Total War Remaster Faces Backlash from Fans Over Bugs and AI Issues

Sega and Creative Assembly’s latest release, Total War: Shogun 2 – Complete Edition, aimed to deliver an “updated, enhanced, and complete version of the grand strategy classic.” However, fans of the Total War series are expressing their frustration with the Complete Edition on Steam, citing numerous bugs and claims that the visuals have been altered using generative AI, resulting in bizarre graphical issues.

Just a day after its launch, Total War: Shogun 2 – Complete Edition has garnered an “Overwhelmingly Negative” review rating, with 83% of user feedback leaning towards the negative side.

“Awful, [Creative Assembly], just awful,” states a highly-rated review on Steam. “So many bugs remain unaddressed, and now you’ve introduced new ones.” This reviewer, who has logged over 3,500 hours in the original Total War: Shogun 2, detailed a list of persistent issues alongside new problems, including poor “ninja balancing.”

“Literally the greed they talk about in the Bible,” another critical review reads. “The community wanted these ‘old’ games ported to 64-bit for better stability and performance, which this game fails miserably at. Instead, they stripped the game of Steam Workshop support and it runs noticeably worse than other modern titles. 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 cherished strategy classic, blending real-time and turn-based gameplay as players take on the role of a clan leader in 16th century feudal Japan. The game combines military strategy, economics, and diplomacy to achieve the ultimate goal of unifying Japan under one command and becoming the new Shogun. Released in 2011, it received critical acclaim, boasting a 90 score on Metacritic and over 22,000 “Mostly Positive” user reviews on Steam. (The original game has since been removed from Steam.)

So far, Total War: Shogun 2 – Complete Edition has not lived up to player expectations. Sega, Creative Assembly, and co-developer Mataboo promised “improved visuals” and “1440p and 4K UI scaling,” but the attempt to upscale the game’s 15-year-old graphics has led to some disappointing results, as noted by players on the Total War subreddit.

Even the original artist behind the unit portraits for Total War: Shogun 2 has reportedly commented on the situation. In a discussion on the game’s subreddit, artist Roland MacDonald described the updated visuals as “very lazy.” Notably, the game’s Steam page lacks any disclosure regarding the use of generative AI in enhancing the original graphics.

“Obviously, no human has looked at or cared about the editing of these images. These look terrible,” an email allegedly from MacDonald, shared by a fan, states. “They shouldn’t be charging for this rubbish.”

As of now, Sega and Creative Assembly have not officially addressed the backlash surrounding Total War: Shogun 2 – Complete Edition. An outlet has reached out to the publisher and developer for comments and will provide updates as they become available.