History: Legends of War Patton (XBOX 360)

[W8taminute]

My thoughts so far:



Time spent as of this writing: 1h45m
What I played: Tutorial mission + Mission 1 of the Campaign
Have I read the manual yet?:  No, but it is beefy by console gaming standards.  Manual is written in multiple languages including English
Difficulty level played:  There are 5 difficulty levels, I played the Commander level which is the middle of the road
Game type: Turn based strategy tactical level


I really like how movement and combat takes place.  Each unit has action points separated into firing and moving.  If you use up all of your movement you still have a separate set of points you can use for combat.  Action order does not matter.  You can shoot twice or lob a grenade once for all of the combat actions.  You can move up to 10 meters before using up your movement points.  I really love how you can mix it up.  A soldier can fire one shot with his primary, move up to 10 meters, then fire his second shot with his primary.  Or you can hurl a grenade and move.  The combinations are plentiful.  I didn't try shooting once then lobbing a grenade.  I don't think you can do that. 

Bounding overwatch:  Not sure how to properly execute this in game.  In XCOM: Enemy Unknown you simply hit the overwatch button and you're done.  In this game however I believe the process is a bit more manual.  You must position you soldier such that his cone of fire is pointing the right way and he must have combat action left over.  I couldn't get this to work in my first mission.  Maybe I need to read the manual.  Your men can crouch before, after, or during movement making them less of a target as you move about the battlefield.  You can pick up med kits on the battlefield but nothing else.  I wish you could pickup dead men's unused grenades or enemy weapons but you can't.

Outside of mission mode you can assign skill points to General Patton and upgrade his talents.  Your units attack and defense factors will increase depending on what you buy.  You can also invest in personal traits such as Charm for increased prestige points earned per mission.  Prestige points are needed to purchase and upgrade units.  This part of the game seems like a lot of fun but thought must be put into what you're going to purchase or who you are going to upgrade.  Each soldier represent one soldier, complete with name (which you cannot change as far as I can tell) as well as a bunch of combat stats.  Things like number of enemy soldiers killed, experience gained, missions completed, and damage sustained are some of the stats to view.

Now for the next topic.  Camera control.  I really hate to speak negatively of this genre of game since there is not a lot out there for console but: camera control seems a bit wonky to me.  In XCOM you're limited to standard view or zoom out view.  You can rotate the camera view 4 ways.  Pretty limited.  In History you are free to zoom in and out as you please, rotate 360 degrees, tilt, and free roam as much as you want.  The bad part is zooming in and out is too finite meaning you can't zoom high up enough to view the entire battlefield.  You can't even zoom high enough to view half the battlefield.  Rotating the camera is fine but without a proper zoom I found it frustrating to view the situation.  It gets even worse when you're trying to line up a shot.  It's tricky rotating the camera around to a good view of your target and the tilt feature doesn't really help here much either.  Then when you line the cross hairs on your target you must also position exactly where you want the bullet to go.  Because of the poor camera this is a challenge.  Grenade tossing is awesomely easy, much more so than in XCOM.  At least you can do that with ease. 

I haven't played with vehicles yet as I've only completed the first mission.  Overall I think I will like this game a lot but this camera control is going to take some time getting used to.  If you are not a hardcore wargamer don't waste your time with this game then.  If you are a hard core wargamer and you're willing to play what seems like a good game despite some minor flaws this is one of the better wargames on console right now.  History probably will play better on PC as far as the camera controls go but someone else will have to check that out for us.

[Staggerwing]

Thanks for the review. I'm mulling this one over...

[Barthheart]

Thanks W8..... I might wait fer the PC version.....

[W8taminute]

Ok so I completed the second mission and spent some more time with the camera.  I still think it is a bit limited in viewing the situation but at least I'm getting used to it now.

Overwatch is actually quite the nice feature in this game.  If you've played any of the Combat Mission games from Battlefront you'll be at home setting up overwatch in History.  Not only do you have to define the direction of the cone of fire but you must define it's range as well.  Very nice indeed.

I'm still playing on Commander difficulty and the game is challenging.  My next mission is a "Defend your location" type mission.  I expect that I'll get hammered pretty good.

If any of you have any questions just let me know and I'll try to help you make up your mind on whether this game is a go or no go for you.  I'm enjoying it, I paid full price for it, and I'd recommend waiting for this game to go on sale.  It will hold your interest but it should be just a tad bid lower in price.  My 2 cents.

[undercovergeek]

as someone who is tiring of CMBNs ultra realism (still great, i just want a tank to fire when i tell it to) does the game still have the same squad based tactics feel to it that CMBN does, but just a bit lighter?

[Grimnirsson]

What about multiplayer? Local? Online?

[W8taminute]

Hi undercovergeek,


This game does indeed feel like a light CMBN in that facing matters as well as cover and concealment.  The units are individual soldiers or tanks rather than fire teams and individual officers.  Bounding overwatch still applies in this game but on a man to man basis.  I haven't played a mission yet with vehicles so I can't yet comment on the level of realism here, but from reading some of the reviews I know that vehicles have weak points.  You have to put a little bit of thought into planning your moves but not the level you do in CMBN type games.  I'm just having a slight problem thinking at this small scale.  When you ask a unit to fire it fires immediately as this is a turn based game, however do not enter the enemies cone of fire or you will suffer from opportunity fire before you can get a shot off.  Again it's kind of similar to overwatch fire in XCOM.


Hi Grimnirsson,

The manual does not mention anything about Online multiplayer but you and a friend can play on the same XBOX against each other.  (Hotseat)

I'm thinking of playing around against myself just to see how things work.   8)

[Grimnirsson]

The manual does not mention anything about Online multiplayer but you and a friend can play on the same XBOX against each other.

Ok, so far so good... ;) But how is this going to work when both players use the same screen, I mean...FOW? If I can see all the enemies units...or am I supposed to look away when my opponent is doing his/her moves?

[W8taminute]

Ok I tried hotseat play against myself last night.  There is no FOW.  One player must look away when it is the other players turn.  Not bad if you're playing against yourself but maybe if you are playing against a friend he could be annoyed at having to look away when it is not his turn?


I finished the third mission last night.  It was a defend this position type mission where you are assaulted by three waves of infantry.  Then the final wave is three tanks (PzkPfw IV Ausf D, I think this is a historical inaccuracy as there were none left in 1944 no?) and one self propelled artillery piece (Wespe).

I had only one bazooka man with me and the rest of my squad consisted of riflemen.  Shot one of the tanks twice in the rear end with my bazooka and it still didn't die.  Time ran out before I could get a third shot in as the goal in this mission is to merely survive for 14 or so turns.

[Grimnirsson]

Ok I tried hotseat play against myself last night.  There is no FOW.  One player must look away when it is the other players turn.  Not bad if you're playing against yourself but maybe if you are playing against a friend he could be annoyed at having to look away when it is not his turn?

Thanks :)

Well, when there's no FOW anyway I suppose there's no need to look away? ;)

[W8taminute]

Having spent some more time with this title over the past few days I would suggest waiting for this game to drop to $10 or less before picking it up.  I'm on the second operation of four (each operation has about 6 missions or so) and I'm convinced this game is 35% wargame and 65% solve the puzzle.  I'm just a tad bit disappointed but for the right price this game is entertaining.

[JasonPratt]

This sounds very similar to my impressions from the demo I played last year (on the PSP). I'm... um... kind of (?) glad to hear my impressions of the demo follow through substantially on the rest of the game (thus glad I didn't buy a copy).

I recall there being Fog of War during the campaign, though...  ??? (Maybe there's no FOW for multiplayer?)

[trek]

I just ordered this game yesterday from Amazon for the PC. I should get it by the end of the week. I'm setting my expectations low, so maybe I'll enjoy it. Doesn't sound too bad from your descriptions. I'm not sure how I will feel about the no in-missions saves over the long haul though.

[jomni]

So this is a more complex (realistic?) version of Battle Academy but still way behind Combat Mission Series?
Battle Academy also feels like "solve-a-puzzle".

[W8taminute]

^I've never played Battlefield Academy but Patton is way way behind the Combat Mission series.  I had to restart my campaign recently and on my second play through I'm realizing just how easy this game once you know what the puzzle to solve is for any given mission.