Total War: SHOGUN 2

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TL:DR; A smaller, more refined Historical TW entry. Limited unit choice and contemporary "Agent" mechanics can be an interesting strategic choice or a frustratingly narrow one depending on perspective. Shogun 2 was a turning point in CA's design for TW. A lot of the elements that would become common for later games such as strictly limited number "Hero" units replacing "Agents", heavier emphasis on the Tech Tree for unit/ability unlocking and limited city building slots started here. Shogun 2 also has its own quirks, most of it based on the small slice of history it focuses on; Limited unit variety (but plenty of minorly changed faction-specific units), heavier focus on a single campaign narrative (Rise to power, become Shogun, get betrayed by everyone and play king of the castle until you win). Despite my troubles "winning" this entry in comparison to other TW games, I think its one of the tightest designed with a heavy focus on working with limited tools. In prior and future games its quite easy to snowball economically once you've captured and secured your home territory and then unleash an unending tide of the most expensive units. In this your economy CAN be managed to be quite beefy, but the limited training slots/times of units and how territory can only really be focused into economic or military production mean you consistently have to make diverging choices over what you invest in and where. Its a shame that split resource costs (instead of one flat "currency" income) and "supply line" management would only come to the games later, as with a much more focused game such as this it would benefit greatly from the added levels of management and strategy. One thing I think S2 did well is clearly denoting why you would pick one clan over another. It took me very little time to figure out that clan Hojo are the Castle and Siege clan, Ikko Ikki are the Religious and Peasant Horde clan, etc; and base my starting gameplay choices off of this. Three Kingdoms is a brilliant entry into the series but I seriously struggled to pick one faction over another, with perhaps one element of this problem being overwhelmed with choices. S2 only has about a dozen factions, all of which clearly separated into locations and specialisms for one time period. 3K has several dozen with varying faction leaders and time periods and places to start off in. You can see the issue. Another interesting thing about S2 is in regards to your limited unit choices. Artillery and Naval units are very rare, and usually hyper-specialised in their function. The game does have naval combat, but despite Japan being an island you won't be interacting with it much unless you're playing the Naval Faction. One of the few things I dislike about S2 is the feeling of randomised fragility of your general. General units in every CA game have certain invisible mechanical bonuses to make sure they don't die 15 seconds into every battle with all the expected problems this would bring. It could be poor luck or terrible gameplay on my part, but I've noticed that generals in this entry have a habit of dying much more commonly than in other ones. It's not an element of advertised "realism", and its not consistent enough for me to make a judgement of it being sheer chance or intention. You CAN build your general unit to be a strong combat unit, but I have no idea why you'd risk it when generals are a very limited and fragile resource. I think I liked Medieval 2's method of managing garrisons best (no retainers, limited free upkeep slots based on defence level) and I think its method of distinctly separating cities and castles into two clear diverging paths of development made more sense and was easier to pick up than territory all being the same but how you spent your food stockpile on infrastructure being the defining difference. Its a very good entry in the TW series, and kind of serendipitous that a sequel to their very first TW game was one that acted as a real turning point for their game design. whether you liked that change or not, is a matter of taste.

I liked the battle realism and graphics while maintaining the simplicity

Игра понравилось очень,со временем все лучше и лучше начинаю играть , первая игра в серии с которой начал играть. Очень оценил , будет возможность попробую ещё какую-нибудь часть.

cool game

Easy to get the hang of, but challenging to master

Именно с этой игры я полюбил Японию и её культуру. Вот в этой части TW комп тебя просто душит по жути, от этого ты иногда горишь,но зато интереса прибавляет знатно, хорошая часть!