American Conquest: Divided Nation

"Not The Greatest RTS, But Takes You On A Good Tour Of American 19th Century Warfare"

American Conquest: Divided Nation takes you through the War of 1812, The Texas War of Independence, and the American Civil War with average real time strategy gameplay. I say average because for a game made in 2006 there are plenty of games made before then that really get you engrossed in the gameplay as well as the history aspect of the game. For me there are a few technical problems that I did not have with other games in this genre as well as the complexity of the editor and the difficulty of getting your opponent to do something.

Let me get what I do like about this game out of the way which is going to be quick. You get a lot of variety in infantry types to play around with from Indians to Union soldiers with various distinctions from which state they troops come from. And it's quite up to par on this end. There is a lot of interesting battles you can create on the editor against these many different types of characters and you can even pit British troops from 1812 up against the Mexican armies of the 1830's against each other. The visuals are good and although things disappear as soon they are killed or burned down there was a lot of work put into what you see in this game.

But this leads to what I don't like about this game. The visuals may be a little too good for you will lose track of your columns and units in some dense areas while the overview map is shielded by that dreaded black “fog of war” and it is hard to find your enemies using that map if they have dispersed to somewhere else. The game requires you to scout ahead because as we all know the world is pitch black where you aren't there to clear it away. The fog of war thing is not necessary at all in a game like this where local field maps were used intensely to strategize tactics and determine where the enemy was ahead of time. Likewise you will have to use cavalry or a whole column of troops to be take the brunt of running right into the full force of where your enemy is on the map. The use of scouts could be helpful here if we must use the fog of war. And unlike Command & Conquer the black comes right back after your unit moves a certain distance. It doesn't go away just by sending some poor unit in a certain direction. Beyond that are the repetitiveness of the troops as they fight. Most of the time you can get them to fight in synchronized fashion like the robots they are. There is a lack of originality to what these units do. If a column of troops are getting shot up they will just stand there until the last man falls. Games much older than this will have troops retreat or lose morale to not fight at all if they take that much of a beating. But these troops are all ready to become martyrs. Any weary warriors will individually walk away and you will have to figure out a way to regroup them. There is a lack of coordination in the game as the strategy is usually already set up and all that is required is for you to amass your troops in one area and overlap until you push the enemy back. It is hard to end a battle once you have beat the enemy and the resource supply thing is just not working for a game like this. Nobody in the Civil War had to open up a mine on the battlefield and then build a factory right to keep the troops supplied with ammunition. Some of that end gets rather ridiculous. The sound is obviously not up to par either. There is little music to choose from and with that the music gets repetitive after a while. There is not much to comment about on the in-game sounds either. I think this game basically lacks gameplay originality.

I do like this game despite what it lacks. There are a lot of aspects to this game that I haven't fully explored like the online play (if a community exists) as well as some of the other campaigns in the game. The editor is pretty complex to use but it is easy to quickly create a unique game. There are even pirates in this game so my favorite type of game to create was an invasion of a pirate island. There are just a bunch of unique units to choose from in this game so it gives you quite an open-ended editor. The only problem I had was getting the enemy to go after me. I had difficulty getting them to move after starting a game. I also enjoyed what this game offers as far as how many wars you play through. This is not just an American Civil War game. No sir, you get to play through the Battle of New Orleans as well as The Alamo with other battles during these wars to play through as well in a campaign. I found this a lot more interesting than just having another Civil War game to play. Of course you also have the editor and you can mix and match the many different units in this game to create a very interesting battle. You can have some Civil War Rhode Island Volunteers battle the Texans or have the Apaches try their luck against a band of Mexican Lancers. It's quite unique.

Final Recommendation 7/10
So is this game worth what it lacks and makes up for? Well if you want to ever fight the Alamo in an RTS game, here's your waiting opportunity. RTS fans will probably be disappointed in how this game lacks in originality and I have to agree that it should be a little bit better than that compared to what games that are decades older can do and offer. The driving force behind this game for me are the wide range of things you can put on a map in this game as well as the detailed and sometimes intense gameplay in the campaign. This is not just another Civil War but takes you through all of America's conflicts from the early 1800s to the end of the American Civil War. I guess they forgot about the Mexican War, but with all of the Mexican units in this game and what you can do in the editor it wouldn't be hard at all to recreate those battles. For me I still come back to this game every now and then just to play around with it so it has its worth.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/30/08

Game Release: American Conquest: Divided Nation (US, 03/27/06)