How can Daniel Shannon not mention and compare this to World in Conflict? Has the reviewer played any video game before this one? Also Linux client on the way.
Wargame: European Escalation Review
This excellent wargame/real-time strategy hybrid embodies the best of both worlds while destroying ours in a hypothetical Cold War-goes-hot setting.
The Good
- Impressive mixture of wargame and RTS
- Intuitive interface and strategic view make for happy armchair generals
- Attractive killing fields
- Hundreds of unique units
- Definitively answers "How many Leopard 1A5s are needed to kill 24 T-62s?".
The Bad
- Uninspired unit chatter
- Lacks opportunities for friendly "comp stomps"
- Insufficient map diversity.
If the best wargames and best real-time strategy games were selectively bred over several generations, the result would be Wargame: European Escalation, an "easy to learn yet difficult to master" wargame that plays out in real time. Set during the twilight years of the Cold War, Wargame boasts an epic campaign and crafty AI. In addition, it lets you zoom out the camera far beyond the normal confines of RTS games, giving you a view of the battlefield matched only by the likes of Supreme Commander or Sins of a Solar Empire. Eugen Systems has managed to craft both a great wargame and an entertaining RTS in one exhilarating package.
Wargame: European Escalation is well named because it feels more like a Panzer General-style "beer and pretzels" wargame than a real-time strategy game. There is no base building or unit micromanagement, but you have more traditional wargame concerns to focus on instead. For example, units have a finite amount of ammunition and fuel and must be resupplied in the field. Supply trucks can repair, rearm, and refuel units, but they also have a finite number of supplies. To keep an offense rolling, your best bet is to use the FOBs to restock the supply trucks and send them scurrying back to the front. Another example of Wargame's rich heritage is the role that terrain plays in the game. For instance, most units have trouble seeing over the next hill or spotting threats hidden in a nearby dense forest.
Therefore, sensible use of reconnaissance units is important. Furthermore, vehicles can get temporarily bogged down in harsh terrain like swamps. Roads are important because they allow for quicker movement and better fuel efficiency, but they can be death traps for your armored column if they run past dense woods packed with enemy antitank infantry. Blitzing through open countryside may seem like a convenient way to avoid certain obstacles, but helicopters more than 2,000 meters away may see your forces and open up on them with rocket pods and antitank guided missiles.
The wargame heritage doesn't stop there. Each of the game's hundreds of units has unique stats. For example, the AMX-30B2 tank has three types of weapon systems, each of which has different stats like caliber, range, ammo, rate of fire, accuracy, and armor-piercing-versus-high-explosive attack values. Besides the weapons, units have stats like speed, fuel capacity, optics, and armor (and front, side, rear, and top armor have separate values). Furthermore, units have morale, and if their morale drops too low, they become too panicked to respond to your orders. Retreating units need precious minutes to regain their composure, which can be disastrous for the unit in question, as well as your plans.
By contrast, the RTS side of Wargame's heritage is fairly minimal. There are no bases to build, no special powers or superweapons to use, and resourcing is limited to securing zones on the map with a command vehicle. New units may be requisitioned with the points that trickle in from the zones you occupy, provided that you control a deployment zone (the areas on the edges of the map marked with large white arrows).
Also, there is very little in the way of unit micromanagement. Your control options are as follows: you can toggle certain weapon systems on or off, regroup four straggling tanks into a platoon, order units to fire at an area they cannot see (particularly useful for having artillery demoralize anyone in the general vicinity of where their ordinance hits), command units to use roads whenever possible, tell helicopters to change their altitudes, or move infantry units into and out of transport vehicles.
At first glance, Wargame is a daunting prospect. There are a lot of variables to consider, and it does play out in real time, after all. However, a smart interface makes it very approachable. First off, Wargame allows you a better view of the battlefield than most RTS games, which tend to prevent you from zooming too far above your units.
In Wargame, you can zoom out to a bird's-eye view reminiscent of Supreme Commander, at which point all the units turn into their respective standard NATO military symbols. Icons appear over units when they are running low on fuel or ammo or when they are in danger of being routed. If you pull the camera in closer, red text above the unit informs you of various problems and how long these effects will persist. For example, a shot-up helicopter may have the message "fuel leak 20 seconds" above it, or a tank may be cursed by "damaged tracks 5 seconds."
58 comments
I have this game on steam but have yet to play it. What do you guys as users think of it>
@ShadowRun02 I am. But I'll wait til' later to purchase it. I purchased Men Of War: Assault Squad yesterday. So, I already have some sort of military strategy fix.
and i bought it. now i see my comp sucks, it runs great! on the lowest graphics lol (but it's still an awesome game, the opponent AI is great, although sometimes my AI is horrible)
@ShadowRun02 I bought it too. Auto-detect sets my setting at low and medium but I put all of them at high or very high and so far everything runs great.
Anyone from Canada know where i can buy this game? Nothing at futureshop, best buy or EB! WTH!
My favorite faction however currently change to the German armed force, their tanks are cheap but more efficient, and I love chasing down infantry with my Marder IFV :D
@y3ivan @WillyChong Sadly they balanced it out giving these top notch tank a quantity of 2(M1 Abrams late varaints, Challenger and Leopard 2A4 got 4 in each late branch), I mostly rely on T-64s and early T-72 as main tank of my force, cause they are cheap and very deadly in all out head to head battle cause of their ATGM, but I always use BMP-1 infantry to backup my pals :D
@WillyChong They didnt. NATO are seriously lacking in all fields except inf (with french legion the top notch) but lol when then get ripped apart by 1xtank shells. inf are the most difficult units to be use.
i prefer 1 group of 2xT80u the rest are T62 or T52 as cheap cannon folder and 2x2T62v with 2KUB against gunship. Turnout to be the most effective fighting force against anything except arty.
some really cheap tactic that i found out are "m113 RR rush" cheap (10RP) 16x m113RR would outnumbered any armour and will kill those armour at close range.
@y3ivan @WillyChong NATO isn't lachking anything! To put it simple, tanks are things of the past, there were no serious improvements made to the tanks since Cold War. But in case of war all countries would realize, that they still don't have any alternatives to the tanks!
This game have campaign, its own skirmish and online multiplyaer, the guys online are somewhat friendlier than most, especially compared to shooter gamers, cause getting new stuff doesn't limited to multiplayer only, which is good for new player, and I really having a lot of fun playing this, its been a long time since a game like this came out with good impression for me :D
@kakashi552 No i read another review on IGN. I just came to see the good and bad. The reason i didnt think there was a campaign is because all the videos i have seen so far are multi-player. Even the IGN review didnt reveal much other then the mechanic of the game.
@AceMarine45 did you read? there are FOUR single player campaigns. i would totally agree with you, multiplayer in RTS games would only make learning more frustrating, but with this game, there's no need to worry :)
I would get this game if it had a single player campaign. Campaigns help getting use to the interface. RTS' interfaces are usually complicated and different from other RTS. Multiplayer is not a good learning curve for RTS.
@cccp3000 soooo, you need to use your brains for a change. you're right, it is a horrible game (NOT).
@cccp3000 correction, YOU CAN'T!!!!! Just because you can't do both things doesn't mean others can't. This is not a game for you, you need a traditional C&C rts, nothing wrong with that. But its not this games fault. Even within genre's you different kind of gamers. With shooters i lean more to tactical shooters like the old rainbow six and swat games, where others want a Call of Duty. Same goes for RTS games, you want to have just one task, where others want more tasks. But that isn't the games fault, you are just not the public for this game.
Dear Gamespot, Sorry for my rant beforehand, you finally willing to give this game a chance to shine, to tell you the truth, this RTS is something that nearly extincted after a decade, glad to see it still existed till this very day.
This game is rubbish you spend more time on exploring the game options and upgrading units than on playing, you should be either the general or the field commander not both, you can't think of every thing or it'll be like focusing and studying and all this hard work for a game. F**k EA for ruining C&C.
definitely one of the best RTS I've played in a long time, glad to see Gamespot having the same feeling for once ....
My buddy bought this last week and loves it, said he reminds him of World in Conflict which definitely perked my attention. Still debating the purchase.
I've been having a ton of fun with this game. It's a lot better than I'd assumed from LP's. Also a lot harder, I thought wrongly about how arcadey it seemed. It's small things that detract from it, clumsy user interface and other basic commands you're used to and expect in an RTS. The dev's seem intent on adding new content, hopefully it has the player base to support that.
So what would happen when the proposed comp-stomp patch are added? Would the game receive a 9 then?
I would love to see some more comments on the multiplayer aspect. Is it populated enough to rely on the automatch feature for a fast match? Can it keep your interest after 10-20 matches? In any case, good review, looks interesting and if I find some time to play between my Achron and TW:FotS gaming time, I will definitely go for this game. Can never have enough strategy.
@Gelugon_baat trolling again? @Kevin-V aforementioned Gelugon_baat loves to troll these boards looking for people to take the bait, check out her/his other recent comments. Your reply was well thought out, intelligent and above all accurate, but also a waste of your time. The above review was well written and actually got me interested in giving this game a try even though it's not really the type of game I usually play.
I'm really not sure what all this complaining is about. While I enjoy hearing regular staffers review, this is a really well done and thoughtful piece of work that is easily up to the standards of Gamespot.
1 Like @Gelugon_baat -- We rely on freelancers to help us review games of all types. This is no surprise, as we have utilized freelancers for many years, just like the majority of publications do. They are important for filling gaps when staff members are reviewing other games, and we use trusted and wonderful talents like Brett Todd and Daniel Shannon to help us round out our coverage when we aren't able to always do so internally.
I have no idea why it matters to you who reviewed this game. We do not "solve problems" by "throwing money." Rather, we assign reviews to the people best suited to cover them, whether that be someone in the office, or someone outside. Your interpretation of a review as a "problem" does not even remotely resemble how we approach the reviews process, and I am disappointed that you, of all people, would suggest such a thing.
I appreciate your concern, but we will continue to assign reviews we think are important to the authors we believe are best suited to them, considering information and variables (individual reviewer's schedules, reviewer expertise, and so on) that are important to us. Thanks.
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Game Emblems
The Good
Wargame: European Escalation
Not Following
- Publisher(s): Focus Home Interactive
- Developer(s): Eugen Systems
- Genre: Strategy
- Release:
- Classification Board: PG
Wargame: European Escala Navigation
