F
inding an entry point
into the Total War
series can feel
overwhelming.
There’s often talk of
historical accuracy or AI failings –
some since rectified with patches –
and in any long-standing series, the
differences between games can be
difficult to track. It makes sense
then to simply pick a game focusing
on the historical time period you’re
most interested in. In my case that’s
Japan’s Sengoku period.
As I’m fond of saying, while other
kids were interested in boy bands and
trading card games, I studied the
blade via accounts of historical sieges
such as the Battle of Kawagoe.
Looking at Shogun 2, developer
Creative Assembly seems to have
been influenced by the same grand
tales I enjoyed so much – tales of
unlikely odds, loyalty and bravery
that get adapted into Japanese
television shows over and over again.
While films such as Akira and
Lord of the Rings make use of
large-scale battles to great effect, up
to this point strategy games with
their overhead views always made
me feel far removed from the action.
By comparison Shogun 2’s love for
detail feels almost oppressive. Like
most Total War games, it consists of
two elements: large-scale real-time
battles, and a turn-based layer of civic
development that takes place on a
map of the different provinces. You
assume control towards the end of
the Sengoku Jidai, when the war was
in full swing. Increasingly unhappy
with the shogunate – the military
government that ruled Japan at the
time – clans started to fight eachother before setting their eyes on
Kyoto, the old capital. You take
charge of one such clan.CHOOSE YOUR CLAN
There are nine clans to choose from
in the base game, each with their
own history and characteristics. This
translates to different starting
positions on the map and a number
of unique bonuses. The differences
between the factions are fairly minor,
since they all belong to one
civilisation and thus developed
roughly at the same speed. This
means you can choose your clan
without having to break out a
detailed chart of pros and cons before
even starting the game. Similarly,
thanks to the map spanning just a
single country, keeping track of your
towns, trade lines and the forces en
route to the next enemy is much
easier than it was in those Total War
gamesthatliterallyspan continents.TOTAL WAR: SHOGUN 2
NEEDTOKNOW
RELEASED
March 15, 2011
PUBLISHER
SEGADEVELOPER
Creative Assembly
LINK
http://www.totalwar.comIssuing orders in Creative Assembly’s strategy series. By Malindy Hetfeld
EXTRALIFE
NOW PLAYING I UPDATE I DIARY I REINSTALL (^) I WHY I LOVE I M U S T P L A Y
In the chaos it can be difficult
to determine who’s winning.