By John Walker on September 13th, 2011 at 10:05 am.
Have you heard of Total War Shogun 2? I think it’s a rip-off of that new Paradox game, but with bigger battles. Will Porter played the latest DLC for it – Rise Of The Samurai – for us a couple of weeks back, and now there’s the first trailer for the DLC, which I’ve hidden from enemies below.
So apparently there’s this one terrible bottle for control of Japan.
I don’t know what the bottle does, or what’s in it, but I assume it’s some kind of all-conquering genie. He presumably helps the six new clans in the new Samurai-including campaign, which offers single player, co-op and versus multiplayer.
It’s due out for download later this month.
13/09/2011 at 10:14 HexagonalBolts says:
I just replayed Total War 2 and finished my Chosokobe campaign today, it’s so much tighter and neater than Empire but I wish it had some of the ambition, vastness and variety.
Even these units and factions they are adding in the DLC don’t stray that far from what was already there – it was already possible to recruit various female warriors, monk warriors and horse archers, and those clans (that are essentially just described as warriors) don’t sound like they’re going to be especially distinguishable from the pre-existing ones…
Although a narrower focus is probably the price to pay for a game that isn’t riddled with bugs.
13/09/2011 at 10:31 Grygus says:
To be fair, you can’t recruit female warriors in the vanilla game – they are only available as reinforcements when you are defending a large castle, which doesn’t typically happen often (and almost never if you’re properly managing your food supply.)
I agree that the homogenous nature of the clans and units is the main flaw in Shogun 2, but given the setting it’s pretty much inevitable.
13/09/2011 at 11:57 GenBanks says:
Hopefully the next major DLC will feature some kind of new culture, whether it’s Chinese, Mongols or Koreans. Ideally added into the vanilla campaign (not Mongols I guess, since they tried to invade about 200ish years before it…)
13/09/2011 at 10:16 Dina says:
Samuari, indeed.
13/09/2011 at 10:25 Revs says:
I tried campaign on legendary about 6-8 times, once survived about 30 seasons, but hope never dies. I will try in few weeks again:)
Addict
13/09/2011 at 10:43 Askeladd says:
Its possible to win but you need diplomacy luck. Alone you won’t beat the cheating AI that conjures one samurai army after another out of thin air every round.
13/09/2011 at 11:46 GenBanks says:
The inability to save on legendary difficulty I find crippling…
Tbh, even Hard difficulty is really tricky for me as certain clans like Takeda.
13/09/2011 at 14:35 BodyByCake says:
One of the devs said that the computer does not cheat in that it does not makes units out of thin air. The only cheating that happens are the ones listed (extra money, higher moral etc)
13/09/2011 at 10:28 Revs says:
Well maybe its all beacaus i didnt know about existence of Samuari, its must be powerfull unit indeed…
13/09/2011 at 10:54 caddyB says:
I’d still prefer Medieval 3.
Oh well.
13/09/2011 at 11:18 Ysellian says:
There have already been 2 Medieval games. I’d prefer another Rome or ancient China.
13/09/2011 at 11:21 Ed123 says:
Don’t be greedy, you already had two of them. How about some love for Rome?
13/09/2011 at 11:26 John Connor says:
I’ll second this, if nobody else will. Medieval 2 is still my favorite in the franchise.
13/09/2011 at 11:47 GenBanks says:
Total War: Rome 2!!
Nothing is cooler than a Roman legion. You can be as cool, but not cooler.
13/09/2011 at 12:01 CMaster says:
What’s so wrong with Rome or Medieval 2 (and there isn’t already a mod to fix) that you need a new version for? More interesting surely would be a Three Kingdoms or pre-imperial India or something like that game.
13/09/2011 at 12:01 caddyB says:
Rome is fine too, come to think.
I mean feudal Japan is all flash but I feel like it lacks scope.
13/09/2011 at 14:21 Stellar Duck says:
I say Rome as well!
Imagine being able to move the cohorts with the new controls. I’d be able to move in formation without risking chaos! It will be glorious!
Also, I feel that however polished Shogun 2 is, it’s just not catching me. There is so little scope to things. No matter who wins in the end, it just doesn’t feel like it matters. It’s just Japan, and I know that on the other side of the globe there are much more interesting things going on.
Shogun 2 is simply too narrow and provincial to me. It’s a very insular game that doesn’t really look outside itself. But then I guess that was Japan for you at this point in time.
Add to that the fact that most units are called some incomprehensible Japanese gibberish and I just can’t care a lot for the game.
So, Rome!
Ceterum autem censeo, Carthaginem esse delendam
13/09/2011 at 17:42 Joof says:
As opposed to all the units being named from some incomprehensible dead language?
13/09/2011 at 18:08 leeder krenon says:
i’d like to see world war 2. or 1.
13/09/2011 at 18:10 Stellar Duck says:
I’m very well aware of my hypocrisy. :D
The difference is, the dead language I understand, while Japanese is nonsense to me.
Edit: I should add, that I’m just stating why I don’t really connect with Shogun 2. I’m not saying that everybody thinks this way.
13/09/2011 at 11:01 larchy says:
Don’t they know that strategy games just aren’t contemporary? Not interested until they do an FPS version for the Xbox.
13/09/2011 at 12:02 caddyB says:
At least they got the co-op part right.
13/09/2011 at 11:05 Anders Wrist says:
Best Total War so far. I’m looking forward to playing the new campaigns.
13/09/2011 at 11:26 John Connor says:
Still wish we could have more than 2 players in the campaign. It might be hard to believe, but some people have more than one friend.
13/09/2011 at 11:42 luckystriker says:
Alright now, no need to boast of your friend-liness ;)
13/09/2011 at 11:49 GenBanks says:
That would be cool but I guess they have a hard time justifying the effort… look at the statistic on the global achievement stats page for the % of Shogun 2 players who have completed a coop campaign.
13/09/2011 at 12:32 John Connor says:
They need to set up something like the Britannia expansion for Medieval. A smaller, more focused region to fight over would be perfect for a versus/co-op that doesn’t take days to play.
13/09/2011 at 12:24 hjarg says:
If only it wouldn’t take my fleet about 10 years to reach from northern edge of Japan to southern, i’d be one happy puppy.
13/09/2011 at 14:35 BodyByCake says:
Ugh comment system fail :(