Takeda 3

[Martok]

There's a pretty good review over at the Wargamer. While it doesn't pull punches with the game's flaws, overall it's a very positive review.

It's written by a guy whose opinion I generally respect when it comes to strategy games -- he too has been pushing me to try Paradox titles -- so when he says a game is good, I'm inclined to believe him. He's a pretty big fan of STW & MTW (for whatever it may be worth), and he's personally told me he feels the Takeda series is actually superior to Shogun in a number of ways. You don't get quite the same epic scale of battles as in the Total War series, but otherwise it sounds like the game does most things very well indeed. I'm hoping to pick it up later this year, once I've (hopefully) gotten through at least a couple more of my other games.

[frogbeastegg]

That review makes it sound a lot like STW + 1. How I miss good old Shoggy; it hasn't worked for years now.

Gamersgate's upcoming release list has Takeda 3 on it, so I shall give that demo a go. It didn't look like the game was getting a UK release so I didn't bother before.

[edyzmedieval]

Takeda 1 was by far the most challenging game I ever played. Out of 20-25 times, I only managed once to beat Oda and the Battle of Nagashino, and that's with 75% of my army wasted completely.

I'm really looking forward towards buying Takeda 3.

[ShadesWolf]

Ive downloaded the demo so will give it a go later tonight, all being well. Its a bit choatic at home at the moment so hopefully will get a bit of spare time tonight inbetween writing essays.

The game does look good, spent most of last night, while the demo was downloading reading the review, checking the forums out, and looking at the graphics, castles etc.,

Must admit impressed, hope its as good as it looks, the castles were my big disapointment with shogun

[frogbeastegg]

Hmm. The demo was ok. It's the sort of game which needs decent instructions and the demo just doesn't offer that. It's hard to get a feel for a game when you barely know what you can do. The strategic part seems like it might be good if there's a good manual or tutorial.

I did fight a few battles. They made me a sad froggy - the fields were tiny, the units were tiny, and the whole thing was just disappointing. They didn't feel good; there was no awe, no sense of import, no atmosphere, and most importantly of all I didn't feel like I had much in the way of tactics to use or consider. How am I meant to flank and use ground on a battlefield that's the size of a postage stamp? The presentation of information wasn't too hot either; I couldn't find out what types of troops I had unless I zoomed right in and squinted at what weapons they held. No tool tips, no unit information aside from the commander's details, nothing. I don't know if sound effects were left out to keep the file size down, but the battles were lacking severely in audio. No footsteps, no weapons clashing, no shouting, nothing. I fought a castle battle between two large armies; it took place in fog so thick I literally couldn't see anything. Rather hard to give orders to your army when you can't even find them. Heck, I couldn't locate the castle! STW did battles much, much better 10 years ago using an engine that's on a par with or slightly weaker than the one here.

Think I shall sit and wait for reviews on the full game from others here. As good as it sounds, the demo just doesn't make me feel like I should use my limited money to buy it. Not when there are other things I know I'd enjoy. For £19.99 I could get a nice stack of books ...

[ShadesWolf]

So I have now downloaded the demo and installed it. Opening of the game was nice, so far quite impressed. Then I came to a halt. How do I raise and army :(

Spend the next 10 minutes trying to find out how to create an army, when I finally found the answer it was a strange one, anyway thats out the way so off to battle.

What a disappiontment, small battlefields, cant tell what unit is what, and the deploymeny screen, dont have a clue wat im doing. So battle side NOT IMPRESSED AT ALL.

Hope the strat side is a little better, has a long way to go if its going the beat a paradox game for strategy.

will report back later then ive had a little more of a play with it

[KukriKhan]

Demo installed easily.

I admit I clicked thru the instruction screens, to see if the game could be played intuitively. It can not. There are no obvious measures to take, except "end turn", and the advisor guy button. So, I hope there is a robust manual.

A neighbor picked a fight, so off to battle. I clicked "auto-select", letting the algorithm pick the armies. Camera manipulation was very sensitive, cursor to the right of the screen taking me very quickly (too quickly) 90 degrees away, and out of sight of my army. Same with left, up and down. I couldn't find a way to creep ahead slowly to see enemy disposition or terrain. Of course fog obscured. So, we had a smash-mouth at the castle gate. I lost. My general who didn't like me (it was reported on the strat map) fought brilliantly, the others (more loyal) not-so-hot.

The music was OK. It sounded vaguely Chinese, not Japanese, to me. But the "you lost" theme was good, a shamisen plucking a sad tune.

On first go-thru, I award 2.5 stars out of 5. Good effort, but it seems more a board game, grafted onto a computer program; like a digital scrabble game: it's on your screen, and you click to make things happen, but it's still essentially, an enhanced board game.

BUT: I'll award an extra star, to 3.5, just because the company keeps trying, and releasing new versions - unlike Shogun:TW, not seeing anything new since 2001.

Overall "Buy" or "No" verdict: "Wait" says Kukri. There's nothing ground-breaking, and it will be available at half-price in 6-9 months. Steam will probably offer it on one of their 'special weekend sales' for $12 this fall.