Cossacks: European Wars

"Great bargain bin title!"

I'll start off by saying that I bought this game for only $10, so it was a very good deal for me.

Graphics: 8

Well being an RTS, I don't expect the latest state-of-the-art graphics with shadowing and dynamic lighting or whatever. I just expect a good amount of detail and style so I can at least tell what building is supposed to be what and what unit is supposed to be what. I really like the gun shot effects and the cannon ball effects. I can tell what soldiers are using what weapons and what buildings do what, so I am happy. I alos like the different looks of some of the units and the buildings in the game for the different nations.

Sound: 7

Well what can I say about the sound in this game? Well the gunfire sounds are good and the cannons whistling by immerse you into the gameplay. The amount of sounds in the game is minimal, but is acceptable since I don't expect RTS's to have too many sounds available for you to hear. I turn the music off during the game so I can't really tell you about that since I don't care for music in an RTS anyways.

Gameplay: 9

The reason I bought this game and loved it is because the time period that it was set in. I feel that the genre of World War 2 RTS and medieval RTS are too overdone and I appreciate a developer making a game based on the 17th and 18th century. What's also fun to do in this game that you can't do in most other real RTS games is amass huge armies of even 4000 men. The game accepts up to 8000 units in a game. I personally have never been able to create 8000, but I imagine that it would be a good lot of fun. I really like games that make you feel like you are actually in a war and not some petty 100 man fighting. There are plenty of nations to use and plenty of unit choices as well as a huge amount of upgrades to choose from. As of the time that this review is being submitted, there are still people playing in the multiplayer online games! There are a good amount of games to let you have fun for weeks and maybe months on end still.

Value: 10

As I said earlier, I bought this game for $10...Canadian! That was a great deal since this game includes a 200 page manual which even includes some colour pages! What amazes me is how they can actually profit from selling this game at such a low price now. The game itself has so far lasted me for 2 weeks now which is good enough for me since some more expensive games have lasted longer for me on my replay scale.

Overall: 8

This game almost deserves a rating of 9 and is very close...but not close enough. It IS a bargain bin title as of now though so I high recommend you get this game which I find better than some other more popular and expensive RTS games.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/06/04