Well, we will say one thing: Wargame: European Escalation doesn’t really have the most original title we’ve ever seen in a strategy game. Thankfully, the lack of imagination ends there as it proves to be a surprisingly good time sink, and is all round a more refreshing experience. For those of you who haven’t heard about it yet – Wargame presents a ‘what if’ Cold War scenario where, essentially, World War Three breaks out in Germany. Not something that’s always covered, as the Cold War seems even less favoured than World War II at the moment, but it does fit in quite nicely with the whole set up.
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| Airborne assaults are very cool, but only if they work. Otherwise you it's just fail... |
Wargame is mainly a multiplayer focused title, with a fully integrated and comprehensive online system, although there’s an offline mode as well that serves as training, as well as helping you get a head start for online. The single-player has a loose narrative that’s based on the game scenario, and involves several groups worth of connected missions – each taking the perspective of different army units from both sides of the conflict. The ‘story’ is very light though, as thankfully Eugen has shied away from the cheesy CGI character cut scene of
R.U.S.E. and stuck what matters – the fighting. Each army you control for each ‘chapter’ is persistent, with you unlocked new units as you go along (which feeds in multiplayer), and any losses or promotions your units gain along the way sticking.
They’ve also done away with the base-building that the previous game had too – something that I personally welcome although I know there are many gamers out there who prefer those kinds of games. Swings and Roundabouts I guess, but we like it because it makes the game cleaner, leaving you to focus purely on the strategy of beating your opponents. That’s not to say there’s no resource management at all – much like
Company of Heroes there are ‘control zones’ on the map that will net you command points. The more you own the more that trickle through to you allowing you to requisition more units. Some control zones also act as spawn locations, allowing you to get troops to the battle areas quicker. In order to control a zone, you need to put a command unit in it – a weak and costly unit, which means that you have to choose carefully which zones you want.
You also need to keep your units supplied with ammunition, fuel, and repairs, which means logistics. Each players starts the game with one firebase, with the option to summon in more if possible. You can then summon in supply trucks or helicopters to transport this resource across the map with your troops, so that they get refuelled and resupplied. The supply units themselves can only carry so much however, so they’ll need to go back to the FOB to restock themselves, and when the FOB runs out that’s pretty much it (unless you keep summoning in individual supply units, which come fully stocked).
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| You can look down from on high, or zoom right into the action |
Anyway, we’re getting a little off track. You can tell this game is the successor to
R.U.S.E. – the engine is still top notch, and you can zoom even closer into the action (which is a definite improvement), and the maps are nice and huge and lush, populated with towns, forests, rivers, roads… forests and hedges can be used as ‘cover’ for defensive purposes, and also to hide units from sight at long range. Where
R.U.S.E. was about intelligence and fooling your enemies through power,
Wargame is about intelligence and fooling your enemies through scouting ahead with recon units, and simply doing something your opponent wouldn’t expect. Whilst there’s something to be said for off-map abilities or special powers like the ruses,
Of course, the main element of
Wargame is your army. Now, as we said before it’s not like
Company of Heroes or any other base-building type strategy-game, but neither is it quite
Men of War where you can summon in any unit you want provided you have enough points. This game uses a deck base system, with ‘decks’ split up into several categories, and you get to decide what units fill in a limited number of slots. The range of units available for choice is very diverse as well, with four nations for each of the two factions pitching in. Do you want to go for a combo of English and American Airborne infantry? Or would you rather use up the slots using (west) German or French mechanised units instead. Do you want to use Russian or (East) German tanks? The choice of how to outfit your armies forms another layer of strategy, and it’s always interesting to see how other people specialise.
Sadly, you can’t have access to everything at once –
Wargame does use a progression system. The way you slowly unlock more advanced and varied units is through command ‘stars’, which you earn when you either go up a rank in multiplayer (you gain XP and levels when you fight matches), or as we also mentioned before, when you complete objectives in the offline campaign. The campaign only lets you unlock a small selection of units as you go along within the campaign, but you could easily take the stars you earn to the ‘main’ armoury and just spend them as you please. Remember to unlock units for both PACT and NATO however, as you’ll often end up playing both sides.
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| What will your army look like? The choice, is up to you... just no artillery spamming, please |
Some people liked R.U.S.E., some people didn’t. I don’t mind admitting I was probably a little harsh on it when its turn came. Wargame: European Escalation however is definitely a better game – Eugen has taken everything they’ve learned and made a better, more engaging product that’s more focused on the strategy. Looking forward we wouldn’t mind seeing some kind of abilities worked back into the game, whether off-map or unit based (Engineers, for example, don’t really do anything engineering). Regardless of the future though, this game is worth getting now, pure and simple.
Top Game Moment: Seeing a strategy come together and completely confounding your opponent. A successful airborne infantry assault is also pretty satisfying. 
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