Some of the fondest memories
that I have of growing up were of my friends and me sitting around a table
playing board games. No, no … not your “Monopoly” style board games. I’m talking
about games like Stratego, Risk, and Axis and Allies. You know, those kinds of
board games. Well, I got the opportunity to review Chariots of War, a new PC
title by Strategy First which brought back some of those old memories to me
about an hour after I started playing it.
Chariots of War takes place
about 4000 years ago in the Cradle of Civilization back during the time when
countries and empires had to fight to survive by finding water, building
material, and other resources to help them and their people thrive and flourish.
These times were also ripe with war, as hostilities and takeovers of
civilizations commenced in order to expand territories and take whatever was
needed. You get to play as one of 58 different nations in the middle of all of
this growth and riff raff, and get to watch your cities grow as you march across
the continent in a quest for ultimate victory.
When you first start playing
Chariots of War, you may get a tad bit intimidated by the huge world map in view
and all of the little icons on the right hand side of the screen. Fortunately,
there is a tutorial that will walk you through every step of the way and show
you how to play the game, at which time you can move on to bigger and better
things. There are a couple of different play options to select from, ranging
from a Grand Campaign which takes place in the whole area of the world and will
take you many, many hours to complete all the way to an area specific campaign
in which you play in an individual area, like Egypt or Mesopotamia. The area
specific campaigns obviously won’t take you as long, but the ultimate goal
remains the same in each mode … conquest.
When you take your first
step into the bigger world, you begin the game with only a couple of cities.
From here, you can manage your resources like wood, building materials, gold,
gems, and horses just to name some of them. These are used to do such things as
build more buildings and farms to feed your community, recruit armies, or even
set up trade routes to buy and / or sell goods with neighboring countries in
order to get what you need or profit by things that you don’t need at the time.
You can also send diplomats to other countries in order to try and establish
friendly relations, or begin a plot to attack a neighboring settlement and take
their territory over to expand your kingdom. It sounds like a lot when you hear
about it, but it is actually very simple point and click style gameplay and I
had it down pat in about 15 minutes.
One thing that I really
thought was interesting, especially amongst all of this fighting going on, is
the fact that the developers didn’t leave out the option for you to really take
care of your people. While a lot of the game will have you spending X amount of
months each turn building new barracks, reed marshes for building materials, or
stables to build chariot warriors, your AIs have building options that consist
of more civilian type things like Universities for education and medical
facilities to help keep your people happy. You don’t have to do this, but part
of your success or failure can be dependent on whether or not your civilians and
populous are happy … especially since they will become your armies and builders.
You don’t have to use this up front, but in the long run it can begin causing
some serious issues if not done.
Another thing that I found
to be fun about Chariots of War is the constant action that takes place. As soon
as I started playing it, I noticed that it reminded me a lot of the board game
Risk since a lot of the time I was fortifying my own cities with soldiers to
help ward off attacks while building large armies on the back end to head out
and conquer other territories. There is a little bit of resource micromanagement
that goes on, since you can’t do much building or recruiting if you don’t have
what you need, but it is very light for the most part and is not a focal part of
the game as I mentioned earlier.
On that fighting note,
battles can be a lot of fun to do and there were elements of strategy that were
used in the overall scheme of things. The battle screen is divided into thirds,
and you can set up your troops anywhere in your third of the playing field
depending on what positions your enemies have taken (scouts can sometimes see
part or all of your opposing army) or what kind of cover you can use. Since each
unit can have a number of deployment options, like move, find a target, or do a
long hold and then attack … cover vs. open field definitely plays a part in a
win or a loss. The other thing that plays into a possible victory can be your
troops types or numbers as well. For example, the winner of an infantry only
battle normally went to the army with the most people. Toss some charioteers
into the mix though, and they obviously can do a lot more damage even in a
smaller number. To combat chariots, you might decide to move your spear troops
to the front since chariots collapse when fighting them … but there may be a
counter attack from an army of shield wielding warriors who can block thrown
spears or javelins. As your cities and technology advances, so does the need for
a decent military strategy to increase chances of victory.
While I really got addicted
to this game quickly, one of the biggest issues that I can see this game causing
falls into that same action based gameplay element. Cities are already pre-built
to an extent, and you’re not going to be running around building grain silos or
exploring uncharted territory. Instead, you just wind up adding to what was
already there which can take some of the fun out of watching as your city takes
up huge miles and begins to look more like a kingdom. In addition, resource
managing or finding new technology is all computer controlled and happens
randomly as the game and your kingdom progress and grow, so you really don’t
have the same level of user control that you have in other RTS titles.
Another gameplay element
that I can see causing issues with a lot of people (me included) was in the
battles themselves and the lack of player control. You can line your troops up
and tell them to attack however you want, but once the OK button is clicked …
it’s go time. You cannot control or give orders to any of your troops once
they’ve marched into battle which obviously caused frustration at times if you
see that you are about ready to lose all of the troops that you worked so hard
and so long to build. Being able to pull a couple of them out once morale or
numbers start dropping would have been helpful or helped in that “lesson
learned” category, and a lot of people may not find that lack of user commands
vs. the computer control to be a good thing.
Another down side (and
probably the biggest one for me) was in the whole diplomacy setup. While you are
establishing diplomacy with another country and having them befriend you, it
usually means that they won’t attack … yet. You sometimes will also receive
diplomats from other countries, and can except them into your city for a while,
but ultimately you will get bored not messing with that country to expand yours
and will probably either eject him in a nice, kind “boot in the behind” fashion
… of you can be a cruel dictator and send his head back on a platter. Either
way, you’re going to wind up fighting someone almost every few turns … whether
you are being the aggressor or one of your neighbors is. The opportunity to
request assistance from a friendly ally or receive and send gifts to keep up
relations would have really added to the game overall, even in keeping the
action based format.
Graphically, Chariots of war
looks good for what it does but there’s really not a whole lot to it. Most of
the time you will be looking at a map of the continent dotted periodically by
troops or little flags showing the country that they belong to, but that’s about
it. Battles on the other hand were kind of neat looking watching the troops
march across the field or begin firing or tossing ranged weapons at each other …
but it’s from a distance and there’s no way to zoom in and see what’s going on.
It looks pretty cool, but a lot of the time I wound up watching a map in the
lower right hand corner to see who was ahead or dispersing or whatnot.
Overall, Chariots of War is
a fun and addictive game that people who enjoy tabletop games like Risk will no
doubt get a kick out of and will more than likely sink multiple hours of their
life into. People who also enjoy games like Sid Meyer’s Civilization may also
get a lot of fun out of it, but since it’s no where near as detailed in the
diplomacy and political side, it may not be quite what they are looking for.
Other RTS fans who enjoy more of a Cultures 2 or Age of Mythology approach
probably won’t find that the lack of control is to their liking, and I’d
recommend checking it out on a demo or keeping the receipt if you decide to buy
it.
Gameplay: 7.2
While the
interface and game overall may look a tad intimidating at first, a quick run
through the tutorial will show you how simple it is to start playing and get
into. Everything is an easy point and click format, and there is more focus on
army building and fighting than in the politics and “relationship building” that
a lot of other strategy titles can have. Overall, a more detailed diplomacy
system would have been a big help to the game, even keeping it in the same
action based format, and specific mission objective play style as an option
would have helped to be a little more since everything is conquest only. Also,
having some control over armies after a battle has begun would have not only
helped make some fights less frustrating, but would have also appealed to a
broader audience.
Graphics: 7.0
As I stated
before, the graphics in Chariots of War were good … there just wasn’t a whole
lot to them. 75% of the game will have you looking at a very colorful and
detailed map of the continent, while you zoom into the area closer when a battle
breaks out. There is no zoom feature during a battle, but watching it can be
entertaining and it’s pretty neat to watch the horses charging and missile
weapons firing through the air as people drop.
Sound: 7.1
Again, not bad at
all … but not a whole lot to it. Troops will make comments in a foreign tongue
when selected, and they will cheer when you lead them to victory or take over a
city. The music that plays in the backgrounds during the main gameplay screen is
a neat and almost relaxing kind of tune, but there’s only a couple of changes in
it and it runs on a loop. During battle, there are also only a couple of
different selections … and neither are bad, there’s just not much there to
comment on.
Difficulty: Medium
It’s pretty easy
when you start out, since most everything revolves around infantry only … but as
technology
advances you have to begin
paying more attention to what you are doing or you could wind up losing more
battles than you win. The tutorial helps you jump in and begin playing, and game
is one of those “simple to learn, difficult to master” kinds of games.
Concept: 7.3
I really like the
whole idea behind Chariots of War … make a good action based RTS game that
includes RTS elements, but just not anywhere near as much as other games. I
think that putting a little more emphasis on certain areas would have helped it
out greatly though and while it is addicting as is … would have made it even
better.
Multiplayer: N/A
Sadly … no
multiplayer. This game would have been an awesome opportunity to have a huge,
multiplayer global conquest going on.
Overall: 7.4
While there are
things that I thought could have been done better; I can’t sit here and say that
this game didn’t suck multiple hours of my life away. I was quickly addicted to
it, and played it A LOT, especially over the past couple of days. As I stated
before, if you are a fan of those global conquest games either on PC or in board
game fashion, you will probably get into this title and have loads of fun with
it. If you prefer a more standard RTS title, you may want to see if a download
is available or hang onto the receipt just in case. Thank you for reading my
review … and I’m heading back now to continue my iron fisted rule over the
world.
