American Conquest
System: PC
Publisher: CDV
Developer:
GSC GameWorld
Released: February 2003
Genre: Real Time Strategy
Capabilities: Online play via Internet, LAN
Review Written: March 31, 2003
American Conquest is a real time strategy game developed by GSC Game World,
the same people who developed the acclaimed Cossacks line of RTS titles. At
first glance, American Conquest may seem like the Cossacks game with a different
theme slapped, but it is much more than meets the eye.
AC is set in the newly discovered North America continent and takes place from
the 1600’s all the way until the end of the eighteenth century as opposed to the
European empires that Cossacks is set in. In these years you’ll be recreating
many of the memorable wars such as French-Indian War, the Columbus Expeditions,
and the Revolutionary War, among others. There are many different factions in
the campaigns you’ll have control over such as the British, Spanish, French,
American Colonists, and several of the Native American tribes such as the Sioux,
Incan, Mayan, Pueblo, Delaware, Aztec, Iroquois, and the Huron.
If you played any real time strategy game before, then you should have no
problem adapting to American Conquest. The concept is just like the rest,
harvest resources with peasants, use the resources to construct more buildings
and train troops. Then use the army you built to seek out and destroy your
opponents base. The thing that sets AC apart from the rest of the RTS titles is
its ability to handle a plethora of units battling onscreen with not much
slowdown on the average PC. Another thing is recreating those classic battle
sequences when you can set long formations of troops across the valley. Hell,
there are even drummers that march with you to help boost morale. Instead of
destroying buildings you can also capture them by having troops invade them and
vanquishing any enemies that may be garrisoned inside.
The campaign missions place you in a wide variety of scenarios. They are all
based heavily on actual history, and there are great briefings with lots of
interesting facts pertaining to the mission. They are a tad bit on the lengthy
side, but if you’re history nut like me you will milk every seconds worth of
info out of them. The first missions are easy tutorials to get you familiar with
the controls on how to make units, construct buildings, advanced tactics, and so
on. Aside from the usual “destroy opposing base” missions there are other
interesting types of scenarios thrown in there for variety such as defending
your own base for a specific amount of time, or completing missions with only a
limited amount of troops. These put me in for some real challenges, yet they
didn’t drag on and get boring like they do in other RTS games such as Battle
Realms, and Conflict Zone.
Each faction and race has its own units and structures that are unique to them.
For example, all European nationalities have the advanced weaponry with guns at
their disposal. There is realistic reloading between each shot fired from the
gunmen, and if the enemy gets close to them while reloading, they’ll start melee
attacking with their swords. The Native Americans are weaker, but their archers
and tomahawk throwers pack in a mean punch when attacking in large numbers.
Their units also produce considerably much faster. Your army’s moral is also
another huge factor. If your troops are really taking a beating from flank
attacks, then they may become demoralized and their will to fight will decrease.
To help maintain moral having those aforementioned drummers and flag bearers
marching along in formations with your army helps a ton. It is mechanics like
this help distinguish American Conquest from the rest of the pack.
AC doesn’t go without its flaws. There are some problems with the AI of your
troops. If an enemy happens to wanders by and retreats after seeing the gigantic
size of your army a couple of soldiers will wander off from your formation and
chase him until they run right into the enemy’s base and get killed. There is a
stand ground feature, but it must be activated each time after moving a troop to
a new location which makes it a cumbersome experience. Also peasants will run
away from any wild animals they encounter, and will tend to drift a bit away
from your base. It is tiny micromanagement blemishes like these that’ll distract
you long enough away from the main mission so you can get your base back in
order again.
There are a couple other extra ways to play American Conquest aside from the
main campaigns. There’s a random map feature that throws you in a quick match up
against the computer and there is the standard multi player match ups playable
over Internet or through a LAN. There is also a handy Mission Editor included so
you can make your own maps to duel on. All these extras will add hours of replay
value, and they’re the perfect break from the challenging campaign scenarios.
American Conquest uses a 2D graphical engine that consists mostly of
sprite-based characters and terrains. However, everything has crisp textures and
animates smoothly. There are some nice effects in here, like shadows for the
ships at sea, and some slick animations for units being garrisoned inside. The
developers made the most out of this engine and I was surprised at how there was
practically no slowdown when hundreds of troops were in the heat of battle. The
load times are a hair on the long side, but nothing too horrendous to cause
damage.
Unlike most other RTS titles, AC doesn’t make use of voice acknowledgements from
the units in game play. There are plenty of grunts and groans to be heard from
them, but that is how far it extends to. There are plenty of sound effects to be
heard for all the game play mechanisms. Good job overall on those, and I was
particularly fond of the authentic gunfire. There are a few background music
tracks that sound great and set the tone for the action, but the few tracks
available get mundane rather quickly. A few more extra music tracks could’ve
easily helped.
RATINGS
Graphics: 7.8
Sound: 6.7
Game play: 8.7
Replay Value: 8.1
Overall: 7.8
American Conquest isn’t just your average RTS game. Its stunning game play
features listed above sets it apart from the rest of the pack, and you actually
learn something out of it as well. Fans of the Cossacks games will definitely
want to pick this up. AC has a rather deep learning curve, but you will have
lots of fun with it, and is definitely worthy your time looking in to.