World At War: A World Divided

Total score
Game play
Nuts & bolts
Bells & whistles	N/A

 

Officially the game goes by the unwieldy moniker of Gary Grigsby's World at War:  A World Divided.  But really.  That's a piece of punctuation too far.  World at War 1.1 is what it really is. And this is the first of two problematic Grigsby-game reviews from me. (War in the Pacific coming up next).

WaW came out in 2006, but I didn't get it until Matrix's 2007 Christmas sale.  Producing such a closely copied sequel so soon after the original didn't sit right with me when the second game came out, so I abstained. And yeah sure, I missed out as a result; but I think I'd have missed out just that little bit more if I'd got both games, and essentially paid for the same game twice.

So scoring this game is problematic.  If you've already got the first game already then think twice, but if you don't, well ...

Game play

WaW sits at the Risk end of the grand strategy spectrum. It's not as simple in some respects as CEAW, but it's pretty abstract nonetheless. As a bonus it's prettier than that game too:  Each of the major powers has its own set of graphics for upgrades, so there are no British P51 and B29 icons for example, rather the Brits get the appropriate Spits and Wellies.

There's research, that quaint trope of the strategy game, albeit very abstract research; but this is no Hearts of Iron either. If you dislike micro-management, but want winter effects to influence your strategy, this might well be the grand-strategy compromise for you.

For me the play is a little too abstract in some areas, and a little too fiddly in others, but overall it kind of works and the game can get addictive at times.

Examples of some more obtuse abstraction include the low countries all being the one area; well, fair enough you might say, they're small and inconsequential - but this means there's no real Ardennes offensive (either one), because the point was to cut off Allied forces to the north, not to smash right through them. Similarly, you're going to have to engage in some above-&-beyond "research" if you want to include German fighters in the Battle of Britain, cause otherwise they just won't reach.  I can see the arguments about scale in both cases, and the overall effect works ... kind of, but the design decisions just seems a little too strange to me at times.  Why waste an area on Brazil that never gets used, only to have so few spaces in Europe?  As I said, it works, but you need to take the abstractions with more than the usual grain of salt sometimes.

Some of the fiddling is more than a little annoying too.  The end game consists of quite a lot of carpal-tunnel-inducing clicking on the research button to get The Bomb, and not a whole lot else.   (The Bomb, also known as strategic bombers with a ground attack of 9). There's a 'spend everything else on supply' button, and something similar for research would have been nice. That said, the controls are nice and sparse, and mostly straightforward; though I note with regret that in the upcoming American Civil War outing for this game engine there seem to be buttons a-go go, so things aren't on the up.

Nuts & bolts

There's not a  lot to say about nuts & bolts.  It works.  Some people have had an issue with wide screens, but it works OK on mine.  Your mileage might vary.  There is a nasty Vista issue though.

My original installation of this game worked fine with Vista, but with the latest patch (1.20) if you hit the open-saved-game button the game explodes like the proverbial trick cigar.  Oh well, progress. It's annoying, but not a deal breaker, games just have to be done & dusted in the one sitting now.  Keep that in mind if you have Vista and that's likely to be an issue for you.

In conclusion

This is a better version of World at War.  If you've already got one copy you probably don't need two, but if you don't have a copy, this is the one to get.