Mr. McGibbletts wrote:
Good summary. I've never completed the game, but gotten pretty far. I do wish there was less gaminess to get to the finish, and it tickles my retro bone since I played the originals to death.
Yeah, I agree. I love the game. Fun as hell, but the gameiness to win the campaigns is ridiculous. It means winning the campaigns is more about exploiting the reinforcement and upgrade system than what you do on the map. When I find myself having won the battle 10 turns early but holding off on the last VP so I can build up prestige and experience points that's pretty lame.
I like the way FOG II campaigns work a lot better. You choose at startup what difficulty level you want and whether you want it static or progressive. You get the same enjoyment of slowly building up your army from average units to elite and molding it to fit your playing style but face far more reasonable armies. And you fail or succeed by how efficiently you win the battle, not by exploiting some unrealistic reinforcement system.
Having said that, I must admit that I logged a few hundred hours on PCW so I can't say I didn't get my money's worth!