Wargame: Red Dragon Review
Red Dragon was released on April 17th as the latest installment of Eugen Systems’ real time strategy game series: Wargame. The series does not revolve around base building, but rather building your army, or deck as it’s referred to in game, before hand and calling in the different units as you accumulate in-battle points. All of the units and nations from the previous installments are available, placing the overall unit count to over 1200, including naval and amphibious forces, which are new to the series.
Game play in the battles revolves around the capture of large zones spread out across the map, and these can only be held by specially designated command units. The more points you hold, the more points you receive to call units in with, although you have a limited number of them that you can call in throughout the match. Some capture zones give you alternative entry points for units onto the map, and for aircraft to be called in you need to have at least one air corridor under your control. The new naval maps play out similarly, but with your larger ships counting as your command unit instead a humble car or infantry unit. It is also worth noting that each unit in the game has a supply limit including things like ammo and fuel.
Many major Pacific powers, and North Korea, are added into the game in this installment. Many of these nations have their own unique units to add to the fray, and a fair number of Asian versions of older units. Several nations have access to units up to the early 1990’s, and a free DLC is scheduled to be released that will bring the other nation’s armies up to that date, as well as add a new campaign.
There are several different ways you can go about fighting your cold war. As briefly mentioned above, there are several campaigns you can play through against A.I. opponents using preset armies. There are currently 4 campaigns to choose from, each presenting different scenarios and stages to battle across. Another mode of game play offered is the classic skirmish, where you can customize battles against A.I.s with whichever armies you wish to use. Finally, we have multiplayer. This is basically skirmish, but with human opponents and allies instead of, and occasionally in addition to, A.I.s. There are three game modes, but each follows the similar premises of holding the control points across the maps.
Visually the game can be shockingly impressive. While the terrain on most maps might not look like much from your traditional eye-in-the-sky RTS view, when you get in to watch your battle up close you will notice that there is actually a fair amount of detail in the world around you. The units in the game also pretty good, with the exception of the infantry. Explosions and other effects look good, so your artillery barrages won’t lack in awe.
Overall, the game does not lack in any major areas, but doesn’t really have the same charm as some of its competitors. Still, it is a solid strategy game that deserves the respect of any fan of the genre. Easily a solid 6.0 out of 10.0
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