hellfirejet
Posts: 1052
Joined: 12/16/2008 From: Scotland Status: offline
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While browsing the net,I came across this review of Empires in Arms,and I must agree that a major problem the game has at present,is the lack of a tutorial.Once upon a time there was a tutorial available to download,but that has now disapeared,what the game is crying out for is a decent updated tutorial,that is played from a hot seat perspective,or in other words all human game!adding this feature would make the game much more user friendly,from the new player point of view. ET AL. Empires in Arms lets you take control of one of seven countries during the Napoleonic Era from 1805-1815. The game is turn-based and each turn represents one month; you can do the math and see that each campaign lasts a really long time. In addition, there is only one campaign to choose from that lasts the whole time and no editor to create smaller scenarios. Replay value or giving alternative, smaller missions is necessary to cater to the largest possible audience, and Empires in Arms does not support this feature. The game does allow for hot-seat or PBEM (play by e-mail) games for organized folk, and Empires in Arms supports a procedure for determining starting countries to prevent everyone fighting over France and Great Britain. The most ghastly omission in Empires in Arms is the lack of a tutorial. Every modern computer game needs a tutorial, and a complex game such as Empires in Arms missing one is inexcusable. You mean I actually have to read the 128-page manual (which, incidentally, mostly tells about rules and not how to actually do things)? Unfortunately, players unfamiliar with the board game will be dumbfounded and overwhelmed as they step into their first game, and a lot of these newcomers will be turned off immediately by the unfriendly approach Empires in Arms takes. The manual doesn’t even have a written tutorial to run through the first couple of turns with an example the player can follow along with. Frankly, I expect a lot more from a $70 game.
< Message edited by hellfirejet -- 5/2/2010 1:18:24 PM >
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Regards, Graham. I'm not retreating, I'm attacking in a different direction! Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller
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