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Req.: P3 667, 128MB RAM, GeForce 2 or better and DirectX 9 comp. Reviewed On: P4 2.5ghz, 256MB DDR Ram, GeForce 4ti, SB, Win XP Pro | |||
Intro German publisher CDV delves back into American history with Related Design's latest real-time strategy release, No Man's Land: Fight For Your Rights! However, unlike the publishers past endeavors into America's history, the well-received American Conquest and its expansion, No Man's Land lacks the compelling gameplay to back up the natural interest that its historical roots will inspire. Gameplay: 5/10 Fight for your rights! Indeed. Many have done just that for hundreds of years on this very soil. Whether it was the Native Americans, the Spanish, English, early Patriots, or those settlers that tamed the Wild West, blood of all varieties has been spilled on this land. Some reasons are honorable, others less than, so it's interesting to see how a German developer walked such a fine line, and, for the most part, did it well. While some of its historical aspects are questionable, as a period gaming piece, the tale of the various parties fighting for dominance is still interesting and a refreshing change from typical offerings. Played out through three successive campaigns, with some have subsections, No Man's Land does what it can to offer a little something for everyone. The game starts off with a brief tutorial that not only gets the player acquainted with the game, but also utilizes the Woodland Indians to springboard into the first large campaign. Taking control of the Spanish, the player is faced with deadly and mystical aliens, but also the English. After teaming up with a tribe of the natives, the powerful alliance combats the Redcoats to rid the land, not only of their influence, but also of their grip on the gold. Much like the majority of the other campaigns and their subsection, this section of the game ends with the Natives telling the tale and is follow-up by their own section. After their initial campaign, the Woodland Indians, the Natives have a separate campaign that is based on the tale of the Prairie Indians and it seemed to come out of nowhere, which really threw off the pace of the game. This is because, after their campaign, the game then goes to the English, which is broken down into three sub stories: English settlers looking for religious freedom, Patriots trying to gain independence, and settlers going out to the west. While all of this is in a chronological order, the second Native campaign, the Prairie Indians' portion, takes place during the last portion of the English campaign, with saloons, outlaws, etc. So, in the middle of the grand campaign, this one and only section seems to jump ahead in time, and then goes back to the earlier period. The whole ordeal was more distracting and felt poorly implemented. As stated, the English get their turn next - which is also the last and longest portion. It's also the most varied. With the ability to play as infantrymen, dragoons, then as militia, outlaws, and early U.S. Army soldiers. Even though this whole section is interesting in presentation, it's around the time of Independence that the game begins to become tiresome. It should be noted that the campaigns can be played in any order; however, only the main sections will be, so sub-sections, like the Patriots and Prairie Indians, will only be unlocked after the initial campaign. The different factions each have special attributes, but none of these really come into play as it intentional spots in fortified towns were left open to be exploited. Their differences are minor, but the Natives easily have the coolest abilities; they can swim in water (diving to avoid detection by ships), travel in dense woods where no other group can, heal themselves, and use flame arrows to bring down buildings in a timely manner. The Spanish have a cheap light infantry (swordsmen); moderately priced heavy infantry (pikemen); and conquistadors, which are units with strong melee attacks and strong rifle attacks. The British have the strong melee dragoon units, Churches to auto-heal units, cheap rifle-bearing guards and their stronger brothers, the infantrymen, who also use their bayonets for strong melee attacks. The Patriots have inexpensive militiamen that pack a punch when en mass and field doctors to heal units. While all units gain experience with each kill, some also have minor abilities of interesting; there are some units that can pack the meat of dead animals to add to the food resource pool and some can use horses by either mounting wild ones or being trained with one. The horses are a high point because they are pretty cool to use, but unless you have a unit that has the same firing speed as the outlaw, the trade-off for speed and attack isn't worth it since positive attributes are minor and many of the game's levels are way too confined to justify spending all the time and/or money on mounted troops. Oddly enough, neither Indian tribe, nor any other units, gain significant bonuses when they use horses; aside from the Prairie Indians being able to pack and move camp, no Natives get any sort of increased speed or attack proficiency, which seems unnatural. Most of their differences aren't drastic, and much relies more on the execution of the traits. Since the levels tend to have limited resources, these semi-special traits simply need to be only barely exploited in the areas that are intentionally left open. Much in the same way that WestWood's last Dune strategy title had an A.I. that was intent on sending lines of units to go on the offensive, but leave an entire section of their base open to attack, so goes the same method in No Man's Land - only this computer sends more on the attack. Due to towers being able to hold long-range units and cannons, most of the attacks simply need to be coordinate to take them out first, then have the units brace for the rush of infantry and enraged townspeople. Many times, though, there really is little strategy needed, other than sending nicely timed waves of units to break down defenses. Each side also has hero units, who have nifty abilities that can help to turn the tide of battle. Whether it is summoning animal spirits that can enchant surrounding troops, to being able to deliver demolition charges, or enabling taxation to collect gold at a faster rate, many of these are crucial to survival, with their death bringing the defeat for that mission. For some reason, a hero will have an ability in one mission, but they won't in the next - this is pretty annoying as it turns a crucial unit from an asset into a liability. The levels are predominantly conquering types, but there are small breaks here and there; one that I particularly enjoyed was as the Prairie Indians, packing my camp up and moving it along, stalking a herd of buffalo and collecting a set amount of meat. More often than not, missions can easily go over an hour, so there's plenty here to keep interested parties amused. For those wanting a little naval warfare, there's even a few levels that have the Spanish chasing down the infamous Drake and his band of ruffians; for the most part, naval combat consists of outnumbering the opponent, and getting them before they make it back to their - auto-healing - harbors. The variety is minor when compared to the amount of levels there are, and some are just boring. While I did
enjoy some of No Man's Land - after all, period piece real-time strategy
games set in this era aren't common; and the story is fun, along with some of
the missions (including a very Alamo-esque one) are a blast - there was much of
it that just didn't work. One of the more notorious problems I had was with formations.
Those damn, damn formations. As the Spanish, English, Patriots, and Settlers,
troops can be ordered into a number of formations that range from columns, lines,
encircle, etc. - it's just a shame that all of these are completely useless. Attempting
to rapidly deploy troops with the column formation will make them completely confused
in a semi-enclosed space, to the point where they come to a dead stop, and they
will even get stuck in the onr or two tight spots in an otherwise wide open area.
Line formation, which one would assume would be a great boost to attack damage
when using rifle-bearing soldiers, is made pointless since the early units break
formation whenever the first shot is fired, and their usefulness with later, more
disciplined troops, is nonexistent. There are also stances for troops to take,
which are only slightly more useful than formations. After a while it seems as
though offensive and defensive positions just slowly degenerate and the results
are either over-zealous troops or lazy slobs who don't feel like moving, even
when they are being shot. The latter is particularly true whenever they are set
to defend a territory that is suppose to go as far as their eyesight, some troops
will go beyond it, and others will stand there and get shot as an enemy is a hair's
width outside of the defense radius. Other annoyances are
when a structure's description will say it produces a unit, but there is no option
to produce anything - I'm not sure if the developers did this intentionally or
if some things were just never implemented. There are also a lot of technical
flaws, like pathfinding problems (not involving formations), commands not being
recognized, random slowdown, and several other nuisances. There's
no doubt that Related Designs has a good game in here somewhere, but it's just
hidden under piles of entangled features and annoying hang-ups. Due to the only
real strategy requiring resource management, the core of the game plays out like
a standard real-time strategy title, but this one just happens to get bonus marks
for the settings and story. Replacing the game world with aliens or anything else
and my interest would've faded much quicker, which doesn't speak overly positive
of it as a whole. History buffs will get a kick out of it, but most people will
be too annoyed by its slow pace and various faults. Although, I do want to commend
Related Designs for not taking the American route and making it overly politically
correct; while slavery is not in the game, the developers didn't shy away from
referring to Indians as savages, Europeans as evil whites, and English as damned
limeys - little touches that actually do add to authenticity.
Graphics: 8/10 Sound: 5/10 Overall: 4.5/10
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