Fifteen years on, Shogun 2 is still the Total War a lot of people quietly rank first. So a Complete Edition landing October 13 on PC, via Steam, Epic and the Microsoft Store, is easy to be pleased about. Creative Assembly ran through it in an 11-minute overview, and it's more than a rerelease with a new box.
What's in the box
The headline is that it's everything in one place: the base game plus all the DLC, including the Fall of the Samurai standalone and the Rise of the Samurai campaign. On top of that there's a proper technical pass. The engine's been moved to 64-bit, the lighting, shadows and textures have been redone, and the UI now scales to 1440p and 4K instead of turning into postage stamps on a modern monitor.
There's new content too, not just polish. Over 50 minor clans are now playable, full Japanese and Chinese voice acting and text have been added, and mod support runs through Mod.io so it works on the Epic and Microsoft versions, not just Steam Workshop.
The price, and the fine print
It's $39.99, which is fair for the amount of game here. If you already own Shogun 2 on Steam, though, it's a lot less. Existing owners get any DLC they're missing added at no cost, the one exception being the Blood Pack, which is held back over ratings. On top of that there's a 75% loyalty discount on the Complete Edition for a limited window, so the upgrade is close to pocket change.
That's the right way to handle a rerelease of a game people already bought, and it's worth saying so out loud, because plenty of publishers don't bother. Whether the new voice work and the extra clans pull you back in is down to how much Shogun 2 already lives in your head. For a lot of strategy players, that's more than they'll admit.
Sources: Gematsu, Creative Assembly.
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