Some more First Impressions

[Acererak]

A quick note about self

- I am running the game on a Double Core 3.5Ghz, Windows XP Media Ed., Nvidia GeForce 7500 LE (512 Mb). Yes, I need a new computer.

- Love all type of computer (and board) wargames and have played quite a few in my life. WW2 is a very common topic in my usual reads. PG is of course in my personnal Game Pantheon. Went through all the series, including Fantasy General and such.

First Impressions

- 30 secs. The game installs and runs with no issues (yes, even in my crappy PC. No crashes or graphic issues whatsoever. Kudos to the tech guys). Nice intro logo. Impressive Tigers in the menu. The rest of menus are indeed under construction, I can tell. (Read afterwards that a lot more info both for units and campaigns will be included in the final version, so no biggy)

- 5 mins. Let´s start through the Tutorials to check the changes with the old PG, but let´s make it in Hard mode (I am a experienced wargamer after all, I can take it). Nice graphics. Specially like the Terrain and maps. The units look cooler in their 3D version in the purchase screen than in the 2D version of the map. Not many surprises so far. Turned off music. Annoying.

- 15 mins. Noticed the first major changes to fire and move sequence and Arty and AA behaviour. I like the new strategies the first provide. I need to play more to know about the second, but Arty definitely needed some tunning down in the original. No surprises so far. Feels like playing PG again, which is both good (because is a great game I love) and bad (because I have a feeling of being there done that so far)

- 1 Hour. Wow. The Tutorial turned out to be a mini campaign by itself with not many tutoring (maybe some tooltips here and there for newbies?) but a good way of introducing new units and tactics step by step. Would have loved it to be presented as a historic training (Spanish civil War?) since the "blue team" stuff and the overall gamey background takes a bit of the war experience off for me. But now I know where the major change has been made comparing to the original : the AI. Great. Challenging. Reacts in a very realistic way to silly mistakes or old dated tactics : never leave your objectives undefended from now on, watch out for some counterattacks and massing some army groups in secondary cities you bypassed....great stuff. Can´t wait to start the real thing.

- 10 Hours. Went through Poland and Norway. I like the maps a lot, feel like the right size even with the strange scale this game (and the original did) has. Lot´s of tactics to try out against a pesky AI that puts up a fight even with this weak forces at its disposal. The Prestige seemed to be overflowing a bit, but after two scenarios I can tell you need to take good care of it. Balanced for now. Loved the new Rail move as well. This is going to be FUN.


UI and Graphics Comments and Suggestions

- Terrain info missing. A lot of space in the right hand bar to place it. Very important and useful to plan moves.

- Range should be displayed somehow (maybe with the units statistics we see in the bar). Better if some shaded area by pressing a key.

- Move/Fired icons badly needed. Get rid of the ugly red slash. A wheel for moved and a bullet for fired right next to the unit graphic?

- Move animations also missing (read those are comming though). Now it feels like units teleport themselves through the battelfield. Needs some work.

- Could be nice if Mass Attack Bonuses were shown somehow to encourage flanking tactics. Again, right hand bar?

- Left/Right button click mechanic feels weird, specially since deploying goes to left, and I always press right by default following the move/fire logic. Which forces me to go back and redo the action. Not fun. I suggest leaving all unit selection and orders to left, and use right to bring up the unit stats screen, getting rid of the ctrl+click (messy)

- We NEED an elminated unit graphic/message. Now sometimes you don´t know if it was destroyed or just retreated out of sight.

- We NEED a new Bruckenpionere graphic. Leave the funny boat for their transport graphic maybe. More unique.

- Pioniere/Engineers would welcome a flamethrower sound.

- Could be nice if Units kept their battle history somewhere (unit stat screen pop up?). I loves to see how many battles my old panther unit had gone through. Gives you more attachment to the unit. Of course, traits and Generals are a must (ala PG2) but I read those are coming. Great news.

- I love to see a Strategic Map (Europe) with the battles fought and the battles to chose next in between scenarios in Campaign game. gives a great feeling of overall strategc war progression. Is there one coming?

- I think including a Date in the right hand bar could be useful, since some briefings talk about them anyway, and gives one more nice historic touch.

- Experience Stars in unit bar shown when deploying should be filled accordingly.


Gameplay comments and suggestions

- Artillery change is good. It was way too much in the original PG. Now it feels about right, causing more suppressions than losses.

- AA needs some love though. Maybe causing much more suppression to airplanes like Art does to ground units? I think it was a killer in the original, but here you went to the opposite side. You can act much more aggresively with air units and AA is not a menace anymore, which in turn unbalances airpower a bit in favor of the one who controls it.

- Parachuting in Bad Weather is possible, and feels weird.

- Submarine evasion needs some kind of graphic/message/sound to give that info to player. Also, my submarines never evade and the enemy always do. Maybe I am unlucky. Anyone else noticed this?

- Forts are definitely overpowered, specially those beasts with 3 range that are so hard to kill.

- Move after attack (ala Blitzkrieg) for armor could be nice, but better if provided through special abilities gained or generals.


PBEM system comments

- Loved the system from BA and great to have it here as well. Tried a couple games so far.

- UI and menus seem fine.

- There is a bug when closing the multiplayer and going back to Menu screen. A window appears in the middle showing part of the MP menu, and cannot be closed

- Any way to see your opponent´s last turn?? Badly needed if the answer is no.



Will keep them coming. Thanks for letting me in the Beta test. I am loving it. The game is quite promising. Masterpiece on its way with a bit more polishing....