Total War Fans Blast New Remaster Over Bugs, AI Accusations

Sega and Creative Assembly's new release of Total War: Shogun 2 promised strategy fans an "updated, enhanced, and complete version of the grand strategy classic." But fans of the Total War franchise are ripping the so-called Complete Edition rerelease of Shogun 2 on Steam over bugs and accusations of generative AI-enhanced visuals that have turned the game's graphics into wonky hallucinations.

One day after Total War: Shogun 2 - Complete Edition's release on Steam, the game carries an "Overwhelmingly Negative" review consensus, with 83% of user reviews skewing negatively.

Total War fans bash Shogun 2's 'Complete Edition'

"Awful, [Creative Assembly], just awful," reads one top-rated user review of Total War: Shogun 2 - Complete Edition on Steam. "So many bugs have not even been addressed, and on top of that you introduce new ones." That reviewer, who has logged 3,507 hours on the original Total War: Shogun 2 on Steam, outlined a series of old, unaddressed bugs, as well as new ones, including poor "ninja balancing."

"Literally the greed they talk about in the Bible," reads another scathing user review. "The whole point of the community wanting these 'old' games ported to 64-bit is better stability and performance, which this game fails miserably at. Instead, they gutted the game of Steam Workshop support and it runs noticeably worse than other modern titles (3K and WH3). They delisted the original game and repackaged it as a new 'Complete Edition' at a higher price. [...] Absolutely shameful."

The original Total War: Shogun 2 is a beloved strategy classic. The game's mix of real-time and turn-based strategy gave players command of a clan leader in 16th century feudal Japan, and utilized a blend of "military engagements, economics and diplomacy to achieve the ultimate goal: reunite Japan under his supreme command and become the new Shogun." Originally released in 2011, Total War: Shogun 2 was a critical hit. It boasts a 90 score on Metacritic indicating "universal acclaim." On Steam, the original Shogun 2 has more than 22,000 "Mostly Positive" user reviews. (The original game has since been delisted on Steam.)

Total War: Shogun 2 - Complete Edition has thus far failed to meet players' expectations. Sega, Creative Assembly, and co-developer Mataboo promised "improved visuals" and "1440p and 4K UI scaling," but the process of upscaling the game's 15-year-old graphics has resulted in some sloppy updates, as pointed out by players on the Total War subreddit.

Even the original artist behind the unit portraits for Total War: Shogun 2 has allegedly weighed in. According to an exchange on the game's subreddit, artist Roland MacDonald called the updated visuals "very lazy." Incidentally, the game's Steam page does not include a generative AI disclosure indicating whether Creative Assembly or Mataboo used the technology to uprez the original game's graphics.

"Obviously, no human has looked at or cared about the editing of these images. These look terrible," an email allegedly from MacDonald posted by a fan reads. "They shouldn't be charging for this rubbish."

Sega and Creative Assembly have not officially responded to the blowback to Total War: Shogun 2 - Complete Edition. Polygon has reached out to the publisher and developer for comment and will update this story when they respond.