Image: Creative Assembly & SEGA

It's usually nice to see old PC classics getting a lick of fresh paint. Usually. But very few of the people given early access to Creative Assembly's re-release of 2011's Total War: Shogun 2 - Complete Edition seem happy about it. In a puzzling decision, Creative Assembly has delisted the original classic from Steam (along with its two expansions) and rolled out the Complete Edition in its place, returning the game to its full price tag with a one-month window for existing owners to upgrade at a discount before the game goes back up to £35/$40 for the foreseeable future.

As a long-term series fan (it's in his username, even), milkandcookiesTW says on YouTube, "there are bugs and obvious balance problems that have lingered since 2011". Initial reports are that the upgrades to the game are largely superficial, and that underlying issues that have been identified in the decade-and-a-half since release have been left as-is. Another Total War-heavy channel, The Great Book Of Grudges, observed enemy AI bugging out in new and never-before-seen ways, including generals suicidally breaking formation to charge entire armies solo. A lot of people were given early preview access to this new version, and almost nobody seems happy with the results.

There are some positive points to the re-release. 64-bit support, integrated Mod.io support for easier content sharing, and some slight improvements to the visuals, UI, and features support for modern resolutions and aspect ratios. But the fundamentals (frequently the subject of unofficial patching and rebalancing efforts) have been left untouched, and I'd not be surprised if there really are new bugs introduced. Nothing that can't be patched out, but surely the time for that would be sometime between 2011 and now.

As a business decision, it stands in stark contrast with the recent Witcher 3 remastered re-release, which might have had some issues at launch, but it was also a free upgrade that included the previously commercial expansions for anyone who already owned them. I appreciate that real time and effort went into the Shogun 2 re-release, and that the company has every right to make money from their efforts, but the timing and optics of this move are just bad, especially so soon after Total Warhammer 3 received a massive upgrade and endgame overhaul, free.

That said, it's also a well-known fact that Creative Assembly have enjoyed a...strained relationship with their player base for many years now. Their entire catalogue of games saw intense, organized review-bombing over a piece of slightly overpriced DLC for Total War: Warhammer 3, and I've seen several influential people in the community state adamantly that they need to wield that threat over the studio's head to keep them in line.

While I understand the frustration of not being heard, this seems like a deeply toxic way to view a games studio and your relationship with it. This isn't to say that this is a good re-release or should be excused, merely that the last thing we need is more things to stress out the workers in an industry already under continual threat. I'm not judging anyone, just saying that the vibes are already bad enough.

Total War: SHOGUN 2 - Complete Edition is out now for £35/$40, with a 75% discount for existing Shogun 2 owners available until November 12th. As much as I liked the original, I don't think I'll be bothering with this one until CA has hammered out some of the kinks. That, and I'm already busy with TW: Warhammer 3.