For the last 4 or 5 hours I've been laying here in bed playing Shogun 2. Holy sh!t this game is Awesome!!! I just can't say that enough. I'm on normal difficulty and from a campaign perspective, I'm just holding my own. I started my campaign as the Shimazu Clan. So far I've managed to take 3 cities while holding off the combined alliance attacks of two of my enemies. That's right, Combined Attacks. Allies actually help each other do battle on a regular occasion. They plan and coordinate strikes. The diplomatic AI is great in Shogun 2, which to my knowledge is a true first for the series at launch. I just had a pitched battle against one of my enemies and won verses 2 to 1 odds, but took heavy casualties. At the end of that battle, that particular enemy sued for peace, which I took.
The battle AI is much improved as well. I can't really use Empire:TW as an example as the mechanics are different, so I'll use Med2. The battle AI attacks head on without delay when on the offensive, defends smartly when on the defensive, and knows when to pull back and regroup. The only small complaint I've found in the battle AI is from time to time the AI knows when I tell my cavalry to attack a bow unit and the bow unit starts running before my cavalry even gets there. It's like it detects the attack "click". When I tell my cavalry to move to behind the enemy bow units instead of clicking on them to attack I get the surprise attack I wanted to begin with.
I imagine under heavy scrutiny there might be a few other small quarks, but, over-all I'd have to say both the strategic and battle AI in Shogun 2 are Much Improved over the other games in the series. To call Shogun 2 anything other than a "Masterpiece of Strategy Gaming" would be a flat out lie. The full game is Way Improved over the demo. The demo was good and I'd say 85% accurate of the final product, but, there have been improvements since the demo to the full release. The graphics, simply put, are Amazing. They bring a feeling and atmosphere to the game that almost makes you feel like you're really in feudal Japan. The sound track for the game, with it's heavy use of Japanese drumming is killer as well. The battles feel truly Epic, they really do, and I haven't even gotten to the point where I fight with the maximum allowed number of units yet.
Other companies need to sit up and take notice. Shogun 2 is everything a grand strategic war-game needs to be, plain and simple. The campaign map is vibrant and feels alive. The strategic AI is a genuine challenge, and the battle AI, while of course not as good as a fellow human, is leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the TW series at launch.
After I've spent some real time in the campaign I'll post a proper review or an A.A.R. or something for those wanting one. So far though, the game is as close to war-gaming perfection as I've ever seen at launch. If you liked any of the other TW games, Don't Miss Shogun 2, period.
Man, I miss the old school NES version of that game....*sigh* memories.
Wow nice! Gonna have to check that out once a sale hits. Thanks.
You can always auto resolve but don't cheat yourself. Play the realtime battles and see how detailed they are.
Indeed
Like all cool online games, after the first few weeks of good games it gets ruined by the chumps after their rankings...
Although it was a bit of an oversight on the developers part not to give a loss to people disconnecting at the last minute.
Online=Ruined.
Still there's still single player and MP campaign with friends
Excuse me, one last question if I may:
I have DLed the demo and like what I have seen so far. However, I am so unfamiliar with the franchise (never played a TW product before) that I am uncertain what the full game actually comprises -- may I ask? I mean this: I am NOT looking for a primarily MP game (I have my MP fix elsewhere), I am looking to play Shogun TW purely single-player: Is there a sandbox mode? Or is there only one "campaign" = 1 story, and then the SP aspect is over? (So sort of like Warcraft III, if anyone remembers that.) Or can you continue to play with different setups against the AI in various modes afterwards?
Thanks so much for your time
With MP ruined and Sengoku probably ending up a better Shogun 2 SP experience (Paradox's attempt at it comes later this year), I might as well pack this game up.
Had a good couple of weeks, and the GG store credit got me some nice stuff, so was worth it, barely.
To cool down the OP apparent fanboism a bit. I tried it, and I was not much impressed, specifically:
1) The AI is only made to look good, but is not really much batter. CAI is not better at planning or recruiting, so it is helped by conjuring whole armies out of thin air (confirmed). BAI still sucks at sieges.
2) Battles are unrealistically fast, archers are overpowered. Unlike in previous titles where arrows flied according to laws of physics, arrows in S2 are homing missiles. Cavalry is quite useless
3) Fantasy units like heavily armored women with naginata appear in the game (Onna Bushi). Ninja appear on battlefields.
4) Oda clan, which was most powerful at the time, gets killed on turn 2.
5) Multiplayer is broken
6) The game shipped with only DX9 support. Visuals are much worse than in Empire - units are super-glossy, light looks like twillight on Mars with a strange, unearthly orange tint. No AA means everything is jagged. Combat animations a stiff and jerky.
Other than that, the gameplay is solid, and if not for the cheating AI, it could be actually enjoyable.
Archers can miss thier target, I thought they homed at first until I really looked but they are just really accurate at moving targets. If the target moves in a different direction after the arrows are in the air they miss.
Oda's death is halrious, they need to give him some more troops or something.
Just because Oda came out victorious doesn't mean they started out as most powerful. Imagawa marched against them with an army of 20 000 - 40 000. Oda beat them with 5000 men in the battle of Okehazama.
I like the fact that the clans selectable by the player often start out outnumbered and force you to actually think a bit. However, I do agree that it would be nice to see an AI controlled Oda alive for a bit longer.
And I've also witnessed archers missing their target by a wide margin. This happens most often when I have a general close to the frontline and move him away when he gets under fire by archers.
Sieges have had some funky AI behavior, but I've also seen my closest Total War battles since the first Medieval. Including a Legendary siege battle. Not having a mini-map makes the AI more impressive. A siege started out with a large AI force on one side of the castle, nothing visible elsewhere. I figured that force to be the AI army and moved my forces to that side. A while later I was surprised by spearman climbing up the oher side of the walls. The AI had deployed spearmen on the other side of the castle, hidden by the forests. Without a mini-map to use, it was almost too late to react by the time I saw them. It was a great battle which I barely won!
Sure, the game isn't "perfect". Nothing is. But I consider Shogun 2 the pinnacle of Total War games so far.
I've had to stop playing this. I always like the playing field to be even in my video games - because having fun is more important to me than overcoming the challenge. This doesn't mean I want to fight battles with the same number of troops on each side or something similar. I simply prefer that all players are subject to the same rules.
So in my game I have maybe ten provinces; Imagawa or somebody has 13-15 and voraciously taking any tract of land I can. Here I am, about to have the entire world come down on my neck because I raised the shogun's Ire, so what I want to do is stockpile. Build defenses for the coming storm. But I know in my heart the a.i. doesn't operate by the same rules and I know that Imagawa will take every bit of land without the Shogun declaring them enemies of Japan.
I really don't like that, that I'm subject to some crazy set of rules that limits how I play while the a.i. isn't. Other than that the game is fun, though I do miss the riflemen and varied artillery of Empire TW. I haven't even tried, at this point, to beat the campaign I started - I'm sure I could beat it or, at worst, run out of time (another rule I despise: the time limit), but I have a crippling fear of facing the rest of Japan. Because knowing from Empire and recon i nthis game, no matter how crippled a clan is; they could be hemorrhaging gold, the clan always has at least 15 units waiting to strike. Without the heavier fortifications of Empire (the cannons on the side of the fort) I don't feel comfortable fighting a war on like 10 different fronts.
Edit: Reading the comment before mine, Yeah, Shogun 2 isn't perfect. It is a really good strategy game, though, and likely the best of the genre has to offer in recent memory. My problem with the game isn't the little janky problems with it but the time period. The tiered forts are interesting, but ultimately, considering archers can fire into them quite effectively, very tiring. I don't like having mostly melee troops either, because they have to run through enemy fire to get the chance to be useful, and because ranged and melee units are seperate, unlike Empire (ignoring native Americans) I have to constant;y watch my archers to make sure they're okay. Watch them to make sure they're in range. Watch them to make sure they're not hitting my melee. Man, I just really miss artillery. I miss teh carcass shot and the shotgun shot... shot.
Have you tried the multiplayer? Wouldn't that let you face an opponent on an even playing field?
No, they did not. The Tokogowa clan was eventually successful in taking over the shogunate in 1600 and were the ruling power in Japan from 1600 to 1867 when the 14th Tokogowa Shogun relinquished power to the emperor.
While I will not go as far as to say this game is in fact better than Rome:TW, it is definitely better than every TW game since Rome.
Haha, yeah I tried multiplayer. Had to shelve that too though because I got my ass handed to me. I can't win for losing, haha.
But seriously, even though I stopped playing multiplayer, I did pick up the skirmish mode against the A.I. and every oncei n a while I do a practice battle with a bunch of units I normally wouldnt use. It's really helpful. Like I said in my previous post though, I'm really just scared of all the other clans attacking me at once. Other than that, it's just standard strategy game fare - beat the learning curve and begin to gain some skill.
Yes, Tokugawa Ieyasu was the one to found the new Shogunate. By the time he did that, Sengoku Jidai was already over. Unification of Japan was started by Oda Nobunaga and concluded by his successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi. During his reign, he ruled all Japan and organized the invasion of Korea. Tokugawa Ieyasu succeeded him, defeating a rival successor in the battle of Sekigahara.
"Like Nobunaga before him, Hideyoshi never achieved the title of shogun. Instead, he arranged to have himself adopted into the Fujiwara Regents House, and secured a succession of high imperial court titles including, in 1585 the prestigious position of regent"
It's not always so clear-cut in history as in games
I have been reading all these posts for weeks now and finally played the demo. My video card sucks so I had to play on low video settings and still enjoyed the demo. I am off to upgrade to a modest card (Radeon HD 6850) that includes a free copy of the game from Newegg for $164. Looking forward to all the pretty battles.
I have a question for those who have played Shogun 2. In the he last game that I played, Medieval 2, pathfinding was horrible. Specifically, I'm referring to movement of troops on walls and through the very narrow streets of a city. Does that problem still linger in this game?
For those that are concerned but looking for something that will increadibly change, update, and improve (significantly) your old Medieval 2 experience, download the Kingdom's Grand Campaign Mod and then over top of that mod place Heroes, Hoardes and Beyond.
It enhances the game a over a million percent.
I think the pathfinding is probably as bad as ever, but the actual problem you're asking about is not present in Shogun 2. The castles have been designed to fit the game a lot better. Since castles were introduced in Rome, they always had a wall, followed by narrow roads to the town centre and with a large space there. Now the walls are a bit different, they are on the same elevation level as the ground behind them. No narrow roads behind them, just basically a large open space with a few buildings here and there. Pathfinding doesn't have any troubles in this terrain.
In a word YES the pathfinding is as terrible as ever. You can test this yourself:
1 unit outside a wall
select the 1 unit
click at a spot inside the wall
the 1 unit will start filing into the castle to that spot
click the same spot again (test even when not having moved the mouse from that spot) and the unit will start reversing going who knows where
click the same spot a third time and the unit will reverse again now heading back to the spot clicked.
Now imagine that scenario with more than 1 unit. Enough said, and the sole reason I no longer play siege battles if I'm the attacker. Auto-resolve has sadly taken over...
I've never noticed that. Never tried clicking "inside the wall", whatever that means. The ground beyond the wall I assume?
I always move my mouse over to the wall. Then the mouse cursor changes to a ladder icon. Click. Unit climbs wall at that position.
By the way, since this has made you auto-resolve all sieges: Why do you order attacks into the castle and then abort them? I've always maneuvered my units right outside the walls and then wait for the right moment to go over.
Well, it have surprise me but it seem that similar rules are applied to the AI... Have just receive the order from the shogun to attack a AI who was with a lot of regio... was surprised to see other AI begin to attack him too... have not participate to the massacre, only take town from the AI who have rebels... 5 year and i was the stronger, other army have kill each other... time to become shogun
Well, you can have soldier with gun or artillery in Shogun too... same Hero archer have not half of the range from the artillery... gunner have short range but deadly... can build European ship or capture more powerful one ( black ship or trader ship )... christianity is a hell more effective that traditional religion too, perfect for create revolt, demoralise army, convert ennemy general, etc...
But yes, the game is not perfect... mainly for the blue screen ( have not see them in year ) or direct crash to the desktop... stability of these shogun game is not very good... hope that patch will resolve the numerous little problem from these game...
So far I have really enjoyed shogun 2. The only trobbel I have with the game is the incredblay long load times but that is coused by steam and the .pak files.
I have not tryed multi player since I consider multi player a distraction to stratgy games. but the single player exsprance that I care about has been veray good.
The AI makes me pay attaintion to the game I can't just march across the map with a single army. I like that thay readded speches pre battel and gave the clan bonuses and best of all gave provances bunuses again. that had been lacking in totle war since mediavel 1. wich is still there best of the serous.
I would say shogun has returned to the level of Rome, after the decline in mid eveil 2 and empire it is moving in the correct direction. and navel battel in shagoun 2 aculy work corectly un like in empire were navel battles, were just best to be auto reslved since the AI ignored wind totly.
Well, the great thing with Shogun is that you can win with a single army...
Have just won a game where i have never fight a other clan until the Kyoto area... elverywhere else, i use cleric for create revolte and ninja for assassinate/sabotage... after, a single army can retake the city controlled by rebel without problem... all this without go to war with a other clan...
More great is that you have a experience "tree" for general, cleric, ninja, etc... cleric can gain experience who increase you civilian research, general for the military research...
With Shogun 2, you have several ways who can lead to victory... brute force is not the only option...
Just discover it today... if you take Kyoto and become shogun before your fame is too much high, only neutral clan become your enemy ( due to "divided realm" )... Allied clan remain allied and don't attack you when your fame become max later... Seem logical since YOU are now the Shogun...
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
