Shogun 2 - Complete Edition is such a disaster it's being withdrawn
Sega really messed up and is now trying to fix it
It was supposed to be the grand return of one of the most beloved strategy titles, but all it achieved was to enrage the fanbase. We're talking about the Complete Edition of Total War: Shogun 2. In theory, The Creative Assembly's iconic game should have received a respectful rejuvenating treatment, which Sega and Mataboo studio had described to us in this overview, but in reality, things went very differently.
The Major Problems of the Complete Edition
Buyers of the Complete Edition found themselves with an edition that worsened the game in almost every aspect. Shogun 2's refined art was upscaled by artificial intelligence, with deplorable results, despite the developers claiming (shamelessly) in the overview linked above that they had redesigned some game elements, because a simple upscale wouldn't have been able to increase details.
However, those same details, after undergoing an AI transformation that evidently wasn't subjected to human control, became grotesque inconsistencies. The Complete Edition's woes aren't just artistic: the game drags along bugs reported by the community for 15 years, to which many new ones have been added. Optimization isn't doing any better: users complain about indecent frame rates, even on high-end configurations.
If all the flaws we've listed so far aren't enough, add to that the fact that mod support is broken by the new edition, which therefore has to forgo the infinite additions made by the community over the years. And furthermore, the 50-plus new clans have no distinctive characteristics; they are all the same except for their name and position on the map. The list of serious critical issues would still be very long, but we prefer not to make you spend tiring hours reading on screen.
Sega and The Creative Assembly's mea culpa
Before this debacle, Total War: Shogun 2 boasted a Steam rating of over 90% approval. With the launch of the Complete Edition, the standard version was removed, and the new one inevitably received an extremely negative rating, below 20%. Discontent isn't just on Steam: just take a look at Reddit or other virtual fan communities to realize the widespread dissent raging online.
Faced with such a disaster, Sega and The Creative Assembly certainly couldn't stand by: the publisher and developer decided that the Complete Edition will be withdrawn from PC stores, putting the original edition back in its place. Rightly, it is acknowledged that what was done with the Complete Edition does not meet quality standards. The Complete Edition will return to the market in a corrected version, and we sincerely hope that Sega has learned its lesson.
https://t.co/6QoSz2j8Gr
— SEGA (@SEGA) October 15, 2026
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