Recent reviews by Pacho

THe last TW I played to death was Medieval 2. I played Empire and NTW briefly but got bored. That being said, here's a few reasons why I think this game is a winner.

It looks amazing even 4 years on. Not just the battlefield graphics, but the effort they put into music and aesthetics which makes Shogun 2 really unique and immersive. The campaign map is a serene mix of handrawn maps and little 3D communities and towns, forests that change colour in the autumn, fields that freeze over in the winter. Everything is represented as drawings and paintings. Units communicate in Japanese. It's polish like this that shows CA went the extra mile.

On the battlefield it also looks amazing. The individual choreographed fights among thousands of detailed soldiers is incredible, I've never seen anything like it before in a strategy game.

AI is decent. Not amazing, but not brain-dead either. They use cavalry quite well to surround you and get behind your lines. They know when to attack vs. defend on a hill, and support weakened units with reserves. However I've found they're too quick to charge into battle even when they're at a disadvantage. EIther way I get a good challenge.

There are very clear advantages/disadvantages between unit types, terrain, weather etc. so you can quickly formulate tactics and strategies.

Campaign-wise, I find it's the same old as previous TW games. Attrition and seasons add a nice strategic layer: you can't always afford to starve out cities but storming them will always be costly.

I really can't think of any major problems with this game. 9.5/10.

There is simply nothing else quite like this game if you want to play a 19th century imperialist. Economics, diplomacy, social change, military, geopolitics, you have to consider all of it in your quest for empire. You do need the DLC, which fix a lot of things, and certain mods (HPM) greatly enhance the historical flavour. The learning curve is rather steep but once you figure it out, it becomes deeply rewarding.