The proliferation of industrial rifle units with the existing sword, spear, and bow units adds a lot of strategic and tactical variety.Īs the campaign goes on, you can research new technologies that give you access to new units, abilities for units (particularly the gunpowder ones), and new combat techniques. Gunpowder units can hold their own in melee, and can still act as front-line infantry, but you probably won’t want to count on them to do so. You still need to build melee units as defenders for your riflemen, much like you needed swords and spears to protect your archers in the base Shogun 2. The gunpowder units are very powerful, but they have limited ammunition and are very vulnerable to flanking assaults by melee units (such as katana samurai). I’m pleased to say that the mixture works brilliantly. Guns are back, but they don't immediately obsolete your Samurai The prospect of bringing guns and cannons back into the mix with an expansion to Shogun 2 - while still keeping them complimentary to the existing sword, spear, and bow units - piqued my interest.
The traditional melee units made the battles much more engaging and fun, and really made me realize just how bland Empire actually was. Having not played the earlier games very much, like Rome, Medieval, and the original Shogun, I was really impressed with how fun Shogun 2 was. There just wasn’t too much tactics beyond just lining your infantry up and shooting at the other guys. I enjoyed both games, but eventually started to find the battles became very automatic and mechanical.
I started my fandom of the series with Empire and went on to play Napoleon. We’ve already had two Total War games that utilized rifles and cannons. This expansion is the most contemporary Total War game to date, taking place during the same time period as the American Civil War.
I skipped Rise, but when I saw the trailers for Fall, I just had to hop onto Steam and download it. Fall of the Samurai is the second expansion for Shogun 2 the first being a “prequel” Rise of the Samurai.
I finally published my full review of Total War: Shogun 2 recently in preparation for writing this review of that game’s second expansion: Fall of the Samurai.
Official site: sogun2/fall-of-the-samurai Players: Single-Player or online competitive multiplayer
Platforms: PC (DVD or Steam) ESRB rating: Tįor: drug references, language, mild blood, sexual themes, violence This is a stand-alone expansion that does not add any content to the base game, but the new campaign should keep fans entertained for weeks!ĭeveloper: the Creative Assembly Publisher: Sega The omission of agent cutscenes and pre-battle prep speeches takes some of the flavor away.īattlefield sound effects range from the clashing of swords, to the bang of rifles being discharged in unison, to barrages of artillery fire, to the wails of dead and dying all perfect audio supplements to the visual epicness of the battles.
Campaign is very well-paced, and the relaxed victory conditions allow for (and encourage) cooperative victories.Ĭombined arms assaults make navies more useful improved reinforcement mechanics help alleviate needless sacrifice of units, and helps balance city seiges. Maintains the series' trademark level of detail and graphical polish with as many as thousands of individual soldiers on screen at once in epic real-time battles, along with new weather effects and a prettier campaign interface.Ī compelling mish-mash of traditional Japanese sword, spear, and bow units along with industrial rifles, cannons, ironclads, and gatling guns.