captaind's Full Review: Shogun: Total War Warlord Edition for Windows
Aauurgh! Help, someone!!! I cant stop playing this game, its taking over my life!!! .
Overview
Er right. Now that Ive managed to drag myself away from the game for a minute, Ill actually write the review
Based in medieval Japan, Shogun: Total War Warlords Edition is a strategy game where you play the leader of a clan, trying to become the Shogun, or absolute ruler of Japan. Under your control are not only your armies, but also the economy, technological development, and the happiness of the people living in your lands. Also, each individual battle can be controlled personally by yourself.
First Impressions
Wow. Everything about this game oozes class. From the slick interface to rendered movie clips, this game just impresses in each detail. The game is quite hard to master at first, even on easy level, but thats because of challenge rather than frustration. At first I kept thinking my army units were ignoring me until I understood a bit more about how the game worked, but then it made sense.
Interface
The interface is quite in-depth since there are many levels of complexity to this game, but the tutorial explains them well and is even (shock horror probe) quite fun to go through. (I normally find tutorials to be extremely tedious!) You control the building, research, and production in each province under your control, as well as army units, spies, emissaries, and ninjas. (You can assign your ninjas assassination missions, and a little video clip comes up showing the mission and its outcome.) As your various generals, army units, etc gain more victories, they are assigned Honour Points, which increases their future effectiveness. There are keyboard short-cuts for everything, and despite the amazing depth of the game, most controls become intuitive very quickly.
Difficulty
Oh its hard, but for all the right reasons. You seem to learn from each battle, each mistake. Even when opposing rulers are completely defeated, after a while there might be an ancestor appear who attempts to reform the clan as a major power. This can be really annoying, but certainly keeps things interesting! There are several difficulty levels, and at the beginning of the main game you choose a clan, each of which starts in a different position, has different strengths and weaknesses, and can produce different army units at the beginning. There are also several historical campaigns and battles, again with varying difficulty levels (in addition to the overall difficulty level).
Oh and by the way, just when you unite Japan under your rule, you have to fend of the invasion of Kublai Khan and his pesky Mongols
Aesthetics
The sound FX are impressive, and the music is pretty good, though often sounds more Indian than Japanese to me! The graphics are very impressive, from the trails of dust that can be seen after your army has moved, to the detailed terrains (you can just occasionally see the join points of the terrain but its really not a problem), to the tiny animated soldiers, each distinct and surprisingly detailed considering that a thousand can be on screen at the same time! (And all this with no noticeable slow-down not on my GeForce4, anyway). The scenes of carnage following a battle are amazing, like a miniaturised version of the opening battle scene in Gladiator. (Okay I know that was Roman armies, but the principle is the same )
Will You Still Be Playing it in 6 Months Time?
Most definitely. With the difficulty levels, different clans you can be, historical battles and campaigns, the only real danger is that you forget to live your normal life in the meantime
Is it Worth the Money?
Without any doubt. This is the most impressive strategy game Ive ever seen on any system. Even better than the excellent Civilisation 3: Call To Power, IMHO.
Oh, and one other thing this review doesnt even touch on the multiplayer options, as I havent looked at them yet!
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Final Ratings
Graphics: - 95% - the detail in these little critters is amazing considering how many of them are on screen at the same time!
Sound: - 88% - in the main, excellent, though the music has a distinctly un-Japanese feel at times not that I know much about Japanese music
Playability: - 94% - considering how complex the gameplay is, the intuitive nature of the gameplay is a real marvel.
Longevity: - 99% - if you complete everything the game has to throw at you in under 5 years of solid playing, Ill eat my hat. Or if not, Ill eat your hat.
Replay Value: - 90% - sometimes the battles etc can get a bit repetitive, but due to the number of different units etc available, thats not very often.
Value For Money: - 100% - this game will last you forever. And I got it for less than a fiver
Overall Rating: - 95% - could a strategy game be any more perfect than this? I think not.
System Requirements (Minimum):
Pentium II 266
4X D-Rom Drive
64Mb RAM
4Mb DirectX 8.0a compatible 3D card
DirectX 8.0a compatible sound card
For multiplayer 56Kbps modem / TCP/IP LAN
Cant remember for the minimum install, but for the full install you need 1.6Gb (yup 2 CDs packed to capacity) free HD space.
Related Links
Although this game is not directly based on James Clavells epic novel, there are obvious similarities. So for your viewing enjoyment (and er hoping I get a few more page views), I present the following reviews of Shogun:
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