WWI: The Great War

Rating:
Summary: one of the worse games of 2004
Review: Do Not buy this game. It is one of the worst playing games in the gaming universe. One star is much too high.

To the game writers and programmers: sorry, but even in WWI they had binoculars which allowed up close viewing across open fields and water. Aircraft could also provide useful information about terrain and they were printing maps which showed how a region appeared. So... why did you choose to keep the game player in the dark (literally) about terrain features that could be found on maps or terrain that was open to view from a position occupied by your troops?

And this is not a strategic game at any level. No game that has you controlling a few troops as they walk through a forest is a strategic game. And strategy does not involve building houses or adding a worker to two for farming. Strategy involves ordering another 20 million dollars be spent on building roads verses railroads, or shortening your lines so as to release another 5 divisions for defense, or building 100 more submarines instead of 500 more aircraft etc.

The economic and military advisors are worthless. Advisors should take care of fundamental items and then report on what is happening on a periodic basis. Strategic decisions are cleared with the top person and then advisors carry out that decision. Nothing like that happens here.

This is an old idea dressed up in a WWI uniform. There are no new ideas in this gaming product.

The game has a lot of programming problems. Over and over again I was told to pick from a list of items in the lower left hand corner of the screen. Of course, nothing was there. Choosing groups of troops was just nuts and many times the group would just ungroup. And I couldn't call troops out of bunkers once they were placed there. In addition, the controls (which button to push when) were not intuitive.

I can't say enough bad about this game. Worthless sums it up for me.

Rating:
Summary: Worthless
Review: Do Not buy this game. It is one of the worst playing games in the gaming universe. One star is much too high.

To the game writers and programmers: sorry, but even in WWI they had binoculars which allowed up close viewing across open fields and water. Aircraft could also provide useful information about terrain and they were printing maps which showed how a region appeared. So... why did you choose to keep the game player in the dark (literally) about terrain features that could be found on maps or terrain that was open to view from a position occupied by your troops?

And this is not a strategic game at any level. No game that has you controlling a few troops as they walk through a forest is a strategic game. And strategy does not involve building houses or adding a worker to two for farming. Strategy involves ordering another 20 million dollars be spent on building roads verses railroads, or shortening your lines so as to release another 5 divisions for defense, or building 100 more submarines instead of 500 more aircraft etc.

The economic and military advisors are worthless. Advisors should take care of fundamental items and then report on what is happening on a periodic basis. Strategic decisions are cleared with the top person and then advisors carry out that decision. Nothing like that happens here.

This is an old idea dressed up in a WWI uniform. There are no new ideas in this gaming product.

The game has a lot of programming problems. Over and over again I was told to pick from a list of items in the lower left hand corner of the screen. Of course, nothing was there. Choosing groups of troops was just nuts and many times the group would just ungroup. And I couldn't call troops out of bunkers once they were placed there. In addition, the controls (which button to push when) were not intuitive.

I can't say enough bad about this game. Worthless sums it up for me.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but...
Review: Elements of this game appeal to certain folks. The resource gathering and harvesting may appeal to some and be annoying to others. It wasn't a problem for me, but it's not really my thing. I had enough of resource cultivation playing Civilization 3. Not all RTS games require this involvement. Most the ones I have do not, yet reviewers make it seem unique to one particular game or the other. Most of the games I have do have set limits on how much ammunition, supplies, tanks, guns, aircraft, etc, that a player has on hand at any given time. This is not unique.

Moving past the resource hurdle, the game itself is ok. It's very simple and it does involve a lot more micromanagement than I'd prefer. Some people like this sort of thing. It's your call.

The animations vary a great deal, from Civ3 style to Sudden Strike/Blitzkrieg quality. The airplanes are very arcade-like, pulling sharp turns these aircraft could not make.

I won't say this game sucks, because it doesn't. But after other RTS games I have and play, this one finds a cozy spot on my CD tower for a day when I got nothing else left to do.

Again, I don't know where the game crashes come from because I do not have this problem. I have a PII 400Mghz with 512MB RAM, 128MB Radeon 9200 and a secondary HD. And I run Win98SE out of sheer stubborness. A lot of users here apparently use XP, so that may be it. If your computer is not stable, you may have problems with ANY game you play.

Rating:
Summary: What were the other reviewers thinking
Review: I had a blast playing this game. The other reviewers were slamming the game on false ground. First, the game never crashed or had programming problems. Second, you could un-garrison any building you wanted. The advisors help you at the start of the game to micro manage all the resources. Since resources never run out you can concentrate on the military points of the game. The game has a very real feeling. Each bullet you fire has some cost of iron. The tanks constantly need oil. The infantry constantly take up provisions. The graphics are not as good as Warcraft 3 but at Age of Empires 2 level. The campaigns are historically accurate, I know this, I am a history buff. The units are accurate also. The game is fun to play. The game is great to summarize. If you love history this will definably impress you. So would any average Strategy gamer. Great is the way to summarize the game.

Rating:
Summary: one of the bet games ive played
Review: I was really looking forward to a WWI strategy game with gritty trench warefare, supply lines, artillery barages, etc. However, this game is more like the old Command and Conquer, but no where near as simple or intuitive. There are way to many resources to worry about, and just the whole game system does not "feel" like WWI. Instead of commanding thousands, the gamer only commands handfuls. There are no trenches, no machine gun pits, no lookout balloons...

I would like to echo the "in the darkness" comment. In WWI, the armies certainly had map makers, binoculars, and other tools to help keep track of terrain. I mean, come on, we had those tools in the Civil War! This might be the most irritating thing about the game.

The enemies are also not held back enough. A computer can multitask in a game like this much better than a human, and there don't seem to be any controls to counter this. About 20 minutes into each mission, despite my best efforts, I was overrun by hordes of enemy troops from multiple angles with little chance of a successful defense. I've beaten all of the various Warcraft games, so I know how to play this type of game.

Unfortunately, this just isn't fun. I'm terribly disappointed. Don't waste your money or your time.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I was really looking forward to a WWI strategy game with gritty trench warefare, supply lines, artillery barages, etc. However, this game is more like the old Command and Conquer, but no where near as simple or intuitive. There are way to many resources to worry about, and just the whole game system does not "feel" like WWI. Instead of commanding thousands, the gamer only commands handfuls. There are no trenches, no machine gun pits, no lookout balloons...

I would like to echo the "in the darkness" comment. In WWI, the armies certainly had map makers, binoculars, and other tools to help keep track of terrain. I mean, come on, we had those tools in the Civil War! This might be the most irritating thing about the game.

The enemies are also not held back enough. A computer can multitask in a game like this much better than a human, and there don't seem to be any controls to counter this. About 20 minutes into each mission, despite my best efforts, I was overrun by hordes of enemy troops from multiple angles with little chance of a successful defense. I've beaten all of the various Warcraft games, so I know how to play this type of game.

Unfortunately, this just isn't fun. I'm terribly disappointed. Don't waste your money or your time.

Rating:
Summary: Has ANYONE bothered to read a history book?
Review: Once again we have a game that has the title of a subject but has nothing to do with that subject.

To you reviewers that just had to give this game glowing reviews: what are you guys??? Computer games salesmen??? C'mon give me a break! Have any of you guys even read "All Quiet on the Western Front"??? That's a work of fiction by the way! I won't EVEN go into good history books on the subject because the designer's wouldn't know what I am talking about. That goes for YOU too "the glowing reviewer's".

A "kid's reviewer", I ask: have you EVER given any products anything less than four stars??? I don't think you're a kid at all nor do I need to check. You are a salesman no matter what your real age is.

Out of ALL the subjects that a Real Time Strategy game could succeed on showing history "this could have been it"!!!

You game designers really suck! Your VERY lucky you do NOT work for me. I would make you do some required reading and turn in a book report to me.

I am an Infantry Bradley Fighting Vehicle Commander. So far, every real time strategy game I have played had been a BIG disappointment. What's even more discouraging is I see fixes to almost every fundamental problem I see.

Every different game has good features and excellent ideas BUT the good ideas are in this game and that game, no one game has got it all together. You guys are so lost because you haven't bothered to get good data on your subject. I think you probably believe anyone who tells you its realistic!

Let's address some of my issues with this game:

#1: It is buggy and I have a high performance computer. A P4 HT with 3.2 GHz and a high end video card should have NO problem handling this game. But yet it always locks up on me here and there unexpectantly. I can imagine what the other players are going thru.

#2: I say again, read a freaking history book!!! First of all WWI was a different war on every single front. I will address the Western Front. Tanks were RARE very, very rare. When they assaulted the trenches already 50% were knocked out by mechanical problems. Doe's that happen in this game???

Assaulting the trenches was something else. It took months of planning for any assault. For local Commanders on the ground, when the men went over the top, it was damn near auto-pilot until they reached their objective. That is, the Commanders had very little control over what happened in no mans land. Only the Platoon Leaders and NCOs who were motivating men under fire had any control what so ever. Now I ask anyone who has played this: did what I just describe resemble this game??? If you just said yes, then get out of in front of your computer and go to your local library.

#3: This game puts you in control over building your resources in a tactical setting. When I saw that, my first thought was why they didn't just dump the whole gather resources thing. It's totally unrealistic in ANY real time strategy game I have seen, especially in a game of WWI on the Western Front.

Ok that's enough of bashing this game. One thing I hate more than an unrealistic game on a historical subject are REVIEWERS saying it's like the real thing. That just shows me how history is being rewritten in the information age. Get a clue people!!! History has a real bad habit of repeating itself when people forget what really happened. That is why it is important to actually know it.

Don't let some computer programmer teach you about history. That is what is happening here with this game and many others. They do this to make money, destroying your mind and culture is quite profitable nowdays.

Bottom line: if you came here to see what WWI was like, this is NOT it. Read "All Quiet on the Western Front" instead. It's funny how a work of fiction is more realistic than this game is.


Rating:
Summary: one of the worse games of 2004
Review: This game is very poorly designed and a big waste of money. It crashes very often and there are no patches that I could locate. Furthermore the production of economy is similair to star craft which does not fit this genre of game at all. To collect resources build various types of building for everything from technology to resource collection as well as build troops in this game system is cumbersome at best. I was really looking forward to a good world war 1 strategy game and this is not it. Troop combat does not flow well and it is very badly organized. To select groups of troops is diificult as they are not even numbered therefore you dont know what group you are selecting. Overall the whole system of managing combat as well as the economy and troop building is combersome at best. This game in my opinion is a big waste of money.