Shogun 2 vs Empire vs M2 vs Rome

chronobomb

Where does Shogun fall in your love affair with the Total War series? I wish we had polls on this forum. (Interestingly all the TW games have roughly the same score on Metacritic)

Empire has got to be my favorite game in the series so far. Its the most massive world and most factions. I have loved the sea since playing as the Scipii in Rome. Empire gave me control of the seas in a way I could never have in any previous game. It was stunning the first time a 72 gunner opened fire for me. AI was wonky but mods improved it, I just wish they could have patched Napoleons AI into Empire.

I just hate the fact that CA drop support to their previous games so quickly. I Wish they could take notes from Gas Powered games or Egosoft and continue to shower the old games with love and updates.

Shogun is great and really brings the series to a new level with the AI. The limited scope and anti-climatic fleet battles will make this fun for when I feel the need for some quick MP fun. Where are the floating castles with catapults, archers, and ballista.
Even the Koreans had gunpowder units since the 1300's. Shogun is a little too limited. Hopefully it will get a lot of love in expansions.

HeirofAlexander

you forgot Napoleon in the title

epic_159750290354zas2GHf

chronobomb wrote: »

Where does Shogun fall in your love affair with the Total War series? I wish we had polls on this forum. (Interestingly all the TW games have roughly the same score on Metacritic)

Empire has got to be my favorite game in the series so far. Its the most massive world and most factions. I have loved the sea since playing as the Scipii in Rome. Empire gave me control of the seas in a way I could never have in any previous game. It was stunning the first time a 72 gunner opened fire for me. AI was wonky but mods improved it, I just wish they could have patched Napoleons AI into Empire.

I just hate the fact that CA drop support to their previous games so quickly. I Wish they could take notes from Gas Powered games or Egosoft and continue to shower the old games with love and updates.

Shogun is great and really brings the series to a new level with the AI. The limited scope and anti-climatic fleet battles will make this fun for when I feel the need for some quick MP fun. Where are the floating castles with catapults, archers, and ballista.
Even the Koreans had gunpowder units since the 1300's. Shogun is a little too limited. Hopefully it will get a lot of love in expansions.

There are polls actually Just ask a mod to start 1.

And yes Empire is also my favorite TW game, followed by M2TW and Rome. After all the bugs in Empire were fixed, the game was simply amazing.

I wish CA would be like Valve. Valve has been updating and supporting TF2 for 3 solid years now with new content. If CA is going to release DLC, it should be moar maps, achievements and HATS!

chronobomb

HeirofAlexander wrote: »

you forgot Napoleon in the title

I was leaving expansions out of the list. While Napoleon can be argued as a stand alone(since it is). Its limited scope compared to empire made it feel like an expansion verse a full blown game. Secondly the fact that it stopped updates for Empire really put it on my POS list.

dreagon#2903

I think my list of fav Total War games is this:

1: Rome: Love the units, setting and the overall feel of the game.
2: Empire: First naval battles, huge map and you can be the Netherlands. It also has the same feel as Rome.
3: Shogun 2: Looks great, cool units but not enough variety. Setting is cool but I don't like it that you have a rushed feeling while playing the game.
4: Medieval 2: Pope is annoying but the battles are great. I don't like the recruitment system with unit pools and stuff but fixed it with some modding on my own. Still don't really like the castle/town system.
5: Napoleon: Couldn't get into it. It feld like a very limited Empire. It also introduced the current replenishment system, I'm not a big fan of it. I really liked the Empire system and the Rome system.

quezcotl

my favorite total wars, in order:

Rome total war - had the most fun in this campaign and the graphic at its time was "WoW".
Shogun 2 Total War - its almost perfect, multiplayer is buggy though, but I can't find any flaws in singleplayer.
Medieval 2 Total war - Great game, however I didnt like the multiplayer and the Crusade was really annoying unless you played HRE.
Empire Total War - I played Sweden... never got to expand much, also didnt like the battles, too slow for me.

(havnt played NTW or S/M-TW)

BigG123

Empire with Darthmod Ultimate Commander beats all....

Nemo#6225

1. Rome - undoubtedly. Introduced the really strategic campaign map; it is very immersive, with different factions (and different units!, which makes you fight differently), and just plain fun. Though battles are a bit fast. XD
2. Medieval II - Empire is close here, I admit, but MII had better AI, and more importantly, much more interesting mods (at least to me XD ). IF only it had attrition.
3. Empire - oh, how I wished they could've patched Napoleon AI and graphics into it. With those two combinations, and maybe Napoleons style of attrition. Otherwise, it was immersive (not as Rome or MII, but still), fun, and you had vastness and difference. Sure, most European faction felt kinda the same, but you had Ottomans and Maratha (even though they were underpowered massively) to go drastically different.
4. Shogun 2 - don't get me wrong, its a magnificent step forwards, and AI is challenging, graphics beautiful, I just love the RPG system for generals and agents, but there is a step back in one aspect of immersion since you can't name units (and what jarrs me, they can't become veterans as in MP XD ), and my biggest beef is: while Japan is fun and things look great; everyone still looks, feels and plays more or less the same. Starting position is only major difference, and even that evaporates quickly. Plus, while I find Realm divide fun, I dislike the fact it makes everyone go against you, instead of creating polarization and reinforcing your very good allies and vassals while making every else have a go at you.

Wintermist#3501

I love Shogun 2 and I think their next version of Rome and Medieval will just rock my world! I like the Rome and Medieval eras more, is all.

quezcotl

thats what I miss with TWE, it should've been 1600-1800 IMO.
30 year war was a very intresting period, with awesome battles and weapons.

GuardianOfBlind

1. Rome - I can still play it now and feel something special about it.
2. Shogun 2 - really great, vast improvement over any recent releases, just make Rome 2 now in same quality and you got a perfect game.
3. Medieval 2 - medieval times are fun, also last easily modable game, and has nice expansion named Kingdoms. Still waiting for Europa Barbarorum 2 mod for it
4. Napoleon - is what I expected Empire to be from very start. Just the scale bit too narrow for great re-playability. If there was Empire world map, timeframe and factions using Napoleon mechanics, now that would be a great game.
5. Empire - all series have their weak spot. It is actually quite fine now after all the updates, I recently did another campaign. But at the beginning it was near unplayable, I can't forgive developers for releasing unfinished games. Fortunately they have improved with Shogun 2 release

Hokaido_Samurai

I was never really that keen on Rome to be honest and i'm not sure i would buy a Rome:2 if it came out. I just prefer other time periods. and so its not on my list
Anyway my list would be.
1. Napoleon, because it had a very comfortable campaign for me. It's the one i played most and it felt the most professional.
2. Shogun 2, this would be number 1 if it wasn't for the lack of variety.
3. Medieval 2 : Kingdoms, because it was just a good total war game and 'Kingdoms' because it was much better than 'Medieval 2'.
4. Empire, I love the size and variety of the campaign.

TheGreatCollins

1. Shogun 2 - It's Rome quality with improved graphics. Amongst other things.
2. Rome - The Total War title. Until now. Here's hoping that Rome 2 eclipses both.
3. Medieval 2- Just loved this game, and I can't really explain it.
4. Napoleon - Very good but a bit Streamlined campaign-wise.
5. Empire - Really now, this was a poor effort.

Lawndart

Medieval 2 still stands at the top for me as it's the darkest period shrouded in mystery and lore... It's a time when no one was good, a dark period with heavy bad asssery...

If I was CA I would go back to Rome, then segway into Med, then colonial, with all lesser known or bilateral histories as add-ons... This would perhaps turn the series into digital only especially if they were to tie them together... Or just reboot and start with Rome, even tohuhg MTW 2 is my favorite, Rome made the most money of any TW game 5x...

dblancer

Rome: was certainly my first TW love affair, like your first car or first girlfriend, you remember all the sweet little discoveries and subtle details. However I would not be able to go back to it again for fear of runing the magic!
MTW2: Probably the game I spent the most time playing in reality out of the whole series, multiple unit queues, excellent new mechanics, beautiful units and epic scale was all engrossing. I was not really in love with the period of this one and found medieval combat a bit stale at times even compared to Rome. The gunpowder units certainly gave us a taste of what was to come!

Empire and NTW: Allowed me to fall in love with game all over again, spending crazy amounts of hours mastering Napoleonic warfare, loving the new naval battles, the style the gunpowder, actually ended up loving the era and therefore loving the game. I'm surprised people were turned off TW by this game series, I always suspected not everyone can get tot he grips of gunpowder warfare, after all everyone loves the good cluster-frik melee! The only thing to turned me off empire at the end of the day was the massive campaign length...

I enjoyed Napoleon probably most of all, it seemed to bring the scale down to a managable level, but with good elements from Empire and more emphasis on unit choice and army composition.

Shogun 2 is right now like a new car for me, its exciting its new, its taking me time to get to the grips with, but the period feel is strong, the unique build structure and unit types are enthralling me totally and some aspects that Empire lacked in are back with a vengence.. i can certainly see myself wasting many hours in this game. Besides a few small bugs and tiny performance concerns i cant see the dogs breakfast people profess it to be. Its certainly much more smooth than Medieval 2 was when it was released.

Frankly the promise of any new total war game gives me an immense amount of pleasure, unlike most gamers I attempt to find things I love about a game rather than things I hate about them. Total war games are the only games I buy and keep coming back to.

Ravinhood

I choose RTW only because of the era as far as the GAME itself it would come dead last because it wasn't challenging and pretty much a waste of time to play even with the many mods for it BB mod was the best though for it and also if you turned off morale it made the game more challenging and fun. Nothing improved the AI though. M2TW would come 2nd and then Shogun2 and then ETW dead last because watching little animated men stand across from each other and go pew pew with their rifles isn't fun at all.

Melkor65

Shogun Total War is top of the list for me, aside from it being an immensely enjoyable game I've been waiting for a sequel to Shogun: Total War since I first beat it after it was released.

In Order I'd say:

1.Shogun Total War: Whilst outdated now at the time it was the first real strategy game I enjoyed and it got me into the Genre.

2.Shogun 2 Total War: It's an Era I'm interested in historically and I think the game was well developed and enjoyable.

3: M2TW: Was a good game and most of the expansions where quite good as well. I liked the Knights in the game, it was the first time I prefered Calvary over Infantry.

4: RTW: I never really got into this, played it abit but got bored quickly. Perhaps I should have give it a better try, as I would have liked to enjoy playing with the Great Empire of Rome.

5: MTW: Good when it came out although I still prefered playing STW at the time.

6: ETW: Boring Time Period, Boring Warfare, Boring, Boring.

Radu

1. Medieval 2
2. Rome
3, Shogun 2

It's early to say, but I don't see how Shogun 2 can make me spend so much time playing it as M2 did.

MidnightInsomnia

1. ETW (I consider Napoleon to be the same game)
2. MTW2
3. RTW
4. Shogun 2


Have only played Shogun 1 for a couple of hours when I first started playing RTW, I can't really make a valid opinion on it.

MidnightInsomnia

Melkor65 wrote: »

6: ETW: Boring Time Period, Boring Warfare, Boring, Boring.

I understand the cliche that everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

But being a history major, I just don't understand how can anyone consider the 18-19th century to be a boring time period at all. It was the era of the scientific revolution, enlightenment, colonialism, technological advances and origins of the most drastic and exciting changes ever in human history.

You can spend half a lifetime studying this time period and still not know everything because its scope literally covers the entire globe from Europe to China, from New World to Africa, etc, and the legacy of that period still heavily affects the world we live in today.


ETW, boring time period? I just simply don't understand at all.

Spycrab

Rome: Just for introducing me to TW and for giving me the fondest memories.
Shogun 2: For it's excellent gameplay and presentation.
NTW: For being a huge improvement over ETW battles and even more gunpowder warfare.
ETW: For making the gunpowder geek that I am now. And for the massive scale campaign.
Med2: Never really got why people liked this tbh. It's a good game I give you that but I just don't see the appeal.

Haven't played STW, MTW or Romes expansions.

Radu

MidnightInsomnia wrote: »

I understand the cliche that everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

But being a history major, I just don't understand how can anyone consider the 18-19th century to be a boring time period at all. It was the era of the scientific revolution, enlightenment, colonialism, technological advances and origins of the most drastic and exciting changes ever in human history.

You can spend half a lifetime studying this time period and still not know everything because its scope literally covers the entire globe from Europe to China, from New World to Africa, etc, and the legacy of that period still heavily affects the world we live in today.


ETW, boring time period? I just simply don't understand at all.

I think what he meant was that it's a boring time period to use in a TW game. Every nation had the same units, the same ships, etc. There were no distinguishable differences between most of the factions.

chronobomb

Radu wrote: »

I think what he meant was that it's a boring time period to use in a TW game. Every nation had the same units, the same ships, etc. There were no distinguishable differences between most of the factions.

Are we talking about Empire or Shogun 2?

Wintermist#3501

Well, there's no point hiding the fact that Shogun 2 features the same type of armies lol

Snotface#2790

Shogun 2 is the best one yet.

Has the atmosphere of the original spot on! Or atleast how i remember it.

I think this is biased towards which one you played first though, it seems a lot of people started playing on Rome. How did they miss Shogun??

Specter513

1. Tied with Rome and Med 2
2. Shogun 2
3. Napoleon
4. ETW

Wintermist#3501

For me I just love the Roman settings so that's why I prefer it. A very close runner's up is the Medieval setting. I did like Shogun too but not as much as the Roman or Medieval setting.

Radu

chronobomb wrote: »

Are we talking about Empire or Shogun 2?

empire, hehe. At least Shogun 2 has various types of infantry.

Ravinhood

MidnightInsomnia wrote: »

I understand the cliche that everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

But being a history major, I just don't understand how can anyone consider the 18-19th century to be a boring time period at all. It was the era of the scientific revolution, enlightenment, colonialism, technological advances and origins of the most drastic and exciting changes ever in human history.

You can spend half a lifetime studying this time period and still not know everything because its scope literally covers the entire globe from Europe to China, from New World to Africa, etc, and the legacy of that period still heavily affects the world we live in today.


ETW, boring time period? I just simply don't understand at all.

We understand you don't understand....enter dunce cap for you.

TobyTheRobot

Radu wrote: »

I think what he meant was that it's a boring time period to use in a TW game. Every nation had the same units, the same ships, etc. There were no distinguishable differences between most of the factions.

chronobomb wrote: »

Are we talking about Empire or Shogun 2?

lol OH, SNAP

Pablius

1. Rome + Barbarian Invasions, for the intruduction of the campaign map plus the diversity of the campaign has never been duplicated afterwards.
2. Shogun 2, very polished beautifull game without game breaking bugs so far, had to mod out "Realm Divide" to enojoy it and I wish diplomacy had a more meaningfull gameplay impact, but still, the best release since Rome.
3. Medieval 2, beautifull game but with many bugs at release time (shield bug!), played it a lot but I wish the next time CA visits the period there will be a more distinct feeling among the various factions and better siege warfare and diplomacy.
4. Empire, they never were able to fix it completly, too ambitious maybe, it was a train wreck, I enjoyed it at times and had great potential, but CA was simply not up to the task, Napoleon TW was a good game but should have been and expansion, selling it at full price without fixing the previous game was the lowest point of CA...so far.

As for the first two games in the series I played them a lot, but are too different for a direct comparision with the newer ones, still I miss the chance of killing your own officers or marrying your daughter to your son just for the sick fun of it!