by Robn Kester
by Design, Inc. has been hard at it these days working on their latest title, American Civil War Soldier. This new game is the follow-up to their previous titles, Cannon Fire and Musket Fire. Both of which created the foundation upon which ACWS is based. Following the same basic gameplay style as these previous titles and learning from them, ACWS promises some excellent turn-based strategy gaming for the Mac gaming community.
ACWS takes place during the American Civil War, where the Union and the Confederacy are at each other's throats and every battle could mean victory in the end. Choose up sides with the North or the South and wage war. Do you have what it takes to be victorious?
Featuring a 3D rendered isometric view, turn-based play, literally dozens of missions including historically accurate and fictional ones, full sound accompaniment and amazing attention to detail right down to the name of every single soldier, ACWS has its sights set to wage war in your home in May 1999.
Gameplay
Playing the game requires thought on the players part. You must survey the situation and decide how to move your troops into position based on the movement limits for each unit represented by a yellow dot on the unit. Once a unit has reached they movement limit as indicated by a red dot on each unit, they cannot budge until your next turn. This turn-based system gives the game a more thought-out playing feel than your standard action games. You can't just rush to the front and blast your opponent, instead you must think and deploy troops with regard to what your opponent might do during their turn.
Commanding your troops is as easy as using the mouse. Simply choose a soldier, sergeant, or other commanding soldier and click on him. Then either drag that soldier to a new spot on the field or control-click on the field where you'd like him to go. If he's a commanding officer, you can tell him to command the troops under him and he will bring up all his ranks to his current position. You also have control over what kind of position that these soldiers will take including skirmish formation, firing lines or road columns. After moving your troops, you then end your turn and the computer takes over and moves his troops.
The troops themselves are mostly distinguishable amongst each other, although some difficulty in selecting individual troops can be had, due to the way the selection of troops is handled. When you click on the field, your selection area actually selects 4 soldiers if they are standing in the same spot in close proximity. However, deselection is as easy as clicking on the appropriate soldier on the bottom menu bar. The soldiers on horseback don't have this problem since they occupy the whole space themselves. Still, this is only a minor complaint and shouldn't be a problem for most players. After all, the overall gameplay is the most important issue here.
When proximity is close enough for actual battle to occur, you can order your men to charge the enemy or to just fire at will. As movement occurs through an area populated by both your and the computer's soldiers, you can bet that things will get intense. Not only because you know that every move you make must be planned well or the enemy may just overtake you when it is their turn.
To get a broader view of the field, you can view a Map, which shows the entire playing area and colored dots representing both sides of the battle.
You can also view each individual soldiers information including their name, rank, and other important information. This can be helpful when plotting your next move or tracking who is who in your ranks.
Once your turn is complete, you are at the mercy of the computer. Until his turn is completed, you are unable to control the view to track what is occurring where. This makes it somewhat difficult to see how your men are handling the battles at hand, and leaves you sometimes surprised when the computers turn is over. Imagine it is your turn again and you discover that the otherside has not only overtaken your position, but have flanked you as well, thinning your the ranks in the process.
Missions
The missions are widely varied, both accurate and fictional. These include such historical battles as the Battle at Gettysburg, Antietam, Fredricksburg and Fort Lamar. And since you can play as either side, you can try the mission from both perspectives and see what the outcome is. Whether you choose a real or fictional battle, you have your work cut out for you. After all, war is hell.
Graphics
The graphics aren't state of the art by any means, but they do the job quite nicely. Most everything is rendered in 3D and has enough detail to easily tell what any item is at a glance. The battle fields themselves feature rolling grass and fields, trees, fences, rocks, train tracks, and many more terrain features to complete the whole picture.
Sound
At first, the sound can be sparse with only your troops reporting as you issue orders to them leading them into the battle. But, find yourself in the middle of a skirmish and you will hear the rifles firing around you as you charge your enemy, the cries of fallen comrades, and cannons bellowing their death calls. This is more than enough to complete the picture as you fight for position and plan your next move.
Requirements
By Design, Inc. tells IMG that the requirements for playing ACWS are modest including 68k and PPC machines. However, it's recommended that you use a PowerPC machine with a monitor capable of displaying 8 bit or 16 bit color for optimum performance.
Overall Impressions
Whether you are a fan of turn-based strategy or a Civil War buff, you will find something to like about American Civil War Soldier. With deep historical based gameplay, amazing detail down to the soldier and battle names, and an addictive quality found in truly well thought out games, this is one sure to please.
Suit up, load your rifle and fall into rank soldier!
