The first one was better

User Rating: 7 | The History Channel: Civil War - Secret Missions PS2
The first one - Civil War A Nation Divided was better. On the first one the graphics were better, the button layout was better and the story was a little better. That said. This is not a bad game. Both games have your fellow soldiers saying the same phases over and over, which is annoying. You get to use better rifles in this game from the beginning (a Henry and a Spenser and a single shot sniper rifle. The muskets in the first one were hard to deal with, but that was the weapons used in the civil war and I'm sure that this is why these two games usually rate low. Everybody playing shooting games are use to guns with mega clips of endless ammo where you can miss numerous times and still kill the enemy. They can't deal with loading powder, then a lead bullet, the ramming the bullet down the barrel with a rod, then installing the percussion cap, then pulling the hammer. After all of that you aim and pull the trigger and even if your aim is close your target may not go down. Why? Because muskets being smooth bore rifles were not all that accurate. Frustratingly if you miss you must hide, do all of the steps again (taking about 15 seconds which would be rather quick in reality as a really fast rifleman in the civil war was probably lucky to get off a shot every thirty seconds with a musket) In both games you learn some history (after all these games have the history Channel name on them) and get to have some fun for a good number of hours. Remember if you purchase either of these two games they are not run and gun. You must plan a careful strategy with limited ammo and guns that take a long time to reload. If you want a challenge then they will be good for you. I would rate this game at 70% and the first one at 80%.