Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars - Review

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  • Platform: PC
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  • Gamepad support: N/a
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Graphics: 10 Audio: 8 Gameplay: 8 Concept: 8 General impression: 8.5

SOFTPEDIA MARK: 8.5

If you want to say "I'm Napoleon" without risking of being sent to a psychiatric hospital, Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars is the game you need.

In fact, you can be any general or emperor from that period and may even rewrite history.

First, you have to take control of one of the dominating nations at that time; you'll be able to choose between: France, Russia, Austria, Prussia or Egypt.

Similarly to its predecessor, Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars tries to follow the historic truth, so each nation will have the development level corresponding to that time and each army will have specific units and tactics.

If you decide to get involved in the ?poque's intrigues, you'll learn by heart the meaning of the word army, for it is the basic notion of this game.

All for the front, all for victory

In Cossacks, the economic aspects were just a part of the military tactics, but in Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars this concept is even more obvious. The cities are actually incubators for the thousands of soldiers you'll have to lead in battle to conquer Europe or at least a part of it. Each resource has its role in the development of the army, for example: coal is important because it is the raw material for gun powder, agriculture will feed the soldiers, wood can be used to build forts and gold is important because it allows you to buy everything you want.

A big and clean city where everything works smoothly will not only generate more soldiers, but they also ensure a better morale which by the way is the most important resource in Cossacks II: Napolenic Wars.

An army well fed and equipped will have a better morale and together with a few tricks it will make the difference between failure and victory.

The battles from the game are something like this: two formations with as many soldiers as possible (and keep in mind Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars actually supports THOUSANDS of soldiers) are placed on the battlefield and the first lines of both formations are engaged in battle.

It's easy, right? Not quite. If you are used to strategy games where everything relies on tank rushes or sending as many units as possible against a vital building, Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars will quickly teach you tactics is a more complex notion. And that's because the battles from Cossacks are a combination between the number of soldiers, their morale and fatigue level, battlefield characteristics and the way each side organizes formations.

In conclusion, a group of rested soldiers with aggressive leaders placed on the top of the hill will defeat a larger formation consisting of tired soldiers and more prudent leaders.

The excellent graphics of the game will convince you to take advantage of every scenery element. A regiment of riflemen will be more effective if placed behind a group of trees or some rocks.

The formations are a very important aspect of the game and you will be spending most of your time with organizing your troops and not with building cities.

From Paris to Moscow

Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars has three type of gameplay: Campaign, Battle for Europe and Skirmish. The first one is something like an extended tutorial because of the missions' linearity and the easiness to achieve objectives. Generally, the missions from the Campaign mode are pretty boring, but necessary for the exciting part of the game: Battle for Europe.

In this mode you'll have to build an empire and I assure you it's not easy. Diplomacy has its role in the formation of alliances but only until you'll have to eliminate all you adversaries, because there can be only one Emperor. And for that you'll have to rely on your faithful soldiers.

In Skirmish, you have to build your army before the enemy has reached half of its capacity; otherwise, you're in a lot of trouble.

Empires are born from problems

Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars would be an excellent game, if not for a series of problems generated by its design.

The first difficulty is the large number of units and building types: 140 and respectively 170. Although most of them comply with the historic truth and you will have the chance to admire excellent detailed French, British, Prussian uniforms, having thousands of units simultaneously displayed on the map can be extremely confusing.

Secondly, two confronting armies will have to be positioned as close as possible. The fire weapons from those times had little efficiency at large distance and what's more, soldiers will take eternity to reload.

To effectively simulate this reality, the developers have assigned each firing distance a color; to view these colors (green, yellow, red) all you have to do is to press ALT.

If the army you want to attack is in the green area, don't even bother shooting because it is unlikely you'll hit anything except perhaps some wild animals. In the yellow zone you will barely scratch the uniforms of your enemies which might attack you while your soldiers reload their weapons.

The true battle will be fought in the red zone, and considering the loading time, the army that gets to shoot first will have the most chances of winning.

Another series of problems is generated by the humongous size of maps and the astronomical number of units. Although the game doesn't have errors, when playing on a large map with thousands units your computer will behave like a tired snail.

And no matter how strange it might seem, Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars is not a RTS. Why? Because the large number of units won't allow you to efficiently control every moment of the battle, and you will be forced to use the Pause button to give the necessary orders. Your soldiers will carry out them in real time, but if you give the incorrect orders, it's unlikely you'll be able to repair the situation after the hordes of soldiers unleash.

Another important aspect of the game is sound which will grow in intensity as your ranks increase. The sound made by thousands of soldiers marching across hills will make you turn down your speakers. The screams of agony and the commandants' yelling will only increase the confusion, but in the same time add to the realism of the game.

Napoleon versus Napoleon

Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars has also multiplayer options, but considering the gigantic dimensions, playing this game over the Internet is a difficult experience. LAN is the only feasible multiplayer mode, but only if you have a few hours at your disposal.

The historic battles and the single player modes together with excellent graphics, will convince you to keep this game installed on your hard drive, because after all it's not everyday you get the chance to be Napoleon.

Recommended requirements:

System: 2400 MHz or equivalent RAM: 768 MB RAM Video memory: 64 MB VRAM HDD: 2000 MB

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story 0
gameplay 0
concept 0
graphics 0
audio 0
multiplayer 0
final rating 0
Editor's review
poor