Hey, Ring of Red.
One of the few games I've tried on emulators (thanks
Matalarata for the suggestion), and it's a fun idea torpedoed by some massive problems. Could not finish it 'cause massive HD failure and the grind isn't worth it.
On the positive, it has a novel enough setting (AltHistory Cold War with Mechas!) and some great gameplay mechanics for a console TB game. Graphics are dated, of course, but the blocky style works at the game's own advantage thanks to some great designs. The union of infantry combat supporting "tank-mecha" combat is also fairly fun.
Negatives.
The plot is boring, the characters are boring and nondescript (also racism at Italians) and essentially the only fun thing is that if you stop for a moment and consider the plot, well, you are a bunch of Nazi-trained terrorists infiltrated in a foreign country to wreak havoc. Not that we require a plot for a strategy game.
The graphic design is good, but it ain't Cold War, it's merely WW2 Weird War despite being supposedly in the 60ies. I mean, Mecha PzIVs fighting mecha T34s is amusing enough, but I didn't get the need for the timelapse. Minor annoyance.
Gameplay problems are peculiar, though. Ring of Red has
good gameplay thanks to a variety of units (you get several types of mechas and supporting infantry, and a the typical "overall tactical layer" mingled with a time-limited direct control battle system where your mechas fight directly with the enemy and you have to consider fuel and shooting, plus infantry positioning. All cool and all, for the fist three hours. Then the
sloooow unskippable animations gets old (they are very cinematic but you get them for every.fucking.thing.) and the game simply stop throwing at you variety. It's a good enough game that blows his load early and never quite does anything with what it has built.