The software house Ukrainian GSC Game World has paradoxically most famous for a video game ever released for the many who instead has produced in recent years. If, in fact, STALKER is continuously postponed, the two series have held high the name of GSC Game World We refer, of course, Cossacks and American Conquest. This is real-time strategy that are not certainly the spectacular graphics their strong point, but it can offer great depth in terms purely strategic. Both series use the same graphics engine and certainly more than one feature in common.
American Conquest: Divided Nation is halfway between being a true sequel or a mere expansion. Basically, the new limited addition of new missions and a slightly different scenario. If you have previously, in fact, modeled on the history of the United States of America from the conquest of the New World, we now focuses exclusively on the American Civil War, Civil War or, if you prefer. Do not expect, therefore, great revolutions even within the graphics engine, which is inevitably dated. If this was still forgivable in 2003 (the year in which the first American Conquest was released), now, in the light of the spectacular productions on which we could get my hands recently, it reveals an aspect at least annoying and can keep away from Divided Nation much of the gaming audience more demanding.
As in all RTS-respecting how strong Divided Nation is the campaign. It is divided in 9 sub-campaigns, which allow us to relive the conflict here examined from several different perspectives. Each of the campaigns, in fact, recreates historical battles placing them under the label of the general architect of them. So follow the events of the war occurred in Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant. Between the factions with which we align ourselves are the Confederation and the Union of course: they are the protagonists of six campaigns. The last three will be met in the shoes of the soldiers of Texas, seeking independence, or Mexicans, however, are opposed to the first. In total Divided Nation includes more than 50 missions with the distribution we have just described. What we need to emphasize is that different factions do not necessarily different armies but, as we shall see in a moment, the strengths of all persuasions are still the same. Do not change the settings either (except in the case of campaigns with Texas and Mexico) and the graphic style of the game.
But now we come to that certainly concerns us more closely, namely on the game mechanics underlying the component purely strategic Divided Nation. As with its predecessor, the core of the structure of the game lies in managing armies composed of thousands of units in relation to the decisions of the enemy. American Conquest: Divided Nation can, in fact, manage simultaneously on the screen even 30,000 units, which requires great sagacity and precise strategic vision of the events that are happening on the battlefield. Added to this is the fact that the maps are really huge: the soldiers take minutes and minutes to cover the entire portion of land that is the game map. All this makes the product of GSC Game World a game focused on the movement of large masses of men on the roof of the appropriate distances on the deployment of troops available in relation to what the enemy does.
Legions of soldiers on both sides will collide head from time to time and all are busy in point your musket and reload as soon as possible after each shot. Place your army so that it covers the men enemies becomes crucial, as it is around the enemy position. Strategies are very common in American Conquest, for example, those based on point with a battalion of enemies and get around with another in order to attack them from behind. Alternatively, it is always good to engage the enemy with a battalion and to perform a second melee attack, in which case our soldiers abandon their muskets and bayonets will rely exclusively.
A game like American Conquest: Divided Nation can not focus heavily on the multiplayer component. The new product of GSC Game World, in fact, provides the game via the Internet or LAN to deal with their friends with the same characteristics as the single player. There are three different modes: Battlefield, Internet and Game Deathmatch. In the first mode repeat a mission already addressed in one of the campaigns, only instead of the enemy AI run there will be a human opponent. By Internet Game we can find an opponent that suits best to our ability and watch all the other games in progress at the server GSC Game World. Deathmatch instead will allow us to play on skirmish maps and to set a whole series of parameters such as the characteristics and the size of the map, the level of resources available at the beginning of the match, the presence or absence of "fog of war" or "peacetime "victory conditions, and more. A very interesting feature is the possibility of being able to save the current game to be able to continue later.
The result of this is the spread of fire fights and melee combat all over the map resulting in the death of thousands and thousands of people. In these situations, it is inevitable to think of every war atrocity and the uselessness of the loss of those lives.
The placement of troops is, therefore, the key element of the game. To make you understand the importance of this aspect of Divided Nation must say, beyond what we have done so far, that when placed troops want is the same as artificial intelligence of the game that decides when to start shooting and who, precisely because the Our job is another. In all this he deserves a separate discussion the matter relating to training, as can be seen to fundamental in relation to strategies to baste on the battlefield. Basically, we can choose three types of training: one suitable for shootings, one suitable for the defense when it takes close combat and, finally, a suitable gear. It 's very important to choose the right training if we want, for example, cover a certain distance in the shortest possible time or if we want to be effective in a firefight.
Once hired an enemy battalion in a firefight see our soldiers and the enemies shoot each other even for minutes. Each of these comparisons, in fact, has a surprisingly prolonged duration in relation to the duration of the entire battle. Realize who is losing more men is important in order to make changes to the strategy if you feel to be at a disadvantage. The reasons for which a battalion should be disadvantaged in relation to what is in front can be many. The most important part, as we have said, the physical layout of the two troops. In addition, we must pay attention to the shape of the map: an army in a forest or a cultivated field will be greatly benefited as will an army placed on a hill. It becomes, therefore, the primary realize even the geography of the map.
Noted earlier the characteristics of units in each army. Well, be it that of the Union or that of Confederation, of the Mexican or what Texan this difference is based on the presence of three different types of units. We're talking infantry, cavalry and artillery. This is the division that we see in almost every strategic, so proceed quickly on this issue. Let's just say that the former are useful for melee and for those with muskets, the second to disrupt enemy defenses more entrenched, the third to take out multiple enemy units and defenses to destroy walls. One aspect on which, however, it is worth stopping for as long as is related to the game. Unfortunately, from this point of view Divided Nation does not make significant improvements compared to its predecessor, although this aspect is certainly not the most tested of the saga. Indeed, we have found some difficulty in the selection of the troops and their arrangement on the battlefield.
This is because, due to the engine in 2D, the portion of land embraced by the game view is always too stunted. If we select thousands of men occurred within the visual understand well that you are immediately in trouble and that there is a tradeoff with the tracking system of the game. For these reasons, the software provides a minimum resolution of 1024x768, but it is almost essential to play at least at 1280x1024. Add to this the fact that the battalions will always be more than ten resulting in poor efficiency of the system speed dialing and the guys from GSC Game World inexplicably have not used the feature of instant recall of the battalion when you press twice on the corresponding number for understand that the gameplay component is certainly not the happiest in Divided Nation.
There is also a small section dedicated to. This is not always necessarily required, it becomes so only at times when we lose too many units and we have to create new ones. On these occasions we can use our "pioneer" to collect resources (food, wood, minerals), so you can use in the creation of buildings and troops. We may, for example, in order to achieve doctors treat wounded units or replenish our military units able to bring in high spirits. In fact, if one of our battalions lost too many men, those who are still alive will start to get scared and run away from the heart of the conflict: in these situations are important men like those I just mentioned, which are usually equipped with drums or banner of the faction with which we are playing.
Finally, we look at the component graphics and sound. As we said, this is not the most successful aspects of the game, which makes Nation Divided an extremely static and dated in relation to the latest generation of RTS. If, in fact, the ability to manage many units was a novelty when the first American Conquest saw the light, now with the various Rome: Total War Imperial Glory this component loses much of its value. Sprites units in two dimensions appear in fact anachronistic and animations are very rough. The lack of a minimum of real-time physics and graphical effects such as explosions and similar rendering the element on the dynamics. Also from the sound point of view we should not complain because all the sound effects are extremely repetitive and not very realistic. Do you think that it also lacks the response of the unit to our call, a component that has always been present in the RTS for ten years now. The only really positive element from this point of view is that related to music accompaniment, which reveal themselves in relation to the setting that azzeccate American Conquest: Divided Nation intends to trace.
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Let's say that American Conquest: Divided Nation is one of those strategic fit only for those who grew up in strength of bread and Command & Conquer. The subtle game mechanics and precision that requires strategic, in fact, immediately cut out all those players who do not like these aspects. To offset this element are, however, the presence of five levels of difficulty, which makes it not too difficult approach to the game even the less experienced. Remaining among the positive elements, we also the large number of units of each battlefield and the large scale of the maps. On the other hand, this new RTS GSC Game World is once again terribly static and not very pleasant in terms of visual and sound. We also found flaws in the system unit selection and repetition that occurs in the different campaigns going forward. If we also consider the fact that Divided Nation brings few new features compared to its predecessor and is still sold at full price, we can not give it a low rating.
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