“Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars”, is the sequel to “Cossacks I: European Wars” Cossacks II takes you back to Waterloo, a time where military superiority reigned supreme in Europe. This game allows you to control the fate and outcome of key historical events using the standardized military tradition of the time. With line formations and unique national uniforms, you can traverse across Europe conquering all you see.
You can play as Napoleon or a variety of other leaders. Unlike many other Real-Time strategy games out there, “Cossacks II” has less building and more fighting. The battle simulator is similar to the “Total War” games. However, Cossacks II adds a slight twist. You care able to capture pre-constructed enemy towns and villages to gain more resources. The more resources you have, the bigger your army can grow. The more you grow, the more powerful you become.
The resources you produce from each of your towns will ultimately control the outcome of each battle. Supporting your troops eventually becomes more important that having a huge army. If you run out of a key resource such as coal during a battle, your units will no longer be able to reload their rifles.
“Cossacks II” strives for historical accuracy, even during the battle simulations. After firing their muskets, your units spend a great deal of time trying to reload. At first this may seem like a pain but it proves to be quite a strategic stimulator. Unlike most Real-Time strategy games, you actually have to watch the battle. If you constantly rush head-on into battle without strategic maneuvers, you’ll find that victory will be hard to achieve. Even after engaging in a strategic battle, you have to keep an eye on your troops moral, ammunition, and fatigues. Managing melee battles, rifle firing and reloading consumes a lot of your time, making multiple battles more difficult than ever.
Landscape, moral and unit type become very important during each and every battle. Depending on were your troops stand, one side may have the upper hand. Rifles are useless when firing into a thick forest of trees and bayonets become scrap metal when rained on by bullets.
Multiplayer is not much different than single player, there are only two options, Classic Deathmatch (which many Real-Time Strategies have) and a Historical campaign in which you try to change the outcome of historic battles.
“Cossacks II” is quite a simple game and is easy to learn. It won’t take long for you to master the art of troop formation. However, due to its simplicity, “Cossacks II” can be quite repetitive at times and the chances of you wanting to replay it would probably be very low. Overall all, “Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars” lives up to its name. It presents you with a great deal of historical facts and brings you back to the fighting grounds in which great battles were fought.
Code Issues
Graphics: 8.5 – The military models are nicely modeled and the terrain is nice and smooth. It’s very clean and free noticeable graphics glitches.
Sound: 7.0 – The ambient music was hardly noticeable, nothing really inspiring. Unit taunts and sound affects were fair. Some of the voice casting seemed kind of off when compared to the historical genre of the game.
Interface: 8.5 – The interface is rather small and out of the way. This leaves a lot of room for game-play. The mini-map was helpful and the resource bar is typical of most RTS-like games.
Play Issues
Solo Gameplay: 7.5 – Game play is rather simple however a few scenarios can become rather repetitive and complex.
Replayability: 6.0 – Due to the lack of variety in game-play, this game will quickly become the talk of yesterday.
Multiplayer: 7.5 – Multiplayer is pretty much the same as single player, however it only offers two modes of play, Classic Deathmatch and a Historical campaign.
Learning Curve: 9.0 – Game is very easy to learn, tutorial is hardly needed.
Documentation: Came with simple manual that explains the basics, but you’d do fine without it.
Pros: Wonderfully mastered graphics, simple interface
Cons: Gameplay they missions can sometimes become overly complex and repetitive.
Overall 7.7
INFORMATION ABOUT THIS CONTENT:
Originally posted: strategy-gaming.com (LINK) (ARCHIVED)
Date of publish: 30.05.2005
Author: Huy Ly
Language of publish: english