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View Full Version : Rock, Paper, Shotgun: Wot They Think about Shogun 2



Monk
03-11-2011, 20:15
The Wot I Think of Shogun 2 (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/03/11/wot-i-think-total-war-shogun-2/) just went up at RPS. Don't expect a score or a short tag line to hang your hat on, if you're unfamiliar with their style, it's a purely opinion and experienced based read.

Author discusses AI differences between difficulties, campaign diplomacy and naval invasions among other things. Very informative.

gollum
03-12-2011, 04:28
Thanks for the link.

Forward Observer
03-12-2011, 09:37
This comment from the review sort of jumped out at me:

There is – at least for my personal tastes – an still imbalance in all this. I found the campaign map difficulty pleasingly yielding on normal, with the battle maps being far too easy. I’d like to have been able to play on hard battle-map AI, and normal campaign AI. (In fact, wasn’t that an option in previous Total War games? Because it’s not an option here.) It feels like the game is tuned to someone else’s difficulty tastes, which wasn’t true of earlier instances of the series.



If this is true, then this will be the first TW game since Rome with no separate difficulty settings for campaign versus battle, and I'm not sure it will be a popular decision--I know I would still like the options.

The writer's point about this was that while he found a campaign setting that was fun, he found that the battles on this same setting way too easy. Of course the first Shogun and Medieval did not have separate settings, but they they were more primitive TW games too.

I haven't heard this brought up before, but then I haven't been following this release as diligently as I have in the past.

Cheers

gollum
03-12-2011, 10:10
It's not stated that the reviewer has finished a campaign. From the screenies, i'd say he played the Sekigahara battle and the early stage of teh Shimazu campaign which means he most likely didn't had very large engagements.

Also other clans than the Shimazu that have their backs to the wall and can advance on one front may give more challenging early/middle game battles. The Oda and the takeda and many others will be fighting on 2 fronts at least, which means the early/middle game will be more busy and battles more challenging.

Battles should (hopefully) get more challenging as you are reaching Kyoto ie roughly the middle of the country and face other clans that have done the same.

Swoosh So
03-12-2011, 10:17
This comment from the review sort of jumped out at me:

There is – at least for my personal tastes – an still imbalance in all this. I found the campaign map difficulty pleasingly yielding on normal, with the battle maps being far too easy. I’d like to have been able to play on hard battle-map AI, and normal campaign AI. (In fact, wasn’t that an option in previous Total War games? Because it’s not an option here.) It feels like the game is tuned to someone else’s difficulty tastes, which wasn’t true of earlier instances of the series.



If this is true, then this will be the first TW game since Rome with no separate difficulty settings for campaign versus battle, and I'm not sure it will be a popular decision--I know I would still like the options.

The writer's point about this was that while he found a campaign setting that was fun, he found that the battles on this same setting way too easy. Of course the first Shogun and Medieval did not have separate settings, but they they were more primitive TW games too.

I haven't heard this brought up before, but then I haven't been following this release as diligently as I have in the past.

Cheers

This would suck i always liked very hard campaign ai but normal battle ai so that i dident lose touch with what the unit stats should be and i would like to play vh campaign while having drop in players not having super boosted ai vh cheating stats in batlle. :\

gollum
03-12-2011, 10:59
In certain TW games, and hence possibly in the rest too, the AI uses more tactical devices at the hardets difficulty settings. This is certainly so in STW and M2 AFAIK. So that's a reason to play more than normal there, but yes, the highest difficulties skew the stats too much sometimes.

Furunculus
03-12-2011, 20:46
bit-tech.net have a review up.

Lemur
03-14-2011, 21:52
bit-tech.net have a review up.
I believe you're referring to this one (http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/2011/03/11/shogun-2-total-war-review/1)?