Desert Rats vs. Afrika Korps
Can a World War II tactical sim make it in a post September 11 market?
Tags: Desert Rats vs. Afrika Korps Categories: PC Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Sep 22nd, 2004
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Desert Rats vs. Afrika Korps (title page) | 1+ | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Strategy | Yes | ||
Historical war sims are the forebears of modern gaming. In one way or another, the hobby of re-enacting great battles of the past has given rise to chess, Dungeons and Dragons and modern computer role-playing and strategy games.
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Yet, no matter how popular the spinoffs, most modern incarnations of war sims remain niche-market games, trailing by far in popularity their fantasy-laden progeny. Why? Well, there are many reasons and, unfortunately, Desert Rats vs. Afrika Corps is a shining example of many of them.
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The first advantage fantasy-themed games have over historical games is creative freedom in terms of storytelling; unrestricted by a historical narrative, a fantasy game can spin a fascinating tale of betrayal and intrigue and although history offers examples of this, most people already know the twists and turns ahead of time; for example, if we’re talking about the Russian Revolution, we already know that the religious influence of the “mad monk,” Rasputin, led to the downfall of the Russian Tsarist system under Tsar Nicholas – so when it happens in a game, it’s hardly a “surprise twist.” With the benefit of an original story, fantasy-based games can surprise you in ways historical games never can.
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Desert Rats vs. Afrika Corps attempts to resolve this a bit by creating a set of fictional commanders who are several rungs below the chain of command of the “big names” of World War II and the 1942 African desert campaign upon which this game is based. Unbound by history, the developers are able to expose facets of personality, motivation and individuality they would be unable to delve into in a game based on pure history. Unfortunately, little real use of this freedom is leveraged, as the character bits are restricted primarily to between-campaign cut-scenes and journal entries. And ultimately, you’re still playing in the sandbox of history, meaning that the scope of the somewhat-original story cannot extend much beyond the narrow focus of the setting. Still, it’s laudable that the developers recognized the appeal of story to add interest and emotional stakes to each battle, making the outcome worth fighting for.
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Speaking of battles, there are plenty to be had in Desert Rats vs. Afrika Corps and a nice number of options are available to you as you prepare for and play through each battle; the variety of available tanks, units, equipment and other resources are historically accurate but plentiful; the only complaint here is that, as the game progresses, you’re still able to do things fairly freely, regardless of circumstances. Want to trade in some support vehicles or infantry units for some Tiger tanks to up your firepower? You can do it, but that’s sort of the problem; if your side is losing and your supply lines are cut off, theoretically you shouldn’t be able to engage in this kind of trade; yet it happens.
But if you’re getting the impression that Desert Rats vs. Afrika Corps is a forgiving pushover of a title, think again; once a battle starts, you’d best be up on your strategy and planning because, although in rare cases reinforcements do arrive to turn the tide of a battle, it’s extremely infrequent, making planning an important element of a successful campaign; you can and often will lose unless you really think through the battle ahead of you.
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The look of the game is sharper than many war-based real-time strategy games; the developers took the time not only to make their tank battles and such look realistic, but to get the details right, even during large battles; for example, tanks will roll back a bit from the kick of tank guns firing and the turrets roll at realistic speed. When units are destroyed, nothing disappears; charred remains are left behind. This kind of attention to detail is one of the stronger points of the game.
What makes the game irksome, however, is the bland and sometimes trouble-laden game interface; at times the game misses keystroke commands at important, game-turning times and the overall presentation is fairly bland and unintuitive. While patches have addressed some of these concerns, it remains an annoying recurrence more often than it should.
There is an online aspect to Desert Rats vs. Afrika Corps, but little of it is innovative, consisting of all the cliché and expected death match and capture the flag modes you’d look for, but little else. Yet the lack of imagination in the online mode is not unique; little of the game really stands out as inventive.
Also, and this is purely personal opinion, it seems a bit retro to keep chunking out WWII sims when we have a fresh, modern “war on terror” that should be inspiring a whole new generation of war games. But maybe that’s just me.
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In the end, Desert Rats vs. Afrika Corps is a mixed bag; sporting some gorgeous graphics and solid sound effects, the game looks and sounds pretty darn good most of the time, even in its unpolished moments. Yet the grinding sameness of the battles leads to a “more of the same” feeling that ultimately lowers interest as the game drags on. Although a valiant effort was made to liven up the story with some unexpected elements through the use of fictional characters, ultimately they are not put to enough use to really liven things up. While some war sim fans will enjoy Desert Rats vs. Afrika Corps, there are an equal number who will see it only as a time-filler until a more sparkling example of the genre is released.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ The inclusion of some “fictional” generals loosens the creative reigns a bit for game developers, but there’s little use made of this freedom. + Graphics and sound are nice and do most things well. |
5.2 |
| What Doesn't | |
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— The interface is not very intuitive and can even prove a hindrance in some situations. — Although the cutscenes are well done and provide some intrigue, there’s little that’s truly unexpected in the storyline. — Never really steps beyond the generic, historic origins of the scenario to create a dynamically interesting gameworld. |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| With little to distinguish it from a pack of WWII sims and burdened by a plain and sometimes impractical interface, Desert Rats vs. Afrika Corps is only average. With a bit more creative spark and better controls, this could have been a fun game; as it stands, even genre fans are likely not to be wowed by it, though it can fill up some time between better releases. | |
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Tags: Desert Rats vs. Afrika Korps
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Sep 22nd, 2004 and is filed under PC Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
