Sunday, May 15, 2011

Total War: Shogun 2 (PC videogame)


Shogun 2 takes place right after the Ōnin Civil War ended at 1477. It was a conflict that brought forth many clans all fighting to take place as the new Shogun of Japan. The player takes control of one of the eight clans and must expand to be feared while keeping balance within its borders.

Shogun 2 is made by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega. It is a mix of Turn Base Strategy and Real Time Tactics (or just Real Time Strategy as others would call it). For this game to be fully amazing in both gameplay and graphics. One MUST have a good computer that can handle it. The units are laid out as seen above when in a battle (if you haven't played a total war game before).

The player starts off with one city, and already a enemy ready to attack (depends on which clan the player starts off with) and must expand in both territory and in economy. The people must be kept happy with food being plentiful and taxes being reasonable. The army must be ready and upgraded as well as the navy. The interesting thing is that (of course) everything has been hardcore turned as the Japanese would do it giving that "honor" feel to it. Alliances and trade are two big deals and can even use an arranged marriage or even use a family member as a hostage to prove that you nor the other clan will break their promise.
The land battles are much more funner (in my opinion) as compared to Total War Napoleon. With there being much more units and using agents such as a ninja which can assassinate generals or sabotage cities and armies. Each having a little cut-scene showing the ninja at work, showing either if he succeeded, failed but lived, or failed but died. Metsuke is a secret agent that can bribe or seek out ninja's and even hidden armies ready to ambush. Monks counter this by using faith to turn people to see the way of your clan, talking people into revolution or talking to the enemy Metsuke/army to give in and either stop or turn over completely.
The whole game itself gives what it can to make you feel like a leader of such a clan. Almost anything you can think of you have control over, which harbor should be a military or a trade port, which city should train my samurai's or just focus on the people being happy and economic growth, what kind of people should I ally with and who should I trade with, who should I use piracy against in order to get more money? etc.
One big thing that I was happy for is the sea battles. They greatly improved and the enemy AI finally appears to know what the hell they are doing in the first place. The ships are amazing which gives a whole new feel to the battle. With cannons only available to only a few ships. One must rely on the arrows (fire arrows are the special attack) or boarding parties to destroy the enemy fleet. 

If you have never played a Total War game or have but couldn't get used to it, give this one a chance. If you are a fan of RTS (Real Time Strategy) then this is a must. There are more to the game but of course I don't want to boar everyone by just droning on about the little (but still awesome) things. It's an experience the player has to see for themselves.

4 comments: