Over the entire history of the Total War series, which is now 26 years old, there have been few better entries than Shogun 2. From its glorious art to its wonderful music to its rock-solid tactical gameplay, it's many people's favourite Total War, and so an updated, "enhanced" edition releasing this week could have been something to celebrate.
Wet fart noise. Here's what happened instead:
- There are bugs. Bugs everywhere. Some are leftover and unfixed from the original, but many are somehow new to this version. There are gameplay bugs and there are visual bugs.
- A lot of those old bugs had been slowly fixed over the years by modders, but old mods won't work on this updated version of the game, since it has swapped Steam Workshop support for Mod.io.
- The moment Sega released this "enhanced" version of Shogun 2, they removed the original--which was still a perfectly functional and very beautiful video game--from sale on Steam (if you already owned it though it is of course still in your library).
- Adding final insult is the fact some of the game's art (see top image) has been crudely and, seemingly without any kind of human oversight or approval whatsoever, upscaled using AI, to the point where flags and faces have become unrecognisable blobs.
I was only playing the original a few weeks ago, because its final expansion--Fall of the Samurai--remains the single best piece of Total War ever made. For a game first released in 2011, Shogun 2 still looked great, played great and there was absolutely no need whatsoever to take a second swing at it. The fact Sega (and Mataboo, credited here but who were also accused of using AI imagery in their work on STALKER) have done so anyway, and whiffed it so badly in such a depressing 2026 manner, is just such a huge bummer.
Even the campaign map has had a downgrade. The original is on the left, while the 'enhanced' edition's garish, flat textures are on the right (images)
