In Napoleon total war I suck ass, and in shogun 2, don't get me started I cant win a single game.

Eh? Shogun 2 on normal you can just steamroll the AI. Legendary is a bit tough, but doable.

 

[Madia]

Shogun 2 was the first Total War game I played and I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it enought to pick up Empire gold edition but never really got into Empire or Napoleon. I'd highly recommend Shogun 2 but if you're unsure just download the demo on steam first.

 

[Bateluer]

Hmm, might wait for it to be on a sale then.

 

[PowerYoga]

It goes on sale often enough. I've seen it on sale 3 times, finally grabbed it on the last sale and have been playing it regularly ever since.

By regularly, I mean I've suddenly found myself with the Civilization mentality...

"one... more... turn..."

 

[Madia]

Hmm, might wait for it to be on a sale then.

It's usually on sale on steam everytime they do a big sale (summer, holiday, etc.) The physical copy plays on steam so if you can find that cheap you can just pick that up instead. Amazon has it right now for $30: http://www.amazon.com/Total-War-Shog...1085243&sr=8-2

There's a limited edition but it's not worth the extra money in my opinion.

 

[sigurros81]

The only thing keeping me from picking up Shogun 2 is the settings of the game. Personally not a fan of the feudal Japan settings. Everyone is saying how awesome the game is though.

 

[CPA]

Have been going back and forth on this one, but haven't pulled the trigger yet. (sexual innuendo not intended).

In any case, my current favorite TW game is Napoleon. Tough game, some scripted AI map moves, which suck, at times poor AI combat, but overall good game.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

It's usually on sale on steam everytime they do a big sale (summer, holiday, etc.) The physical copy plays on steam so if you can find that cheap you can just pick that up instead. Amazon has it right now for $30: http://www.amazon.com/Total-War-Shog...1085243&sr=8-2

There's a limited edition but it's not worth the extra money in my opinion.

When I bought the LE, it was the same price as the standard, but yea I wouldn't pay extra for it.