Players Can Challenge History, And Win Or Lose
Making History II is freshly out on the Mac, but the PC version is also completely redone to the point that we are considering it a whole new game, and you probably will too. When the game originally came out, it was a find deep strategy title, but with quite a few flaws. In short, it seemed like it was rushed to market, and with a game like this, rushing is never a good thing.
Not wanting to let such a good game exist in a bit of a buggy state, developer Muzzy Lane worked for the past year to shore up the PC version all the while getting the Mac one ready. The result, I think you will agree, was well worth the effort.
Now for me personally, I’ve always had an interest in World War II specifically and strategy in general. When Making History II finished downloading, I reviewed the downloadable version, I had an idea what the game was going to be like, but since I missed the first release, this turned out to be wrong. I just figured it would be like every other strategy game where you choose the Americans, Germans, Russians, British or Japanese and conquest Europe or mainland Asia.
When the list of playable countries showed up, my jaw hit the floor. Almost every country was available to choose to lead. From Cuba to Turkey and everything in between, you can play big or small. Being of Serbian descent, I chose Yugoslavia for my first foray and started in the earliest scenario which takes place in 1933.
This led to blowing another one of my expected mechanics out of the water. I expected simple game play where it was easy to build up money and troops. Making History II instead forces you to use your head and think through your every move. If you start developing too much towards military, you’ll be broke and vice versa. My plan worked out well enough though.
I focused my capital and two cites on certain roles while my smaller cities exported goods for money. Skopje (Macedonia) focused on military development while Belgrade (Serbia) and Ljubljana (Slovenia) focused on industry.
Upon developing all these nice goods for sale, I found another realistic aspect to Making History II. Countries will not ally themselves with you just because they’re bored. I offered Albania an alliance and trade agreement, and they turned me down on both counts. Slightly confused, I offered alliances to other countries and was declined by Romania, Greece, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Lithuania.
Eventually, Romania and I became partners and they bought coal from me while I bought much needed steel from them. At this time Italy started to attack their neighbors to the point that the United Kingdom placed a trade embargo on them. This put me on red alert, seeing how I was across the Mediterranean from them.
When planning my defense, I found another cool feature in the game, building structures in individual territories. I built anti-navy gun emplacements in the territories of Kosovo and Montenegro, enough to give Italy pause.
But not long after, Germany started to move towards Poland and Austria. I started to sweat seeing as how Austria was the only country between the Germans and my beloved Yugoslavia. To compound my problems, Bulgaria began to fight with me and when I fought back, I got trade embargoed too. So I took control of Bulgaria even though France slapped another embargo on me. However, when Germany took over Poland, both embargoes were lifted and I began selling arms to France and the U.K.
Then the Nazi’s took over Lithuania and were getting closer and closer to both Ljubljana and Belgrade, so I made a call and offered an alliance to Germany. They accepted and bought arms from me.
Now, I know it seems like I started digging my own grave. However I am a firm believer in "a problem delayed is a problem denied." and besides, it allowed me to build up as quick as possible. Germany did eventually take me over, but I was the last country standing.
Whether you are a history nut or just love the challenge of strategy games, this game will challenge you. Making History II doesn’t have a visual battle, you invade and there is a battle summary that explains what happened. I like this set up because you don’t have to constantly load a battlefield. You can concentrate on the grand strategy, which believe me will take up all your time. The graphics aren’t exactly amazing, but they are still quite nice.
Combine the amazingly detailed and in-depth gameplay with the great musical score and other audio, and Making History II: War of the World proves that someone can still create a fantastic World War Two title these days. You can tell that developer Muzzy Lane took their time to make sure that everything was right before this one got to market. In fact, I would like to recommend Making History II: War of the World as the GiN Strategy Game of the Year. It’s that good.
In terms of this review, Making History II: War of the World earns 4.5 Gin Gems due to its exceptionally deep gameplay that is also quite fun.