Nothing will beat Warhammer for the GOAT Total War game, but Shogun 2 is pretty damn good. And right now? It’s free.
SEGA announced late last week that Shogun 2 would be released for free as part of the publisher’s efforts to promote social distancing and healthy habits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Early Tuesday morning, that promotion went live, meaning anyone can add Total War: Shogun 2 to their Steam account for free, provided you download the game between now and the early hours of May 2.
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/03/total-war-shogun-2-the-fall-of-the-samurai-the-kotaku-review/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_lfill,w_768,q_90/17hknqmrjr6wejpg.jpg” title=”Total War: Shogun 2: The Fall Of The Samurai: The Kotaku Review” excerpt=”Or, as I should have called it, my review of the Great Colon War of 1864. In 2009, Creative Assembly released one of the greatest strategy games ever made. A year later, they had the cheek to release an expansion pack and try and pass it off as an all-new title. Skip ahead to 2011, they again released one of the greatest strategy games ever made.”]
“With this in mind, we want to continue to encourage you all to stay home and save lives by extending a gift to everyone to help make this difficult situation a little bit easier,” Creative Assembly wrote in a blog post. “Everyone at Creative Assembly is now working from home, and we hope that this will help everyone with that stay home mission.”
The giveaway coincides with a sale on Total War games, although that sale doesn’t include Three Kingdoms, ROME: Total War or the Total WARHAMMER games, which is a bit of a shame. The Shogun 2 DLC isn’t being given away as part of this sale, either. But if you like what you see, all the DLC is 75 percent off, meaning that you can get the Rise of the Samurai add-on campaign for $3.74, which is pretty reasonable.
If you’ve never played a Total War game before, I’d say Shogun 2 is still a pretty good place to start. It still focuses on a lot of the internal politics and dimensions from the main Total War games, which you don’t quite get in Total Warhammer. It’s a bit pared back in scope, however, which makes it easier for newcomers to parse.
To add the game to your account – or to make a fresh Steam account which you can then add Shogun 2 into – head here.
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