Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Hard to describe"

Wargame caught my attention rather late in its development, but in a good way by focusing on the (curiously ignored) era of the cold war. Superficially it looks like world in conflict, a cold war setting, detailed units, no base building and a focus on tactics and combat. As soon as one dives in however it turns out to be a very different beast.

For starters, units have limited ammo and fuel and must be periodically resupplied in the field, adding a new complicating factor to account for. Given the enormous maps, running low on fuel just from getting from point A to point B is a very real possibility.

The use of recon units is also far, far more important than nearly any other RTS I've played. By not paying attention you can lose almost your entire deployment to a single well placed ambush. Conversely, its enormously satisfying to do this to an enemy as well. Roads and terrain are also vitally important for cover as well as rapidly moving around, as bushwacking through the middle of a map can be slow business.

Units are brought from offmap by spending points and controlling sectors on the map to gain points and serve as quicker routes for incoming units.

So, with that, is it good?

Well, yes. It has very tense moments and some great highs and excitement as you stumble on units, ambush one another and generally flail about. Few RTS games have really gotten the potential chaos of war into their play as well as this one. Visually its a treat, with many detailed units, and good (but not amazing) animations.

That said, this game also has some hefty flaws. Its campaign is sterile and particularly difficult, with effectively no tutorial and no scaling difficulty. Its also frustrating that you have to earn battle stars to unlock units for multiplayer, especially given the non-existent tutorial beyond a few glorified tool-tips.

Though not a negative in my book, it should also be warned that this game has very different pacing than your typical RTS. Despite its lack of base building its a bit slower than most out there.

Bottomline: A unique blended RTS that offers new path in the otherwise bland realm of modern real-time strategy games.