Adam Parker
Posts: 1848
Joined: 4/2/2002
From: Melbourne Australia
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[QUOTE=Canuck35]Hi there. I just picked up Korsun Pocket this afternoon. I saw it for £20 so I thought I'd better snag it with the option of selling it again if I changed my mind. Well now I'm doing a little investigating to decide whether or not I should break open the seal.
One of the most important things for me is replayability. I'm a little disturbed by the fact that there are only 2 scenarios included with the game... One question I have, is whether it can randomly generate maps like say the CM map editor can. If KP had this option where you could basically set up a quick battle then that would do it for me. It doesnt have to be historical, I just want some variation![/QUOTE]
What follows is a reply to an earlier thread but grew to something more general so provided here.
Canuck let's start with replayability. With KP you'll find inside the box; the campaign, the 1st Ukrainian Front (left flank), the 2nd Ukrainian Front (right flank) and a Pocket Breakout. With the included Ardennes Offensive version 3 you get the campaign. As for unofficial scenarios, to date I know of only 1 - KP's Wiking Wipeout, a hypothetical divisional slugfest and a popular introduction to the game - in fact, the way I started but now too small to keep my attention.
Owing to the regimental scale and 3km hexes, campaign play imo is where it's at and by no means "monster gaming" in any form. Good against the AI for at least a few run throughs - whilst not sounding like much, is actually no different than a good spell at any other operational fare including board war gaming at the campaign level. Without restarts and re-saves, this does represent quite a bit of gaming replayability.
Yes, KP does come with an editorial suite. However, it's no secret that by design these tools have not been created with layperson useability in mind. A wait for the next title in line, Normandy, will be required to see this equipment in a friendlier format.
Using the editors as supplied, it appears that whilst it is possible to say, create the area France - Belgium, it is not possible to create a 1940's European OOB to go with it. The extent of such limitations in the future is not known. Yet, it appears that whilst editors may be compehensive, they may not also necessarily allow carte blanche DYO.
KP represents a fine addition to the war gaming hobby, melding interesting innovation with equal doses of abstraction both to the credit of the designer Roger Keating and design house SSG. Whilst grognards may argue the merits of this abstraction and I for one, need not agree with every design nuance, KP is worthy of breaking that wrapper and finding a recent Celeron system upwards to boot it up on.
Out of the box there certainly are some flaws, some minor bugs and more obvious omissions such as broken music! There appear to be some challenges with faulty discs and other circumstances preventing some from hassle-free installs. I'm one to have experienced a perfect install but I do feel the frustration of others. So long as the patch due shortly addresses these first issues and so long as the install issues do not relate to unfixable code/major driver incompatibilities, then KP by all means deserves to be rated favourably for its design and play merits.
However, as things stand, out of the box I personally as a reviewer would have reserved a rating over 70% until these challenges were proven as resolved. Issues becomming known did not take all that long (music was quite an obvious one) and the fix is still a couple of week off at the time of writing.
Support is the hallmark of quality and SSG/Matrix appear inclined to that regard. KP offers itself as a creation by war gamers with war gamers in mind and as such, makes its mark in the easy to learn/hard to master "thinking" game genre. Good luck therefore to SSG and future endeavors.
Adam.
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KP - should the wrapper be opened? - 
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