Just played the Shogun 2 demo and i must say so far i'm pleasantly surprised, after Empire i really wasn't expecting anything much at all and i approached this demo in a fairly negative mood to say the least, yet i must admit what i've seen has left me cautiously optimistic.
Good stuff:
Nice looking campaign map
agent video's are back
diplomacy options don't look lightweight at all, plenty of stuff there from alliance to trade and vassalage.
family trees back again, looks good and also some new features like a talent tree of sorts for your faction, plus promotions, choose your heir etc, all the good old total war stuff that was missing in empire.
The units look pretty awesome.
Nice to have the seasons back again on campaign map.
bad stuff:
The demo is scripted, which leaves the actual ability of the AI to anyone's guess.
The archers all fire their arrows at the same time and look slightly robotic as a result, as do the horses when moving at times from a distance, better from close up perspective though.
Units move a tad too fast.
didn't see any character traits as of yet.
i hear its not moddable which is a big minus, i hope it does turn out to be moddable eventually.
Dare i say it i like what i see in Shogun 2, the campaign map seems to have received some much needed love this time round after the empire campaign map which really was bare bones, as important as the 3d battles are, its the campaign map that holds it all together and gives narrative to the battles, it looks like time and attention has been taken over it.
Fingers crossed, i'm sort of disappointed i didn't pre-order actually, but after Empire i had every reason not to, looking forward to Shogun 2.
Good stuff:
Nice looking campaign map
agent video's are back
diplomacy options don't look lightweight at all, plenty of stuff there from alliance to trade and vassalage.
family trees back again, looks good and also some new features like a talent tree of sorts for your faction, plus promotions, choose your heir etc, all the good old total war stuff that was missing in empire.
The units look pretty awesome.
Nice to have the seasons back again on campaign map.
bad stuff:
The demo is scripted, which leaves the actual ability of the AI to anyone's guess.
The archers all fire their arrows at the same time and look slightly robotic as a result, as do the horses when moving at times from a distance, better from close up perspective though.
Units move a tad too fast.
didn't see any character traits as of yet.
i hear its not moddable which is a big minus, i hope it does turn out to be moddable eventually.
Dare i say it i like what i see in Shogun 2, the campaign map seems to have received some much needed love this time round after the empire campaign map which really was bare bones, as important as the 3d battles are, its the campaign map that holds it all together and gives narrative to the battles, it looks like time and attention has been taken over it.
Fingers crossed, i'm sort of disappointed i didn't pre-order actually, but after Empire i had every reason not to, looking forward to Shogun 2.