Cossacks: European Wars

"Best RTS I ever played"

To summerize this game, its a RTS that takes place from 1500-1799. One of the best and most original games I ever played.

Graphics
These days, everyone wants 3D graphics that make everything looks real, but some of the best games of all time have bad grphics when compared to today's (Super Mario Bros. 3, Metal Gear Solid) Cossacks uses 2D graphics and they are great. Every country has it's own unigue styles for their buildings and units. It's details are second to none in the RTS world. You can tell wat kind of weapon they have, Smoke comes out of the barrels after fireing, everything has a shadow, and reflections of ships in the water are great, not to mention the horses actually look alive when they stand still. Many RTS's con diplay only about 1500 units total, but Cossacks broke the barrier and can display up to 8000 units! so while your playing Empire Earth with your small army of up to 1200, I'm marching around the world of Cossacks with my army that numbers in the thousands. Cossacks gets a 9/10 for their superb graphics.

Sound
Cossacks has normal quality sound. from the music, that I don't pay attention to, to the sound of the guns and cannons, also the horses makes they horse noises. The drummers drum their little hearts out only to be killed, and the commanders say some sort of gibberish.And they even alert you with a trumpet when theres a fight. Cossacks gets a 8/10 for their sound.

Gameplay
This is what gives Cossacks its bizzaz. The gameplay is superb!You can litterly invade a town with thousands of soldiers only to find that the enemy has built a wall around the town and has an army of thousands waiting for you. You can seige that town, and tak it over. You can hire mercanaries that will turn on you if you run out of gold. You can destroy seaside towns with a fleet and land thousands of troops on the island with only a dozen or so ferries. I have lost many a battle only from running out of coal or iron which is the ammo supply to cannons, musketteers, and ships. When you run out of food, you better get some because you have a famine on your hands and your people are dying. If you find peasants doing their daily routine, your soldiers can capture them and use their abilities for your own needs. You can also capture many of the buildings in the game and use them for your own advanage.

The resources you have in cossacks are wood, stone for building buildings, walls, towers, ships, and weaponary. There is coal and iron for making weapons, ammo, and armor. There is food which if you do not have enough, as said before, you will die. And gold, the most important resource. With gold you can buy anyof the other resources and hire mercanaries and train your soldiers.

Mercanaries and soldiers and the backbone for defense and offense. Mercanaires have normal attack power but bad defense, so dragoons would be your best bet wit the mercs for they have muskets and ride horses. They also rebel if you run out of gold, same with battleships. The soldiers you will use in the beginning are pikemen, which are armored men with long pikes (spears if you will). After a while, and if you develope into the 18th century you will almost never have pikemen, unless you need a cheap and large army fast. Musketteers in the 18th century are the main soldiers, the have muskets and bayonetts for close quarters. Also you can have grenaders that have a muskett, a bayonet, and grenades to destroy buildings.

There are numerous buildings in the game. We have the town hall to make more peasants. Blacksmith, for armor and such, Academy for research and upgrades. The stable and barracks for mounted soldiers and normal soldiers. Towers for defense, and many other buildings for your use. Cossacks recieves a 10/10 for it excelent gameplay.

Overall
Cossacks is one of the greatest RTS's around, I'm surprised more people who play age of empires an warcraft havn't noticed it, for it is far supirior to many other RTS's. It has 2 expansion packs out now so you can extend your abilities.
thats all, later.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/11/04