The Samurai Succumb To Total War
Last year, Total War: Shogun 2 managed to reunite the Total War faithful
after a series of controversial games in the franchise. And now there's
been a welcome development: Those who didn't get enough of Shogun 2 can
try out a new expansion, Fall of the Samurai. The expansion doesn't
require the original game to play, and it's a fascinating new take on
the series, so it's a great buy for just about anyone.
To be sure, Fall of the Samurai doesn't mess with the basics of Total
War—in fact, it doesn't even mess with the basics of Shogun 2. You'll be
looking at the same beautiful graphics, hearing similar high-quality
sound effects, playing through the same cycles of turn-based strategy
and real-time tactics, enjoying the same kind of multiplayer battles,
and unfortunately even dealing with the same load times and A.I. that
you did before.
What's great about Fall of the Samurai, however, is that it introduces a
completely new historical context—and with a new place in history come
thirty-nine new units, new reasons for fighting, and new societal
dynamics. In other words, it's the same game at heart, but you're
looking at it in a completely new way. This is exactly what an expansion
should be.
Hardcore fans don't need to be reminded, but Shogun 2 was set in Japan's
Sengoku period—it was essentially a retooling of the original Shogun
title that stripped away the overly complicated aspects of more recent
Total War games. When we arrive at the Fall of the Samurai, hundreds of
years have gone by, and Westerners have arrived on Japan's shores with
superior firepower. The country is divided into two major factions—those
loyal to the Shogunate, and those loyal to the Emperor. Whichever side
you choose, you'll need to walk a line between adopting cutting-edge
technology on the one hand, and keeping your traditional culture intact
on the other. You can even switch allegiances if you don't mind shaking
things up a bit and taking risks.
In real life, these were the events that forced Japan to eliminate its
samurai culture and feudal system. The game is loosely based upon this
history, but that doesn't mean you can't change it. You'll be forced to
make various decisions, some large and some small, that affect the
landscape. You're not merely living through history; you're
participating in it as a major player.
The tensions of this era are immediately apparent when you step into the
new game. While the expansion is well-balanced enough that you can rout
stronger armies with careful tactics, Fall of the Samurai usually
brings to life a simple historical fact: Guys with big guns will almost
always rip guys without them to pieces. As much as your people might
hate it, you will need to adapt to the times and keep pace with new
technology. Otherwise, the battlefield will become a slaughterhouse.
All the major elements of Total War make a showing here, some of them
with significant tweaks since the last time we saw them. The game is
made up a variety of interlocking systems, and while each is fairly
simple in itself, they create a very deep and complex experience when
they all work together. At the outset of the game, you'll choose from
among a variety of Shogun- and Emperor-loyal factions, each of which
comes with a variety of advantages, disadvantages, and victory
conditions.
The campaign is turn-based, and this is where you'll need to build up
your armies, recruit soldiers, manage your economy, and make grand
strategic decisions. You'll choose the trajectory of your society's
development in a tech tree, and you can make a variety of decisions for
your family, such as assigning jobs to your sons and marrying off your
daughters in politically advantageous ways. You can also assign various
"agents," such as ninjas and geishas, to conduct special ops behind
enemy lines, undermining your rivals without resorting to outright
battle. This is a lot to take in at once, but there are video tutorials
to help you out, an encyclopedia you can consult, and a variety of
advisers who basically never stop yapping at you. (Personally, I think
it would help newcomers if the advisers spent less time telling you what
every menu does and more time telling you what you're doing wrong, but
maybe that's just me.)
Once you attack an enemy army or castle, you see a completely different
side to Total War. While you can auto-resolve battles to save time if
you have a significant numerical advantage, you'll want to fight more
evenly matched battles in person. Here, the game becomes a pausable
real-time strategy game, and you find yourself in control of a variety
of different units. As was the case with the original Shogun 2, the
battles here show the true genius of the folks at Creative Assembly.
Each area of Japan you fight in has unique geographical features,
ranging from natural landforms to man-made castles designed to keep you
out. Every battle has unique characteristics—your units, the enemy's
army, the contours of the land, the walls you need to break down to get
to the bad guys—that force you to think on your feet and adjust your
strategy to the situation at hand.
While these broad outlines haven't changed since Shogun 2, Fall of the
Samurai features a whole lot of fun new toys for those of us who love
destroying things. From the first time a line of gun-toting enemies mows
down a bunch of your advancing spearmen, you'll be hooked to the
pursuit of technology, no matter what your populace thinks about it. How
could you not love pounding the enemy with artillery, or mowing down
lightly armed enemies with a Gatling gun?
While naval battles aren't new to Total War, they are far more prominent
here thanks to the new seafaring technologies that have come to
fruition and the new option to siege ports. This is a great development
in a way, because it distinguishes this expansion from what came before.
However, naval battles were never quite the crown jewel of Total War's
various features, and there's something about them that still doesn't
quite satisfy. Things are not helped by a new system that allows you to
control some of your gunners in the first person. It just doesn't feel
right—in a strategy game, the human player is supposed to be a god or a
general, not a grunt aiming a gun. Overall, I found ships most fun to
use when they were assaulting on-shore targets, rather than engaging in
frustrating fights with other ships.
Credit: http://www.cheatcc.com/
 | By Robert VerBruggen Contributing Writer  @RAVerBruggenDate: April 5, 2012 |