Reviews - Adseria

This is a very ambitious mod. It sets out to take a game about the rise of Rome and turn it into a game about World War 2. The world map is very impressive (some odd choices of cities notwithstanding).

However, there is such a thing as too ambitious. The Total War games are very heavily focused on the idea of a pitched, set-piece battle, the idea that a battle conveniently takes place within a very specific area, no more than a few miles from one side to the other. Trying to turn a game like that to simulating world war two is like trying to turn the Sims into Crusader Kings; the basics are there, but the game just isn't built for it.

This mod is an almost complete failure. Despite being "version 1.0," the "release version," it's completely unfinished. Many screens still talk about how your commanders are "true Romans" and most buildings still have the original images and descriptions. In battles, units are almost uncontrollable (especially aircraft, which seem to ignore my orders entirely) and will fire from halfway across the map, making positioning largely irrelevant. Since positioning and manoeuvring is the main area in which Total War games really shine, this is inexcusable.

Total War: 1942 is not a bad mod. It's an unfinished mod which attempts to turn Rome: Total War into something it was never designed to be, and fails horrifically. If you have any respect for either the Total War series, or for World War 2, I urge you not to get this mod. Even if it's been updated since this review, the problems aren't something that can be fixed by a few patches. Sure, they can finish it more, but that won't solve the underlying problem that the game just isn't designed for it.

Before I begin, the spoiler is for the mod, not EAW. Just in case.

An excellent mod, but there are a few problems with it. The biggest problem I have with it right now is the difficulty. The CIS is massively OP in the early game, and the Republic never really seem to catch up quite as much as they need to. I understand that it's pretty canon, but there's a difference between making a game canon and making it impossible. Personally hoping that the balance issues will be largely sorted for 1.2 or 1.3. Other than that, the other problems are pretty minor, like the fact that there is very little noticeable difference between the B1 and B2 battle droids. Like I said, though, it's a pretty small problem, and if the balance was fixed, this would be very close to a perfect mod.