Shogun: Total War

The Good
"Shogun: Total War" is a beautiful game. Visually, it's a feast for the eyes from the menu screens to the blood-soaked fields of battle. The Japaneseness of the game is pretty and immersive. The battles themselves are a feast for the eyes - soldiers march, fight, and die on remarkably well-rendered battlefields. Arrows fly through the air and horses balk in fear. The voice acting is excellent.

The tactical battles are simply outstanding; you can play them for hours. They're substantially better than the tactical battles in any other historical game of this type. The game is much helped by a pretty decent set of tutorial missions.

The Bad
Despite the fine tactical simulator, the game is very shallow. Strategic play is boring and largely devoid of depth; to be honest, a linear set of battles to play wouldn't have been any worse. That's unfortunate, because with a really good strategic system like "Europa Universalis" or the old Koei games, "Shogun" might have been a true masterpeice.

The Bottom Line
Pretty good, but not much long-term interest.

The Good
This is the game that every droopy-eyed grognard has spent years of his life slaving over basement battlefields trying to create. Shogun: Total War is, to put it bluntly, miniatures wargaming heaven. If you like pushing toy soldiers around miniature battlefields but could do without the pushing part, this is the game for you. Plus, if you happen to like full-blown campaigns and strategy on a grander scale, Shogun comes with an exceptionally fine Risk-like wrapper as well, guaranteed to suck you into the world of 16th century Japan and its clan-based conflicts like never before.

Beyond that, the game is beautiful (in an authentically Japanese way--the birds flying around the battlefield are origami birds!), and the music and other audio within it are excellent as well. In fact, everything about this game breathes quality and attention to detail--even the official web site, which is an impressive creation in and of itself. If you want to see a game done right, you must check out Shogun.

The Bad
I don't like the fact that you can't play the campaign game multiplayer--it's single player only. You can, of course, play any of the individual battles against other people, but the sense of continuity and roleplaying goes out the window in that case. Other than that, there's just not much to dislike about Shogun. Sure, the diplomacy's a little weak, and some units seem too limited in their abilities (shinobi, ninja), but that's not nearly enough to sink this game.

The Bottom Line
If you are even slightly interested in realistic battlefield tactics, particularly formation warfare, this is the game to get. There is no other. Overall, it is, in my opinion, the second best computer strategy game ever made (after Imperialism II), but that's only because I tend to favor strategic-level games over those that emphasize tactical-level conflict. In reality, if anyone wanted to claim that Shogun is, in fact, the best computer strategy-cum-wargame game ever, all I could really do is shrug and say, "Yep, you may be right!"

The Good
Being interested in this particular genre, I literally ran to the mall to buy this game. After the first few minutes of game play however I realized I was expecting something a little different, instead of jumping straight into a Samurai style battle, I found myself staring at a map of Japan, reminiscent of table top games such as Risk. However, within five minutes of game play I was hooked. Collecting provinces and fortifying my cities, by the end of my first campaign was opting for the computer to resolve battles, simply so I could continue with the strategic portion of the game, that being said, for those of you out there who just wanna fight, there are options for skirmishes (single player battles without the strategy component). And the whole process is well covered and the manual. For those of you who just can’t wait to challenge other players, Shogun comes complete with an online component. Though I and a few other people I know had a little trouble getting our accounts started.

The Bad
On the downside however, signing up online took quite a few tries. But this in no way subtracts from the games wonderful game play.

The Bottom Line
In short, this game has something for everybody, wether your looking for a strategy game to while away the hours, or just a quick fight against the forces of an apposing Daimyo. With multiple clans to select from, the game offers virtually unlimited replay value. My advice to you, buy this game ( through Moby Games of course:) and install it right away, you won’t regret it.