Sega is encouraging people to stay home with a free copy of Total War: Shogun 2

Lockdown is still in full swing across the UK and if you’ve played through your whole game collection, then Sega is about to come to your rescue. The company is offering free copies of Total War: Shogun 2 in order to encourage people to stay at home and stop the spread of the virus. 

This giveaway is running in conjunction with a sale on other Total War titles. Sega hope it will help gamers to enjoy lockdown and are using the #StayHomeSaveLives hashtag to encourage responsible lockdown-behaviour.

“The past few weeks have presented unimaginable challenges for many of us,” says a statement on the Total War website, “but the remarkable collective effort being made by the global community to overcome this moment of adversity has been truly inspirational.

“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.

“Everyone at Creative Assembly is now working from home, and we hope that this will help everyone with that stay home mission – #StayHomeSaveLives.”

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Sega’s Total War sale will run on Steam from the Monday April 27 at 18:00 BST until Monday 4 of May at 18:00 BST. You can see all the titles included on the Steam store and if you download Shogun 2 during the giveaway it will be yours to keep forever.

Rome: Total War, Total War: Three Kingdoms and Total War: Warhammer, are all not included in the sale, unfortunately.

So, is Total War: Shogun 2 worth playing? The short answer is yes. While it’s not the series’ very best entry, it’s still a thrilling strategy game, missing real time battles with turn-based grand strategy, in the typical Total War formula.

Set in the Sengoku period of Japan’s history, the game sees various clans battle for supremacy within Japan. Pitting samurai warriors against cavalry, archers and other unit types. For those used to the series medieval or Roman outings there are one or two new norms to learn, for example, castle walls can be climbed without the use of any siege equipment, because they’re sloped. They slow, rather than stop the enemy.

This sends ripples through the game’s tactical landscape, as does the fact that AI opponents are now better at using their navies to attack you and defend their own cities. There will be less deadlocked siege situations and more surprise coastal attacks.

Overall, if you’re a fan of the Total War strategy formula, Shogun 2 is an interesting change and a great game. For those unacquainted with strategy titles, this one has high production values, historical accuracy and plenty of polish. It’s well worth trying out.