Iron Storm

"Those who cannot remember the game strategy are comdemned to play poorly."

A rewording of George Santayana's famous line. A year after I bought the Saturn system, I went from store to store near where I live, seeking what games to get. I saw IRON STORM in one of the stores, but I didn't get it for 3 reasons. One, I haven't heard of it, so I don't know how good this game is. Two, I'm not a history buff and three, I was looking something more like FIGHTERS MEGAMIX and STREET FIGHTER COLLECTION. Four years after playing WARCRAFT 2 and enjoyed it, I saw I ran IRON STORM online and bought it. I never played war sims before so I don't know what to expect, but the game is totally different than the ones I have in my collection.

IRON STORM is a turn-based strategy war sim, with some small elements of RPG, meaning it doesn't have ''magic'' points but it does have hit points, defense and even ''gas'' points. It takes place around the time line of World War 2, taking certain history sites such as Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Normandy and the invasion of France. It has two modes to play in and a lot of options. In Campaign mode, you can choose one of three countries, America, Japan and Germany. Then you can recreate history going through the battles. There is Standard mode, mostly use for practice. Although this game is made for one player, up to four people can join in and battle against or with each other in Standard mode.

The layout is your basic 2D top view map, moving forces around through hex-shaped patterns. There is an option not to display the hexes on the map, if it's too disruptive for you. But once your forces engage in battle with your foes, the scene changes. It becomes a 3D cinematic animation, showing combat between two groups. Infantry vs. tanks, planes vs. battleships and so on. It's fantastic to watch, seeing the detail and realism on the designs like B-24's, the Maus and the Mitildas. It does get boring after a while watching the same scene over and over. Fortunately, there's an option to turn the animation off during game play or just press C to speed it up.

The sound effects and music are not really impressive, honestly. The explosions, gun firing and aircrafts bomb diving sound realistic, but a bit weak. The theme music for different countries on the map sound repetitive and not really catchy. There are options to turn them off, though and there's only one audio track on the CD outside the game. It's only a six-second Sonic Team theme jingle, that's all.

The controls are responsive, since you can take your time moving your forces around. There are a lot of options. The problem is there are too many and spread out that it gets confusing sometimes. There are two ways to get the options mode. One by pressing A twice and pressing C when you highlight your forces. Although both have some of the same decisions, each have different choices with certain restrictions. I try to make more men and weapons, but couldn't until I realized I have to highlight a city or airport to do so. You also can't tell directly if plane or tank has an option to upgrade. There are many other moves which I haven't used yet and need practice on.

The game play itself is very challenging. Novice players new to war strategy games would have trouble with this game and might become discourage playing it further. You need a lot of time and concentration in order to master the game. Playing this with other people might be fun at first, but it takes too long and they might not have the patience to finish it in a day if not at all. There are minor flaws dealing with history which someone else already explained on his review.

My review is a bit short because I'm just starting to get into this game, but I'm impress with it so far. This game is great to have in your collection, if you are into war sims. It has challenging game play and superb 3D action graphics. For others, rent it and see if have the patience and tolerance for this game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/28/03, Updated 07/28/03