Sorry for being absent for a week; but I’ve been in Japan. Started not far from Kyoto and have been travelling through various provinces. Not always welcome by the citizens to be honest; and at times I had to revert to some rather extreme tactics to gain acceptance. I’ve laid waste to towns, assassinated generals with ninjas, blockaded ports and left thousands dead on the green fields of rural Japan. Yep, I’ve been playing Total War: Shogun 2.
More than ten years ago, the Creative Assembly released a strategy game called Shogun: Total War. The base game was, like many others, a turn based campaign strategy game with diplomacy, trade and loads of warfare. It was the warfare bit that made it special. Bump into a horde of samurai on the campaign map and you were taken to a 3D battlefield to resolve the issue. For the time, the graphics were stunning, and I can still recall the first time I saw the enemy, banners flying, running out of the mist towards me screaming “all our samurai have lighted fools the road to dusty death; bitches”; in Japanese of course.
I played Shogun: Total War for too many hours. Then came Medieval:Total War and I played that for more than too many hours. Next was Rome:Total War which was the best in the series to date and a substantial part of 2005 was lost to plodding around the Mediterranean kicking Roman butt.
Maybe I was suffering from Total War overload, but the next titles in the series, Medieval II: Total War, Empire: Total War and Napoleon: Total War did not get my personal attention beyond buying them and sticking them on the shelf. Overly complex, initially bug-ridden and requiring a level of commitment I was not prepared to give them to learn the details.
But now, a decade on, the Creative Assembly have released Total War: Shogun 2 and I am in love again.
It’s 16th century Japan and you are a warlord in charge of a province. Your goal is to rule all Japan. Ready? Go!
Initially, it’s all a bit overwhelming and bewildering. So many options to choose. How to develop my province? What armies should I be building? Who should I ally with and shall I give them my daughter as a hostage? What skills should I develop? My choice was to build a mini-army as soon as possible and go in search of someone to bully. I left my warlord alone in my city and told him to behave himself while I was away. He was fine for a couple of turns, then one of my neighbours turned up and destroyed the city and killed my rather surprised warlord; game over.
Started again and then cocked up my economy by upgrading my main city at the expense of food, thus depriving my populace of sufficient nourishment for several years which seemed to piss them off somewhat. After that it all went a little better and I was soon pillaging in the finest traditions of old Japan. Forty years on and thirty hours of real life lost; it is clear I will not make the objectives set for me; but it has been fun trying and I will start again soon and hope for more success in the pillage department.
This is by far the best offering in the Total War series. It looks beautiful, it’s steeped in the traditions of old Japan, and it is just complex enough to offer a continuing challenge without becoming overwhelming. I anticipate much time wasting over the coming months; starting with now as I have a particularly tasty geisha primed to assassinate a troublesome enemy general.
Syonara.
Comments 🔗
2011-04-13| Ron saysSo that’s where you’ve been. No formula one this year?
2011-04-14| Spike saysEven a samurai takes time out for F1.