First of all the clan system seems to be tailored to this style of turn based strategy, it’s starting with something small and gaining more and more power as you try to eliminate or bring alongside your opponents. I’ve been trying to put my finger on exactly what it is and this is what I’ve come up with. The campaign mode in Shogun 2 works beautifully, there’s something about the medieval Japanese era that suits Total War down to the ground.
I know from experience that Total War games can be a little daunting at first, if anyone remembers the instruction manual (perhaps tome would be better) from the original Shogun, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Even as a long term fan of the Total War series, I’m glad to see these tutorials are as thorough and easy to use as they are. The tutorials cover from the very basics of unit movement to more intricate details like new unit special abilities. I should also mention that there’s a great set of tutorials in Shogun 2 for both the veteran and the newer player. So, if you want to explore the Master of Arts technology trees, build up a fleet for some naval escapades or simply get straight into producing a land army you’re good to go. I managed to complete one campaign which I’d estimate took me around twelve to fourteen hours so, as always, there’s a hell of a lot of single player content available.Īs already mentioned in the campaign you can please yourself really - there is a turn limit, 120 by my calculations - but it’ll take you a good while to hit that limit. These varying situations make some clans harder to play than others at the start and the game does give you a nice little intro for each clan as to how you might want to go about successfully becoming the Shogun, whether you listen to this advice is totally up to you. Each clan starts with a different situation, so basically you have nine separate campaigns to play through, though the goal of re-uniting Japan under your rule is always the same. First off you have to pick one of nine different clans who each offer different bonuses, for example if you’re someone who likes the idea of using a lot of cavalry you’ll want to try out the Takeda, who benefit from bonuses such as improved morale and cheaper upkeep of cavalry units. Shogun 2 offers a couple of one off battle modes, historic battles and custom battles, which are good fun if you just want to drop in and take control of an army, but the real linchpin to Shogun’s single player is the campaign mode.
It’s a blend that’s made Total War one of the most popular PC series and I’ll say right now that Shogun 2 is not a disappointment. The thing that really distinguishes Total War from its rival strategy games is that you take control of your clan in turn-based gameplay on a continent map, as well as taking direct control of the battles in a real-time strategy situation. Total War: Shogun 2 needs very little introduction, but I’ll spare a little time as not all PC gamers are wizend old husks who’ve been tapping away since 2000, or in many cases well before! So then, Shogun 2 takes the player back to 16th century medieval Japan where, in the single player campaign, you take charge of one of nine Japanese clans and you use military, economic and diplomatic tactics to re-unite Japan and become Shogun. But, with the return of Shogun, it seems that unique Total War blend of both turn-based and real-time strategy has lost none of its appeal. I can’t believe that it’s been eleven years since the release of that flagship PC title.
On March 15th we saw the release of the latest game in the Total War strategy series, this release takes us back to where it all began with the sequel to Shogun: Total War.