Old school RTS veteran here, love CoH, love ALB/RD, love WWII. Played 6 hours of the game last night, and wow man, I am blown away.
Two HUGE design points for me that makes this the best WWII RTS game that I've ever played. No joke.
One of the things that I enjoy the most from the game right now is how map control is now free from set VP points. This allows the player to make flanks and thrusts in different areas of the map to apply pressure, and allows a player to be creative and exploitative rather than focus into areas of the map where battle is always contested. This inadvertently mediates one of the most difficult challenges for RTS developers and that is map design. The battlefield is now photo-realistic, and with this change in how VPs are collected, maps can be asymmetrical and somehow still work in an RTS. There is no real one way to play, which in turn expands on the player choices as your unit make-up can be completely different based on location alone. Overall, this also plays remarkably well with the theme of the genre, where there is a very real feel to the tides of war as the game progresses. You know, both mentally and visually when you're gaining or losing ground, and when you're about to be surrounded. This achieves a empathetic connection with the player to the game situation. Often times when designing games, the "feel" of pressure being applied by the opponent is portrayed in an arbitrary and superficial way: Units die, or they blow up, so what? When the entire map turns red around your army after your opponent makes a masterful thrust through an area that you deemed safe, you actually feel dread because you are now cut-off. This is a vibrant and most-welcomed change to static VP points where the scale of battle centers around those areas and everywhere else is a skirmish. This is an absolute brilliant way to not only make the battles themselves more realistic, but is a masterstroke in RTS design that I haven't seen in years.
Another thing that I love about the game is the divisions and how it fits with the overall economy design of the game separated by different phases. Not only do the different divisions come with their own unique flavor because of the unit choices, availability, and veterancy, but they also receive income differently depending on what division they are. This means the certain divisions can be deliberately stronger than others in earlier phases of the game, but they lose steam as the game progresses because their later game units are not as powerful. The same could be said about other divisions where they start out weaker, but become powerhouses later on due to their enhanced economy and more powerful units. This subtly adds additional flavor to the division design and even portrays a sense of story-telling where even when the situation seems dire in the early phases of the game, all is not lost. At the same time, this concept should also reinforce a particular division's strengths, and players should be wary of that and exploit their opponents' weaknesses not only in unit composition, but also during phases where they are weak. All-together, this is simply wonderful design: Not only does this add true identity to the game's different "factions", but it also adds another layer of strategy that otherwise wouldn't exist around the economy system.
Absolutely amazing, 9/10. 10/10 when I see MM working.
Two HUGE design points for me that makes this the best WWII RTS game that I've ever played. No joke.
One of the things that I enjoy the most from the game right now is how map control is now free from set VP points. This allows the player to make flanks and thrusts in different areas of the map to apply pressure, and allows a player to be creative and exploitative rather than focus into areas of the map where battle is always contested. This inadvertently mediates one of the most difficult challenges for RTS developers and that is map design. The battlefield is now photo-realistic, and with this change in how VPs are collected, maps can be asymmetrical and somehow still work in an RTS. There is no real one way to play, which in turn expands on the player choices as your unit make-up can be completely different based on location alone. Overall, this also plays remarkably well with the theme of the genre, where there is a very real feel to the tides of war as the game progresses. You know, both mentally and visually when you're gaining or losing ground, and when you're about to be surrounded. This achieves a empathetic connection with the player to the game situation. Often times when designing games, the "feel" of pressure being applied by the opponent is portrayed in an arbitrary and superficial way: Units die, or they blow up, so what? When the entire map turns red around your army after your opponent makes a masterful thrust through an area that you deemed safe, you actually feel dread because you are now cut-off. This is a vibrant and most-welcomed change to static VP points where the scale of battle centers around those areas and everywhere else is a skirmish. This is an absolute brilliant way to not only make the battles themselves more realistic, but is a masterstroke in RTS design that I haven't seen in years.
Another thing that I love about the game is the divisions and how it fits with the overall economy design of the game separated by different phases. Not only do the different divisions come with their own unique flavor because of the unit choices, availability, and veterancy, but they also receive income differently depending on what division they are. This means the certain divisions can be deliberately stronger than others in earlier phases of the game, but they lose steam as the game progresses because their later game units are not as powerful. The same could be said about other divisions where they start out weaker, but become powerhouses later on due to their enhanced economy and more powerful units. This subtly adds additional flavor to the division design and even portrays a sense of story-telling where even when the situation seems dire in the early phases of the game, all is not lost. At the same time, this concept should also reinforce a particular division's strengths, and players should be wary of that and exploit their opponents' weaknesses not only in unit composition, but also during phases where they are weak. All-together, this is simply wonderful design: Not only does this add true identity to the game's different "factions", but it also adds another layer of strategy that otherwise wouldn't exist around the economy system.
Absolutely amazing, 9/10. 10/10 when I see MM working.
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