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Lord Thag -> One intense ride (10/24/2013 5:39:22 AM)
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This game kinda came out of nowhere for me. I have always liked a good pc wargame, but they have always come in two distinct flavors. On one hand you have you small(ish) unit tactical level games like Combat Mission and Close Combat that model the close up, 'man in the trenches' mayhem of live combat. On the other, you have your more abstracted games that take a nod from all the old Avalon Hill hex and chit games like ASL that model broader strokes. I've always liked both.
Having just bought a laptop, I was looking for a new wargame to play (been awhile) and stumbled on Flashpoint Campaigns. WWIII sounded like a fun setting, so I bought it.
I'm surely glad I did. Played through the tutorial a couple of times and then a small scenario every night this week.
And I have to say this: Red Storm is without a doubt the most tense, bloody, edge of your seat nail biter of a wargame I've played to date. How in the hell you devs pulled that off in a bloody hex and chit game is beyond me, but it's the truth. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm nuts as I've shouted 'goddamn it get into position!' more times than I care to admit this week. An hour goes by and I don't even notice, I'm so focused. The limited orders option is brilliant fun, and the AI, I am reasonably sure, has a contract with the devil at times. I've played through A Time to Dance thrice now and it's almost exhausting. This game is ... unrelenting, that's the word.
It's like this. You can walk around one of those gaudy mall knife stores with all the cheap swords and whatnot everywhere and think 'those are cool'. Then one day you go to the museum and see a razor sharp katana on display that was made by some master smith who slaved lovingly over it for years, and you realize you've never seen a real sword before.
This game is a sharp as that sword.
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