America

DEVELOPER : Data Becker
PUBLISHER : Data Becker

 

System Requirements Pentium 200, 32MB RAM, 300 MB HD space

Recommended Pentium II 233MHz, 64+ MB RAM, 4 megs video card

Ratings
Code Issues Graphics 6 Decent 2d unit sprites, great looking buildings, very boring terrain Audio 3 Mediocre to poor voice acting that is horribly repetitious. Music is pretty good- native American sounding Interface 5 Same as every other RTS	Play Issues Solo Play- Gameplay Quality - 4 The concept is fun, but balance and code issues leave a bad aftertaste Length of Play/Replay Value - 7 4- 15 mission campaigns, skirmish mode Multiplay 1 LAN only- unplayable due to bugs (Native Americans can not build "sleeping teepees (houses) in MP. Hello? Is there anyone at all in the QC department? Can you say Beta Testers? Learning Curve 7 If you have played an RTS you can figure this one out
Other/Notes Documentation 5.0 – The only place you can find keyboard shortcuts Other(Bugs/poor performance) - 1 Lockups and slowdowns on a PIII 667 with 512 megs of RAM and a 32 meg Video card. Pros An original setting, very familiar RTS mechanics, $29.99 price Cons Nothing original other than the setting. Bugs and performance issues. Overall: 3.3

America takes an interesting premise, an RTS set in the old west, and promptly shoots itself in the foot by poorly executing the few new ideas it brings to the table and by suffering from performance issues. Anyone who has played Age of Empires (or pretty much any other RTS) will be instantly familiar with the basics of America. Cut wood, build farms, mine gold, build buildings, make troops & kill your enemy with ’em. Except instead of Goths and Mongols, America has cowboys and Indians.

There are 4 factions to choose from, Americans, Mexicans, Native Americans, and Outlaws, and a 15 mission campaign for each faction. Each faction has a distinct group of units & structures, but the Americans and Mexicans are virtually identical. The Outlaws & Native Americans also seem to be much weaker. Both are unable to manufacture rifles or cannons, limiting their ability to produce the most powerful units in the game. Other unique units include medicine men and assassins, but they are nowhere near as strong as a fort with cannons and infantry.

Graphically America appears slightly dated but fair overall. The individual units are easily distinguishable, and well detailed. The buildings are large and really do a nice job of capturing the flavor of the wild west. The terrain graphics are not up to the same standards, being quite plain, (no pun intended). Native American units have the ability to travel through forests, but are extremely hard to find hidden in the trees. In addition to forests, there is water (and a single boat unit for each civilization) and impassible cliffs. There is no elevation or high ground to speak of, making terrain virtually irrelevant.

They say that The devil is in the details, and the details are where America starts to stagger. For example one twist America adds is the use of horses as a resource. Unfortunately, capturing wild horses is cumbersome, and getting them back to the coral one at a time is part of the annoying micromanagement. But even worse is having to rebuild your farms every couple of minutes. Adding to the stress it is often difficult to tell exactly where you can or cannot build a structure, making it a chore to simply reseed a used up farm.

Units often refuse to attack when ordered, instead doing the "itchypants dance", trying to find a place on the map to stop fidgeting, before commencing to defend themselves. This is especially prevalent in melee units, and really handicaps the Native Americans who must rely on spearman to fight off American Cavalry. Bugs plague the experience occasionally the mouse to become jerky or lock up. Sometimes the entire game gets jerky and lags. On one occasion an entire group of a dozen Indians hidden in a forest died during a "hiccup". It was just like playing online with a 14.4 modem. Call me crazy, but 2d sprite based games should not bring a PIII 667 with 512 megs of RAM to its knees. This type of event is not common, but will ruin a game every time it occurs.

The AI is capable of building quickly and amassing large bodies of troops, but also has some glaring deficiencies. In one skirmish, a powerful army sat by idly just outside a village, while a tiny force of my troops systematically killed all of the AI’s villagers, and then wiped out most of his infrastructure. The AI troops would not engage until my troops passed within a very close distance, completely ignoring the infantry a half a screen away dismantling the AI civilization.

I really want to like this game. The idea is great, the different units are cool, and even if it is mostly derivative, it had potential. Every once in a while I would pull off a maneuver like stealing a stage coach full of guns, or rob a bank, and it would almost be one of those sublime gaming moments. Unfortunately those moments were far outnumbered by the times my troops were running around in circles instead of attacking, or the game was slowing to a crawl. If Data Becker had put a little more effort into polishing America, it wouldn't be a bad deal. But as it stands (even patched) it became a chore to play. There are too many other quality games available to spend your time on this one.