A "Total War" connoisseur reported ...

First of all, I've played every game (including add-ons) for the first Shogun. In this respect I can certainly overlook a slightly longer development than those who only since Rome, Medieval 2 or Empire / Napoleon are.

Once common to the game:

Like every previous part of this also draws visually from the solid. Armor, landscapes, weather, combat effects, fortresses and movements in the fight hand to hand on the battlefield in the smallest battle Detail (!) (!) (!) - Everything to a new level of game evolution in this genre (If there ever another should be playing in this genre) brought.

But already have to follow the big BUT: some achievements of previous parts have gone somehow lost. So it was in Medieval 2 a marked visual difference in armor and weapons as soon as you could use improved. Not more in Shogun. 2
Where is also responsible for the TW series invigorating and grandiose in their novelty introduction of admirals, ships with more experience etc. remained of Empire? In Single Player of Shogun 2 still present in multiplayer nil. But but in a completely senseless ship AI and balancing that has not verdeint this designation. It always boils down to a Soieg by gunboats and Luntenschlosseinheiten. With sword, bow and arrow? No Chance!
Where we are on the Balancing: matchlock units from the mid-16th century shooting as fast and accurate as their colleagues from the Napoleonic period. This is historical nonsense and untenable in the game, because it makes any tactic by sidedness broken. Cavalry is their strength (and here historically) something from dirt cheap that it is often a lightweight, easy to overrun the enemy.
Very nice would have the matter can werdn the player avatar. In Avatar menu you can arrange countless armor combinations in all items and colors. Why is there this possibility at all when on the battlefield All avatars look like (except for the color) equal ??? !!
Or the idea with the online clans. Unfortunately was nowhere explicitly that you must enter only via the Steam menu in a Steam group, to then join their communities. Unfortunately, the fight against Clan Clan makes no real fun, because it is completely arbitrary. There are no discernible Clan Crest. The clan wins on the Japan map with the most wins, is normally: most players. Again, a nice idea, pleasure and thoughtlessly thrown into play.
Also a lack of concrete information on the exact value of the improved properties before you have distributed the skill points at Veteran units. Treated like to find out by trial and error.
The variation of the unit size can just as attackers have fatal consequences in sieges: as the defense towers (which automatically search targets and fire at what the defender is not always is a pleasure because it often walls are shot, BEHIND are those opponents, but not opponents that are in the line of fire, but further away ... -.-) always have the same damage and the same firing rate they are to players at the unit size "small" or less a victory guarantee in the unit size (which was much before the battle never can determine as a player!) "large" almost no effect ...
Now you might say that these are just small mistakes on the edge, the notice only hardened fans. If it were just the only ones.
So one would have become quite may want time that the units to which the individual clans have specialized not only get better values, but also actually look different (just another Sashimono is really to "90" -.-) than the other clans.
It is very interesting that the music is the same as the first work in 1998 to 100%. Of course it's great that commands and speeches are pronounced on the battlefield almost exclusively in Japanese. But some blemish let a certain pleasure or lack of ideas already seen in game design. "Why bring something new? The fans can buy it anyway!" As a longtime fan feels for his unconditional trust (have me any part of the series so far bought without hesitation ...) punished!

All this can, however, cope with, on the basis of what is offered there for the eye in Single Player. The building division or the "exploration of the arts" (meaningful separation in civil and military) in my opinion is now even clearer, more logical and more intuitive than in Empire / Napoleon or their predecessors.

Now the largest construction site (because nothing else can be seen as), the multiplayer:

I've never had in over 15 years a program on my computer, which is so often crashed. The crash (in all its many forms) is in multiplayer (the single player in this respect is completely stable) not only accompaniment, he belongs quasi to play it. There is not a window, not a screen, not a moment of the multiplayer main menu on the matchmaking, the army formation to the battle itself, in which the game does not hang up either, freezes or crashes completely equal. This multiplayer is a beta version completely unworthy. How something like this to the company's own testers and programmers and - even more - could walk past the testers the PC and gamers magazines, is simply incomprehensible ...
There is here no systemic individual cases: I only know players, where it is the case. From Russia via Poland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the Netherlands, France and Great Britain - everywhere the same problems.
When a car came out so, the stock would be in an existential risks for the producer descent! But that would react with a recall at least. Or free, IMMEDIATE fixes the problem. The game is currently available About 6 weeks on the German market and the only patch that has struck me and my teammates, was an increase in the price for Mangonel units (Catapult similar) from 800 to 1000 Koku in the game. WOW!
Why do you get it in multiplayer not out that three players who have come together in a team to search, do not end up in battle formation in a team ?! Why I land in search of a sea battle repeatedly in land battles? And in sieges again in naval battles? Is it that difficult, a 3Personen team zuzulotsen any opponents combination of 1, 2 or 3 players, the also the sum of 3 results ??? !!!!!!! How is it that 6 players can land on 2v2 maps? Or that you can not change cards in the battle menu?
It is also great that the Clan Chat has disappeared in Multiplayer. Why? No Idea! When he comes back? No Idea! There is just no information ...
Or how can it happen that in the army formation suddenly all players turn up on one side? Or all but one? I have constantly pogrammiert feel here for the first time was for a game multiplayer. So much incompetence and at this price! An audacity that is hard to beat!
Not a word of apology. No opinion. As the game would be completely free of errors. The frustration among all the players is no longer on offer.

Who has the game not yet bought - LET IT !!!! If nothing has happened within 6 weeks, then maybe something has been fixed until Christmas. Those who have no Internet or in any case not interested in multiplayer can be operated. But do not complain afterwards. You have been warned.

I keep feeling for fools. Money really seems to be everything. If I wanted to date not think - now I have the proof. So a "power" makes over 10 years unconditional trust in a team and its number destroyed!