Experience tactical battles on a smaller scale
Total War Battles: Shogun is a challenging real-time strategy game requiring planning and precision.
Coming from the same world as Total War: Shogun 2, Total War Battles: Shogun is a side-story that happens at the same time as the PC game. Action in Total War Battles: Shogun do not affect the PC game; the setting of the game pulls the impressive detail to iOS and evolves the gameplay to the mobile device.
Graphics
Visually, Total War Battles: Shogun cannot have the same fidelity and quality as the PC release, but the graphics in Total War Battles: Shogun are impressive for the amount of characters and detail. The game is a grid-based map covered in hexagonal markers. These areas note all available space in the level that you are playing.
Structures are detailed and have a lot of small elements that are not immediately seen, but are viewable with a careful eye. Character design is impressive with everything from peasant samurai to ninjas having distinct appearances and animations. While it may be difficult to remember the names, the character design makes things easy.
Total War Battles: Shogun is a colorful game and pushes a lot of animation. Rarely is there slowdown or crashing in the game, and the animations give each class their own character.
Even though Total War Battles: Shogun does not contain the high density visuals, the attention to historic detail more than makes up for it.
Gameplay
Total War Battles: Shogun is a string of smaller, linear battles. You move from mission to mission with distinct objectives and try to complete them. Off the main single player campaign there are smaller experience building missions. Experience points can be used to upgrade buildings and soldiers.
Since Total War Battles: Shogun is a real-time strategy game, there is a combination of resource gathering and combat. You have to collect resources like money, lumber, and iron to purchase new buildings or soldiers. As you complete missions in the campaign, new soldiers are unlocked for use.
The amount of different soldiers is impressive. From lowly peasant samurai and archers to armored samurai and ninjas, Total War Battles: Shogun brings many of the various social classes into the game. There is a checks-and-balances system in Total War Battles: Shogun for soldiers. Each class has an opposing class that can combat them better than others. Later in the game, you can hire muskets and cavalry which can change the tide of battles.
But Total War Battles: Shogun is challenging. Only a few missions after the tutorial, constant planning is required. It is easy to send waves of soldiers into battle only to have them wiped out. Expect to fail missions and have to retry them because of a single mistake.
The challenge that Total War Battles: Shogun presents is what makes the game a lot of fun. For real-time strategy fans, it is one of the best games available for iOS. The game also includes local multiplayer with three different modes.
Total War Battles: Shogun is a great extension of the PC game and provides the same challenge as the original. Be prepared to rethink strategies and approaches to battle.
