Shogun: Total War

Nameless Gaming Review

Opening Statement

As the community turns one year old the day after Christmas, I figured why not spice things up with a brand new review, and a brand new style, a month early.

Shogun: Total War Warlord Edition is the much raved about Ultimate shogun collection for the PC – right? Right. It Includes the full version of the game; the expansion “Mongol Invasion” and the expansion “Campaign of the Three Unifiers”.

In this PowerPoint, I’m gonna cover mainly the Mongol Invasion campaign, all while these nifty Sam n Max midi files play. Sound cool? You bet!

New Stuff

• Since this is an expansion, there are many new items/units/etc. Some of my favorites include the Mongol Korean Spearmen, and Kensai (sword saints).

• The new Mongol campaign is not as fun as it looks – I would seriously suggest investing in the expansion alone rather then buying this collection if you already own the game.

• There are new cutscenes, events, etc., and all are very impressive.

• Click Here to look at the (impressive) landscape.

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More New Stuff

In the Mongol campaign, your goal is to take over all of Japan, however your resources are limited as the great Khan only chooses to send re-enforcement's if you pillage enough.

The money system is realistically based, so that you only take money from armies you conquer. This can be alarming at first but you have to remember that since you cant build anything other then watch towers its all for the sake of impressing Khan so he’ll send you aid.

Sound

Now, in an attempt to keep the size of this review small, Im going to leave out the .wav files I had last time, but not to worry, they’ll be posted somewhere in the files section of the community.

The sound in this game is essentially the same as the original, the only changes (obviously) come in the Mongol expansion. The advisers voice is noticeabley different, and this time around you don’t have to listen to that annoying report on the farms every year, because this time, your pillaging the farms!

Overall Gameplay

As far as the gameplay goes in the new expansion, I was rather disappointed. It took me and Orc one half hour…maybe an hour tops to beat the Mongol Invasion (as the invaders) and I mean, that’s with my typical skipping the combat. The thing is – as long as you pillage enough and get more resources, you can automatically resolve conflict all the time and you usually win. Its just a disappointment that after this expansion was put up so highly on gaming sites everywhere it wasn’t as great as they said.

Click Here For Another Screen

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Final Thought and Score

Overall I’d have to say that as the follow-up to Shogun: Total War, the Mongolian Invasion isn’t close to reaching the bar its predecessor set. The new units are cool, and their new animations make the combat worth playing. Furthermore the new scenery (including new bridges, and beaches) are very pleasing, they just don’t make up for the lack of time required playing the game. Overall the game has its high points and its low points, just don’t expect to set in for a long haul. On the other hand, if you enjoy the skirmishes more then the actual board game interface – this one’s for you.

Final Thought and Score (cont.)

Don’t let my experience hinder you – I’d especially recommend this game if you don’t already own Total War, because it does include the original Shogun, and for the same price its worth the new units, and campaign. If not for that I’m afraid you’d see the Warlord Edition’s score slipping.

Air’s Score: 7 out of 10

-AirChameleon

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