The new user interface is designed to help gamers build, govern, train, and negotiate more easily, and new multiplayer options include cooperative action in the 'Campaign Multiplayer' mode, as well as head-to-head and eight-player competitive matches. Players choose from nine different clans as they battle through the main campaign, engaging in massive, five-stage castle sieges, terrain-specific attacks, and coastal naval battles, all the while gaining experience to level up their daimyo and his generals. As established by the original Shogun back in 2000, the Total War formula is comprised of two parts. Featuring an updated user interface, expanded online modes, and refined AI based on Sun Tzu's classic warfare treatise The Art of War, Shogun 2 once again puts gamers in the role of a clan-leading daimyo as he uses diplomacy, economic programs, and military might to unite the turbulent world of 16th-century Japan. Shogun 2 is a high water mark for the Total War series. The Creative Assembly returns to its empire-building roots with a trip back to feudal Japan for more real-time battles and turn-based strategy in Total War: Shogun 2.
