14 DAY TRIAL // The developers at The Creative Assembly and publisher SEGA have announced that Total War: Shogun 2, the strategy game launched earlier this year, is set to get a big standalone expansion called Fall of the Samurai, which will take place about 400 years after the events of the game and will see the clash between traditional culture and modernity.
The game will see Western nations like the United States, France and Britain meddle in the internal affairs of Japan as the last Shogun and the Emperor struggle for power and six new clans need to decide who they will fight for in the last conflict.
New features for Fall of the Samurai include railway networks blooming across Japan to increase army movement speed, ironclad warships that change naval battles and better siege mechanics, with each tower getting individual upgrades.
There are also new agents to play with: the Shinsengumi, the Ishin Shishi and the Foreign Veteran (think Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai).
Gamers also get new strategic choices, like calling in naval artillery attacks on the map and benefitting from artillery support when assaulting castles.
There are also changes to the multiplayer game modes, including a new Conquest map of Japan which is based on the XIX century.
There are also 40 new retainers for generals, 30 armors pieces for multiplayer and a new skill tree.
The Creative Assembly also says that it will deliver the ability for players to set up multiple avatars in order to see the possibilities included in the progression for both the original Shogun 2 and Fall of the Samurai.
The developers say that the new expansion will be bigger than any piece of new content they have released for the Total War series so far.
More information on the single player campaign and on the multiplayer changes will be announced as Fall of the Samurai approaches the March 2012 launch date.
Here’s the first full trailer for the expansion:
