Bought Order of War about two weeks ago and spent something like 25-30 hours playing it. Here is my brief review.
First of all, I liked the scale. You have lots of troops on the battlefield simultaneously (in one of my multiplayer battles the stats screen said that I had deployed >1,5K infantry, >250 tanks, > 130 guns, >30 aircrafts) - that makes you feel Patton Jr., at least. Though in some scenarios you start with a small group of troops having something like 2-3 squads of infantry and several tank detachments at command and then gradually build up a bigger army controlling hundreds of units on the battlefield. Some missions (like Will to Win (playing for Wermacht)) are extremely massive, I spent about 3 hours trying to fight of enemy attack and capture all flags.
Secondly, the graphics. I have pretty much experience of playing RTS games, but every time I started one I never forgot that I was playing and that it is just a game and nothing more. Here I was so hipped on what is there on the screen that sometimes it seemed to me that I was watching a new epic war movie. The cinematic camera mode here is something second to none, really!
And the coolest thing for me is the reality of what is going on. I mean the historical correspondence. I have read a lot to the topic of WWII and I should say that I never expected such detail accuracy in the mere entertaining product. All the missions are based on real operations that actually took place during the war and they follow one by one in strict historical order making an impression of a continuous war campaign. Preppy introductory movies give you the short review of preceding events and get you into the battle atmosphere. And you may be sure that all the troops mentioned were really represented in that particular operation of 1944.
I must confess that at first I was rather skeptical about the historical truth. In the Hill of Sorrow, for example, I was surprised to find Americans on the hill instead of Poles, but having turned to the history books I saw that the fact had place! American forces really took part in that battle, so there is nothing contradictory here.
The Game has a WiC-like control point system: you capture flags, get money and bring new troops in action. AI is good, it responds to all your moves and maneuvers (on Hard regularly uses air strikes and is good at setting up defense lines). Though, I once made it do some silly things by launching two simultaneous flanking attacks in one of the missions.
So, my conclusion is that the game is undoubtedly WORTH playing. I can insistently recommend it both to RTS-fans and to those who want to get true impression of how-it-really-was. Straight A from all sides!
First of all, I liked the scale. You have lots of troops on the battlefield simultaneously (in one of my multiplayer battles the stats screen said that I had deployed >1,5K infantry, >250 tanks, > 130 guns, >30 aircrafts) - that makes you feel Patton Jr., at least. Though in some scenarios you start with a small group of troops having something like 2-3 squads of infantry and several tank detachments at command and then gradually build up a bigger army controlling hundreds of units on the battlefield. Some missions (like Will to Win (playing for Wermacht)) are extremely massive, I spent about 3 hours trying to fight of enemy attack and capture all flags.
Secondly, the graphics. I have pretty much experience of playing RTS games, but every time I started one I never forgot that I was playing and that it is just a game and nothing more. Here I was so hipped on what is there on the screen that sometimes it seemed to me that I was watching a new epic war movie. The cinematic camera mode here is something second to none, really!
And the coolest thing for me is the reality of what is going on. I mean the historical correspondence. I have read a lot to the topic of WWII and I should say that I never expected such detail accuracy in the mere entertaining product. All the missions are based on real operations that actually took place during the war and they follow one by one in strict historical order making an impression of a continuous war campaign. Preppy introductory movies give you the short review of preceding events and get you into the battle atmosphere. And you may be sure that all the troops mentioned were really represented in that particular operation of 1944.
I must confess that at first I was rather skeptical about the historical truth. In the Hill of Sorrow, for example, I was surprised to find Americans on the hill instead of Poles, but having turned to the history books I saw that the fact had place! American forces really took part in that battle, so there is nothing contradictory here.
The Game has a WiC-like control point system: you capture flags, get money and bring new troops in action. AI is good, it responds to all your moves and maneuvers (on Hard regularly uses air strikes and is good at setting up defense lines). Though, I once made it do some silly things by launching two simultaneous flanking attacks in one of the missions.
So, my conclusion is that the game is undoubtedly WORTH playing. I can insistently recommend it both to RTS-fans and to those who want to get true impression of how-it-really-was. Straight A from all sides!