Total War: SHOGUN 2 Review Summary

Best in Total War series: This game is widely regarded as the best in the Total War series, praised for its physics, battles, and overall quality. Many players consider it their favorite installment.

Overall great game: Players consistently describe the game as great, fun, and beautiful. It is noted for its high quality in music, gameplay, and overall experience.

Fall of the Samurai DLC praised: The Fall of the Samurai DLC is highly recommended and considered one of the best expansions. Players appreciate its polished and fun gameplay.

Engaging and tactical battles: The battles in the game are described as awesome, fun, and engaging. They blend large-scale strategy with intense, cinematic real-time combat.

High-quality graphics: The game's graphics are noted for their high quality and have aged well. Players find them impressive even by current standards.

Diplomacy system is broken: The diplomacy system is frequently described as broken, frustrating, and inconsistent.

Limited faction variety: Players note a lack of diversity in factions and units, leading to a repetitive experience.

Naval battles are poor: Players find naval battles to be boring, slow, and not well-executed, often feeling like a weaker aspect of the game.

Game lacks variety: The game is criticized for being monotonous and lacking in variety, both in gameplay and unit design.

Game fails to launch: Many players report that the game refuses to launch or crashes on startup, making it unplayable for some.

Diplomacy system challenges: The game's diplomacy system is noted for its complexity and difficulty due to country divisions and AI behavior.

Naval battles mechanics: Naval battles are a key feature, with specific mechanics and prominence in certain DLCs like Fall of the Samurai.

Strategic and economic management: The game requires careful management of economy, happiness, and strategic thinking for overall success.

Turn-based strategy focus: The game emphasizes turn-based strategy for campaign management, focusing on positioning, terrain, morale, and timing.

Challenging AI behavior: The AI in the game is noted for being aggressive and challenging, affecting both diplomacy and battles.

Optimization and Performance: The game runs smoothly on various hardware, including older systems and integrated graphics. However, there are also reports of optimization issues with many units and smoke effects.

Game Launching Issues: Multiple players report that the game does not launch or start properly. This issue is prevalent across various devices.

Frequent Crashing Problems: The game frequently crashes for many users. This includes crashes on specific hardware like the 2025 MiniMac with M4 chip and Intel iMac and MacBook.

Installation and Interface Issues: Players experience problems with installation and interface issues, including lack of interface scaling.

Freezing and Stability Issues: The game experiences freezing issues and instability, particularly noted in Warhammer 3 with FPS drops and map lags.

Highly recommended for strategy lovers: The game is suggested for anyone who loves strategy games, offering both tactical gameplay and province management.

Recommended for Japanese history fans: The game is highly recommended for those interested in the Japanese Sengoku period and feudal Japan, as well as fans of Total War battles.

Strongly recommended for its quality: The game is strongly recommended for its engaging gameplay and aesthetics, described as a masterpiece.

Good entry point for Total War series: The game is recommended as a perfect introduction to the Total War series for newcomers.

Recommended to all players: The game is recommended to everyone, including both new and veteran players.

Steam Deck: The analysis of user feedback reveals significant issues with game launch, compatibility, user interface, and multiplayer features. These problems severely impact the user experience, particularly for those using Linux systems. The need for workarounds and patches indicates a lack of seamless integration and stability.

Monetization: The game is praised for its core gameplay and specific DLCs like 'Fall of the Samurai,' but there is significant criticism regarding the excessive amount of paid DLC and monetization practices. Many reviews highlight that content which should be part of the base game is locked behind paywalls, leading to a perception of greed and poor value for money. However, some players find value in purchasing the game and its DLCs during sales.

External guides: The primary issues identified from user feedback revolve around technical bugs with the encyclopedia feature, difficulties with downloading and accessing game content, and challenges related to localization and translation. These issues collectively degrade the user experience by limiting access to important game information and features.

Mod support appreciated: Players appreciate the game's support for mods and the community-made mods available.