Cossacks: European Wars Preview
Does this game have any unique qualities, or is it just another Age of Empires II clone?
It seems gamers are beginning to appreciate history, or at least developers think they are. Wargames and classic strategy fare like Civilization have always been based on history, but it wasn't until Age of Empires and Age of Kings that history again became interesting for gamers. Age marked a departure from sci-fi or fantasy gaming, and it appears that several developers are following in Ensemble's footsteps. European Wars: Cossacks is one such game, and it comes from German developer CDV. Scheduled to be released in March 2001, it brings Age of Empires II-style gameplay to Renaissance Europe.
Cossacks is a new real-time strategy game that fans of Age of Empires II will find instantly familiar. In fact, after only a few minutes with this game, you will swear it plays almost exactly like Ensemble's Age II. Were it not for the fact that the game focuses on Europe instead of the world, there might even be a few fans crying plagiarism. Actually, because of Cossacks' similarity to Age II, we had no problem learning the basics of gameplay through trial and error, even without a manual. This bodes well for the game's ability to quickly rope in gamers, as having to learn a new set of controls would simply bog down gameplay. Like Age II, Cossacks uses a right-click interface - it even has a similar array of units. However, beyond the familiar look and feel, there is definitely enough here that is new and different to warrant a closer look.
The setting for Cossacks is an unusual one, and we won't know until the game ships whether American gamers will respond to a real-time strategy game based on the tumultuous and war-torn 17th and 18th centuries in Europe. You can choose from more than a dozen different "factions," which are actually states or nations from that time period. There are familiar nations, such as England, France, Turkey, and some new nations, which have not appeared in real-time strategy games until now. Some of the other nations you can play are Austria, the Netherlands, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, Algeria, and a few others. Gameplay is generally the same regardless of the nation you play, although some nations do have slightly different units and upgrades, as well as units with different names.
Cossacks has the usual suite of gameplay options. You can play a single-player game and choose among campaigns, historical battles, or single random map games. You can also play mulitplayer games over Internet or LAN and play either random map games or replay historical battles. You can customize random map games in both single and multiplay with different variables, such as landscape type, the nature of the ground, initial level of resources, and the richness of minerals. The landscape type varies the amount of land vs. water on the map, while the nature of the ground varies the elevation, like plains or mountains.
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- GameSpot Score7.1good
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Cossacks: European Wars Movie 1
This clip is the introduction video to Cossacks: European Wars.
- Mar 29, 2001
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- Release: Apr 14, 2001 »
- ESRB: Teen
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