Review by: Troy Goodfellow

I keep thinking that I’ve played Order of War before. It’s not the setting – there are a lot of World War II games that are easily distinguished from each other. And it really looks quite different from many other games on the market. The design is an odd hybrid of Company of Heroes, Blitzkrieg and a bunch of other real time strategy and traditional wargames. It’s certainly pretty up close, but the sameness of the scenario campaigns as well as the persistent sense of déjà vu keeps the game from lifting itself above the ordinary.

Success in both the campaign and skirmish modes is dependent on grabbing and keeping victory point locations, just like in Company of Heroes. These victory points also trickle resources into a reinforcement pool you can use to call in help should you need it, á la World in Conflict. You occasionally have recourse to air strikes or other superpowers if the scenario depends on it – a now standard RTS mechanic. These, too, cost resource points so be careful how free you are with those paratroopers.

Each victory flag has a fixed number of resource points available. Once it runs dry, you’ll be stuck with what you have so you can’t waste units. There’s a rough rock/paper/scissors thing going on with the units (anti-tank guns will destroy more than one tank formation if they get close) so success depends on knowing what units you are facing and what your mission will be.

Or at least that’s the idea.