Click Here To Listen To Game Intro.
Hi all! Welcome to my third review here for this site, on a game I just recently purchased. Shogun: Total War takes place in Japan sometime in early part of Japanese history. You will fight other clans to determine who will hold the title of Shogun, the ruler of all Japan. On your trip, you will need to go to war, and take land, and sometimes you will need to find need in your diplomatic side and befriend your enemies, and sometimes you will even have to sink to that really low level, and kill in secret....Good for you, you've got a Geisha! The ultra-smart killer ____! (This game, literally is like two seperate games. As such this review will take much that same form, I'll review the in-campaign mode stuff, and then the in battle stuff.)
The idea behind this game, is that you are one of the Japanese Clans in 1542. You make your choice in the begining of the game, and each clan has its own advantages and disadvantages, you might just choose some clans cause they look so damn cool, but in the end your goal is to become the leader in Japan, the Shogun, and you will find out all too soon that the end, many times, justifys the means, as alliances are formed, and old ones crumble, you will be forced to defend yourself in many ways, and you always need soldiers on your borders, ready to strike at any moment.
The gameplay in the campaign mode, is very good. You have complete control over your clan's economy, production of soldiers/weapons, and even the religous, and diplomatic aspects of life. Its all very simple of course, you drag units over to where you want to move them, and you drop them there, and the production of units is all very similar to other Real Time Strategy games, the exception of course being that the campaign is set up in a turned based enviroment.
The in battle controls are easy to follow, you simply have to adapt from whatever strategy game you've been playing to shogun. This really got on my nerves at first, because right click will bring up a menu for selected unit, and left click is what you use to tell them to walk/run. The formation controls are not that hard, you click on the formation the unit assembles into it. One thing I've found very helpful about this game is the status bar, it tells you that selected unit is 'winning easily' or 'losing badly' and often helps decide the outcome of the battle. The interface will majorly help you in this aspect, as it shows you what units are routed (tired an running away) and what units are winning.
The in-campaign mode graphics are very pleasing. Its set up like a board game, but is highly detailed, with an easy to use interface. The cinematics are also seen from this point in the game, be it your Geisha killing someone, the Crowning of a new heir in your dynasty, and of course the only full screen cutscenes, being those where you must talk to European traders, who would like to, 'build churches in your reigon and take your gold'. These cutscenes are peticularly well done as they interact with the sound quite well.
In battle graphics are also very good. The terrain is most impressively detailed, right from trees, down to birds, and even the elements of weather. The couple problems I have with the graphics in this game, is that the soldiers, while from a distance look good, are truly 2d animated charectars. If you stay zoomed out, however, its an easy thing to overlook. Most the time you need to see the entire regiments status anyway, so you wont be looking at just one soldier.
The sound in the campaign mode, is as you can imagine, similar to a board game! The only difference is, every four seasons, your little assistant will give you a voice breifing on the economic status of the empire.... [insert sound here] You will also get breifings on seiges on enemy castles, you'll be told of traders coming, and where they land. The traders and emissaries offer some of the most interesting wav files in the game. They will ask for an alliance in their own unique ways, and will react depending on if you agree with them, or disagree.
Trader Voice --- Farm Report --- Pre Battle Music --- Bad News...
The sound in this game is fitting for era. As you can imagine the battlefield has all the aspects during the battle, and even before it. When you're setting up your soldiers, you can hear rain, the birds flying near by, and of course the men marching. When you decided to go into battle, you hear some sort of war chant, doesnt make much sense to me, but adds to the tension on the battlefield.
This is a good game, and didn't disappoint me, I'm sure it won't disappoint you.
