Cossack II

[Whar]

I was a huge fan of the previous Cossack game. In fact it is an all-time favorite of mine. I missed that this game was in development until a few days ago when I saw a post on the main board about it. As soon as I found it available in the local store I bought it. Spent the last 2 days playing it and thought I would share my findings.

First the game is very different from the first. Cossacks I spanned about 120 years of European History from the 30 Years wars to the Seven Years War. (Wow those Europeans come up with some crafty names for their wars ) The second Cossack game focus solely on the Napoleonic Wars of 1805 to 1815. Therefore the game has almost no upgrades or cultural advancement that marked much of the first Cossacks.

Cossacks II seems restricted in much of its game play. When I went to fight skirmishes, free style play, it seems I could only fight one computer AI opponent. I did not try to launch a multiplayer game and try to play solo but if there does not exists a way to fight multiple AI opponents then solo play is too restricted.

The game does not know what it wants to be. You can play a campaign which from the little I played seemed silly. A civil war is breaking out in 1805 England that you have to suppress. You can 'battle for europe' which is a half-assed attempt at a strategic game like Rome: Total War. (Not that Rome is half assed but that Cossacks attempt to emulate them is really poor.) The stratgetic game breaks Europe up into 20 or 25 spaces. Then you move your army from space to space. If you move into an enemy space you start a battle.

The game draws a large map with villages and resources. You enter with your army and the enemy is made up of the defenses plus any army that might be stationed in the province. Leaders are restricted in the 'squads' they can lead so each commander starts with 4 squads. As you fight battles you gain EXP and recieve promotions that allow you to lead more squads. The maps the game generates are far to restricting for the size of the troops squads. Each infantry squad numbers 120 men with a leader, drummer, and standard bearer. When formed into line the unit is 40 men across and 3 deep. (England's move to the 2 rank line is not supported that I can see.) This results in a very wide formation about 3 inchs of screen. The game creates maps that almost never allow for 2 or 3 squads to muster side by side though. Battles do not feel any way like a Napoleonic battle, instead you have isolated squads fighting in awkward situations that is more frustrating than fun.

The combat is very user intentsive. Units will not take orders or follow set commands. Instead if a unit comes under fire you will recieve a message, an indicator will flash on your mini map showing where the unit is, and a voice message will sound letting you know you are under attack. If you do not go to that location and tell the squad to fix bayonent or start to volley fire the unit will sit there and get pummelled. You can not set conditions for your unit to follow. For example, if a unit assaults you hold your volley till close range then defend with the bayonent. However I have not found anyway to set these conditions without which a squad can be flanked and it would not respond in any way. If you find yourself fighting on multiple fronts a great deal of your time will be spend with the game paused trying to get your units to behave with a just a little intelligence.

The economics of the basic skirmish game have changed as well and for the worse. Instead of mines or farms the game has villages that must be taken. Each village has a small militia detachment in it that must be engaged and destroyed before the village will submit. The militia is so comically bad that it is almost impossble to lose to them and other than walking around in an annoying pattern militia seem meaningless.

Once a village is taken it starts to produce commodities for its owner. It ships these commodities via donkey to the resource center. The village generally has a food site and a mine of some type, coal iron or gold. The result is a nice looking game with small outlaying villages filling the roads with traffic but it plays poorly.

Unit production is poor as well. Before it took a little time to create a regiment in Cossack I but now units stream out of a barracks in seconds. When you ask your barracks to produce Voltigiers they walk out at one per second maybe a little faster. You can quickly build a large army. Of course the map is so cramped with impassable terrain it is hard to deploy it but you sure pumped it out fast.

Overall I have to give Cossacks II a failing grade. It trys to offer turn based strategy like Rome Total war but fails. It trys to offer tactical Napoleonic gameplay but fails. It tries to offer RTS gameplay but only delivers half of what Cossacks I had. This game just can not figure out want it wants to be.

[WSUCougar]

I tried the demo last night and concur with your comments, at least as far as what was covered by the demo. Looks like Imperial Glory gets the next crack at being a worthy Napoleonic game.

[Calis]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

I tried the demo last night and concur with your comments, at least as far as what was covered by the demo. Looks like Imperial Glory gets the next crack at being a worthy Napoleonic game.

Speaking of which, Imperial Glory just went gold today, looks like it's due out the 17th.

Lets cross our fingers.