This inequality has finally been addressed though and enemy generals now take proper advantage of naval attacks and invasions – one of the main failings of the last game.Īlthough their strategic importance is absolute, given you’re fighting over an island, the naval battles themselves are greatly simplified over Empire: Total War. Here you must train new troops and also construct buildings to improve your cultural and technological status.Īlthough the battle artificial intelligence has always been solid your rivals on the strategy map have traditionally been less reliable. The strategic happenings on the world map are, by their nature, more sedate but no less engrossing. Beat them and the feeling of achievement is overpowering. The artificial intelligence in the real-time battles is excellent, with enemy generals willing and able to set up ambushes, hide troops and generally make life difficult. The make-up of your army is of vital importance with spearmen, cavalry, infantry and archers all forming a complex web of interdependencies – although the total number of troops is far lower than previous Total Wars. The controls are if anything simpler though and genuine military tactics are required to win. With grander strategic choices taking place on the world map, the real-time battles are somewhat in the mould of something like Command & Conquer.

Watching a previously hidden cadre of cavalry charge into the back of a formation of spearmen – throwing the front ranks high into the air, through the weight of the impact – is amazing. Tens of thousands of individually animated warriors can be seen on screen at once, across a rolling landscape of exquisitely detailed beauty. Nobody’s going to take that option unless it’s a genuinely trivial skirmish though, because the battles continue to represent one of the most stunning achievements in video game graphics. The main campaign game is split between a turn-based map of Japan, with battles being resolved in real-time (unless you decide to skip them and have them auto-resolved by the computer). In terms of basic set-up, Shogun 2 doesn’t do anything differently than previous Total War offerings, which were set in medieval Europe, ancient Rome and the Napoleonic era.

Shogun 2 total war art