The Great War: Western Front Review – Boom Boom Boom Boom
A long time ago, a great man named Baldrick released an exquisite poem (The German Guns) that captured the horrors of The Great War with such accuracy that none have ever genuinely competed in any medium. I would have to argue that Petroglyph Games have come incredibly close to capturing the unforgiving conflict that was World War One with The Great War: Western Front, though not necessarily how they would have imagined. While there are opinions that the "generations of warfare" concept is now obsolete, World War One marked the second generation's height. With around twenty million dead and a further twenty million wounded, just how deadly this was cannot be understated.
The Great War: Western Front captures this in a way that makes the game both a drudge and compelling at the same time. The human wave tactics are displayed, particularly early in the grand campaign. The harsh reality is highlighted without being too overt and drawing too much attention. However, the impact on gameplay is undeniable.
The Great War: Western Front is slow. If you are coming into this expecting a real-time strategy game along the lines of Command and Conquer, Homeworld, Age of Empires - anything like that - you'll be disappointed. If you're coming into this expecting a World War One version of Total War, there will be some disappointment here too. Let's talk about real-time strategy first. Whether on the attack or defence, you're the time to use many of the supplies available. Digging trenches, placing machine-gun or mortar nests, deploying observation balloons, placing artillery, and more. All of this occurs before the battle; as such, only around 80% of supplies are available, the rest in reserve.
Necessity and cost-effectiveness is the central aspect of deploying as much as possible in this early stage. You can't dig trenches once the battle has begun, nor can you start to build emplacements, bring in artillery, or more. Even more critical is that units cost half the amount of supplies as if you were bringing them in during the next phase. The more you retain, the more you'll be able to use artillery, air support, and more. If I have one slight niggle here, you can direct men to build a trench - and you cancel that - but you don't get those resources back. You haven't started digging, so you should get the supplies back.
It's a minor issue, but irritating when you have finite supplies. While talking about issues in this part, I want to talk about AI and pathfinding. The AI here in The Great War: Western Front is pretty good, but it does tend to run troops around the edge of the map as it brings them in. Not in the actual battleground, but outside, where you can't attack them. I wouldn't mind if mine did the same, but it doesn't, so it's BS. On the same note, the AI doesn't seem to be impacted by the fog of war, knowing where your units are at all times (unless hiding in a forest), letting them hone artillery in, or knowing where to attack.
I'd also prefer the AI to have the same atrocious pathfinding as my troops. I've told them to move along the trench in the cover several times. Rather than do that, they decided the most intelligent thing was to get out of the trench into the awaiting spray of a machine gun emplacement. That, or the worst part is when you tell them to get out of the trench and attack, they start to do this, but since it takes time for the last of the men to leave the trench, the ones at the front decided to go back and look for them. I've had so many units die of sheer stupidity; it's insane.
These battles allow for some tactical opportunities, and I've found more success in treating this more like a World War Two - or some fictional Tiberium War - style of game. Of course, I've used the trenches and emplacements to my advantage where required. Sometimes the more mobile warfare fails, but - particularly in the earlier stages before the better technological advances come - you can make some good headway into enemy territory. The further along you get (and I'm sure the AI gets a tech boost), the more you find yourself throwing men into the grinder, barely gaining an inch.
Artillery, poison gas, and aircraft to do anything from bombing to shooting down enemy balloons, tanks, and special abilities like undermining; the tools of your trade for attacking will grow depending on the paths you take in technology. At the same time, anything from improved trenches, barbed wire and concrete cover for turrets and trenches will improve your defensive capabilities. It all counters itself, but what makes it slower is persistence. When you attack a region from another (each area is a hex), the battlefield is the same. Trenches, damage, and more remain and become part of the battlefield.
This brings me to the grand strategy. The map of The Great War: Western front is made up of hexes. These hexes mark everything from the well-known, like Ypres and Verdun, to little-known areas. Each has a little line referencing actual involvement in the war or giving some historical information. Each of these hexes also has several stars. The only way to capture territory is to wipe out these stars completely, with it being even more challenging as the only way to remove a star is to obtain a great victory, which is far from easy. Worst of all, if you go a turn without attacking an area, it will recover one of its lost stars.
It makes for plodding progress, made even slower by the resources you need to manage. These resources: Money, Supplies and National Will. Money and Supplies are as you would expect; you need money to recover from recent battles, resupplying units of their losses. Supplies are a pool added to those carried by a unit and used when you attack or defend an area. National Will is the most important. Two ways to win are to capture the enemy battlefield capital (Paris or Kreuznach) or to wipe out the enemy's national will.
Maybe this is down to the realistic approach or even a reverence towards World War One shown by Petroglyph Games; it is far easier to auto-resolve battles and try to sap the enemy's national will and other resources. I'm not complaining about it because it makes sense, but it's a little annoying to take every single point in the real-time part to have your army essentially go back to the start because it wasn't the territory's last star.
I haven't mentioned so far that the campaign also features several events. You'll be given choices at points, but there are also historical aspects (such as the US entering the war). These will reward you with one of the previously mentioned resources, but you could also find yourself with new units, weapons, or extra research points. It also adds a little variety and adds to the replay value.
Do I like The Great War: Western Front? I do, but I have always been a strategy game fan. I'd play a strategy game that depicted a map of the entrails of my recently murdered friends(?) and family. However, I can't deny that this will be difficult for some strategy fans because every aspect of the game is in keeping with World War One; it's glacial and punishing.
Copy provided by the publisher.
Written by Chris Wray
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