Total War: Shogun 2 - Complete Edition launched today, offering a modern remaster of one of the best Total War games ever made. So why is it drowning in overwhelmingly negative Steam reviews? Well, its art has suffered what appears to be questionable AI upscaling, it runs worse than the original, and the devs are charging $10 extra to jump in. As if adding insult to injury, the devs have even gone and delisted the original version altogether.

"Literally the greed they talk about in the Bible," as Steam reviewer Xukaku puts it. In lieu of a whip of cords, players are taking to Valve's review system in an effort to drive the remaster away. As I write this, the game sits at an overwhelmingly negative rating on Steam, with just 19% of the 677 reviews being positive.

Fans are collecting an extensive list of issues with the new version, including both long-standing bugs that were present in the original and all-new glitches. There are also wide reports of performance issues, suggesting that the game runs worse not just than the original, but even recent, modern Total War games.

And then there are the allegations of AI art. This example is probably the most egregious: in the original game, it's an image of a mustached warrior on horseback. In the remaster, his nose and mustache have somehow been transformed into what looks like a Stormtrooper helmet. Other comparisons are similarly unflattering to the upscaled art, and even all-new art pieces are afflicted by gen-AI tells like six-fingered hands.

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