The critics who rated this title so harshly must of had too-high expectations for this game. It's very average.
I had some fun with the title but I also could see pretty quickly it wasn't going to be a classic.
The Good: The Civil War theme. It's the only console game with it. WWII is great and I had fun with some Vietnam and Desert Storm-related titles but there is something unique and quaint about firing a musket. I do have some interest in the civil war and live near a few of the battlefields so before you pick this game up be sure this setting holds at least some interest for you. The narratives between battles are informative and only boring to those who probably shouldn't be playing this game anyway. The menu music is nice and somber and it's easy to jump right in. I don't see why so many make an issue about the slow reloading of weapons and how often it needs to be done - it's the 1860's for pete's sake! It's like playing a WWII game and complaining about the lack of Apache helicopters and Stealth bombers. I wouldn't want the option of slinging an AK47 around Gettysburg; it's got to feel right, afterall. So yeah, the guns need to be reloaded often and when you do it takes time - geez, deal with it. The settings are nice and the graphics not too bad considering it's on the PS2. The sound of the guns is pretty good too. And I like when you can hear the roar of hundreds, maybe thousands of men in the distance charging ahead. Too bad you don't see even 1% of them which leads us to...
The Bad: Where is everybody? Yeah, I know there is no way to put too many men (much less hundreds and thousands) on the screen at once. But that is what the civil war really was so due to the system's limitations the missions are all rather lonely affairs. This will bum-out many CW fans right away. Maybe they could have focused on scout missions, I don't know but the missions themselves ended up being standard fare instead of anything terribly unique to the Civil War experince. The settings look nice but if you have any knowledge of the actual battlefields they don't correspond very well. This bummed me out for sure . Whether you fight for the North or South it all feels the same...you just have to get used to shooting at a different colored uniform. And it's true about them reloading in the open with no cover. They literally just stand straight upright in the middle of a field oblivious to any danger (unless you get too close where they'll charge you). I thought the running animations were a little odd but nothing compared to some of the death scenes; they're very cartoonish and seem out of place. And when you get to the end of the level it ofen fades to black unexpectedly. I almost got the sense that there was more to do in a level but the game just decided, "okay, that's good enough" and eneded it prematurely. But the thing that really bugged me the most was getting hit by shots when behind solid cover. I really wish they'd fix that before anything else. If you were low on health you'd often just run back to where you came from instead of stay behind the wagon/tree and lose your life on a cheap shot.. Sometimes your shots are accurate and sometimes not but this didn't bother me because the guns back then were pretty much inaccurate anyways.
Conclusion: If you're into the Civil War but avoided this game because of the reviews I'd still recommend you try it out (rent/borrow only). Like I said, even used copies are relatively expensive. You should get some enjoyment out of the game. But at this point if you want a really good CW experience you still have to go with a PC game.