Another War
(Macplay)

An RPG set in WWII is an intriguing prospect right? An RPG where, instead of killing undead hordes, you get to wax Nazis and French collaborators. This is going to be great right? Um, no not really. In fact, the game is rather boring, unstable, and quite disappointing. The game-designers seem to have forgotten all the keys to making a good RPG and not done a decent job coding, to boot. In fact, if you were to buy this game you would feel rather conned.

First of all, the game is nothing special to look at and loads like a pig on the test G4 700. Going between the smallish maps can be an annoying experience, especially when there is a Waffen SS officer sitting on the other side ready to kill you. Then there is the fact that the game managed to crash at least twice every time I attempted to play it. A few times the game got stuck when quitting and turned the screen black, so it was necessary to restart the machine. Much of the time you find your characters stuck under trees and you are unable to see what is going on. The last time I looked there were no patches to correct these game-killing faults.

Now we move onto game design. You begin as a prisoner of the Germans in France and must break out of prison. Depending on your specialty, thug, thief, or clever clot, you make your escape differently. This bit is easy, then it gets stupidly hard. You see, you are running around in a t-shirt and trousers while all the Germans have heavy coats that serve as at least some protection against your weapons. The bad guys are way to hard to kill at all levels in this game, and it does not get any better. Why it is impossible to steal one of the heavy coats from the vast amount of krauts you kill is beyond me. No sooner, thereafter, you are lumbered with a drunk reluctant soldier who, besides being able to help you escape the prison, is next to useless. Alas, you canít ditch the silly sod(den) and, if he gets killed, the game ends. His path-finding was useless as well, and many times he could be found rushing into 4 German grunts and trying to find them solo. Spending points on skills does not result in any real improvement in ability. If just merely means you can use whatever that skill is. Another annoyance is that prices are not listed at the local black marketer, so itís a case of guessing how much the kit you are trying to get costs.