Good "beer and pretzels" wargame

User Rating: 8 | Order of War PC
By Artuskan | Review Date:
I noted that some reviewers were disappointed that they couldn't manage in more detail, but you have to review a game for how well it succeeds at what it intended to be, not what you would have preferred that it have been. Square Enix purposely limited control to no lower than company level to give the player the feel of managing a battle from the battalion or brigade level. As such, they made a pretty respectable showing, although not without some minor blemishes.

Order of War is what I would classify as a "beer and pretzels" wargame. There's certainly an amount of strategy involved. Zerg attacks aren't going to carry you far. But, on the other hand, you won't have to break out your Excel spreadsheet to figure out a winning approach. Controls and interface are smooth and simple. You can pause the game while you give orders, or give them on the fly. Square Enix has done their best to smooth over the details so you can focus on battalion-level tactics. For instance, when a resource such as a bombing run becomes available to you, using it is just a matter of clicking the indicator, then clicking the battlefield to indicate the target. You aren't bogged down with loadouts, fighter cover, where the bombers are coming from, etc.

So far, so good. Now, on to the quibbles. As other reviewers have mentioned, the graphics, while better than adequate, are not cutting edge, and lag behind some recent games. I thought everything had sort of a murky look, which may be appropriate, since much of WWII was fought in the mud. At the viewing distance that the game chooses by default, your ground troops are tiny and somewhat difficult to spot. One feature that does work well is moving a formation. You right-click to set the destination, whereupon a graphic appears that lets you revolve the formation around the destination point until you have the facing you want, which you then commit to with a second right-click. My only quibble was that I couldn't find any way to cancel the command if I decided that I had picked the wrong destination, other than issuing a "stop" order once they started to move.

All in all, it's an engaging wargame that you can get into without years of study. The pluses far outweigh the minuses.

One thing I have to comment on is the bizarre box art. If I had given a salute like that when I was in the army, my drill sergeant would have been screaming in my face, but apparently this poor fellow can't help it because his upper arm is four to six inches longer than a normal human upper arm. Really. Put your upper arm straight out and parallel to the floor in that pose and see where your fingers end up. Again, bizarre!

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