Cossacks: European Wars

"A breakthrough in RTSs"

Introduction: RTS is a very popular genre. From Age of Empires to Command and Conquer to Rise of Nations to Warcraft. A lot of people like these games, but get frustrated when they have large armies but can't make them larger. This is where Cossacks: European Wars kicks in. An RTS that takes place in the 17th and 18th century, featuring European powers of that era and literally thousands of soldiers on the map. But lets take a better look at the game.

Graphics: The graphics in Cossacks are 2-D, which is good, as if it was 3-D, it would have some serious graphics and memory problems, not to mention low detail. (See Empire Earth). Everything in the game is detailed. From the sea, which has reflections of the ships and the sun, to the buildings. Note: Each country has different architecture for each building. Where the game really shines is its explosions. They look spectacular and very realistic, even though they are in 2D. The soldiers lack detail, and their design is limited to a few shapes and colors. Cossacks receives a 8/10 for spectacular explosions and water effects but simple unit design.

Sound: This is the department in which Cossacks is really lacking. The music is OK, but soon gets repeatative. The sounds effects are good, but can rarely be heard properly due to very low sound volume, even when it's max. I like the cannon and musket SFX though. Cossacks receives a 6/10 for poor sound.

Gameplay: The synopsis truly says it all. Cossacks is a breakthrough in RTSs, because it supports up to 8000 units on the map! That means that the battles can be huge. Artillery can destroy tens of units in one shot. Internet games have the whole map full of units... Literally.

Basically, the game gives the player the opportunity to create huge armies, formate them as he wishes and watch them battle to their last breath. Most countries have unique units, but all countries can hire mercenary units with watered down stats for gold. Mercenaries are very quick to train most take 1 second to train 1, but are costly to maintain. Yes, maintain. Units in cossacks consume resources to stay on the map. All units consume food. If you have no food left, your units will start dying of hunger. And if you have mercenaries and you have no more gold left to pay them, they'll turn against you and even attack you.

There are six resources in Cossacks. Food, Wood, Stone, Gold, Iron and Coal. Food is used to feed units and train new ones, wood is used to build several buildings and ships, stone is used to build walls and towers, as well as buildings, gold is used to buy mercenaries and train units, iron is spent whenever a bullet or cannonball is shot, so in massive battles it's spent very quickly, same for coal.

What's very strange in cossacks is that a player starts with few resources, like 500 food, but can have 100000's of resources. Researches some times cost 10000's of resources. If you build multiple buildings of the same type, the cost will stay relatively low until you build a certain number of them after which point prices skyrocket.

Units are varied: Musketeers, Pikemen, Cannons, Galleons, Dragoons... There are very many types of units but often there is a lack of balance.

Cossacks receives a 9/10 for excellent gameplay.

Overall: Cossacks is an excellent game for building enormous armies and getting a feeling of an empire trully running. It has a lot of micromanagement, but you'll get used to it after a while. It is the game for all epic RTS fans. It may have some sound issues and some gamplay balance problems, but it's highly enjoying. Recommended!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/24/03, Updated 07/24/03