In the past, PC players have received rather mixed results when it comes to console ports of popular Clancy games, but Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 does a good job of replicating the console experience almost identically. So spot-on is the resemblance that you would be just as well-served to read the Xbox 360 review as to continue reading this one. Everything, from the A.C.E.S. ranking system to the hit-or-miss AI enemies and Team Rainbow members, is recreated almost exactly as it appears in the console version... and as the console version was a great game, albeit a bit iterative in comparison to the first, so too is Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 an incredibly fun and entertaining shooter with just a smidgen of squad-based tactics thrown in to keep things interesting.
On Your Six
The Rainbow Six series began life on the PC, yet it has undergone some significant changes since its inception as a detail-oriented tactical shooter involving delicate hostage situations. Earlier games in the series focused on meticulous planning and painstakingly precise room-entry tactics. Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (while improving slightly on the tactical side of things from the first Vegas) plays more loosely with these concepts, providing a frenetic run-and-gun experience that includes squad commands almost as an afterthought.
Indeed, the only circumstance in which you'll really need to shepherd your Rainbow team members is if you play the game on its most difficult setting. Playing through on casual feels decidedly more like playing a re-skinned version of Gears of War or Halo, but that is not to say that there isn't a good amount of tactical meat to sink your teeth into when playing on realistic. As opposed to the first Vegas, Vegas 2 provides at least two entry points for each room, which essentially gives you the option of using classic Rainbow room-entry tactics if you want. There is also quite a difference in the way the AI of both your enemies and teammates react when switching difficulty settings, and you'll notice that enemies throw more grenades, attempt to flank and generally act more aggressive when operating under the influence of the realistic difficulty setting.
In Formation
Perhaps one of the most gratifying things about Rainbow Six: Vegas 2's wholesale replication of the console experience lies in its rich multiplayer component. Both co-op and adversarial multiplayer modes function beautifully with minimum latency. A recent patch has added voice chat, making the multiplayer side of the PC version of Vegas 2 easily as solid as the console offering. A nice collection of modes and maps rounds out the package, delivering hours of replayability even after you've blown through the modest (10 - 15 hour) single-player game.
The fact that both A.C.E.S. (Vegas 2's new ranking system which rewards you with new weapons that match your playstyle) and the rank system now operate in both the single- and multiplayer sides of the game gives the Persistent Elite Creation system (pioneered in the first Vegas) some extra punch. Ordinarily, you'd have to look to an RPG for this depth of character development, but Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 uses the interaction between all of these systems to give you a sense of ownership of your digital avatar.
Sporting slightly more impressive graphics than either the 360 or PS3 versions (mostly due to the superior definition of higher-end LCD displays combined with flashy video cards), the PC version of Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 could be the best version of the game. While detractors may bemoan the series' divergence from its hardcore roots, the focus on action doesn't damage what is essentially a tense and atmospheric tactical shooter.
It is an absolute mystery as to why this game carries the Seven Kingdoms label. It's not like the franchise was ever a household name; even during the series' heyday it was never a sales blockbuster. Worse, Conquest has nothing to do with Trevor Chan's cult-classic series of the late 1990s. That game was built upon a solid foundation of military, diplomatic and economic principles with civilizations like the Mayans, Japanese, Persians and Greeks battling it out in real time. It was a hardcore RTS for fans of history. Seven Kingdoms: Conquest is also a real-time strategy game, but that's about the only thing that the two have in common.
You no longer have to worry about "seven" kingdoms as here it's the humans (in various guises) against the demons in a tug-of-war battle for supremacy over a land you don't particularly care about. The game wastes no time at all in letting you know that the waters are going to be more than a wee bit choppy because the tutorial is broken. After spending ten minutes "learning" the camera and unit basics, you're tasked with attacking a village that cannot be reached due to a closed stone gate. There's no way around it. No way to destroy it. It's just... there. So you're left to quit after learning a whole lot of nothing. It's never a good sign when the tutorial doesn't even work.
Conquest itself is a fairly basic RTS that uses gold and food as its two main resources; there's no peasant-pushing involved as the farms and mines generate (seemingly limitless) goods on their own which are used to build units. You can upgrade your troops, which in turn make them better fighters and tougher to kill. Toss in priests and hero units and you have a run-of-the-mill real-time strategy game.
There are a few clever ideas, such as the maps being peppered with independent villages that can be conquered either via military force of through diplomacy, (basically by paying them off) and the AI will even ally with other players during skirmish games. The gameplay feels so incredibly tired and listless, however, that you feel like you're playing a decade-old game. Everything is utterly lifeless.
The game comes with a fog-of-war option that allows you to view the CPU's location. This can be a useful tool when learning the basics to see how the computer manages its empire. Sadly, if you take after the computer you'll end up being strung up by your own citizens. The AI is absolutely horrid and will build small waves of units that attack villages and retreat without accomplishing anything whatsoever. It also struggles in upgrading its army so while it's still using low level spearmen you're assaulting it with hordes of advanced units. The unit pathfinding is so poor that you'll swear you stepped into a time machine and were whisked away back to 1997; actually, the original Seven Kingdoms (which was released that year) had far superior pathfinding than Conquest.
The hits keep coming with graphics and sounds, where nothing stands out. Conquest has absolutely nothing to hang its hat on, not one area where you can say, "Well, they did a really great job with..." Combat sounds are your standard grunts and clanking sounds of swords hitting armor, the graphics are dated, and animations are stiff and robotic. The landscapes are colorful and look pretty good, but the unit models are like the rest of the game: they're stuck in the past. You know there's a problem when the best thing about a game's visual appeal is that the trees are a cool-looking reddish-brown.
Multiplayer is fairly pointless since no one is playing the game and there's no built-in matchmaking service to find any other hapless gamers who might have spent $40 on this thing. When you toss in the fact that the game is highly unstable and prone to numerous fatal crash bugs you've got a game that's best left on the shelf.
Conquest is frustrating because a true update to the original series with modern design elements and sharp graphics would be a welcome sight for any real-time strategy fan. To drop this game on the public is a low blow to anyone who remembers the old game. Not even at a discount bargain-bin price is Seven Kingdoms: Conquest worth the time, money or effort.
The adventure genre may not be the type of game that flies off the store shelves, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any developers willing to tackle the genre to provide challenging and mind-numbing puzzles for those who still reminisce the glory days of Myst. With RHEM 3, German developer Knut M�ller, responsible for the first two RHEM games, and Got Game Entertainment come together to bring a puzzle-adventure that will please fans of the series and genre, but leave newcomers and the impatient behind. Like other point-and-click games of the genre, the puzzles at times can feel impossible, and you can spend hours wandering the static world wondering what to do next.
RHEM 3 is no exception. The game begins with a letter from Zetais who has decoded the relic that you had given him in RHEM 2. With the attached note, you are instructed to give it to Kales, Zetais' brother, and enter the realm of Rhem. After a ride on the railcar, Kales pops up on the intercom, instructing you to hand him the note before you can proceed. The story doesn't progress much from there, so you're not missing too much by not playing the previous two games. Your goal here is to look for a valuable relic and you will spend many hours alone, unraveling the mysteries of Rhem.
The game makes no effort to bring you up to speed except for that brief introduction and your interaction with anything but stone walls is almost non-existent. Your conversation with Kales is the last voice you'll hear for awhile, as he leaves you to your own devices. As with any adventure game, you'll spend a good amount of time exploring. The controls are simple; the mouse is used to gloss over the static environments and the cursor will change to provide you with options to move in any of the cardinal directions available. The mouse cursor will also change to a hand or magnifying glass if there is something of interest. Exploring every nook and cranny is crucial, as you never know whether there is a clue on the back of the door you just walked through, or whether the markings on the wall actually mean something.
The puzzles are not exceedingly difficult but they do require a lot of trial-and-error and backtracking. Thankfully, they're all relatively logical, so solving them takes time, a keen eye and a lot of patience - not an engineering degree. If you're into hardcore puzzle games, you'll find yourself quickly engrossed in the world, and you'll take in everything from every direction. What is unfortunate is that the game doesn't provide a map or anything to track your progress. Unless you have a photographic memory, a notepad will come in handy when you come across clues. Later in the game you are given a notebook to copy information in a library, but the way the menu is set up is far from ideal. In order to solve some of the puzzles you'll have to write it all down anyway.
You will find that you spend most of the time trying to open doors, push buttons, flip switches, turn on power, all the while exploring Rhem's intricate labyrinth above and below ground. For the most part, once a door opens you can go back and forth without a problem, but early on in the game, there is a room with four doors that require you to turn off the lamps before the door will open. This is an easy puzzle to figure out, but since this intersection will need to be crossed many times during your exploration, it is rather repetitive to click through the lamps each time to get the door to open. Some puzzles were creative, such as keeping a light on for a few seconds and then turning it off to see a glow-in-the-dark clue, or keeping track of audio cues from different birds.
If you aren't already giddy with excitement at the prospect of solving puzzle upon puzzle, then there really isn't much else this game will do for you to up the fun factor. The graphics are a bit dated and the little bit of animation is heavily pixelated. The world is rather large, which makes it more difficult to keep track of things. However, moving from screen to screen is quick and painless.
There isn't much to say in terms of music and sound as there is hardly any. Other than ambient noises and the occasional twill of a bird, you're left with whooshes of doors opening and closing and negative buzzer sounds when the button in question doesn't work. A few notes here and there keep it from being entirely silent, but it's not intrusive. The limited voice acting in the game is stiff and actually creepy more than anything, since you spend most of the time alone.
This is by no means a bad game, as adventure games rely heavily on the creativity of the puzzles above anything else. The graphics and sound do the job, but it does nothing to enhance the experience. The low system requirements would enable players who would want a game that can be easily loaded to play (except for the long title screen).
Closing Comments If you're looking for an engaging storyline and cutting-edge technical innovations that take advantage of DirectX 10, you won't find here. It looks like a game that came out in 1993, so as long as you (and your computer) can handle that, then by all means take a stab at it. However, since it is 2008 and technology has come a long way, there are some standards that should be met - at least make it look like it came out of 2003. This is an old-school adventure game that will challenge that gray matter between your ears if nothing else. The non-linear gameplay and complex web of puzzles will keep you busy for days and if you're the type who likes to torment/challenge yourself, this is the game for you.
You'd easily be forgiven if you experience a case of déj� vu while playing Kane's Wrath. Yes, the expansion to last year's Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars packs a fair amount of new content. At its heart is a 13-mission single-player campaign, along with six new subfactions and a slick new global conquest campaign. Despite this, it feels eerily familiar. Kane's Wrath doesn't just feel like you're playing Tiberium Wars again, but the nagging feeling that also haunted C&C 3 returns. Replace the 3D looks with 2D graphics and swap the high-res HD video with lower-quality video and the gameplay is virtually indistinguishable from its original progenitor of more than 15 years ago.
Kane's Wrath hews closely to the standards of the series. There are fast, brutal real-time strategy battles that are intercut with live-action cinematics and cutscenes. Joe Kucan reprises his famous role as Kane, leader of the evil Brotherhood of Nod. Since this is an expansion, the rest of the cast isn't as large or as varied as it was in Tiberium Wars, but it's still pretty respectable with the additions of sci-fi veterans like Carl Lumbly and Natasha Henstridge. They play lieutenants of Kane who each have their own agenda.
The single-player campaign feels disjointed, mainly because it jumps all over the Command & Conquer timeline to fill in the gaps. Things start off just at the end of the Second Tiberium War, and every few missions the campaign leaps forward a decade or two. As such, you don't get much of a cohesive story. Instead, you get glimpses of the back story. While prior knowledge of the previous games isn't necessary, it would certainly be helpful in understanding what's going on.
Meanwhile, there's the standard selection of RTS mission styles in the campaign. Most of them have you begin with a construction unit, which you use to construct a base. That includes a refinery or two to start harvesting tiberium, some power generators, and a variety of infantry or vehicle factories, along with support buildings that unlock special powers and abilities. The formula in these is usually build up your forces till you're strong enough to go on offense, and then attack and repeat until you've worn down the enemy. Then there are a handful of non-building missions, where you control a small group of units and must navigate around the level without losing too many of them. Here the trick is to save early and often until you get through the level.
The entire campaign takes place from the perspective of the Brothehood of Nod, so you don't get to play as the Global Defense Initiative or the alien Scrin. Those are reserved either for skirmish, multiplayer, or the global conquest game. You do get to mess around with the two new Nod subfactions, the Marked of Kane and the Black Hand. The idea behind the subfactions is to inject some variety into the mix, though the differences between them seem a bit too subtle and slight. There's a bit more variety between the Scrin subfactions, as one of them plays entirely unlike anything else due to its dependence on mind control.
The battles are fun, especially when you're finally bulldozing an opponent over. After all, there's always something thrilling about stomping all over a foe. The lack of growth in the series is noticeable though, especially when things like AI and pathfinding are basically unchanged from the original C&C. Units can jam up on little obstacles, while the AI will send a steady stream of units at you regardless at how effective that tactic is. Things like that are especially glaring considering the features found in modern RTS games, such as intelligent squads that know how to use cover effectively on their own. As a result, the combat in Kane's Wrath feels like pure math; instead of tactics or maneuvering, the only thing that matters is how much damage your units can inflict per second.
It isn't until you hit the global conquest campaign mode that you encounter something very new and different for the series. This is basically an overarching strategic layer to tie real-time battles together, but unlike the campaign modes found in earlier EALA real-time strategy games, the one in Kane's Wrath does away with the idea of distinct provinces or territories. Instead, the global map allows for very fluid battle lines as factions struggle to carve out territory or corrupt cities and so on.
Multiplayer remains extremely fast-paced and fun; though depending on the skill of your opponent you might get wiped in minutes. Still, we managed to get in some nail-biting tug-of-war struggles. The addition of new superunits certainly helps to break the stalemates that occur, and it's cool to see a massive tank or insect-like war machine rampaging on the battlefield.
Closing Comments Ultimately, Kane's Wrath is something that old school RTS fans and die-hard C&C veterans will enjoy. There's enough here to keep them busy for a long time. Those looking for a more modern RTS experience should look elsewhere, though.
Trotting around isolated locales hunting for spectral figures and uncovering new truths and treasures is certainly an appealing prospect. Developer Darkling Room provides just such an opportunity with The Lost Crown: A Ghost-hunting Adventure, letting players investigate the hushed English town of Saxton and its surrounding countryside in pursuit of long-lost riches. Since this is a traditional adventure game, don't expect much in terms of action. The focus here is on puzzle-solving, character interaction, and atmosphere, which for the most part are done fairly well.
The game's strongest feature is the actual ghost hunting, as the protagonist, unwitting sleuth Nigel Danvers, eventually gains access to a set of equipment for recording events paranormal. Frequently, the game lets you systematically test parts of the environment with a digital video recorder, voice recorder, camera, and electromagnetic field meter. Combine that with sequences utilizing a more elaborate spirit-finding device in Nigel's ghost-infested apartment and it makes for some interesting and genuinely spooky experiences.
For instance, after several hours of playing you might be given the opportunity to examine a wooden ceiling beam you'd never given a second thought to before. Yet after seeing it under the green blur of the video recorder's night vision view-panel, under the flash of the camera, or amidst the gravelly crackles of the voice recorder tapes, you might find there's been something lurking there all along. Nothing deadly, mind you--you can't actually die in this game--but unsettling for sure. It's enjoyable throughout the game as you slowly become aware of this parallel plane of existence bubbling just beneath your own.
Things begin as Nigel somewhat inadvertently enters Saxton, a secluded community in England's Anglia area. Encircled by fenlands, dark woods and consisting of crumbling stone cottages, the township emits a distinct air of stagnation, something linked to the community's obsession with the Anglican kings of its past. Initially fleeing from a mysterious figure named Hadden, Nigel soon gets folded into the town's affairs, including, among other things, a strange epidemic of missing cats.
Though the atmosphere can be immersive at times, The Lost Crown stumbles in several areas. First off, and likely the first thing you'll notice when you load up the game, there's the issue of how horribly the character models look and animate. That can be overlooked by some, particularly the hardcore adventure fans, but then there's still the problem of the game forcing you to wait as Nigel performs painfully slow turns and body movements as he reaches to interact with something or looks down to inspect an object on the ground. I can accept and understand that the game had little in the way of production budget, but don't force me to watch Nigel skate across terrain and turn his head with the speed of an partially anesthetized turtle. In some instances you can fast-forward Nigel through terrain by double-clicking on an exit, but it doesn't entirely alleviate the problem.
Obvious production restraints aside, that doesn't mean you're free from tired point-and-click pixel hunting conventions. You will, for instance, restore power to elevators by fixing a fuse box, manipulate security camera systems, memorize lock combinations to open safes, procure ancient objects from hidden ruins for use in highly improbable puzzle devices, and use information gleaned books to align stones in ancient tombs. If you've played these kinds of adventure games in the past, you've probably done these puzzles before. The good news is, despite the fairly long list of conventional challenges, they mostly make sense, and better yet are limited in scope.
What I mean by this is puzzle solutions can generally be found within the area you're actively searching. If you try to leave without finding the right thing, Nigel will frequently pipe up and say he hasn't finished investigating, letting you know there's still something to do. The game also provides a wide activation area on the screen for spots that can either be examined, used, or otherwise interacted with, meaning if you just do a quick sweep of the screen with your cursor, you'll usually find everything you're meant to. Ultimately, this means the game is less of a headache to play since you're not scouring the entire game world at every roadblock encountered.
Along with this, the game does provide a good deal of enjoyable, generally sensible puzzles. Most often they utilize a discernible logic, requiring you use to some extent a few items recently added to your inventory. As is usually the case, solutions get more complicated as you advance through the story, eventually requiring you to cross-reference passages from books, audio files from your voice recorder, pictures, and other items to proceed. There's also quite a bit of reading to be done in the game which I found to be quite interesting as it gives the overall plot a greater richness and depth. It isn't required, though, so if you hate reading virtual books you can pass some of them right on by.
The game's timeline runs for a few days in Saxton, which gives things a unique feel as you'll be observing the same territory day and night, yet consistently discover new aspects of it. In part this is due to the ghost-hunting tools, but also through the game's effective use of presenting a mystery early on, using it as a tease for a little while, then finally revealing its nature just as a few new oddities are unveiled. Once the explorable setting expands beyond the scope of the town, you'll find there's quite a bit to do. To get all the way to the end will require a significant commitment of time--this isn't a game that can really be beaten in a weekend. Because of the generally even pacing as to how it introduces and teases unknowns with regards to the environment and the layered plotline, I stayed hooked on the story, even if the presentation and characters did their best to throw me off. And if you need to take a break while playing, Nigel keeps notes in a diary that point to the major areas of interest for that day or night.
While the actual story is interesting, I wasn't particularly drawn to any character throughout this entire adventure. Nigel is the stereotypical adventure game protagonist, with one chief characteristic: he's curious. Lucy Reubens, who occasionally helps Nigel along, is supposed to be a major character, yet throughout the adventure she's proves to have little depth beyond her curiosity and skepticism. As for the townsfolk, they're predictably creepy and standoffish, distrustful of outsiders. You'll find some who're willing to talk, others who clearly have something to hide, and one who talks through a hand puppet. Alright so the hand puppet guy is kind of funny, but the rest fit snugly into the standard mold of staple adventure game character development, where the protagonist's chief personality trait is a desire to unravel the plotline.
The conversation system doesn't help much either. You'll often hear dialogue snippets repeated ("they're great pics!") in different conversation trees, likely notice the surprising amount of typographical errors in the game, and frequently be forced to repeat entire conversations, as there doesn't seem to be an option to get the characters to just rapidly scroll through dialogue options. Combine this with Nigel's irritatingly slow turns and walking speed, and you'll find noticeably large chunks of time with The Lost Crown are wasted either waiting for Nigel's animations to play out or listening to conversations you've already heard.
Despite mediocre characters, flat and uninteresting conversations, and bottom of the barrel 3D character models and animations, the game still manages to drum up a distinct sense of environmental personality with its often striking backgrounds and chilling sound palette. Much of the game is simply black-and-white versions of actual photographs that Nigel is free to walk through and interact with. Touches of color have been added here and there for emphasis as it relates to gameplay or thematic presentations, and it's generally effective. Particularly affecting are the night-vision video recorder sections that take place from a first-person perspective. Instead of using a torch, Nigel just puts the recorders fold-out panel up to his eyes and proceeds forward, blanketing the previously colorless environments with an ominous greenish pallor. Sound effects, like ghostly moans wafting amongst breaths of wind and some solid music, play a prominent role, and work with the black and white visuals to create a distinct, often powerful atmosphere.
Voice acting, on the other hand, isn't as strong. While a few of the characters perform adequately, Nigel sounds almost bored throughout the course of the game, almost as if he's consciously made the decision to be as one-dimensional as possible. He wanders around wondering about blatantly obvious issues, as opposed to conveying ideas with insightful, intelligent, or, at the very least, entertaining qualities.
Closing Comments The Lost Crown is a game of wildly varying inconsistencies. It's got an interesting, lengthy plot, conventional but ultimately well-designed puzzles, and a great atmosphere thanks to its black-and-white art style, use of real world photos as backdrops, and solid, often unearthly sound effects and tracks. Yet on the other end, the game is crammed full of stereotypical personalities, presentation issues, and atrocious 3D character models and animations. The good does outweigh the bad in this game's case, however, though such a statement is directed mostly toward those who already enjoy point-and-click adventure titles. For anyone who got sick of this kind of game a long time ago or never enjoyed it to begin with, there's little here you're likely to appreciate.
Tony Horowitz's excellent book Confederates in the Attic spends a few chapters focusing on those committed Civil War buffs who take the concept of historical re-enactment to an entirely new level. For them, it's not enough to put on a uniform and enjoy a pot of chickory before lining up to shoot blanks at the opposing line. For the truly committed re-enactors (who prefer the term "living historian," thank you very much), it's about completely immersing yourself in the lifestyle, avoiding anachronisms from one-piece longjohns all the way to your fancy 20th century apples. They refer to this devotion as "super hardcore."
I bring this up because I think it applies to the mindset of most wargamers, both designers and players. When the "super hardcore" mindset takes over, historical accuracy becomes the sole yardstick by which these games are created and judged. But sometimes, in an effort to cram as much authenticity into the experience as possible, some game designers create so steep a learning curve that no one but Napoleon himself could find his way through the hard shell of the simulation to get at the tactical goodness inside.
In many ways, that's the case with AGEOD's American Civil War: 1861-1865 - The Blue and the Gray. The game is undeniably rich in details, but they sometimes obscure the gameplay, leaving the player unsure whether he's simply looking at a highly accurate but unfriendly model of the Civil War, or actually interacting with a responsive and thrilling game system. The answer, of course, is a little of both.
This turn-based WEGO game itself simulates the entire war at an operational level. Covering an area from Florida up through New York and extending to the area west of the Mississippi, The Blue and the Gray touches on every significant theater of the war. There are even small breakout maps for locations as far afield as California and France. The map is divided up into discreet regions with an abundance of settlements and cities, an extensive rail and river network and numerous tactically significant terrain elements.
Players take control of either the Union in the North, or the Confederacy in the South and are tasked with breaking the other side's morale. The most direct route is to capture certain key cities that the other side relies on. Richmond and Washington DC are obvious targets here, but there are plenty of other cities that are tactically important to either side. You can also destroy an enemy's morale by wearing down their forces and forcing them to replenish them with unpopular tax increases and drafts. We love that the game models these factors because they accurately reflect the reality that armies and wars require the support of the people back home.
There are a couple of different campaign options here. The first and most obvious choice is the full campaign that sees you through the entire course of the War, but there are later starting dates that you can select if you'd like to shorten the time investment. The longest campaign is indeed a real bear and will take several days to finish. There are even some very small battle scenarios, lasting just a handful of turns, but these aren't really satisfying when balanced against what's possible in the rest of the game.
Playing five turns around Shiloh or Gettysburg just doesn't give you a sense of what the game is really all about. We were definitely disappointed that the game didn't include longer campaigns set in more limited theaters. Having to choose between the blink-and-it's-gone approachability of Bull Run or the sprawling chaos of even the smallest theater-wide scenario just doesn't give the player enough options.
To help orient the player to the game's finer points, of which there are many, The Blue and the Gray comes with a lengthy pair of tutorials. The first explains the basic mechanics of movement and core game concepts. So far, so good. The second starts to get into one of the more complicated aspects of the game, establishing command structures. Here's where things start to get messy.
The Blue and the Gray gives players a tremendous amount of freedom to set up their own chain of command by placing specific generals in charge of certain regiments, divisions and battalions and to subordinate those generals to one another to create entire armies. It's a core concept and one that has obviously important implications, but it just far too cumbersome to manage. Trying to figure out who's high enough in rank to manage certain units and whether or not they'll fit under another commander's umbrella is a huge pain.
On the plus side, there are a wealth of tool tips here that give players access to loads of important information on armies, cities and regions. It can be a bit tough trying to make sense of it all right at the beginning but you really do have a lot of information right there at your fingertips. This can become particularly useful once you start trying to make heads or tails of the dozens of units found in the game. Telling the difference between the zouaves and the skirmishers, for instance, is well worth your time.
Grabbing and moving units is as simple as clicking to select the unit and then clicking to select their destination. A variety of standing orders help you to set up the right type of attitude for your unit. You might want them to avoid railroads, or to assault enemy fortifications, or to avoid battle altogether. To the best of their ability, the units will try to carry out your orders, but, as in all wars, plans rarely work out you way you intended.
When your units engage in battle, you'll be presented with a green and red meter that bounces back and forth to show you just how well you're doing in the battle. There are tons of factors that influence how battles play out -- things like unit cohesion, terrain, frontage, army composition, etc -- but none of them are really ever explained in a way that makes the player feel like they have a handle on why they're winning or losing.
Here's where the gameplay of The Blue and the Gray gets lost in the simulation. It's all well and good to model each and every aspect of Civil War strategy, but the actual presentation falls short. Sometimes the player is bombarded with an avalanche of numbers for things like transport capacity, supply limits or unit cohesion. Other times, the player will fail in actions (or even be unable to undertake them at all) with no real explanation of why things aren't working clearly.
There are some other interface issues that make the game less than friendly, even to the super hardcore crowd. To begin with, there's no convenient way to keep track of which of your units have already been given orders, which still need commands, and which are recently unfrozen. It's not a big deal in the battle scenarios but once you try to tackle the larger campaigns, you'll spend less time strategizing and more time just perusing the battlefield, trying to spot units that haven't been touched yet. It's equally confusing trying to figure out where your newly conscripted units appear.
The Blue and the Gray looks like a highly polished board game, complete with unit cards and illustrated maps. There are a few special markers that identify broken railroads and such, but the map is relatively static. You will see your units sliding around the map in between turns but that's it. It certainly looks impressive for a board game, but it doesn't really take advantage of the PC in terms of its overall presentation. In particular, we'd love to have seen clearer markers for tactically significant features for the units.
Sound effects are thin and weak overall with forgettable weapon effects. The music is good overall, but there's so little of it and the games drag on for so long that it can't help but get repetitive. The developers missed a real opportunity here to include more of the rich and varied music from the time period.
Closing Comments If you're read this far, there's a good chance that you have the patience and interest to appreciate the depth and accuracy of The Blue and the Gray. There's no denying that this is the most comprehensive and realistic simulations of the American Civil War that we've seen in a long, long time. But, as a consequence, it's also a remarkable impenetrable, laborious experiences, even by wargame standards. There are rewards to be found here, particularly with regard to creating your own command structure and mobilizing your economy and population to support the war effort, but they're fairly buried under an avalanche of statistics and uncooperative interface elements. Only the hardest of the hardcore need apply here.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War was a revelation when first released back in 2004. It helped pioneer a new style of RTS in which base-building was minimized in favor of fast action, squad maneuvering and territorial control. Since then, the game has spawned two successful expansion packs (Winter Assault and Dark Crusade) and has served as inspiration for Relic's Company of Heroes, our 2006 PC Game of the Year. After a run like that, it might be expected that Dawn of War would fade into a well-deserved retirement. Such was not to be, however. Relic and THQ decided to trot the old warhorse out for one last race under the development of just-closed Iron Lore. The resulting expansion shows flashes of the old brilliance but ends up ultimately disappointing.
The strongest aspect of Soulstorm comes in the two new races Iron Lore added to the mix. The first, the Dark Eldar, are the Chaos-corrupted brethren of the original game's Eldar, who buttress their fragile units with quick movement and an assortment of spell powers designed to break enemy morale and reduce resistances. The other, the Sisters of Battle, are the distaff arm of the Imperium's Inquisition who use Space Marine-level equipment with Faith-created miracles to bring the Emperor's justice (punctuated by laser fire and flamethrowers) to the guilty and innocent alike.
Each of the new races has been crafted with an eye toward remaining visually true to the original Games Workshop tabletop game lore and translating those characteristics into a workable and enjoyable strategic doctrine. In both cases the Iron Lore team was spectacularly successful. Both look great, are fun to play with and also offer a completely different "feel" than any of the other races in the game. The Dark Eldar, for example, are beautifully rendered in ways that immediately suggest their moral decadence, all spiky armor, gothic curlicues and slave girls on floating transports. The Sisters, on the other hand, bring new meaning to the term "religious fundamentalist," with units that sport glowing halos, an end-game super unit that looks very much like an angel, and a melee walker that's nothing less than a martyr crucified on one of the loaders from "Aliens."
It isn't until one takes the new units into battle, though, that what the Iron Lore team has crafted can truly be appreciated. The Dark Eldar re-define the term "glass cannon" by being more fragile than even the Eldar but packing a pretty spectacular punch. Their strategic conceit is a special "soul essence" that they can harvest from fresh corpses on the battlefield. This third resource is then used to fuel special "soul powers" that drop a variety of effects onto the battlefield. The result is a very fast-moving army that can't really hack a stand-up fight but in the hands of a good micro-manager will carve up pretty much anything they're set against.
The Sisters of Battle, on the other hand, play a bit more like the Necron from Dark Crusade than the ostensibly allied Space Marines. They start slow and weak but with a decent supply of their special "Faith" resource and attached commander units they will roll over everything. Once players figure out all sorts of devious combinations of commanders and troopers, the Sisters start getting really fun. In our games, for example, the Confessor commander seemed to work quite well with the heavy melee Sisters Repentia units. His stun powers plus chainsaw-sword melee made for all sort of glorious mayhem on the battlefield.
Unfortunately, once the glow of playing with Soulstorm's new races fades, the unfinished seams begin to show. The new air units for each race feel like a test run for a feature to be completed later. They're graphically ugly (though the Ork Fighta Bomma does sport a cool smoke trail) and way out of proportion with the rest of the buildings and units. They don't "fly" so much as sort of hover in place, and the game's tight camera combined with inconsistent path-finding makes them difficult to control. The worst thing, however, is that they really don't bring much to the party strategically that isn't already provided by another unit. The best that can be said for them is that they're fairly cheap to invest in for the damage they do, but the time investment in player attention they require combined with how fragile they are make them very low on any decent player's priority list.
The game's single-player campaign is an expanded version of Dark Crusade's RISK-style turn-based provincial map. It wasn't particularly innovative in Dark Crusade, nor is it here, but "more of the same" is okay as far as it goes. The problem is that expanding the map from one planet to four is merely a cosmetic alteration that doesn't make the campaign more interesting strategically and actually makes army movement harder to follow. Province maps are fairly generic and ultimately dull (though each race's citadel mission is a delightful exception). There's also no storyline to speak of and this robs the game of one of its major attractions, the personality of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
Even multiplayer, the place where Soulstorm should really shine, is marred by at least two game-killing bugs. First, there's an exploit with the Sisters of Battle that gives Sisters players essentially unlimited resources. The other is that Dark Eldar players may suddenly find that they've lost control of their soul powers, due to a bug that allows observers in multiplayer matches to utilize their abilities. The result has been predictably devastating for the two new races in multiplayer: trying to automatch while using the new races will often result in a disconnect when players see someone they don't know using one of them. THQ and Relic have acknowledged the bugs and are working on fixes, but it seems the damage has already been done; it's hard to see how bugs of this magnitude could make it into a finished product for an established franchise.
Soulstorm is an unfortunate way for an incredible game to sail into the sunset. It shows flashes of its former brilliance through two new races that are full of personality and are a lot of fun to play with, but falls flat through a lackluster single-player campaign, mediocre (at best) new air units and two devastating bugs that will kill the multiplayer scene until Relic issues an eventual patch. The Sisters and the Dark Eldar could really reinvigorate multiplayer games, but until a patch is released the Dawn of War faithful deserved a better expansion.
Just from the box you might think The Experiment (originally titled "Experience 112") is your typical point and click adventure. Stranded with amnesia: is there a hook more tried and true for getting players to explore what is often an island where some tragedy has occurred? Though the package mentions the surveillance system, what it fails to point out is that rather than shuffling around on your own, you'll be assisting a lady named Lea via interactions entirely dependent on your use of the Ecology Department of Extra-Human Neuroscience (EDEHN – ha!) lab's computer system.
So rather than logging into a science fiction world, you're logging into a high security network within that world. The game's interface is a desktop where you access surveillance cameras, interactive maps, employee e-mail accounts, and sensitive files in order to uncover the plot and keep moving. In fact, even the save and load functions are seamlessly integrated into this system of menus.
From the start I was pretty psyched about the possibilities of this viewpoint. When you first meet Lea she is in a small room just waking up in a daze. Some sort of IV is stuck in her arm, so she pulls it out to face the camera and wonder who is watching her. When you don't move it to follow her as she investigates the hallway, she gets the idea that you're not really up to speed either. After she instructs you to activate the rotate upgrade for cameras, you can "shake" yes or no to answer questions. That's not to say you do much camera shaking in the future, but it is one hell of a compelling way to introduce one of the most basic operations of the game.
Navigating Lea's way through the crashed research boat is accomplished by clicking different symbols on a map. Since you can turn on and off lights remotely, she figures that is the best way to get her attention. There are also doors to open, objects to activate, and elevators to use. As you make her way around, she'll start to have freaky flashbacks of weird experiments involving a chemical called hydroxide oxydrin, secreted from a pseudo-human/insect species called the Tyriades. Is it the key to everlasting life? If that's the case then where did everyone go and why is the boat all overgrown with funky plants? Who are the Tyriades, anyhow?
Naturally, you're going to find out, but it'll take quite a few passwords, keys, and puzzles to get your answers. Besides using up to three cameras at a time to follow Lea around, you'll be doing a ton of sleuthing around in the EDEHN computer system. All the employees of the facility have their own logins and passwords for the network, so depending on whose files you're accessing you'll be able to learn some details on the Tyriades via audio recordings, decipher some codes with a Polybius square, or maybe just find a secret document containing the access code's to someone ELSE's files.
A seriously large chunk of time is spent sifting through e-mails, memos, and bits of research to determine what is useful and what is just drama or scenery. It can get tedious trying to keep track of who has what information, but on the other hand some of those plot tidbits make your really curious: sound files of "Combat Tyriades," video footage of mutated birds, evidence that most of the staff appear to be sleeping around with everyone...
Keep the manual handy while you play because the rooms on the maps are not labeled except with weird names like "CT6T," which is actually a storage room. On the one hand, it's really easy to know where you are since you're moving around in the map, but you need to make a special effort in using all your camera angles if you want to explore every nook and cranny of a room. Not that that's always necessary, but especially once you start upgrading your camera with, for example, the zoom (and later pheromone shooters for communicating with the extra-humans) you'll need to keep your eyes moving.
The graphics and atmosphere come across a lot better than some recent adventure games. Busted cameras with warped signals, eerie sound effects, and the limited use of music add a lot of creepiness-- to the point where playing in the dark was even a little scary. The voice acting is good enough to not distract you from the experience, either! My biggest complaint outside of constant net-diving and data manipulation is a tech hurdle. For some reason the game seems to crash fairly often. It seemed to be limited to repeated Alt-Tabbing, so that's bad news for people who like to multitask (or who are taking notes for the review.)
Closing Comments While you're still clicking to move in The Experiment, the indirectness of the "Hey, look over here!" light switch flicking and the constant juggling of three different camera angles gives this game a fresh feel. The same goes for the chemical cocktails and e-mail gossip that replaces a more typical inventory, even if the data can be overwhelming at times. The details of the story surrounding the Tyriade creatures and the researchers studying them are compelling enough to keep you going, especially if they eventually patch the crash bug, so if you're look for an adventure with a very different vibe, you can Experiment with this one.
Editor's Note: It is the policy of GameSpy.com to review games in their initial "out-of-the-box" state, meaning patches are not factored into reviews unless specifically mentioned. In cases where a patch is released immediately following a game's release, it may be necessary to patch the game in order to connect to online servers. In these cases, the patching process is reviewed as part of the installation. For Frontlines: Fuel of War, it was necessary to install the v1.1 patch in order to fully test online play, as outlined in the review below.
Difficult launches can make for a poor first impression. It's been several days since Frontlines: Fuel of War was released, and many players are still unable to launch the PC version of the game, let alone participate in the vaunted large-scale multiplayer conflicts that should have been the game's defining characteristic.
On our end, we've so far been unable to get the Steam version of Frontlines: Fuel of War to launch on two different high-end Vista PCs, which a perusal of the Frontlines technical support forums reveals to be known issues. We've been able to play under Windows XP, but even then it's clear the PC version of Frontlines is a significant notch below the Xbox 360 version. If you're patient, there's every chance that various issues related to SecuROM, Vista support, and other various crashes may eventually be resolved, but if you're considering a purchase, the rule of the day is let the buyer beware.
Caveat Emptor
As of the posting of this review, a patch has been released for the PC version of Frontlines that addresses server browser issues, team autobalancing, and assorted other fixes. A separate hotfix has been released that addresses the SecuROM issue and some Vista errors, but many users are still unable to proceed. No update has been released for the digitally downloaded Steam client, and so all of our playtesting was performed on systems running Windows XP.
Frontlines: Fuel of War is a first-person shooter from KAOS Studios, a development house whose core team is comprised of the creators of Desert Combat and the R&D team for Battlefield 2. The developer's pedigree is immediately evident upon playing Frontlines. The game is designed primarily as a multiplayer shooter with a strong emphasis on team play, with a healthy variety of vehicles and character roles to keep the action fresh.
Frontlines: Fuel of War features a modestly-sized single-player campaign that you could complete in a handful of hours. The single-player campaign can be seen as an extensive tutorial for the much longer-lasting multiplayer meat of the game, but that shouldn't be seen as dismissing its effectiveness. The campaign is quite entertaining, giving you a chance to utilize all the nifty tricks and high-tech weaponry that you'll need to master in order to excel in multiplayer, while also offering up some of the better vehicle-based missions we've played in a shooter.
Driving can be difficult at first, since the controls take some getting used to, and the flight controls in particular can be quite challenging. We've seen plenty of helicopters lift off only to crash a few seconds later. This sort of thing is always worth a good laugh, but is also an indicator of a much larger problem related to an unfriendly control scheme.
Touching again on the controls and gameplay, we noticed that the PC version of Frontlines: Fuel of War introduces a more exaggerated recoil effect that gives the game an altogether different feel from the Xbox 360 version. The console version has minimal recoil, and you can toggle a slight auto-aim functionality to assist those who lack precision with FPS controls. The PC version's recoil feels like overcompensation, crossing the threshold of balance and moving into unfriendly territory for the sake of realism. The heavy machine gun, for example, is deadly in the console version yet very difficult to control when playing on a PC. It's really up to your personal taste which version you'd prefer.
The single-player game drops you into the middle of a conflict between the major super powers in the world. When China and the former Soviet Union combine to form Red Star, the Western Alliance is quickly formed to impede their progress towards global domination. When the global oil supply runs dry, both factions meet in the Middle East, neither side willing to give up control over the last remaining oil wells. It's a story culled from one of the biggest issues facing the world today. Don't expect the narrative to browbeat you with politics, but instead take the theme as a reason to give the issues at hand some thought.
War on a Grander Scale
If the campaign serves as the appetizer, your main course will be the robust multiplayer that can be found here. There are quite a few absolutely superb multiplayer shooters available to PC gamers. Each provides enough compelling, long-lasting gameplay to merit being "the one game" that people choose to play. Frontlines is built around becoming your "one game." It offers up a variety of large-scale matches, with eight different maps ranging from smaller skirmish-sized areas best suited to eight or more players, to enormous battlegrounds that would feel empty without at least 24.
Bigger can very often be better, and it's in the largest theaters of war that Frontlines truly shines. You have fast-moving personnel carriers to zip squads to the front alongside heavily armored tanks that provide punishing ground support. There's even a battered, heavily fortified bus, complete with top-mounted machine gun turret. The larger maps even provide air vehicles like helicopters (with dual gatling guns) and even F-22 knockoff jets so you can do your best "Top Gun" impression. Every vehicle feels like it serves a purpose, and finding a new role with every deployment on the battlefield is part of the fun.
The vehicle variety comes close to the kind of experience you'd find in Battlefield 1942. Fixed play groups are popping up as clans vie for online domination, forever seeking to make a name for themselves on the next big competitive shooter. Frontlines could easily end up becoming a popular shooter for those who enjoy large team-based games.
Part of why Frontlines could attract die-hard team-based game players is that the map design and combat are centered on a system that borrows from Battlefield. Squads will fight over points of contention spread around the map, alternating between capture and defend mode as the battle progresses. This leads to firefights that flow back and forth like a tide as each team fights for control of more of the map.
Vehicular combat is one of the more entertaining aspects, but even playing as a foot soldier is made entertaining by the game's role system. You can choose to enter the fray as a ground support unit, for instance, eventually earning the ability to lay down a sentry turret, or to set up a shielded machine gun. You can go the drone route, and remotely control miniature helicopters to fly behind enemy lines, or a mini-tank armed with a fast-firing machine gun. Air support units work as scouts on the ground, calling in precision air strikes once they've achieved visual on their target, or dropping a larger-scale cluster bomb when the enemies are packed together so tight that a healthy dose of carpet bombing is the best option.
Visually, Frontlines: Fuel of War does a capable job of painting a gritty landscape for the conflict. The texture work and character models aren't cutting-edge, but the grand scale of the game, as well as the damage that persists in the environment as you blast away with your weaponry keep the game fun to watch. We noticed frame-rate issues with explosions and artillery fire, so we expect that some degree of the game's visual integrity may be sacrificed when under the stress of larger games. Compared side-by-side, we found that the Xbox 360 version ran smoother, with fewer frame-rate hitches, even when compared to a high-end PC. The graphics do look better at the higher native resolutions available on PC.
Frontline's sound effects are quite well-implemented, with the concussive boom of long-range artillery fire resounding based on distance to impact. The individual weapon sounds are satisfying as well. When massed enemy troops start raining bullets on your position and enemy tank shells land feet from your squad, the cumulative aural effect can be thrilling.
It's easier to recommend Frontlines: Fuel of War for the Xbox 360 for a variety of reasons. The premature PC launch has been a technical headache and major disappointment for a large number of users. Our inability to get the game to run on Vista is especially disheartening. Considering how excited we were to play what should have been the next Battlefield-style experience, we can't help but call this a missed opportunity. If you can get it to run, there's a lot to like in Frontlines: Fuel of War, and it could provide for many late nights of multiplayer excitement. But for now, your best bet is to wait until the dust clears and hope for something, soon, that resembles a finished product.
