230
Sudden Strike was a fantastic real-time strategy game – great looking, involving and most importantly, great fun. Now CDV are unleashing their new game Cossacks onto the unsuspecting public. Can their new baby conquer the market, then the world?
Cossacks is played much in the same vein as Sudden Strike – it’s a real-time strategy game but essentially without the complicated resource management that slows down other games. Cossacks is extremely easy to play and is still very easy to get hooked on. Perhaps Cossacks’ best feature is the way it allows you to control an unprecedented 8000 units in both the single and multi-player maps – controllable right down to every individual soldier. The game allows you to take control of some of the greatest battles known to man throughout the 16th and 18th centuries – 85 of them, to be precise. Wars in the game include the Thirty Years War (which thankfully doesn’t take thirty years to play), the English revolution and the war for Spanish succession. Each country that took part in each war is represented properly – for example, each country has the corresponding landscape and has the correct military styles and manoeuvres – just like their real-life troops. Countries to control in the game include: Algeria, Austria, England, France, Netherlands, Piemonte, Poland, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, Saxony, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, Venice and more. You may also come up against other parties in the game, ie. you might find yourself defending your precious land against dastardly pirates – the game provides a complete world in which you play, it’s just up to you to conquer it.
Maintaining your fine country is not just a matter of war though, you must make sure your economy is also thriving. Making sure your people have enough resources should be high at the top of your list, otherwise they won’t want to fight. Troops in the game are split into different sections: Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery and Navy. Therefore, each nation has the full ability to launch a full-scale war across Land or Sea.
Another cool feature in Cossacks is the way that you can team up with foreign mercenaries thanks to your diplomatic centre for a much needed boost. There are also countless strategic tactics for waging war on your opponent and it is possible to plan each and every attack precisely – down to every soldier. Cossacks utilises great real world physics, for example, hills slow land troops down, waves ravage your naval attacks, fog closes in on your beleagured troops and shots can ricochét off rocky terrain risking injury to your soldiers.
CDV have gone to great lengths to make Cossacks something special – the whole game just feels so polished. The visuals alone warrant a purchase, with thousands of soldiers moving on screen at once and explosions left right and centre. As far as real-time strategy games go, Cossacks deserves to be right up there with the best of them.
95%
INFORMATION ABOUT THIS CONTENT:
Originally posted: reserve.co.uk (LINK) (ARCHIVED)
Date of publish: 29.01.2001
Author: Doctor-Monkey
Language of publish: english