14 DAY TRIAL // Two Canadian raider regiments drop into the German trench, softened up by a rolling artillery barrage from two batteries, and manage to deal with the sole group of enemy defenders relatively quickly. My normal infantry regiments do the same with the other sections of Paschendale’s defensive line but take some serious losses.
Constant use of both heavy and light batteries allows me to stop German counter-attacks and I use my own limited aviation support to down their observation balloons and limit their own artillery fire. But many of my regimens are depleted and that means I need to spend precious supplies on fresh forces.
But the same supplies power my use of artillery barrages and air power. If I want to route my enemy and get both bonus objectives, I need to only employ fire support when I really need it and micromanage my forces to take trenches one at a time, with as little crossfire as possible.
The Great War: Western Front is developed by Petroglyph Games and published by Frontier Foundry. I played a preview version of it on Steam. The full game is set to arrive on March 30 on the PC. The title tackles the first World War, giving players control over both strategy and tactics.
Gamers can choose to control the Central Powers, which on the Western Front means the Germans, or the Allied powers, who will combine French, English Empire, United States, and Indian troops. Winning the war involves commanding both at the theater level and in the field.
The Great War’s strategic level asks players to use limited resources to bring in new troops and build up their capabilities in controlled areas. Get ready to get troops, move them, supply them with specialized artillery, and engage in espionage. There’s also a research tree to move through, opening up new ways to destroy enemy forces or enhance one’s own.
Once a province is contested and the battle starts, players will get more hands-on. On the defensive, there are options to prepare trenches and machine gun nests, as they create a position that can defeat enemy advances or at least extra a high resource cost.
On the attack, the gamer’s task is even more difficult. Solid use of artillery or mining, numerical superiority, and careful deployment of tanks and aviation, all of them can be useful. But none guarantee even a minor victory.
The game aims to stay close to the ways the historical conflict was fought. It will be interesting to see if the developers manage to mix realism with interesting gameplay to make a famously statics conflict feel exciting.
The Great War: Western Front’s strategy layer is pretty standard, with a lot of information for the player to process. The tutorial does a good job of explaining everything but it does take a little time to learn the user interface. The tactical battles could use a higher level of zoom but, again, the focus is on making it easy to implement and execute a good plan. The soundtrack is suitably martial, with some decent battle effects.
Conclusion
The biggest challenge for the title is that the First World War is not the most exciting of conflicts, especially on the French–German front. The Great War needs to walk a fine line between historical realism and engaging gameplay. The early signs are promising and I can’t wait to fight the full war.
A preview key was provided by the publisher.
