Total War: Shogun 2: Complete Edition

38% of reviews mention bugs or crashes. Veterans list problems they have known for fifteen years and expected a paid rebuild to fix: artillery aiming at unit edges, Yari Wall units that keep fighting after they rout, reinforcements stuck at the map edge, ships that cannot sink, siege pathfinding that freezes units on walls, matchlock units that do not fire, and the Realm Divide toggle that still triggers when you take Kyoto. Reviewers also report new problems: units that deselect a moment after being clicked, dropped orders, broken control groups, peace treaties ignored, armies that cannot merge, missing sound effects (sword clashes in auto-resolve, general level-ups, cannon smoke and gunfire), settings that do not save, and crashes on pausing, changing battle speed, ending turns or loading saves. A few could not launch the game at all because of an "Empire.Retail.x64.dll" error. Not everyone hits these: 30% of positive reviews say the game ran fine for them or that they met no bugs. One negative reviewer wrote: "I have never had as many issues with Shogun 2 as I had playing this version that says they fixed the bugs."

30% of reviews bring up the price or the owner discount, or call the release a cash grab. Reviewers say new players pay about $40 for a game that sold for a few dollars on sale, and that the standalone original can no longer be bought on Steam, so new players have no cheaper way in. Owners get 75% off for only a month, which some see as pressure to buy before patches arrive. Even a reviewer who recommends the game calls the one-month limit unfair: "You don't suddenly stop owning the original when that month ends." A smaller group warns that refunding the Complete Edition removes the original from their library ("if i refund this, IT TAKES AWAY THE OG VERSION OF SHOGUN 2"), which kept some from refunding. Several mention the install is far larger than the original's.

28% of reviews raise performance, mostly to complain. Several report 20 to 40 FPS on the campaign map even when battles run smoothly, owners of RTX 4070, 5070 Ti, 4090 and 5090 cards report frame rates they call unacceptable, and large battles slow down as bodies pile up ("Start a battle at 120fps, finish somewhere around 30."). Several compare it with Warhammer III, which they say runs better on the same machine, and with the original, which they could run maxed. Reviewers also report GPU usage pinned at 100% on the campaign map, CPU bottlenecks, stutter and audio stutter. A minority reports smooth play at high settings, and a few found workarounds such as turning off shadows or anti-aliasing.

21% of reviews bring up mods. Reviewers report that the original's Workshop mods do not work with the new build and that Workshop support was replaced by in-game Mod.io, which needs a linked SEGA or CA account. Several say the login fails, loops, or forgets the linked account: "You know what never gave me such issues? The bloody workshop, on the very platform this cursed game can be bought on." Players also note there is no Assembly Kit at launch, and that old fixes (such as editing the preferences script to unlock graphics options) no longer work. A few positive reviewers got Mod.io working and were glad to find big mods like DarthMod on it already. Several reviewers ask for Workshop support alongside Mod.io.

15% of reviews raise AI-generated or AI-upscaled art, almost always as a complaint. Players compare unit cards and portraits side by side with the originals and say they lost detail, with smudged faces, missing teeth or limbs, and extra or missing fingers; some frames in the new cutscenes draw the same charge. "Some unit cards look like they were thrown through a cheap AI upscaler from 2 years ago without anyone checking the results." Some add that the AI use was not disclosed, and for some it was the single reason for a negative review. A few reviewers say they could not see the problem or will not judge without proof, and one positive reviewer called the complaints overblown.

A group of owners, some citing hundreds or thousands of hours in the original, say they cannot find enough difference to justify a new product. They call it a reskin, a texture pack or a graphics patch, and say the balance, tech tree, diplomacy and battle mechanics are untouched: "it feels like I paid £9 for brightness tweaks, shiny 2011 textures and a slightly nicer looking campaign map." Several list what they hoped for instead, such as bug fixes first, family and stance systems from later games, or features from popular mods.

Apart from the bug lists, some players describe battles that feel worse to control: a delay before units respond, units walking to the wrong gate or ignoring orders, cavalry stuck in place, and selection that does not stick. The enemy AI draws similar complaints: archers clumping in a corner, armies that never move, naval AI that sails aimlessly, siege assaults that stop, and generals charging into spear walls ("The enemy general's unit literally charged headfirst into my spear wall."). A couple of reviewers thought the AI used Yari Wall or kneel fire more sensibly, but most who mention the AI say it is unchanged or worse.

Reviewers treat the 50-plus newly playable minor clans as a headline feature, and most who comment on them after trying them found them hollow: no unique traits, units, intros or cutscenes, and a single shared minor-faction bonus. Reviewers point out that a Workshop mod for the original already unlocked these clans, with custom traits. One summed it up as "The new factions are just new starting points". Another adds that the minor clans are not available in custom battles, and a few are simply glad to play them without mods.

Players who came back for Avatar Conquest and co-op report desyncs in two-player campaigns, lobby lists that refresh away, clan pages stuck loading, crashes in Avatar Conquest menus and friends unable to join. Reviewers note the long-requested features are still missing: no simultaneous turns and no campaign beyond two players. "Simultaneous turns for multiplayer should've been the bare minimum." Some positive reviewers are simply glad the Avatar Conquest servers are active.

Another setup complaint: the game decides the PC is too weak and greys out Ultra unit size and higher graphics presets, even on machines that run Warhammer III well ("unit size ultra not available because CA deemed my computer unworthy"). The old preferences-file workaround no longer works for some, and the fix circulating in Steam guides is a script players say should be a menu toggle.

A small group reports that the game does not launch under Proton on Linux, SteamOS or Bazzite (one positive review is just a workaround using a different Proton build), that it no longer runs on the Steam Deck where the original did, and that the new version has no Mac build, which leaves Mac players with no version of Shogun 2 for sale on Steam.