World War I: The Great War
Experience the Decisive Battles of WWI - The Great War
http://www.encoresoftware.com/images/screenshots/28405/01.jpg
http://www.encoresoftware.com/images/screenshots/28405/05a.jpg
http://www.encoresoftware.com/images/screenshots/28405/03.jpg
Lead the armies of Russia, France, England, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 1st ever World War 1 real-time-strategy game. Command air, armor and infantry units, all equipped with authentic weapons. Drive across the European plain, capture enemy territory and build cities to feed your war machine.
March across massive environments capable of displaying 80,000 soldiers engaged in heated battle.
Over 60 painstakingly researched historical campaigns.
Real-time interaction with the key actors of WWI - Kaiser Wilhelm, Tsar Nicholas, Franz Joseph and King George V.
Receive expert advice from military and economic advisers to main key strategic advantages.
8-player multiplayer via Internet or Lan.
System Requirements:
Minimum system requirements: Pentium II 266MHz; 128Mb RAM; SoundBlaster or compatible; Win 9x / NT/ 2000; Microsoft Directx v8.0; 4Mb or AGP compatible 3D Accelerator Card Recommended system requirements: Pentium III 600MHz; 256Mb RAM; SoundBlaster Live! or other card with 3D sound support; Win 9x / NT/ 2000; Microsoft Directx v8.0; 32Mb or AGP compatible 3D Accelerator Card
×××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××Experience the Decisive Battles of WWI - The Great War
http://www.encoresoftware.com/images/screenshots/28405/01.jpg
http://www.encoresoftware.com/images/screenshots/28405/05a.jpg
http://www.encoresoftware.com/images/screenshots/28405/03.jpg
Lead the armies of Russia, France, England, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 1st ever World War 1 real-time-strategy game. Command air, armor and infantry units, all equipped with authentic weapons. Drive across the European plain, capture enemy territory and build cities to feed your war machine.
March across massive environments capable of displaying 80,000 soldiers engaged in heated battle.
Over 60 painstakingly researched historical campaigns.
Real-time interaction with the key actors of WWI - Kaiser Wilhelm, Tsar Nicholas, Franz Joseph and King George V.
Receive expert advice from military and economic advisers to main key strategic advantages.
8-player multiplayer via Internet or Lan.
System Requirements:
Minimum system requirements: Pentium II 266MHz; 128Mb RAM; SoundBlaster or compatible; Win 9x / NT/ 2000; Microsoft Directx v8.0; 4Mb or AGP compatible 3D Accelerator Card Recommended system requirements: Pentium III 600MHz; 256Mb RAM; SoundBlaster Live! or other card with 3D sound support; Win 9x / NT/ 2000; Microsoft Directx v8.0; 32Mb or AGP compatible 3D Accelerator Card
Introduction
Well it is actually one of the first mass battle real time strategy games based on World war I plot. Though the whole idea of gameplay and 2d engine are much similar to Blitzkrieg and Cossacks, the game introduces some new ideas and fun to the strategy game market. Economy, some research, the way troops fight and tactics are present in the game and if you played Cossacks or American Conquest you will find yourself in a familiar field.
Graphics (7/10)
Overall graphics are not that bad, buildings and units are a bit choppy but all are well detailed and presented. Each nation has its own totally different graphics for buildings and units. As i mentioned game runs on 2d engine capable of supporting huge amount of units on the same map (well above 10 thousand would run pretty well). What i liked were the graphics of the human fighting units, like infantry, cavalry and especially the artillery. I do like the way the explosions are created, very nice feel to war there. The textures of the surface are a bit too sharp and lack smoothness but are acceptable. Overall a diversity of graphics and lots of colors make up the game pretty well.
Audio (6/10)
Oh yes, the audio. One word: average, quite usual sound effects and noises for the world war. I did like the sound of explosions and hissing as the artillery shells are cutting the air closing in on the surface. Shooting sounds of the infantry and cavalry are pretty dull and same, no echo; Shooting of the cannons, tanks and ships are much alike. Each millitary unit or peasants have their own response as you click on them each speaking in the native language of the nation you chose. Not really annoying because each unit has several voiceovers. There is an average sound track different for some nations running in the background but after a while it gets annoying so i simply turn it off. Overall audio of the game is acceptable, covers all needed aspects of the gameplay to enjoy it at basic level.
Gameplay (6/10)
Interesting part now. After pretty nice rendered intro movie you are taken to the choose nation screen. You are able to play missions, campaigns and random map, the former one i like the best for it gives me freedom to the game. There are several nations like France, England, Russia and Austria. You start of with few peasants, they build a townhall which produces new peasants and you start off gathering resources as wood, oil, gold, food and iron. As i said above the gameplay and economics are the same as in Cossacks game. When you build military and science academy you are able to conduct some good research, and research options are quite vast.
Game allows you to build infantry, cavalry, planes, tanks (which are damn powerful against inf), different artillery types, AA and ships. Gameplay becomes pretty fun the first time when you get to explore the whole upgrades and get eventually to building tanks and planes. Though i thought when you get to building artillery, mortrars and tanks the infantry and cav units are completely useless, for one tank can take out up to a hundred soldiers. Diversity of units different for each nation is pretty nice, everything is well balanced and fun to play first few times against AI. There are even wildwomen and flamethrowers.. Jesus.
Yes, the AI. It is pretty dumb, and uses same strategy of sending bunch of infantry against you all the time at same intervals of time, sometimes could be few cavalry scouts.
On higher levels of difficulty it becomes quite challenging though. There is no real strategy in the game, just rush play and tactics and who's got the strongest unit. Mass battles are possible, and when you get mass of artillery you can literally cover whole chunk of map with explosions wiping out all attacking forces. Quite a fun there.
Sometimes ai will try attack your base from different flanks, which makes game a bit more interesting.
Inf is cheap and fast to build while stronger units such as tanks are taking hell of time and resources. As i said, its all in the rush.
Overall game would be fun to play at some stage but to get farther fun you would have to get playing on multiplayer rather then challenging average and predictable ai.
Concluding Thoughts (13/20)
Game fails to give a player a real feel of the world war I. It fails to give player a reason to play it for longer time when you get to see all units and research of each nation. Game is definitely a Cossacks alike but introduces new features and is even more fun to play at some point but still...
Though it is definitely the first real time strategy game based on World War I and tries its best to present all basic units of that time but fails in true strategic thinking to be called a good STRATEGY game.
So to conclude- i would recommend you to try it, not bad after all that i ve said, certainly new experiences, and i am much sure game would be much fun on multiplayer.
View/Post feedback on this Firstlook (6 replies)
Graphics 7/10 Audio 6/10
Gameplay 6/10 Concluding Thoughts 13/20
Total Score 32/50
Well it is actually one of the first mass battle real time strategy games based on World war I plot. Though the whole idea of gameplay and 2d engine are much similar to Blitzkrieg and Cossacks, the game introduces some new ideas and fun to the strategy game market. Economy, some research, the way troops fight and tactics are present in the game and if you played Cossacks or American Conquest you will find yourself in a familiar field.
Graphics (7/10)
Overall graphics are not that bad, buildings and units are a bit choppy but all are well detailed and presented. Each nation has its own totally different graphics for buildings and units. As i mentioned game runs on 2d engine capable of supporting huge amount of units on the same map (well above 10 thousand would run pretty well). What i liked were the graphics of the human fighting units, like infantry, cavalry and especially the artillery. I do like the way the explosions are created, very nice feel to war there. The textures of the surface are a bit too sharp and lack smoothness but are acceptable. Overall a diversity of graphics and lots of colors make up the game pretty well.
Audio (6/10)
Oh yes, the audio. One word: average, quite usual sound effects and noises for the world war. I did like the sound of explosions and hissing as the artillery shells are cutting the air closing in on the surface. Shooting sounds of the infantry and cavalry are pretty dull and same, no echo; Shooting of the cannons, tanks and ships are much alike. Each millitary unit or peasants have their own response as you click on them each speaking in the native language of the nation you chose. Not really annoying because each unit has several voiceovers. There is an average sound track different for some nations running in the background but after a while it gets annoying so i simply turn it off. Overall audio of the game is acceptable, covers all needed aspects of the gameplay to enjoy it at basic level.
Gameplay (6/10)
Interesting part now. After pretty nice rendered intro movie you are taken to the choose nation screen. You are able to play missions, campaigns and random map, the former one i like the best for it gives me freedom to the game. There are several nations like France, England, Russia and Austria. You start of with few peasants, they build a townhall which produces new peasants and you start off gathering resources as wood, oil, gold, food and iron. As i said above the gameplay and economics are the same as in Cossacks game. When you build military and science academy you are able to conduct some good research, and research options are quite vast.
Game allows you to build infantry, cavalry, planes, tanks (which are damn powerful against inf), different artillery types, AA and ships. Gameplay becomes pretty fun the first time when you get to explore the whole upgrades and get eventually to building tanks and planes. Though i thought when you get to building artillery, mortrars and tanks the infantry and cav units are completely useless, for one tank can take out up to a hundred soldiers. Diversity of units different for each nation is pretty nice, everything is well balanced and fun to play first few times against AI. There are even wildwomen and flamethrowers.. Jesus.
Yes, the AI. It is pretty dumb, and uses same strategy of sending bunch of infantry against you all the time at same intervals of time, sometimes could be few cavalry scouts.
On higher levels of difficulty it becomes quite challenging though. There is no real strategy in the game, just rush play and tactics and who's got the strongest unit. Mass battles are possible, and when you get mass of artillery you can literally cover whole chunk of map with explosions wiping out all attacking forces. Quite a fun there.
Sometimes ai will try attack your base from different flanks, which makes game a bit more interesting.
Inf is cheap and fast to build while stronger units such as tanks are taking hell of time and resources. As i said, its all in the rush.
Overall game would be fun to play at some stage but to get farther fun you would have to get playing on multiplayer rather then challenging average and predictable ai.
Concluding Thoughts (13/20)
Game fails to give a player a real feel of the world war I. It fails to give player a reason to play it for longer time when you get to see all units and research of each nation. Game is definitely a Cossacks alike but introduces new features and is even more fun to play at some point but still...
Though it is definitely the first real time strategy game based on World War I and tries its best to present all basic units of that time but fails in true strategic thinking to be called a good STRATEGY game.
So to conclude- i would recommend you to try it, not bad after all that i ve said, certainly new experiences, and i am much sure game would be much fun on multiplayer.
View/Post feedback on this Firstlook (6 replies)
Graphics 7/10 Audio 6/10
Gameplay 6/10 Concluding Thoughts 13/20
Total Score 32/50
