The praise this game has received in the past is probably enough to make any kind of review at this point somewhat redundant. Still, after having so many hours of fun with this game I really want to let people know that this game truly deserves all the praise it has gotten. Arguably the twilight title of the CA golden age, back when they genuinely cared about creating art. Before the slop that was the release of Rome 2, Attila's terrible engine, the tragic fate of the saga titles and all the tumbles CA took in its attempt to make more and more money for less and less effort.

Shogun 2 stands out as a true masterpiece in the strategy game gender. In a few words, the campaign has what most other total war titles lack: DIRECTION. Your path to victory is clear and fun, without feeling too easy though. Every clan feels extremely unique because of the different playstyles it encourages and its position on the map despite the lack of unit diversity. The problem with every Total War title until Three Kingdoms was always the awful AI of the enemy factions. Their decisions always felt out of character and random. In this game, the 'allies betraying you first chance they get' slop makes the game work even better considering it's about different clans wanting the seat of the Shogun. If you play on legendary difficulty (in my opinion the only way to truly enjoy total war titles) it feels like a true race to become the strongest clan in your territory, lest you get surrounded and consumed in an instant. And once you really get going and the game becomes too easy, the Shogun orders all other clans to attack you in a last ditch effort to stop you from succeeding. All that becomes 10x more fun if you have a friend to play campaign pvp with! The ultimate showdown between two clans for the fate of Japan feels legendary.

The historical battles are all very fun, the Avatar Conquest Mode was an incredible addition that should have been carried over to games like Warhammer but lets be honest CA never cared for its fans that much and lets not forget, the DLC they turned into a Saga title because of how good it was. Its like they saw Fall of the Samurai, one of the best DLC they ever made and decided to taint its beauty by giving it the saga title treatment.

I have 0 hope for medieval three even though part of me is desperate enough to believe. Until then, this will stand as my favourite total war game (I never played Medieval 2 since it looked like too old of a game for me but I am considering giving it a chance lately).

Crashes too much and I'm too lazy to fix it because that is not my job

fun!! yes