First impressions

[HR2]

Dwelved right into the campaign as US.
At first I didn't care for the graphics...seemed overly artistic.
However I quickly got used to it and like it now.
I use counters as the sprites get lost in the terrain..which is fine..I like the counters anyway,

I guess the AI is ok because I must have left the room during the Japansese turn and found Midway taken.
I was waiting for strategic points to show up to deploy something there but realized I had to buy them. I don't read manuals being seasoned (plus I hate to read anyway) and usually get along fine.
Will start over as the Japanese getting Midway is a no no.
Oh and they took Port Moseby without me looking too.


Overall I like it very much. I like the PTO but not the micro manaage WITP type..tho I may yet buy that someday.

I noticed the Japanese didn't go after the British Z fleet which they did historically of course.
I thought that was stationed near Singapore but it starts in Ceylon.

-HR

[Erik Rutins]

Thanks for posting your first impressions, HR2!

[MajFrankBurns]

Finally got it downloaded from Gamersgate an installed the patch 1.01 (it was needed). First impressions are it looks and plays a lot like Panzer General's Pacific War only there's more individual ship an air activity in PG's pacific war than I've seen in this one.

First gripe is the colors of the Japs and US aren't that much different and for gamers like me with not so great eyes I have to squint to tell Japs from US in the Jungle scenario.

2nd gripe is when I turn hex grid on the white lines of it overlay the border lines and their colors so I can't tell where my border influence range is unless I turn off hex grids.

I like the interface and for me it's pretty intuitive. I didn't even go into the tutorial I just loaded up a scenario and commensed to playing it. The combat might be a little boring in that you bring everything to bear against a unit then click on the unit for combat results. Here it is a tad like Ageod's battle report system only you don't have to wait a turn to see what happened. Keep them tanks in open ground boys if you want optimum results. The siege at Henderson Field continues into my 3rd or 4th turn but I did just take out one of the defending construction crews.

I'm impressed they made a 1024x600 resolution size for NETBOOKS as I loaded it up on it also and so far it's running flawlessly and fitting the screen nicely.

I can't really say anything about the ai yet as there's not much ai fighting me atm in the Guadacanal scenario. I haven't seen any jap ships or seen naval or air combat either. But, it was pretty easy to figure out how to debark from the sea transports onto land.

You can run this in windowed mode and that does help in being able to read the manual and play the game at the same time. You do have to adjust your desktop resolution to be higher than game resolution though. Guess I don't understand the reasoning behind this feature?

Overall I'd say it's my cup of tea. I love Pacific war games and this one is in stride with Panzer Generals Pacific War in looks and play style as I said. The all important feature will be the AI performance. I've got to read the manual now to see how to set it up for best difficulty. Setting up difficulty in this game is different from most other games in that it has one for the AI and one for YOU. I set the Japs up to normal and myself to hard to start off with but I really haven't seen anything hard about it so far. [:D]

[Kubel]

I'll give it a couple days before I buy it (cause I'm on night shift LOL). Good to see HR2 and Frank giving it the thumbs up.
Looking forward to others comments.

[Erik Rutins]

Thanks for your impressions MajFrankBurns. Did you try the different preference options for counters, sprites and the map style to see if that improves visibility for you as far as nationality differences?

[MajFrankBurns]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Thanks for your impressions MajFrankBurns. Did you try the different preference options for counters, sprites and the map style to see if that improves visibility for you as far as nationality differences?

Not yet but I did see the options. I like Sprites but if I can't see or tell what I'm looking at I guess I should try the others.

[MajFrankBurns]

I think too many customers blew their piggy banks on BftB and now not many have the money for this one. Too bad as this one is getting better all the time. I have missed beer & pretzels games like this.

[gwgardner]

ORIGINAL: MajFrankBurns


Not yet but I did see the options. I like Sprites but if I can't see or tell what I'm looking at I guess I should try the others.

Try the Sprites with the 'stylized' map.

[MajFrankBurns]

The stylized map is frugly. I like graphical map better. The counters work out real well but I prefer military icons instead of square boxes with x's and o's in them. I've gone back to sprites and will just deal with it I guess ftm.

[jnpoint]

I like this game too. But I must also admit right away that I love decent graphics and music! and it has this game. Moreover, there are some scenarios which have many turns and large rural areas, I like that even more, so I can only recommend this game (waiting also excited for "Bitter Glory", which will hopefully come this year).

[Anraz]

jnpoint, I`m gald to here your recommendation! Thank you.

[htuna]

someone will probably mod better counters like Time of Wrath for ya Major!