Rating: 
Summary: One of the best games you can buy
Review: This may be the best RTS game ever. The graphics are amazing and the backrounds are a visual feast. Your posted in the 1500's in Japan. Control has just been lost by the shogun of Japan and there are 7 clans trying to claim it. You can choose one of 7 clans to try to take over Japan, each with it's own advantages( can build archers for cheaper castles.....) There is a map where you manage economy and deside what to take over who to make and alliance with and so on. Then their is the battle field where you do battle with the troops you made. I suggest you get a mixed line of troops or you have no chance. Then there is the whole honor thing. When you win battles genrals gain honor and lose honor when they lose. If a genral loses about 5 battles strait he has someone chop his head off. You can also Assassin people with Ninjas ( At first it's highly entertaing to whatch the assassinations). The point of the game is to take over Japan.This could be the best game ever. Buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Realistic, no. Fun, yes.
Review: My red-eyes and coffee stains confirm my late nights and fun with this game. I really got hooked on turn-based games after playing Civilation II a few years ago, because they challenge to player to balance scarce resources with an evolving AI society that feeds the virtual-god-complex in all of us. "Shogun: Total War" on the other hand is strongly tipped toward battlefield tactics and army building, rather than economics, politics, morale, technology, etc. In this sense, I was disappointed by the fewer dimensions of the challenges. It is really 2 separate games: chessboard map of Japan and battlefield troop fights. If the settings are set to Easy, you can almost win the whole game without seeing any troop fights. The battlefield side is strongly in favor of positioning (attacking downhill has incredible benefits), angle of attack (side attacks are just as effective as from rear), and troops (quality, morale, etc). My major complaint to the creators is the overall controls. For instance, if you have seasons where several cities are creating armies, each one has to be dragged and moved individually. Where are the Heirs located? Where is a list of the current technology status of each city? In the battlefield, controlling groups of troops is loose and must be re-imposed each time you want action. In this way, large armies are harder to control and less enjoyable. Somewhat of a problem is the AI. It is actually quite predictable after you learn the basic tactics. Even on the most difficult level, basically you just attack the opponent in an angled approach and/or from higher ground. As long as you have some decent troops (quality and numbers), you will usually win. Although my processor is PIII750mghtz and I have lots of DRAM, there are performance issues with heavy graphics screens. Troops get weird, mouse-pointer stops moving, sounds get funny, etc. All said, this is an entertaining game, but don't expect to play it forever.
Rating:
Summary: Best strategy game ever!! Be careful: Very addictive.
Review: First of all I do not think this is a game. It is an incarnation of reality, a trip to another era, a voyage to the past. It is amazing what happened to me. I am a history buff and I read a lot about the Sengoku period in Japan. I was amazed with the feats of Takeda Shingen and the qualities of Uesugi khensin, the collapse of the Ashikaga shogunate and the rise of the Daimyos (I read about five books about this era). I am not the game type since I am 34 years old and a professional. However I did play Age of Empires which lasted for three weeks. When I bought Shogun and I played several times I became so addicted that I would go to work in the morning thinking of strategies to get back to the Takeda clan which beat the hell out of me the day before. I am thinking I should have stayed away from that crest, I should not have mobilized the archers so early, I should occupied that hill earlier on, and my God I should had moved the cavalry earlier for an encircling move. I did not and I was beaten badly; and if things start to get sideways you need to put a lot of effort to convince your ashigaru to fight. In the beginning, I regarded this package as a game and I would move around without paying much attention. Now when i go out to the battlefield or when I make a strategic move I look around me twice, and three times and four times and five times and then I look again because the other guy is more than obliged to take advantage of any misteps. Both strategy and tactics are of course tremendously important and it takes me a lot of time (several days a few hours a day) to finish a game if it does not finishes me first. Buy it, but be careful! It is very addictive and before long you will start thinking like a Daimyo!!
Rating:
Summary: If you like RTS, history and realism - this is the best game
Review: I have played all Age of Empires series games, and always wished for more realism and control in combat. This game is perfect in that. Weather (wind, snow, rain..), terrain, flank attacks, surprise attacks, soldiers experience, morale, fatigue - it's all there, the effects of all these variables are realistic, it's all as it should be. If enemy is beaten - they will run, you can go after them.. The game is played in two basic screens - the map (where you manage economy, diplomacy, raise army and attack) and the 3D battle screen, where you fight. Battle experience is the best in RTS if you like realism. However, diplomacy and economic management is a little bit stale. Game has high replay value - you can play as one of 8 or so clans. Each clan has different advantages in the price of soldiers they can raise, but soldiers are the same (they are all Japanese, after all). There are about 11 soldier unit types, each specialized, but none of them can be used alone. In that regard game is balanced very well. The game will require thinking from your part. AI is pretty good and will respond to your actions as well as human could (if not better). The interface is very easy to use, camera moves perfectly (comparing to Black & White). In summary - this is the best RTS game if you like tactics in combat, realism and historic accuracy. It is a game from general's perspective.
Rating:
Summary: SHOGUN
Review: Shogun is a game of strategic warfare and politics. You have to use strategy in order to become Shogun of all Japan. You must gain resources like koku and oda. Command thousands of troops instead of peuny hundreds. If you are a PC gamer that likes srategy and warfare, Shogun's the game for you.
Rating:
Summary: Buy it if you like any of the comand and conquer games
Review: I ADMIT, THE FIRST PART OF THE GAME IS A LITTLE SLOW, BUT ONCE YOU GET GOING, YOU CAN'T STOP. MANY REALISTIC UNITS, EACH WITH STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES TO OTHER UNITS. HOUNOR LEVELS DETERMINE HOW UNITS FIGHT. ALSO, IF YOU BEAT IT WITH ONE CLAN, THERE ARE SIX MORE ,AND FOUR DIFFICULTY SETTINGS TO CHOSE FROM. THE MANUEL STINKS, BUT THE THE GRAPHICS MAKE UP FOR IT. I CAN'T MAKE YOU BUY IT, BUT YOU SHOULD. I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE NEW ONE THAT IS COMING OUT, BUT FROM WHAT IT SAYS, IT IS THE SAME ONLY WITH EXPASIONS ADDED ON. TRY THAT.
Rating:
Summary: Great Strategy game.
Review: This game is a must for anyone who likes to be both the warrior and the strategist. This game actually happened by chance since the store i was walking through only had one copy left i decided to check it out. And I loved it from the start. It's easy to get into and the tutorial is pretty explanatory showing how to form your armies on the battlefield. but it's not just war, you have to manage your income to which is manage by rice or koku. then you can move your armis around the map and either negotiate or go to war with other nations. eventually you'll go to war with all of the surrounding nations and thats when you get to the battles. The battles are real time and are extremely remarkable. The layouts of the field are great from the mountains where you can position archers from to fire down at your enemies, or the forests where you can make a surprise attack. There are only two problems though and that's the control and the morality of your troops. You can have the largest army there is and still you end up falling back because of your generals rank. The control can be a pain sometimes especially if you're positioning your troops in diffeerent areas and they are facing the opposite way of the enemy. But these are only small problems, this is worth the purchase.
Rating:
Summary: The animation is amazing!!!
Review: The detail of the battles is incredible. When your archers fire, you see the arrows, you see them nock a new arrow, and you see them draw the bowstring back. And when you put your gunners in ranks of three, they fire in rotation. Marching troops actually march, they don't just glide across the screen. The variety and fluid motion of the camera angles accentuates astounding vistas that the armies fight on. The strategy portion of the game is not overly complicated allowing for a bit of a break after a hectic battle. My only real complaint is that the manual was not well written. It'll tell you how to move the camera and the basic commands, but you need to pick up the strategy guide to figure out how to really play the game.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful game. Unfortunately it doesn't work.
Review: If you luck out and have a system that runs Shogun without any problems, it is one of the most beautiful wargames ever made. The graphics are amazing, showing you armies of thousands of soldiers moving over super-realistic terrain, with real weather that actually effects the game play. You can see lightning in the distance, or watch flights of arrows swerve to one side in a strong gust of wind. The AI seems to be great as well. Unfortunately, chances are very good that the game won't run for you. It takes up a lot - A WHOLE LOT - of memory, and has major compatibility problems with most graphics cards. And while it can run with software acceleration as well, it isn't anywhere near as nice in this mode. I've worked over every configurable parameter my system has to try and get this work of art to run, and worked together with the game's technical forum to try and solve this issue. No good. In fact, those forums are full of people with the same problems. nVidia cards in particular do not seem to work with this game, even after two patches.
Rating:
Summary: Very enjoyable
Review: I have so far enjoyed this game. It has everything I like and nothing that I don't like. The graphics are good. The game is easy to learn but hard to master. The AI makes smart decisions when trying to attack and defend. Unfortunately the game is a little buggy. In one instance I took over all of Japan but one province and everytime I got to the end of the battle for that province the game would close and go to the desktop. Very annoying.... Definately worth buying anyway.... Scott
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