Parsimonious cook
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2020
- Messages
- 2,433
How's the micromanagement?Wew lads. I will probably need a few days to be able to do a meaningful write up on the game. Right now I would say that the game is both less and more than I expected it to be.
The skirmish mode looks really good, with plenty of maps, gametypes and playable units for both NATO and Pact. I am a bit bummed out that there is no Czechoslovak People´s Army regiment for the Pact – there are many Soviet and a few East German regiments to choose – but that is a minor thing (plus one can hope for future content).
There is no campaign per se though – only a series of operations (see my previous review of the demo ITT to see what operations are like in general). Since there is heavy storyfaggotry happening in the game I find this somewhat disappointing. I would have loved to have both NATO and Pact campaigns. Instead you get consecutive operations which tell the story from multiple viewpoints (ie each operation has a set protagonist – you cannot choose who to play as, so you have to switch sides from operation to operation).
I am honestly not a fan of this approach, but storyfaggotry is on an excellent level given that this is a Wargame-like. The initial operation has you playing as a commander of an East German armored regiment – the situation is basically that the 1989-style peaceful anti-commie revolutions turned violent and you as a loyal commie set out to put down the armed rebellion. Of course it doesn’t look like NATO is going to just watch….
The gameplay didn’t change much since the demo and it remains really good both on tactical and strategic levels (to remind you, tactical missions allow you to earn “Operational Authority” – the currency that you can use to replenish loses and acquire additional task forces and supplies for your regiment. There are plenty of various QoL improvements, but in general if you played the demo, you know what to expect. Very positive on Steam right now.
I will play through a few ops and write up more detailed review in a few days. Now excuse me, there are some capitalist warmongers and saboteurs that require my full attention around Mühlhausen.
Can the units perform autonomously like in armored brigade/flashpoint campaigns, choose optimal routes etc, or do you need to babysit them like in wargame?
Micromanagement is not much of an issue in the game, to some extend because you can slow down time or pause. Units that require a lot of attention are artillery, which (with exception of self propelled mortars) wont fire unless ordered to (which is a good decision imo, since you really dont want them to waste ammo) and helicopters, because they are very fragile and have low ammo capacity. Otherwise the units dont have any special abilities that the player would have to manually activate to get an optimal performance (you want to switch your recon units to "hold fire" though).
That said the game does require you to pay attention. Units will not retreat unless you give them order (usually better than having them wiped out) and AI likes to launch sneak attacks, so you will often find that your supply train and arty units are being overrun if you dont check on them from time to time.
Pathfinding is not that great, units proceed in straight line towards the waypoint (though you can plot course for them). They dont get stuck on terrain or anything like that, the biggest issue is anti-tank obstacles (both sides can place them). Units need some time to dismantle them before proceeding and AI will by default start dismantling them if they are in the way instead of bypassing them, which would be usually better solution.
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