One of the best Total War games
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 positive reviews
“This is the quintessential Total War game. All other Total War games should be compared to this.”
Steam review · 3652.6 h played ↗
Total War: SHOGUN 2
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Very Positive · 92%Very Positive · 92%CREATIVE ASSEMBLY, Feral Interactive (Mac), Feral Interactive (Linux)2011Turn-Based Strategy · RTS · Strategy
The verdict
A focused, atmospheric feudal-Japan Total War with excellent battles and a streamlined campaign. Skip it if you dislike repetitive rosters, cheating AI, Realm Divide, or crashes on modern PCs.
Great for
Strategy fans and Total War newcomers who like focused tactical battles and the Sengoku setting
Main risk
Crashes, a repetitive roster and AI/Realm Divide frustration can sour the campaign
What changed in the last 30 days
160 recent reviews
Recent negative reviews are overwhelmingly about CA delisting the original, charging for the Complete Edition and breaking mods, not gameplay changes. Fairly confident this is the driver.
160 recent reviews
What players love
Atmosphere, art style and soundtrack
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews
“I would be remiss to not specifically mention the art style and the soundtrack, which really immerse you into the experience of a Japanese total war!”
Steam review · 161.8 h played ↗
Excellent tactical battles
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews
“the battles are so good i cannot get bored of them.”
Steam review · 187 h played ↗
Great modding scene
Mentioned in ~1 in 21 positive reviews
“The mods are incredible.”
Steam review · 67.1 h played ↗
Great entry point for newcomers
Mentioned in ~1 in 21 positive reviews
“The game is by far, the easiest total war game to get into and understand mechanics of”
Steam review · 110.7 h played ↗
Runs well on low-end hardware
Mentioned in ~1 in 25 positive reviews
“Runs on a potato, too.”
Steam review · 105.5 h played ↗
What players complain about
CA delisting and paid Complete Edition
Mentioned in ~2 in 5 negative reviews
“This isn't "restoring historical titles", it's blatant corporate greed”
Steam review · 878 h played ↗
Frequent crashes and instability
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews
“the fact it keeps crashing on intel cpus even though they said they fixed it is infuriating.”
Steam review · 567.3 h played ↗
Mods broken or lost by the re-release
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews
“There goes 15+ years of modding work and a loved modding community.”
Steam review · 122.3 h played ↗
Cheating AI, weak diplomacy, Realm Divide
Mentioned in ~1 in 10 negative reviews
“the shamelessly cheating AI removes any sense of enjoyment or strategy from this game.”
Steam review · 14.2 h played ↗
Repetitive, same units across clans
Mentioned in ~1 in 15 negative reviews
“everyone share the same units; as a result the battles end up being a boring games of paper-stone-cisors with no surprises.”
Steam review · 19.6 h played ↗
Co-op and multiplayer desync
Mentioned in ~1 in 17 negative reviews
“CA broke coop campaign, after 20 turns your coop game will desync and it will brick.”
Steam review · 112.5 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: Playable32 GB
Minimum
OSWindows 7 / Vista / XP
Processor2 GHz Intel Dual Core processor / 2.6 GHz Intel Single Core processor, or AMD equivalent (with SSE2)
Memory1GB RAM (XP), 2GB RAM (Vista / Windows7)
Graphics256 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible card (shader model 3)
Storage32GB free hard disk space
Recommended
OSWindows 7 / Vista / XP
Processor2nd Generation Intel Core i5 processor (or greater), or AMD equivalent
Memory2GB RAM (XP), 4GB RAM (Vista / Windows7)
GraphicsAMD Radeon HD 5000 and 6000 series graphics card or equivalent DirectX 11 compatible card
Storage32GB free hard disk space
OSWindows 7 / Vista / XP
Processor2 GHz Intel Dual Core processor / 2.6 GHz Intel Single Core processor, or AMD equivalent (with SSE2)
Memory1GB RAM (XP), 2GB RAM (Vista / Windows7)
Graphics256 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible card (shader model 3)
Storage32GB free hard disk space
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