Total War: Shogun 2 Remaster Rated "Overwhelmingly Negative" On Steam

Shogun 2 Remaster Launches to “Overwhelmingly Negative” Reviews Over AI Published Oct 14, 2026, 6:15 AM EDT James Lucas is an Executive Editor at TheGamer who has worked in professional journalism since 2018. A Newcastle University graduate with a degree in Journalism, Media, and Culture, they have written hundreds of guides, news stories, and original reports, with bylines in IGN, NME, GaymingMag, and VG247, sourcing interviews with studio heads, legendary industry figures, prominent actors, and more. An expert on FPS games, Soulslikes, RPGs, and survival horror, James has intimate knowledge of a wide variety of titles, providing in-depth coverage and exclusive profiles. Some of the games they have extensively covered include: Half-Life 3, Counter-Strike, Elden Ring, and Fallout. They pride themselves on their consistently thorough research, leveraging nearly a decade of industry experience. You can reach them at James.t@thegamer.com Creative Assembly and Sega have just launched a Total War: Shogun 2 remaster, promising an "updated, enhanced, and complete version of the grand strategy classic." Considering only 19% of all reviews are positive, with one player describing it as "the upscaled cash grab edition," clearly, that promise has been broken. Right now, the game has 1,337 negative reviews, and just 318 positive reviews, earning it an "Overwhelmingly Negative" score on Steam. Reviewers complain that bugs from the original remain unfixed, while the 'complete edition' adds entirely new bugs, like desynced cinematic audio and hotkeys breaking unit selection. Atlas_Ludde wrote an extensive breakdown of new bugs, returning bugs, and graphical issues that you can read here. "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," writes Xukaku. "Instead, they gutted the game of Steam Workshop support, and it runs noticeably worse than other modern titles (3K and WH3)." Total War: Shogun 2 Delisted To Pave The Way For $40 Remaster Filled With AI Art Worst of all, the original game has been delisted, and while there's a discount for existing owners, that discount has an expiry date. After which, everyone will be expected to pay $40 for an inferior version. Bugs and performance issues are only the tip of the iceberg too, as the remaster appears to use generative AI artwork, or at least AI upscaling, without disclosing it on the store page. "CA used AI to make the new unit cards, they look awful and characters have missing fingers," alleges JMMMHAMM. "Undisclosed use of generative AI for elements of the UI (unit cards, skill icons, etc)," echoes Dong Kong. "Terrible performance on hardware which ran the original superbly. Not happy with this remaster." "Retains all bugs from 10+ years ago, graphics are worse than the original game with mods, performance is somehow worse despite being 'optimized'. Not to mention the AI content that was not disclosed," wrote Inspire. "Purely a money grab." "Pictures have been remade using AI (not even tried hiding the missing limbs btw)," said Tsurī-Tennō. "Old bugs have not been fixed. This is literally a cheap cashgrab. DO not buy this." Or, as Athro so simply put it, "AI slop." In so many words, the original game was delisted, making Steam Workshop inaccessible, to pave the way for a $40 remaster that retains ten-year-old bugs, adds new bugs, and uses AI artwork, saturating a classic with slop. To hear Xukaku say it, "The greed they talk about in the Bible." Systems Released March 15, 2011 ESRB Teen // Language, Sexual Themes, Violence Developer(s) Creative Assembly Publisher(s) Sega Engine Warscape Engine