Dai Senryaku VII: Modern Military Tactics Hands-On

Scheduled for release later this year, Dai Senryaku VII: Modern Military Tactics is the second in a long-running series of Japanese turn-based strategy games to get an official release in North America (the first was Iron Storm for the Sega Saturn). The game pits brightly colored armies, comprising authentic military units, against each other, and it will see you waging war on maps composed entirely of hexagonal tiles. We recently received a work-in-progress version of the game from Kemco and have played through a number of its early campaign missions to bring you our first impressions.

The first time you play Dai Senryaku VII: Modern Military Tactics, it can look like a pretty daunting prospect, thanks in no small part to the fact that there are no fewer than 29 tutorials to play through before you head in to the campaign proper. Fortunately, none of the tutorials takes more than a few minutes to play through. However, the game would definitely benefit from losing about two-thirds of its tutorial tasks, which could be accomplished simply by not having you perform the exact same tasks three times in succession as you learn to control land, sea, and air units (the latter of which are able to fly at three different altitudes). Despite the fact that it boasts more than 400 unit types, the game really isn't as complex as it looks and actually has quite a lot in common with Nintendo's Advance Wars titles on the Game Boy Advance. Surprisingly, Dai Senryaku VII on the Xbox is rarely as easy on the eyes as the aforementioned GBA game, and at times, the visuals in our unfinished copy were just downright ugly.

The majority of your time in Dai Senryaku VII will be spent moving your units around on a hex-based map that you're able to rotate and zoom in and out of using the Xbox controller's analog sticks. Typically, your forces will start missions close to a capital city that's under your control, and you'll defeat the enemy by capturing cities scattered across the map (which provide you with additional funds to spend on units). Ultimately, you'll win by capturing the enemy's capital. Other key strategic locations invariably include factories, ports, and airports, although only those located close to your capital can actually be used for manufacturing. Captured city tiles will also resupply and repair any units that are positioned on them at the end of your turn, though it's worth noting that you'll have finite quantities of both fuel and ammunition with which to complete each mission.

We've found that one of the most challenging aspects of Dai Senryaku VII can actually be choosing the correct units to manufacture for your current mission, particularly if the enemy's forces are still hidden by the game's fog of war. Each of the game's eight "production type countries" has a large number of units available to it, and even those that look similar can have very different abilities. Special unit-specific skills in the game include: capturing strategic locations on the map; resupplying and repairing adjacent units; transporting infantry (including paratroopers); jamming enemy radar scans; deploying fixed-weapon emplacements; and mega-attacks that cause damage to multiple enemies. When your units attack an enemy or are forced to defend themselves from an incoming attack, you'll automatically be zoomed in on the action and shown animations of both forces doing their things. Unfortunately, at least in our work-in-progress version of the game, the visuals in said animations leave a lot to be desired and wouldn't have looked out of place in a 1995 PlayStation launch title.

As mentioned previously, Dai Senryaku VII isn't as complex as it looks, and this is especially true of the controls that we've found to be very user-friendly. When you click on a unit that you want to move, for example, you'll see that all of the tiles within its range, at normal speed, turn green. Meanwhile, those that can be reached if you move the unit at high speed (which costs twice as much fuel) are red. The game also incorporates a very useful "march" option, which allows you to set destinations that are three or four turns away from your units so you can have them automatically take the quickest route there every time your turn comes around. With so many different units under your command (many of them with multiple ammunition types and firing options), it's good that you'll only be presented with an attack option when an attack is actually possible. Additionally, selecting your weapon of choice will automatically highlight all the enemies that are viable targets.

Dai Senryaku VII: Modern Military Tactics will boast no fewer than 112 campaign missions, as well as a skirmish mode and a map editor, when it arrives in stores later this year. The game is quite unlike any other that's been released for the Xbox in North America to date, and while its visuals make it all too easy to dismiss, any of you who are even remotely interested in playing a turn-based strategy game on the Xbox would be well advised to keep your eyes on this one.