Tiny Epics

Given the amount of bloodshed, lawlessness and internecine intrigue associated with 16th century Japan, it's a wonder no one ever turned the era into a successful computer game. Until now. Shogun: Total War, available later this month from Electronic Arts, is about to do for your PC what the mini-series did for television. Shogun is a grand strategic epic that has been crafted with so much loving attention to detail that it overshot its release date by about 12 months. It was worth the wait.

Shogun's political side is interesting enough in a Civilization kind of way; as daimyo--feudal warlord--of a medieval Japanese province, you extend influence through alliances, discreet Ninja assassinations and the beautiful-but-deadly geisha. But it is in the continuation of politics by other means that Shogun really excels. Battles with neighboring daimyo are conducted in real time on landscapes realistic enough to reveal the shifting shadows of birds' wings. Your own bird's-eye view is ideal for commanding battalions of archers, ashigaru (foot soldiers) and samurai. Up to 7,000 soldiers can appear at the same time, each one moving independently, each one so detailed you see the color of his sandals. This is nothing less than interactive Kurosawa. Shame they don't make PC monitors in widescreen.

Shogun doesn't try to put a politically correct gloss on the violence of the era. That beautiful landscape invariably ends up littered with bloodied corpses. But the game does provide rewards for loyal troops who stay in formation and fight nobly in the face of the enemy--charmingly antiquated concepts in the amoral age of Quake.