Shogun Total War - Warlord Edition

Published by Sold Out Software
Developed by The Creative Assembly
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Released - Out Now
Price : £4.99

Until the arrival of Shogun Total War strategy games were either turn-based or real-time and gamers usually preferred one or the other. Make no mistake about it Shogun Total War was a benchmark title. The combination of the turn-based campaign map and pause able real-time battles allowed for both depth and tactical combat.

Shogun is set in seventeenth century feudal Japan. Basically you control one of the states and battle to become Shogun. The game is full of nice touches such as being able to spy on your rivals and assassinate the generals of the rival armies. It might be called Total War but you can at least make temporary alliances to give you extra support against strong rivals.

The opportunity to purchase Shogun at the lowly price of just £4.99 would have been enough to warrant a 5/5 rating but Sold Out have gone one step further and included the Mongol Invasion expansion pack too. The expansion added the Mongols, several new campaigns and new victory conditions. With the expansion Shogun is almost the perfect strategy game.

The game is suitable for the deaf gamer as every piece of information is displayed textually and subtitles are the default option for the game. There isn't an option to slow down the speed of the text but as you only have one sentence on the screen at a time, it is comfortable to read. Tool tips (information pop-ups when the mouse pointer is left over icons units etc.) are very useful to the beginner on the strategic map and on the battle screen you can pause the game and make tactical decisions.

Recommendation: Highly Recommended. Arguably one of the best strategy games of all time, and its fabulous expansion pack, all at the lowly price of £4.99. Pure Gold.

Suitability for deaf gamers: Perfect. There are no problems at all

Overall Game Rating: 5.0/5