Shogun Total War
$19.95		(Win95/98/Me/XP) (Retail) (SHOGUNPR)

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Animated Violence / Animated Blood

Ratings:

9.5 from GameSpot

from The Wargamer

from Gamers Central

from Computer Gaming World

Samurai Warfare on an Epic Scale

Prepare yourself and your Samurai for the first truly epic-scale strategy game. Combining turn based decision-making with intense real-time tactical battles, this is strategy gaming at its most demanding. This is Shogun: Total War.

It is Japan - 1542 - The land is in turmoil. The last Shogunate has collapsed leaving the nation divided into seven warring factions. Out of this chaos will emerge one warlord who will master the Art of War. This determined warrior will lead his troops of loyal samurai in a brutal quest to unite the country, He will rise to become Japan's supreme ruler. He will rise to become SHOGUN!

Command Thousands of Samurai. Unite a Nation. Become Shogun.

Command Thousand of Troops: Engage in epic-scale, real-time battles with thousands of samurai across majestic 3D landscapes.

Master the Art of War: Master the skills of diplomacy, economics, subterfuge, battlefield tactics and strategic warfare.

Engage in Online Warfare: Clash with other warlords over the Internet in the ultimate test of your abilities.

Epic Scale: Engage enemy warlords in massive real-time conflicts with over 5000 samurai colliding on the battlefields of feudal Japan. Whether undertaking a campaign to unite the country, fighting historic conflicts or creating your own custom clashes, the game's cinematic camera delivers the epic nature of the battle from any perspective.

Total Control: Manage your empire in a unique, turn based gameplay style. Position your troops, collect resources, construct new buildings, train new recruits, and research new units while defending your territory. Deploy spies, assassinate rivals, or use the beautiful but deadly geisha to cunningly outwit your opponents.

Vicious Enemies: Battle enemy warlords possessing a sophisticated artificial intelligence based on Sun Tzu's famous work The Art of War. Enemy units learn quickly on the battlefield, using the terrain to their advantage and adapting to counter your tactics.

Authentic Japanese Setting: Experience 16th Century Japan in exacting detail. From Samurai tactics and codes of honor to Ninja assassins and Geisha spies, all aspects of Japanese warfare are re-created, adding a stunning level of depth and realism.

Multiplayer Warfare: Your honor is on the line as you clash with other warlords over the Internet. Strategize and execute your battle plans in the ultimate test of your skills to become an online Sensei.

Requirements:

Windows 95/98/Me/XP: 233 MHZ or faster, 32 MB RAM, 500 MB free hard disk space plus space for saved games, 16 bit capable 4MB PCI or AGP video card with DirectX 7 compatible drivers, 4x CD-ROM drive, DirectX 7 compatible sound card, mouse, keyboard, Windows Media Player 6 or higher. Windows NT is not supported.

Tested OK on Windows XP.

Reviews:

GameSpot by Alan Dykes

"But the bite wasn't too big and boy, can those developers chew. Shogun meets and exceeds expectations, from the finely constructed scene-setting movie for the campaign, which combines in-game, rendered cut-scenes with 500-year-old Japanese illustrations, to the excellently balanced strategy game combining resource management with intrigue, conquest and 3D battles."

"Shogun is a multi-layered game that is truly epic in proportions. You can play it satisfactorily from a strategy-only point of view, bypassing the tactical battle engine completely if that takes your fancy. It's also the sort of game that, whether you read the manual or not, you'll learn something new almost every time you boot it up. This can be a bit frustrating and you'll no doubt find yourself restarting your first full campaign several times as you realise that you've gone wrong and need to put it right to successfully conclude the game. The limitations of koku also means that the strategy side can be a bit slow to start up, but once it gets under way, there's plenty to keep you occupied and I found it has a time factor of four - you think you've playing for an hour, but you've actually been playing for four."

Gamers Central by Raevinn

"One of the best features Shogun Total War has is its real time battle engine. It is by far one of the best attempts at having this feature within a turn-based game to date. There is a roving camera very similar to the Myth series in design. It is easy to control and navigate the camera. This camera allows you to scan the landscape in detail while both zooming in and out but is limited in range so that you cannot see that far away from your units."

"The word that comes to mind when I try to accurately describe Shogun Total War would be "Polish." This gem of a game shines with great features that have been honed and polished by the designers. They have been implemented to near perfection giving the game a sleek feel and making it a complete package. The music is like icing on the cake. With all of the titles that get released full of bugs and clearly not finished I am proud to say that Shogun Total War is not one of those. The newest contender to the Strategy Genre has entered the arena, been blooded, and left standing the victor!"

Computer Gaming World, August 4, 2000

"Welcome to Shogun: Total War, a masterfully designed strategy game set in the tumultuous period of Japanese history known as the Sengoku Jidai, or the warring states period of the 16th Century. Shogun not only provides an excellent mix of gaming genres for the historical wargamer, turn-based strategist, and 3D-action buff, but it's also an extremely stable game. Shogun's 3D combat engine is likened to warring in the majestic Kurosawa film, Ran, without the melodramatic tragedy..."

"Shogun's combat model is as authentic as they come, and during the battle, factors like troop types, morale, formations, terrain, weather effects, and fatigue all come into play. Creative Assembly did its homework and applied Sun Tzu's Art of War principles to each unit's AI. So, for example, brute force is usually not enough to win. Units haphazardly thrown at the enemy will surely be routed before a battle's end."

"Despite these flaws, Shogun possesses an impressive amount of depth and replay value in both strategy and tactical gameplay, making it the leading candidate for Strategy Game of the Year. Bottom line: Shogun is well worth the price, so strap on your Do, powder your Katana, and join the armies of the Sengoku Jidai."

The Wargamer by Edward Hayes

"The battle graphics and animation of Shogun: Total War are state-of-the-art, combining superbly with the sound effects and music to create a very convincing, exciting and colourful environment. The beautiful landscapes and highly detailed buildings can be viewed from any perspective, and the sight of huge numbers of foot soldiers and cavalry marching in various formations with elaborately coloured banners waving in the wind is quite breathtaking. There are some lovely atmospheric touches: birds flying overhead, dust rising from galloping horses, stragglers trying to catch up during formation changes, or cavalry losing their way in a wood."

"It is quite difficult to judge the quality of the AI, given the fairly high level of routing. Certainly it did not do any obviously silly things, it sought cover when outnumbered, and it proved capable of changing its line of attack according to the player’s deployment. In successive defensive battles on exactly the same terrain, in the Bungu province I lost the first battle to a right flank attack, due I thought to my deployment mistakes, but was then promptly beaten again in the second battle by a left flank attack."

"The strategic part of the game has an intricate set of components which require some thought to master but still allows many different approaches to be adopted towards achieving the same goal. The tactical battles are quite outstanding, handling a complex set of commands really well and creating high levels of anticipation and excitement.

"Before Shogun: Total War, I would have said that the best wargame of the pre-gun era that I had played would be any one of the Great Battles Series (such as Great Battles of Hannibal), but Shogun: Total War easily surpasses any of them, with an infinitely better strategic element and big advances in graphics and the tactical realism stakes."

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