Following player backlash, Sega and Creative Assembly have yanked Total War: Shogun 2 – Complete Edition from sale and have replaced it with the original 2011 version. First hitting digital shelves on October 13, this version of the beloved strategy game was advertised as having had a substantial facelift, but it wasn’t long before players pointed out numerous issues with the game and the telltale sign of AI-upscaling. This has led to some bizarre makeovers, like a samurai’s face merging with his helmet or extra fingers on character artwork.
“We’re aware that Total War: Shogun 2 – Complete Edition has fallen short of both your expectations and our own standards,” Sega wrote in a statement that did not address the AI criticisms at all. “We’ve seen your feedback, comments, and reviews. We agree that the current experience is not where it needs to be.”
Fans have also taken to social media to show off legacy bugs that still haven’t been addressed in this new edition, and Sega said that it’s “working closely” with its “development partners” to identify and address these issues. Unsurprisingly, the game has an overwhelmingly negative rating on Steam currently, with over 81% of players urging people to give it a skip.
“Horrific graphical bug makes the vegetation in battle map terrible to look at. There’s no way to disable the vegetation,” one oddly specific player review reads,” amongst hundreds of other negative pieces of feedback.
Players also weren’t happy when Sega initially replaced the original Shogun 2 game with the remastered version, which has a price tag of $40. Upgrading from the classic to this version will cost you $10. The AI-upscaling is just the tip of the complaints-iceberg, as players have several other issues with Shogun 2. The new user interface has been criticized for its clunky design and plenty of new bugs have surfaced. This isn’t the only game using generative AI that Sega is linked to, as for the upcoming Crazy Taxi: World Tour, generative AI was used to create background assets.
