Shogun: Total War Gold Edition (PC DVD)

There are two main components. Firstly, at a strategic level (played on a map of Japan) you attack and defend territories, build improvements, and train units. This is quite interesting in itself, though I'd have liked some more high-level overview information -- once you have many territories, it can be hard to keep track of your various assets. The turn timing is such that you can learn of a new building being completed, and then be dropped straight into a battle. It's not an insurmountable problem as long as you're a careful and patient player, but it's a small niggle that I hope is fixed in future Total War games.

For me, the strategic level is mainly of interest because it's what's needed to do to obtain the troops to fight the actual battles (though you can set up custom or hisorical battles if you like). Others will probably relish the game for its strategic side, and allow the computer to resolve combat automatically, but I think it's on the battlefield that this game really shines.

Weather and visibility, terrain, cavalry, infantry, ranged weapons, morale, leadership, cover and concealment -- all are modeled, meaning that this game is a flexible, intricate toolkit for staging virtual battles. The AI is reasonably good -- it has some quirks that you can exploit, but generally gives a decent account of itself.

Overall, if you're into strategy/war games, I can't see how you can go wrong with this, particularly at the current price. As for me, this has been good enough to convince me to shell out for Rome: Total War as soon as it comes out :-)

And you get other little games like HISTORICAL BATTLES and other campaigns , plus you can set time back when a great MONGOL ruler called kublai khan attacks the shores of japan and wants to rule over the samurai in the 1200 hundreds.

A GAME WHICH WILL KEEP YOU OCCUPIED FOR HOURS.

system requirements :
pentium 2
windows 95 , 98 , ME , XP (home edition)
4 x cd - rom drive
4mb direct x 8.0 compatible 3D graphics card
direct x 8.0 compatible sound card
mouse & keyboard : multiplayer (2-7players)
-56kbps modem and TCP/IP
16mb ram
18.5 mb free hardisk space.

The good stuff first. It's probably the first real-time, fully-rendered strategy game to allow you the full run of the battlefield since the likes of epic classics "Shadow of the Horned Rat" and "Dark Omen". You are the leader of a Japanese clan during a turbulent period of civil war. Your aim is simple: to achieve domination of the Japanese mainland by any means necessary, and establish your people as the single dominant force for the next age of history. As such, the game is broken into two parts; strategic and tactical levels.

When I talk about Strategic play, you are being given control over the running of your provinces, season by season, on a large map of the island. You will need to establish levels of taxation, build facilities where necessary and see to the recruitment and training of your armies. This in itself can be challenging, as you will need to establish a sound strategy to maintain control over your own lands while defending or attacking other lands, ripe for the conquest. In addition to this, you can use many strategic agents, such as ninja assassins or emissaries to scout out the local area, kill your opponents' generals and heirs and generally aid your cause, at the cost of just a few men...

But it's the tactical game that can seal your victory or doom you to annihilation. As the army's general, you will need to bring your forces to the field to check the advance of your enemies, or to take and pillage enemy-held provinces. All the skills you have learnt leading troops into combat will be required here, and a little luck. The combat system is well-realised, allowing you take take advantage of high ground, difficult terrain, trees, concealed troops, bridges and rivers. Your use of the right troops against the right opposing force will be critical to your success, as will the maintenance of your increasingly experienced units (and these veteran soldiers will often make the difference between victory or crushing defeat).

Now for the bad side, although it's not all such bad news. This game is getting old. Since the introduction of Medieval, the sequel, you have been given greater control of your camera across the field, and of the options available for controlling your troops. And it makes a difference when you go back to the original game, Shogun, because you will keep trying to do things that the game just doesn't support. This actually makes the game a little harder to play, in my opinion, but to a new player this isn't much of a bother anyway. And, this being a purely cultural thing, it's a lot harder for a westerner to relate to the kind of tactics and troops used by samurai than it is to understand the relatively simple, cold-blooded and downright murderous tactics of a medieval european army, and the types of troops available to them. As such you might feel that you don't always have the options you'd really like, because what you have to work with is what limits the tactics you can use. There's precious little heavy cavalry, there's not much heavy infantry, and archers are very underused in this particular game. It's just not the Japanese way, but you might find yourself occasionally wishing you had a few hundred longbows hidden behind that hedge, or a large number of mounted knights handy just in case... no so such luck here, you're stuck with light troops for the most part. This is just the style of the game, and it's a very good game, but it's just... hard to relate to sometimes.

In any case, for a fiver, and if you haven't played Medieval:Total War yet, look down the side of the sofa for some loose change and get hold of a copy, and see what it's all about. It's a bit old and eccentric, but it's a very good game with plenty of life in yet. Easily worth Four Stars. Now keep your eyes open for Rome: Total War next year. It just can't come quickly enough...