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Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Battle

Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Battle

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Charge!!!!!
Review: This is a beautiful game for history buffs and gamers. To experience the pageantry and drama of the Napoleonic battlefield you won't find anything better. The game uses the SM Gettysburg engine and gameplay is very similar. However, it has much more to offer and is rich in historical detail. Differentiations are made between light and heavy cavalry, rifles and muskets, light and line infantry and finally different formations are availabe to each side as historically appropriate. The complexities of combined arms tactics lend much more depth to the game and are much more difficult to master. Calvary charges for instance, can be, and often were, decisive. The graphics may not be as smooth as some of the latest techonogy touted in Shogun and Cossacks (which I haven't seen) but if you love to recreate historical battles and play the invariable "what if", this game has all you need. The AI is a tough competitor and you can play the game online. The game has 60 different uniforms and in my opinion the artwork is great. The "smoothness", in my opinion, is not even an issue once you start positioning your hussars to crush a battalion of highlanders. For me it is the history as much as the game and I have already gotten my monies worth.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Best
Review: This is the first, and so far the only game from this company I've ever played. Out of all my favorite games, this is my favorite. The graphics are fine, but I've seen better, but are not as bad as some of the reviews depict. The history in this game is perfect. There was obviously much research put into it. The scroll is kind of slow, but all you have to do is zoom out all the way, which makes the units and everything hard to see, but if you know where all your units are, there isn't a problem. Like another review says, the uniforms are beautiful, with varying colors. Also, the units aren't just from Britan and France. Britan's allies come from countries including Prussian units, and Dutch units. And yes, the game allows you only to play one battle, but there are 30 different scenarios, some including a calvary battle, with only calvar units, and the final phase of the Battle of Waterloo, where Britan has the high ground and must block the French from getting into Belgium. Overall, I reccomend all gamers, especially the hard-core strategy gamers.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great game
Review: Waterloo, Napoleons Last Battle is a great game. It gives an accurate recreation of one of the most important events in the history of Europe. The Game is a work of art. Each armies individual units are displayed in the actual uniform they wore on the day of battle covering the field with a riot of color spiced by flags fluttering in the wind.

There is a lot involved in learning to play the game its play is so rich. The learning curve is aided by six scenarios and a jewel of a game manual. Once up to speed the game's true deep becomes apparent.

The AI is extremely good and will give you a real challenge. The addition of cavalry tactics so important in the napoleonic era to the SMG engine is a one of the really neat aspects of the game adding whole new dimensions to battlefield tactics.

A very enjoyable game and a chance to experience a fascinating era in history. Lets hope Breakaway develops more games from this era.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bore terloo!
Review: What a waste of money! If you are thinking of getting this game then wait until the price drops to about a quarter or what it is because that's all it's worth!
The good points are: There is a flashy title page with a nice little tune. There is a really nice historical account of the battle (although the writer does need to learn a little more grammar!)
Well, that's it. There are the good points! Now for the bad points...
The training scenarios are incredibly irritating. Every move you make it stopped by the "trainer" while a banner appears with information about how to move units etc. and the game automatically pauses which you have to undo manually each and every time. What a pain! In addition, at the end of each instruction you read you are told that to exit the game press the escape key. I wish it told me what to do to get my hard-earned money back!!
When you have mastered the training with lots of swearing at the computer and the notion that you have paid 40 bucks for the game so why not see it through, you get onto the battle action. What a joke! There are, I am told, 60 different uniforms in the programme. Pity we can't actually see them!
I tried to dowload screenshots from a site on the net but each time I couldn't get to see them for some technical reason. Hardly surprising having seen the game! "Is this IT?", I though when I first saw it. Terrible!
Gameplay is no fun either. I give commands only to@see that the unit hsn't moved, and if you want to move several units, sometimes you cannot find the brigade commander the units belong to.
Do I even need to mention the jumpy scrolling?
Maybe a real aficionado of the old table wargames who has never seen a computer game before might get excited over this, but for the rest of you I would recommend you to stay well clear of this.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst Sid Meier game EVER!
Review: When I bought this game, I expected it to be basically Gettysburg, but with more pomp of the Napoleonic era. Unfortunately, it took the bad parts of Gettysburg, and blended it into new bad parts. First, the enemy calvary is next to invincible. I just finished playing a game, and was stunned to see one British calvary unit going down my line, crushing all my units. By the time the calvary unit was done, I had a total of one unit left! The game seems to think I'm able to put my whole army in square formation ALL the time, yet still attack. There is ALWAYS calvary attacking me, and I can't always have my men in squares. Second, they took this from Gettysburg: Why do enemy units that are broken run through my lines, into the rear, and regroup? They ALWAYS do this. In Gettysburg, when even easy scenarios lasted a decent amount of time (unlike Waterloo), I found myself taking units out of the line and chasing these rogue units away from my Victory Points. Third, why are there Victory Points? Couldn't the computer just figure at the end of the battle which side has the best position and things like that? Why must I keep units from the line to guard these precious areas from roaming calvary (tanks, for the most part) and rogue units? Fourth, and final:Attacking at all seems futile. Even when I do all I can, like reserve a unit or two to continue firing on the enemy while I get other units in attack column and charge, most attacks fail miserably. I'm not sure if this problem is just due to a crappy game or if attacking back then was really so futile. In Gettysburg, I could attack, and attack often, and I liked that. I could trust my Yanks or Johnny Rebs to take the enemy position, but these French, Brits, and Prussians I don't trust one little bit. I'll stick to Gettysburg and Antietam.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Looks can be deceiving
Review: When I read on the box that it was thoroughly researched, I thought, "Hmmm, a serious Napoleonic game for a change". Boy, was I mislead. It certainly looks Napoleonic at the beginning of a scenario. It sounds Napoleonic -great music. That is where it ends. Combat barely resembles Napoleonic combat. Cavalry units ought to be called Panzers they are so dominating and artillery is largely ineffective. The larger scenarios are unplayable due to the RT quality of the game. -Too much going on to keep track of -which leads to all sorts of unhistorical results. Leaders are virtually invulnerable to any bad effect -even when surrounded and being walk over by the enemy. I was just glad to get $20 of my money back when I sold the game to a kid down the street. If you are a serious Napoleonic buff, I don't recommend this game. If you want some (graphically mediocre) eye candy for a few hours, then this is the ticket for you.


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