Rating: 
Summary: Cossacks
Review: Cossacks is a more adult version of the popular Age of Empires series. It can handle thousands of units in more modern warfare scenarios. Because of the added numbers and multiple types of units, it is more difficult to defeat. As a history buff, I found this to be the best real time military sim I have played. Well worth the money and a significant improvement over the Microsoft genre. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: It's an evolutionary step beyond the AOE and C&C types
Review: But for a few flaws (more later) this game would earn five stars from a tough critic. I was always frustrated with the unit caps in AOE and the like, until I came along games like this and Shogun: Total War. I intentionally built a force of over 2000 pikeman in this game, just to see how many units I could crowd onto the screen! The game only slowed slightly when I moved them en masse, and I'm not running a particularly powerful computer - PII 350. The variety of units is most impressive, and even more so are the vast number of upgrades. Many are difficult to obtain until you've built a large number of groups of peasants stone mining/cutting wood/harvesting crops, and then built mines to gather gold, coal, and iron. The only frustration I have had, and it's been mentioned in another review, is that some of the mounted units are so fast that if one rides through your blossoming city early in the game, it will convert a large number of your buildings while you just helplessly try to chase it down. This is frustrating (and what I consider a computer cheat!) as when they are recaptured they take damage and often burst into flame, taking more damage until they rapidly are destroyed. It takes a coordinated effort of many peasants to repair these buildings, if you can do it in time, while you still try to get that one peskity mounted unit and keep it from capturing yet more of your forces. The use of artillery is very impressive. The mortars can shoot over two screens' away from where they are positioned when you obtain all the increased range updates, making the trebuchets in AOE look paltry in comparison. Overall, this is a very unique and enjoyable take on the genre.
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Summary: One of the most comprehensive RTS games ever
Review: Even though there has been a trend for some software developers to release games prior to completion, leaving those of us who buy the game in a froth, there has been no evidence in any of my colleagues systems that supports any "bug" problem. As for the game: Cossacks brings for the first time a real world realism that is minute in scale but powerfully orchestrated. The combination of balanced units spanning 16 countries and a unique economic system portrays the grandiose nature of the game. The game is not easy. It takes time to adapt from the childishly simple Age of Empire series to a vastly more complex game such as Cossacks. People who are used to the AOE series may find it harder but true RTS players will rise to the challenge and understand that what they have before them is a truly remarkable game that demands respect. Players should expect a medium grade learning curve. Napoleon made it look easy but what amount of time do you think he took in planning his assault of Europe? Cossacks boasts several dominating features such as varied units, strengths and weaknesses based on historical disadvantages, i.e. Algerians have no rifles, Ukranians have no pikemen, Turkey and Algeria are unable to move to the 18th century and therefore unable to reveal the entire map using the balloon. A desktop general will have learned the strengths and weaknesses of these countries and implemented strategies to overcome them. When playing the computer's AI it is sometimes best to send out raiders to attack early to keep one's own town from assault. There are boundless opportunities to use and it is only the limitations of the person's imagination that will ultimately lead them to defeat. Now to be completely holistic about the entire experience my only feelings as to a drawback to Cossacks is the inability to play the AI in multiplayer. ...Regardless of this shortcoming I do not find this at all convincing of having to take the game back for this small oversight. If someone has technical problems with the game I recommend troubleshooting and making good use of someone else's machine to identify if it not truly your machine that is creating problems or the game. I have yet to see any problems but there is always a first. I recommend Cossacks as a must have for RTS gamers who seek the realism that had been missing prior
Rating: 
Summary: Almost, but not quite...
Review: I am an Age of Kings fan and I spent perhaps 30-40 hours playing Cossacks. I like the game, but have a number of reservations: 1. Battleships are more powerful than they should be, at least when playing against the computer. Once I played against the computer on "very hard" and parked a battleship off the coast of the computer player. The battleship destroyed nearly 3000 enemy units and was essentially undamaged when the game ended. 2. The game does not allow you to freeze the game to assign tasks to your villagers. If you are involved in a protracted battle, you tend to neglect domestic affairs, which is perhaps realistic in some respects, but it makes the game less fun for me. 3. Individual units are not particularly intelligent. I would like to be able to assign military units to guard structures. Also, villagers who finish repairing a building should begin repairing again when the building sustains additional damage. This is particularly annoying when the computer uses artillery to attack one of your buildings or mines, you send a villager to repair the damage, the villager finishes repairing the damage, and the artillery then proceeds to demolish the building while the villager stands and watches. 4. Cossack units are extremely difficult to catch (which is perhaps reasonable), but it takes them no time whatsoever to capture your buildings and kill your villagers. One or two Cossack units can cause a tremendous amount of damage since buildings tend to be destroyed when you recapture the building. The only decent way to defend against Cossacks is to build walls around your cities and hope that you remember to keep the city gates closed. By this time, you might be asking yourself what I actually liked about the game. I liked the tech tree, the ability to control large armies, and the ability to organize soldiers into armies. I also liked the way the game charges you progressively more resources to build multiple barracks, stables, town centers, etc. My advice is to consider purchasing this game if you do not own Age of Kings, but otherwise save your money. The difference between the two games does not justify the price. Perhaps the publishers could offer people "upgrades" from Age of Kings at a discount.
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Summary: A War Game that holds your attention!
Review: For those of you who are looking for something that works very similiar to WarCraft this is it. However the graphics will blow you away and the action is much better. If you are a casual less intense player you may have problems. The game demands your attention and if you make mistakes you will pay for them. I haven't gone all the way through the campaign mode yet but for those of you with time on your hands the challenge will be their to finish and complete the game. The computer player can be very over powering and my suggestion is to play in 'slow mode'. This will give you the opportunity actually win the game. I have enjoyed the challenge of learning to play and actually being capable of defeating the computer player. This is a demanding game that is very enjoyable. I recommend it for serious minded players.
Rating: 
Summary: Would be great but BUGGY
Review: This game has so much potential, but it is filled with fatal bugs and no patches have yet been announced to fix them. It constantly seizes and freezes, forcing you to reboot your whole system each time so saving often is key. However, in one hour of gaming, it froze 5 times on me, making it hardly an enjoyable experience. It is a shame that it does this, for it looks like it will be better than AOK. Nevertheless, the constant reboots are infuriating and will make me question ever buying a game from this company until I see the patches are out. For those who wonder... I have a 700 Mhz Athlon with the latest 3dFX and 128 Mgs of ram. It is less than year old and is able to easily handle such games as Baldur's Gate II, Deus Ex and Mech Warrior 4. Hence, I can only blame the game.
Rating:
Summary: A MUST
Review: this is a truly classic game. The variations are endless. Most importantly, you are dealing with a tough AI. Not predictable at all. Finally, the numerous nations, units buildings...super. If you liked, CC, Age of Empires, Total Ann...then you MUST get this game. JAP
Rating:
Summary: This game is great.
Review: I bought this game after playing the demo for a while. This game is great. Some of the campaigns are long and hard but so is real war. The graphics and story is great.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: This is definetely the most overhyped game I have ever purchased. While the game has several good points, including excellent graphics and challeging AI the actual game play is extremely frustrating and simply not much fun in single player mode (I've not tried multi at all and won't be bothering after my initial exdperience). In the week I've had it I've had multiple problems with it suddenly crashing. Unfortunately that is the least irritating problem. The tutorial was pathetically bad and the written documentation is a joke. Yes, there are 196 pages of it, but could the pages get any smaller (4" by 6") and most is used up detailing various unit types. The basic concepts of the game are poorly explained and it took hours of play to catch on to how things work. Also, the technology "trees" are nearly illegible due to the small format. Plus those "trees" are more like shrubs. Sure, there are hundreds of upgrades to make, but most are the same attack and defense upgrades done over and over again with each type of unit. National differences do not really seem to matter very much either. Once you get into the actual play the problems continue. Units do not reliably move to the locations you order them to in a fair number of cases. Naval units hanging up on coast lines is a frequent problem. I found managing battles be more frustrating than fun due to a number of problems with the interface that made it hard to identify units and give orders once you were engaged. The "campaigns" provided seem devoid of strategy and instead revolve around mastering tricks to pass each stage. The "scenarios" weren't much better, but revolved more arround mass production of units and carnage rather than any real strategic effort. One of a very select list of games I wish I had never bought. mm
Rating:
Summary: Great Game
Review: I played Starcraft, Warcraft, AOE among other titles and loved all of them. One thing that always bothered me was the lack of huge armies. In Cossacks, this is not a problem. I just got the game a week or so ago and have played it constantly. The most men I once had at one time was around 800 guys running around killing everyone in sight and the game ran perfectly. I strongly recommend this game. The graphics are gorgeous although the sound is just ok. Its a little harder i think then AOE but much more enjoyable. ...
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