Developer: The Mustard Corporation
Publisher: KISS Ltd, Osprey Publishing
Platform: PC
Battleplan: American Civil War – Review
The American Civil War – also known as the War Between the States – is one of the many bloody battles fought hundreds of years ago. Another war strategy game one might think. Battleplan: The American Civil War, however, does things different. Read on if you’d like to know how this game likes to stand out.
Story
This is pretty straightforward. Experience the Civil War on either side of the conflict. Do you want to fight for the United States or the Confederate States? Maybe both? It’s all up to you.
Before being dropped on the battlefield, you can always get some more information about the what and why behind every fight. If the history of war even slightly interests you, be prepared to get drowned in facts about the American Civil War. It’s a lot more fun to imitate a war that happened in real life if you have an idea what the conflict was all about.
Graphics
As usual for this type of game, a top down view is used which gives you a nice overview. Instead of regular soldiers and canons, the game offers blocks. Saying it like this is probably not the best way to get interested gamers excited but it is how it is. Troops are represented as plain square blocks and the map has a fairly simple design. There’s a nice contrast between water, roads and the green fields which make navigation easy and intuitive. Don’t expect a new Total War here. Blocks can never win it over troops from flesh and blood and it’s really impossible to feel any empathy for your loyal men. It’s quite obvious that Battleplan: American Civil War won’t acquire any prizes concerning graphics.
Sound
In the first couple of menus in the game, there’s not much to be said concerning music as there is none to be heard. It might’ve been enjoyable to listen to some gentle classical tunes or something like that, but let’s be honest, how much time do we generally spend in the main menus? Exactly. Music starts surfacing when you get to the screen where a side and difficulty must be chosen. A quite catchy and cheerful tune greets the player (take note that each side has a different song) and it really fits the overall simple and colorful theme.
The sound effects are nothing to get overly excited about and could’ve been a little more fleshed out. Especially gunfire sounds a bit bland and that’s not really positive for a war game.
Gameplay
The goal in every battle is to capture objectives and keep them under your control until the timer runs out. You start a match with a handful of troops and try to manage as best as you can until reinforcements arrive. Moving units is easily done by just clicking on them and dragging the mouse to wherever you want them to move. The Commander in Chief (C-in-C) will then send out these particular orders. If soldiers encounter enemies while at close range, they’ll start to shoot automatically. Keeping the pressure on and overpowering your opponents will cause them to route. However, don’t slack off as they may plan a counter offensive!
If you’re somewhat like me and you don’t like never ending tutorials with walls of text everywhere, then the tutorial of this game will come as a pleasant surprise. Although it’s a strategy game where normally you’d spend quite some time getting through the basics, Batteplan: American Civil War provides a short, practical and very understandable tutorial. In less than 10 minutes, you’re good to go!
The game plays quite fast which means you’ll have to push the pause button regularly to get an overview of what’s actually going on. Troops are fighting left and right so it’s easily to overlook things like routing soldiers or marching enemy infantry. It’s to this game’s credit that the user interface is very simple and easy to grasp. No thousand-and-one statistics to keep in mind but simply how many units are in the battle, how many of them have you lost and the amount of reinforcements. Basic but clear.
In total, there’re three different levels of difficulty to choose from: Militia, Regular or Veteran. Militia proves to be a bit too easy. Losing is harder to accomplish then winning to give you an idea. It might be good for a warm up but don’t expect a lot of satisfaction from a victory here. As you increase the difficulty level, your troops will either have to control more objectives at the same time or the enemy will need to control fewer objectives to be able to win the game. I can guarantee that things get a lot more intense if the opponent only needs to capture one point while you need at least three.
Besides moving your army around, you can also build pontoons and dig earthworks. Building pontoons can give you a strategic advantage if you build one on the right spot at the right time. Earthworks should provide more protection for troops nearby but I didn’t use it for several matches and didn’t notice a lot of difference. It probably helps a little bit, but the difference is not to be exaggerated.
Although the game plays fine with AI, a multiplayer mode would’ve been welcome. It’d give the player an incentive to come back to it as there’s nothing much to do after the completing the small campaign mode (in total, there’re 11 levels to complete). As the game is very fast paced and each fight only lasts about 10 minutes, you’ll finish it in no time. There’s a Quick Battle mode but if you already went through the main game, you’ll notice that it’s just replaying certain levels with a few tweaks like enabling/disabling the pause button and choosing between regular or historical reinforcements to aid you.
Last thing I certainly want to mention is the weather system. It actually matters if it’s raining or no as rain can cause multiple side effects like artillery losing accuracy or units moving slower as the result of a muddy ground.
Conclusion
Although there’s not much content available after completing the campaign, I really liked the simplicity of Battleplan: American Civil War. Both music and graphic wise, the game could’ve used some more fleshing out. Overall, for its price, this proves to be some fun entertainment. If you’re looking for a light strategy game or want to get familiar with the genre, I’d say give Battleplan a try.
Battleplan: American Civil War - Review,
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