Better than the original, but gameplay an immersion need to be seriously reconsidered.
Ok its been a while since Iv done a proper review, but here is my best attempt at reviewing Mark of Chaos Battle March. Before we get started I need to state to my readers that I dont revierw like most people on the internet, as I find the majority of people are extremest reviews. I consider an average game to be an average score 5/10. Were as most people would consider this a bad score it is perfectly average. So without further ado.
Graphics 6.7:
The graphics on the first game were very good for their time, and my graphics card at the time was barely capable of running the game, however with the expansion Battle March, a year and half later, there was not much of an improvement of graphics and while still being reasonable good they were not as good for their time. The graphics are very shiny and the bloom effect is nice, however I have some issue with the "shinyness" of the game, sometimes it you will find that the ground and your units are just a bit too bloomed. There is too much reflection of light back at the use and while not as bad Cossacks 2, it can still get quite annoying at times. Other than that the graphics are good, the camera is well done and easily controlled, I would have liked a little more zooming function but its hardly qualifies as a bad point against the game. The scenery is good and uses some impressive models, although I felt it could have been a little more detailed in the sense that a lot of the battlefields did not show much sign of having ever been encountered by man or orc.
Story 5.0
There was an attempt at a story but I found that the it just wasn't gripping enough and well this will be covered in the immersive section, it is worth mentioning. It felt far too linier and much too matter of fact to be a good story. Warhammer has a wealth of background lore and history to have made a much more interesting story without too much effort. However it served its purpose adequately and while I am very partial to a good story, I try not to penilize too much, as I know my judgement can be harsh. The story as it stands has reasonable character development and is completed sufficiently at the end of the game.
Sound 7.1:
The sound was one of the better parts of the game, the battle sounds were good and made for a good action feeling. There is a soundtrack disk that is supplied with the first game if you bought the collectors edition, it has all the music of the first game and is quite enjoyable. The soundtrack in the game itself was good and did a fair amount to get the blood pumping and enhance the immersion of the game.
Gameplay + Immersion 3.7:
The game play was smooth and reasonably well implemented in battle, the controls were well done and in general its sound. However outside battle is were my main gripe with the game comes, this is part story and part gameplay. The whole game was far far to linyer, this was excessively obvious in the first game, and the expansion did nothing to elevate it. Even linearity can be countered with fooling the player that there appears to be a great deal of difference between the battles and the gameplay, and the tactics needed to play the game. A good example of this was the predecessor to this game Dark Omen, which although linier never gave the impression that it was so. The battles were different and the game was hard enough that every battle had to be contemplated in a different way. Mark of chaos however does not even seem like it aspires to achieve this. The battles are incredible easy, throwing one or two units at you at once. This means that your whole army will have no difficulty in dispatching the slow stream of enemy forces that come your way. Never while playing the game did I have to consider re-playing a battle because I had lost too many units. This meant that the game felt way to straight forward, this is boosted by the fact that each battlefield isn't sufficiently different from the last.
So the total effect is that it could have even kept its linearity and still been a lot better game had the developers considered making the game harder and the scenery and each battle tactically different, making the player use their brain.
Finishing points:
The game has some replayability with the multiplayer option and the different campaigns but in general this game was kinda a let down. Its good for playing your mates online if you don't have the total war games or prefer them with orcs and dark elves. After I finished this game I rummaged through my old games box and found my copy of Dark Omen. I then spent the next week playing that. Which despite the fact that I have played it several times before I found it a lot more enjoyable. This game is worth playing if you like a nice easy battle against fantasy armies and is a definite improvement over the original game that was bugged and glitchy and had obscene loading times. But ultimately its not very immersive and lack substance, go play Dark Omen.
Lord_Migit