I've just completed a Fall of the Samurai campaign as the Jozai so I figure this is a good time to write a review. Overall I would highly recommend this game. Having only played Medieval (both I and II) and Rome (both I and II) previously to this it was refreshing to change time period completely and bring in gunpowder units. In comparison to the other Total War titles I've played Shogun holds up well. Obviously it's relatively similar with a few changes to suit the scenario like most of the titles in the series.

The campaign works nicely, you have to choose either Imperial or Shogunate allegiance meaning you can more effectively develop alliances with those fighting on the same side. The diplomacy is an effective tool, in Rome II it seemed pretty much impossible to get anything done via diplomacy. Construction in provinces is quite streamlined, at times it felt a bit limited but to be honest it wasn't a huge issue. Movement on the campaign map felt a lot more restricted and slower than in other Total War games, but it does force you to be more tactical making use of your navy and then railways further on. As far as I can remember the tech tree is a feature which the other titles I mentioned didn't have, in a way it seems weird that the others could work so well without one, it allows you to progress focusing either on economic or military issues as you choose. This does in some ways make up for the reduced choice of buildings in provinces.

The battles were good fun, they were certainly a lot more varied than in Rome II where I used pretty much exactly the same tactic for almost all the battles. I played on hard difficulty and the AI would often make intelligent decisions as to whether it would advance or stay put. However, it was still lacking some common sense. This could be due to the difficulty level, but on too many occasions the opposition was far too happy to send their men into a wall of rifle fire to be slaughtered like cattle. It was still quite satisying to watch, but a bit more of a challenge would have been appreciated. I'll play on a higher difficulty setting for sure if I decide to go back and play another campaign at some point.

The same could be said for some defensive siege battles. If the settlement wasn't that large then the AI would usually put up a good fight and push my defensive skills, but if they had to attack citadels they would often send all their men on the same route meaning they'd become spread out and could easily be picked off by an inferior force on paper. The siege battles were good fun, but I would say they're the one aspect which really wasn't as strong as those in Rome or Medieval for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the maps were a bit dull. In other titles sieges would occur in a town, so you'd have a chance to man the walls and make your stand there but if that failed you could retreat to the town itself and place yourself strategically at points between buildings. The buildings themselves also added some character to the map. In Shogun the siege simply takes place at some form of stronghold composed of nothing more than gates, towers, walls, the central tenshu and however many levels of elevation depending on the type of stronghold (fortress, castle, citadel etc.). They just felt a bit plain because of this. The second thing, which I at first found incredibly bizarre, is that there are no siege engines. Instead, men simply scramble up the walls like humanoid spiders. In some ways I can see why they did this, if siege engines were introduced it would be all too easy to destroy them with gunpowder units, especially cannons, and the defender could easily focus all of their fire on any point where the enemy attempted to breach or mount the walls. I got used to it but there were never any epic struggles over a tiny patch of turf where a wall had been breached like I once had in a fantastic siege battle in Rome. In attack I would challenge myself to try and take the castle with as few deaths as possible which is something I still hadn't perfected by the end, but it was again frustrating when I split my forces and the defender would stick to one side then wait till I was on the level above them shooting them in the back. In general I did still enjoy sieges but they just weren't quite as good.

Naval battles were ok but were certainly the most tedious aspect of the game. This was especially the case if you initiated the battle where the AI would deploy right at the back of their zone meaning you'd have to wait 5 minutes just for your ships to get there. They would only become interesting if more than five or so ships were involved on each side, otherwise they were quite samey. It was still incredibly satisfying to see an enemy ship go up in a cloud of bodies and shattered hull, but by the end I would be auto resolving a lot of them.

In summary, I would recommend Shogun both to Total War veterans and to those new to the series. My review sounds a bit negative but I've focused on what I thought could be better, I put a happy 67 hours or so into it and would contemplate playing again, probably upping the difficulty and going solo when it comes to realm divide just to see how far I can go.