really loved the blitzkrieg engine and this game is well adapted to it i always though. there are plenty of mission for each major nation of the war but however the battles need more artillery and more men:)

Coming from out of Russia, 1C Publishing has of late provided the world with many interesting and beautiful games. Some of their older games however fit the category of "overlooked". This was probably due to the general fear that the gaming community has when they see a shiny box on the retail shelf bearing an unknown label. This review features one such game called World War I - a little known real time strategy title by Dark Fox.

As the name tells you, World War I focuses on the First World War which was centered primarily on two fronts and several campaigns, such as the ones in the Balkan and Serbian areas.

When a game starts off with movies from the historical archives, you would have the intuition that this might just be a game that takes its theme too seriously. But, I can say that there is some fun within World War I once you dive into one of the three campaigns - the Entente, the German, and the Russian Campaigns. That gives you at least 30 missions (according to the blurb on 1C's World War I store page).

Each mission of the campaign does not contain only one objective. The minute you complete the listed objective presented to you from the start, another may appear to continue the story. So instead of a ten minute romp through the forest to attack some trenches ahead, you may wind up with an hour's worth of frantic battle that may also include the obscure objective such as - repairing bridges with your engineers.

The units which comprise infantry, cavalry, cannons, tanks, and support vehicles are all modeled beautifully and pretty accurately. The domiciles from that era are touched up with painstaking care and can be shown either in pristine condition or in various states of ruin. The environs also depict the gritty feel of war.

The game play has its highs and some lows.

Sometimes, you don't have to do anything and you will find that you will automatically win an objective. Perhaps with some tweaking, you may minimize your losses, but this is not too evident.

At other times, you may find your armored vehicle running out of ammunition, only to suddenly realize that your resupply vehicle was not following your armored vehicle (or you simply forgot about the need to resupply). So be prepared for a little bit of micro-management.

If the infantry is not scripted to move from their trench, then you can bet that they will just stay still there (no, this is not Command and Conquer where you have access to a battalion of infantry).

I did also encounter one objective that was vague, and only through a bit of trial and error was I then able to proceed to the next objective.

The sounds were nice and realistic, but a tad bit overwhelming. Just imagine a cacophony of croaking frogs and squawking birds and your mounting frustration as you hit the mute button. The music is pretty standard fare for a real time strategy game featuring military war.

All in, I think you can consider getting this game if enjoy military games. The game reminds me of other Blitzkrieg type games (ahem... since the game does employ the game engine from Blitzkrieg - also known as the Enigma Engine) and it is quite a blast to play for some of the missions.

There was no game editing tool provided, so the game cannot be extended or modified. You may be pleased to note that four additional missions were provided, but there are localization problems for them (since all I saw were wingdings type font instead of English mission text).

If you want to read more reviews, head over to Daily PC Game Reviews (dailypcgamereviews dot com) where you can find the above write-up of World War I and 200 over games.

This is a poorly written game. The AI is not very "smart" when you order troops to move they will go right through the enemy lines if it is the shortest route. The cavalry are just "infantry" on horses, no charges just stand off and fire at the enemy. The historical aspect is terrible too. Tanks are used in 1914 scenarios(tanks did not show up until near the end of the war) So don't waste your money on this one. PS I had issues uninstalling it as well!

I really loved the blitzkrieg engine and this game is well adapted to it i always though. there are plenty of mission for each major nation of the war but however the battles need more artillery and more men:)

Sudden strike/Blitzkrieg in ww1. The units in the campaigns are a bit unhistorical, you get to use the über cool tanks from the start :) Sometimes it feels like you don't get enough units to throw against the enemy's trenches which means long and boring barrages of artillery before moving a few meters.

its a ww1 rts. and considering how rare on the ground they are this is a good one at that, reminds me alot of suddenstrike and it can be a bit fiddly but still worth playing

This game is 'Suddenstrike' type game.

WWI concept is unique but game is inferior.

If you hope to labor endless artillery,this game is fit.

If don't so,don't buy it.

This is a decent game that takes a different approach to army management than most RTS games. You don't build units, but instead receive reinforcements as you complete objectives. For example, if you are able to capture a bridge, you will receive reinforcements from the other side of that bridge. Some of the controls can be a tad confusing at first (its not your typical "left-click select, and right-click attack" type of game), but you get used to them. You can dig trenches wherever you want them to be, deploy artillery where you want it to be, and generally control each battle the way you want it to be done. The game is interspersed with great historical footage from the war, which is really cool to see for history buffs. At such a low price, its a great bargain buy.

An era very seldom covered in a very packed gaming arena of WWII games. This is a welcome change and a historically good rendition of WWI. I find at times that publishers will overdo a era to death, until you find someone who dares to be different. There were so many other conflicts of note that should really be covered as well. This is a very nice change from a good company.

World War I is a 2D RTS with some unique features.

It features historical campaigns from the three main factions in the Great War; The Entene, Germany, and Russia. Throughout these campaigns you play through all four years of the war in various high priority battles to get a very good story of the events throughout the war.

The gameplay is not the traditional 'build, mass, conquer' style of gameplay, instead you are given generally a limited amount of units and have to work strategicly with those. However, they are a varied amount of units; ranging from artillery, calvalry, troops, and even limited amounts of air and sea support. Each unit has various modes and abilities that will help turn the tides of battle.

The graphics and sound effects are fitting for the period, and the game itself. Especially fitting is the various voice overs of the units, British units speak English, French units speak French, Russian units speak Russian, etc. There are a wide range of units from different nations that you have the ability to command throughout the game, and it is refreshing to hear many differing voices than just a few repeated.

However there are issues with the game, while released in 2006, I have been unable to load it on Windows XP, however Windows Vista works fine with it. As well, once the campaigns are complete, there is not much more replayablity within the game - there is no skermish options, no map editor, and no multiplayer. These issues leave a lot to be desired within the game, because with those this would be an amazing game.

Overall however, I have found it to be an extremely enjoyable game, refreshing in the ways it tries to be slightly different from others RTSes, with both gameplay and period choices. All together, its a really good package and I thoroughly am glad that I bought it, and supported the Russian developer Dark-Fox, hopefully we may find more wonderful products from them in the future.

In the end, I would say if you enjoy the period, want a different type of game and don't mind there being a somewhat limited amount of features, and perhaps a slight incompatiblity with some system, go for it - I enjoyed it greatly.

8.5/10